Games day

Gentlemen,

The next games day will be on the 21st of December and we are going to meet at the Good Heavens in Shimokitazawa.

Starting at 10:00 finishing at 17:00, we have the place all for ourselves. 

The space for large games is limited and we will be able to play a standard miniatures game, a small skirmish game and a lot of boardgames.

Please contact me or Brian to confirm your participation.

Cheers

Giovanni

Next Games day November 16th

Dear All,

A quick reminder to let you know that next event will be in Seiseki Sakura Gaoka at the community center inside OPA shopping center.

http://westtokyowargamers.blogspot.jp/p/how-to-get-here.html

We plan to play a Napoleonic game but if you feel you want to put up another game at the same time we would have the space. If you would like to try the joys of naps please come along.

Be there or be square!

At the same time let me add some photos of the two days event we had with Alessio Cavatore a couple of weeks ago.

Giovanni

Pub Gaming!

Giovanni has already sent everyone on the West Tokyo Wargamers mailing list notice about this, but I thought I would mention it here in case anyone who is in the area and interested in attending might want to join in.

We had orginally thought that there would be no games day in October, as we were unable to arrange a room at the usual venue.  But as luck would have it, we have worked out an alternative for us this month.  Frank, of the Tokyo Figures Society, had introduced Brian and Giovanni to Paul. Paul owns a British pub in Shimokitazawa called Good Heavens and has expressed an interest in getting back into gaming.

After some discussion Paul was good enough to open his doors for us for a day of gaming, which means that there will a games day this month after all!

This will take place on Sunday, October 26th, at  Good Heavens from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm.

There would be no charge for the space but he would like us to have lunch there or at least a drink. He is also willing to make a reasonable set of a dish and drink especially for our event. The price is not yet determined, but we're looking at 1500- 2000 yen. 

There is space for two Bolt Action games and tables for boardgames, so the following has been arranged.

1) Robert vs Matt: Burma theater, British vs Japanese
2) Guillaume vs Gilles:  European theater, Germans vs Americans
3) Various boardgames

A sincere thanks to Paul to making this possible!

In more good news, we will be joined by a rather special guest; Alessio Cavatore, the author of Bolt Action (and other rule sets), will be in Tokyo that week, and Giovanni has twisted his arm into joining us for the day. 

If you are interested in attending, please let Giovanni know   so we can count heads before the day.

Games Day July 20th, 2014

Some pictures from our games yesterday.  We had more of a turnout than we've had in a while, which was gratifying!  There were a number of board games, Matt and I had our first game of Bolt Action, and Giovanni and Sada had a game of Black Powder using Sada's impressive La Haye Sainte model.

The Bolt Action game saw Matt's British against my Japanese.  The British were victorious, but my IJA died to the last man, as was the done thing.

Bravely accepting the inevitable...

The end; my remaining mortar crew are flanked by Aldershot's finest, and will meet their comrades at Yasukuni.

 

My little tankette certainly didn't last long!

 

As this was our first time with the rules, no doubt we made a number of errors and omissions.  Still, we soon picked up the basics, and the game was engaging and moved quickly.  It was fun for winner and loser alike, so we look forward to our next outing with Bolt Action, and to getting more fluent with the rules.

And thanks to Chris, who did us sterling service as an Impartial Fate, drawing the order dice from the hat!

Brian & Co. played a couple of boardgames, including this one on Global Warming which would have made any Greenpeace activists nearby choke... 

"Die, Planet Earth, Die!!!"

The Napoleonic game looked impressive as always, but this time instead of battalions the maneuver units were companies.  I believe the French took a hiding this time and that the farmhouse remained securely in German hands!

 

 

 

Looking forward to our next outing!

-Robert

One heck of a cuirass...

No it's not Napoleonics. Here is that finished 1/56 scale Japanese Type 94 Tankette I bought earlier from Kazu at Warlord Games, for what will be our first game of Bolt Action today.

