Springfield Station

October 3rd, 1861. The 31st NY volunteers are tasked with clearing Springfield Station in another scenario from The Coming Thunder.

My opponent's Confederates will be facing a Union force twice the size of the Confederate force. Unbeknownst to my opponent, the Confederates have a variable number of turns (4 draws of the blank card) to escape off table, after the firing has started,  before they are surrounded by other Union forces.

He does know the mission is to delay the Yankees and then escape.

The first Union formation enters the table, but all the Confederates deploy in a firing line and are ready for them.

I decide to move forward and change formation to a firing line, but fail to get past the corn field bottleneck.

Despite firing at long range, the Confederates are hitting the Yankees pretty hard.

To make matters worse, a random event first causes the Yankees to accidentally shoot their captain (wounded, reduced 1 level) and then foul their barrels (-1 to hit).

Help is on the way, but because of the bottleneck, they cannot engage the enemy.

After a few attempts the wounded Union captain manages to convince his troops to stop firing and get out of the way.

The Confederates don't seem to be in a hurry to escape and continue to pour fire into the Union lines.

Yet another random event delivers a pall of smoke in front of the Union troops, making it nearly impossible for them to hit anything.

Anxious to join the fight, the second Union formation marches into close range of the Confederates (and past the obscuring smoke).

Then the Blank Card is drawn for the 4th time, meaning that the Confederate force has been surrounded by other Union forces and are forced to surrender.

Victory for the Union!

 

Project Star Wars part 21: the Millennium Falcon

While browsing the internet for Star Wars stuff I came across The Ghost:

It looked big enough for 28mm games and the included figures are listed as 1 inch from head to toe.

The Ghost is however a bit pricey, but I found a ship from the same Micro Galaxy Squadron series which was cheaper from a reliable web store. The Millennium Falcon.

Now I already knew this Falcon would be smaller than it would be if it were actually in scale with 28mm miniatures. A bit smaller wouldn't be a problem since things are often scaled down for the tabletop (e.g. buildings). This Millennium Falcon is however pushing the envelope.

Toy Thunderbird 2, Millennium Falcon, Revell1:57 X-wing (06779)

without the fancy battlemat

Imperial Assault Chewie and Han

Legion and Imperial Assault Luke

as seen in TESB

But from the gamer's bird's eye view it doesn't look that bad.

Inside it's a bit cramped though.

I think I'll keep the Millennium Falcon despite its diminutive size. As a terrain piece or for "get to the shuttle!" scenarios it will do.

I'll pass on the Ghost though.

Wee man Han

Retreat from Lewinsville

In this hypothetical scenario from The Coming Thunder the Yankee 2nd battallion, 1st California regiment and 5th Wisconsin volunteers are retreating from Lewinsville after another reconnaissance on September 25th, 1861. One of their wagons has broken down and must be repaired before continuing the retreat.

The Yankees are already deployed on the table and can expect a Confederate force from three directions!

Here they come!

The first Conferate formation appears in front of the Wisconsin Volunteers and opens fire.

A second formation is moving through the corn field intending to flank the Yankees.

I move my Wisconsin Volunteers forward to fire from effective range, thinking I'll have time to pull them back before my opponent's Confederates are able to flank them. A costly mistake in hindsight.

A third Confederate formation marches down the road on the other side of the table and starts blasting the Californians.

 With the arrival of the Confederate gun, significant holes start to appear in the Union ranks.

The Union formation collapses under mounting shock while the Confederates are trying to get through the corn field.

The Yankee force morale plummets and its over. Yankee survivors retreat and leave the wagon behind.

Victory for the Confederates!

Wild One Part 1

Wild One

My son and I started a new Fistful of Lead Star wars campaign. This campaign revolves around the adventures of scoundrel and smuggler Lhin Tizzy and his crew. 

The Heroes

Notorious crime lord Zenyatta Mondatta (see the escape from Aniron campaign) has helped Lhin out when his spaceship "Wild One" needed urgent repairs. Lhin is now indebted to Mondatta who "requests" him to pick up an associate on a remote planet.

Mondatta mentions that he may run into Black Sun cartel enforcers who also have taken an interest in this associate.

The Villains

My son chose to play Lhin Tizzy and his crew and carefully entered the abandoned settlement where Mondatta's associate was hiding. Buildings and terrain features had to be searched to find him.

My enforcers entered from the opposite side and started searching immediately.

Both sides moving forward with caution.

Leebar the Frozian was the first to find something: a venomous critter that bit him and injected a dose of poison!

The Black Sun enforcers moved forward quickly with one half of the crew, allowing the other half to do the searching.

Meanwhile the poison is draining the strenght from Leebar.

Blayne mows down Xox with his heavy blaster, while Lhin and Z (Zzz-orh-z-vvm) are dodging a hail of grenades from Kroz.

The poison and grenades are too much for Leebar. He's out of action.

Lhin and Jadh zero in on grenadier Kroz and drop him. Blayne blasts the Black Sun leader Borrit as he exits the building.

There's only one place left where the target can be hiding, and Black Sun is controlling it. Despite losing over half their crew, they have the associate!

But Z steps out of the hover truck and takes out one of the remaining Black Sun enforcers with his blaster rifle.

The last Black Sun enforcer tries to escape but is gunned down by Lhin.

The crew gathers around Mondatta's associate who introduces himself as senior imperial weapons scientist Spitzenfinger.

Who is this Spitzenfinger? What does Mondatta need him for? Will Leebar recover from his wounds?

Stay tuned for Wild One part 2!

😁