Feallan, Not Fall In

My group of friends regularly traveled to the HMGS-E conventions. Fall-In was generally regarded as the highlight and best attended. Some years it was a couple of van loads going down. But this year everyone decided to not do that until the current political silliness is sorted out. 

Brian attended a family birthday celebration in the tiny village of Port Albert on the Lake Huron shore and realized that the venue, the Port Albert Inn, would make a nice venue for a game gathering. So a bunch of us said it sounded like a Good Idea and he booked the entire inn. Operation Feallan was born.
 

Bar and lounge. We had to stock the bar ourselves

Just some of the libations that were consumed. I had a cider.

Cozy little room

But I'd only want to share it with someone I really liked being in close proximity to

Eleven games were played over the course of Friday night and Saturday. I was last to arrive and a 15mm game of Ruthless was already underway as gangs of desperados shot up Kevin's 3d printed town.

Your correspondent, in the corner, green cardigan

After that there was the board game Thunder Road on one table and the card game Groo on another. The third game of Groo, featuring seven of us and after several drinks, got very raucous and went until 0200.

Groo

Saturday morning Keith whipped up a Full English, including blood pudding for those who like it, and stuffed on eggs, ham, mushrooms, tomatoes, beans and toast we got down to the serious business. There were two games on offer. Six of us played Midgard while others played Devilry Afoot.

Saturday morning. Midgard on left and Devilry Afoot on the right.

Devilry Afoot. Blackadder and Baldric encounter some very cuddly witches

Six of us played Midgard using Brett's 30-plus year old classic metal Warhammer Fantasy Battle armies and some custom traits he devised to cover some of the unique WFB things like Night Goblin fanatics and the Imperial Steam Tank.

 

The Old Worlde comes to Midgard

Ogres

Trolls

Boar and wolf riders surge forward!

Imperial knights, steam tank and flagellants

My command of Night Goblins

Dramatic Things Happening on the right wing

Center hotting up

Me, doing my best to keep big scary knights busy

Man of the Match. Brian's Imperial Captain, who even after the rest of his command was dead around him, pulled Victory from the bloody, and rapidly closing, Jaws of Defeat by slaying Keith's War Boss in single combat after already killing Kevin's Orc War Boss as well! Game ended with the Empire at negative 7 Reputation and the Orcs at negative 9 Reputation! Very close indeed.

After a late lunch of potato soup and ham sandwiches, Keith and Brian ran a 6mm game of O Group while Peter ran a game of When Nightmares Come.

German Kompanie HQ. The Germans were Brian's Fallschirmjaeger kompanie.

American Company HQ. The American forces were Keith's.

Norman farm

Tank duel. I knock out two StuGs!

I finally get my attack moving in the center but by then the Germans had collected their three FUBARs to end the game. Keith's flanking attack on the right and US heavy artillery battering the Built Up Areas in front of me killed the necessary number of Germans to win.

Meanwhile on the other table...

When Nightmares Come

They played a total of three linked scenarios in the afternoon

After dinner Brian ran a 15mm Slave Holder's Rebellion (or more commonly called the American Civil War) game using the computer moderated Carnage and Glory rules.

Leading Union brigade

The Carnage and Glory rules are interesting in that the computer tracks casualties and morale status and all you know is if your troops are advancing or disordered or not responding to orders. There are no dice rolls or figure removal.

This was a historic action from 1862 in Kentucky that was a heavy Union defeat. We did better than the historic commanders by not being bundled off the table as quickly as they had been.

My cavalry brigade trying to protect our flank

On the other table people were playing some board games: Battle of Hoth, Splendour, and 1812.

Charcuterie and dessert wine for Afters, which sadly my stomach was in no mood for. If I'd known, I'd have skipped dinner and held out for this!

Sunday morning was just clean up and March Out. Plans are afoot to do it again next fall.

Sunday morning group photo

Fun was had.

'Feallan' is the Old English word from which we get the common English name for the Autumn season.

