Close Quarter Battle AAR Intro Mission: Assassinate

While Brian was visiting in May, I broke out my copy of Close Quarter Battle, The war on drugs. The publisher is Strategies Games Labs (based out of Strategies Hobbies in Vancouver BC), and written by Darren, who tends to run the game at Trumpeter Salute. 2025 I played it (at a recommendation from my friends) and really enjoyed it, and bought a starter set. This year I've actually made some good progress painting stuff up, so was able to host a game. My friends argue that the game should be called something different, like '80s action hero' as that is more the vibe, and I kinda agree. Regardless of the name, it's a fun system, and is well received at the convention. 

 

The system runs around 3 levels of training (green, trained, operative) which guides targets for skill checks, but also the number of actions you get a turn (1, 2, 3). Also, the number of hits you take as suppression before you actually get injured (1,2,3). Operatives are REALLY good. Green troops (raw recruits, gang bangers, etc) are barely speed bumps. The essential tension in the missions is rarely about whether the operatives are going to win, but whether they can do it IN TIME. Tight mission time lines and ambitious optional objectives often is what makes the game really compelling (in my few play throughs). 

The intro mission has 2 operatives attempting to assassination a local drug dealer notable/lieutenant. There are a bunch of green troops, so it's actually a really challenging mission for the dealers side....unless they can drag out the game. The second time we played through one of the operatives moved a bit too aggressively to get the shot on a hunkered down target (hiding on the roof) and was killed by defensive fire. With only one operative on the table the target made a run for it [straight away from the remaining operative], with appropriate futile/suicidal cover from his mooks. Sure enough, the timer was run down and the dealer managed to eke out a win. 

 

 

I've got pictures of the two games I played at the convention (2025, 2026) and the tables look great. I'll try and dig them out and post them up. 

 Having gaming visitors was fun, as it force me to pull out what I had from the Dave cave in order to host a game and have terrain on the table. I was able to hand terrain off to the other nerds while I was digging in boxes, so the tables ended up set up in a way I wouldn't have chosen myself. Win win. 

 

Big Stompy Robots that Break Stuff

 In May I had my friend Bryan ferry across the Georgia Strait to visit me in Nanaimo. He was a foot passenger and brought over a few mecha, and a rule set he'd been tinkering with. It is very much focused on being a convention set (and/or run on the monthly Bonsor Game club nights)...so 2 hours, simple rules, multiple players, get results quickly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Inspiration wise he looked to Kaiju movies with giant stompy robots that kick the snot out of each other. Shooting was intentionally made very weak. Grabbing and throwing the enemy is good. Rule of cool is the highest principle. You want to climb a building and jump kick, lets figure out how that works. 

 

 

 

 

It was very early draft, so lots of material was tossed out, as we looked to establish a solid foundation before we added too many bells and whistles. Bryan wasn't convinced of my idea to have destructable terrain, but I thought it was amazing to level a town due to throwing your enemies through it. I thought it worked pretty well. While the combatants were probably a bit brittle, it was really easy to get taken out, and then grab another mech and charge in off the table edge to work on a grudge kill.  

 

 

A mutual friend came by later in the evening and we drank beer and played another round. It was good to get another set of views and opinions on the play and see how easy it was for a new comer to pick up the rules and play effectively. I'm not sure when I'll have another go at playing but it was definitely a fun game for an evening. 

 

 

 

Leipzig 1813 day one. Napoleon's Battles. Eye candy post

I have the sense that once you a a deep veteran of napoleonic wargaming, you begin to gaze at Leipzig 1813 as the magnum opus to your endeavors. After you've collected, painted, built and gamed progressively bigger and bigger battles and campaigns there exists the shining battle on the hill.

Leipzig was the largest battle in the Napoleonic wars and had roughly half a million troops converging and fighting for control of the city. To put this in perspective The battle of the bulge (WW2) (arguably a theatre) was roughly the same. Verdun (WW1) approximately the same size.  Gettsyburg  clocked in a 1/3-1/4.  Stalingrad (WW2) and Kursk (WW2), both clock in about 2 million and are the largest battles in history. Napoleon and his opponents managed to field this monstrosity with horse drawn supplies, foot power, and a fairly recent innovation of canning. Totally bonkers. 

 

 

Also, this game is pretty bonkers for wargamers to put on. It occurs over 3 days and the map is HUGE. The OOB is something larger than huge. Delerious perhaps? 

 

 

 

 

 

28mm FDM prints

 A comment in a previous post was talking about print quality of miniatures. I was very surprised about half a year ago when my friend came over to visit me and offered to print up some minis. The support removal was fairly agonizing, but the end result is impressive.  

He is using a cheap bambu printer with a 0.2mm nozzle (vs the more common 0.4) and settings appropriate for the job. Bambu has a reputation for really solid prints with not much (?any) tinkering...at a competitive price point. Unfortunately they also have a bit of a reputation for moving towards a closed ecosystem (think how apple gates all their stay in a walled garden). For lots/most of their customer base it doesn't really matter, but for people who have been in the 3d printing community (which has advanced a lot via open source improvements) for a while it's not a good look.  

For that reason I can't really recommend Bambu, and I went with a different manufacturer. The output is certainly pretty awesome though.