A busy weekend, Society meeting 24th February and Cavalier 25th February

Andy rounds up a busy weekend for the Society. Photos by Andy unless stated otherwise, header photo by Stephen.

Last weekend saw both a Society meeting and our annual trip to the Cavalier Wargames show run by Tunbridge Wells Wargames Society.

Only three games at the meeting on Saturday, perhaps due to some members only being able to get out on one of the days.

First up, David ran a Napoleonic Corps game using General d’Armee rules and figures from his collection. This was a popular game with half a dozen members partaking.

Eric ran a Judge Dredd RPG, only a couple of photos of this one I’m afraid.

Judge Dredd RPG
Judge Dredd Bar room Brawl

Finally on Saturday Andy and Stephen finished off their Lion Rampant Five Battles campaign, joined this time by Treasurer Mark and new member Charlotte.

Game one.

This was a Convoy mission, the Christians had to escort three “baggage” markers diagonally across the table, a cart, some monks and some civilians. The Muslim forces had to stop them.

Much reduced cavalry face off (Charlotte)
Andy’s convoy and escorts (Charlotte)
Egyptian Light Cavalry (Charlotte)

Game 2. This was to be our “Big Battle”, with two commands on each side. Here the objective was simply to defeat the opposition.

Andy’s warband
Andy’s Warband (Charlotte)
Charlotte’s and Stephen’s warbands
Stephen’s view point (Stephen)

We will post a write up of the final games in the campaign in the near future.

CAVALIER

On Sunday half a dozen or so members travelled to Tonbridge for Cavalier.

The Society’s game for this year was masterminded and built by Phil, and was a 3D representation of a map game published in the 1977 Warlord Comic Summer Special portraying a Luftwaffe raid on Southern England during the Battle of Britain.

Phil’s board, 560 individually marked squares!
Airfields and ammunition dumps are three of the targets for the Luftwaffe
A close up of the town
A copy of the original game can just be seen at the bottom of the photo

Lion Rampant Five Battles, Day 1

Andy reports on the first part of a short campaign.

Stephen and I started the year with the Five Battles Campaign from Lion Rampant Version 2. We decided to set the campaign as part of the Crusades, and allow the use of the additional rules and forces from Lion Rampant: The Crusader States.

Stephen would take the Muslim forces and I would take the Christian forces.

The campaign comprises of five battles, the participants prepare 5 Warbands and they allocate each of these Warbands to one of the battles. In the book these are of 20, 24, 24, 24 and 30 points, we decided that we would go large, and would use Warbands of 24, 24, 30, 30 and 48 points.

We gave leaders the free skill to allow a single reroll for a failed Move Shoot or Attack order, and allowed an extra point to each of the warbands (2 to the 48-point warband) to be used solely on additional leader skills (up to 2 skills per leader), so the warbands would effectively be 25, 25, 31, 31 and 50 points. Any points spent on leader skills in excess of the one or two extra points would be taken from the point value of the Warband.

The 48+2-point warband would be used in the last game, and would be split into 2 contingents, players choice if this warband contains contingents of equal or unequal points values.

Throughout the campaign Stephen would be the Red player, and I would be the Blue player.

For each battle the roll of a D6 would determine which scenario would be used, with the basic Bloodbath scenario being a 1 in 6 chance for each battle.

The five battles in the campaign, and the possible scenarios and attackers are:

Battle Die Roll 1-3 Die Roll 4-5 Die Roll 6
Scenario Attacker Scenario Attacker Scenario
The River Valley 6: A Gentle Stroll (p146) Blue (Andy) 16: Bloodfeud (p166) Red (Stephen) 1: Bloodbath (p137)

 

Roll D6. Highest is Attacker

The Hills 3: Defending the Indefensible (p140) Red (Stephen) 7: Hold on Tight (p148)

 

Blue (Andy)
The Road 13: The Convoy (p160) Blue (Andy) 14: Meeting the Neighbours (p163) Red (Stephen)
The Meadows 11: The Messenger (p154) Red (Stephen) 4: The Fugitive (p142) Blue (Andy)
The Village 8: Sausages with Mustard (p149) Red (Stephen) 12: The Taxman Cometh (p156) Blue (Andy)

To determine the first battle of the campaign we rolled a d10, subsequently the winner of a battle would choose which battle came next.

Battle 1.

The d10 result was 2, leading us to fight the battle in the River Valley, for this battle one long edge, the south edge, is a deep, impassable river, and we placed a stream, counting as bad going, just over halfway across the table, just to the east of the middle of the table.

The subsequent d6 roll resulted in scenario 6, A Gentle Stroll (p146). This made me the attacker and Stephen the defender. I had chosen a 31-point warband for this scenario, Stephen had a 25-point warband.

Andy (Frankish Settlers (Pullani))  Total 31 points

        • 1 x Knights (Elite Cavalry, Drilled), Leader Braveheart (In challenges only hit on a 6) @ 8 points
        • 2 x Sergeants (Heavy Cavalry) @ 4 points each
        • 1 x Foot Sergeants (Heavy Infantry) @ 4 points
        • 1 x Foot Yeomen (Light Infantry) @ 3 points
        • 1 x Crossbowmen @ 4 points
        • 2 x Skirmishers @ 2 points each

I should have had a unit of Light Cavalry, instead of one of the Heavy Cavalry units, but these are still on the painting table.

Stephen (Ayyubid Egyptian)  Total 24 points

        • 2 x Mounted Mamluk (Heavy Cavalry with Bows) @ 5 points each
        • 3 x Mounted Turcomen (Light Cavalry) @ 4 points each
        • 1 x Ahdath (Skirmishers) @ 2 points

Yes, Stephen should have had a 25-point warband, but he forgot to add a Leader skill!

Stephen deployed his forces in the North West Corner, with the objective of getting his warband off the South East corner. He had to leave one of his units of Turcomen off table initially, as they wouldn’t all fit into the deployment area.

I had to deploy in the North East and South West corners, with at least one unit in each area. My objective was to prevent Stephen from exiting the board. My plan was to deploy most of my force in the North East corner, including my Skirmishers and Crossbows, with the intention of moving them as quickly as possible to the South East corner to block Stephen’s exit.

Positions after turn 1. Sorry it’s a bit blurred.

I had to deploy at least one unit in the South West corner, I decided to use one of the Heavy Cavalry units and the Light Infantry, I wanted units that could move fairly quickly, but that would also be a threat to Stephen’s flank.

Andy’s “Forlorn Hope”

Stephen sent one of his units of Mamluks and his unit of Ahdath to counter my force in the South West, while the rest of his mounted units headed for the South East corner and safety.

Stephen’s Ayyubid Egyptians spread out

I Sent my Skirmishers forward, headed for the rocky ground to the east of the stream, hoping to be able to shoot at any of Stephen’s troops trying to cross the stream while taking advantage of the rocky ground as cover. I sent my second unit of Heavy Cavalry toward the Northern part of the stream to guard against a unit of Turcomen getting behind me, while I tried to keep my Leader’s unit of Elite Cavalry centrally positioned to enable him to use his failed activation re-roll should my heavier foot fail in a move activation.

Andy’s main force making all speed

On the West of the table my Yeomen made it to the hill only to receive an arrow storm from the Mamluks and Ahdath, sending them battered back off the hill.

Some of Stephen’s main force reached the stream, and came within range of my Skirmishers, fortunately I came out on top of the duel, and a couple of his Turcomen were forced back from the stream with heavy losses. He did get one unit of Turcomen across the stream and headed for the exit point, but by this time my Crossbows were in range and their quarrels took their toll.

Stephen’s Emir crosses the stream

In the West my Yeomen spectacularly failed their Rally attempt and fled the field, leaving the Mounted Sergeants a bit isolated. I decided to move these into the lee of the hill to take them out of sight of the Ayyubids, Stephen moved his Mamluks in parallel, and they eventually came to blows, both units being reduced to below half strength, with my Mounted Sergeants eventually routing.

Meanwhile Stephen’s Emir bravely pressed on crossing the stream, but by this time I had brought my second unit of Mounted Sergeants and my Knights further to the south.

