BelloLudi Play Test

It was a rainy afternoon here in California, entering the third week of lock down with my girlfriend, Joyce, when she surprised me by asking if she could try a miniatures game! I must say I was delighted, she is the first woman in my life to actually take an interest in my hobby. I recently purchase the BelloLudo "Strategy Game" by Peter van Dop. Apparently it was designed as a team building activity for first time miniatures players so I thought it might be a good starting point for my girlfriend and I. I am always interested in simple game mechanic for my 54mm collections. I figure you can always solve a problem by making the solution more complicated, but it takes real genius to come up with a simple elegant solution. I would stop short of calling van Dop a genius, but the rules are certainly bare bones, with only the essentials covered. The rules book is only fifteen pages long, but they are enough. The rules period is general black powder era with a focus on Napoleonic. The only thing I had to bolt on were rules for light infantry, which were not covered. Since it was raining and my Napoleonic miniatures were in the shed out back I settled for using my AWI collection. We played on a 6X5 foot table which meant we got into action very quickly. Infantry moved 12 inches and cavalry move 18 inches. This seemed generous, even with my 54mm miniatures. They must have large game tables in the Netherlands! Musket ranges are out to 18 inches and cannon fire out to 36 inches. The rules include a unique dice used for activation if the units are outside of the 12 inch command radius. If you roll poorly your unit cannot activate and if you roll really badly you can make no more activation rolls. D6s are used for musket and cannon fire. Joyce picked up the mechanics very quickly and, aside from wasting her first artillery rounds trying to destroy a wooden house, soon got into the swim of things. Her British forces held back and let my Continental forces bring the fight to them, which made sense as I had seven infantry units to her five, though four of mine were militia. I won't go into detail, but we played the game to a conclusion in less than two hours, the British holding the field at the end. I liked the rules and will certainly use them again, most likely with a few additional house rules of my own.

Jacobite Highlander Progress

I now have 29 Jacobites painted. I am expecting to finish a further 35, which will give me a total of eight About Bonaparte units. It looks like these alone could give the Hanoverian troops a lot of trouble! If any members out there want to unload their 1745 Highlanders, please send me a message.

Cheers,
Nick Stern

Old school wargaming by Gilbert

Gilbert asked me to post some pics of his wargame with Steven, using a lot of Greek (and Roman) figures from several manufacturers, some figures of considerable age.  All scenery scratch build by Gilbert.

Vietnam skirmish

WARNING: Wow! this is Amazing!

The past weeks, there have been a number of suspicious posts in the comments, all with the same phrasing:

Wow! this is Amazing! Do you know your hidden name meaning ? Click here to find your hidden name meaning 


Please do not click on the link, as this can be a phishing attempt, with malware!!!

Al these posts have been removed, but beware for new ones.

Another AWI Game in 54mm

Must be the season for AWI games. I played a skirmish game using Muskets and Tomahawks based on the fight at Concord's North Bridge. I plan to try About Bonaparte for my larger AWI battles.

AWI Brandywine campagne - 2e treffen - Slag bij Glocester

De Amerikaanse brigades die in Burlington gevochten hadden, werden in Glocester versterkt door 2 sterke verse brigades.  Maar ook de Britten hadden versterkingen onderweg. een van hun sterkste brigades kwam aan tijdens de slag. 

Generaal Howe aan het hoofd van de Highlander brigade (figuren door een vergetelheid niet aanwezig)

De Amerikanen onder leiding van Washington hadden hun centrum versterkt en hun beste troepen daar en op hun linker flank geplaatst.

De lichte troepen van beide zijden gingen er vol tegenaan en kozen voor charges .

De Brits-Hessense aanval kwam op de Amerikaanse rechter flank waar de militiebrigade en de verzwakte brigade uit de eerste slag stonden opgesteld. De aanval was daar gepland omdat hier de meeste  objectieven gelegen waren (zie hoger de slagveldkaart )

De Fergusons Rifles werden door dit continental bataljon uitgeschakeld toen ze bijna bij Washington waren doorgedrongen  

de Hessense Jägers verdreven de militietroepen uit een van de boerderijen

de artillerieredoute werd stormenderhand veroverd door de Hessense lijntroepen.

Op de Amerikaanse linkerflank kwam vooruit maar toen kwamen ook de Britse versterkingen toe.

de lichte troepen van de nieuwe brigade namen de Amerikaanse batterij onder vuur en schakelden 2 artilleristen uit.

De Britten vroegen om een staak het vuren en gaven de Amerikanen de mogelijkheid om terug te trekken om verder bloedvergieten te vermijden, waarop de Amerikanen graag ingingen.

Generaal Von Knyphausen zag dat zijn Hessen goed hadden gevochten maar verliezen navenhand hadden geleden.