Mixing Business with Bolt Action - Part 1: Tennessee

A recent project at work has had me on the road for the better part of August. It started in Knoxville, TN and wrapped up near LA. Along the way I was seeking out local games stores to see who had some Bolt Action goodies stocked. 

Knoxville, TN

I found an LGS in "Olde City" and a few others in surrounding areas, but unfortunately, no Bolt Action. 

Nashville, TN

A 10-20 minute drive from the airport landed me at The Game Keep. After having a look around at several miniatures, I asked the shopkeep about BA. He mentioned they have had a few people inquire about it and even had a few people order some of the books. They actually had an Armies of Japan book on the shelf. Wanting to support the local game store scene, I made a small purchase - some Army Painter Quickshade Inks.

 Man these thing do wonders things for these minis.

Unfortunately, their historical miniatures crowd gathered the following night and I would be on the road to Memphis...

Memphis, TN

Ah, Memphis. You delicious dry rubbed ribs... 

Oh, right, Bolt Action...

Even without the ribs, I was in for a treat. I asked some folks on the Bolt Action FaceBook group if there were any shops in Nashville an Memphis. The response was that I needed to check out Mid-South Hobbies. And I'm glad that I did. When I walked into Mid-South Hobbies, my mouth dropped. This place is huge and it's filled with R/C you name it, model trains, Boardgames, miniatures, and of course Bolt Action. So, after my 30 or so minute tour around the place I settled in - standing in front of the Warlord Games display (yes, they had other Warlord Games miniatures as well).

It wasn't long before (well, it may have been - I probably lost track of time) another gentlemen approached and began to inspect the wall of Bolt Action goodness. I'm not usually one to strike up a conversation with someone standing in any typical store, but this was no typical store. So I began to ask about the his interest in Bolt Action and the BA scene in general here in Memphis. That led to some discussion of a possible game later that night. I checked in to the hotel, ate dinner, an returned to find him assembling his latest purchase - some Wargames Factory Germans. It turns out that many of the Bolt Action regulars were up in Indy for GenCon2013, so we ended up playing some BattleTech - my first time playing it and it was also enjoyable.

I ended up leaving Mid-South Hobbies with some new recruits: a Bolt Action US Army Command blister pack and a US box of the Wargames Factory minis.

The next night, while i was in Memphis, a couple guys from out local gaming group were playing some Bolt Action back home. Through the marvels of modern technology, I was right there on the battle board with them. 

Spent the weekend at home and then it was off to the southwest! Next stop: El Paso, TX... (To be continued...)

CSS Tennessee assembled and primed

Slightly stern-on view of the CSS Tennessee (1/600 Thoroughbred Model) in "dry dock" after assembly and primer. 

I'll need to wait for the paint to arrive before detailing can begin. I also need to think about basing... Any thoughts?

Pimping Iron & Oak

So, the Thoroughbred Models have arrived - a pair from an eBay purchase and a pair from Thoroughbred Models themselves.

The question arose on BGG about mixing miniatures and Iron & Oak today, so I snapped a few pictures earlier than I would have liked to get the word out. The models below are far from complete. I simply inserted the two stacks in and the turret on the Canonicus-class monitor.

1/600 Miniatures by Thoroughbred Models. Model #TS07, TS22, TS28. Models are not yet assembled. Just inserted the stacks for the photo

USS Tecumseh. Model is 1/600 Thoroughbred Model #TS07 Canonicus class monitor. Model is not yet assembled. Just inserted the stack and turret for the photo

CSS Tennessee. Model is 1/600 Thoroughbred Model #TS28. Model is not yet assembled. Just inserted the stack for the photo

1/600 scale may be too large for some on this board. If you are interested in filling out some of the larger scenarios with all minis, then you definitely may want to consider the TITAN MMP 1/1200 models. They'll squeeze more in the grid space and be easier on the wallet.

If you're just interested in some eye-candy to duel with a friend (or maybe even a pair a piece - four in the same grid would definitely be a crowd), then don't hesitate to get these fantastic looking miniatures. It may even lead to some true miniature gaming.

Progress posts will follow, but first I need to get some supplies!

Struck gold... Better yet, iron!

This link was shared today over at BGG

http://users.wowway.com/~jenkins/ironclads/ironclad.htm

There appears to be a wealth of knowledge on ACW Naval vessels and battles in which they were involved. 

Thank you, BGG user: Jim C (bookkeeper)!

Grognards & Growlers is now on Facebook

The Grognards & Growlers Facebook Page has been published. Included with that is the unveiling of a logo...

What do you think?

Feel free to stop by and 'like' the page.
http://www.facebook.com/GrognardsandGrowlers

Where board games and miniatures collide

Steven Duke had posted this photo on Facebook over the weekend, commenting that it made him want to play Iron & Oak.

I was playing Iron & Oak over the weekend and saw this photo and thought: man, that's gotta be neat.

So I started doing a little research on ACW Naval miniatures. Two common scales are 1/1200 and 1/600. The models in the picture above appear to be even larger. The 1/600 scale models caught my eye and I found the following manufacturers:

Thoroughbred Models

http://thoroughbredmodels.com/

Bay Area Yards

http://bayareayards.virtualscratchbuilder.com/

TITAN Military Miniature Products
http://www.titanmmp.com/
Thoroughbred models appear to be all metal. Bay Area Yard models appear to be a mix of all metal, metal/resin, and resin. And after going back to the site, it appears TITAN MMP models are actually 1/1200 scale. 

My queries led me to the Ironclads Yahoo! Group: http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/ironclads/

After that, my search turned to eBay. As fate would have it, it just so happened that a seller had posted several Thoroughbred Models that were ending Sunday evening. I put a watch on a few of them and threw a bid at a couple of others. As 8:00pm approached, the bidding intensified. I ended up withdrawing from the bidding on the USS Hartford but stuck to my guns on the CSS Tennessee (an ironclad ram). I won the auction for the Tennessee as well as one for a riverboat.

I should have looked a little more closely, as riverboat did not mean river gunboat, but rather a troop carrying riverboat transport.

This will not make for an interesting duel, so I will likely pick up a counterpart for the Tennessee. The Tecumseh seemed like an obvious choice, however, it seems Thoroughbred suggests using the Canonicus which is a similar monitor class ironclad.

On that same Facebook posting, Kev Sharp commented: ...counters are one thing, minis another. When does a game system cross the line...?

That's an interesting question, and what ultimately led me to this post rather than just responding via comment.

In this case it's just counter replacement. Glorified Monopoly pieces if you will. I could swap out the Tennessee counter and (hopefully) the Tecumseh counter for these and enhance a duel among giants.

 

Another thought I had was to replace the map with an overview of an area - Mobile Bay for example - and apply the grids in the water space to duplicate what is used on the Iron & Oak map. However, this is just pimping the board as Iron & Oak uses these grids and can abstract many locations.

What I need to figure out is if the Iron & Oak system can be tweaked to move to a grid-less map. What becomes of movement and range? Can this system be adapted... or is a new miniatures rules set the only way to go?

In the interim, pushing 1/600 metal will certainly be entertaining... More so than pushing tiny cardboard chits. But for the foreseeable future, that cool factor will be limited to duels no doubt. 

C-SPAN Book Discussion - War on the Waters (ACW)

Great discussion (link below) considering my recent gaming additions - Rebel Raiders on the High Seas and Iron & Oak

C-SPAN Book Discussion on War on the Waters

Thanks to C3i for the link!