Road trip and gaming weekend in Michigan

Saturday afternoon at Jim's Clubhouse - hypothetical defense of a station in the Anglo-Zulu War

If you had the budget, what's your dream for the ultimate gaming clubhouse? How about your own building for you to keep all of your miniatures, terrain, unpainted stuff, rule books, etc.? Make it within walking distance of a pub, couple restaurants, and in a quaint, downtown area. Sound perfect? Well, that's what my friend Jim W has done!

    Jim's painting desk with his comfy, leather lawyer's chair and rack of paints at his fingertips

Jim's gaming clubhouse came about when the local law firm in the village (population approximately 3,000) had its last attorney retire. They were looking to sell their one-story law offices downtown and gave Jim (an old acquaintance) a sweetheart deal. Jim even got to keep all the furniture! So, Jim moved in and kept as much of cabinets, shelves, tables, and of course padded leather chairs as he could. He uses the attorney's comfy office chair for painting. The filing system for blueprints, large deeds, etc., now houses miniatures. The taller shelves hold 28mm figures, medium height ones 20mm, and shortest ones 15mm scale miniatures. Of course, Jim -- who admits to being a bit OCD -- labels each shelf with the appropriate label. Terrain and buildings line the shelves on the walls, with everything close at hand and not packed away in some crate or box.

    The Game Room - note the shelves all around with terrain, buildings, and necessities close at hand

Jim described the clubhouse to us at Drums at the Rapids and we all agreed that we should pick a summer weekend and have a bunch of us drive up north to visit. We agreed to stay for the weekend and game Friday night and Saturday afternoon. Life got in the way for just about everyone else, though, and I ended up being the only out-of-towner joining Jim and his regular gaming partners Ted and Gene for the games. I'd rented a room at the local B&B, and in a great case of serendipity, the weekend we chose also ended up being the village's Beerfest! So, after the Saturday game, Jim and I met his wife and her friends at the beerfest for brews, food, and I am not kidding -- a Kiss cover band!

    The law office left Jim these various-sized drawers pull out and hold Jim's miniatures collection

Most of my friends know that I have a plug-in Electric Vehicle, so this ended up being my longest road trip with it. I searched on the Plugshare app and found a high-speed charger at a dealership in Sylvania, OH -- 20 minutes from Jim's village. I drove north, found the high speed charger and plugged in, and then retired for a leisurely lunch. My 2017 Chevy Bolt's range got a boost last year when the manufacturer rolled out a recall and installed a brand new battery. My range went from 250 miles to close to 300. Of the 20 "battery bars" which designate remaining charge, I had used 12 of them on the drive up. I charged it back up to just over 90% to be on the safe side, and continued on to the B&B.

    Jim is VERY organized...so all the drawers are labeled with period and scale!

I met Jim and Ted at the clubhouse and he gave me the grand tour. Honestly, I don't think any miniature gamer would be disappointed with Jim's setup. I know I'd be more than happy with something like that. After the tour, we sat down and Jim ran the three of us through his "Prisoner Exchange Gone Wrong" scenario. I controlled the gang from out of town, appropriately enough. Jim played the locals, while Ted (ex-Corrections Officer) was the cops. We were using Fistful of Lead Core Rules, which is the same set I am using for my Post-Apocalyptic games. One innovation Jim had done with the rules was to take his deck of cards he was using for it and write on the "special" cards what they do. For example, 2's allow a player to roll two dice and take the higher roll for any rolls they are called upon to do that turn. He wrote it in ink and this proved to be a good reminder and one less thing you need to check the Quick Reference Sheet for!

    Jim has plenty of shelf space for all the miniatures rules he likes to buy

The game was a blast, as I imagined it might be. Jim sprang an ambush on my out-of-towners, but we quickly shot back. In a space of one turn, my group gunned down three of his characters and wounded another. After that, Ted, who had been trying to treat both gangs equally, decided his local cops would favor the local bad guys in their shootout with the strangers. Things started to go bad for my guys after that, and my rolls cooled off a bit, too. We did free our prisoner and he, my leader, and another gang member ran back to the car, jumped in, and drove off. This was about the same time as Ted's "back up" was arriving. He rolled randomly for the two police cars and BOTH came in on the road my guys were trying to escape on. One in four chance...really??

