Baseball Fall Classic

Big Red Machine vs All Time Greats 

Time for a diversion to America’s Past Time!

Here is the recap of this awesome clash. 

We are using Strat-o-Matic Baseball.

The series is pitting the All Time “All-Stars” against the Red Machine of the 70’s.

Game 1

Game 1 was dominated by the long ball. Tom “Terrific” Seaver was either striking

out the All-Stars or giving up homeruns. Cy Young pitched a formidable 9 innings,

only surrendering one run, a homerun, to “Charlie Hustle” Pete Rose. Rose sprinted

around the bases, acting totally unimpressed by his unexpected homer!

Inning 3: Rose homers for a 1-0 Reds lead. Home Town fans cheering lasted 5 mins.

Inning 4: Hammerin’ Hank Aaron answers with a 417 footer over the Left-field wall.

Inning 6: Stargell adds a blast, 2-1 All-Stars

Inning 9: Killebrew puts the Reds away with a Homer to Right. 

Final score: All-Stars 3, Reds 1

Sparky will need to fire his Reds up for Game 2.

All Time All Stars
		AB	R	H	RBI
Honus Wagner	SS	3	0	2	0
Rogers  Hornsby	2B	3	0	0	0
Hank Aaron	RF	4	1	2	0
Mickey Mantle	CF	4	0	1	1
Willie Stargell	LF	3	1	1	1
Yogi Berra	C	4	0	0	0
Willie McCovey	1B	4	0	0	0
Harmon Killebrew	3B	4	1	2	1
Cy Young	P	4	0	0	0
Red Machine
Rose	3B	3	1	2	1
Morgan	2B	4	0	1	0
Foster	LF	4	0	0	0
Bench	C	4	0	0	0
Driessen	1B	4	0	2	0
Griffey	RF	4	0	0	0
Conception	SS	3	0	1	0
Geronimo	CF	3	0	0	0
Seaver	P	3	0	0	0
CY Young 6K 0BB
Seaver      9K 3BB

Game 2

Here is tonight’s recap of World Series Game 2 between the All Time

 “All-Stars” and the 70’s Red Machine.

The cool Cincinnati October air played into the All-Star bats, who

dialed 8 four times. However, Sparky had his Red Machine shined up

and ready for this critical game. The Machine was cranking out runs like

Detroit cranks out cars!

The Reds’ Fred Norman looked strong, striking out 9, even though he

surrendered 4 homeruns. Sparky’s two visits to the mound seemed to keep

Norman focused.

Inning 1: Wagner opened the game by sending Norman’s first pitch into the 

                cheap seats.

               Norman recovered by striking out two in the inning.

               The Reds answered with 3 runs off back to back doubles by Bench 

               and Driessen.

Inning 2: Killebrew made Norman pay for a lead off walk blasting a 2 run homer 

                into deep right field. Game tied after two at 3 each.

Inning 3: Bench homers to Center Field regaining the lead.

Inning 5: After a quiet fourth, Driessen gets RBIs 3 & 4 with an opposite field homer.

Inning 6: Stargell slams a solo shot to Left field, but the Reds manufacture a counter

                 the old fashioned way with a series of singles thru the infield.

Inning 7: All-Stars get 2 back with a combination of singles and a Killebrew double.

Inning 8: McCovey homers to tie the game as the Reds’ bats have gone cold

Inning 9: Bench reaches first on a single and gets worked around to third.

                Anderson Pinch Hits with Ray Knight who drives a two two pitch past a

                diving Roger Hornsby. Bench trots home. Reds WIN!

                

Final Score: All-Stars 7, Reds 8

The Series is tied 1 all.

All Time All Stars
		AB	R	H	RBI
Honus Wagner	SS	5	1	2	1
Rogers  Hornsby	2B	4	0	2	1
Hank Aaron	RF	5	0	1	1
Mickey Mantle	CF	5	0	0	0
Willie Stargell	LF	4	2	1	1
Yogi Berra	C	4	0	0	0
Willie McCovey	1B	4	2	3	1
Harmon Killebrew	3B	3	2	2	2
Spalding	P	4	0	0	0
Red Machine
Rose	3B	5	1	3	0
Morgan	2B	3	1	1	1
Foster	LF	5	1	1	0
Bench	C	5	2	3	2
Driessen	1B	3	1	2	4
Griffey	RF	5	1	2	0
Conception	SS	5	0	1	0
Geronimo	CF	5	1	2	0
Norman	P	4	0	0	0
Knight	PH	1	0	1	1
Spalding 4K  5BB
Norman  9K 3BB

Game 3

Here is tonight’s recap of World Series Game 3 between the All Time

“All-Stars” and the 70’s Red Machine.

