D DAY FOR WW2 RULES

Stephen presents a comparison of three different WW2 rules.

I’m only an occasional WW2 gamer. Probably not even that often. I often tussle with what rules to use because I’m not sure what kind of game I want. Generally, I’m more interested in the infantry experience, but WW2 is all about the tanks as well, isn’t it?

So what I’ve decided to do is have a game with the three sets of WW2 rules I have – Crossfire by Arty Conliffe, Battlegroup by Warwick Kincaid, and Fireball Forward by Mark Fastoso and Jonathan Miller. To test the games I have decided to play exactly the same scenario with the same forces to see how it goes.

Scenario

To give a true compare and contrast between the rules all games will use the same layout and the same forces (more or less), a German company with machine gun support and a Russian company with mortar support.

The games will be small ones, on a 3’x2’ board. To the south east is a farm with a road running north/south and a junction heading west. Wheat fields lie either side of the western road. To the north east and south west are areas of light woodland. In the north west there is an area of high ground.

It is August 1944 somewhere in east Europe. Stalin has launched Operation Bagration. The Germans are on a strategic withdrawal in the face of a Russian advance. The German armour is making its way south, down the road, so it can turn west back to Germany. The Russians are coming from the south east. Both sides need to capture the farm and the road junction – so the Germans can get their tanks to safety, and so the Russians can stop them! A German infantry platoon has been sent to capture the objective, just as a Russian scout platoon arrives on the scene…

Game #1: Battlegroup

As written, Battlegroup uses individually based figures. But mine are based in 3s. This is easily dealt with by adding wound markers. Each player’s battlegroup is composed of ‘units’ (e.g. a squad of infantry). Each unit will add to the Battlegroup’s Battle Rating. During the game a player will have to draw a token from a bag after certain events (e.g. a unit is destroyed, or you try to unpin units, plus other events). This token could have a numerical value (from 1 to 5) or be a special event. When the numbered tokens add up to the battlegroup’s Battle Rating it is game over.

The Russians went first. At the start of each turn the player rolls one or more D6s (depending on the size of the game) and adds one for each officer. This total is the number of units you can activate this turn. This means you won’t always be able to activate everything every turn. I like that – it creates tension and decision making.

The Russians advanced north along the road and west behind the wheat fields. In response the Germans advanced – one squad with MG34 went into the wheat fields and the other two squads advanced toward the two areas of woodland. To activate a unit you must choose from specific orders. These include moving and firing, firing and moving, double move, double fire, plus many others (e.g. calling in mortars). One such order is to put your unit on reactive movement or reactive fire, which occurs in your opponent’s turn.

The Russians moving behind the wheat field held in place and went on reactive fire (wondering what one of the German squads would do). The Russian Maxim gun attempted to open fire on the other German squad in the other piece of woodland. To open fire first you must roll to spot. This seems to be the case even if you have previously shot at a unit (the wording certainly implies this is the case), the rules highlighting how seldom opposing enemies saw each other, especially when trying to keep low and out of sight themselves. Once spotted you then total up all the figures firing – each weapon has a ROF and this is the number of dice rolled. Chance to hit is based on range and ROF. The target then makes a save roll (based on any cover). Remaining hits are then taken as casualties and a morale roll is taken which could be anything from OK, to Pinned, to Rout. Standard stuff.

The Germans were starting to encircle the Russians, holding both areas of woodland and also the wheat fields in the centre. Then, on the Russian turn, the Russian officer called in some mortars. This caused two German casualties and the Germans failed their morale and went pinned. A pinned unit can take no action at all and stays pinned until rallied. To rally a player must draw a token from the bag. For each token 1D6 pinned markers can be removed. I drew a token and pulled out a 3 – a significant number for a game as small as this. The German MG34 decided to return the favour and opened up. The Russians took casualties and also got a Pin result. But on the Russian turn I decided to leave them pinned (you don’t have to rally) for fear of drawing a bad token.

The Russians in the fenced field have taken casualties and one unit is pinned.

The Germans had taken more pinned markers, which I had to try and rally or else they’d sit there doing nothing.

Germans have taken casualties and are Pinned, but they drew a “Beyond the Call of Duty” token.

