A TRUE war-game released for the iPad... finally!

Hey all!

Well, just yesterday a game I was waiting for was released for the iPad, and I thought I would post about it here, because if you are reading this blog, you want this game!:)

The game is Ultimate General: Gettysburg.  It is a fairly simple war-game that sees the player take control of either the Rebs or the Federals and fight through the three days of Gettysburg.

The game is a bit simple; units don't run out of ammo, for instance.  But the controls are smooth as silk (nothing beats the touch-and-drag type of controls on an iPad) the research is decent and the graphics are really, really pretty; you will recognize every building on the battlefield, which is a great treat.  Elevation is crucial to getting your guns in the right place, and fog of war makes you send out scouts to make sure there aren't any enemy in that dead ground to your left!

Overall the game is a GREAT little war-game, with a lot of content and beautiful controls and graphics.  I highly, highly recommend it... so far it is the best war-game I've played on the iPad, along with Battle Academy from Slitherine.

So go give it a try!

"The Hundred Days" expansion for "Blucher"!

Hi all!

Well, I got my hands on a set of Sam Mustafa's new rules, "Blucher".  Most folks have started to talk about these rules a bit, but honestly I was just as impressed by the OTHER piece of the puzzle... the "The Hundred Days" expansion for it!

Now, the expansion consists of a pretty impressive (and sizable!) box containing 200+ cards, all the size of poker cards.  The cards are BEAUTIFULLY finished in terms of graphics, shine, and durability... they almost feel a touch weighty, and they are simply very pleasant in a tactile sense, if that makes sense.

There are several types of cards in the expansion.  The stars of the show are cards that represent (both in terms of stats/rules but also visually, with little pictures of troops from above) units in the Prussian, French, and British army during this time of the Napoleonic wars.  They are intended to be used if you do not have the miniatures, but of course you can just use minis instead.  What I think makes this such a cool purchase is that it is literally EVERY... SINGLE... UNIT, properly identified and with stats for the game, that existed in those armies at that time.  There are even some that never fought, but everyone has a Corps number and all the identifiers you need.  I honestly think that it makes this almost a must-purchase for any Napoleonic fan, not in terms of the game, but in terms of a sheer cool wargame/history swag.  It is just a great thing to have in a collection, you know?

There are other cards as well, including some to help you play The Hundred Days campaign in "Blucher", including various personalities who impact the game in other ways.  These are limited in use to players who intend to play the "Blucher" rules, but I would wager that would be most people who purchase the set in the first place.

And I do have to say... there are some neat toy soldiers in the "Blucher" rule book... :)

Anyway... thought I would share the photos and thoughts!

Some photos of the 15mm moderns game

Hey all!

My buddy came by and we played another game of my 15mm modern rules!

The objective we rolled up was a humvee that needed evacuation.  My buddy took an American squad of a humvee, four infantry including a medic, LMG, and officer, and a sniper team.  I took a Stryker and a squad of three infantry, including a LMG.

The objective square was about four "blocks" away.

Here is the first "block" which was a T-road junction.  We needed to turn right, but unfortunately there were TWO possible IEDs in the road blocking the way, and a TON of possible contacts in the far left corner (the tall building with the blue rail in the above photo.)

We put our sniper on the nearest roof, and send infantry to the right, clearing out one group of insurgents who popped up there.  We were a bit stuck, as we couldn't get a man to the possible IED in the road to check it with so many insurgents looking at us, so it WAS tough.  The insurgents flooded us a bit, but between the sniper team providing overwatch and the two HMGs on the vehicles we DID chew them up.  We took a single casualty, but we got him to the humvee and medevaced   And off we rolled to the next objective!

This was the second block, which was a right hand turn.  This was a problem; we needed to go LEFT.  So we decided that we would send the infantry left, and the vehicles would have to catch up.  In my rule set, your infantry can leave the "block" not on a road, and you "leave behind" the vehicles.  They are not available for the next block, but catch up with you on the next on.

We had a big open square to the front left, and a HUGE residential building to the right, with some possible targets moving into it!

Here are our two squads beginning to move up the street, but our infantry QUICKLY ducked off to the lefthand alley and GTFO.

We then hit a turn, which was perfect.  It sucked, because we didn't have our vehicles, but we didn't roll up too many blinds.  We rolled through some enemy contacts, but it was pretty clear.

And then we made it to the objective square!  It was a T-junction, with the wrecked humvee in the center of the intersection, right in front of a large government building!

We quickly rolled both vehicles up to the humvee, using the Stryker to cover the men trying to medieval.  In my rule set, once you start trying to evac the wounded, potential contacts start flooding in at random spots on the "block."  In a terrifying move, we had THREE different blinds move up on our left rear.  We immediately threw infantry in and hit the building they were in, but it turned out to be a BUNCH of bad guys, and the breach didn't go that well!  We took three casualties (one or two who were KIA) but we DID evac the humvee.

So!  Overall, a fun game!