Village Games, July 21st, 2009 'Flames of War' Match

John and Josh played a match of Flames at Village last Tuesday. I think this was the first Flames night in a month or so.

Well, Elefants are big...

In the end, John actually annihilated much of Josh's force. However, Josh had one or two tanks remaining in most of his platoons. They ultimately ran out of time, and initially called a draw. However, upon review of the victory point system in Flames, Josh technically won as he destroyed two of John's platoons to his one platoon lost. All of that despite suffering heavy losses to Josh's force! I think part of the issue is John lost his 88mm, which I think is classified as a "platoon" for game purposes. Anyhow, it was a fairly quick game, under two hours I think.

Village Games, July 12th, 2009 'Living Forgotten Realms' RPGA Play

We had our usual monthly LFR game day at Village Games this past Sunday.

We had three morning games scheduled, but due to a lack of minimum players in one game and some no-shows in others, we melded down into two of the modules. The two modules were EAST 1-1 (East Rift: 'These Hallowed Halls', L1-4) and AGLA 1-1 (Aglarond: 'Lost Temple of the Fey Gods', L1-4).

I played in AGLA 1-1 (Aglarond: 'Lost Temple of the Fey Gods', L1-4). I've actually played this module before, so I used a new character: Merrin Berryfoot, a halfling rogue. I have a couple of other characters I've created, including a human Tempus cleric, but I really have wanted to play the halfling rogue. Nicholas DM'd as usual. I think we might have actually had four players (the minimum for a game), but I believe he defected to EAST 1-1. Daniel didn't have his session to DM, so he joined us. He played Fargrim, a dwarf fighter. Angie played her usual character, the gnome bard Roselyn. Joe also played his usual character, the human evoker Gil-Glin. Everyone lived, though Fargrim was dropped and frequently heavily damaged. Of course, he's a fighter.

This was EAST 1-1. I was originally scheduled to play in this, but due to the player situation I opted to go play with the usual suspects. Also, a lot of these guys were friends or related, and I suspected they would like to game together. It seems every time I try to play EAST 1-1 something happens. The game gets canceled, I get bumped or some other fortuitous event occurs. Drat!

This was our last group. Originally, EAST 1-1 was actually the only scheduled game, but as we had enough people we split into two tables. We ended up playing MOON 1-1 (Moonshae Isles: 'Nature's Wrath', L1-4). Myself and Angie continued using our characters from earlier, but Joe switched to a human psion. Daniel left to go run EAST 1-1 as scheduled, and we were joined by Mike. I've played in LFR with Mike before at The Source out in Falcon Heights, and he brought his halfling paladin Burlap. The module wasn't the greatest, at least in the lower tier. We had a bit of a discussion at the beginning over whether we should play up or not. We decided as we only had four players with characters at mostly the lower end of the L1-4 range that it would probably be wisest to play down. Merrin (my character) did come close once or twice to dropping, but most of the PCs came out with little damage. The storyline did make for some comedic RP though.

Village Games, July 7th, 2009 'Fear and Faith' Game

While at Village last night, I saw a couple of guys playing a modern skirmish scale game using the 'Fear and Faith' rules. The rules set is produced by Ganesha Games and is essentially a modern catch-all horror setting.

Village Games, July 5th, 2009 Miniatures Painting Night

There was a fair crowd for painting yesterday, despite the Combat Cards League taking away a few of the regulars. Most of the guys painted in the backroom so I ended up missing a lot of the goings on.

Ben was out front, continuing working on his Eldar for the upcoming Rogue Trader tourney.

Village Games, July 7th, 2009 'Combat Cards' Summer League Opener

Last night was the first day of the Combat Cards Summer League.

There were six players total. A seventh showed up but the eighth wasn't able to make it, so #7 had to sit out.

The campaign is based during the Kursk campaign, specifically at Ponyri Station. Ponyri was a heavily fortified railway station, which sat on the main rail link between Kursk and Orel. It was also a major agricultural marshaling yard area for the surrounding region's collective farms. It would see some of the most brutal fighting of the Kursk campaign.