The Series moved to the All Time “All-Stars” Home Field of Dreams! And

ladies and gentlemen they showed why they call this “home”. 

Ever wonder why ballparks have ambulances on site? That question was

answered tonight, as the Reds offense was rushed to the local emergency room.

Their pitching staff could have used a transfusion as well. 

Jim Palmer kept the Machine shutdown except for one fastball down the

middle that Driessen drove deep into centerfield. In the Visitor’s dugout,

Sparky even had the bat boy warming up in support of his pitching staff.

Fans know he couldn’t have done any worse....

Inning 1: Soto walks the first two batters and Aaron rips a shot over the left field wall.

               After another walk and double, Sparky gives him the hook.

               Billingham comes in and closes out the inning but not before allowing

               a homerun to Killebrew 

Inning 2: Billingham strikes out 3 in a row: Hornsby-Aaron-Mantle

Inning 4: The All-Stars loaded up the bases and Billingham walks in a run

Inning 5: The All-Stars bust the game open scoring 4 runs. Killebrew leads off 

                with a homerun. Aaron doubles in Wagner. And Mantle wraps up the 

                scoring with a homerun plating Aaron in front of himself.

                Sparky throws Borbon to the wolves, who Ks Stargell to end the inning.

Inning 6: Palmer cooled off a bit during the long fifth, surrendering a walk, a

                Double to Bench and Homer to Driessen getting the Reds on the board

Inning 8: Stargell and Berra deliver back to back homers for the All-Stars

Inning 9: The Reds’ hope for a rally disappeared as Palmer strikes out 2, including 

                 Pinch hitter Ray Knight to end the game

                

Final Score: Reds 3 : All-Stars 11

The All-Stars lead the Series 2-1

All Time All Stars
		AB	R	H	RBI
Honus Wagner	SS	4	3	3	0
Rogers  Hornsby	2B	4	1	0	0
Hank Aaron	RF	5	2	3	4
Mickey Mantle	CF	4	1	1	2
Willie Stargell	LF	3	1	2	1
Yogi Berra	C	4	1	1	2
Willie McCovey	1B	4	0	0	0
Harmon Killebrew	3B	4	2	2	2
Palmer	P	4	0	0	0
Red Machine
Rose	3B	4	0	0	0
Morgan	2B	2	1	0	0
Foster	LF	3	0	0	0
Bench	C	4	1	2	0
Driessen	1B	4	1	1	3
Griffey	RF	3	0	1	0
Conception	SS	4	0	0	0
Geronimo	CF	3	0	0	0
Soto	P	0	0	0	0
Billingham	P	3	0	0	0
Borbon	P	0	0	0	0
Knight	PH	1	0	0	0
Palmer      7K  4BB
Soto          0K 3BB
Billingham 5K 4BB
Borbon      3K 0BB

Game 4

Here is tonight’s recap of World Series Game 4 between the All Time “All-Stars”

and the 70’s Red Machine.

The Series continued at the All Time “All-Stars” Home Field of Dreams!

And the Reds smelled what the All-Stars were cooking, as the All-Stars served

up an extra helping of Drubbing.

This had the makings of a hard fought contest until the Reds pitcher gave the

game away in the fourth. It is certainly looking like this series will be settled early.

The Reds 70’s pitching can not compete with that of the All-Stars. And the Red

Machine’s offense continues to struggle in generating runs.

Marichal dominated the Machine, except for a run in the seventh when Griffey

managed to plate Joe Morgan who had worked Marichal for a lead off walk. 

In contrast, Moskau surrendered three doubles before Anderson could pull

out his “hook”. The Reds’ pitching staff has been hammered unmercifully by

the Great Hitters of Baseball’s past.

Inning 4: The Reds could not find an out using both hands and help from 

                Sherlock Holmes. Every All-Star fielder made it to first or better. 

                Seven of them scored. Aaron, Mantle, and Killebrew had doubles.

Inning 7: Stargell continues his great series with another solo shot to Centerfield.

Inning 8: Griffey singles in Morgan from second base for the Reds only offense.

