RECRUITS - Great time!

Lee's Summit High School - Recruits!

Doug and I just returned from Recruits in Kansas City.  The drive took a little over 9 hours but the I70 drive as you may know is pretty straight and flat.  Doug brought along an Audio book about the Mongol Empire.  It really made the time move along.  A couple of fuel and food stops on the way and we were in Kansas.  We stayed at a Fairfield Marriott about 2 miles from Lee's Summit High School.  It was a very nice place to stay with everything you needed between us and the School facility, i.e., restaurants, stores, markets, etc.

We were more than pleased with the whole trip.  This Con felt larger than our local events here in Denver.  I have to say what really made this Con was the hospitality of the Staff and all the people we met.  I can't wait to go back.

Nick Wilkowski coordinates Recruits.  Nick and his staff were so helpful.  The whole event was very well coordinated.  By the way, signing up games for the event was effortless.  Whoever handles their website and signup forms needs a pat on the back and our event leaders here in Colorado should take note.  Besides the registration staff they had members on the floor making sure all of the games were moving along and the Game Masters were taken care of.  They also had a snack bar at the Gym entrance which served up pizza, hot dogs, cookies, drinks, etc.

Nice Snack Bar

Entrance to Gym straight ahead

Recruits is scheduled in 3 hour sessions.  So they had Sessions 1 through 7 from Friday Evening to Sunday morning/afternoon.  They suggested that if your game took more then 3 hours simply sign up for the next session to make sure you had enough time.  So Doug and I ran Bolt Action in Sessions 1, 2 and 7 and an SDS Napoleonic in 5 and 6.  Well we did one SDS in 5 and Bolt Action again in 6.  Everyone had a blast.

Surrounded by Dealers 

Friday Afternoon setup 

The entry fee was $5 for the entire weekend.  There was no fuss with tickets and what events were open of closed, etc.  You simply showed up at the event and played.  I didn't see many people held out of any games.  The whole process was well coordinated.

The gaming tables took up the entire Basketball Gym with the dealer tables all around the edges.  It was a perfect setting playing your battles and able to get up between turns and walk up to a local dealer.  I was looking for the 40k guys so walked around a bit.  I noticed people going down one floor which basically is below the floor we were on.  Well, there they were, the 40K tourney in all its glory.  A very large space and couple of dealers that focused on Sci Fi were also there.  Very nice setup.

Tables starting to fill

As you know they used to have Spring and Fall Recruits but have decided to makes this a larger event and concentrate on the one.  As this event gets larger they will probably invite more Dealers to attend.  I know Bill Daniel and John Wharrier have been trying to get more of us from CMH to attend and now I can see why.  I mentioned to Nick that I would definitely be coming back and hopefully in force with more CMH and CSGA players playing and putting on games.  He also mentioned to bring stuff to sell.  He had a good point because he mentioned that they see a lot of the same stuff year after year.  We have the same situation so it would be great to inject different items for sale and trade from our clubs.

We did run into Bill Daniel and Todd Pressley.  It was great seeing them there.  And I met many new friends!  Dave Franklin, Bill Cauble, Larry Armin, Geoff McHarg, Phil Flores, Conrad, Mark Lueckenhoff, Jim Finneran to name a few.  It was so good to meet all of you!  I know we will be in touch and will be throwing dice with each other again soon.

I put on a Bolt Action Demonstration Game.  The board build was on my last post if you want to check it out.  We had a lot people interested in playing Bolt Action.  Jim on his demonstration boards and my battle board always had players throughout the Con throwing down dice, asking questions and really, everyone picking it up pretty fast.

So that is it in a nutshell.  Hope you enjoy the pictures.

Swashbucklers!  By Jeff "Gully" Gullion

Wind in the Wires (WWI)  by Steve, Ed and Chris

Freeblades by Jon Cleaves (Todd and Bill were in this battle)

Steampunk Battle by Jason and Kim Wilborn

Todd

Lobositz by Mark Pretzel (Geoff, Doug, Dave and Conrad)

Bolt Action - Jim teaching a demo game

Jim introducing more players to Bolt Action while the previous "class"
went on to play on his excellent Tarawa Board.

Pirates! - Raid on the Spanish Main by "Gully"

More of this excellent setup!

French and Indian War by Chris Cluckey - Beautiful Terrain!!

54mm figures fighting on this work of art Terrain.

More views

French Indian War

Great job Chris!

Boxer Rebellion by Bob Davis

Bolt Action (Todd, Geoff, Dave, Doug, Bill) We had a lot of fun!

Jim's beautiful Tarawa Board.  Marines taking the beach working their
way to the command bunker!  I also played a couple of games on his table.

More Bolt Action!

SDS Campaign - Vimeiro Completed

1808 Vimeiro "The first French attack was launched against Vimeiro Hill. The brigades advancing in columns and screened by Skirnishers, gradually pushed the thick British skirmishing line back from the foot of the ridge." So it's written in the history books, the French were defeated at Vimeiro but this is where our campaign takes place, between the columns and lines of the advancing French and defending allies. Each squad moving into the skirmish lines fighting their individual battles.  French, British, Germans, Spanish, Portuguese and even the Irish all taking arms to destroy the enemies will to fight. As history would have it the French were not successful at Vimeiro and this battle started the French pull out of Portugal.