This was Dan versus Herb.

Another pairing at war.

Josh meeting his doom. Josh had almost no terrain and had some force construction issues involving artillery if I remember correctly. At the end all he had left at the final turn was a couple or mortar stands behind the buildings at the lower left. Unfortunately for them, their commander had long been useless and as a result they pretty much sat there as easy pickings. He should do better next round though, provided he doesn't take the same forces. ;)

Online, Blackstar Server, July 5th, 2009 'Living Forgotten Realms' RPGA Play

Played another LFR game last night on Open RPG on the Blackstar server.

This time it was CORE 1-3, 'A Sense of Wonder'.

I played Sora, my L3 elven rogue. We also had Joey playing Balasar, his L4 dragonborn sorcerer. Another gamer was playing Rolen, a L2 elven ranger. Willk played William Strongmane, his L3 human shaman (I think). Kal Agrim played Thamoir "Moonflower" Amanodel, a L2 eladrin wizard.

Tim DM'd the module, who'd also DM'd the previous online module I played in (TYMA 1-5 as listed below).

The module was OK. We had some timing issues. I know Willk had some comp problems. Anyhow, we did finish the game. Moonflower got dropped and took some heavy damage but survived. Sora did OK, and I leveled to four after the adventure.

Online, Blackstar Server, July 4th, 2009 'Living Forgotten Realms' RPGA Play

Last night, I finally got Open RPG running. It's a program used to play RPGs online. You can use maps, minis, and it has all sorts of stuff like a dice roller and the usual online RPG items of interest. It also uses macros if you're into that sort of thing.

It wasn't the easiest program to install, a common complaint about the program. But that was OK with me, as it's free. Somethings are worth the effort.

After gabbing in the lobby for a few hours while doing up some Armorcast terrain, I discovered a possible LFR game running, TYMA 1-5. It's the newer Tymanther LFR module, which I believe game out on Wednesday. Anyhow, I figured 'Why not?'.

So I joined up in the room to play TYMA 1-5. The game was run by Tim. Our group included a full house of six. We had a gnome L4 sorcerer named Nyssa, played by Damon. There was Joey playing Balasar, a L4 dragonborn sorcerer. Yes, two sorcerers. Cyril played Skye, a L4 shifter fighter. Rich played Thain, a L3 dwarf warden. Ben A played his L4 bladeling avenger, a worshipper of Ilmater. I played Sora, my L3 elven rogue.

The game went pretty well, better than I thought. I've gamed online for years, since the mid 90s. The "all-in-one" system, with maps and so forth, is a godsend to gamers. Everything you need is there. We finished in a bit more than average real life time, but online gaming can often stretch on a hair longer.


This is a screen shot of Open RPG in use during the game. You can, of course, rearrange the various windows to your liking.

For more info on Open RPG: http://www.openrpg.com/

Village Games, June 30th, 2009 'Combat Cards' Skirmish Game

Couple of the guys at Village were playtesting (I think) some Skirmish rules for Combat Cards. Basically a 25-28mm skirmish style rules using the card based Combat Card rules. It was a modern game, terrorists/Taliban/similar vs USMC I think.

Guys played on a felt mat with some appropriate terrain. Hot Wheels trucks?! Anyhow, don't know how this one turned out. A draw perhaps?

Village Games, June 30th, 2009 'Flames of War' Match

At the Village on Tuesday, I spied a father/son group playing a FoW match in the RPG/CCG room. They were playing a North Africa scenario with Brits vs Germans. I have no idea how it turned out, though it did appear as if the Brit arty was doing a fairly good job. It should, given the bonuses the British forces get in the game for arty. ;)

Village Games, June 30th, 2009 Miniatures Painting Night

Pretty decent turnout this past Tuesday. I think part of it is that there are a number of leagues that will be starting in the near future, including Combat Cards, a Warhammer Escalation League and one or two others I think. Warhammer PlanetStrike is one of them I believe. Lots of guys painting Flames of War stuff for Combat Cards (and/or Flames of War). A number were also working on 15mm range terrain; apparently they get two square feet each for the CC League. I didn't get many photos this night and only one really from painting.

