Maryland Campaign - First Week

Well I have ended the first week of the GCACW Maryland Campaign and there is good news and bad news for both sides. But before I start with that I need to bring everyone following up to speed. This is an alt-history campaign where the major players have orders and a mission. The rules are from the Great Campaigns of the American Civil War using Stonewall Jackson’s Way and Here Come the Rebels! As well are two magazines and two other rule sets to keep with canon. To me this is what Balkoski and Beach wanted their players to do.

So for the report, the Confederates were to engage the Army of Virginia and allow General Jackson to head north and destroy the rail stations and he did with great effectiveness including destroying the depot at Manassas Station. Jackson was even able to get with 12 miles of the Capital when things started to go wrong.

While the Confederates under General Longstreet were able to destroy one of General Reno’s division a game of cat and mouse occurred as General Lee fought for three days near Rappahannock Station followed by a second battle near the Rappahannock River.

Current Lee is surrounded north of the river waiting on the start of the next turn. General Stuart also had a bad week being cut off for Confederate forces and having to flea the battlefield lossing at the Battle of Amissyville. Boys in the northeast all want to be with General Bayard the man that beat JEB Stuart, 

Over all General Pope is doing ok, but needs to watch his casualties. General Halleck has recalled General Heintzelman and his corps to protect Washington. A lot will depend on who wins the first imitative and on the weather. Rain right now would be bad for Robert E Lee.

At the end of the first week with the tired forces under Lee and Longstreet.

Update and a Review

Over the next couple of weeks (months) as I get settled into my new career as a programmer, I will be limited in how much time I can divert to writing and gaming. With that said until time frees up I will be limited to these three projects.

• Campaign to Save General Pope 
• Give GUPPys Their Due 
• Imperial Skies – With a Twist.

The first I covered last blog post, and I am waiting on the submarines so for now lets look at Imperial Skies.

These are rules by Robin Fitton and with miniatures by Brigade Models. I supported this as a Kickstarter and I have not been disappointed. The rules are first class and allow for using any existing miniatures from Brigade Models or other third parties making figure for AeroNefs. Robin went with superior production values with the book and will be suitable for sale in shops in the near future, I am sure.

The rules are designed around an alternate World War I with massive battle fleets. For me I will be doing colonial operations in darkest Africa, Mars and Venus via Space 1889. Either way the rules play well and I am looking forward to getting my new Russian fleet. They were one of my favorites and I am sorry to of parted with them.

As I said, these rules come with the support of Brigade Models who is creating new airships for the rules. Great looking models, take a look at the links as these are great models. 

Roads to Antietam

While waiting on a few AeroNefs for Imperial Skies and some GUPPy submarines for my proto type rules I wanted to get something on the table. While looking around I decided on a board game from the 1990s that I had not played before. These are the first two games of the award winning GCACW system. But I wanted to put an Alt-History touch to them.

This campaign starts with General Robert E Lee and his forces getting ready to cross the Rapidan River and General John Pope looking to move back along his supply lines while waiting for the returning Army of the Potomac. This is the beginning of the campaign scenario in the first game that could lead to the Battle of 2nd Manassas. The twist is that I am using the two pages of notes, my own experience with GCACW campaigns and a whole lot of reference materials. This is part what-if, part game and part educational experience.

Victory is based on a sliding scale on what the Confederate forces are doing and the date since the start of the evacuation of Union force from the Peninsula. For the first two weeks the Confederates can treat the campaign as a raid with the objectives being destroying railroad stations and infrastructure as well as trying to isolate General Pope and destroy his forces before they can link up with the Army of the Potomac. For his part, General Pope needs to win, or at least not lose so he can stay in charge in the theater. The fun is what to do if he is still winning when General McClellan arrives. Will require a ruling.ac

Imperoal Skies Has Arrived

The rewards for my support for this project arrived in the post yesterday. I received the rules and look forward to reading them over the weekend and getting my painted figures out. I also have a few ships and bits coming from this Kickstarter.


As I do love Victorian SciFi I can see this getting bumped up on the projects list. Anyone else taking the plunge?

GUPPy

There are many miniatures that gamers will buy, but have little chance to see on the table regularly. I think of the German Panzer VIII Maus. Not really suited in any game unless it is an objective.

We also have over buying. What is the acceptable limit of American Pershings, and German King Tigers and all of the limited production runs on hunting animals like Jagdpanthers and Jagdtigers. Yet most World War II gamers will have these at the ready. Maybe needed for Flames of War but what about more respectable platoon level games like Chain of Command that has been released in recent years? For me I even have the guilty secret of having Brummbär that I have not used. Ok, not that bad of a secret.

So as I am trying to go over things that I need to finish up I found a campaign system that I was working on for early Cold War naval battles based on the period of post war conversions for submarines and the early nuclear boats. What can I say I have a think for the Skipjacks. So please follow along as I work on playtests, rules and more importantly, where do you find these models.

An Uptick

In the past week my blog has seen over 900 hits from Russia and another 94 from Mauritius. That is more than from my home country of the United States. If you are from Russia or Mauritius welcome there is a great deal here dealing with Russian/Soviet weapon system.

As for Mauritius, need to do a little research. If nothing else the flags are colorful.

Star Trek Returns

OK so thnis is a piggy back off of Meeples and Miniatures site but this is to important to miss. Modiphius is to release a Star Trek RPG and for me this may get me back to playing these types of games. Miniatures look to be from the original series and that is a huge plus. More on this as I find out additional information.

The Release from Modiphius
Note from Meeples and Miniatures