On July 18, 2015, we took a trip deep into the Peruvian jungle of the 1930s (courtesy of FiveCore), where Professor Lashwood and his expedition had discovered a legendary lost temple.  When the locals began muttering about sacrilege and threatening to murder the archaeologists, the US embassy sent marines in to escort the expedition to safety.  Little did they know that the Germans have learned of the discovery. They have sent their Zeppelin Troopen in to capture the archaeologists and any artifacts they have discovered.  Larry, Fred and Sean played the Marines, while Phil, Jim and Ed played the Germans.  Photos are courtesy of Jim.  Figures are from Pulp Figures, except for two Marine BARs I borrowed from Jim.

The temple complex, a pyramid looming over the ruined buildings.

The Marines and the Zeppelin Troopen first had to locate the expedition's campsite and the archaeologists.  The Germans set up on the right side of the table, while the Marines set up along the stream feeding into the river on the left and the narrow track toward the far end of the table.  The camp lies near the pyramid, directly behind the rightmost of the two trees near the river in the foreground.

Zeppelin Troopen advance toward the camp.

The early game had quite a few "Scurry" turns for both sides.  The Germans rolled more, allowing them to move into the camp while the Marines were getting into position.  They held onto that advantage throughout the game.

Zeppelin Troopen enter the camp.

On the other side of the pyramid, the Germans take position in cover near the camp as Marines advance.

A Zeppelin Troopen lies dead.

Both sides exchanged gunfire for several turns with little effect.  Then the dice turned hot.  One German was shot dead in the center.

Marines advance while Zeppelin Troopen search the camp.

On the German left, the Marines engaged the Germans taking cover in the brush while other Germans searched the camp.

Marines take fire.

In the center, the Germans returned fire, killing two Marines.  To the left, one of the archaeologists (James Lawson) was found in one of the ruined buildings.

Several turns later…

Lawson took cover in the ruins as the firefight raged around him.  The Marines tried to pull him out, but were cut down by the Germans.  Here they have surrounded the ruin and are ready to assault the last Marine defending the building.

Dan is captured.

In the camp, the Germans captured another of the archaeologists, Dan Davenport.  Marines prepare to rush in and rescue him.

The bloody ruins.

Marines and Germans fought and died around the ruins hiding Lawson.

Lawson captured.

Eventually, the Germans won out and captured Lawson.

Off camera, the Marines found Professor Lashwood and his daughter Sam, and led them to safety.  Unfortunately, they were unable to stand up to the Germans.  They were steadily driven back until the Germans had control of the entire temple complex.

In the end, this was a win for the Germans.  The Marines rescued two members of the expedition, but the Germans captured two others and were able to take their pick of the artifacts and documents in the expedition camp.

Overall the game was a blast to run.  The players seemed to enjoy it as well.  To run it for a group, I gave each player five figures and two activations per turn.  Each side rolled one action die and followed the results accordingly.  After a few turns, play moved quickly and required little assistance from me.  I definitely plan to run it again some time.  And maybe then I'll get to play.

We fought a "Murican Revolution" game in 25mm on July 4, 2015.  It seemed appropriate somehow.  I am going to pop up some photos for your amusement, and then follow with commentary a bit later.

Russ Schnieder, one of the British commanders, looking a bit skeptical as the game begins.

Jim Pitts, one of the Patriot commanders (along with his son Sean Pitts) hurries newly-arrived reinforcements into the battle.

The action begins!

More troops are involved.

Russ, along with his fellow Royalist commander Ed Sansing are in action.

A view down the battlefield later in the game.

The surviving British and loyalist cavalrymen go "view-hallooing" along after being withdrawn from the British right and sent along a safe path to the left.  General Schneider wisely kept them out of range after an initial blooding.

The colored plastic rings indicate the units' morale state.  A yellow ring shows a morale state of 4 (the best), a Blue would indicate a morale state of 3, a Green ring would show a morale state of 2, while a Red ring would be a morale marker for a morale point of 1–the worst!

A view of the battlefield before the battle began.  Photo by Jim Pitts

A view of one of our regiments.  Each is composed of six stands of 3 figures each.  While real-life British or Patriot units varied wildly in size, ours are the same size, for easy identification of current strength as opposed to starting strength. Photo by Jim Pitts.

Patriot dragoons attack the British lines  on the right flank of the Rebel lines.  Sean Pitts launched this attack in an attempt to slow down the enemy advance, which it did, but at the cost of most of the Rebel mounted troops. Photo by Jim Pitts.

Photo by Jim Pitts.