Ben at work as usual on his Eldar. He blended up a nice pink color for his Eldar Hearts vehicle unit. I will try and get a photo of all his stuff if he brings them next week.

The Source, June 27th, 2009 'Warhammer 40,000' Pic

While playing in the LFR sessions at the Source on Saturday, there were some kids playing some Warhammer 40K in the evening. Just managed to snap a pic.

The Source, June 27th, 2009 'Living Forgotten Realms' RPGA Play

This past Saturday I swung by The Source for LFR game day.

There were three afternoon sessions scheduled: DALE 1-1 (Dalelands: 'The Propect', L1-4), EAST 1-4 (East Rift: 'Darkness In Delzimmer', L1-4) & TYMA 1-2 (Tymanther: 'Taking Stock of the Situation', L4-7). Unfortunately, there were not enough people for David's EAST 1-4, but the rest continued as planned. I played in DALE 1-1.

The evening sessions scheduled were: DRAG 1-1 (Dragon Coast: 'Many Hands Make Light Work', L1-4), LURU 1-1 (Luruar: 'Slivers of Eaerlann', L4-7) & an unknown (to me) Paragon tier adventure. I played in DRAG 1-1.

I played Sora, my L2 (now L3) elven rogue in both as usual.


In the afternoon session, I played in DALE 1-1, 'The Propect'. It was run by Chip, who is out of the pic range on the right. In this game I played with a couple guys that were in my very first LFR game. Brian (in the Zelda shirt on the right) returned with Tholamin, his L3 cleric. Adam (in the blue shirt on the left) returned with Maladictus, his L2 fighter. Also in the game was Matt (in the grey Fett shirt in the middle), who DM'd my first LFR game. He played Marcus, a L3 ranger. Scott (in the red/black shirt to the left of Matt) played a half elf bard named Theren. The guy at the lower left...I'm forgetting his name and character for some reason. Usually I note such things down, but I was pretty beat that morning and forgot to do it. Excuses indeed! Anyhow, things ended up pretty well. We played up and I came just a few dozen short of leveling to third, but that's OK. I got to see my character dropped for the first time below zero HP, but luckily he didn't chuck it in. I think Matt's character Marcus leveled to four after the game.

This is Brian's LURU 1-1 in the evening session. If I remember correctly, Brian mentioned this was the first time he's DM'd in five years or so. They seem to have enjoyed the game though! Brian's a funny guy that knows the game though, so how could he fail?!

That's Peter running the Paragon tier game I mentioned above. Some (all?) of these folks are working towards leveling for GenCon I think. The guy in the blue shirt on the left is Chip, the DM of DALE 1-1 that morning. To his right is Scott, also from our morning game. To his right in the grey shirt is David, who was to run EAST 1-4 in the morning if enough folks had shown up. I felt bad for David not being able to run anything, and had enough folks shown up I'd have switched to his game if they needed enough to fill it. But at least he had something going in the evening so the trip wasn't all for naught!

This is part of our evening game, DRAG 1-1, 'Many Hands Make Light Work'. It was DM'd by Matt, who you see in the Fett shirt on the right. We played up in this game as well, and the combat encounters were somewhat challenging for the group. Once again, for the second time that day, my character was dropped below zero HP, but a timely end to the encountered allowed the cleric Edley to save his bacon. On the lower left is Nicholas, playing his L3 wizard Raa. Nicholas runs the LFR game days up here at Village Games in my hometown of Anoka. Behind him is AJ, who played a rock solid human cleric, L1 I believe, named Edley. AJ is one of the best RPers I've gamed with at the Source. His lecture to some orphans was one of the funniest moments I've seen in an RPG in years. Remember Edley's words: "Don't be a heathen!"...unless you want to break like a glass bunny. ;) At the end of the table is Connie, another Source regular. She played Zelda, a L4 dragonborn fighter. Out of the shot is Mike, who played his L2 halfling paladin, Burlap. Yes...Burlap! Born in a gunny sack! It was one of the more entertaining LFR modules I've played, but I'm sure part of that was the group we had as well. And everyone lived, despite a rather gooey encounter. Ultimately I leveled to three after the game, and Nicholas leveled to four.

