FOG: Carthage vs Rome, annual game 2025

More pictures from the past that haven't hit my blog yet. This is from a field of glory game in 2025. It seems FOG picks up in the summer when Nate is on break from teaching. Of course, the 'honey-do' list gets long and childcare and vacations complicates everything. I played a game of FOG in 2026, but managed to only take 2 pictures, so not worth a post. 

 

 

 

 This game I was playing against Chris who is definitely remembering how to play and can put up a decent plan. I feel like I'm constantly on the back foot using Carthage vs Rome. I'm not sure if it's historical, or a function of the point value we play at (lower than normal), or composition of the troops we have, or what (definitely unrelated to my skill level). 

 

 

 

 

 Notable in this game I learned to not have my elephants race off versus light skirmishers. Slinger in this case. It reminded me of being told about how in DBA/DBX slingers vs elephants see no results 5 of of 6 turns, and then 1 in 6 you lose your elephants. Don't do it. This is precisely what happened in this game. 

 

 

 

 I, typically, ended up with my cavalry charging in and bouncing off against walls of well ordered infantry, who crept forward. The end game was my infantry core being ground down and cracking vs the (seemingly) endless small units. After this game I think I went for larger blocks of spearmen to avoid the penalties of losses kicking in after a single base was lost. 

 

 

 

 

 I'm currently in the process of painting another army (Syracuse) so I can try something different. Although honestly, they are mostly hoplites (offensive spear), so not that different. 

It will give me an option for hosting a game myself when Nate isn't around (who has 3-4 different armies).  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Trumpeter Salute 2025 - Close Quarter Battle AAR (VIP extraction BARRIO)

 In the continuing theme of close quarter battle, I decided to post some long overdue photos. Trumpeter Salute happens in April in Burnaby (part of Greater Vancouver, BC, Canada). This was the first time I played CQB, and was encouraged by my friends to play it if I had a chance as Darren (the writer) puts on a good game. 

 

This will be fairly description light as it's been 16months since I played the game. Darrens tables are good for eye candy photographs though. The buildings are 3dprinted from corvus (I think) and were (possibly) a gift of some sort to Darren. The graffiti  does SO MUCH for the terrain and I loves it. I sent my brother some photos as we was really into graffiti art when he was younger. 

More after the jump.... 

 

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. 

 

 

 

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. 

 

Frostgrave: The complex temple three way fight.

In October 2025, Bryan hopped the passenger ferry across the Georgia straight and visited for a weekend. With local gamer Garret we played out a 3 way frostgrave game. Considering the 8 months since I played it I don't have a lot of recollection of the event. I *do* remember having the worst luck (I think 50% of my force was taken out, and possible non at all for the others). 

The pillars (printed by me) were magical constructs and would turn into chests when touched. The game was to rush forward, grab what you could and escape (which is the general theme for frostgrave in general TBH). In principle there are 2 chests per team.......but that is so unlikely it's hardly worth noting. 

Small table and tight quarters meant some definite clustering to start. 

Hard to see with white on white, but I'm a big fan of using mist (cotton fluff) to control long ranged fire and wandering monsters. It usually works quite well.... 

But not in this game. One of my henchmen gets a wandering monster charging him as soon as an opposing team activates a pillar/chest. These GD toads are slow but have a really impressive bite. Out in a single roll. 

The pillars are all converted at this point and we are dragging them away. Plus flinging spells at chests and henchmen to complicate and/or steal them from the other sides. Lots of red 'dead' markers can be seen (blood ringed bodies) in my area of the table. There are lots of square ish red x's showing damage. 

The GD toad just keeps on hunting my team. 

 It's probably subjective but I feel like Garrets archers are usually both effective and annoying. 

 

It was a total rout for my side (I'm not sure I even got a single chest), but Bryan and Garret did all right. Fun times despite the rough handling by dice rolls.  

2025 Hammfilade Saturday - GDC Battle of Logovo (pt 4 - Right flank [main event])

 

 

My knowledge of what happened on the right flank (of the spano-russians) is spotty at best. It was ALL THE WAY ACROSS THE TABLE. Also, it wast narrow at times to pass people.

 

 The French cleverly overloaded this flank (already owning the flank by a wrap around deployment). The Spano-Russians dropped their redoubts here, anchored the hinge at the Onion domed orthodox church, and loaded up this side with a infantry heavy, cav poor force. 

 

 

UNFORTUNATELY the corp was built of brittle units (2 strength points vs 3), this meant that in most cases each stand/division was gone after one serious fight. 

Almost immediately the Spanish were ejected from the church (cue jokes about orthodox vs catholics). The church was now a traffic issue rather than a hardpoint.   

 

Steady pressure from the hordes of French dismantle the first redoubt at the hinge. French certainly had an impressive artillery concentration on the flank, were they had placed their guard corp. 

