Skip to main content

Our Christmas Game: Turns Six and Seven. . .

 
The Young Master, aka General de Latte, scrutinizes the front lines of the respective armies as an intense firefight is about to begin in Turn Six.


At the start of Turn Seven, General de Latte declared charges for the two infantry units in his front line, which had already managed to inflict considerable damage on my two front line units opposite during Turn Six.


A rather diabolical portrait of General de Latte during Turn Seven.  He asked what the term 'cad and bounder' meant earlier today, in relation to de Latte's character, and I had to attempt an explanation of men who toy with women's affections. 


We have reached the handfuls of dice stage of the game!  During Turn Six, General de Latte's company of Croats came within range of my squadron of Bosniaks on the right flank and managed to inflict two casualties after my saving throws.


By the end of Turn Seven, my Irish Grenzers had taken considerable casualties and failed a morale test, falling back shaken and in some disorder a full move distance where they must remain inactive during the next turn to sort themselves out and possibly return to the fray.  To their right, a battalion of my militia is managing to hold on despite suffering almost 60% casualties.  That has been about my only good die roll so far in our Christmas game!

 

Still not done, but we were able to squeeze in another couple of turns early this afternoon before picking up The Young Master's new purple Tae Kwon Do belt and then an afternoon Zoom clinic having to do with board-breaking technique.

Our chat during game time the last couple of days has been priceless, covering the accuracy and lethality of black powder weapons, figure painting plans, battlefield tactics during the mid-18th century, and battalion configuration(s) of the era.  We've had a blast, conformed earlier this afternoon by The Young Master, who said at one point, "I really like these war games, Dad!"  I need no better Christmas present than that.

Last, you would not believe -- Maybe you would? -- my utterly crummy die rolls the last two days.  Bad rolls for artillery and musketry with equally bad rolls when it comes to saving throws.  It's almost uncanny.  That combined with my overly cautious generalship, and Young Pauls's much bolder approach do not bode well.  We'll see what tomorrow may bring however.  I'm not ready to hang up my spurs just yet.

-- Stokes


Comments

Neil said…
Looks like "The Young Master" is making his move!
Neil
Fitz-Badger said…
Excellent stuff and so great that the little master is enjoying this stuff with dear old dad (and learning about cads and bounders - ha ha). Happy Holidays!
Stryker said…
What a great game - a big well done to both of you!
Chris B. said…
The young general should look at recruiting the newly promoted LT. Espresso as his Aide-de-Camp.
It looks like you are having a wonderful time.

Chris B.
(a long-time follower of your blog from the days when you were using 1/72 scale plastics)
Gallia said…
Thank you Paul and Stokes for an entertaining and heart-felt opportunity to vicariously spend these turns with you. A lovely ensemble of terrain and miniatures too.
Bravo!
Bill P.
tradgardmastare said…
Great to hear of your games and even more so of your conversations. My father took me to the National Museum of Scotland at a young age as well as Hadrians Wall. These trips and the conversations around them have led to a life long fascination with Romans which is still with me. You may be starting another such interest for The Young Master.
I really look forward to seeing how the games play out.
Whiskers said…
Excellent!
You are so lucky to have a son who enjoys your hobby.
Encourage him.
Magnificent! A rapport that will live long.

......of course he'll be spoiled for ever for happy gaming on small kitchen tables with a handful of figures.....

Popular posts from this blog

A Little More Brushwork. . .

    A little more brushwork on the first batch of (my version of) the Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment yesterday (Saturday).  Taking a different tack this time and addressing many of the details first before the white coats and other larger areas of uniform.   The eagle-eyed among you will notice that I've painted the (dark) red stocks of the enlisted men.  Always a difficult and frustrating item to paint, it made sense to paint from the inside out as it were and get that particular detail out of the way first rather than try to paint it in later after much other painting has been accomplished.  Trying to reduce the need for later retouching of other items on the figures you understand. Hopefully, I will be able to get back to these later today after a second trip back to the Apple Store for help with a couple of new iPad issues and, following the return home, some revision of Google Slides for tomorrow's meetings with my students. -- Stokes P.S. And according t...

Basic Reds Done at Last. . .

  S till quite a way to go with the current batch of 20 human figures and a horse (of course), but they're actually starting to look like something after all of the red distinctions.  Quite a bit of painting in hour-long sessions the last week as and when time has allowed.  Mostly applying the basic dark red to facing areas and turnbacks followed by the inevitable touch-ups to clean up wobbly edges and those misplaced, minute splotches of Citadel Khorne Red.   They're looking like so many Austrian infantry regiments of the era at this point, but the eventual flags will turn them magically into the Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment, more or less, of the AWI period.  But I'm getting a bit ahead of myself. One frustrating point (ahem) of sad discovery.  I've started trying to use those Winsor & Newton 'Series Seven' brushes (#1 rounds) purchased last spring, and the blasted things simply will not keep a point.  Very frustrating since I have heard over the y...

It's Early Days Yet. . .

M aking some early progress with Batch A of the Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment over the last several days/evenings.  Nothing terribly exciting just yet, but the basic black, brown, and flesh areas are done as are the green bases, and gray undercoat.   The latter two areas needed some careful retouching early in the week.  Next up, the neck stocks.   I might just do these in red for the enlisted men although some of my source material suggest they were black, but I always look for an excuse to shake things up a bit.  Any errant splotches of red (or black) can be covered with another application of light gray before I move onto the next step.   "Giddy up!" as one Cosmo Kramer might have said. -- Stokes