-Robert

Rendezvous with Destiny

Hi there,

I've been asked to write an article about something for the club blog. To be honest, I've never written a hobby-related article so this is a first for me. If you don't have the time or energy to read the article you're welcome to skip to the photos at the end. Those brave enough to continue, do so at your own risk.

Well you might be asking yourselves, "What's this Rendezvous with Destiny malarkey?"

"Rendezvous with destiny" is the motto of the Screaming Eagles 101st airborne division as featured in the book and TV series "Band of Brothers", which follows the exploits of Easy Company.

Coincidentally that's what I'm currently working on. I'm putting together an Easy Company platoon for Bolt Action

Easy Company, 2nd Battalion of the 506th PIR (Parachute Infantry Regiment) of the 101st Airborne Division, the "Screaming Eagles", is one of the best-known companies in the United States Army.

In its first combat action, Easy captured and put out of action a German battery that was looking down on Utah Beach. The company led the way into Carentan, fought in Holland, held the perimeter at Bastogne, led the counteroffensive in the Battle of the Bulge, fought in the Rhineland campaign, and took Hitler's Eagle's Nest at Berchtesgaden.

Platoon composition.

Historically there were three twelve-man rifle squads plus a six-man mortar team to a platoon. Each rifle squad included a machine-gun team that would lay down a base of fire while the rest of the squad would try to outflank the enemy.

In Bolt Action, US platoons are each allowed to take up to three machine-gun teams (basically that's one per squad if you have three squads per platoon), so at least, in that regard, the authors of Bolt Action have taken into account the historical organization of these platoons. I only have two twelve-man squads so I guess my platoon is a small one. I also have a 60 mm mortar team, medic, forward observer and assorted HQ staff. Not enough for 1000 points. I'll have to get something big and nasty to reach the 1000 point mark.

 

Helmets, uniforms and other tomfoolery

Airborne companies were identified by markings on their helmets. The club, diamond, heart, and spade signified each of the regiments attached to the 101st. Easy Company had the spade mark.

The uniforms had a screaming eagle patch on the left shoulder and an American flag patch on the right shoulder. The 101st didn't have the American flag patch during the Normandy landings, the soldiers received that patch during Operation Market Garden. Why am I ranting on about this? Because I didn't bother putting on the US flag patch and that's my excuse.

I used decals for the helmet markings, screaming eagle patches, rank insignia etc.

I think my miniatures are almost tabletop-ready. They're about 90% done. I just need to finish the basing and tart them up a bit. The miniatures are from Artizan Designs.

If any of the historical information I've given is inaccurate you have my apologies.

Here are some photos for your viewing pleasure.                    - Rod

 

1st Lt on the left and 2nd Lt on the right.

 

From behind. Note the vertical officer stripe on the helmets.

The platoon.

Machine-gun team

A squad.

From left: Forward Observer, Medic, Mortar Team

New project- WW2 in the Far East using Bolt Action

I'm not just into Napoleonics!  I have recently been busy cleaning, undercoating, and have just started painting my first 28mm Imperial Japanese for Warlord Games' Bolt Action. 

I downloaded an app for my iPad, Battlescribe, which allows me to construct army lists without having to faff about with Excel or with scraps of paper and a calculator! Now, I'm not one to get hung up on points, and I am virulently against min-and-maxing out lists that take no account of historical organization.  But it's good to have some kind of guide for building up a force, especially when starting out.

Using this, I made a list I made around what I have in my collection already, just under 1000 points. I'm sure I will tinker around with the composition later as the collection grows and we get some games in under our belts.  I'm already aware it is lacking in any kind of anti-tank capability, but one step at a time.

Just to have some historical peg to hang my army on, I decided to represent the Aoba Detachment, including infantry from the 5th Regiment, 2nd Division IJA, based in Sendai, who fought (and were decimated) at Guadalcanal, later serving in Singapore and in Burma.  This was also my late Father-in-law's regiment, although the war ended before he could be shipped out as a reinforcement (there was no fuel available at the time, luckily!)

Matt is doing some British/Commonwealth troops from Burma, so that looks like being the first campaign on the agenda.  However, my Tohoku lads are ready to go anywhere, and to fight anyone!

