R20BL - Season 1 Part 2

I'm being a little lazy today. Instead of full write-ups, I'm just posting a couple of pictures from my Excel tracker.

Here are the games for the week.

A lot of close games. Here are some highlights of the week:

• Lefty Grove (PHA) and Jim Bagby (CLE) pitch gems. But Grove gets the win when Mule Haas knocks in 2 runs in the 9th.
• Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth both hit home runs
• George Grantham (PIT) knocks in 4 runs in 2 games.
• Taylor Douthit (SLC), an F-rated player, continues to shine. This week, he gets a game winning home run

Here are the standings at the end of the week

The Yankees and Pirates are in control of their leagues. Both teams are undefeated.

Player of the Week

While Taylor Douthit shined again, the spotlight of the week belongs to George Grantham (PIT) for his 4 RBIs.

George Grantham

Bellicosus vs Gaul

The Twelve Foes of Rome Campaign

The next chapter of the campaign.

NOTE; Today's battle was played using downsized Horde of the Things. Explanation later

Battle for Gaul

After the debacle of Bellicosus the Least, another Bellicosus steps to the forefront.

He beats Julius Caesar to the punch and invades Gaul

As the armies begin to form up, storm clouds delay the battle.

My cat Onyx sat on the board. Time for plan B. I played the game on a virtual battlefield.

Leaving his archers on a hill, Bellicosus advances against the Gauls. He has success in the middle and right, but loses a legion on the left.

Bellicosus leads a legion against some Gallic cavalry. They destroy the barbarians.

But another legion is lost on the left.

The archers swing into action. A warband charges them, but a hail of arrows cut them down.

The Gauls panic and flee. Bellicosus then mops up the remnants and adds Gaul to Rome's possessions!

GAME NOTES

• As mentioned, I used Horde of the Things (HotT) for today's battle. I am debating introducing it to some friends and wanted to test using smaller armies.
• The experiment worked well enough, I may look into it further.
• Because HotT takes longer than DotS, I chose to do a single battle.
• The Bellicosus family is back on top. They are now 4-2 in the campaign.

Crazy Thoughts Continued

A couple of weeks ago, I posted about a couple crazy thoughts. Here's a follow-up post.

Space Campaign

My plan was to start a campaign with the scenarios in Voidfighter. I lamented that I did not have any spaceship counters.

I rectified that last issue with a purchase from Wargame Vault.

What I really like is this set has 3 levels of craft for each faction - scouts, fighters, and corvettes. That fits nicely into the Voidfighter classifications of snubfighters, gunships, and corvettes.

I just need to get around to printing and mounting them.

Fantasy Wargame

I did a trial game of Horde of the Things, using half-sized armies. Battle report is coming this weekend. It worked well enough. However, I think that a gridded game might work best. To that end, I should experiment with the Portable Wargame.

I'm also experimenting with counters. I could not find any for sale that I particularly liked. I decided to try using the counters I made for my arena game, but putting them on 1.5" wide bases.

Here are my first attempts - goblin horde, archers (shooters), shaman (magician), and rats (beasts)

R20BL Season 1 - Part 1

Results for the 1st week of the Roaring 20s Baseball League season 1.

Cleveland Indians vs. New York Yankees

CLE    0-0-0-0    0

NYY   2-0-1-x    3

WP - Waite Hoyt, LP - Jim Bagby

NYY   0-0-1-0    1

CLE    0-0-0-0    0

WP - Herb Pennock, LP - Stan Coveleski

Tony Lazzerri knocks in the sole run.

Philadelphia Athletics vs. Washington Senators

PHA    2-1-0-1-1    5

WAS   2-0-2-0-0    4

WP - Lefty Grove, LP - Stan Coveleski

Yes, Stan Coveleski is pitching for two different teams - the 1920 Indians and the 1925 Senators

Mule Haas knocks in the tying run in the 9th. Utility man Sammy Hale surprises the crowd with a game-winning single!

I started using the cards from Fast Inning Baseball, which created an unexpected hero.

WAS    2-0-0-2    4

PHA    1-1-0-0    2

WP - Walter Johnson, LP - Rube Walberg

Roger Pekinpaugh hits a 2-run homer in the top of the 9th to put the Senators ahead.

Chicago Cubs vs. New York Giants

CHC    1-0-1-0-1-2    5

NYG    1-1-0-0-1-1    4

WP - CHC bullpen, LP - NYG bullpen

Hack Wilson drives in 2 runs in the top of the 11th inning.

NYG    2-0-4-2    8

CHC    0-0-1-0    1

WP - Jack Scott, LP - Pat Malone

George Kelly hits a grand slam in the late innings.

