Small catch up

Another busy period has meant little time for gaming or blogging but did manage a couple of games of Lock N Load system at my Dad's past couple of Sundays.
Scenarios were from 'Heroes Of The Blitzkrieg' and 'In Defeat Defiance' modules.
Cannot remember details of scenarios other than both set in 1940 with one pitting British against Germans trying to cross a canal (The Canal ?) and the other a French versus German affair with a few tanks on each side (Steel vs Steel ?).
Both very enjoyable games using this interesting tactical system and nice to be in 1940 rather than late war bashes for a change.

Oh and these arrived but no time to read properly yet !

I also received an 'Update Kit' for most excellent 'The Hunters' from GMT Games but not even opened yet !!

The Hunters what an excellent and addictive game

Played new arrived 'The Hunters U-Boats At War 1939-1943' at my Dads tonight.
Whilst essentially a solo game it can be played with two by having one player roll for the enemy encounters and such like.
Decided to try it this way to learn the system but boy oh boy did we get so engrossed in the Missions and Careers that it felt like co-operative play anyhow.
Very slick system (ala B17 or Patton's Best) with super narrative style play (my favourite) and high excitement levels, there is a lot of dice rolling but just about every roll has tension or meaning within the game and the variety means no two missions and encounters feel the same.
My Dad ended up running three U-Boats a type VIIC and a type IXB twice.
First Commander in U907 a type VIIC managed to win Knights across for sinking a capital ship in the Atlantic and had sent 10 merchants to the bottom but died when Sunk with all hands by Convoy escorts in the Arctic in early 1942.
Second attempt saw a rather poor showing by U941 a type IXB who seemed to spend the 'Happy Time' of the early war laying endless Mines around British Isles and was KIA during a Aircraft attack after only 5 missions.
Third chap in U1140 another type IXB is still alive and has just earned Knights Cross for sinking over 120000 tonnage.
He has survived 12 missions thus far but has been very lucky to remain undetected by all but one escort and only suffered minor damage from several aircraft attacks (managing to shoot 2 down) however as we had to leave it (after 5 solid hours that seemed like 1 !!) he is well into 1942 and at much more risk.

A fairly simple game in its mechanics but very very addictive....."just one more mission......ok just one more..........ok another final mission"..............

Couple pics taken as after thought as caught up in the game so much

New Year new arrivals

Missed out (again ! its been weeks) on RPG/Games night with mates due to circumstances beyond my control but cheered up no end by package that awaited from the most excellent Hexasim (http://www.hexasim.com/).



Two more items to add to growing list of unplayed board wargames, wargame rules and unpainted lead !

Christmas goodies

Busy past few days with Christmas and work so not much done but did manage to acquire couple of tasty looking board wargames namely:

















No Retreat! The North African Front

The Hunters: German U-Boats 1939-43 (in post) a nice looking solo game

Am now off for a full week (huzza) so hoping to get a game going on the table I set up, which seems ages ago, with at least a couple of WWII sets as planned.