The Mounted Sergeants were able to charge the Emir’s unit, reducing the unit to Emir himself. He must have been blessed with luck as he survived all the Leader casualty rolls he had to take, but did fail a Courage test, forcing him back across the stream.

I failed in an attempt to shoot him down with my Skirmishers, and we then came to a critical point. The Emir had to take a Rally test, if he failed, he would rout as he was the only figure left in the unit, and if that happened then all of Stephen’s remaining units would also have to take courage tests. Of course he passed, and I was unable to inflict a further casualty with archery before Stephen moved him out of range of my Skirmishers.

Stephen’s only full-strength unit now was his Ahdath, who were still well to the west of the stream, he had one unit of Turcomen just over half strength, but the remainder of his units were below half strength.

Stephen’s remnants

On the other hand, I had lost my Heavy Cavalry and the Light Infantry west of the stream, but all my other units were at over half strength and my Crossbows and Heavy Infantry were now blocking the Ayyubid’s exit point, with the latter in Wall of Spears.

At this point Stephen conceded that he could not win the battle, he did not think he could get enough of his troops off the exit point to win the scenario, so he conceded.

At the start of the game, I had made three boasts, ‘I shall slay their leader’ (3), ‘I will destroy more units than I lose’ (2) and ‘They will tremble before me’ (2). I failed to achieve the first two, but I did succeed with the last one, so I netted out at 0 Glory for the boasts (failed boasts cost you 1 Glory, irrespective of their value if you win), but took 5 Glory for the win.

Stephen made three boasts as well, ‘My arrows are deadlier than my spears’ (2), ‘Their arrows shall be lost like tears in the rain’ (1) and ‘They will tremble before me’ (2). He succeeded with the first two boasts, but failed the last for a total of 2 Glory for the boasts.

So, after the first battle it was 1-0 to me, I had 5 Glory and Stephen had 2 Glory.

Battle 2

For this battle I had selected a 25-point warband and Stephen had selected a 30-point warband (he forgot the additional point for a leader skill again).

Having won the first battle, I chose “The Meadows” as the second battle, and the d6 rolls resulted in the Bloodbath scenario with me as the attacker.

Andy (Frankish Settlers (Pullani))  Total 25 points

          • 1 x Knights (Elite Cavalry, Drilled), Leader Braveheart (In challenges only hit on a 6) @ 8 points
          • 1 x Sergeants (Heavy Cavalry) @ 4 points
          • 1 x Foot Sergeants (Heavy Infantry) @ 4 points
          • 1 x Foot Yeomen (Light Infantry) @ 3 points
          • 1 x Crossbowmen @ 4 points
          • 1 x Skirmishers @ 2 points

Stephen (Ayyubid Egyptian)  Total 30 points

          • 2 x Mounted Mamluk (Heavy Cavalry with Bows) @ 5 points each
          • 3 x Mounted Turcomen (Light Cavalry) @ 4 points each
          • 2 x Ahdath (Skirmishers) @ 2 points each
          • 1 x Foot Ghilman (Light Infantry, with Javelins) @ 4 points

In this scenario each side deploys in three phases, first any 1- and 2-point units, then 3- and 4-point units, then units worth 5 or more points. The defender deploys first in each phase.

I knew I was going to be outnumbered and I also knew that due to the deployment rules Stephen would have to deploy most of his Warband before I deployed anything heavier than my Skirmishers. So, I decided on a ruse, I planned to concentrate my force in the South West corner and rely on an interior lines defence, trying to prevent Stephen being able to bring all his troops to bear at the same time, but I would try to make it look like I was going for a central deployment.

Stephen started by deploying his Ahdath on his left flank, near some rocky ground. I deployed my Skirmishers about a third of the way across the table, near to a building, I was hoping Stephen would think that these would be guarding the left of my line, when I actually intended them to be the right of my line.

Stephen then deployed his Ghilman and Turcomen, one of the latter to the east of his Ahdath and the other two in the North West corner with the Ghilman unit.

Stephen’s left flank

Now it was time to deploy my main force, I put my Yeomen on the extreme left of my deployment zone, then the Crossbows, then the Heavy Foot. I put the Mounted Sergeants on the right, immediately behind the Skirmishers. These would act as flank guard.

Stephen then deployed his remaining units, two groups of Mamluks, including his leader.

Stephen’s Turcomen, Ghilman and Mamluks

I deployed my Leader behind my Infantry line, intending to position him so that he could influence courage rolls on the main infantry line.

Turn 2 Andy’s Pullani brace themselves for the attack.

On my first couple of moves I advanced my skirmishers to occupy one of the buildings to form a bastion on my right, and advanced the rest of the infantry to form a diagonal line, getting the Yeomen and Sergeants into Wall of Spears.

Andy’s defensive line

Stephen advanced his forces, but he let his Ghilman get too far ahead of his other troops so they came in range of both my skirmishers and crossbows, taking casualties from both and being forced to retreat battered.

Stephen’s Turcomen units on the West flank advanced and shot at my Yeomen, temporarily battering them, and forcing them back. Fortunately for me they rallied at the first attempt and resumed their place in the line before Stephen could exploit the gap. Stephen also got his Ahdath close enough to my Skirmishers to start shooting, but having the advantage of cover my Skirmishers won that shooting contest. Stephen’s Turcomen unit on the East flank came up, so I advanced my Mounted Sergeants to chase them off, if memory serves, I charged them, they tried to evade but failed and had to fight with Armour of 1, all but being wiped out in the first round of combat.

On my left (the West) Stephen tried attacking my line of foot but his units were rebuffed. My crossbows and skirmishers must have been practicing because they inflicted many casualties breaking a couple of Stephen’s units.

With over half of Stephen’s units wiped out or routed, and with the hope of getting a third battle in, Stephen conceded.

This time I only made two boasts, ‘Half of the Enemy shall fall to my Sword’ (2) and ‘They will tremble before me’ (2). I succeeded with both boasts, so I gained 4 Glory for the boasts, and took 5 Glory for winning the battle.

Stephen made three boasts again, ‘I will destroy more units than I lose’ (2), ‘Half the enemy shall fall to my sword'(2) and ‘My arrows are deadlier than my spears’ (2) this time Stephen failed to achieve the first two boasts, but did succeed with the third, which cancelled each other out, so no change in his Glory total.

So, after the second battle I had 2 victories and 14 Glory, Stephen had two defeats and 2 Glory.

Battle 3

For the third battle I chose “The Hills” and the die roll resulted in Scenario 3 “Defending the Indefensible” with Stephen as the Attacker and I as the Defender. The table was set up with 5 hills, one in the centre of each quadrant, and one more in the central area of the table, with a shrine on the central hill. I had to deploy up to 10 points in the central zone, defending the shrine, with the remainder of my force in the Western deployment zone. Stephen’s force would deploy on the Eastern zone with the objective of getting one of his units into contact with the shrine.

Andy (Frankish Settlers (Pullani))   Total 25 points

          • 1 x Knights (Elite Cavalry, Drilled), Leader Braveheart (In challenges only hit on a 6) @ 8 points
          • 1 x Sergeants (Heavy Cavalry) @ 4 points
          • 1 x Foot Sergeants (Heavy Infantry) @ 4 points
          • 1 x Foot Yeomen (Light Infantry) @ 3 points
          • 1 x Crossbowmen @ 4 points
          • 1 x Skirmishers @ 2 points

Stephen (Ayyubid Egyptian)  Total 29 points

          • 1 x Foot Mamluk (Heavy Foot, Expert) @ 6 points
          • 2 x Foot Ghilman (Light Infantry, with Javelins) @ 4 points each
          • 1 x Hashishin (Warrior Infantry, Assassination) @ 5 points
          • 1 x Mounted Turcomen (Light Cavalry) @ 4 points
          • 3 x Ahdath (Skirmishers) @ 2 points each

The astute among you will notice the inclusion of a unit of Hashishin in Stephen’s warband, with the Assassination upgrade. These troops and the upgrade are from Lion Rampant: The Crusader States. The Assassination upgrade normally costs 2 points but the Hashishin get a discount so it only costs them 1 point. This allows a pre-game assassination attempt against the enemy leader, requiring a 5 or 6 on a d6 to succeed. Needless to say, Stephen rolled a 6, and my leader left this mortal coil clutching his throat. This meant that I would not get any Leader benefits in the next game.

