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"Anything Historical/Anything Miniature" St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis Events |
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by Earl "Will" Hodgen |
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The first campaign I played in when I moved to St. Louis in 1972 was a medieval
campaign run by Dan Hillen. Dan was one of the founding grandfathers of wargaming in
the St. Louis area. Dan passed away a few years ago, but his influence still lingers
in those of who knew and loved him. The EFL Strat-O-Matic football league that has
existed for over 30 years was started by Dan. (BTW, there's a team open if you're
interested. Call Dave Dale at 636-946-1878. Sorry, I digressed). Recently, Mike
Coleman and I were having a nostalgic conversation about campaigns we played "in the good ol' days" and
decided it's time to start up a "Dan Hillen-type medievel campaign." Now, reputations were made and broken in these games. For example, we each had a "national advantage" and we could submit a troop-tupe for evaluation and a cost affixed by Daniel. In one case (the player will remain unamed), a player with a cavalary advantage submitted for inclusion in his forces "mounted laddermen." Their purpose was to rush a fortification, throw up ladders, and quickly scale the walls. As you can imagine, they were pretty expensive. In his first attack, unknown to him, his opponent had placed caltrops around the fortification. Up galloped these laddermen, hit the caltrops, and stalled. The archers on the wall mowed down these expensive troops without them even getting to the wall. Thirty years later, we're still amused by this story. So, we're going to do it again. This is a diplomacy-type campaign. Each player will run a small kingdom, starting with four provinces. These provinces will generate income that will be used to build and maintain an army (and navy, for some). The objective is to rule the world, or be in the alliance that rules. We'll use 25mm figures. Don't despair if you don't have any, as we have enough available for everyone to use. We'll use the rules Dan originally started, modified over time. We'll use a political map of circa 1320, but the troops available will be from a wide time frame. As typical of Dan, we're looking for fun and playability, not historical accuracy. Will Hodgen or call me at 314-808-3208) Mike Coleman Adam Jones Richard Wright |
by Rich Wright |
  
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Started the second campaign for the Battle of Coral Sea on May 6th. First one
resulted in an Allied Victory as they pounded the Japanese bases at Lae and
Gasmata and were about to strike at the defenseless Invasion Fleet with a
large cruiser force. The Allies lost the Lex, a cruiser, and a DD, but the
point total in bombing way compensated for the carrier loss...plus the
Japanese invasion fleet would have been mincemeat if we hadn't stopped the
carnage. Point totals were 298 for the Allies & 260 for the Japanese. The
players have been shuffled and new tasks are being taken-on...the players
are below. Click HERE to go the Battle of the Coral Seas Yahoo! group for the rules and to stay abreast of what's going on in this second go-round in this interesting situation. Home-developed strategic game turn rules bundle the aircraft & naval engagements that are resolved via the BlueSkies series rules and Seapower rules respectively. Each turn is 2 hours long with aircraft searchs, sub penetrations into the area, naval movements, and bombing runs being adjudicated using simultaneous movement as a result of each game player writing orders for their assets. Logistics come into play thru ships having to be refueled, a/c combat using a large portion of their Av gas, and ordinance only available at operations centers. The Japanese Players and their assets: John Nozka - Land-based aircraft except recon planes and all land bases Earl Hodgen - All naval except the Carrier Strike Force plus SeaPlane bases Don Cox - Submarines & Recon planes Adam Jones - Carrier Strike Force The Allied Players: Ray Runge - Allied Naval assets Mike Banasik - Allied Fighters & Recon aircraft and Port Moresby Joe Shaffer - Bomber command and all other bases The GM Rich Wright |