 

 

 

 

 

 Pushing through the opening they begin to 'pinch' the second redoubt. Cleverly they have chosen to hammer a line of troops along the table baseline (damn the flanks!). I'm not sure if it was a conscious choice or a morale check that had the spanish pulling back further. 

 

 

 

Already the Russian reserve under Miloradovich (guard equivalent) is reacting to the pressure on the right and repositioning guns and troops.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pressure from the centre has created a challenge to do this. The cavalry reserves (2 corp) are moving to the centre as well, to hopefully allow Miloradovich to pivot right.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 The lone redoubt holds, but not for much longer. The Russians were surprised, (but probably shouldn't have been) that when they were lost all their corp suffered a morale step loss. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At last the mess is somewhat cleaned up. There's a fighting lull as both sides are tidying lines. Troops continue to die under the steady cannon bombardment however. 

It's subtle (not many units left), but the Spanish vaporize due to a failed morale check. Across the table the players are all starting to try and pick off weakened units and shakey corp to try and degrade army wide morale. It's getting dicey even for mostly intact corp. 

  The armies are largely pivoting to form an 'east-west' front vs the original 'north-south'. There isn't a single corp on the table that isn't at risk of routing on a bad roll (1 in 3 for most, 1 in 6 for the 'healthy' ones). 

The french on their right (closest) are looking at a push by artillery, cavalry, and 2 corp across the river against their Line of communication. The defenders are present...but worn. 

 

On the french left they have a lot of weak troops and reorganization to effect before pushing onto the relatively fresh ressian guard supported by a strong artillery park. Tough sledding there.  

An extended rule discussion (this is why the rules change every year) derails us for a while. We all agree that this is, truly, a bloody draw.  No commander is interested in advancing their worn forces and breaking/routing their whole corp. It's not particularly surprising as the forces were intentionally strength matched at the beginning (actual composition was what we varied on, but each unit had a duplicate on the enemy potential roster). You'd need to be an insane commander (or a wargamer) to go ahead with this meeting engagement. 

It appeared our three new players had a good time, and certainly the regulars did. We likely will have a game/table setup at enfilade 2026 (now in Tacoma). 

2025 Hammfilade Saturday - GDC Battle of Logovo (pt 3 - Centre)

The centre to Right flank was were the main event was. Gortshakov (lower left) was originally meant to help cause grief for the French right flank, but they left such a tiny force there it was soon dragged into the main event. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The armies faced at a sabres length at the start of the game along a line that took a 90 degree turn at the onion domed orthodox church. 

 

 

 

 

 

Behind the church on the Spano-Russian flank were 3 fleche redoubts. In a non optimal outcome, the fleches were defended by a horde of poorly motivated/trained Spanish (lots of elements but not much staying power).  

 

 

 

In the Centre we had one of our new players (Chris? Craig?) with Tolstoy and the elite/guard corp reserve immediately behind him. It actually ended up being a fairly challenging command as both sides destroyed their centres quickly and the heavy french assault on the flank required the reserve to commit early to a hinge point.  

 

 

 

 

 

To be honest, my understanding of the fight on the far side of the table was a bit superficial. It seems as though tons of casualties developed with early assaults and then the Centres fell quiet for a bit since artillery was tearing both sides apart. 

 

The Russian Reserves are fully committed in the centre/hinge right. Depleted french units are being murdered by the still robust (thanks to the artillery reserve) Russian cannons creating a no mans land in the middle. 
 

 

 

   

 

 

Gortshakov shuffled from the left towards the centre and helped set up a late day push towards the French LOC. 

Both sides were on the dagger edge of breaking by this point. 


 

2025 Hammfilade Saturday - GDC Battle of Logovo (pt 2 Left Spano-Russian Flank)

 James and I had brought troops as suggested by Doug. Hilariously we both decided to bring our Spanish as we don't get to use them much. Thus the Spano-Russian intervention was created. 

 

The spanish anchored both flanks for some reason. On my flank I had Gazan and Bagration pushing on one side of the river to cave in the French right. It was held by a token force of poles and two small french cavalry corp. 

Across the river Gortchacov held the river line and fired cannon (where line of site permitted). He would soon realize he need to push toward the Centre Right to help avoid the collapse of our forces in the centre and right flank. 

Poor command die rolls (pips) made for a slow advance on this side. Cannon are particularly hard to get moving foward on the attack, and the Poles were well played by a new player, Garret, constantly giving just enough ground and launching local counter attacks to prevent overly aggressive advances. The Cavalry was able to hide behind the tree line from Gortsachov and made for difficult opponents to hunt. 

The flank was largely a side show for the game but very late in the game this flank was busted open and left a (long) march towards the french LOC, held by a small but credible force.

 More pics after the break...