Vassal session with the 4 Barrs and A Distant Plain

Another session with family via Vassal of A Distant Plain.
This our third go with this excellent game and the Main 5 Propaganda card scenario.
Completed 2 Propaganda rounds thus far and honours pretty even.

Vassal - A Distant Plain more family fun

Another Vassal session of A Distant Plain with Dad, Brother and Son tonight (after waiting a week for Virgin to come back on line for son).
Played through two more Propaganda cards with only 1 more to appear.
None of us really doing that well but Coalition (brother) sitting at -4 and with Surge ability has good chance of winning unless we can thwart him.
Great to get some 'live' wargaming.

Also set up Storm Over Normandy for some quick playing solo fun for VE Day

A Distant Plain - Vassal a second family outing.

Started another game of A Distant Plain on Vassal with Dad, Brother and Son.
Brother staying with Coalition (I can see he has an idea how to use them), Dad now Taliban and Son Warlords with me retaining Government.
We played the Main Scenario again and got through 2 Propaganda cards with Coalition being close to a win just before second Propaganda Card but Warlords managed to use Terror in several key locations pegging the Coalition back by loss of Support.
Good to see they are getting the gist of the game and its many strategies, twists and turns.
Good deal of 'diplomacy' in a 4 player game (as in "fer feck sake do something to stop him !!" and suchlike) and just a bit of back stabbing and double dealing.
Great system COIN, not a 'pure' wargame but nice mix of Military, Political and Economic issues backed by historical Events.
And whilst there is no substitute for me to physical play of game with its tactile feel and visual appeal, Vassal is a good system for such remote (and savable) play with family and/or friends.


Situation at end of 2nd Propaganda card

More board wargaming - solo (Festung Europa) and Vassal (A Distant PLain)

Another session of A Distant Plain tonight with my Government faction winning on 5th Propaganda card with -1 victory total, Brother Coalition 2nd on -2, Dad with Warlords in 3rd on -3 and Son with Taliban 4th on -9.

As this was a learning game we will start afresh in due course with COIN factions remaining same but Warlords and Taliban swapping players.

With only a couple of minor issues (some cards need regenerated/noted as auto-discarded) the game played smoothly on Vassal.










The final positions on Victory Track.

Also managed to get Festung Europa onto table for a solo play.
Not played this much (maybe once before ?) but interesting 'light' CDG game of western front 1943-45 starting with OP Husky.

Vassal - A Distant Plain - more Barr family play

Another session with Son, Brother and Dad tonight of A Distant Plain via Vassal.
We got through a couple more Propaganda cards.
Dad with Warlords was in a winning position at one stage but combined Ops by Government (me) and Coalition (bro) saw them knocked back a bit but still ahead at end of session.
Another session planned for Wednesday which may see game completed.
Great stuff and a gaming life-saver is Vassal !!

 

Vassal - A Distant Plain a family affair.............

Managed a to start a game of 'A Distant Plain' tonight via Vassal involving my son, brother and Dad, so very much a family affair (we also used Whats App video call).
Only Dad has played the physical game so tad slow initially explaining some stuff to son and brother but once first couple of card plays done it started to flow well.
Bit of a learning curve also for me controlling via Vassal but nothing too brain reducing.
We played through to end of first Propaganda card and as yet no clear leader (strategies only starting to become clear to newbies).
Son is playing as Taliban, brother as Coalition, Dad as Warlords and me as Government.
Great fun and really nice in these odd days to have a family 'get together'.
Plan is to play at least once per week.




The situation at end of first Propaganda card.

Field Of Battle 2 a 10mm WSS action

My younger brother Warren (who resides in Liverpool) over for a few days and so we had a game. As it been years since he played miniatures (Warhammer/RPG background) and so I decided to go with an easy to teach set and Field Of Battle certainly fits that bill. Set up a War of Spainish Succession game using my 10mm Imperialists and French. I set up terrain, rolled up units stats and suchlike and then let Warren pick side. He chose the French who had a bigger (slightly) army but Poor Command and mostly Poor Brigadiers but with several high quality Infantry and Horse units (Irish/Garde Francais and Maison Du Roi) against a mainly Austrian force with Skilled Command several decent Brigadiers but average units. A simple encounter game seemed best with us alternating deployment of Brigades and then setting to !

A great game ensued with plenty of incidents and talking points. Warren had awful dice rolls and cards sequence (Lull cards) in first turn making his army mostly static as Imperialists seemed jet propelled in their advance. He did manage to get first charges of game in with Pistol Cavalry downhill against some Pistol Cavalry of mine but managed to lose one unit instantly destroyed and another damaged !
On my right I hurled some Cavalry into his Brigade of three tough Irish Wild Geese and gave them a proper seeing to. Another Austrian Cavalry Brigade then caught some French Infantry in March Column (trying to move around a wood and marsh) Routing the head of the column but failing to dent the following units which managed to form line. Game not finished but French army Morale close to expired (down to 6 from initial 30) whilst Imperial still healthy (done to 28 from 34). Great stuff from a rule set I really enjoy.

Postscript: finished the game following day and it went as expected with the French failing to recover, in fact things got even worse for them with an abysmal series of dice rolls (several times I rolled 12 on a d12 whilst brother managed a 1 or 2 no matter which dice type he was using !!) seeing their remaining Brigades decimated and losing a staggering 5 Brigadiers (only occurs on a 1 on d12 !!). My brother really enjoyed the game despite horrendous luck (It did lead to some laugh out loud moments) and had no problem understanding the Field Of Battle system. 

Second day I did realize we had played Melee incorrectly previous day. I was recalling 1st edition FOB wherein Melee could last across several initiatives whereas in 2nd edition it is fought to a conclusion once initiated by either side in a single initiative.   

Austrian horse on right wing

French horse Brigades refusing to advance off hilltop

Austrian Infantry supported by Dutch (single rank to signify Platoon firing system)

Opposing Horse clash on French right

Marshall Tallard ruing yet another failed roll

Lines clash 

French Infantry manage to re-deploy in face of Cavalry charge

Dutch Guard engage the French horse Brigade that finally moved off hill