Vassal, VSQL and The Guards Counter Attack

Well I got the first Squad Leader Scenario set up.

For some reason the picture I saved from Vassal is showing a lot of extra white space around the game board. Next time I'll crop the image better or play around with it some before I upload it.

You can download the Vassal Squad Leader Module here, they just came out with a new version on Jan 1st.

I had a minor freak out when I opened my Squad Leader and Cross of Iron Boxes and couldn't find the game boards. Further delving in the games closet found that I had stuffed the boards in my ASL boxes, Yanks and Beyond Valor. I'm not sure at present where my ASL rules binders are.

The biggest impetus to getting a game in is that I have no recollection of the rules. Once that is done we shall see. I've also done some quick math and it looks like one could play this scenario on a roughly 5ft by 3.5ft table if the hexes are 4" across. My impulse 1/72  order came in and I have some PSC Germans and Russians whom could be pressed into service shortly.

One thing I still need to sort out for SLiM is if the boxes I have will be enough, and how to differentiate between light, medium and heavy machine guns.

That is a subject for another post I think.

Cheers.

In memory of John Hill

As I am sure many of you already know, John Hill passed away on January 12th.

He may have been best known for authoring Squad Leader and Johnny Reb. I have to say that, although I played quite a bit of Squad Leader as a teen and twenty something, I never paid attention to who the game designers were of the various games I played. Reading through Mr. Hill's titles is like reading through a history of Wargaming in the US.

Through my interest in ACW history and gaming, which has suffered greatly from my short attention span, I was made aware of this tribute issue of "Charge!" magazine. It's free, by the way.

I had already decided that I wanted to push Squad Leader, and Squad Leader in Miniature (SLiM) to the head of the gaming queue. After skimming the tribute issue I also ordered Across a Deadly Field and received it the next day.

So far it looks pretty good. Impressive photos and illustrations that one comes to expect from Osprey. Another feature of these rules is that they try to give you tables for scales from 6mm - 28mm and ways to play with either rectangular or square based troops, taking two or three bases as a regiment.

Anyway, I hope that you will find the tribute magazine interesting and perhaps rekindle your interest in one of Mr. Hill's classic games, or even try out his latest.

I'll have more about the painting challenge, and maybe my review of 2014 and plans for 2015, coming up.