Wednesday 21 June 2017

LOGW ACW: I love an acronym.

Last weekend I spent a thoroughly enjoyable two days gaming in Scotland with the LOGW (League of Gentlemen Wargamers). The game was an ACW (American Civil War) mini-campaign with front lines, cavalry raids into rear areas, and a naval element, and it ended with attacks on Washington and Richmond: Attacks which saw both burn. I had a brilliant time in good company.

The game was organised by Kevin Calder and he also provided the rules, Bonnie Blue Flag, which we've used on several occasions, and which are soon to be published by Partizan Press. If ACW is your game, you should look at these when they come out. They are very good fun.

Gaming highlights for me were: 

  1. Somehow losing a naval game to maintain the blockade of Richmond, even though I had two ships afloat (but running away) and I'd sunk one enemy ship, run another ground, and left one under construction in sinking condition. Great fun, with ships and rules from Bill G's collection (he also took the naval photo below showing my fancy sailing techniques). All of that ancient naval gaming came in useful - the Rebels were rammers. 
  2. Fending off a cavalry raid before it had got started, much to Charlie's chagrin. I also fought Charlie in the naval game, which he won, though he was left contemplating his naval as to how.
  3. Charlie got his revenge in the final game. Fortunately my only picture of my woeful performance in this instalment of the weekend is the shot of the cavalry action. At that point my battery packed up. Charlie went on to take and burn Washington. When he's not pillaging supply wagons he really likes burning stuff; during the naval encounter I half expected to be rushed, deck to deck, by fire brand waving men yellin' Dixie.

I also had a very interesting pre-game Friday night / morning whilst being kindly put up at Steve R's place, though that is an entirely different story. 

Anyway, a few pictures of the game and crew on what was a memorable trip all round. 










The next LOGW weekend, in November, will be down to me. We'll be doing a multi-state Great Italian Wars mini-campaign set around 1503. 

The table will be the Alps to Naples. I'll post a plan of the set up soon but, at present, the table (without walkway gaps) is 20' wide and 28' long and covers an area of 432 square feet. 

I've only ever played one game with a bigger table than that, a giant Kingmaker organised by Steve R, and that was the best multi-player game I've ever played in - if they players like my game half as much as that I'll consider it 'job done'. 

5 comments:

Gonsalvo said...

Seems like a great group, with a taste for the Grand Scale game!

Steve-the-Wargamer said...

Bill was kind enough to send me a set of his Ironclad rules - hoping to get time to try them soon...

David said...

Well up to Kev's expected standards!

Phil said...

Huge and most impressive game!

Doug said...

Looks impressive. I'm lucky enough to game with the guys at Kirriemuir, and it's always a blast.