Village Games, June 23rd, 2009 'Combat Cards'

While at Village Games on Tuesday, I spied Dan and company playing on a Warhammer stylized table. Apparently they're playtesting a Skirmish version of 'Combat Cards'.

The table.

A bit of the action. He seems to love the smoke screens...

'Warhammer 40,000' Ork Deff Rolla Battlewagon Upgrade Release Info

While I'm not an Orkish kind of guy, they are without a doubt one of the most popular forces in 40K. Earlier this year, they released the Battlewagon. At Toronto Game Day, they revealed the new Deff Rolla upgrade kit. It looks pretty cool, in that haphazard Orkish kind of way.

Here's a link to the TMP article:

http://theminiaturespage.com/news/116936/

Village Games, June 16th, 2009 'Flames of War' Germans vs Soviets 6000 Point Battle

Last night was the bi-weekly "Flames of War' night at Village. It was all the usual suspects present.

The match was a 6000 point Germans vs Soviets match between John/Mark and Josh/Bobby. Mark is a newcomer to the game, and is involved in the modern armor games (I think) run at Village. I didn't get as many photos as I usually do as I was bopping around between things last night, so I apologize if this isn't up to the usual coverage.


Not far into the game, things were moving along for the Germans. Very little damage to the Germans, but this would change. The game was a 'Hold the Line' scenario IIRC, with the Germans defending the lower side of the table as you see here. I think their two markers were in the trees at the middle of the table, and the other I am not sure about. It might have been the tree at the bottom. John had his 88mm and Elefant in action, two units that Josh doesn't like very much...

As the game developed, most of the action was focused on the lower left side of the table...

In the end, it ended as a huge fur ball as you see on the left. You can't see it in this pic, but there's a lot of armor under all that fire and smoke. The game was ultimately called a draw, but I would have enjoyed seeing it fully played out. John/Mark had lost a lot of their forces, but so had Josh/Bobby. John/Mark did have some considerable forces, including his Elefant IIRC, surviving on that center hill. John did lose his 88mm ('my precious!') though. Great ending to the game though!

Village Games, June 16th, 2009 Miniatures Painting Night

Last night was the weekly painting night at Village. Not a big showing this week, maybe four painters or so. However, some of the guys were playing 'Blood Bowl' and the like. Most of the painters were working on an ongoing 'Flames of War' project, but a few were working on 'Warhammer' stuff.

This guy was working on his 'Nids. He's converting the talon colors and the like to the orange you see on the bottom unit.

Centurions Game Upcoming on Saturday, June 20th, 2009

Elliott , from the Centurions gaming group, is running a Napoleonics game at The Source this coming Saturday (June 20th) from 1100-1700.

It will be 10mm using Napoleonic Command.

If I didn't have a previous commitment, I'd be there. :(

But if you enjoy Napoleonics, best to show up!

Village Games, June 16th, 2009 'Blood Bowl' Matches

The guys at the Ville ran a Blood Bowl night yesterday. I think there were four players total, but it seems like everyone had fun. There's apparently some discussion of a BB league forming up. I have not played BB in quite some time, but I do have the minis and a couple of BB boards and so on in storage. Perhaps it might be time to crack them out, as the newest rules set are available as a free PDF online.

Shot of the table set-ups.

Village Games, June 14th, 2009 'Living Forgotten Realms' RPGA Play

Yesterday was our first RPGA LFR campaign at Village Games. We had one full game and another that scraped by. The two adventures on offer were: CORE 1-1 (Core: 'Inheritance', L1-4) and CORM 1-1 (Cormyr: 'The Black Knight of Arabel', L1-4).