I decided I would need to keep my fastest units as my “reserve” to give them the best chance of getting into the fray (this may have been a mistake), so I deployed my Foot Sergeants occupying the shrine on the hill, with the Crossbows facing Stephen’s deployment area, and the Skirmishers to one flank. In the Western deployment zone I put my two mounted units and my Yeomen.

Stephen deployed his Hashishin and Ghilman in the northern half of his deployment zone, with his Mamluks and Ahdath in the centre and his Turcomen on his southern flank.

As Attacker Stephen took the first move and advanced most of his troops towards the shrine, I advanced my crossbows and moved the skirmishers behind them to the northern flank. I then started to move my reserves up, thankfully all the units succeeded in their move activations in the first turn.

In the next couple of turns our missile troops exchanged fire, generally to my advantage, Stephen advanced his Hashishin and Ghilman closer to the shrine, and I managed to bring up my Mounted Sergeants on my southern flank and my Foot Yeomen on the Northern flank. My unit of Knights, bereft of their Leader, resolutely refused to advance any further (needing a 7+ to move, and having lost the ability to reroll a failed activation with the assassination of my leader).

On the southern flank our cavalry units came to blows, with my Sergeants coming out on top.

Stephen’s Ghilman advanced towards my Crossbows, taking casualties on their way in, but his Hashishin eventually got close enough to charge my Skirmishers, who managed to evade the charge.

By this time, I had brought up my Yeomen to hold off one of the Ghilman units, and Stephen’s Hashishin diverted their attention to my Crossbowmen who miraculously survived the Hashishin’s charge, driving them back.

Andy’s Pullani defend the shrine

And my Knights, you ask? Still sat stubbornly on the edge of my deployment zone refusing to move.

Stephen closes in on the Shrine, my Knights have hardly moved.
Andy’s Knights “resolutely guarding the rocky ground”.

Stephen continued to throw his Ghilman at my Yeomen, and although the latter were reduced to half strength, they held on long enough that the Gilman unit eventually failed its Courage and Rally tests and melted away.

One of the conditions for ending this scenario is when the Attacker has lost 50% of their starting points, and eventually Stephen’s mounting casualties brought him to this point ending the battle.

For this battle I again only made two boasts: I shall destroy more than I lose (2) and Tremble before me (2). I succeeded with both boasts, so I gained 4 Glory for the boasts, and took 5 Glory for winning the battle.

Stephen made three boasts again: ‘My arrows are deadlier than my spears’ (2), ‘I shall strike the first blow’ (1), and ‘I shall run rings around them’ (1). Unfortunately for Stephen he failed to achieve any of these boasts so lost 3 Glory.

My recalcitrant knights did do one good thing, as they refused to move away from my deployment zone it made it all but impossible for Stephen to achieve his ‘’I shall run rings around them’ boast.

So, after the third battle I had 3 victories and 23 Glory, Stephen had 3 defeats and -1 Glory.

In our next session we will fight the fourth battle, where I expect to have a larger force than Stephen, and the final 50-point battle, which we will open up to a second commander on each side.

 

Boasts

For those not familiar with Lion Rampant, Boasts are additional objectives you can set for yourself in addition to the scenario objectives. The Boasts Stephen and I used in these battles, and their success criteria and Glory value are as follows (failing to achieve a boasts costs 1 Glory, irrespective of its positive Glory value).

Boast Criteria Glory
I shall slay your Leader Your Leader must kill the enemy Leader in a Challenge or Attack. Routing the enemy Leader does not count as a success. If the enemy Leader refuses your challenge and survives the game, you succeed but score only 1 Glory 3
I will destroy more units than I lose Your Warband must rout/kill more enemy units than you lose (the actual number of models destroyed is not relevant). 2
Half of the enemy shall fall to my sword Your Warband must rout/kill at least half of your enemy’s total number of units (the actual number of models destroyed is not relevant). 2
My arrows are deadlier than my spears Your Warband must rout/kill more individual models with Shooting than Attacks (put casualties in two separate piles!) 2
They will tremble before me! At least two enemy units on the table must be Battered at any one time. 2
I shall strike the first blow One of your units must declare the game’s first Attack 1
I shall Run rings around them At the end of one turn of the game, have one of your own units closer to the enemy’s base line than any of their units. 1
Their arrows shall be lost like tears in the rain None of your units may be ultimately routed or destroyed by missile fire (they may take missile casualties, but this cannot be the cause of their removal from play). 1

 

Society meeting 27th January

Andy presents a short round up of the games at the second meeting of the year.

Stephen and I started our Lion Rampant Five Battles campaign. We had planned to play two games today, but actually got through three games.

First Battle: Stephen’s Ayyubid Egyptians spread out
First Battle: Nearing the end
Second Battle: Andy’s Pullani brace themselves for the attack.
Third Battle: Andy’s Pullani defend the shrine

A full report on these battles will be posted soon.

Eric ran a Darkheim – En Garde! fantasy skirmish game pitting four factions against each other in a free for all.

Barbarians and Beastmen
Cultists approach the village
Fighting around the ruined chapel
The village

Paul put on a 3mm Eastern front game set in late 1943

Aerial view of the battlefield
Soviets bypass the town

 

German ambush from the woods
Aerial view of the town

Finally, David, Alan and Chris played a Star Wars Armada game.

Imperial Star Destroyers
Rebels press the attack
“They’re behind you!”

That’s all for this week.

The diary for this year’s meetings can be found here.

The Quest Begins

Tony F reports on the beginnings of an epic journey.

About four years ago, Games Workshop released The Quest of the Ringbearer, the latest source book in their Middle Earth Strategy Battle series. This is centred around a series of 28 scenarios which, if played in succession, tell the story of Frodo’s journey across Middle Earth to destroy the One Ring. It’s a bit of a mash-up between the story as told in the book, and the slightly different version in Peter Jackson’s films.

Phil and I have finally managed to get ourselves into gear and started on our Quest at the first meeting of the year. The initial scenarios are quite short, so we managed to race through the first four, even with the club AGM being held during the meeting ! Aiding us were Andy, who joined Phil on the Evil side, while Jon R played with me on the side of all that is Good. This report will cover the first two scenarios, with the next two in a separate post.

Scenario 1 – Farmer Maggot’s Crop
“The hounds of love are hunting”

Farmer Maggot’s cottage

This was a simple starter scenario, with the four hobbits (Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin) being on the evil side for once, trying to steal cabbages from Farmer Maggot’s field. Defending the brassicas were Maggot along with his three dogs, Grip, Wolf and Fang. The hobbits had to steal five cabbages from the field and get it back to their stash, while the dogs had to inflict sufficient bites on the backsides of the thieving hobbits to drive them away. Because this was nothing more than a scrumping mission, no-one could ‘die’ – when the dogs took a wound they ran back to their kennel until the Farmer sent them back again, while a hobbit that lost all of their wounds would run away and abandon the expedition.

Starting positions for scenario 1. The hobbits by their stash (giant tomato), Grip, Fang and Wolf by the kennel and Farmer Maggot asleep in his cottage.

In our playthrough, the hobbits got off to a good start, stealing their first cabbage and sending two of the dogs back to the kennel almost immediately. However, Wolf showed early form by biting Sam – in fact Wolf would be responsible for most of the wounds we inflicted. As soon as one of the dogs took a wound it woke Farmer Maggot, and as the mechanics of the scenario meant that the Farmer had to be touching the kennel in order to release any hound that had slunk back to it, Jon and I decided that our best course of action was simply to leave him there so that the dogs would be immediately be back into the fray.

