Keith Rocco at Jamestowne Visitors Center - December 13, 2009

Keith Rocco announced that he will be presenting a slide show at the Jamestowne Visitors Center, on December 13, 2009.

The announcement from the Historic Triangle website is:

“Historical Art, Capturing the Past” – Historic Jamestowne
December 13, 1 p.m.
Historical artist Keith Rocco presents an illustrated 45-minute program on creating works of art representing historical places and events. Rocco has created paintings for many historical sites, including Colonial National Historical Park, Guilford Courthouse National Military Park and Pamplin Historical Park. At Historic Jamestowne, several of his paintings appear in exhibits, as well as the award-winning multimedia theater presentation. Call (757) 229-1733.

AAR - Saturday, Saturday November 15

Jon K and Oscar S played a terrific game using Justin's WWII skirmish rules, and Jon's excellent new terrain collection from Pegasus Buildings and Miniature Building Authority.

The game was visually stunning, and we are promised some future refights, with pictures this time!

After the game, there were several matches of "Station Master". Rule number one - don't get on the train with Carl. Rule number two - don't sit near the guy with the double cheeseburger.

ODMS at Fall In 2008

A great time was had by the ODMS contingent that attended Fall In. Three ODMS associated dealers were present at the show - Miniatures of Chesapeake, Cotton Jim Flags, and Quartermaster. Also associated with ODMS was Collins Epic Wargames - with Byron and his lovely wife demo'ing and selling his very cool WWII games. Former ODMS member Rob Eubanks was at the show, but not in official capacity as a dealer.

Notable games played were Russo-Japanese War (15mm) played between John Snelling and Chris Borucki (with some of Chris' friends from Maryland joining in) on Thursday night. It was a final playtest of the rules, and a test of the scenario. It was fun for all involved.

Friday, at 6:00pm, Chuck hosted another Russo-Japanese War game that was on the PEL - 6 players who had a good time. Of interest, the roles were reversed in the two games (it was a river crossing scenario, and the Russians were first on the Offensive and then on the Defensive), but the Russians won both scenarios. Curious.

Saturday at 9:00am, Chuck also hosted a 28mm game of The Sword and the Flame - it was listed in the PEL for six players but was expanded to 9 players. A good time was had by most. The scenario was a combined column of Egyptian and British forces were led into a blind canyon, and had to fight their way out to freedom - with a large gathering of Mahdist forces trying to stop them. The Anglo-Egyptians almost made it. Almost . . .

Finally, Saturday night at 8:00pm, an ODMS only game of TSATF (set in Afghanistan) was played. Jon Krigbaum and Carl Sciscio played using Krigbaum's excellently painted British forces against Chuck's Pathan warriors (played by John Snelling, Chuck Turnitsa, Oscar Stephenson, and Paul Crouch - with occasional and sporadic refereeing by the redoubtable Chris Borucki). Another river crossing (all these river crossings could have something to do with the new River available from Battlefront that Carl was selling). There was a lot of bloodshed, and tears, and laughter, and midgets. The game was a swamp for the Pathans, but we had a lot of fun anyway.

Some shopping, some whining, some mediocre chinese buffet for lunch. Gettysburg was lovely - the leaves were in season and the weather was perfect. Maybe next year for those who couldn't make it this year.

This was my second year, last year for only one day. All in all, a great show - I hope they

Fall In in just three more days

That's right, the big HMGS-East Fall convention - Fall In! is coming up this weekend. Be sure to look out for ODMS AARs and pictures of games.

Can't wait? Well talk up what you are going to play on the mailing list!

Taiping Rebellion - Oct 16

John Snelling ran a fabulous Taiping Rebellion game on October 16th, at the Hangar.

There were three factions involved, the Taiping Rebellion Forces (and allied Triad gangs), the Imperial Chinese forces, and the British Counter-Insurgency forces.

The British were there to proceed to a temple under control by the Taipings, and rescue a princess of the Imperial Family who had been captured.

The Taipings were defended recently conquered territory near an Imperial riverine trade city. The gangs were defending some mountain temples that they had captured, between the forward area of the Taiping advance, and the Imperial trade city - they had captured a number of very valuable treasures (statuary, etc) and were holding it for turning over to the main army. The Imperials were attempting to oust the British from the trade city, as well as punish the Gangs and recapture the mountain temples.