                

Final Score: Reds 1 : All-Stars 8

The All-Stars lead the Series 3-1

All Time All Stars
		AB	R	H	RBI
Honus Wagner	SS	5	0	2	1
Rogers  Hornsby	2B	5	1	1	0
Hank Aaron	RF	4	1	1	0
Mickey Mantle	CF	4	1	2	2
Willie Stargell	LF	4	2	2	1
Yogi Berra	C	4	1	2	1
Willie McCovey	1B	3	1	1	0
Harmon Killebrew	3B	3	1	1	2
Marichal	P	4	0	0	1
Red Machine
Rose	3B	4	0	2	0
Morgan	2B	4	1	0	0
Foster	LF	4	0	1	0
Bench	C	3	0	0	0
Driessen	1B	4	0	0	0
Griffey	RF	4	0	2	1
Conception	SS	3	0	2	0
Geronimo	CF	4	0	0	0
Moskau	P	3	0	0	0
Borbon	P	0	0	0	0
Lum	PH	1	0	0	0
Marichal    8K  5BB
Moskau     2K 2BB
Borbon      3K 0BB

Games 5

Here is tonight’s recap of World Series Game 5 between the All Time

“All-Stars” and the 70’s Red Machine.

Well it’s all over folks! Time to plan the victory parade.

Game 5 saw two great pitching performances. And again, the Past Timers

were too much for the Machine to overcome. Koufax struck out 13 Reds.

Meanwhile, definitely pitching above his weight class, Capilla mastered

10 All Stars’ batters.

All seven runs came off big hits. Aaron and Killebrew kept the

 homerun “fires” burning for the All Stars.

Inning 1: Wagner again led off with a big hit, tripling off a 1-2 count. 

                Hornsby singled giving the the All Stars a 1-0 lead.

Inning 3: The Reds finally got things rolling. Rose led off with a triple.

                 Morgan worked Koufax for the rare Walk. Foster Doubled in Rose.

                 Bench hit a Sac Fly to Right scoring Morgan for a 2-1 Reds lead.

                 It was short lived. Hornsby tripled, followed by an Aaron homer to left.

                 Reds 2 - All Stars 3

Inning 6: Berra barely misses a centerfield homer, settling for an off the wall double.

                After a McCovey strikeout, Killebrew takes Capilla to the upper left field 

                deck.

That ended the scoring as both pitchers shutdown the respective offenses.

                

Final Score: Reds 2 : All-Stars 5

The All-Time All Stars win the Series 4 games to 1.

The All-Stars Are Your 2019 World Champions! Congratulations.

All Time All Stars
		AB	R	H	RBI
Honus Wagner	SS	5	1	3	0
Rogers Hornsby	2B	4	1	2	1
Hank Aaron	RF	5	1	2	2
Mickey Mantle	CF	2	0	1	0
Willie Stargell	LF	4	0	1	0
Yogi Berra	C	4	1	2	0
Willie McCovey	1B	4	0	1	0
Harmon Killebrew	3B	4	1	1	2
Koufax	P	4	0	0	0
Red Machine
Rose	3B	4	1	2	0
Morgan	2B	2	1	1	0
Foster	LF	4	0	1	1
Bench	C	3	0	0	1
Driessen	1B	4	0	0	0
Griffey	RF	4	0	1	0
Conception	SS	4	0	0	0
Geronimo	CF	4	0	1	0
Capilla	P	3	0	0	0
Koufax    13K  3BB
Capilla     10K 3BB

Wrap Up

We have loved Strat-o-Matic since we first bought a set in 1976.

Thanks for visiting and reading our replay. We appreciate visits,

comments, and follows  Until next time, Old School Gamers Out  

Cruel Seas: Vosper Ambush

Vosper Ambush

As dusk approaches, three British Vosper MTBs 

idle hoping to pounce on any enemy merchant ship

daring to move before full darkness sets in. 

The Germans having pushed back the last Allied fighters trying to straffe

the port decide it is safe to move. The Allies rarely try both air and sea

when visibility is limited. Two E-Boats are set to escort the coastal fuel 

ship on its resupply run. 

The British see the enemy breaking from port and fire up there engines. 

The commander of the lead boat say “Tally ho boys!” and speeds toward 

the Germans while putting two fish in the water. 

The closest E-Boat moves to screen and puts fire on the Vospers 

One torpedo hits and the other misses. Being under heavy fire the guns miss

but the fuel ship definitely felt the torpedo hit. 

A Vosper disintegrates under E-Boat fire but the crew makes it out. 