Sam fends off Fang while the others gather cabbages

With two of the dogs temporarily out of action, the hobbits managed to grab a further three cabbages before they returned. When a hobbit was charged it had to drop its plunder, so not all of the cabbages made it back to the stash point when the dogs returned. As all three dogs got into action we started whittling the hobbits’ numbers down, with Wolf playing a starring role, until there was only one left facing all three dogs, with two plunder tokens still needed – a couple of good bites and it was all over.

The scenario was pretty well balanced, we felt – the hobbits managed to make it off with three of the required five cabbages, and could easily have made it further had Jon not rolled something like four successive sixes towards the end of the game.

Scenario 2 – Short Cuts Make Long Delays
“It’s in the trees – it’s coming !”

This scenario saw three of the four hobbits lost in the forest on the way to Crickhollow (Merry has already gone ahead). Three Ringwraiths are closing in on them, and only the intervention of Gildor Inglorion can save them. The hobbits started in the lee of a large hedge which runs through the forest; the Ringwraiths started in the centre of three of the board edges, while Gildor was on the fourth, Eastern edge (he got to start 3″ in because the Good side won the previous scenario). The objective was to get Frodo off the Eastern side of the table.

The Ringwraiths are in ‘Sentry’ mode – each turn they must roll a dice and depending on the result they could either move normally, at half speed, stay still or even in some cases be moved by the Good side. Conversely, the hobbits are all petrified of what could be in the woods so they each had to make a Courage test every turn – pass and they could move normally, fail and the Evil side got to move them. Once a Ringwraith spotted a hobbit (which was only at 3″ range in the woods) the alarm was raised and everyone could move normally. So these rolls would be crucial to the outcome – if the hobbits could evade detection for long enough then Frodo could escape.

Sam and Frodo make for the eastern table edge, but Pippin has been spooked by noises in the forest and has fallen behind.

The Ringwraiths pottered around pretty randomly – the one on the Southern edge came up with several 1s on his movement rolls, allowing the Good side to move him away, and he gained the nickname ‘Sh*t Ringwraith’ from has master which stuck for the rest of the day. The Western ‘wraith quickly moved up to the hedge with a decent couple of rolls. Pippin then failed a courage test and the Evil side moved him back towards the hedge and things looked dicey – one more dodgy roll and the alarm would be raised, which would allow the Ringwraiths to quickly close in with their superior speed. But the Western ‘wraith twice failed his rolls to cross the hedge, and spent two turns untangling his cloak from the branches, allowing Pippin to get away. Pippin did fail at least one more courage test but the Good side, being somewhat more decorous, decided not to christen him the ‘Sh*t Hobbit’.

Pippin on his lonesome, waiting for a Black Rider to find him…
… but the Ringwraith in question has snagged his cloak on the hedge and spends several turns trying to cross !

This left just the Northern Ringwraith as a threat – but by this time Gildor had moved up to meet the hobbits and was shielding Frodo. Since the scenario only required Frodo to escape, we decided we’d sacrifice the other two if necessary to get him away. So Sam and Pippin moved into blocking positions and Gildor hurried the Ringbearer off the table. Pippin was struck down in the last turn, but it was nevertheless a victory for the Good side again (rolling after the game, Pippin was determined to not be entirely dead, so his sacrifice was worth it).

Sam and Frodo make for the eastern table edge, but Pippin has been spooked by noises in the forest and has fallen behind.

The scenario was tricky for the Evil side, but depending on the random movement rolls for the Ringwraiths it could have gone entirely differently – and getting stuck on the hedge for two turns (only a 1-in-6 chance) effectively took one of them out of the game. What was key for the Good side was that Frodo, with his higher courage value, didn’t fail a single test and so could move towards the edge of the table at full speed every turn, making it in the minimum possible time.

‘Come on if you think you’re hard enough !’ – Gildor shepherds Frodo and Sam to safety ahead of other wraith.

So – after two scenarios, it’s

Good 2-0 Evil

First Society meeting of the year

Andy rounds up the first meeting of the year.

A good turn out for the Society’s first meeting of 2024, which included the Annual General Meeting, as well as half a dozen games.

The games staged were representative of the many periods and genes covered at the Society, consisting of historical, fictional, fantasy and sci-fi games.

Tony and Phil made a start with their “Quest of the Ringbearer” Middle-Earth campaign, playing out 4 scenarios of the journey from the Shire to Mount Doom.

Scenario 1 Farmer Maggot’s Crop

Farmer Maggot’s cottage
Starting positions for scenario 1. The hobbits by their stash (giant tomato), Grip, Fang and Wolf by the kennel and Farmer Maggot asleep in his cottage.
One of the Hobbits fends off Fang while the others gather cabbages

Scenario 2 – Short cuts make long delays

Pippin gets left behind as Frodo and Sam head for Gildor Inglorion. The Nazgul blunder their way through the woods
Sam has three Nazgul to face, Pippin has fallen and Frodo is nowhere to be seen.

Scenario 3 – Buckleberry Ferry

Starting positions for Scenario three, Three Nazgul spread out near the ferry, the Hobbits are in the trees near the top of the picture.
Stalemate, the sole surviving Nazgul (with 5 points of Will left) has crossed the Brandywine tying the ferry on the far side of the river. The four Hobbits have taken some damage and can’t face swimming the river with a Nazgul waiting for them.

A more detailed report on these scenarios will appear in due course.

Stephen staged a 15mm American Civil War game using Brigade Fire & Fury, ‘The Battle of Mansfield April 1864’

Union defenders on the hill
Union fall back as the Confederates take the hill
Last ditch Union defence
Confederates turn the flank

Alan put on a Pulp Alley game “The Castle of Terror”, teams from the Intelligence Agencies of various countries have been dispatched to investigate secret German activity at Schloß Weidergänger.

The teams approach the castle through the woods
The enemy of my enemy is not necessarily my friend
Russians investigate one of the huts
Sentries patrol, “Hast du etwas gehört, Fritz?”

Jeremey and Eric tried out –“Grimdark Future” from One Hour Wargames using their Space Marines and Robot collections.

Space Marines attack!
Part of the robot horde
Space Marines with air support
Space Marines take a beating

John staged a FoG Renaissance 15mm ECW game pitching Royalists vs Covenanters

Scots Covenanters defend the hill
Push of Pike
Cavalry clash on the wings
Kings’s Lifeguard of Foot supported by cavalry attack the Covenanters

And finally, David put on a 28mm Napoleonic Corps game, Russians vs Prussians using General d’Armee rules

Battle lines are formed
Cavalry clash while infantry hide in the woods.
Russian foot attack the Prussians in the woods
Attack on the Cross Roads

Well, that’s it for the round up of our first meeting.

The Society meets on the 2nd & 4th Saturdays of the month at Linton Village Hall. You can find our diary of games here.

For new members/visitors, we will always endeavour to find you a spot in a game if we can.

5 Parsecs – The Crash Site

Club member Marcus reports on another solo game of 5 Parsecs from Home.

The crew of the “Pi” have had some scares so far but come out about as far ahead as an independent crew of scoundrels starting out in a big universe can expect so far. Turn 3  starts with payment of upkeep and debt on the ship. San and Nira trade for some contraband. There is a risk that they could acquire a rival as a result (law enforcement perhaps or a rival gang?)  but they get away with it and gain 3 CR. Kel and Wellington explore and pick up a shotgun. Always handy! More importantly they gain a rumour “Meet someone interesting…” In a darkened corner of a relic emporium a wizened alien gives them a strange token following a curious discussion over purchasing some old charts. It’s handed over with the words “Perhaps you can make use of this too…key to the temple, or so they say…” Wellington looks at the ancient looking etched cube in his hand with a curious look. “I have seen something like this before, but I can’t remember where…” perhaps it is just what it looks like, a curious old piece of junk. Perhaps not.

Meanwhile Pascal does some schmoozing and finds a new patron with an offer of a job which must be completed this turn or the next. Your patron has been double crossed in a shady information bartering transaction. The perpetrator has however crashed on a shuttle in the southern forests. Eliminate him and the knowledge he carries. It has the benefit of giving access to the company stores for supply purposes. Ultimately this produces a roll which generates 1 CR of scrap! “I told you that was a load of rubbish Pascal!” Very disappointing. This job also a significant hazard. The crew will face veteran opposition at -1 to panic.