June SITREP

Busy, busy this month with wrapping up the cadet training year. So progress on the Pacific naval stuff has been slow. 

Assorted flavors of US cruisers 

First attempt to base them was set back by vapors from the superglue clouding the plastic. Shame it didn't make a nice wake pattern. 

Aaaaaargh!

 

USN Fletcher class DDs and Atlanta class CLs waiting for decisions to be made about bases 

I switched to PVA which seems to be giving a good enough bond.

Assorted flavors of US cruisers on new bases 

IJN CAs and BBs 

IJN DDs and CL 

I am thinking that maybe just a tag big enough for a label would be better, easier to store and not accentuate the "banana boat" issues. I'm currently making labels in MS Word and trying to name each ship. The names may not be exact to the ship silhouette, but will adhere to the class, number of turrets etc. For economy I only bought one .stl each for all Japanese heavy cruisers and US 8" and 6" cruisers. I find the differences between a Northampton, Portland and Pensecola class 8" cruiser pretty small. Same with the two major classes of 6" cruisers, so I went with the Brooklyn, because it's iconic. All my US destroyers are Fletchers as well. The Fletcher class DD is just a good looking ship.

Last weekend Weirdy Beardy and I trekked down to deepest, darkest southern Ontario for a friend's 60th birthday. The birthday boy started out by running a game of "Charlie Company." He plays this like an RPG. All the players play the Americans and he runs the VC/NVA who remain hidden until we successfully spot or they come out int he open to attack etc. We were an American Armored Infantry platoon, recently transferred form Germany and tasked to sweep the area for signs of the reported NVA regiment in the area. I played the Lt, other friends played the section commanders, platoon Sgt, and the tank commander.

You can see that his set up, put together when kids were small and money tight, is basic, but still works and the game is still good.

The Zippo and two sections pour fire onto some bunkers and trenches spotted in the brush across the river while the Combat Engineers and the 3rd squad search the hooches. Black electrical tape and narrow masking tape are berms for flooded rice paddies.

MEDEVAC arrives to dust-off my serious casualty.

It was all suitably chaotic and foggy as some of my Grunts tripped mines and mortar bombs rained down us. My Lt earned the Silver Star for running into the mortar barrage to pull a wounded man out while under fire. We didn't kill anyone and never did see the enemy as our reactions successfully frustrated the planned ambush as we learned in the post-game debrief. Historically, the NVA launched their ambush and tricked the American forces into firing into the village, where villagers had been tied up to become victims of the cross-fire and provide the Communists with political capital on the international stage. So even though we didn't know it, and took four casualties and didn't get any body count, it was a major victory for the US.

After dinner I ran an eight sided Hunt for the Golden Teapot of Petra. Adventuring archaeologist, Ohio Smith has sent back a priceless artifact and a group of mysterious Foreign Gentlemen wearing fezzes have arrived in Pottersville to retrieve it mid-transit to Harvard. Their hired PI, Jack Malory, has made inquiries and this has got all the major players in Pottersville descending on the warehouse to grab the loot for themselves. I even got to play this time.

My gang, Bugs Malarky and his crew deploys in an alley

Mysterious Foreign Gentlemen

Pa Clampett and his boys leave the still in the scrap yard

Tong go after one of the Cohen gang

Pottersville Post arrive to get front page shots of my gang getting gunned down in a three way shoot out. Bugs Malarky Blasted! Mob Mayhem in the Streets!

Cohen gang and Pottersville PD square off over the hood of a truck before they decide to join forces against the Tong

Detective Paczki lays down some heat on the hated Tong

"Say hello to my little friend!" Ethan Cohen blasts away at the G-Men in the warehouse, who were incredibly close to finding the loot before they got taken out.

I got wiped out, but it was big fun. With most of us eliminated or down to 1 or 2 figures, we declared the birthday boy (Pottersville PD) the winner, since he still had all five of his characters left and control of the warehouse. Sgt. Crueller is going to have a nice retirement nest-egg set aside.