06/29/07 - Marston Moor in DBR, with open bar (check this link for theme drinks on the TBC Bar Page): Perhaps the 'Second Most Gamed ECW Battle.' Certainly in terms of DBR games observed by your humble correspondent. As per usual, there was a certain amount of deployment confusion, as the long suffering umpire realized that more members had shown up than there were commands to accommodate them. However, after some quick reshuffling, and several preliminary rounds of drinks, all was in readiness for the conflict!

At right, the 'ditch' in the center of the battlefield, with Royalist infantry on the right, and Parliamentary infantry on the left. In the distant background, by the dice (despite all our best efforts, the membership still seems to leave game paraphernalia on the table during photographs) can be seen the Royalist cavalry trotting forward against the, justifiably, wary Parliamentary horse.

At right, in the distance, surrounded by more paraphernalia, can be seen the Royalist horse just embarking upon their effort to swing around the Parliamentary flank. In the center, the out numbered Royalist foot begin a series of largely meaningless maneuvers that apparently kept the Parliamentary center off balance. Parliament's generals seemed to spend so much time trying to decipher the Royalist machinations, that they forgot to press home and simply overwhelm the inferior Royalist foot. At the bottom right, beneath the poorly focused flag, Prince Rupert leads the cavalry reserve off towards the Royalist left flank. Following a previous cavalry brigade under Lord Calvin (Lord Cavendish, something with a "C") Perhaps for the purposes of this account Lord Calvin should be referred to as 'Earl Weeneigh?'

At right, the grand high umpire and scenariologist at work. Major Debacle (for this game perhaps the Earl Debacle?) enjoys the temperate Californian evening air whilst desperately striving to reorganize the various armies to accommodate a larger than expected turn out for the game. Experienced gamers will well understand the need for mathematical calculations in the reorganization of two full DBR armies. Observers should remember that the furrowed brow, and perplexed expression were not necessarily caused merely by complex arithmetic, but also by the 'period libations' supplied by the always gregarious 'General Huerta.' Note not only an 'Earl of Farifax' in the umpires right hand, but also an empty 'Scottish Swizzle' partially concealed by the windswept documentation. And these were the 2nd and 3rd drinks respectively. The membership should consider itself lucky that the umpire was still functioning, albeit less efficiently, rather than taking a brief nap at this point during the proceedings.

At right, the Earl Weeneigh (at top, near gaming paraphernalia) presses home is sweeping cavalry attack against the Earl Oskar. Members commented how Earl (Haptman) Oskar had greatly improved his understanding of the DBR rules and consequently his cavalry performed much better than at the previous Naseby game. Weeneigh has inflicted severe losses upon the Parliamentary cavalry, but his casualties are even greater and his command is about to become 'beaten' and flee the field. At the center top are two stands of (apparently superhuman) musketeers which Prince Rupert has shifted over from the center to greatly inconvenience Earl Oskar. AND it was later discovered that we weren't even adding in all of their close combat bonuses! At the right can be seen the blurry, and over exposed, Royalist cavalry reserve personally led by Prince Rupert as it swings forward to the great discomfort of the Parliamentary cavalry.

At right, by this point the photographer appears to have completely given up any pretense of removing game paraphernalia from his shots. Still, it was thought appropriate to capture Rupert's 'Superhuman Musketeers' shortly before they were swamped by Parliamentary reinforcements. However, the evening was growing late, and the libations were having a pronounced affect upon the gamers' constitutions. So it was decided to actually total up break points, and it was discovered that Parliament was only 2 points away from losing all of its commands, except for the large, central infantry command. Oliver Cromwell mopped his brow, sat down for a well needed rest, and conceded the game. Still, it was a real nail biter.

06/22/07 - German Southwest Africa: using TSATF rules (and yes, the editor realizes that he has inserted this entry in improper order, but hey.. He's doing this work for free!!!)

At right, an unintentional combination Dirigible/Action shot. As the lighter than air camera platform traverses the field of battle a member hurriedly, and unsuccessfully, strives to remove a non-period libation from out of the photograph. Meanwhile, 'All the Germans in the World' deploy along the road as a band of Herrero riflemen spring an ambush from out of a dry river bed, at left. At the far right a second band of Herreros remains concealed, apparently within a pile of 20-sided dice.

At right, a third band of Herreros springs from ambush on a rock outcrop, located in the center of the table, just down the main road, apparently not to far from the conveniently placed bowl of salty high fat snacks. At this point the editor should compliment ENDan for his stalwart efforts with his cell phone to insure that some sort of photographic record was kept of the game, even though the official TBC correspondent had (once again) forgotten his camera. The umpire also deserves special mention for his 'Herreros shoot poorly because they have so little ammunition that they never get to practice marksmanship' rule. Your humble correspondent was certain that it would unbalance the game, but it appeared to do nothing of the kind.

At right, despite numerous 'surprise' ambushes the Germans press ahead deploying both a machine gun and a piece of compact mountain artillery. By now all of the on board Herrero units have revealed themselves and the German commander feels comfortable with deploying his infantry. He no longer needs to worry about natives suddenly springing onto his flanks, because 'All the natives are now on the table.' Well, except for the unit that is hiding in the previously mentioned dice pile, but the Herrero commander has inadvertently revealed their existence. So they might as well already be on the table.

Not photographed - I blame myself - the Herreros spring from concealment within the pile of dice and attempt a close combat assault on the German left flank. Strangely enough, the Fritz's exhibit no surprise at all as the 'previously suspected' natives surge forward and down into the ditch where the Germans are sheltering from the, largely ineffective, native gunfire. Sigh! It would have been an exhilarating photo. How about this one instead...

