South Dakota Grudge Match! Flames of War CLT vs. RDU!

Hi Kids,  Ok, ok, I know two Flames of War groups based in North Carolina (Charlotte and Raleigh) have absolutely nothing to due with South Dakota, but ever since I first heard that term (South Dakota Grudge Match) I just can't resist using it whenever I get a chance!  Anyway, on with the story:  The CLT lads and the RDU kids decided it would be fun to set up a meet on Neutral Ground to have some fun and meet some new opponents.  High Point NC is roughly halfway between and had a store (Gaming Underground, or Underground Games, I can never remember) with lots of table space, and so it was on!
RDU had 8 guys turn up, CLT had 4 until two of us Winston-Salem gaming pariahs showed up to join the CLT side.  The plan was to have 1:1 games in the morning and after lunch play a big honkin' game of Total War with CLT vs. RDU.  Each player made a late war 1750 pt. army for the single games and modified it to 1000 pt. for the Total War game. Since RDU had a two player advantage each CLT player got extra points to make up the difference; 8000 pt. per side. Here are some shots of the 1:1 games.  A lot of them are from my game and the games near me. I didn't have time to wonder around and take pictures of everything since I was busy getting stomped!

 Here is a shot of my beginning forces, five ISU-122's and two 100mm ATG's (Proxy!).  Everything else was a scattered delayed reserve.  Bummer, I know.  Turn one, here comes the Luftwaffe!  Yeah, that was a bummer too! I don't even remember the last time I played late war, and I made the fatal error of loading up with Tiger killers!  Unfortunately Rate of Fire 1 just doesn't put enough hate mail down range to crush normal armies. I brought a plastic spoon to a gunfight! ISU-122's are Old Glory and the 203mm tracked guns are also available from them, but from a different manufacturer.

 The Finns charge across the table!  If you want to win, employ a Finn! Two T-34's pop their tops with 122mm hits!

 One of the CLT lads brought some Big Guns, too!

 It's Panthers-a-go-go! on the table next door!  Special rules about flank shots and bad luck with the dice lead to the Panthers destroying about 75% of the Russian army they faced.

 Meanwhile on my table my heavies are getting systematically crushed by the Finns.  My CO never did get a single hit, even while stationary!  Bummer!

 Some of my reserves arrive in the corner, three JS-2's!  They manage to blow the infantry to atoms!

 But meanwhile over on the objective its a different story!

 Some madman from RDU brought Cav!  I think they were Hungarians.

 Man, those are some Big Guns!

 I knew there'd be some Tigers around here somewhere!  One RDU army had 4 of the wee beasties.

 Some hardcore ammo carrier brought nothing but arty! Eye-yi-yi...

 Getting ready for the Total War game, a 6x20 foot table!

 My lads are set up!  Once again they would basically do nothing the entire game, blasting massive shells everywhere except towards the enemy!  Then again, the enemy wasn't foolish enough to come out of hiding anywhere near them...

 A tiny bit of the grand battery in the center of the RDU position.  I thought this kind of set up went out of style after the First World War, but by golly it was ugly being on the receiving end of all those muzzles! It's a wonder the table didn't collapse!

 The center of the CLT deployment, nowhere near as intimidating!

 Turn One, Shot One, One Dead ISU-122!  Aw crap!  Arty with AT5 barrages? Gee whiz! And I didn't even get a turn yet!

 The horsemen arrive in our deployment zone, turn two!  Things are heading south in a hurry!

 But one of the CLT (W-S auxillary) guys had a mean infantry list!  Soviet Combat Sappers!  Trashing tanks, ATG's, infantry, cavalry; they spank everybody one at a time or all at once!  None Shall Pass!

And with that it was all over.  In all the excitement some of us didn't get a third turn, but the CLT side was getting crushed so comprehensively I really don't think it would have made any difference if we had.  The objectives were still pretty close, RDU being ahead by one, but the CLT armies were so badly hammered we packed everything up and called it a day!

 

Maybe I should've gone with the T34/85 list...

 

 

Cauldron 2014 RDU Gameday

Hi Kids,  I've been slack!  (Shocking, I know)  I totally forgot to post the pix from the not-so-recent gameday the Raleigh lads set up at the Atomic Comics store in Durham!  Since everything in gaming has to have a code name, this event was dubbed "Cauldron." This was the second gameday this year.  These gamesdays are a recent phenomenon, the idea at this point is to have 3 or 4 every year, depending on how many people are interested.  We had about 15-20 gamers show up for the historical games, there were also a like number of guys doing Infinity, a large group of Magic types, and a few 40K'ers.

The first few shots are of all the different game setups, this one is 20mm Low Level Hell in Vietnam.

This one was a pulp game.

This one was 28mm Pulp archaeology based somewhere in Eygpt.  Indiana Jones returns!

This was a 40mm Indian Wars game.

The lads from Magic outnumbered everyone else combined.  What a shock.

And there was an Infinity Tournament going on that Saturday, too.  I didn't even know there was such a thing in the area.  Guess I should get out more.  Some of the tables looked real cool.  Some of these shots were taken during the games, so don't be surprised to see some figs sneaking around.  I've always liked the figures for Infinity, but have only bought a couple and have never played it. 

 

I like the look of this table!  Not sure what those green walker mechs on the left might be.

I played in Famous Bruce's game of Low Level Hell.  This thing was my chopper.  Yeah, if I had thought of it I'd have been Big Duke 6.  The point of the mission was to rescue some downed pilots.  You can see some VC below my ship.

The choppers buzz around blasting everything in sight except each other.  I really like these games when all the players work together against a common foe, in this case run by Bruce.

Turn one and our scout chopper gets shot down!  Charlie is on the spot!  Bruce said that was the second time the scout had been shot down, the other time was 10 years ago.  Some guys are just lucky I guess.  The gamer got a new chopper and rejoined the game, with blood in his eye this time.

Meanwhile the Indians are getting too close for comfort out west.

And the pulpers are getting their camels out of the free fire zone.

Holy Smokes!  Somebody rubbed the wrong lamp in a big way!

Meanwhile its mission accomplished in Vietnam, a slick picks up the jet pilots.  Now we just have to rescue the helicopter pilots.

 



An F100 Super Saber in the weeds!

The Chuckster gives 'em both barrels!

Infinity in progress!

Whoa!  Who showed up for 15mm WW2?  A German Assault Gun moves through the rubble.

More Infinity in progress.  I really, really like this table.  I can see myself coming up with stuff like this for my Giant Stompy Robot set up.  Project #847.  I'll have to get back to you with the details.  I wish I had more time to eyeball this setup!  And somebody's finally getting some use out of those horrid squeeze bottle paints!

And a final shot of a desert town for Infinity. 

 

It looks like gaming is alive and well in the RDU area of NC.  (Too bad  Winston-Salem has become the black hole of culture, but thems the breaks...)  The RDU lads are trying to figure out if they should continue putting on two full sized cons every year (Spring Fever, Southern Front; attendance in the 150+ range) or do a bunch of these gamedays instead, or a combination of both.  It just depends of who wants to do what.  For the up-to-date skinny just check the TSS ("Triangle Simulation Society") yahoogroup or forum.  If you live somewhat locally, feel free to put in your two cents.  Its about 70 miles from here, and I made the trip!