War-Horse-Con Game Day Report

  A couple times a year, our friend Sam Fuson holds a gaming day at his farm outside Gettysburg.  He invites friends and family, and always tries to get some folks new to the hobby; and a bunch of us from the HAWKs always go to host games, and just have fun playing.  This past Saturday was the latest event and a good time was had by all!
     In the morning we had two games;  a Dark Ages battle using "SAGA", and a WWII battle using "Combat Patrol".

An overview of the SAGA game, run by Jim McWilliams, featuring Irish and Vikings.

A look at the action during the battle

Warriors liberate a cow during the battle.

      I played in the "Combat Patrol" WWII game, which was an early war battle featuring a French counterattack against German defenders.   The French headed up the middle due to terrain constraints, and lucky German marksmanship soon left the table with burning French tanks.

An overview of the Combat Patrol game, run by Buck Surdu,  as a French player maneuvers his CharB tank down the central road.

       I was the black sheep on the German side, not being able to hit anything with my two PzII's , and having both disabled by French medium machine guns.

A hidden German 38T reveals it's position, firing on the approaching CharB.  The shell strikes the side of the tank, causing the crew to bail out of the tank.

   The French had the objective of exiting two vehicles off the far table edges, moving lengthwise, which  they were unable to achieve, having all their vehicles destroyed.

The 38T and the nearby 50mm AT-gun soon leave a field of smoking French tanks.

     In the afternoon, we again had two games; a French and Indian War fight using "Muskets and Tomahawks", and a Napoleonic skirmish battle using modified "Combat Patrol".

An overview of Don Hogge's Muskets & Tomahawks game.

A young general moves his troops on to the table.

British troops and French allied Indians exchange musket fire.

I played in the Napoleonic battle using modified "Combat Patrol" on the French side.  The goal of the scenario was for opposing skirmish lines to maneuver to fire on the opposing side's formed battalion behind their skirmishers. So it's a balancing act between firing on the enemy's skirmishers to suppress their fire, and maneuvering to get in range to be able to fire on the enemy's battalion.

British commanders maneuver their skirmishers forward early in Duncan Adam's Napoleonic game.

Again in this battle I had lousy luck shooting, doing very little damage to the opposing British skirmish line.  Eventually, I closed close enough to do some hits on the formed battalion behind the skirmishers, which helped our side.

Duncan moves the French battalion forward. The French battalion enters in column, whereas the British battalion starts in line.  Each formed battalion is represented by several wooden blocks covered in photos of soldiers in line. 

     My shining moment came quite by accident, when one of my squads failed morale and the result  caused it to charge into the enemy's skirmishers across the way.  They actually got the upper hand, wounding some of the Brits, and pushing others back.  They then on a subsequent turn got the same result, and once again launched into the British skirmishers, the lines now totally intermingled.  This so disorganized the Brits across from me that they were hampered from effectively firing on the French battalion behind our own skirmishers. In the end the French won the game, doing more points of damage to the British battalion then the Brits did in return.

The scene on my end of the battle, right before my forward skirmishers launch themselves into their British counterparts.

  I luckily ended up being on the winning side in both of the battles  that I played in, though my contribution was minimal to both of the battles. It was a great day of gaming, and as always Sam was a great host; and ensured a good time was had by all.