A patriot unit milling about in confusion having fallen back in rout due to British volleys.  The tag on the unit shows that previously it had gone low on ammunition.  Cute markers instead of clumsy labels to show low ammo or loss of officers are just around the corner–and have been for years! Photo by Jim Pitts.

Photo by Jim Pitts.

This Pennsylvania regiment has fallen back out of the Holmes Farm with the prisoner, who had been the object of the search by both armies.  The British had been trying to "rescue that brave man" while the Patriots had been trying to "Get that prisoner to headquarters before the Militia do something stupid".  Photo by Jim Pitts.

Photo by Jim Pitts.

The Rebel right flank, under the command of Sean Pitts, at the end of the battle.  They had severely attrited the British left, and were bending it back, but it never quite broke.  The Patriot center and left, HAD broken however.  The Patriot army was in poor shape (Major Morale) and was leaking units to the rear.  Photo by Jim Pitts.

The Rebels had their prisoner, but they lost on points with 8 (5 of them for the prisoner) to the British 10 points, all from inflicting casualties on the Rebels.

Thee will be a bit more text to be added to this report.

On Saturday June 30, 2015, the Jackson Gamers refought the battle of the Alma.  This was the first action in the Crimean War, on September 20, 1854.  The allies (Britain and France) had landed north of their objective, the Russian city of Sebastopol on the Crimean peninsula in the Black sea. They then marched around the city to attack it from the south.

The high ground beyond the river Alma was where the Russian army made its stand.  We took as the basis for this game an older SPI "Quad" game published 30 years ago. This board game contains four battles, including The Alma, Balaclava, Inkerman and Tchernaya River.

John Murdaugh, commanding the French 3rd Division and the British 3rd Division, considers the battlefield.  The troops that we used were part of Jay Stribling's 15mm Crimean War army, placed on enlarged versions of the board game counters.

Some of the Russian defenders, under the command of Prince Menshikov (Jay Stribling) await the allied onslaught.  Because of the difficulties that the allies had with the crossing of the Alma river, the French army was unable to cross for the first two turns of the game.  This is a carry-over from the board game rules.

The French army, lead by Zouave regiments has finally gotten itself in gear and has crossed the river.  The French 1st, 2nd and 4th divisions were commanded by Phil Young.

The Russian defenders await the French onslaught.  Jay Stribling commanded the Russians on the left and Ed Sansing commanded the Czar's troops on the right side of the battlefield.

Telegraph hill (named for an incomplete semaphore telegraph tower that was on it) has been occupied by British and French in this image, take about half-way through the game.  The British battalions consist of two infantry bases on a "stand" with a pinkish label containing movement, morale, and combat information, taken from the boardgame.  The French battalions have blue labels.  Note the red rings on two of the British units, showing that they are disrupted, halving their fire and melee factors.

On the Russian right, the first of two defensive worksthe great redoubthas been overrun by the British after a prolonged defense.  General Sansing attempted to recapture the work, alas to no avail.  The British and French units had a much greater fire effect than the Russian battalions, but the Russians had a higher hand-to-hand combat value.

The village of Bourliuk which was stuffed with straw and set ablaze by the Russians in an attempt to deny the allies shelter and to slow their passage of the river Alma.

Another view of the French battalions on their extreme right, attempting to turn the Russian left.  By this time, the Russians were withdrawing slowly with occasional bayonet counter-attacks.  The Russian army's morale that grown shaky with units being lost, and every turn, to avoid a loss of victory points, they had to withdraw to battalions off the table edge to the rear.

On the Russian right, the lesser redoubt has also fallen to the British, under the command of Sean Pitts.  The surviving Russian defenders have retreated out of the image of the camera.

So, who won this battle?  It was closer than it seemed at the time.  The Allies destroyed 8 Russian units, while losing 7 of their own.  The Russians still had their road-exit to the rear, but had lost one Victory point on turn 7 for not being in a position to withdraw two battalions as their army morale broke.  So, the Allies had 8 victory points, and the Russians had 7.  An allied victory!  The war would continue, with thousands upon thousands of soldiers dying, mainly of disease.

Here is a photo of the boardgame that Jay Stribling stole (was inspired by) the game mechandisms, map and order of battle. Actually the allies should have had 10 more units, but we did not have enough infantry stands to create them–not that they needed them.

Did you know that there was a small invasion of Britain in 1941 by elements of the German Army and Air Force?  Well neither did the Jackson Gamers till I ran this game on December 5, 2014.  The Germans fielded five units (7-9 figures each) of Fallshirmjaegers and two units of infantry. There were also supporting units such as an 81mm. mortar and two tripod mounted machine guns.