“Call in survivors in the water”  

The E-Boats high speed has carried them wide of the fight. The two remaining

British boats swarm the fuel ship pouring in fire. 

Boom! The fuel ship goes up in flame and begins to rapidly sink. 

Conclusion 

This was our first game of Cruel Seas. We definitely enjoyed the game. It

Is an easy game to pick up and provides the type of fun only a good dice

chucker can. We all agreed that a larger playing area would better but the

starter set definitely includes everything needed to play. 

We greatly appreciate your visits to our blog. If you see fit comments and 

blog follows are awesome. Until next time Old School Gamers out. 

Z Day - Doug’s Backstory

Zombicide: Doug’s Backstory [Zombies!!!]

Before meeting up with you folks? Well, to be honest, I sort of 

welcomed the apocalypse. Not many people get to see the jerk 

that “downsized” you get munched! Yep. That was a fine day. 

I’d just left my old office for the last time and was standing out

on the street. Demoralized. Angry. Worried about the future.

Little did I know the next 30 minutes would clean my slate of

issues.

The sirens at both ends of town, fire station and police station,

began blaring at the same time. Hard to hear the screams over

those.

It took me a few looks to buy into the zombie apocalypse. But

when a saw a few shamblers enter my ex-boss’s building, I had

to smile. I decided to make towards the Police Station on the

outskirts of town. 

Started to regret that choice as I passed the retail stores. Must

have been easy pickings for the zeds in those places.

It was tough going with only my pocketknife, but fortune favored

me when I was able to quietly loot some much needed upgrades

from the surplus store. The managers dog took a liking to me.

Guess his ex-master must have been a scary Zombie.

One block to go. My brand new semi was a great help in cutting

a path. Dog raced towards a specific zombie up ahead, ignoring

my shouts.

Dog didn’t stand a chance. Too many biters. Well, I cleared the

path to the Police Station.

Lucky choice on my part. Found two officers that had a barricade

set up while running comms to the few remaining officers trying

hard to Protect and Serve.

We hunkered down for two weeks. After the first three days, no calls

came in. The two officers told me to pick a cruiser, some reloads,

and wished me luck. They headed out hoping to find family before

heading into the country.

There are so many fun zombie games out there and playing out

The backstories of our main survivors in the Yacht Campaign has

let us get those to the table again. 

Codename Valhalla - Warfighter WW2

Warfighter WW2 Europe : Codename Valhalla

Finally, unsere Leader has approved release of Wunderwaffe Z. 

The Laboratories of Valhalla have returned Sgt Mayer, Corporal Fischer,

and Privates Neumann and Koch to service.

The first action for Das Untote Korps will be to recover one of the 

Projekt Valhalla scientists from Canadian Commandos who parachuted

into our territory. The Scientist must be recovered or eliminated before

the Commandos reach their Nordsee extraction point near Cuxhaven.

 

As the mission begins, an equally lucky/unlucky draw indicates the

Canadians have established a mortar base at the objective.

Mayer and Fischer push the squad forward, encountering no initial enemies.

An enemy picket snipes at Sgt Mayer, but all the Untote are Fearless, and

press on. The Canadian is confused, as he swore several of his rounds hit or

only nearly missed the German leader. And their rigid gait seemed odd.

Well it’s on now. The Commandos are alerted to the Germans. A massive

firefight ensues. Sgt Mayer Halts the advance so the squad can clear out the

Commandos. The commandos struggle with trying to pin down these German

troops. They’ve never encountered such fearless troops. They did score direct

hits on Private Koch, but Sgt Mayer had some trick in his hand of cards to

protect his charges from such actualities. 

Mayer used grenades to force many of the Canadians to ground. This allowed

him and Koch, who was proving quite the marksman at close range, to press on.

Yet more Commandos kept arriving, desperately trying to stall our advance.

And it was working. Out of grenades, Mayer began to doubt that his first

assignment would end in success.

The squad became bogged down in a running firefight. These Commandos were

well trained. Fischer was pinned well behind the rest, and the Privates were not

able to generate enough fire support to clear out Canadians faster than they

reinforced. Why was the squad not issued one of Hitler’s buzzsaws? Being unafraid

of dying again was not enough to defeat a determined enemy. The Commandos

were confused by our resilience, but did not fear us.

Sgt Mayer leapt forward, determined to reach his objective. Two bounds later, he

was engaging the Canadians as rafts from a sub were heading towards shore.

