More Nimitz Action in the Atlantic

Last weekend we got in some more Nimitz gaming, this time introducing 2 more local gamers (Dave H & Chris P) to Sam Mustafa’s Nimitz. This saw two games with the mighty HMS Hood and HMS Prince of Wales going up against a variety of German opponents in the North Atlantic. Game one was a replay of the first game from a week or so ago versus DKM Bismarck and Graf Spee (see And We’re Off! Nimitz On Table Action, At Last: Part One for the previous game).

Continue reading “More Nimitz Action in the Atlantic”

Nimitz 1/1800 Eye Candy

Continuing on from my last post on Nimitz: And We’re Off! Nimitz On Table Action, At Last: Part Two… So my buddy Dave H has 3D Printed and painted a sample vessel in 1/1800 scale for Nimitz, from the STL range of Lee McColl’s available on MyMiniFactory. This is a couple of sample pics of the vessel, along with a comparison of it alongside my 1/2400 HMS Hood, and some quick thoughts and notes on basing.

Continue reading “Nimitz 1/1800 Eye Candy”

And We’re Off! Nimitz On Table Action, At Last: Part Two

In my previous post And We’re Off! Nimitz On Table Action, At Last: Part One I summarised the action in game one set in the North Atlantic, and I also covered the forces being deployed for game 2, which was set in the pacific at night. You can see the detail of the 2 fleets in part one, but in summary the Imperial Japanese Navy had 1 (dreadnought era) Battleship and 3 Cruisers (2 heavy & 1 light) versus the United States Navy’s 1 (modern) Battleship and 2 heavy Cruisers (1 USN & 1 Australian). So in the Solomons, somewhere around Guadalcanal, at night, the IJN had the advantage as the forces approached each other…

Continue reading “And We’re Off! Nimitz On Table Action, At Last: Part Two”

And We’re Off! Nimitz On Table Action, At Last: Part One

Well it’s been over 10 months since I posted “NIMITZ: A New Take On WW2 Fleet Action” so its taken a while to finally get around to getting some game time on the table! However I’ve been looking forward to having a crack and finally managed it this week, with a couple of buddies from the local wargaming scene. So here’s a brief run down of the 2 games we got in and a few related thoughts…

Continue reading “And We’re Off! Nimitz On Table Action, At Last: Part One”

NIMITZ: A New Take On WW2 Fleet Action

It’s great to see Sam Mustafa’s latest ruleset “NIMITZ” come out – it’s Sam’s take on WW2 Naval Fleet Action. I’ve been looking forward to seeing this released – Sam always has a fresh approach to rules writing that I enjoy and I find usually gets a good balance between playability & fun, and realistic outcomes (i.e. is this how you’d expect such and such an encounter to turn out) with minimal gamey tactics, etc. An expansive campaign system, Halsey, is also included that can incorporate as many players as desired.

Continue reading “NIMITZ: A New Take On WW2 Fleet Action”

Blücher By Sam Mustafa

Early this year Sam Mustafa will be releasing his latest game system in his “Honour” series, Blücher, which provides the ability to fight grand-tactical type games in the Napoleonic Wars. One units, stand, or counter, represents a Brigade or Regiment (incorporating multiple-battalions) or a massed Artillery concentration. Also included with the rules is Scharnhorst, a pre-game campaign that determines the manoeuvres of the opposing armies and ultimately how their deployment occurs on table. Continue reading “Blücher By Sam Mustafa”

Marching On Richmond: The Conclusion

Having broken from their 1864-1865 winter camps the armies headed further into Virginia, the mass of the Union forces always looking to outmanoeuvre the Confederates to expose Richmond and end the war. By late March a decisive battle emerged to conclude the Petersburg Siege, and my forces (General Ulysses P. Rickards) were dispatched to hold vital crossroads to the flank of Five Forks to prevent any last ditched effort to raise the siege by General Longman’s Confederate forces and the balance of General Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia under General Pickett. Continue reading “Marching On Richmond: The Conclusion”

Printing Action Cards For Longstreet

If you are interested in Longstreet you will know it requires cards to play. There is an official set available from Sam Mustafa with the rules, which requires the action deck for one player, plus all the advanced cards for other features of the (advanced) rules and the campaign. However you do need to have 2 decks of the action cards for a standard game – the official deck will provide you one set for 1 player, plus all the advanced cards you need for both players. So to get a second action deck (assuming your regular opponent(s), or lack of the same, don’t have a set) you can either do as I have done and buy a second official set, or you can just use the lower quality free PDF from Sam’s Website to printout, stick to card, and cut out. Continue reading “Printing Action Cards For Longstreet”

“Maurice” Reviewed

For those interested but who may not have seen it – there is a fairly comprehensive Audio-Visual review of Maurice on YouTube by Shieldwall100.

Watching it again, its enough to make me want to get back to my WSS project and the dozens of boxes of Plastic Wargames Factory Infantry & Cavalry awaiting assembly! Continue reading ““Maurice” Reviewed”

Marching On Richmond: Sam Mustafa’s Longstreet

You may have been wondering what happened to our Marching On Richmond Campaign? Well, after the May 1864 action we did successfully conclude the campaign and I will post the final 1864 and 1865 battle reports and campaign narrative sometime soon… Meanwhile if you haven’t already realised we were playing with a near final draft of Sam Mustafa’s “Longstreet” – the latest in his Honour Series of games… Longstreet is now finished and the books & cards have been printed and Sam is planning an August release, however in the meantime you can download a ‘Lite‘ version of the game from the Honour Downloads Page. This is a very cut down version, but for those interested will give them a taste of what the full Longstreet will be when it’s released in a month. Continue reading “Marching On Richmond: Sam Mustafa’s Longstreet”

Blenheim Redux! Another Take With Maurice…

Back in December 2011 before Sam Mustafa’s full version of  “Maurice” was released Cam and I had been play testing it. As I previously posted we had done a re-fight of Blenheim, but weren’t completely happy with how we modelled the terrain and the armies – so with suitable adjustments to both we had given it another bash. I never finished writing up the battle report but did take a reasonable selection of photos – this is a photo gallery of our Blenheim Re-fight, Take 2, using Maurice. As with the previous game we did not have the suitable 28mm figures, so we instead had our Lasalle Napoleonic Armies standing in for the War of the Spanish Succession period troops. The play test is now rather redundant, and Maurice has now been available for 9 months or so, but I thought a few gamers out there might enjoy seeing the photos and our ‘bathtubbed’ order of battle.

Continue reading “Blenheim Redux! Another Take With Maurice…”

Blenheim 1704: A Maurice (Refight) Experience

Following on from our two previous outings with Maurice (see Maurice: First Game Impressions and Maurice: Second Game & More Thoughts), Cam and I decided to have a go at a historical refight – deciding on Blenheim, so last weekend we set to it It would be heavily “Bathtubbed” to fit it down to the size of a typical Maurice game, and we’d be playing with all the full rules (rather than just the free Maurice Lite version). This meant we’d have troop quality, enhanced morale, and other factors involved. We both calculated out separately what size we thought the armies would be in Maurice – I based mine on the battlefield size & frontage and came to about 32 units of Infantry & Cavalry for the French (the larger force), however this was clearly too big so halving that came to 16, about the right size, and co-incidentally the same amount Cam had calculated starting with the troop numbers and working from that direction. Continue reading “Blenheim 1704: A Maurice (Refight) Experience”