Jay Stribling (your humble correspondent) set up the game, at his home, and wrote the rules, which are an unpublished variant for Larry Brom's The Sword and the Flame colonial rules.  We call this variant Right in your face! after the old Spike Jones song.

The troops are 28mm figures from a variety of makers.  They are owned and painted by Jim Pitts, Mark Stevens and Jay Stribling.

This shows part of Phil Young's command, German Paratroopers, behind a hedge while the British home guard under the command of Larry Cole rush the same hedge.  Unfortunately Phil was able to fire before Larry (first fire card drawn was a German one) and cut down many of these sturdy older soldiers.

A long view from the North side of the table showing the bloody slaughter of the home guards (under Larry Cole's command) by the German Fallshirmjaeger led by Phil Young.  Photo by Jim Pitts.

This shows "The Machine Shop" after Jim Pitts had moved British Infantry into it.  The British had eight units similar in size to the German ones.  Three were home guard, two were infantry, and three were pararoopers.  There were also supporting weapons such as two 3-inch morars and two heavy machine guns.

The machine shop and the area around it, full of scrap metal and junk gave excellent cover.  The open space just to the south of it looked like it would be a killing zone to both sides so Jim did not progress beyond the machine shop and his opponent in this area, Russ Schneider did not advance into it either.

The young lady on the bicycle is a "non-player character" that various gamers moved around the game table at their whim.  She was apparently unaffected by the whizzing bullets as she cycled about!  The figure is one of a set made by the Foundry some time past.  We used a number of these in the game.  They are owned by Mark Stevens and were painted years ago by the late Andrew Doyle.

Jim Pitts (left) and Larry Cole (right) discuss important matters, such as why Larry'forces, all home guard, were getting shot to pieces by the German paratroopers.

This image shows "The House" and the tiled roof of "The Villa".  The German paratroopers behind the wall were part of Russ Schneider's command and they traded long distance fire with Jim Pitts' British infantry across the way in "The Foundry".

Each structure on the game table was a possible source of victory points, but the players did not know what the "value" of each one was. Here is the game-master's list:

• "The Bridge" is a lovely ancient thing, but it is not worth any victory points.
  
• "The Barn" hides a group of Luftwaffe aircrew, with weapons.  They were shot down days ago and are spoiling for a fight.  They can be added to the German order of battle.  Occupation of the structure itself gives no victory points.
• "The Machine Shop" has been making prototypes of new Wonder-weapons.  (If any of them work it will be a wonder!)  Occupation of the Machine shop is worth 15 victory points.
• "The Ruined Church" has valuable documents hidden in the crypt.  Occupation is worth 5 victory points.
• "The Villa" contains the Mistress of Major-General Bumpf, her little doggie Fritz, and the General’s papers.   Occupation of the Villa is worth 10 victory points.
• "The House" has been used to billet technicians. Occupation of the house is worth 5 victory points.
• "The Apartment Building" has been used to billet troops.  Various papers, possibly useful to military intelligence are there.  It is worth 5 victory points.
• "The Tower" contains refugee nuns of the Order of The little sisters of 7.9mm. Mauser.  They are armed and will fire on  the first side to try to enter the tower.  The tower itself contains weapons and ammunition and is worth 10 points.
• In addition, each dead or wounded enemy soldier is worth 1 victory point.

This shows the area around "The Machine Shop" occupied by British Infantry.  From here they shot at long range at the Germans occupying the courtyard around "The House" and "The Villa" and received fire from their opponents.  There was little effect on either side.

"The Ruined Church" has been occupied by a party of the home guard under Larry Cole.  The vicar who appeared to them there is probably a ghostly presence, but that did not matter to Larry's men!

The pig sty of "the Keep" occupied by Alec Kirk's paratroopers.  Apparently the armed Nuns in "The Keep" did not care if men occupied the pig pen.  Alec's men fired at and were fired upon by German Paratroopers under the command of Sean Pitts.  There were a number of casualties on both sides from this fire.

These are the positions occupied by Sean Pitts'German paratroopers firing at Alex across the way. "The Barn" can be seen in the background.  Sean did not occupy "the Barn" so its German Luftwaffe occupants did not emerge to join the fight.

Alex in a pensive mood.  This is after the armed nuns had rebuffed his attempted entry into the "tower".  These were the "Little sisters of 7.9mm. Mauser" and as an armed sisterhood, would fire on any group of males attempting to enter the structure.  When the leader of the unit was wounded, Alex withdrew, never testing the close combat ability of the armed women.

This photo by Jim Pitts is a better view of Alex's British Paras and their German Opponents.  Again, "The Barn" is in the background.

