Visitor from a strange planet…ok, Texas!

Posted on March 20, 2019 by Bill

Two weeks ago I traveled down to “the Dogs of War” club room in Reseda California for a day with the lads and a visit from Dr. Ray who gamed with the Dogs when we had the clubhouse in Burbank. Chris S. had asked in his weekly after action reports for some suggestions on games to be played on “Rays day” and “Full Thrust” popped into my mind since its very well suited to have 4-6 players and I felt it would be nice to play something that we all could do together. Full thrust is fairly simple to learn the basics in a few turns and low pressure allowing for plenty of “kibitzing” as we played. I have also wanted to toss in a different game or two to mix it up anyway and have lots of ships painted and ready to go.

We did a basic learning game two players per side with me game mastering (I was re-learning as well since I hadn’t played in a few years!). I tried to balance the forces but even though the points may be close between forces if a player doesn’t know the strengths, the weaknesses, and the play style of his force (or the enemies), they may still have a hard time dealing with the enemy. “Draw swords and rush forward” strategy is not always the best course in space.

Galen Y. and Chris S took forces from my Imperial German Space fleet, 4 ships split between them and Dr. Ray and Dave D. took an opposing force of six smaller NAC ships (British/American) and squared off.

It was a learning game so a Battle report would not be fair but suffice to say that both sides gave a got plenty of lumps! Bottom line is that fun was had by all! I think there’s more “Thrust” in our future!

Dr Ray on the right giving the acknowledgement wave he learned from the Queen of England, and the gang hard at it!

My poor attempt to do some “weapons graphics” hopefully I’ll get better!

The NAC (British) Heavy Cruiser “WATSON” and the NSL Battleship”BLUCHER” trading shots

A home made movement tool used for “square” based ship stands. The “Clausewitz” one of my battleships from the NSL or Imperial German Space fleet. Mini by Ground Zero Games.

Dogs of War spoken here!

Posted on March 7, 2019 by Bill

Several times before I have posted about our gaming group the “Dogs of War” out in California’s San Fernando valley and how activities there might become a regular feature here on my site. The post below is a start in that direction, how exactly this will work is yet to be worked out. We hope to have other contributors, Chris Snell’s weekly reports now with pictures, as well as possible contributions by other “Dogs”. For now they will appear as normal post and be “categorized” under “Dogs of War”. This means that to find all post pertaining to the “Dogs of War” you only need to look at the right column scroll down and where you see “CATEGORIES” simple choose “Dogs of War” under that heading and all of the post linked “Dogs of War” post will be pulled up.

“Dogs of War” News from the front.

Posted on March 7, 2019 by Bill

Well after resisting “Flames of War” for over ten years but I finally got hooked into playing a game down at the Dogs and surprisingly ended up on the winning side! Now that is usually enough to hook me into a new rule set and a commitment but no not yet (ok not “new” since it’s been out for 15 years!). I love WWII and the majority of my wargaming over the years has been in that period, Air combat (Mustangs and Messerschmitt’s) Navel (General Quarters) Land Combat (Tank Charts, Frontline, Soldat, Crossfire and many more). I still don’t think Flames of War is “my” idea of a good WWII ruleset, for me it lacks some elements and sometimes the look of the battlefield gets a bit silly (Phalanxs of vehicles wheel to wheel and track to track) but as a “WWII GAME” it’s good. I think its fine, especially for players new to wargaming, new to WWII, and those who want a fast, light hearted approach to the game. It’s got fair detail without being burdensome, lots of troop types, vehicles, air support, bombardment, and tons of options to keep one interested for many months if not years! The rules are exceptionally well written and the explanations are very clear. For me I think it abstracts quite a bit to fit the complexity of a modern battlefield into the fast play mechanics of the rules, I’m not always of fan of this, but for what it is and what it is intended to be it works.

While I’m not head over heels in love I think I might be sucked in just enough to paint a few units, maybe Africa Corps or Fallshirmjager for Italy or Normandy because after all its about rolling dice and having fun with friends.

The Game we played was early war Europe (France) always fun and I jumped in with Frank on the German side, Chris Armstrong and Dave Dandridge lead the French forces. My strategy was simple, DEFENSE, always a good choice when commanding forces in an unsure situation and not knowing the rules made me unsure! I was also facing David D. a competent and tricky opponent who won’t make many mistakes and is sure to make you pay for yours! Not going to do any type of battle report here, just going to post a few quick shots I took while trying to hold off Dave’s French onslaught!