Combat Cards League, Week 2, 7/5/11

Another week of league play has come and gone, with 3 more great games played.  I did manage to grab a few shots of the other games being played this week.

My table.  I had the pleasure of facing off against Jeff in this dense village setup.

A shot of the table from the other side.  Jeff's Flames of War wrecked vehicles were very distracting.  Throughout the game I kept confusing them as Jeff's units!

The only real action shot of the game.  American infiltrators snuck up on my Tiger and blew it straight to hell.  The Americans suffer no lasting effects.

 A look at the village mid- game.  The units are few, and the table is big, so it looks quiet.  My StuG is advancing along the road along the right side, trying to get a better angle on the Sherman 76 and mortar team.  Minefields block off- road access to the other half of the table.

A look at Dan and John's game.  Soviets battle it out with those pesky Germans!  

A Soviet T-34/85 uses the woods and smoke cover to sneak up on a German Elefant.

 Soviet armor watching for the German advance.  Infantry tangle with German armor at the top of the picture.

Todd and Mike face off with Germans and Russians. 

Russian infantry hide behind a tank, in the smoke and woods.  Why?

Because there's a confused German command in the open!!! :)

German forces move in to dislodge Soviet infantry from the farmhouse.

Jeff, John and Mike pulled down victories today; all of them close, well played, and fun!  If you're not playing you are really missing out.

Never heard of Combat Cards?  Check out their website: http://www.tacticalassaultgames.com/

Easy Roads

For some time I've been trying to come up with a simple, easy and cheap method for creating roads for my games.  I wanted them to be flexible to conform to terrain, as well as be easy to transport.

A friend of mine had come up with a great idea using some offcut rubber strip he got from a customer a long time ago.  I wanted to have roads like these, but the material he used was not readily available.

I finally figured out a good way to do what I like to call "Dan roads".

The roads are made from Con- Tact Premium Grip Liner.  I picked this up at the local DIY store.  I would imagine this could be found pretty much anywhere.  It is a textured, rubber mat about 1/8" thick and comes in a 4' roll.  The roll is 18" wide.

I simply slid back the outer wrapper to expose as much liner as I needed for the width of my road and started slicing through with a sharp utility knife.  I then learned there is a cardboard spool in the center, and a layer of clear plastic as well.  The spool slid out easy enough, and cutting continued. 

I measured the width of my roads based on the size of a 15mm infantry base.  I also didn't use a straight edge, so the road edge came out uneven.  For me this is OK because it will look more like a dirt road.  For city streets I would use more care to make sure the edge was true.

Once cutting was done I unrolled the pieces and gave them a generous coat of dark brown acrylic paint.  I then hung them to dry.  The pictures shows them drying.  I painted them one half at a time for ease of handling.  It is a rubber material, so the paint didn't cover that well.  I used cheap craft paint, so I was not worried about using too much and slathered it on.

A light brown/ tan was then streaked and drybrushed over the brown.  The liner has just enough texture to pick up from some drybrushing, which looks OK for a dirt road in 6- 15mm, and would look pretty good for asphalt in larger scales.  A bit of off white was then lightly drybrushed  onto the roads, and they were finished.

Here are a few shots of the finished roads in use. 

The roads are stored rolled up.  The end in the center of the roll curls very hard, causing it to bow up from the table.  I think alternating the direction the roads are rolled up will help them lay flat in the future.

 A detail shot of the road.

Overall I like the way they turned out.  There is a good cost/ time/ detail ratio with these roads.  I'm just curious now as to how well the paint will hold up to the rigors of gaming.

Combat Cards League, Week 1

The Tactical Assault: Combat Cards league at Village Games in Anoka, MN officially kicked off on Tuesday.  7 players showed up and three games were played.  I would have liked to get some shots of the other games, but I got too engrossed in my own game.  I took very few meaningful pictures of my own!

I had the pleasure of playing Todd in a German training exercise (we were both running German armies.)

A shot of the table before deployment.  Each building counted as a covering template, with medium elevation if a unit was above the 1st floor.

Units Deployed.  My Germans took positions in town, and to the south and east of town.  Todd split his forces, approaching from the northeast and west sides.

My Stug III takes a position in the woods on the east side.  Todd had a Pz IV there a minute ago...

Two of my machine guns teams watch over the village.  Todd's Panzer tucks in behind a building to harass the MG's while avoiding the Tiger I on the south side of the table.

A view from the smoke.  After shrouding my Tiger in smoke, two more of Todd's armored units maneuver into position to destroy it as soon as the smoke clears.

