Bayou Wars 2014

Last weekend (June 13-15) I attended our regional convention, Bayou Wars.  This year it was held at the Magnusson motel in St. Francisville, Louisiana.  The motel has four different rooms that we used and there appeared to be plenty of room for all the games and the tournament.

I ran one game, a Very British Civil War scenario, about which I will shortly post a report.  This post covers the other three games I played:  Racin' and Rubbin' by Bill Majure on Friday night, a WW2 Bolt Action game by Doug Whittenberg on Saturday afternoon, and a Seven Years War Black Powder game by Dwaine Balius on Saturday night.

Racin' and Rubbin'  Bill Majure's NASCAR racing game ("If you ain't rubbin' you ain't racin'!") is an amalgam of three different auto racing games.  It was a blast to play, especially since Jerome and I are NASCAR fans.  He and I each had three cars and we did five "laps" around the Pocono race track.  The rules are still in development so we were play testing as we raced but had fun nevertheless.  Once he gets the game more perfected, Bill has volunteered to come up to Jackson and run it for us.  On Saturday Bill ran another game, this time using a generic super-speedway track (like at Daytona and Talledega).

Bill getting the game set up.



One of my cars, Mark Martin's Number 8 US Army car.



The 17, 88, and 8 cars complete the first lap.  The lead car is already on the back stretch.



The 11 car (leader) spins out in turn 3 bringing on a caution as three of the other cars slow after passing him.  The +1 marker denotes the difficulty of turn 3 at Pocono.



The remaining five cars approach the start line after the caution.  I didn't pit the 17 car, gambling that my tires would last - they didn't.  But I still had the 29 and 8 cars in contention.

After nudging my 29 car aside in turn 3 of the final lap, Dale Earnhart Junior's 88 car beats my Kevin Harvick 29 car to the green flag.  The "Junior Nation" was ecstatic.





With the winner's "garland" around his neck. Jerome (right) and Bill celebrate his victory.



Bolt Action WW2  Doug ran a three-cornered game pitting the Americans, Russians, and Germans against each other, calling it "Patton's Dream and Hitler's Nightmare."  My friend Jay and I and a third player whose name also started with "J" played the Germans and even though only two command guard soldiers and two medics survived we were the winners with four or five victory points against the Americans and Russians three each.   EDIT:  Two pictures added on 06/23/2014.

The little town over which we fought, dominated by the resin church.  Almost all of the rest of the buildings are from 4Ground, with removable roofs and floors.  [Apologies for the "white out" but I was trying to get rid of some joker's very visible big, flabby gut.]

Jay's PzIV slowly moves forward, sniffing out its prey.

Addison (left) and Richard, two of the three American players, contemplate their action as the game starts.

Jay's PzIV uses a Russian squad to grease his treads.  The hotel to the right held the Russian command element and a sniper which belonged to Doug's daughter who had painted all of her Russians.



My command element (officer and two guards) move up to encourage one of my squads to attack the Americans.

Moving up against the church wall, my commander directs what's left of the squad to rally so they can continue to engage the Americans.



Unfortunately the American Sherman picks this time to rumble out and attack my squad.  They take further losses.

But the Sherman exposed its side to Doug's daughter's T-35/85 which again proved the Sherman is a Ronson, lighting the first time it is struck - by an 85mm high velocity armor piercing shell.  You can get a much better look at the magnificent resin church that dominated the town over which we contested.

And as we started to withdraw our paltry remaining figures after loosing two infantry squads and a mortar team, the T-35/85 also showed that the PzIV can be a Ronson also.

The sniper had been trying all game to put a round in my commander's head.  She finally succeeded, leaving us with just the two headquarters guards and the two medics to escape the carnage.

Black Powder Seven Years War  This game was run by my friend Dwaine Balius, pitting Prussians (commanded by another gamer and me) against Austrians and Russians (commanded by Jay, Bill Majure, and a third gamer).  Jay and I have played Black Powder before with Doc Ord, another friend, but none of us really understood the rules.  Dwaine, and Bill, provided a better explanation so we had a more delightful experience this time.  So here are a few pictures of the action.

The opening of the battle with the Prussian right wing (my command) and center facing the Austrians and Russians, respectively.  The cavalry wings are at the top of the picture, with the Prussian cavalry just out of view.

My Prussians advance against the Austrians.

The big cavalry fight on the Prussian left pitted one regiment of Prussian cuirassiers and three of dragoons against Russians and Austrians, a mix of two regiments of cuirassiers, one of horse grenadiers, and one of dragoons.  The Prussian cavalry finally defeated their opponents and were poised to roll up the Russian center (at right in photo) by the end of the game.

Back to my right-wing Prussians as they closed on the Austrians.  Unfortunately my grenadiers (center left) came unglued and scampered away.  But the line infantry held on doggedly and finally defeated the white coats.



So in the three games in which I played, I was on the winning side in two of them as WW2 Germans and SYW Prussians while I came in second in the NASCAR race.  Hmmm, maybe I should stick to playing Germans.

My VBCW game posting will come soon but I spent part of the day playing Germans (and winning again - is this an omen?) in German East Africa in our club game and then visiting my new granddaughter, Serenity (AKA Firefly).  If you are a sci-fi fan you'll get the reference.