At right, German infantry in the dry river bed, just to the left of the beer bottle, rout the band of Herreros who had hoped to defeat them in hand to hand combat. Some of the Herreros can be seen fleeing at the center of the photo, just to the right of the beer bottle. At the lower center, washed out by the camera/phone flash, the German reserve follows behind their artillery and machine gun.

At right, with the location of all Herrero units now known, the Germans risk sending one of their infantry companies on a wide swing to their right flank. Immediately after this move the Herrero commander launches a cavalry charge from 'off table.' This time the Germans really were surprised, and suffered heavy casualties before fending off the native horse. Afterwards, both sides began totaling up casualties and victory conditions, and the umpire recognized the game as a German victory, but much closer than had been expected at the time of the earliest moves.

Below, 3 'Viking Photos' from the TBC outpost on the South Western Frontier (Australia). At left a sleepy English hamlet. Center, is attacked by Viking raiders. At right, while the terrified villagers rush to save the livestock.

07/06/07 - 'Happy Plastic Boats': Actually, the club's first excursion into a game entitled 'Axis & Allies - War at Sea', from Avalon Hill, or Hasbro, depending upon how one looks at it from the purely business standpoint. For those new to the game, it seems a bit like 'Magic Cards' in that the buyer lays down his money in return for a box with an unpredictable mix of random ships, planes, and their matching abilities cards. Then, undoubtedly after even more purchases, the buyer (eventually) builds up a fleet of his chosen nationality. And then I guess he sells off all the extra rubbish on eBay. The club's two naval enthusiasts used their myriad ships and cards to create 8 separate fleets and then organized a sort of round robin tournament to present the game in all its glory to the membership. Your humble correspondent arrived late, and consequently was placed in charge of an Italian flotilla. The Earl Weeneigh is dead, long live Il Commodori Weenori!

First and second photos at right. Confused by the variation in lighting, the editor thought that these were different photos, of different ships, under similar air attack. In reality they are the same ships, photographed from both North and South, with and without flash. The French battleship Richelieu (the wide boat) and the cruiser Gloire (the thin boat) under air attack by Japanese Zeke fighters and Val dive bombers launched from the aircraft carriers Shokaku and Akagi. The editor was down at the other end of the gaming table, so it's not quite clear how this game turned out. Although I believe this was a French defeat.

At right, originally the editor thought this was a battle between a Japanese carrier force and a German Battleship squadron, just north of the island of Hawaii. However, spirited corrections by the membership pointed out that this was in reality a British carrier fleet engaging a German Battleship squadron, just north of an island shaped like Hawaii. At the lower left the British carrier Ark Royal and an escort destroyer are being pummeled by; 3 flights of Stuka dive bombers, 1 FW Kondor long range bomber, with a U-boat lurking about in the same square just for good measure. The two German battleships just north of Hawaii are in fact the Bismarck and the HMS Rodney, in the same square, pounding away at each other (with broadsides apparently) at point blank range. The square also contains; the German destroyer Karl Galster, the cruiser HMS Exeter, a British submarine, 2 flights of British Swordfish biplane torpedo bombers, and another 4 German FW Kondor long range bombers. Again, this game was no where near the editor's location, but objective bystanders described the combat as "brutal."

At right, a Japanese battleship fleet sallies against a US carrier battle group. To the left are Japanese cruisers and heavy cruisers. To the right are a US submarine, a US destroyer, and possibly the USS Boise. To the center are the Yamato (the fat boat) and a Miyoko class cruiser, beneath a cloud of US carrier based planes. As the TBD Devastator dive bombers swoop in on the Japanese ships a squadron of Zero fighters is engaged by some US Wildcat fighters. The US carrier is not in the photo as it spent the entire game lurking along the US edge of the game board. Thus it was safely out of the range of Japanese gunfire, but within easy striking distance for its own aircraft. And yes, a few turns later the Yamato was sunk.

In an unusual game, because your humble correspondent actually won, an Italian fleet with many cruisers and submarines, but only one battleship, took on a smaller US fleet composed of submarines and some absolutely enormous battleships. After reading through all the special abilities on all the cards for all his ships Il Commodori Weenori decided to use his destroyers to make smoke every turn, and see what happened. At first this probably served more to confuse his opponent than to actually affect the flow of the game. At right, with white cotton balls to simulate smoke the Italian fleet closes in on the Americans who have, rather unsportingly, lined up all their heaviest ships right next to the victory condition markers. The only way for the Italians to win the game is to seize the markers, and the only way to seize the markers will be to sink the entire US fleet. Il Commodori had hoped to use the smoke to provide his ships with saving throws against US shell strikes, but at this point in the game the umpire pointed out that the smoke clouds just north of the central island prevented the US battleships to the left (port?) from firing at the Italian ships on the right (starboard?) The Italians were thus able to concentrate their shell fire from right to left, sinking one US ship each turn.

At right, having crippled and then sunk the smaller, older US battleships on the right the Italians move their flagship forward to capture the victory points marker. Then, just to finish off the turn, the Italian submarines form a ring around the USS Iowa and, much to their own surprise, score a series of lucky hits, and sink the enormous US flagship. This unexpected victory for your humble correspondent, who mostly loses all his games, was made only slightly less sweet because he had vanquished one of the member's 12 year old sons. Still, a win is a win. Especially for Major Weenie, or should one say Il Commodori Weenori!