They don’t yet know it but they will face the threat of the “Converted” infiltrators. Their opponents appear normal (as normal as anyone looks in this galaxy of diverse lifeforms!) but are part of the cyborg hive mind advance party…there’s a threat of invasion and galactic war!

You can see the Converted moving in from the north-west quite apparently quite close to the wrecked stealth shuttle. The crew can be seen at the south centre. The yellow counter is a randomly generated “curious item”, worth 1 CR if picked up)

The first couple of turns are spent moving in on the location of the crash. Despite the initial proximity of the converted to the site both crews converge at the location almost simultaneously with San and Kel spotting their opponents.

Rolling a 12355, Kel and Nira act. Kell moves and shoots against an opponent in the open rolling a 6! However, a damage roll of 2 leaves the opponent stunned (yellow counter). Nira moves and shoots the leader in the open with a 5. A damage roll of 4 equals the leader’s toughness for a kill (red token)! The enemy return fire, mainly at Nira, but fortunately they all miss. Just. San now opens up with his plasma rifle and hits. His plasma rifle does +1 damage and the resulting 6 kills another converted.  Veyon and Wellington search the shuttle but don’t locate the target, who has taken cover near a bulbous headed insanity plant.

In turn 4 a bad roll means that the crew all move after the converted, who don’t panic because they are (veteran) cold, calculating cyborgs. However, a volley of fire yields no results for the converted as they target San and Nira. Veyon in stealth gear (-1 to enemy shooting) moves into position. She also uses a sonic emitter which impacts enemy rolls with 5” by -1. Veyon shoots with no damage but gets two stuns on her target. Neither San nor Kel can get a hit. Nira rashly charges into close combat trusting in her lethal boarding sabre. Amid the melee of flailing sharp blades perhaps it is the cybernetics that give her opponent the edge, but Nira goes down. She survives the toxic effects of the planet but is a casualty and out of the action.

Turn 5 and having seen Nira go down an angry Kell blasts away at the remaining enemy but misses. They respond by firing at Veyon. She seems certain to be killed but somehow dives to safety (a luck point used, otherwise she would have been toast!) Wellington meanwhile has tracked the target who has moved some way from the shuttle. He shoots but misses. Veyon now return fire at the last of the e. A 5 hit and 5 damage see the last of them go down.

Wellington ultimately brawls with the target and brings the filthy traitor down too.

Far from an easy mission, both Nira and Kel nearly “bought it” (I used a story point to save Nira from a gruesome death). The crew pick up an extra 2 CR danger pay and 8 CR for completing the job. With the infiltrator converted wiped out, there is no evidence of the crew’s involvement and the Converted do not become rivals as a result. The crew also picked up something on the battlefield, a “personal item”. Perhaps representing a time before one of the enemy was converted. There is a chance this can be returned to a relative on visiting a future world, which would be worth a roll on the loot table.  In addition the crew gather some loot – Damaged weapons: a ripper sword and 3 frak grenades.

Experience; Everyone gains +3 except Nira who gets +5. Level-up: Nira, Kell and Veyon get +1 combat and Wellington +1 tough. They purchase a military rifle for 3 CR. Finally there is another chance meeting in a bar…(where else?). Could be an addition to the crew perhaps?

A year’s worth of gaming (Part 2)

Club member Stephen reviews the games he has played at Maidstone Wargames Society this year. This is part 2 of the article covering July to December. If you missed part 1 it can be found here.

The first meeting after the Open Day can be an important one because it would be the first ‘true’ impression of a club day for anyone returning after the Open Day. We do try to have a few games going and it’s important that games are open to any new member to help them feel included and part of the club. I had a game of Dragon Rampant with Andy.

July – Dragon Rampant

We got in two games. Andy was using his goblins, and I used two new armies – elves in the first game and dwarves in the second. And Andy won both games. Not just won, but won quite convincingly. That’s the thing with new armies – it takes time. You have to get to know each other, trust each other, respect each other. Just like any relationship.

At the end of July came more sci-fi. Another game of Stargrave – Jurassic Moon! I’m sure you can work out the inspiration for that one. Films, TV, and books all provide an endless resource for Stargrave games. Yet again, another sci fi game in my decision to do more sci fi during the year.

In this game Tony’s captain would get killed by a pack of velociraptors, meaning Tony lost his crew and will have to start all over again. Meanwhile, Eric kept throwing grenades at everything. We also used the Side Hustle cards, which provided a great new element to the game.

July – Stargrave – Jurassic Moon

We are now two-thirds of the way through this gaming year, and another sci fi game for me – Battlestar Galactica by Ares Games. This uses the same game engine as other games such as X-Wing. The game was run by Alan, so fulfilled two briefs for the year’s gaming – play more sci fi, and play more games run by other people. Best of all, though, was the chance to game with club members I seldom game with. Alan umpired with Dave and myself taking the Cylons and Pete S and Chris taking the humans. I don’t wish to gloat, but suffice to say that Dave and myself had a very rewarding day!

August – Battle Star Galactica

And then on to a bit of fantasy – Elf King Red. This is a free download set of rules by Rick Priestly. In brief, the game is based around an elf civil war, with each player taking control of a different ‘Circle’ of elves. It’s one of those games with just a few miniatures per player – a leader (or Thane in the rules) accompanied by six companions. Just seven figures per side!

We had a four player game – Andy, Tony F, Phil, and myself. We played two different scenarios (we agreed that each player must devise a scenario, but obviously never played them all). Andy’s scenario involved hunting down a rampant werewolf whilst mine was all about taking control of a temple in the wilderness.

August – Elf King Red

It proved to be a nice fun game. These sort of things always work best with some kind of scenario driven game. There’s a few holes in the rules, which is OK (they’re free, after all), especially if you’re a group of friends and playing the game in the spirit of fun. We certainly coped with any hiccups and any uncertainties were easily resolved. EKR will make a great one-day session of linked scenarios.

It had been a little while, but the first meeting in September was back to our Wars of the Roses campaign – Battle of Hedgeley Moor. This was an encounter I was unfamiliar with, with newly crowned King Edward sending an embassy to the Scots only to be ambushed by the Lancastrians.

September – Sword and Spear – Battle of Hedgeley Moor

You know what, it’s just not fair! I really thought I was going to win this one, it was looking good at one point. But did I? No. You can read the full report here: Wars of the Roses – Battle of Hedgeley Moor – Battle Report – Maidstone Wargames Society (brigademodels.co.uk)

A closer game this time, so I suppose some things are improving.

The second meeting in September was supposed to be Rebels & Patriots but Andy had to pull out at the last minute, so I grabbed some spaceships and we had a game of Starmada instead. Like Full Thrust this is a space fleet game, but it’s quicker and dirtier than Full Thrust and can handle large fleet battles better. We played three games. The first was a simple meeting encounter so we could all remind ourselves of the rules. The grey fleet won this so we decided the next battle would be an attempt to take control of a mining facility. The green fleet repelled them this time and so we moved on to the last game – a chance for the greens to consolidate their position. But the greys won again. We decided this represented a minor victory for the greys. They hadn’t managed to take control of the mining facilities but had done enough to press the greens for trading benefits.

September – Starmada

The first meeting in October was on the 14th, which meant only one thing: HASTINGS! A few years ago we’d re-fought the battle so what we did was have a special Saga day based on the Norman Invasion. Norman and Anglo-Dane armies only.

October – SAGA – Battle of Hastings

The four of us decided to play multi-player games. Each player would keep track of victory points throughout the day and the player with the highest total would be declared winner. The day went to Tim with his Anglo-Danes with Jeremey, also using Anglo-Danes, in a very close second. It seems English resistance to the Normans is alive and well.

Since we meet in such a large hall I often wonder why we don’t do more one-on-one games. There’s enough room. So at the second meeting in October Tony G and myself had a few games of Barons War. This was Tony’s first time, so we kept it small. As such, we got in three games. Barons War provides a really good section on scenarios, which always benefits skirmish games. I won the first, then Tony won the second, which left a third deciding game. It went to Tony! The more I play Barons War the more I enjoy it. Like many rules it’s not always as clear as it could be – though not as bad as some rules out there. But as you play it the more sense it makes. A very enjoyable session.