Type 94 Tankette- I need to borrow Giovanni's airbrush!

At this point, the list is based on what figures and models I already have.  These are from Warlord Games,  TAG Miniatures (The Assault Group), and Brigade Games.  The tankette I got from Kazu at his new shop in Akihabara.

Of course, we will be needing terrain, and Giovanni already has some very nice jungle pieces he made from aquarium plants.  I've some laser-cut pieces I'm working one, plus this large bunker.

I've also a number of US Marines primed and ready, but seeing as Matt is already working on his British I'll focus on getting the Japanese done first.  I will post more as the project develops- we are hoping for our first game sometime this summer. Hopefully Matt will share some pics of his stuff here at some point.

-Robert

Peace has, apparently, broken out...

Note that there will be no wargaming day this Sunday ( May 18) as due to many of you having other commitments,we were unable to get a quorum for the event. 

Thanks for those of you who contacted me, and for everyone else just a friendly (ha!) reminder to try and be proactive about letting Giovanni, Brian and myself know about whether people intend to make it to gaming days.  We don't want to lose money on wasted bookings!  (If we cancel in advance, we can at least save 50% of room costs.)

See you in June!
 
-Robert

Back in business

Well.... we are still alive! Wow you might say, you never write how could we know if the club is alive or not?

In fact we should have been more active, but life seem to have kicked in and time is always an issue, commuting to work adds to the hours out of home and a family adds to my duties.
I find myself never saying no to many things and meeting friends, helping them, talking to people and  just living the life takes all my spare time.
Now I have my girls in Italy to visit the grand parents, so I have a little bit of time to dedicate to my self, but still it is hard to get organized and post some news.

first of all let me say that we need new blood for the club, so if you thought about coming a playing with us, do not hesitate, just come, we are a bunch of friendly nice people, so I am sure you will enjoy gaming with us.
In the last 6 months we had quite a bit of interesting activities, that brought us to visit the Naval Base in Atsugi and the army base in ***** and we set up some games, with the hope of getting some new people to join the club and expose them to historical wargaming. Unfortunately it didn't work as we hoped for, but none the less it was a great experience with the addition of some great american food.

We managed to set up some large games, one of Napoleonics (as we normally like to do) and also a fantastic Naval war-game of the battle of Trafalgar organized by Sada, fantastic as usual.

Sada's fantastic game (Thanks Robert for the photo)

We also had a game of Saga, Bolt Action organized by Kazu, and played a few games of Sargasso a great looking board game by the friends of Giant Hobby.

Unfortunately the event was centered on a tournament of Warhammer 40,000 and there wasn't much interest in historical games....newt time we will be luckier.

We also had a few games at our club (you can always check the dates of the upcoming games, on the link on the right side of the screen) Recently we have been concentrating on the Napoleonics, what a surprise isn't it? Well for a person that didn't have interest in that period this is quite a change, and I am now totally converted, it is great to see those large units of miniatures being finished and ready to hit the table, I also find great to go a pick the units that came from my area in north Italy.

Tirailleurs du Po (Thanks Robert for the photos)

At the club we have been playing to games using well designed scenarios, thanks to Roebrt's talent and I really enjoyed playing both games, the scenario add so much depth to the game, and you have to use your brain, which makes it quite fun compared to standard shoot all kind of games.

You can see more about these games here and here, thanks to Roebrt and Sada's excellent blogs.

Some of our giant Napoleonics games.

 Other games where Gareth's and Matt's 6mm American War of Independence game using Baccus figures. The game gives you quite an interesting idea of what a battle would have looked like from a hilltop.

As a contrast to large games, this is Gareth and Matt's 6mm AWI game

Last but not least me and Guillaume played a game of Saga, still one of the fastest and most enjoyable war-games on the market.

Normans vs Joms Vikings

So please do not miss the next 2 games booked for May the 18th and June 22nd.

We are looking forward to see new faces, don't give up on your hobby we are here looking forward to play with YOU!