New Game, New Project! Bolt Action Late War!

After I am done with NOVA this weekend, my next game is one that I picked up at Historicon this Summer: Bolt Action.

After one read through, I like what I see from the rules.  Alternating and random activations, reactionary orders, shooting, and assault rules all look to make a fun and tactically realistic game.  Just how I like it.

The game was written by Rick Priestly and Alessio Cavatore, who both had the good sense to leave Games Workshop in 2010, so the rules show great promise right from the starting gun.  Anyone who fled the GW trainwreck before that organization went from lost to pathological might actually have some talent.  The fact that the authors are billing this as a platoon-sized game tells me that they learned from one of the fundamental design mistakes that doomed Warhammer 40k to fail as a wargame.

But enough of that for now.  As a career infantryman, the two rules I like best so far, well, OK, three rules, are shooting, assault, and off-board artillery.  Shooting is not going to be decisive in one turn.  Rather, it looks like you will use shooting to affect your opponent's units over a number of turns.  Assault, on the other hand, is completely decisive.  If a unit assaults, it will either destroy its target in one turn, or it will be destroyed.  This is how it goes down in real combat: it takes a little bit of time to win a fight with shooting, but if you close into hand-to-hand, soldiers are going to start dying really fast.  Assaulting generates huge risk, and huge payoff.  If you get it right, you get a Dining Facility named after you.  If you get it wrong...well....

Then we have the off board fire support.  Alessio, Rick, I have been waiting for a long time for a good 28mm wargame with realistic indirect fire support (and CAS) that includes smoke.  Gentlemen, thank you.

So I'm off to Normandy next where I will learn Bolt Action.  I will start by building two forces, German Wehrmact troopers of the 352nd Infantry Division, defending the Normandy beaches, and U.S. soldiers from my old unit: the 116th Infantry Regiment (The Stonewall Brigade), the first Americans ashore on Omaha Beach.

Ever Forward!

NOVA Narrative Terrain 2014

Now I'm not supposed to show you this, but I can't help myself.  Just a little leg to catch your attention.

If you want to see all the sweet new terrain for the 2014 NOVA Open Narrative Campaign, you need to register and head down to Crystal City this weekend.  

Come find me and I'll buy you a drink.  You know you want it.  

Surgery, Age, Fitness, and Marathon Training

So here's the deal.

I just had major rotator cuff surgery on my right shoulder.  On a scale that went from minor to major, my surgeon described my tear as "fucking massive."  He showed me the pictures, it was gross.  The pre-repair inside of my shoulder looked like a pre-cooked bowl of kung pao chicken.  Seriously, there were peanuts.

Six years ago I had a similar surgery on my left shoulder.  That tear was pretty bad, but my surgeon (same dude) described the repair as a "chip shot."  He operated, the recovery and rehab was indescribably miserable, and I eventually recovered full use of my left shoulder.  Back to the recovery, though: it took me over a full month to tie my shoes.

Yesterday marked one week since my most recent surgery.  A more serious injury than my last surgery, a more traumatic repair than my last surgery.  The day BEFORE yesterday I tied my shoes and walked nearly three miles fast enough to break a sweat.  On its own, this means nothing, but compared to where I was a week (hell, a month) following my previous surgery, I'm left scratching my head trying to make sense of things.  To put it in perspective, last time, a week following my surgery, I could barely make it from the bed to the bathroom without passing out; this time, a week out, I nearly trotted out 3 miles.

How is this possible?

There are two major differences between the last surgery and this surgery: this surgery was on my dominant arm, so the muscles had a lifetime of better development; between the last surgery and this one I became a marathon runner.

I have no idea why this recovery is progressing as freakishly well as it is, but I will take it.

Suffice to say that I will start my next Marathon training program as soon as I can.

Dark Angel Terminator Librarian

This Librarian was the 2nd HQ for my Dark Angels army at the 2013 NOVA Open.

Saga Irish Warband

Being of Irish heritage (among others), I am compelled to field an Irish warband for Saga.  I have also found a copy of The History and Topography of the County of Clare, by James Frost, which is providing me with lots of inspiration for developing campaigns that recreate the turbulent Dark Age history of the kingdom of Thomond and the rise of Brian Boru.  I am bummed that I did not discover Saga until after the 1000th anniversary of the Battle of Clontarf.  It would have been fun to field Brian Boru against Brodir and his Viking pals.

I imagine this dude leading my Dál gCais ancestors on cattle raids up and down the Shannon river valley.

A large group of elite Fianna forms the core of the warband.

The two Fianna in the foreground are heroes, or Curaidh, who have provided some pretty epic and entertaining exploits in their brief campaigning history.

Not all that historically accurate in the sense of warfighting, but what Irish warband would be complete without a pack of fierce and loyal Wolfhounds?

Finally, a group of brave Bonnacht accompany the warband, eager to prove themselves worthy of ascending the ranks of the Fianna.

The Irish are a fun, if tricky faction to play.  Their battle board embodies the oft-heard critique from historical wargamers that Saga incorporates too much foolishness into its mechanic to count as a proper historical wargame.

Whatever.

My position is that Saga is easy to learn, fun to play, and way more tactically satisfying than any comparable wargame I have played so far.  To be fair, the number of wargames that I have not played far eclipses the number I have.  Still, Saga manages to hit a sweet spot between ease of play and tactical realism.

Who knows, maybe there is still time to replay Clontarf before 2014 comes to a close.

Saga Anglo Dane/Hiberno Norse Warband

Saga is my latest miniature wargaming flame.  It is a very basic, straightforward game that is both tactically satisfying and unpredictably entertaining.  Gripping Beast is really on to something with their battle board game mechanic.

My all purpose warband is 10th Century Anglo-Danish, but since they are Dark Age warriors, they could also be Hiberno-Norse, Vikings, Saxons, Scots, or any other grungy bearded dudes with stabby things and shields.

A fearsome Warlord leads the warband

Heavily armed and armored Huscarls provide a powerful elite force

Axe-wielding warriors are the primary offensive unit in the warband

Spearmen form the bulk of the warband

Stay tuned for forthcoming detailed Saga battle reports.

V, the Cocktail

This cocktail recipe emerged from the 2013 Academy Awards.

My beautiful wife/lab assistant asked for something special to enjoy while watching the red carpet events. I went to work inspired to create something suitable.  Something Hollywood. Something red.

Back then, we were watching True Blood pretty regularly, before the show jumped the shark from being dumb but watchable, to being completely asinine.  Anyhow, I set out to make a cocktail that evoked vampire blood, or "V."

I started with a base of Campari and St. Germaine.  I had enjoyed previous success mixing these with Blood Orange soda, so I juiced a blood orange and added that to the mix.  It looked like blood. I finished it with a dash of lime juice.  The final recipe uses Aperol instead of Campari, since the former is a bit more of a "team player" with the other ingredients.

The result was drinkable and perfectly respectable, but lacked the Hollywood wow factor necessary to accompany the Oscars.  The True Blood setting of Louisiana provided the solution.  A splash of Tabasco transformed the drink from a a sweet and unremarkable tipple to a pretty darn fine red carpet cocktail.  The final product is sweet and alluring, with enough of a salt/spice back to evoke the thrill and danger of drinking forbidden vampire blood.

This is a really good drink.

1 shot Aperol
1 shot St Germaine
1 oz ripe, freshly squeezed blood orange juice (must be dark red; pinkish orange will not do)

1/4 slice of lime
1 fearless splash of Tabasco (V must be dangerous!)

Stir liquids and a few drops of juice from the lime wedge together over ice and strain into a highball glass filled with ice. Garnish with lime zest.