October – Baron’s War

Right then. So, November. And another ding-dong in our Wars of the Rose campaign.

This was the Battle of Hexham and marked a turning point in the war. Not only was it a turning point in the actual war but it was also a turning point (hopefully) in our campaign. Rather than give details here you can instead read about the remarkable events here.

November – Sword and Spear – Battle of Hexham

The penultimate game of the year was a bit of a 90s throwback – Battletech! This game ticked two boxes for my year’s gaming: more sci fi AND play other’s games as well. Back in the day I used to play a lot of Battletech (and Silent Death). This was Eric’s game and we played a version of Battletech called Alpha Strike which, to be honest with you, bears no resemblance to the original game at all. Which is not a bad thing. Battletech was a very 90s set of rules and I’m not sure I have the stomach for it any more. But Eric had done the right thing by introducing us to Alpha Strike because it is a much more streamlined, playable, and therefore enjoyable game. Splendid fun. And check out Eric’s fantastically painted mechs. When I used to play I would go for lurid colours (I remember doing one in purple and yellow). I much prefer Eric’s muted colours.

November – Battletech Alpha Strike

And so on to my final game of the year. And yet more sci fi. Another game of Stargrave, but this time with a festive feel – I called the game ‘There Ain’t No Sanity Clause’ (full credit goes to The Damned for that). Santa Claus has been kidnapped by hordes of psycho-penguins and the players must spread festive goodwill to release him.

December – Stargrave – There Ain’t No Sanity Clause

Five players took part. They had two goals – as well as collecting loot tokens they also had to collect clues that tell them what they have to do to release Santa. The culmination of the game was a group rendition of We Wish You A Happy Christmas. In addition, if the players give back captured loot tokens to Santa (the loot were presents for all the good boys and girls) then they would receive double experience for those tokens.

A suitably festive ending to the year!

So those were the games I played at the club during 2023. I did well on my pledge to play more sci fi, but not so well when it came to playing other’s games (though I did do that more than usual – so not too bad). You know what, I don’t think I played a duff game all year. I thoroughly enjoyed every game. This is the advantage with being a club member – the variety of games and the quality. I’m going to continue with my determination to join in other games during 2024.

 

Wars of the Roses – Battle of Hexham – Battle Report

Battle number nine in our campaign was the battle of Hexham. The setup for this battle involved having the Lancastrians with their back to the river known as the Devil’s Water. Both armies were 800 points and as is the established convention with this campaign the victor writes the history, so I’ll leave you with Stephen to go through what happened on the day!

Battle of Hexham
Now I think about it, I feel a bit sorry for Tony F. He turned up, all perky and friendly, and said, ‘So who wants me on their side?’
Jeremey and myself looked at each other. Then we looked at Tony. ‘Neither of us,’ we said. His face changed.

It’s like this you see. There were three of us for the game, so it would be two vs one. Now, if the two players won then the single player would say something like, ‘It took two of you to beat me.’ Or, if the single player won, he would say, ‘Even the two of you together weren’t good enough to stop me.’

So honour was at stake, and this hadn’t occurred to Tony. So we said to him, ‘You decide.’ Tony decided to flip a coin for it – it came up heads: so that meant he would be on Jeremey’s side.

We move on to the Battle of Hexham. This is one of the smaller, lesser known, battles from the Wars of the Roses. However, it’s a very important battle because it marks the end of Lancastrian resistance. The battle was a devastating loss to the Lancastrian cause with the death of the Duke of Somerset, who had been the main supporter of King Henry. There’s not much to the battlefield – a river to the Lancastrian rear (in which many fleeing Lancastrians drowned), but otherwise an empty field (as is the case with many small battles).

I knew my tactics were to advance as quickly as possible to ensure I had space to retreat if pushed back. In general I had my army in a double-line – archers up front with billmen behind. My centre consisted of two pike blocks and two units of dismounted men-at-arms. I knew this would be a tough nut for the army of York to crack. I took a bit of a gamble with my flanks. On the left I had mostly militia troops, with a back bone of a couple of retinue units. On my right I put a solid retinue contingent. Jeremey commented how they had their best troops on their right (which was my left – facing my militia!), so I kept quiet about how comparatively weak that flank was for me. I had no cavalry in my army for the battle, there were two units of mounted knights on the Yorkist side, but they’d been split between left and right. I wondered if that had been a good decision since cavalry can be weak if they don’t immediately prevail, so are best with a bit of company. My commanders consisted of two generals and three captains – Lord Roos with Lord Hungerford and Sir Phillip Wentworth on the left (to take control of the militia) with the Duke of Somerset and Lord Grey on the right.

And so it began.

With Sword & Spear it’s easy to lose track of support troops. One gets so focussed on advancing the front line and using those much needed activation dice in crucial combats that the rear rank gets left behind. I was conscious of this so ensured I moved up troops in pairs – one activation dice on the archers up front and one on the billmen supporting them. I noticed that both Jeremey and Tony didn’t. I don’t say that in an accusatory way, because we’ve all done it and there’s never enough activation dice to do all you want. But I noticed in Sword & Spear that victory will often go to the side who can plug the gaps in their line or have troops in position to exploit enemy gaps, so I was determined I would keep that second line in position.

First blood went to the Yorkists! Oh well, I thought – business as usual! I kept my extreme right flank static because I saw that was where Jeremey had his knights and I could see no reason why I should get closer to them – no, I thought, I’ll let him come galloping across the whole of the battlefield where I’ll have time to form a good line to stop him.

Only two or three turns in to the game and I was the first to lose a unit as well! That had just about cemented in my mind that it was, indeed, business as usual.

Then something rather odd happened. I started eliminating enemy units. Yeah, took me by surprise as well. In the centre and on the right the archery duel began and I was coming out on top! The Yorkist centre was slow to advance (in fairness, due to poor activation dice) and so I decided to take the initiative and move up the pikes and dismounted knights as quick as I could. Jeremey was faffing around with his crossbowmen but before they could do anything I took them out of the game with a flurry of longbow arrows.

Yes, it all seemed to be going just a bit too well. I wasn’t only winning at this point, but I was winning well!

Although my left was mostly militia units, and potentially vulnerable, they were rolling some demon dice when it came to shooting. Whoever was commanding them (presumably a grizzled veteran from the wars with France) they were earning their turnips.

Then it all came to an end.

My dismounted knights in the centre gave a poor account of themselves. They moved up alongside the pikes and I was fairly sure that between them they were going to cause some trouble to the main York line. When they finally got into contact it was not to be. No. Instead of punching a decisive hole in the York line the first unit of knights went down without causing the York billmen so much as a hiccup. Tony’s (superior) troops also started to engage my left flank, and casualties and losses were being taken. The only resolve I could take was on my right where my archers continued to take a toll on the Yorkist troops.

Jeremey had finally decided to put the spurs into his cavalry and they started trotting forward. I saw that, and expected it, but I had a good couple of turns before they made contact so time enough to turn something toward them. The pikes finally went in and…nothing. In fairness there were no casualties on either side, just a shoving match, but I was getting to that point where my early lead was being reversed.

To make matters worse it was now my time to get poor activation dice. What this meant was that Jeremey’s cavalry sped up and managed to outflank me and came crashing into the flank of a unit of archers. Not good, and off went the archers. That was annoying because I had seen that coming and was fully aware of it, I just didn’t get the dice that allowed me to do something about it! Not again though, because I decided to turn troops to face him now whilst I could.

Had it been too late for me though? Because I now went over my Morale break point and had to make tests for all my units. Oh well, it had gone well to start with but I knew it couldn’t last. I stoically accepted this game would be another loss. I did alright on the cohesion tests though. I lost a militia unit that only had one strength left but other than that…yeah, all passed.

The early part of the game had gone to Lancaster and the middle game had gone to York. We now entered the end game and although I was lagging behind it wasn’t by much.

