Games, Donuts and Beer!

Now that people are getting fully vaccinated, I have had a slow return to pre-pandemic hobby socializing. 

The Mad Padre looks on as Scott activates some of his Austrians

This weekend the Mad Padre and his son, John, visiting from BC, came for some long anticipated, much needed face to face gaming therapy. 

I had prepared and quickly set up a small game of Bag the Hun to introduce the rules. Because it's August, a Battle of Britain scenario seemed appropriate. 2 flights of Spitfires intercepting a schwarm of 4 Me109s and 2 Me110s. Fun was had. John shot down one of my Me110s. 

Then Scott arrived with some of his French and Austrians. They joined my Bavarians and Russians for a big 4 player game of Sharp Practice. I ran my Bavarians, facing off against the Mad Padre running my Russians, while Scott led his Austrians against John playing the French. Each command was identical for ease of set up and instructional purposes. 

My shiny new Chevauxleger take a hit from Russian artillery

Brand new Formation of Grenadiers march onto the table

A few of Scott's Austrians

I don't have any Russian cavalry (yet), so they got my Prussian dragoons who charged into my advancing Bavarians. Bavarians lost by 2 and evaporated. But we rolled low on Bad Things Happen.

An early run of cards got me and Scott on, then the cards shifted so the Bavarians and Russians settled into exchanging long range musketry while the French and Austrians tore into each other! When we called it, the Franco-Bavarian force was still ahead on Force Morale, but the French had lost a couple of Big Men and were going to collapse soon.

The next morning at Second Breakfast (a few liters of tea and donuts) we had our traditional Big Dragon Rampant/Lord of the Rings game. 115 points per side divided into 3 commands. Mike and I played Evil with a mix of his and mine figures. John played Good using his dad's Elves, Rohirrim and Men of Gondor. 

My wolf riders

3 packs of Wolves running through the forest

Lots of wolf riders! Mike's chunkier Oathmark wolf riders are heavy cavalry. My Vendel are classed as light.

Mike tries out his new Nazgul on Fell Beast, which is about to destroy the elves on the road

Wargs in an epic fight with the Great Bear!

After a slow start the tide of Darkness got going. Mike's scarey Nazgûl on a Fell Beast destroyed a unit of elves in one attack. My right wing composed entirely of wolves (Lesser Warbeasts), wolf riders (light and heavy riders) and wargs (Greater Warbeast) swarmed John's flank, eventually pulling down his giant bear, driving off his ent and tearing apart two companies of the Men of Gondor. 

"Let's just play one more turn" says John, dice in hand, thinking he might pull something off. Rolls a '2' on his first activation. "Ok, how about lunch?" I suggested.

So lead was pushed. Dice were rolled. Beers quaffed and donuts munched. Three games in two days. A good way to hide form the heat wave.