 

    The room for storing unpainted lead, terrain, and buildings is slightly less neat...!

Still, he had to make a roll to put two and two together and realize the car driving off was involved in the shootout and not locals fleeing for safety. He failed both those and my gang was able to rescue its prisoner, thus "winning." As it turned out, all three of us completed the victory conditions Jim had set. So, we all won...ha, ha! We didn't all get a trophy, though. I lost one more gang member than Jim. Considering he was set up in ambush position, and Ted concentrated at least 2/3's of his attacks on me, I considered it a victory!

    Jim shuffles the deck in preparation for another turn in his "Prisoner Swap Gone Bad" game

We sat around and shot the breeze for awhile, before I retired for the night to my B&B. Breakfast there the next morning was fantastic, and the owner of H.D. Ellis Inn entertained the guests with stories from the past of not only the house, but the village's founding, too. It was very interesting to learn about Blisffield's history and anecdotes about the early residents. At the agreed upon time, I headed back to Jim's clubhouse. Though it was within walking distance, I drove since Jim had parking right out front of his clubhouse. Plus, it was supposed to rain today, and I didn't fancy getting soaked walking back.

    Jim's thugs and my out-of-town gangsters meet at the fountain to swap some prisoners

We chatted for awhile while Ted was setting up Saturday's game - a hypothetical clash between Colonial British and Zulus using Fistful of Lead: Bigger Battles. I had downloaded the rules earlier, but had yet to play them (or even read them, I confess). I was really curious how a skirmish set scaled up to bigger battles since that is something First Command Wargames is working on doing with our French & Indian War rules, Song of Drums and Tomahawks. In the end, I really liked the way the same basic mechanics translated to a game which saw us controlling almost 10 times the number of troops. In particular, I liked how the "Shock" mechanic functioned as a morale effect. Units need to rally when under the stress of combat or they become ineffective. 

    Ted's police cars drove right by my escaping out of towners in the yellow sedan

Ted's scenario was very much in the vein of Rorke's Drift. Jim and I were defending a station against overwhelming numbers of Zulus. Ted had set the game up with essentially two phases - an initial attack and a follow up. For awhile, I didn't think we were going to repulse the initial attack. However, we did. Ted also let our Surgeon make rolls to bring some walking wounded back into the fight. The Zulus then received all of their reinforcements that had not shown up and rolled for their initial entry points. The results looked grim, with a massive force coming at us from one direction. This meant, they would be able to screen each other. By the time we had caused enough casualties on the front unit, the ones in back would be essentially able to charge us. 

    British force prepares to defend the station against the oncoming Zulu first wave

I honestly thought there was no way we would survive the onslaught. We even received two small troops of cavalry as reinforcements, but there was little they could do with only melee weapons vs. massive impis of Zulus. Somehow, we ended still being alive when the final turn was reached. Ted ruled that was when the relief column trundled onto the table and the remaining Zulus scattered. Our surviving Brits were less than a skeleton of the our initial ranks. Still, we somehow "won" the game. That meant two hard-fought battles where I lost more than half of my troops. 

    Supporting fire from the Gatling gun and rooftop riflemen were crucial to turning back the first wave

I had a fun time in both games, though. It was fun to get a chance to game with Jim, Ted, and Gene in a friendly "gaming night" setting instead of at a convention. We took a break for lunch, talked politics, the war in Ukraine, future painting projects, and more. Ted and Gene took off not too long after we'd finished. Jim and I closed up his place and headed out into the first sprinkles of rain to check out the brewfest. Unfortunately, the rain kept up all night long, which somewhat detracted from the experiences. However, we had a good time enjoying some beers, talking with his wife and her friend, and even watching the Kiss cover band for awhile.

    After lunch, the 2nd Zulu wave arrived and things began to look grim for the defenders

It was a great, relaxed gaming road trip, and I had a blast. I ducked out early the next morning from the B&B so I could get home before noon. I had a lot to do as school was starting that very next day. So, I guess that meant I was productive with my summer, squeezing out one last trip on the very weekend before school restarted! It was great to see Jim's clubhouse, and I definitely envy him his setup. I think every gamer upon seeing it would be equally jealous!

    This was all Jim and I had left of our original force at the bitter end of the game!