Sean has moved German Paratroopers around to the west, in a successful attempt to outflank part of Alex's Paras.  Alex responded by rushing forward to close the range.  He suffered from the crossfire of the two units of Fallshirmjaegers but he also inflicted substantial casualties on the flanking force.  Photo by Jim Pitts.

The figures shown lying down are wounded.  The figure with the yellow ring is a leader.  Figures with red rings are "pinned".

Here is one last photo of "The Machine Shop" taken by Jim Pitts, showing his forces in occupation.  In the background, Jim has a 3-inch mortar in operation.  Note that the female cyclist is heading for a (hopefully) quiet patch of woods.

So, who won this game?  After totaling up the points for occupation of various structures and those for killed and wounded enemy troops, each side ended up with 27 points!  A draw was declared and we watched part of Ian McKellen's Richard III and had hot dogs and chips for lunch, suitably polished off by a fine cake, baked by Larry Cole.

The armies that we used for this Medieval battle are those belonging to Jay Stribling–your esteemed correspondent.  They are divided into an army for each of two fictional kingdoms, Circumference (the rounds) and Parallelogram (the Squares).  The figures are individually mounted, a holdover from the days when we (Jay Stribling, Erice Teuber and Robert Whitfield) first began to raise these forces.  That was back in 1985 or so.

Additionally Jim Pitts has some medieval/fantasy forces that"slot into"vthe larger armies of Square and Round. Jim's forces form the basis for a third Kingdom that can ally itself to either side.

For this battle–games on November 15, 2014, our scenario was as follows: The Dark Family has refused to let tax collectors from Circumference into their land. They reside in a fortified tower (seen above) in Darkland on the border of Parallelogram. The King of Circumference has sent forces to besiege the Dark Tower. The King of Parallelogram, while having no love for the Dark Family will do anything to irritate Circumference. So, the forces of round and square meet at the Dark family's home, the Dark Tower.

At the set up, the ruined abbey, part of the defenses of the Dark tower, were occupied by the two units of Dwarf-knights.  This view from the west was taken by Jim Pitts.

The above photo shows knights of the Parallelogram army riding to meet the forces of Circumference on the east side of the Dark Tower, seen in the background.  All photos not specifically credited to Jim Pitts are by Jay Stribling.

These are the reserve knights of Parallelogram, moving west and about to cross the stream at the marked ford where it could be crossed without penalty.  The stream was fordable with a movement penalty anywhere else.  The river, seen in the background, could not be crossed except at three marked fords, with a movement penalty even at the fords.

This is the advance guard of the army of Circumference.  These Knights and Mounted Yeomen have begun the battle on the southern side of the river and formed the right flank (west flank) of the Round army.

The Reserve of Circumference rides out of their camp to cross the river and reinforce the advance guard, on the western flank.  The figures are by Essex except for their leader (in Gilt armour) who is a very old Minifig.

Two units of peasants occupy a cornfield guarding the river crossing to the east of the tower.  These sturdy lads (and some old geezers too!) are part of the army of Circumference, which elected to try to defeat the oncoming Parallelogram army on the southern side of the river–the Dark tower was under siege by Parallelogram just to the north of the river.  In the rules that we use for our medieval battles–Rules by Ral circa 1985–only peasants can occupy wooded or rough terrain such as the cornfield.

A unit of foot knights of Parallelogram defend the eastern end of the works around the Dark Tower.  These are not real castle walls and represent small defenses to keep wandering cattle penned up and hasty works erected by the Dark family when the King of Circumference's ire at them became known.

Another view of the defended perimeter of the Dark tower.  The archers on the roof were given double range (it's a pretty tall tower guys!) and would have been virtually immune to shooting from below.  They would have been less well able to defend the tower if enemy melee troops had reached the entrance (on the side facing the river) but that never happened.

This view, looking north shows the defenses of the Dark tower from the rear or river side.  Note the Dark ogre occupying one of the ruined outbuildings.  Placed there by Jim Pitts, without the sanction of the game-master (!) no one attempted to defend or attack that particular ruin.  Photo by Jim Pitts.

Knights and archers of Circumference move between the cornfield (on their right) and "Haunted Hill" on their left, about to melee with the leading knights of Parallelogram.  One of the peasant units has already been forced from the cornfield because of bowfire casualties.

Units in the army of Circumference have round labels on their bases, with letter codes for knightly units and numbers for yeomen or peasant units.  Units in the army of Parallelogram have (you guessed it!) square labels.

