Gaming With Miles AAR Part Deux

More photos from my game with Miles.

One unit of defenders pushed back out of the position, with two others taking casualties and a fourth now moving in to counterattacks.

More horsey catastrophes!

Geekism in action!

And again!

Yes that's right Miles, put down the phone and smile!

Reinforcements at last, but alas too late.

I really enjoyed the GDA system and hope to play more games with it.  I like the uncertainty of the brigade activation, which hampered my assault on the monastery several turns running.  However, I sometimes wonder if our little tin brigadiers know better than I do.  A full all assault might have worked but at cost, while the slow but steady attrition definitely worked.

I Have Been to the Lair of the UberGeek

Last weekend I was onsite at the Lair of the UberGeek, Mile Reidy.  Miles and his wife were great hosts and not serial killers as previously advertised.  However, I did make the mistake of jokingly asking where the guns were kept and finding out!

A major highlight was being let downstairs into Miles gaming room, and more important being let back upstairs in reasonably alive condition.   It was great to see Miles' huge gaming collection including his hand crafted Monitor and Merrimack models.

We played a game of General d'Armee, my second game using this rule set and I really like what I've seen so far.  I see a SYW conversion of these in my future.  We used Miles 15mm Peninsula war figures.  I used to game with my own collections of 15s a lot, but sold them off over the years to do 28s.  I see the advantages but still prefer the heft of the bigger figures, plus my eyes are not what they were 20 odd years ago.  It was a scenario where the French (me) were trying to take a defended monastery held by the Brits and Spanish.  I had 3 infantry brigades on table plus a cavalry brigade off table to my left.  Miles had 2 infantry brigades on table, plus cavalry and infantry brigades off table to my left.

We had a good game, with a lot of back and forth swings of momentum and a French victory much to my surprise.  Highlights of the AAR as follows.

• On my left, both sides cavalry brigades arrived early on with a fair bit of marching required to reach the monastery including a river crossing.  My cavalry brigade was well in hand, allowing me the freedom to write if off with out causing much damage to the British what so ever.  Seriously I passed every command roll to get them moving and flunked every charge or melee roll.  However, I forced the enemy to deploy on site and significantly delayed him from influencing the fight at the monastery.
• On the right we had a bit of a stand off with both side's brigades standing back and making faces at one another.  Finally we both got enough activations to allow us to close with me advancing to threaten the monastery and Miles advancing to threaten my right flank to draw me away from the Monastery.
• In the centre things did happen.  I put two brigades into column with skirmishers and artillery support and advanced on the Spanish brigade holding the monastery.  Multiple attempts to get an infantry assault going were foiled by failed activations, of course which ever brigade wasn't order to assault activated with no problems!
• With the assault delayed I resorted to using fire and limited charges to keep the defenders busy and wear them down.  Some of my units were getting pasted and I thought I was close to done. However, I was doing more damage to the defenders than I realized and my one battalion charges were mostly successful.  In the end, the Spanish brigade was done for and I took the position.  Miles got his reinforcements on table and en route to the position but would have to force a river crossing and he threw the towel.

Good scenarios, good game, good rules and good company - wins all around!

Miles redeploys at the monastery as the French columns approach

I did manage to get a fair concentration aimed at the key point

My cavalry ride into the shadow of the valley of death

Miles checks cavalry melee rules while a firefight goes on at the monastery in the background

Charge!

A Visit With the Uber Geek

Last week my academic travels took me south of the border to Baltimore, and the lair of the Uber Geek Miles Ready.  I always enjoy my trips south of the 49th parallel safety line, America would be a fine country if it wasn't for all of the Republicans (maybe the administration can build a wall of something to keep them out).

Highlights of my trip included

• Meeting Miles and his lovely wife Marybeth (no pictures, they move to fast to be recorded on camera)
• Eating Marybeth's wonderful food (including the crab above and others that Miles didn't want to eat) 
• Meeting Mile's friend Ed from York and his wife Theresa, and eating the crab that Ed didn't want to eat
• Staying at their Bond Villain lair in St Michael's MD

  

  Miles Fig tree.  I'll be interested in the AAR reports of Miles vs the local rodents and Raccoons

  
  
• A visit to the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum.  A great museum complex with charming gate staff, blow hard tour guides and a fine collection of traditional wooden boats.  The young lady at the ticket booth won Miles heart over by asking "perhaps you could check the board to see if you qualify for any of our discounts"  instead of "are you old enough to be a senior?". No pictures because it was raining.
• A game in Miles game room in his "closer to town" house, AAR with lots of pictures in a post to follow.
• A visit to the Radio control yacht racing shop close to Annapolis MD where Miles' banker friend Bob tempted him with a new form of crack.  It looked great fun, but I am already at full capacity on geek projects with my budget fully allocated.  Besides I couldn't fit a ten foot replica J class sloop in my luggage.
• Watching high finance unfold as Miles and his friend took conference calls in the front seat of Miles Tesla.  I quite enjoyed watching them as they essentially played buzzword bingo put the with the on mute.

Apparently this was a test weekend as Ed and I were the first gamers to stay overnight while MaryBeth was on site - always a stressful event.  We seemed to have passed the test, being judged as "not nearly as creepy as I expected".  I guess I'll have to try to be more creepy next time.  Of course, if Miles gamer friends are so sketchy that I was considered a safe bet, that's his look out.