I played in CORE 1-1 (Core: 'Inheritance', L1-4). We had six players total. There was: Angie (Roselyn, gnome bard), Joe (Gil-Glin, human evoker), Will (Malachi, human ranger), Jimmy (Kisthanis, Eladrin warlord) and of course my elven rogue, Sora. Nic DM'd the module. It was a fun day. As usual Jimmy's character took some whacking, but survived to fight again another day. We ran slightly shorter than the Cormyr game, which ran right up until the store's closing. Village Games was very accommodating in the late running.

Photo is of the Cormyr folks. The photo of our group didn't really turn out to well. I only took two photos total though, so...

Village Games, June 9th, 2009 Miniatures Painting Night

A pretty good turnout last night for mini painting at the Ville. Mostly 40K stuff, but also at least one doing 'Battlefleet Gothic' and some historicals (mostly 'Flames of War' 15mm stuff).

Here's Ben, whose Eldar Falcon I showed last time around. He's still on his Eldar mission as you can see. Later in the evening he helped out with basing some 'Flames of War' armored vehicles.

He's been working on these Eldar, which will eventually look like the one he's holding.

A close up of Ben's Eldar.

This is Paul, apparently a minis night newcomer. He's painting some 40K Ultramarines.

Some of Paul's unfinished Ultras.

And last but not least, Dan painting some Reds. These are 'Flames of War' 15mm Soviets.

Village Games, June 9th, 2009 Various GW Stuff

While at the Ville yesterday, I spied a few GW (Games Workshop) games. On Tuesdays there seems to always be some type of GW based game happening here, be it Gorkamorka, Battlefleet Gothic, Warhammer and others of course.

These folks are playing Gorkamorka, a vehicles based game set in the Warhammer 40K universe. I've played it before, but never really got into it much.

This was a Warhammer 40K 1850 point game set up to go. I didn't see much of this game, but learned it was Marine vs Marine. I have no idea who won. Sorry! Go Traitor Legions! ;)

Village Games, June 9th, 2009 'Combat Cards' Germans vs Soviets

Stopped by the Ville last night. Ran into Herb and Josh, who were playing Combat Cards. It's a card based wargaming system.

As usual, Herb's playing Germans and Josh is playing Reds. I didn't watch much of the game, but from what I heard afterwards Herb's forces couldn't take the other side of the table. His forces were required to capture three of the five houses, I think, and hold them for a turn. That's Herb on the left and Josh on the right.

'Litko' Gaming Markers

Litko's released some new markers for wargaming. Looks great with sci-fi minis, but not as much with fantasy and historicals. Still.

You can never have too many markers...

http://www.litkoaero.com/page/LAI/CTGY/Gothic

Village Games, June 2nd, 2009 'Flames of War' Germans vs Soviets 6000 Point Battle

Stopped by Village Games for the 'Flames of War' match. For the second week, I was drafted by John to play some of the German forces. This week, some armor reserves.

It was a 6000 point match, 3000 to a side. On the Soviet side was Bobby and Josh (as usual), against John, myself and a gentleman whose name I forgot to ask. Sorry! Anyhow, we played on the usual store table. The scenario was 'Breakthrough'. The objective was to occupy ground adjacent to the two haystacks seen in a below pic.

Placement of forces...

Initial gameplay. Although it is hard to see, John has an 88mm next to the tanks in the upper left portion of the table.

The haystacks (in the road and on top of the hill) were the objectives for the game. Of course, as I inquired, why is one of the haystacks on the road? Hiding a Goliath no doubt. ;)

Some of the action on the field. Unfortunately for the Germans, the 88mm and other units were quickly smacked, and John rolled badly for the morale check. According to our understanding of the rules, the Germans lost the match early in the game due to a failed morale check. We decided to play on for awhile though.

Eventually the Germans managed to roll for reserves to come in, but it was to late to do much good and the Soviets ultimately occupied the area of the haystacks, winning the scenario in addition to the possible earlier loss due to the failed morale check. I did get to deploy some of John's tanks in the upper right hand side and destroyed a fair bit of Josh's tanks in the area, and the other gentleman destroyed a tank in the lower left. A bit of a frustrating game really, and some (myself included) question to some degree the way that the morale checks apparently work. But hey...it's just a game. ;)

Village Games, June 2nd, 2009 Miniatures Painting Night

While at the 'Flames of War' match last night, I snapped a few pics of the weekly Miniatures Painting Night at Village Games. Usually most of the minis are Warhammer, but you'll see the occasional historicals, CBT, FoW and so on.