Next turn and the army of York reached their morale point as well. Their cohesion tests didn’t go so well. Jeremey kindly fluffed a lot of rolls and two, maybe three, York units fled the table. That evened things up so it was all to play for.

It was hard for me to press the attack against Jeremey’s flank because so many of his troops had been left behind and those that hadn’t been he started to *ahem* ‘reposition to the rear’ (how brave!) and promptly told Tony that victory for York was now in his (Tony’s) hands. Who needs leaders like that, eh?

Tony acted by getting his cavalry moving and charged them forward. A rash move I thought, but he didn’t have many choices. In fact, it was a fair move – he was only facing my militia troops after all and he had to do something. The pikes in the centre finally achieved a result and punched a line in the York centre but there was nothing there to exploit whilst the other pike block was stuck in a fight. I could now tell the army of York was panicking and trying anything to grab the victory. I tried to play it cool, but I was concerned because if I was to get that win it would be down to my militia troops who were facing Tony’s wing (and remember, Jeremey had earlier let slip that Tony had the best troops). I most certainly wasn’t confident.

And so it happened. We all knew we were on the last, or penultimate, turn and you could tell that each player was looking desperately across the battlefield to see where they could snip off that game-winning unit. We had a quick tot up – York only had to lose one more unit to be defeated whilst the Lancastrians would have to lose two. Very tight. Tony’s cavalry had got stuck in a protracted fight but they finally squeezed out of it and down went a unit of Lancastrian militia.

Just one unit each left to lose.

With victory so close I was desperate not to take a chance. I knew that engaging Tony’s retinue troops in melee with my militia was only going to go one way. So I held back and just hoped the earlier good dice rolls for the militia archers would hold firm.

And you know what, they did! Yup, I drew back my arrows, let fly, and down went some Yorkist billimen!

Victory to Lancaster. Oh, and just for the record, even the two of them together weren’t good enough to stop me on my own!

The most Pyrrhic of Pyrrhic victories for Lancaster, and not much to brag about. But a win nonetheless!

When writing up the battle report I discovered the Yorkists actual loses were 45 points and not the Army break point 46. Yes, technically that means they hadn’t quite Broken, but Jeremey mistakenly marked one of his longbow units at 4 army points, which would have taken them to 46. It is, however, the responsibility of the general to ensure he knows the morale of the troops under him, and if he wavers, panics, and quits the field too early then that’s his mistake and he pays the price.

Yorkist Loses
4 Units of Militia Billmen (16 points)
4 Units of Longbows (12 points)
2 Units of Militia Longbows (6 points)
1 Unit of Crossbows (3 points)
1 Unit of Spearmen (4 points)
1 Unit of Dismounted Men-at-arms (4 points)
Total loses 45 points (Army break point 46)

Lancastrian Loses
2 Units of Dismounted Men at Arms (8 points)
2 Units of Billmen (8 points)
5 Units of Longbows (15 points)
3 Units of Militia Longbows (9 points)
1 Unit Militia Billmen (4 points)
Total loses 44 points (Army break point 45)

Lancastrian Victory

A year’s worth of gaming (Part 1)

Club member Stephen reviews the games he has played at Maidstone Wargames Society this year. This is part 1 of the article covering January to June.

This article is a review of all the different games I’ve played over 2023 just to see, and remind myself, of the variety of games I’ve done. At the beginning of the year I made two decisions – play more sci fi, and play more games that other people put on (my general attitude is ‘I paid for these models and took the time to paint them so I want to use them!’ which means I generally put on a game at most meetings). So this year I wanted to mix things up.

The first game of the year was at the club meeting on January 28th. This was a game of Sword & Spear and part of a campaign (which started in 2022) to re-fight the Wars of the Roses with Jeremey.

January – Sword and Spear – Mortimer’s Cross

I love playing Sword & Spear. I do. But I don’t seem to be any good at it. In all the games I’ve ever played of S&S I think I’ve only ever won twice. Surely it can’t be my superior tactics, that seems to be beyond reproach, right? This game was a re-fight of Mortimer’s Cross (you can find the full, and gloating, write-up here: Wars of the Roses – Battle of Mortimers Cross – Battle Report – Maidstone Wargames Society (brigademodels.co.uk)). As is traditional with S&S, I lost. But you know what, I couldn’t care less because the games are always a lot of fun with plenty of pre-game trash talk and goading, and each game has a story. Playing in good company always helps as well. I’d willingly keep on losing so long as I keep on enjoying it.

February brought another couple of games at the club.

First up was a new game to me – Charlie Don’t Surf by Two Fat Lardies. I find TFL games a bit marmite. I’ve played Chain of Command – loved it. I’ve played What A Tanker – didn’t like it. And this was the first time for CDS. And I loved that as well. The game and models are all Pete S’s, and he’s done a blinding job on them. They are 10mm Pendraken models (I think) and it has just the right look for Vietnam.

February – Charlie Don’t Surf

We’re used to seeing 20mm and 28mm Vietnam games which focus on platoon actions. But Vietnam was bigger than that – often brigade sized actions with the company as the manoeuvre unit. And 10mm captures that perfectly. I had command of the armoured platoon. We put Mark J (newly appointed club chairman) to prove his mettle in command so he took company HQ. The game was a victory for the US side!

The second game in February was planned to be a Barons’ War game with Andy. But in the week leading up I suggested to Andy we could do a ‘compare and contrast’ and have a game of both Lion Rampant and Barons’ War to see how the two handle the same period. You can read a summary of our findings here (Lion Rampant and Baron’s War – Maidstone Wargames Society (brigademodels.co.uk)).

February – Baron’s War and Lion Rampant

First club meeting in March was a Stargrave game. I said I wanted to play more sci fi in 2023 and this was the first sci fi of the year. I found the original scenario online and tweaked it to be what I wanted it to be. Stargrave is a great toolbox of a game – you can make it what you want it to be. This game had both an overland and underground part, which was new for us.

March – Stargrave – The Warp Sextant

I prefer running Stargrave as an umpire, like a RPG. You get a different kind of pleasure as umpire because it’s about providing challenges and running the NPCs/monsters and hopefully providing an enjoyable scenario. Well, for me anyway. In this game Eric’s crew had fought hard to get to the bunker where the Warp Sextant was hidden. But coming out he found Tony F’s crew waiting outside, guns pointed at the entrance. A brief exchange of fire and it was Tony who made off with the treasure. Poor Eric.

End of March it was another chance to lose at Sword & Spear – Second Battle of St Albans. In this campaign I have the Lancastrians which means the onus is on me to win in battles where the Lancastrians came out on top. Such as Second St Albans.

March – Sword and Spear – Second Battle of St Albans

Again, rather than go into details here, anyone wanting to know more about this game can read the battle report (Wars of the Roses – 2nd Battle of St Albans – Battle Report – Maidstone Wargames Society (brigademodels.co.uk)). Suffice to say, it was business as usual! Tony joined me again on the Lancastrian side. I was feeling good about this one, felt I was due a win. And the early part of the game was looking good – the local militia archers engaged the Yorkist artillery and eliminated them for no loss! Yup, first blood to Lancaster. And then it steadily went downhill. Never mind.

More sci fi in April! This time it was Pete M’s Space 1889 game. A different kind of sci fi – Victorian rather than futuristic. The stand out thing were Pete’s scratchbuilt aeronefs, and we spent a bit of time playing ‘guess what bits have been used for the models’. Truly outstanding.

We played two games. I was on the human side for both games, and both games were very close. And Jeremey got a leathering in both games with his colleagues leaving him to do all the work. Excellent game.

April – Space:1889 – Mars

The end of April was Salute and this coincided with a club meeting day. Naturally, it was going to be a quiet meeting with a fair few members at Salute. I ran an American Civil War game (battle of Cedar Mountain) using brigade Fire & Fury.

April – Fire & Fury – The Battle of Cedar Mountain

The Union army is in a difficult position for this battle – making an attack against a much larger Confederate army. John R took control of the Union troops and did a good job – but his artillery ran out of ammo early in the game and he never had the time or opportunity to replenish them. This left him conducting a fighting retreat, and he made a good job of it, slowing down the Confederates.

