On Wednesday I drove 2 hours East of my home to The Portal in Manchester, Connecticut to meet my friend Hank D (who in a burst of creativity calls himself "Hank D" on this site) and our mutual friend Al P. for a full day of war gaming which we modestly named Hank & Bill Con. Our schedule for the day (after a sumptuous repast and Epicurean delight at the Golden Dragon restaurant) consisted of Wings, De Bellis Napoleonicis (DBN), and De Bellis Antiquitatus (DBA). We all agreed the first games of the day would be Wings and allow me a chance to christen the four beautiful custom painted planes I won earlier this year in the raffle on this site. Jim (rhodie 80) and Peter (Teaticket) painted these gorgeous birds:
Here are some pictures from the game -- Al P. flew the DrI against me flying the Sopwith Camel, and Hank D flew the Fokker DVII against me in the SPAD XIII. The two British planes vanquished the two German planes in a hard fought joust.
The second game of the day pitted Hank's French against my newly completed Austrian army which I was aching to try out. I anchored my left flank with a grand battery, the center with the bulk of my infantry, and attempted to turn the French left flank on my right with my cavalry division. It was a close run thing -- two die rolls determined if I would turn the French left flank and charge into the French rear, but alas the die Gods did not smile upon me and we were repulsed giving the day to the French. Here are some photos of the action:
The final game of the day was DBA 3.0. I hadn't played DBA in a few years (and I hadn't played 3.0 at all) because several years ago there was a bitter schism in the DBA gaming community over the 3.0 revision and after decades of enjoying the game I just didn't want to get caught up in the unpleasant politics of the moment and moved on to Flames of War, then Bolt Action, before discovering the pleasures of Wings and Sails....I never looked back. I must say though, after playing the 3.0 revision, I really don't understand what all the fuss was about. I thoroughly enjoyed my game. I loaned Hank and Al some of my armies for this game. Al took my generic Italian Condotta army which was my first non-18th or 19th century army that I built back in the 1970s:
I loaned my Low Countries army to Hank to oppose Al's Italians:
I loaned my Later Swiss to Hank to fight against me with my Florentine Condotta:
The Low Countries defeated the generic Condotta army in a close fight. My Florentine Condotta really took it to the Swiss (there is a Swiss cheese joke to be had here, but it is beyond me..). Here is a shot of my boys from Florence finishing off the Alpine fellas...
It was a great day of fun and fellowship. I ran into a monsoon on the way home -- high winds, heavy rains, vibrant lightning, and limited visibility (although I swear at one point I saw Auntie Em's house fly by...). After a 3 hour ordeal I, my troops, and my beautiful new planes arrived home safe and sound.
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