Another Thursday evening wargames session missed, but our burlesque group is one step closer to our performance in June. My solo act is coming along, and I have about 75% of it ready to go, although it needs a review by expert eyes and a lot of polish.

Actually there's not a huge amount more to report this week as we missed our Saturday classes. This was because they coincided with Comic Gong, our city's annual free pop-culture event. Once again Mrs Kobold and I cosplayed; this time we both went as the same character - the wonderful infomational assistant Janet from 'The Good Place'.

Here we are, about to head into town. Maya made the waistcoats and skirts for us:


And here we are hard at work. After several years enjoying Comic Gong as visitors, we decided that this year we'd give something back, and we went as volunteers. We spent the day running the cosplay competition registration desk, which was a great way to meet people:


 I didn't get any other photos of the event, mostly because we were busy all day. But it was as fun as ever, with some great costumes and loads of things to do.

I should also add that it was my birthday. On top of Comic Gong, Mrs Kobold had arranged a surprise evening out for me, with our children and friends turning up for Chinese food, an escape room (we escaped) and karaoke. A great end to a great day.

This is a wargames blog. For wargames. Which makes my birthday a little difficult to report, as I didn't really get anything game-related for it. But I'm not going to miss the opportunity to post about it, as it's one of the biggies - my Half Century.

So what does a mature, responsible, married, father-of-two do for their 50th birthday around here?

Well, I slob around at home in my onesie, having had my breakfast cooked by one of my children, and the promise of my tea being cooked by the other. It's actually Mother's Day here in Australia, so both Catherine and I are expecting to be pampered today.

We actually went out for the day yesterday as my birthday outing and meal, traveling down the coast to a little town called Milton, which is where Catherine and I spent our anniversary a couple of months ago. Milton is a bit quirky:


We spent the day poking around little shops and had a lovely lunch at a restaurant called The Tipsy Fig, which we highly recommend. Here's my pudding - lemon meringue - and my son, who obviously doesn't approve of such indulgence:



Pressies? Well, there were some. The only one of remotest interest to this blog is the one I picked up at Free Comic Book Day last week - another figure for my Godzilla collection:


It's actually a money-box, but I can't see it being used for that.


(I wasn't kidding about the onesie)

Now all I need is another monster figure to go with it, and I can have a giant game of Giant Monster Rampage.

There were other presents. Milton has a nice little shop that does retro-style clothing, so I got a hat:


I also got a 50s style floral dress and full petticoat as well, something I've always wanted. But I'll be saving that for a ball I'm going to later this year. And, frankly, it looks better without the beard.

Anyway ongoing projects wait for no man, birthday or not, and I have some GNW cavalry to finish off before a game on Thursday. Time to get back to them ...

A Dalek T-Shirt is always a good choice for a present

Well, that's another birthday been and gone. from a games point of view it was fairly limited - I got both expansion sets for the boardgame 'Quirks', after we rediscovered its simple pleasures on holiday a few weeks ago. Otherwise I got clothes and a few bits and pieces for the girl in my life. I did get a pile of money, though, and there's a few game-related items I shall be looking at purchasing, assuming that I don't spend it all on frocks first - having two money-pit 'hobbies' is always a bit of a balancing act financially.

I was planning on trying out some ACW 'Black Powder' this weekend, but I seem to have kept myself occupied with friends and family so far, so it hasn't materialised. There's also some RPG stuff I'm pottering around with - that's more likely to materialise by the end of today, as it has a lower preparation/setup/play time. We'll see.

Anyway, I'm a year older now. And maybe a year wiser. Who knows.

We tried another game of Black Powder last night, set in the Peninsular in 1809 and featuring an Anglo-Portuguese force holding a ridge-line against a French assault.

Bryan and Ralph are reasonably adept at Black Powder, whilst the rest of us - aren't. But we're getting there. We used 15mm figures and measured all distances in centimeters, just to see how they worked.

The French has eight turns to clear the ridge and get to the other side of the table. With hindsight this wasn't really enough, but we're still learning.

Here's the terrain and the Anglo-Portuguese setup.


The British and Portuguese are in line - of course.


The French appear. In columns.


And they have skirmishers.


The French fan out onto the table, and form up for the assault.


The first brigade prepares to go in.


John takes photos.


Here come the French!


The French cavalry charge up the ridge and find a British square waiting for them. Merde!