First game in May was another in our Wars of the Roses campaign – the battle of Towton. Like all the others…I lost. Now, I’m not just saying this, but the dice rolling on our side was pretty poor, compared to the other side rolling really well. No, no! Stop that! It’s true on this occasion. To read more about this game you can check out the blog post (Wars of the Roses – Battle of Towton – Battle Report – Maidstone Wargames Society (brigademodels.co.uk))

May – Sword & Spear – Towton

Next was another sci fi game – Full Thrust. Jeremey and Tony were running the game which meant only one thing: vector movement. My fluffy little head struggles with that and prefers the cinematic movement option.

May – Full Thrust

A mixed bag of results. The first game was two opposed fleets with an asteroid field cutting the table in two – Tony F and myself using some of Brigade’s German ships, and Jeremey and Tony G using some of Jeremey’s scratch built (out of false nails) ships. Tony and myself came out on top in that one. We then played a couple of one ship per player games (first was cruisers, second was destroyers) and the alien nail ships won those games.

Along came flaming June and I decided not to attend Broadside since I was trying to restrict spending and if you go to a show you have to buy something, eh? John Lambert and myself had a game of Crossfire. We played this quite a bit a few years ago but then it fell by the wayside. The models for this game were from my collection – WW2 eastern front.

June – Crossfire – WW2 Eastern Front

The scenario was a late war one – Russian advance through Poland with the Germans on the retreat. Naturally, we were re-learning the rules, but it steadily came back to us. MUST ensure we play more of this one.

June 24th was the club Open Day. My game was a Saga: Crusades games. We played two scenarios, I had Saracens and Andy had Milites Christi. Saracens carried the day and won both games. I love Saga. It’s just the right game for me.

June – SAGA Crusades – The Road to Damascus

You can read more about the Open Day here: Review of 2023 Open Day – Maidstone Wargames Society (brigademodels.co.uk)

That concludes part 1 of the review of 2023, part 2 will be published in a couple of weeks.

Stargrave: The Next Generation

Tony F recounts a tale of woe but also tells us of new beginnings…

Kal Gaden’s week had been… interesting. Ten days ago he was near rock bottom, down to his last credit and had sunk so low that he was even contemplating the unthinkable – selling his armour for food. Then a chance encounter with Jenin Hosvarn, captain of the freebooter vessel the Empyrean Drifter, threw him a lifeline. He signed up on the spot as a general service deckhand/dogsbody for what could only be described as a ‘variable’ salary – but at least he was going to be fed.

Four days later the ship left port for his first assignment, on a distant moon many parsecs into the next sector of space, with everyone in good spirits. The regular crew consisted of the captain, his reptilian first mate Budfodo and the other two deckhands, Whibirt and Scogill. The former was also the ship’s medic, and his colleague was supposedly tech-savvy, a bit of a hacker. Kal assumed that he spent most of his time keeping B6C5, the ship’s ancient robo-pilot, and the captain’s aging cyber-dog Lucifer in working order. They also had a five-man guard detachment onboard from the local security agency – big burly goons clad in bright orange plasteel armour and toting carbines. Allegedly Budfodo was a bit of a dab-hand with his huge repeating plasma cannon (in a quiet moment, Whibirt told him that the giant alien had shot nine men on their last mission), while Pervol, the taciturn minigun-wielding guard, had single-handedly taken down a tentacled sea beast on a waterworld six months back. So no-one was worried about their safety.

And then they landed – and Kal had never seen such a fiasco. They disembarked into a dense jungle, where you could barely see the guy five paces in front of you. All around he could hear the cries and screeches of the local fauna, along with the heavy footsteps of something that was obviously really BIG. Then they suddenly came across the Big Thing – a genetically engineered monstrosity bred from the DNA of a long extinct giant reptile. No one seemed to know how to deal with it, so instead everyone just froze. After what seemed an eternity they skirted round it, and it wandered off back into the dense undergrowth in search of something a bit more lively.

Then they stumbled upon an old bunker covered in vines and creepers, decrepit but still sealed. Step forward Scogill, the tech “expert”, who made such a bantha’s ear of cracking the lock that in the end Kal just did it for him! Without a word of thanks (probably too embarrassed), Scogill stepped past him and straightaway tripped some ancient motion detector, setting off a self-destruct alarm. Fortunately the detonator circuits had long since expired and this one turned out to be a dud, but not before everyone had bolted in a rather unedifying spectacle.

Then came the one thing they did get right. Captain Hosvarn had struck a deal with the elders of a local village to get rid of a tentacled beast that had made its home in their water supply. The security detail this time managed to do their thing and get a grenade into the well. And as a bonus, at the same time they upset several other crews who’d been squabbling over the loot around the area (Hosvarn’s crew should have been there too, but they’d spent their time running from giant herbivores and antiquated alarm systems and missed out on any bounty).

So job done, after a fashion – time to return to the Drifter. Except that on the way back they stumbled upon a trio of vicious saurian critters, no bigger than dogs, but with very sharp teeth. The security detail utterly failed to do what they were hired for, the Captain tried to fend them off with an alien plasma pistol he’d found – but that misfired, and in the end it was Kal’s pistols and Budfodo’s cannon that did for the creatures. But Hosvarn had been badly hurt, and expired on the return flight despite the ministrations of the medic.

Thus ended Kal Gaden’s brief tenure aboard the Empyrian Drifter – with Captain Hosvarn gone, the crew dispersed to the four corners of the galaxy and he was once again out on his ear…

So that was the tale of woe for my Stargrave crew’s final mission. It really was the first mission for my new crew member Kal Gaden, and he really was witness to an utter disaster. Although I learnt some valuable lessons (don’t put your captain at the front, even if he does have a fancy plasma pistol) it was not my finest hour, and I’ve had to start again with a new crew since my first mate hadn’t reached a high enough level to take over. I decided to start from scratch with new figures since just recycling and renaming the old ones didn’t feel enough of a fresh start. Kal is a Diehard Miniatures figure who bears a passing resemblance to characters from a certain sci-fi franchise – and I decided to build the team around him. I took the plunge and bought Diehard’s two Elite Bounty Hunter packs, which are very good deals compared to buying the figures individually, plus “Nub Nub, Dark Apprentice“, also definitely not derived from the same franchise. This gave me enough for a 10-figure crew plus a couple of spares.

Gebro, the Mystic first mate

Let’s not beat around the bush – they’re Mandalorians in everything but name. In the series they come in all sorts of colours, so I had fun painting them in a variety of schemes. I found a Mandalorian name generator online which was very helpful in giving them all unique monikers and the crew began to come together.

In Stargrave terms, my captain (Garo Braven) is a Veteran – it seemed the closest fit. I made Nub-Nub (tentatively named Gebro) my first mate and a Mystic, complete with suitable powers to try and reproduce his fledgling Force abilities (including Void Blade for his lightsabre).

The make-up of the rest of the crew was dictated by how many credits you get to create a new outfit – not enough to set all of them up as I would really like, so some will have to be upgraded as and when I can earn some cash! I tried to at least pick soldier types that had the correct weapons, so apart from three specialists (a Gunfighter, Gunner and Sniper) the others are either Troopers if they have a rifle, or Runners or Recruits if it’s a pistol.

Following the release of the latest supplement, Bold Endeavour, which brought each crew’s ship more into the game, they also need a ride. Obviously this had to be some version of the Razorcrest, and after some searching I came up with two options – the Star Wars Micro Galaxy one, a smaller, fairly detailed and pretty accurate model, or the Hasbro Mission Fleet version, a more toy-like option that wasn’t so exact but was just about the right size for 32mm figures given the Razorcrest’s stated length of 80′. In the end I went for the former, as the more in-scale toy version was possibly a bit too big for the average gaming table at ~18″ long. The smaller model looks better and is still big enough to be a slightly cramped 10-person shuttle craft.


So that’s the new crew of the newly-named Cepheid Variable – their first mission will commence just after this post is published, so wish them luck!