This was played in 15mm scale, with a buttload of Chinese figures (nicely painted by Snelling), and was played by John Snelling, John Dent, and Chuck Turnitsa. The rules used were heavily modified Victoria's Battles.

Oct 16 - Frontline General

Byron presented a very nice game of Frontline General to teach a couple of newbies how to play.

The terrain was great, the figures nicely painted, and the game was a lot of fun.

Check out the Collins Epic Wargames website, and also the BGG entry.

Byron tells ODMS that he will be presenting a new, scaled back, commercial offering of the game in the near future, that won't be as ambitious as the original release, but that will have enough rules to use it as a set of miniatures gaming guidelines.

Western Skirmish - AAR Oct 2

Danny Jackson ran "How the west was Dan" or "The Dan with no name" or "A Fist full of Dan" or something - it was his rules for Western gunfighter skirmish. Two player groups against each other, and the nefarious townsfolk.

A gang of outlaws, coming into town to rescue two gang members from the jail house.

A posse of lawmen, bent on making sure the Law is obeyed and the gang members get a fair trial.

The nefarious townsfolk, determined to "lynch" the gang members, with or without a trial ("why go to all the trouble of a trial, when we just know the lowlifes are guilty as all get out?").

Outlaws rode into town, immediately were shot at by all concerned, started in towards the jail house, when the citizens began dragging the gang members toward the hanging platform. Long range rifle fire from one of the outlaw gang members took care of the angry citizens, and others (on horseback) rode up to gather the shackled prisoners. Not a few outlaws died (more than one being dragged to death on scared horses). Many outlaw casualties, but they eventually rescued one of the prisoners. The sharpshooter? He was blasted from behind by an old lady with a shotgun. Nefarious town members . . .

Russo-Japanese War Playtest

A play test of the rules and armies that will be used at Fall In - coming soon at the hangar. Anyone interested, email Chuck.

ODMS Returns from Southern Front

Several ODMS'ers traveled to Southern Front. Watch for after action reviews, and hear amazing tales at this weeks gaming session (at the Hangar).

Shako - Thursday September 18

More Shako! Some at Lunch (with Steve McCabe) and some in the evening (with Carl).

Gaming with Chuck - posts Williamsburg Muster news item

Gaming blog by Malcontent and Rabble-Rouser, Chuck Turnitsa, has posted a news item related to the Williamsburg Muster.

See it Here.

Malplaquet - September 11, 1709

This is an important day in recent history - the terror attack on the United States in 2001 - but it is also an important day in early modern history. This is the anniversary of the Battle of Malplaquet. In 1709, during the war of Spanish Succession, there was a battle between the allied Anglo-Dutch army (of 100,000) under the Duke of Marlborough and Eugene of Savoy, against the French army (of 90,000) under Marshals Villars and Boufflers.

This was Marlborough's last great victory, although the war would drag on for another 5 years. The Allies were besieging the city of Mons, and the French army took up a threatening position at nearby Maplaquet. This forced the Allies to attack. The attack plan called for a double flanking maneuver, which would leave the center weakened, and susceptible to a charge by the Allied Cavalry (numbering some 30,000).

The attack was finally successfuly, and Marlborough won, but not without significant losses. The Allied forces suffered 22,000 killed and wounded, and the French lost about 12,000.

While successful, the price was so high that Marlborough would rather not risk another such encounter. Because of this attitude, he was replaced by Eugene.

Villars went on to defeat Eugene not only at Denain (July 24, 1712), but also went on to capture two allied Cities, to lay the grounds for the 1713 peace.

A very nice history and blow-by-blow of the battle is at Battlefield Anomalies.

Southern Front - Sept 26, 27, 28

The Triangle Simulation Society will be running Southern Front in Raleigh North Carolina.

This is a really fun convention, and the inspiration for Williamsburg Muster.

I went, a number of years ago, when I was living south of Charlotte, and I had a really great time. In fact, some of the best local convention experiences I ever had were in the Carolinas - Southern Front, and Battle of Cowpens.
-chuck

Shako, Thursday September 11

At the Hangar - a game of Shako put on at lunchtime by Steve McCabe.

ODMS Redesigned Website Launches

The launch of the redesigned ODMS website coincides with the posting of the Williamsburg Muster convention news.

See http://www.odms-club.com/

Going to a Blog Format

This should make it easier to post news updates about events, games, AARs, and other news items of interest to the Old Dominion Military Society.