The books tell us of the Vimeiro ridge and the British defense so the campaigns were all fought with the Ridge in sight but with the skirmishes taking place in front of the ridge.  These skirmishes were also fought around the rocks, trees, farms and fields.

Each Skirmish Leader and his squad all have their own stories to tell.   We watched the battles unfold and witnessed so many tragic, unlucky and some very  humorous events.  I saw individual figures take the impossible long shots that took their targets down.  We saw Grenadiers wade into Melee and dealt out some "hurt."  We watched squads run off the field after their Officer was taken to ground and then getting the Bayonet.  Some witnessed Dragoon Charges that were stopped dead in their tracks, and lonely drummers taking on Veteran troops and killing them.  There was a melee taking place in windows to no effect and saw others hiding behind walls daring the enemy to charge them.  

We pretty much seen it all and just about every difficult situation that could have came up for a rules interpretation.  But overall I was pleased with the results and how everyone took to the rules, painted up their squads and took their place in the skirmish line. 

Thanks for everyone that played in the first phase of the SDS Campaign.  Tony and I are going to make some changes to the Campaign Points system.  We have noticed that the points are too easy to collect and hence seeing very powerful troops too early in the campaign.  So standby for our changes as we move into the next phase of the campaign in June.

So here is the list of the battle scores and the Skirmish Leaders.  Congratulations to all that participated.  We have a tie for the leaders so far.  Dave M. and Matt G., nice job!  But again its not how many points you have at this stage, is how many you have when the War is over.  If you add up the totals the French have won the Skirmish battle with 341 points versus the allies 311.  So the Skirmish Campaign favors the French for now.  There is plenty of time to catch up and plenty of room for more players.  

We will be looking forward to Talavera!

Vimeiro 1808 (Portugal)

1. Dave M. scored a big 63 points with his French Young Guard in his skirmish actions. Nice Job! (21/32)
2. Matt G. also scored 63 points skilllfully leading his French Legere (30/33)
3. Matt V. scored a solid 58 points battling with his cool headed Veteran French Grenadiers (22 + 23)
4. Rick S. came on the field with his Highlanders and causing 57 points of destruction on the French (21/36)
5. Bob T., of Scottish stock, led his tough Highlanders to a score of 54 points (25/29)
6. Nate F. fielding his new French Ligne "column" took them into the field against the Brits and scored 51 points (23/28)
7. Jeff C.'s Armstrongs Rifles scored a decent 49 points (26/23)
8. Ben S. skillfully and aggresively led his new Kings German Legion, fought hard and scored 47 points! (22/25)
9. Eric E.'s 60th Light Infantry (Royal Americans) joined in the heavily fought Skirmish battles to repel the French in both of their battles for a total of 46 points (19 + 27)
10. Nate F. presented his new Legere against some British Lights and Rifles and came up with 43 points (27/16)
11. Andrew G. brought out the Rifles and scored 33 points (17/33)
12. Dan G. fielding some Legere scored a low 22 points (15/7)
13. Tony F. tried taking out his Dragoons for a skirmish and scored a respectable 22 points in a single action
14. Greg S. went in and took on some cowardly British Rifles with his Irish Brigade and still managed a tough 19 points.
15. John W. marched on the field with Bagpipes blaring and scored 18 points.
16. Tony F. took out his Portuguese and came away with 7 points in their one battle

SDS Spanish Campaign - 26 February

Yesterday, Sunday I hosted a session for those players that have not fought their two battles yet.  We had the following players show up.  Matt with his "Old Grognard" Line Veteran Grenadier unit, John W. with his Wild Highlanders, Eric played the British Light Infantry and Nate played once with a French Legere and then again with a French Line unit.  I filled in playing British Lights and then French Legere.  We still have a few players that need to get their battles in so we will be making them up next weekend.

I should be able to start to after action reports very soon and by next week hopefully wrap up the actions at Vimeiro so we can move on to Talvera's Portina Stream.  Here are some shots from yesterday.

Everyone had a great time.  We had food and drinks available and everyone got in their battles.  The scores for the Vimeiro Campaign will be tallied up and posted next week.  Our next location will be the Portina Stream at Talavera.

French Lights going up against Erics Brit Lights  

Eric's Lights in skirmish across the field.  

Matt's Grenadier "firing squad" taking down my Lights.

Eric's lights in action against Matt's Grenadiers.

Grenadiers busting town the door at the Tower

Nates' Lights taking the fence where we had some tough fighting.  

Matt's Grens fighting for the tower.  Those lights wouldn't let go.

My Rifles Captain jumped the fence and skewered a Voltigeur!

"Verbal fencing" by Matt and Eric with John watching on.

And them my Rifles Captain is shot by Nate's Legere.

Here we go, Eric crossing the open ground and taking down my Voltigeur.

I send some help, these became 1 and 2 of 5 that were shot in the battle by Eric's Lights.

My center was pinned by Lights in the Rocks across the field.  I couldn't get them released to help my left flank.

Another shot of the Rock line.

Ah, Bagpipes, here they come against Nate's large line unit.

Nate's force was so big it looked like a column.  Highlanders were not amused.

Legere and Lights Fire fight.  

Man I had this guy in my sights! And sure enough the group of Lights coming up shot this Voltigeur down too.

Highlander and French Line in a fire fight.

The Highlanders wounded two French Line with no losses to his unit.

Another view of Line and the Kilted ones going at it. 

French take the wall.

This fight ended up in a draw with time running out and nether side quit the field.