Someones fantasy minis.

This is Ben. The vehicle is an Eldar Falcon I think. The photo didn't turn out as well as I'd like, but you get the picture (no pun intended).

SPC Open For Visitors

SPC, a good manufacturer of mini terrain, has opened it's doors to visitors.

Unfortunately, I do not live in the UK. But I'll probably pop in the next time I'm over that way...that is if they're still taking visitors!

http://spcwargamecreations.flyingcart.com/

The Source, May 30th, 2009 'Living Forgotten Realms' RPGA Play

So I went down to the Source for the two session LFR day yesterday. A decent crowd, with eight near full to full games.

The four afternoon sessions run were: CORE 1-3 (Core: 'Sense of Wonder', L1-4), DALE 1-2 (Dalelands: 'Blades For Daggerdale', L4-7), EAST 1-4 (East Rift: 'Darkness In Delzimmer', L1-4) & WATE 1-1 (Waterdeep: 'Heirloom', L1-4). I played in 'Heirloom' this session.

The four evening sessions run were: AKAN 1-1 (Akanul: 'The Rotting Ruins of Galain', L1-4), CORM 1-1 (Cormyr: 'The Black Knight of Arabel', L1-4), EAST 1-2: (East Rift: 'Marauder's Spear, L4-7) & TYMA 1-1 (Tymanther: 'Elder Wisdom', L1-4). I played 'The Rotting Ruins of Galain' this session.

This is a shot of prep for the first session. I played in WATE 1-1 (Waterdeep: 'Heirloom', L1-4), run by Victor (the guy at the end of the table). He did a good job as DM, and we had an interesting party. I played Sora, my L1 elf rogue. Angelica played Anias, her L4 druid. I think this was her last L1-4 with her, as she's moving her into the L4-7 sessions from now on. Tyler played Varim, his L2 swordmage, an interestingly RP'd character. He got us into a bit of trouble, but nothing we couldn't get out of. Unfortunately, his slapping of a NPC did cost us a story reward, but he did honestly RP his character. Lots of comic relief as well, though at times I think Anias (and Angelica) wanted to restrain him. ;) Brian played Tholamin, a 2L cleric. Steve played Bezoar, a L1 gnome wizard. Being a gnome did come in handy in an encounter, though I won't go into specifics as to not ruin it for future module players. I think we were one short this game as per the scheduled players.

This is a shot of our afternoon session, WATE 1-1 (Waterdeep: 'Heirloom', L1-4). Victor's running shop on the right. Angelica is on the camera side left in the green shirt. Tyler's in the black Bad Religion shirt on the right on the backside, followed right to left by Brian and Steve. I think the folks in the background are all Pokeplayers in the local Pokemon CCG group.

This is a shot of the afternoon session CORE 1-3 (Core: 'Sense of Wonder', L1-4), run by David (who I accidentally chopped partially out on the right side of the pic). I apologize to the rest of the players as I didn't get a good photo of everyone. You can also see part of Peter's DALE 1-2 (Dalelands: 'Blades For Daggerdale', L4-7) on the left.

This is a shot of Peter's afternoon DALE 1-2 (Dalelands: 'Blades For Daggerdale', L4-7). Aside from Peter (the guy at the back with sheets in hand) and Michael (the standing guy on the left), I have no clue to the names of the rest of the folks. Sorry guys!