The French get well and truly stuck-in.


They even get stuck into the British square. Somehow it resisted the attack for three turns, though.


The Italian Guard resist all attempts to dislodge them from the ridge, mostly by rolling to save virtually every hit inflicted on them and by having more supports than their Anglo-Portuguese attackers. By the end of the game they had routed three enemy units just by sitting there.


Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you - The Italian Guard!

It's my birthday today. I've had a good present haul, of course, some of it in useful hard-cash form and some of it of relevance to this blog. Here's the items of relevance:


Two new games (courtesy of my brother) - one a RPG and another a set of miniatures rules I've been keen to try for a while. The small black object in the corner is a lens attachment for my iPhone; it gives me wide-angle, macro and fish-eye capability, all of which I will find useful.

This afternoon I played through another Mexican Revolution game, using the latest draft of my 'Struggle Against Everything And Everybody' rules. I based my game around the 1911 battle for Tijuana. Tijuana is in Baja California, right against the border with the USA. In 1911 the Federal garrison of about 200 was attacked by a force of 200 Magonistas, followers of the anarchist Flores-Magon brothers. The Magonista force was, in fact, mostly Anglo-American - only ten of them were Mexicans - and there were accusations that their campaign was less about revolution and more about good honest US filibustering. They were commanded by a British soldier of fortune, General Caryl ap Rhys Price, who claimed descent from Owain Glendwr.

In 1911 the Magonistas captured the town of Tijuana, although they only held it for a month. Could they repeat the feat?

I set up the town on the edge of the board, representing the fact that beyond it was the US. Troops retreating off that edge would not be coming back. Although in the actual battle the forces were equal I went for the following OOB to create a 'balanced' game:

Federals: Three Infantry (Strength 4), one Artillery (Strength 3), one Machine Gun (Strength 3), one Cavalry (Strength 3) (6 Units total)

Magonistas: Six Infantry (Strength 4), two Cavalry (Strength 3), one Machine Gun (Strength 3) (9 Units total)

The forces represent the chronic lack of artillery the early revolutionaries had. But they were otherwise assumed to be well supplied with arms from the US.

The Federal forces obviously had the cover of buildings, and could also make use of barricades in the gaps between them.

The Federals deployed by placing counters where they wanted a unit to be. the Magonistas then rolled a D6, and the Federals had to actually deploy that many units in place of the blank counters. The Magonistas then chose how to split their forces; they could start on any board edge except the US border. The Federals then got to deploy their remaining troops.

I won't bore you with details, but it ended up with this Federal deploymant - the Artillery and Machine Gun were covering the western approaches, with Infantry covering the east. The Cavalry and a unit of Infantry were held in reserve:


The Magonistas were split to the east and west. The western force was a screen consisting of the two Cavalry, one Infantry and the Machine Gun. Their aim was to prevent the Federals from pulling troops away from that side of the town by threatening it with a lightning cavalry attack. the Machine Gun would be sited to provide long-range covering fire as well. The eastern force, of five Infantry was the main attack; their orders were to rush the town - nothing subtle:


The western diversion moves into position:


The Magonistas attack the town under heavy Federal fire:


Showing off my birthday present - a fish-eye view of the battle from the US side of the border:


The Magonista forces charge hard, but the Federals get the initiative a couple of turn in a row and cause heavy casualties:


With the eastern attack faltering the diversionary force is thrown into the battle to try and relieve the pressure:


Magonista cavalry charges the Federal artillery:


And against the odds it pushes it back:


The other cavalry unit tries the same trick against the Federal machine gun, but is mown down:


The Federal cavalry gets in on the action, charging out of the town to scatter the stalled Magonista infantry assault:


Although the Magonistas have a couple of units in the town, the Federals are still in a strong position:

At this stage I got called away by a delicious meal of halloumi and beetroot (plus beer), as well as a birthday phone call from my parents in the UK, so I called it a day. The Magonistas had forced an entry into the town, but they weren't going to be able to hold onto it; the Federal forces had won the day. The key to their victory was partially down to good initiative rolls, in that they got to act first on a couple of turn just as the Magonistas reached the town, causing heavy casualties before the attack could be properly launched. But the Magonsitas probably had too many troops tied up merely threatening the western side of the town rather than supporting the main attack; the machine gun may have been better deployed adding covering fire.