Private Koch did his best to move forward and support his Sgt. Meanwhile,

Cpl Fischer finally was able to advance, but half the squad was too separated to

help complete the mission. Too many Commandos, too too many.....

Cpl Fischer had eliminated the Commandos who had been driving the timetable

forward at double speed. This gave some hope to their UpFront comrades.

Hope rose as Sgt Mayer recognized that being strung out was working to his

advantage. Commando reinforcements were appearing and moving towards

Cpl Fischer and Pvt Neumann. Missing that Koch and Mayer were in amongst

their own forces. Their fire not being distinguished from their own.

This allowed them to momentarily clear out the LZ, and smuggle the scientist

into the darkness and escape. Fischer and Neumann, totally looking the part,

laid down dead, until the Canadians evacuated the beach. Without their prize.

Aftermath 

The first engagement with Das Untote was a qualified success. While being

Fearless was helpful, the team lacked enough firepower to maintain a good pace.

Time almost failed this mission. 

Great fun playing a mission with Zombie Soldiers. I need more practice with

them to understand Equipment and skill requirements to become a more effective

force. I may needed to merge in some Japanese undead in order to build a strong

team. Only having 8 Soldiers truly left me wishing for more. Maybe we’ll gen up

some of our own using the great support from the group posting resources on BGG.

The Battle of Central High

The Battle of Central High

Zombicide - Wanda’s Backstory

Wanda and a couple friends were hanging out on the Quad, 

when their attention was drawn to shouting and screaming 

across the square. 

OMG ! Why is Principal Lemon hauling ass after that Goth Kid? 

Her Rich Kid friend paid her no attention, as he waved at the cheerleader.

Ahhh!! She just ripped his head off! My skateboard friend

yelled “let’s get out of here!” I grabbed a shocked looking weirdo 

and dragged her with us as we fled. Crap! Skater slammed directly

into a mass of ugly and was dragged down. I kept running, pulling

any norms with me as I ran towards my Mazda RX2.

We scooped up a cops shotgun laying near a pile of gore along with

a pipe. We used them to good effect as our group grew in size.

We yelled for the few remaining students in the yard to head for the

parking lot. We knew their chances were small as the crowd of biters

had grown massive.

None of them made it, and quickly rose to stagger towards us and the

parking lot

The five of us crammed into my RX2 Coupe. I raced off campus as fast

as my rotary engine could go. All my passengers asked to be driven to

their homes. I dropped them off as close to their destinations as I dared. 

I should have argued for the group to stay together, but we were too scared

and confused to think clearly.

Not all lessons taught are learned. But I learned a bunch about myself in

those 30 minutes. Lessons that still serve today......

After all of this time fighting and surviving together,

the group was still shocked to hear how it all started

for Wanda. “I’m happy to finally have shared my story.

So who is next”, asked Wanda

We really enjoy bringing our survivors to life. This

origin story was played out with Zombie High School. 

Rick and Carl’s Day Out

The Walking Dead - Rick and Carl’s Day Out

Although I was a Kickstarter All In backer we had not yet played. 

With Call to Arms releasing 7/2019, we decided to play the final

starter scenario. The group had enjoyed Here’s Negan and you can

read our play and review here. 

Rick is out teaching Carl to shoot near a mass of piled up vehicles 

along a junked up section of road. The practice had gone well but

the mass of walkers was growing unmanageable. Just when Rick

was about to gather a few supplies and head back to camp, Carl 

noticed several survivors approaching. The gunfire had drawn

Derek’s band to the area. Noticing lots of usable goods in the area

Derek ordered Sandra and Patrick to gather supplies. 

Derek notices Rick and warns him off from the area

Patrick moves toward some supplies

Rick shoots a nearby walker and draws lots of attention

Sandra is getting out numbered and in trouble

Carl searches the car and BOOM! He finds a booby trap

Sandra gets the car between her and the walkers

Rick sees his opening and moves toward a stash of supplies

Sandra swings in and gets the supplies securing victory for Derek’s side. 

Rick and Carl slide away to fight another day. 

We had a good time and look forward to building our own teams while

using the full rules set. We didn’t engage in any PvP which may have

been a mistake but the 3 to 2 odds seemed tough. Ammo is depleted

1/3 of time on a die roll so that was tough too. Building your own teams

would allow extra ammo cards and melee weapons. 

The system works well solo, cooperative, or competitive. I could even 

see it as an RPG narrative type campaign playing the key events out

with the skirmish game. The Mantic deluxe terrain pack was awesome too!

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