Todd's units taking cover on the west side of the table.

One of my infiltrators standing in the open.  They had just eliminated another Panzer IV.

Todd moves a StuG III to assault the Tiger I.  These two units spent much of the last portion of the game confused.

My StuG III's begin pushing toward the west side of the map to support the beleaguered Tiger I.

Unable to clear the confusion on his StuG III, Todd braces for an assault from the Tiger I.  Do not fear; it survived the attack and almost caused the Tiger to flee the tabletop!

This was a great game that could have gone either way.  At the end I was ahead by 11 points, giving me only a marginal victory. 

More action to come next week!

Combat Cards 6/22/11

Tuesday we played a practice game of Tactical Assault: Combat Cards in anticipation for the league beginning 7/28/2011. 

I played Dan in a WWII Russians vs. Germans battle.  We each had 48 points to build our armies, and we played on a 4' x 6' table.  Very Long was 48" and the towns were treated as Covering Template terrain.

The battlefield.  At the crossroads is a small village.  Surrounding are fields and some stands of trees.

The church and fountain were considered impassible blocking terrain as both sides had too much reverence for these structures to attack them.

A shot of the table from the west end.  The Germans are taking up positions surrounding the city from the west to the south to the south east.  Russians are coming in from the north to northeast, and already occupy the city.

Russian armor rolls into town while a German MG 42 watches.

Aerial recon of the village.  Two German machine gun teams are on the move.

A Russian T-34/ 85 waits...

German Infiltrators pounce on Russian armor.  The fighting is furious, but the armor is victorious.

German infantry sneak up on a T-34.

Russian infiltrators suprise a German mortar team, but are chased off by another unit of German infiltrators.

Dogfight!  Sturmovics and Stukas mix it up.  One Stuka goes down in a fiery explosion.

A late game shot of the table.  The Germans push towards the center of town, their losses slowly building.  The Russians dig in, determined to stop the enemy.

The table from the east side.  A Tiger I has managed to flank a T-34.

A T-34/ 76 pounds away at a German mortar.

Surrounded!  The crew of this Russian 85 fight valiantly against the vicious German assault.  Their efforts are not in vain, as they survive the day!

A fun game, and a much needed re- orientation to the cards for me.  I'm really looking forward to the league!



Speed Rally 5/3/11

We played another game of Speed Rally last night, this time playing without the gridded track.  We had three new players this time, and it seemed that everyone, again, had a good time. 

It seems that the general consensus is we like playing "off- road" even more, due to the extra chaos involved.  This may be the last Speed Rally game in a while for us, but we've already got plans in the works for some "bigger and better" races.

The course.  Major features included two jumps over a river, twisting roadways through the city, and treacherous jungle terrain.

The grid. 

Position	Player	Driver	Car
1	Mike	Soccer MILF	Silver Mercedes SUV
2	Todd	Dr. Evil	Orange Chevy Nomad
3	Bob	Marty McFly	Deloean Time Machine
4	Chris	Christine	Red Plymouth Belvedere
5	Jason	Biff	Red Hemi 'Cuda converable
6	Robb	Hammond Eggs	#53 Stock Car
7	Casey	Guy Manman	#70 Plymouth Superbird

The view of the city from another angle.  Vehicles must pass between the cones in order to be counted as passing a checkpoint.

A closer shot of the jungle course.  The center is a field of tall grass.  The route is shorter, but more dangerous.

The front of the pack clears the first jump.  The silver Mercedes takes an early lead, but the #70 Superbird is quickly moving forward in the pack, already in 3rd from 7th.  Unfortunate spinout by several cars in town caused two packs of cars to form.

In the city, between the 1st and 2nd checkpoints.  Cars scramble to get back in the race.

Soccer MILF leaves oil slicks on the safest paths through the jungle, forcing drivers to find more creative routes.

Casey increases his lead as he finishes the first lap.  Soccer MILF is close behind, while everyone else battles it out in the jungle.

Hammond Eggs and Biff battle it out at the end of the 1st lap.

#70 takes a wide path through the jungle, but due to his excellent driving skills the driver still laps slower cars.

Biff uses his ram plate to soften up Dr. Evil's Nomad.  #53 polishes him off with some small arms fire.

Soccer MILF suffers a nasty spinout, allowing Hammond Eggs to close the gap.

Biff and Christine battle it out, not for field position, but to see who can spin out the most!

A last place Marty McFly harasses the #40 Superbird as it tries to finish the race.

To add insult to injury, Guy Manman rams the Delorean and then showboats after crossing the finish line.  Classy! :)