This was Tyler's AKAN 1-1 (Akanul: 'The Rotting Ruins of Galain', L1-4). I played Sora (as usual). Amazingly, I didn't take a single HP of damage this session. Then again, I do play a rogue. Ranged weapons are your friend! I was tempted to create a L1 cleric for the second session, so I have two (eventually, hopefully) higher level characters as options. But, tradition reigns! Tyler's the guy standing at the end of the table. On the right are Nicholas in the yellow shirt and Jimmy in the rusty striped shirt. Nicholas ran the D&D Games Day a couple weeks ago at Village Games in Anoka, which can be seen in an earlier entry. Today he played Raa, a flaming redheaded 1L human wizard. Jimmy is from St Cloud. He played Kisthanis, a L1 eladrin warlord. He soaked up a ton of damage and had it not been for a well run cleric, he could very well have perished. Steve is the guy on the right, and also played in the 'Heirloom' game with me earlier in the day. He played Bezoar, as mentioned above in the 'Heirloom' game. Out of the picture next to him is Phil. Phil usually plays his rogue, but today played a L1 human cleric named Alek. Were it not for Alek, I'd wager Kisthanis (at the minimum) may have perished. Really, the party was fairly optimum as far as it's diversity in classes. We actually had an open slot in our session, and we probably could have used another meat shield (read: fighter). But we had massive ranged goodness, and I think it might have wonked the module a bit. I'd like to think, in hindsight, we could have played this one up, but I think at the very least Kisthanis would have gotten the chop. In the end, several of us leveled up to L2 this session.

All in all, a generally good day of gaming! I was a little tired in the evening, but I've been a little busy lately. I'm looking forward to the next LFR session, probably in mid June.

Village Games, May 26th, 2009 'Flames of War' Germans vs Soviets 6000 Point Battle

I swung by the Ville yesterday for 'Flames of War' day. I knew John was going to muster me into the game somehow, and of course the game keeps pulling me back in....


There were essentially four players in the game: John (on the left above), Bobby (the guy on the right in the foreground), Josh (in the background) and Herb (not shown). The game was played in 'The Cauldron' scenario format from the rules book. Herb and John played the Germans with 1500 points each, with Bobby and Josh as the Soviets, also at 1500 points each. The basic objective of the game is for the Soviet forces to hold their three objectives, which are shown (somewhat) in a pic farther down. Herb/John were pretty much a solid armor force and Bobby/Josh were a mixed force, with armor, infantry and air support.

The main objective for the Soviets was to essentially hold the area marked by the defensive works you see in the left center of the pic. The Germans job was to hold one of the objectives until the end of the Soviet's fifth or sixth turn if I remember correctly. The objectives were marked by pennies which can't be seen here, and later there was some confusion on the distance of the distance between the pennies during the placement. But we're all still learning the rules here, so...

This is a shot of the early placement/movement. John's forces are mainly in the upper portions of the table, while Herb's forces moved in from the bottom. Josh mainly operated in the area you see him in here, while Bobby more or less played the Soviet infantry/mortar/ATG guys in the center. You can see Herb's Tiger at the bottom center.

This is a decent shot showing the Soviet defence positions. Later I'd end up taking down much of the Soviet infantry and mortar positions, but most of his tanks seen in this photo would survive the game. In the rear center you see two Soviet SU-152s next to some of his tanks. In front of them is a Tiger and three Marders I believe. You can see some of Herb's armor rolling up on the right.

Well, eventually I was drafted by John to take over part of his force while he did rules checks. Mostly I was involved in the battle at the rear of the table, between Josh's and John's armor and some of Bobby's infantry. Two of Josh's SU-152s can be seen burning here, my first Flames of War kills. They were taken down by the Marders next to the Tiger.

The Tiger and the Marders would not survive the game. Soviet armor ultimately overwhelmed them and all four were lost. You can see one of the objective markers next to the white house below. The Soviet tank next to it was taken out not long after this.

This was pretty much the end of the game. Although the German forces had taken a bit of a pasting, all wasn't necessarily lost. The three German tanks next to the white house managed to survive until the end of the required Soviet turn, which was a required action for German victory. However, there were some questions about Morale checks or some such thing, and in the end the battle was declared a draw.

Everyone here is pretty much still learning the game, but it seems to be getting better. This was the first 'Flames of War' match I participated in, and I certainly enjoyed it. Once we all get the rules down, and I figure out what I'm going to play, it will be even better.