Drums at the Rapids

On Friday evening I had the pleasure of going to the Drums at the Rapids wargames con up at Fort Meigs, near Toledo. Like a twit I came out of doors in a rush and forgot my camera, which was a shame. The fellows had a wide variety of games going on from French-Indian War, WW2 aerial and onward to ground combat and various SF games; all nicely done. I had my eye on the A Canal Too Far game, a Victorian Sci-Fi romp with allied British and Prussian forces against Martians. I took my Aerial Flyer to show off to like-minded gamers. Unfortunately the guy running the game couldn't make it, so I opted for a Rorkes Drift game run to TSATF rules.

I took command of the British defenders of the outpost, modeled very nicely with a laser-cut MDF rendition of the famous storehouse/hospital. This was the first time I've played TSATF rules, and I found them very... bloody. Whilst I was able to deal with the Zulu charges on the barricades (aided by a verse of Men of Harlech and Lt. Chard and his belt-fed Webley), I suffered severely from dropping fire coming into the compound from the great hill. This whittled down my troops until the penultimate Zulu charge of the scenario swamped my men, cutting them down to a man. Bromhead was the last to fall. A good game, played with nice guys and all in a good spirit.

Another game played in the hall was a Pulp 1920's caper, with superb city scenery, including a movie theater with a lit marquee and flashing wall sign. Again, I wish I had my camera.

Returning to the main hall to collect my flyer I found a gamer admiring it. I showed him the optional armament and he promptly made me a generous offer for it!

So, another Aerial Flyer will begin rising on the slipway one of these days...

The Sword and the Flame game - WW1 East Africa

"Walk wide o' the Widow at Windsor,
For 'alf o' Creation she owns:
We 'ave bought 'er the same with the sword an' the flame,
An' we've salted it down with our bones..."

*

Okay, the game I took part in didn't involve British Tommies, but it gives me an opportunity to air one of Kipling's wonderful verses.

This was my first experience with the rules and they proved easy to pick up. The action involved an encounter skirmish between Belgian Congolese and German colonial forces somewhere in German East Africa during WW1. I played the Belgians, fielding a platoon of three Force Publique askari sections supported by two bands of native levies. Don took command of two Seebattalion sections and three schutztruppen sections. Blake supplied the figures and guidance.

Movement is decided by ordinary playing cards and dice, the card color saying who gets to move first, and three d6 deciding how far in inches. Difficult terrain requires two dice to be rolled, simulating reduced movement.

Quality was on Don's side, as under TSATF rules European troops have better firepower, with askari/schutztruppen next and native levies a long way last. Faced with superior firepower I decided to concentrate my attentions on defeating the two Seebattalion sections. I won the game handily as they and a supporting schutztruppen section withered under my combined fire with little loss to my force, leaving Don unable to contest the field.

Units reduced to 50% or less manpower tend to rout very easily - as is only right - with affected units moving the value of two dice rolls in inches toward the rear. One of my levy sections, reduced to just two men, performed the most leisurely rout I've seen on a wargames table - a mere four inches back! Not so much a rout as a case of "we're just going over here for a while, okay?"

All in all I enjoyed the rules, which gave a quick clean game of about an hour duration. If I have a quibble it's that they tend to be bloody, but I'll certainly play with them again.