On the extreme right flank of Circumference, to the east of "Haunted Hill" Knights from both sides meet at lance-point, while a round archery unit (old Ral Partha figures) fire at a barely visible square unit. "Haunted Hill" was the name that I gave to this hill, with the warning that "If you try to go onto haunted hill, a bad thing may happen".  In reality, I had no mechanism in place for "Bad things" in this game.  My reputation as a game-master for allowing "Bad things" to happen in previous games was enough to keep both sides off the hill for most of the game.

A view from the roof of the Dark tower, showing the attackers and defenders.  Photo by Jim Pitts.

The household troops of the Dark family (as opposed to the Parallelogram forces aiding their defense) were represented by two 12-figure units of Dwarves from the army of Jim Pitts.  We classified them as foot knights (very tough) for this game and they performed well, till caught in the flank/rear by the mounted guard of Circumference.

The mounted guard of Circumference have turned away from the river ford, and from their mission to aid the round advance guard forces on the southern side of the river, to help defeat the dwarf knights of Darkland who sortied out from the defenses to drive off an attacking round unit.

One of the defending units has broken and is falling back from the wall.  The head of the Dark Family–Baron Occluded (the Dark Lord) is shown, mounted, to the right of the image.

Lord Oval, commander of the main body of Circumference pushes more forces into the melee on the left, between the cornfield and "Haunted hill".  Note that all of the round peasant units have been forced from the cornfield.  Without cover of some time, peasants are not too effective in our games.

A slightly fuzzy image of the battle on the eastern end of the Dark tower's defenses.  The defending unit has been reduce to only seven men, while the attacking unit is almost fresh.  All of our foot units start with 12 figures and take a substantial morale penalty when reduced to half strength.  The mounted units have 9 figures at the start and must be reduced to only 4 survivors before they lose a morale step.

The dwarf-knights who sortied from the ruined abbey (part of the defenses of the Dark tower) are fighting back to back against the mounted guard of Circumference (the knights to the rear of the image) and yeomen and foot knights to their front.  The leader of the dwarf-knights (in red, with pointy hat) gestures imperiously, but the grim look on his face shows that he wishes they had never come over the wall.

Sean Pitts (in center) and his father Jim Pitts (on right) commanded the main army of Parallelogram in this battle.  They are shown adjusting forces and removing casualties from the struggle between the cornfield and "Haunted hill".  Jay Stribling commanded the detached forces of Parallelogram assisting in the defense of the Dark tower.

Another view of the scrum between the cornfield and "Haunted hill". Sean Pitts has moved archers onto "Haunted hill".  Every time one of his units fell back from the melee, the archers would fire, inflicting casualties on the forces of Circumference and then Sean would charge back into the melee with a fresh unit.  These tactics, combined with the fact that a large amount of the round army was attempting to storm the Dark tower, led to the army of Circumference conceding the day and raising the siege.

A view from the southern table edge as Sean Pitt's Parallelogram forces win the battle between the cornfield and "Haunted hill". Photo by Jim Pitts.

Jim Pitts (on left) points out another casualty while Ed Sansing (center) reaches to remove it. Russ Schnieder (on right) watches intently to make certain that Jim is not inflating the casualty count.  Ed and Russ commanded the forces of Circumference in this battle.

Note the figures on the right, beyond the tented camp. This is the graveyard.  One advantage of individually mounted troops is that no casualty rings are necessary, one just removes the little men.  As Russ might be saying "They're dead Jim!"

A rare view from the West, looking toward the Dark Tower.  Jim Pitt's forces, in the foreground, are moving to the left, against the round troops under Ed Sansing. Photo by Jim Pitts.

A similar view a bit later in the game.  Jim's forces are driving Ed back.  This photo is also by Jim Pitts.

Lord Quadro, leader of the Parallelogram Advance guard fights with his men on the extreme right flank of the square forces.  He is pushing them back towards the eastern battlefield edge, watched by the Circumference commander, Russ Schneider (in checked shirt).  This is late in the game, when Sean Pitts commanding the Circumference forces in this area had won superiority over Parallelogram. Photo by Jim Pitts.

We played about (I can not remember) four turns in this game from 10:00am to about 12:45pm.  At that point, the King of Circumference had enough.  He whined a bit about not having enough superiority of forces to carry the tower.  The game-master (who had, it must be admitted, fought on the Parallelogram side) whined back that there was no need to even assault the tower, that the victory conditions were to kill the enemy, and that the possession of the tower only counted as two dead enemy unit…

After lunch, supplied by Ed Sansing, we played a very fun board game of Risk–Godstorm using our own BHOF variant.  A good time was had by all, especially this writer who won that game by strategy and hot dice!