Pittsburgh Pirates vs. St Louis Cardinals

PIT    1-2-1-0    4

SLC   0-0-0-1    1

WP - Lea Meadows, LP -  Bill Sherdel

Meadows pitches a gem and Eddie Moore knocks in 2 runs in the mid innings to secure the win.

SLC    0-0-1-2-0    3

PIT     2-1-0-0-1    4

WP - PIT bullpen, LP - SLC bullpen. Grover Alexander and Ray Kremer no decision

The Pirates race off to an early lead. Taylor Douthit slams a 2-run homer to tie the game in the 9th. Then Clyde Barnhart knocks in the winning run in extra innings.

STANDINGS

American League

New York Yankees        2-0

Philadelphia Athletics   1-1

Washington Senators    1-1

Cleveland Indians         0-2

National League

Pittsburgh Pirates        2-0

Chicago Cubs             1-1

New York Giants        1-1

St. Louis Cardinals     0-2

Player of the Week

Many good candidates - Waite Hoyt and Herb Pennock pitched shutout games. Tony Lazzerri, Roger Pekinpaugh, Sammy Hale, Hack Wilson, and Clyde Barnhart had game-winning hits. But this week, we honor George Kelly and his grand slam.

George Kelly

Crazy Thoughts

Last weekend, I had some crazy wargame ideas that led me down a couple of rabbit holes.

Space Campaign

It started in a very innocuous manner; I was just clearing up some books from my coffee table. I caught a glimpse of one out of the corner of my eye. For a second, I thought it was one of my Ace of Aces booklets. 

It wasn't, but I got a hankering for some air combat. Then I started thinking about a new campaign. Then I remembered that Voidfighter had a bunch of scenarios. Then I started thinking about a space combat campaign. Then I remembered that I have no starfighter counters. And that's where I am now.

Fantasy Wargame

I'm not exactly sure how I went down this path. I guess I was thinking of games to play with my fantasy LARP group when the weather is too bad for sparring.

I'd like a game that fits in a small space, perhaps 2 ft square, and can be played in an hour or so. Fantasy theme, naturally. Perhaps use counters instead of miniatures.

A number of ideas ran through my head - HoTT (expensive!), Battlelore (also expensive and OOP I think), The Portable Wargame (need to tweak the ancients version for fantasy). I also looked into Fantastic Battles (looks like it uses individually based figures unfortunately) and a couple of other games. Right now, I'm still pondering options.

Like many of my manias, I think these will fade away soon without any progress.

Bathtub Baseball

Spurred by the success of my bathtub baseball experiment, I decided to try a short league. After some consideration, I chose to resurrect the Roaring 20s Baseball League.

The Teams

Here are the 8 teams of the league.

• 1929 Chicago Cubs (98 wins, National League champions)
• 1920 Cleveland Indians (98 wins, World Series champions)
• 1923 New York Giants (95 wins, National League champions)
• 1927 New York Yankees (110 wins, World Series champions)
• 1929 Philadelphia Athletics (104 wins, World Series champions)
• 1925 Pittsburgh Pirates (95 wins, World Series champions)
• 1928 St. Louis Cardinals (95 wins, National League champions)
• 1925 Washington Senators (96 wins, American League champions)

The Schedule

Like last year's initial schedule, I plan to play two games (home and away) vs. every other team. However, I plan to keep the American League and National League teams separate. This means each team will play 6 games, 2 against every other team in its league. League champions will meet for a 3-game World Series.

There will be 3 "weeks" of games, with 8 games a week. I'm not sure how long it will take me to play a "week" but once I do I will post the results.

A Sampler

Games are underway. Here is a little taste.

Chicago Cubs 5 - New York Giants 4

Chi    1-0-1-0-1-2

NY    1-1-0-0-1-1

The Giants jumped out to a 2-1 lead but Charlie Grimm ties the score late. The game goes into extra innings. Both sides score a run in the 10th. Then in the 11th, Hack Wilson (Chi) drives in 2 runs. The Giants get a solo home run in the bottom of the inning, but then the Cubs bullpen shuts the door.

Bull Run

I planned on doing a Civil War battle over my holiday, so here it is. I decided to forego my Florida campaign and instead start playing scenarios from Dominion of the Blue and Grey.

The first scenario is First Bull Run.

The Union attack succeeds on the right.

And center.

Stalemate on the left.

McDowell rallies the Union infantry. However, Stonewall Jackson (left) and Jeb Stuart (center) smash the Union line.

Jackson then overruns the Union artillery.

The Confederate reinforcements (left) arrive by train. But they are disorganized, and get swept away.

This leaves the Confederate flank open. The Union takes the opportunity and routs Stuart.

With that, the path to Richmond is open. Well, that was a short war.