But this time I drew a special marker: Beyond the Call of Duty. Not only did the pin marker come off, but it came off without any harm to their Battle Rating. The Beyond the Call of Duty marker allowed them to make a roll to see if they could take an extra activation. They failed. But at least they were no longer pinned.

Ultimately, it would be a Russian victory. The Germans found themselves taking shelter in the woods and with Russian mortars falling they soon took enough casualties for game end.

Game #2: Crossfire

A confession: I’ve played Crossfire quite a few times. Models in Crossfire are based in multiples, with 3 on a base for a squad. It’s pitched at company level infantry actions, which is precisely what I’m interested in.

Russias occupy the farm, but some are Suppressed.

So Crossfire has some key concepts – no fixed turns (units can keep activating, multiple times), no ranges (if you can see it, you can shoot at it), no move distances (I’ll say a bit more about this). The core mechanics are very simple though – when shooting you’ll roll a few D6 and need a 5 or 6. One hit is a Pin, two hits a Suppression, 3 hits a Kill. Not rocket science.

The game started with the Germans on the high ground. The Russians came on by activating. You can either move them by individual squads or you can do a group move. So I brought the first Russian platoon on, behind the barn. I put the mortar observer in the barn where he’d have a good view. And so on. In Crossfire units move in straight lines. Players have to indicate to their opponent the route they are taking and if an enemy squad can draw LOS it can make a reactive fire. If the reactive fire fails to Suppress then the active player can carry on. If it does Suppress then initiative switches. Units move from terrain piece to terrain piece (or into the open). All the time they have initiative they can activate again, even with the same unit.

The Russians moved up to the western road with two of their platoons whilst the Germans came off the hills to take cover behind the wheat fields. The Russian FO then called in smoke to obscure the Russian advance and the Russian squads moved up behind it. The Russian Maxim MG took up position in one of the farm buildings to prevent a German flank attack, it opened fire on the Germans but failed to score a hit.

Over to the Germans.

With little to stop them the Germans made their way along the top of the battlefield and into the woods, where they engaged the Russian Maxim. The MG crew attempted reactive fire but failed to score a hit which means they would be unable to do any more reactive fire until after initiative switches, so they are marked with a No Fire counter. The Germans opened up.

Russian Maxim gun team are Pinned, and may Not Fire until initiative changes hands

Things were a bit slower along the western road, with neither side daring to break cover. One of the Russian platoons dug-in and the German machine guns repositioned. Meanwhile the attack on the farm buildings was going well for the Germans – they destroyed the Russian MG and moved up to occupy the buildings. To counter this a Russian platoon moved into one of the wheat fields and a prolonged firefight broke out, but the Russians finally managed to dislodge the Germans from the farm.

The game would end as another Russian victory! This game had been a lot more dynamic and fast-paced – one of the advantages of Crossfire. It had been more tactical as well (compared to the line ‘em up, face each other, and start shooting affair of Battlegroup). This is the real advantage of Crossfire – you start to think like an infantry commander – laying down smoke for cover, trying to organise squads in to firegroups or the eponymous crossfires, when to react, when to rally…lots of decision points. That’s where the complexity lies in the game, in the tactics. Very enjoyable.

Game #3: Fireball Forward

OK, let’s deal with the elephant in the room. The dice. If you know anything about Fireball Forward it’s the whole dice thing. So here’s how it works. To shoot you will be rolling some white D6 and some red D6 (for infantry squads it’s actually one of each). And you will also be rolling a range dice (a D20 for infantry). The red dice hits on a 6. Only a 6, and it’s never modified. The white dice can be modified and will hit on either a 4, 5, or 6. Then we come to the range dice. A weapon has an effective range (e.g. 10”) PLUS what you roll on the range dice – so for infantry squads it could be up to 30” (10” plus you roll a 20 on the D20). You do not pre-measure! So after rolling, if the range is higher than the effective range plus the range dice you have missed regardless of what you roll on the white/red dice and if the target is within the effective range plus range dice then there’s the chance of a hit – check the white/red dice. If the actual range is less than the D20 roll you get a +1 on the white dice.

Russians open up, if the range to their target is <=13″ they’ll score a hit with the 5 on the white die.

That sounds more complicated than it actually is. It only gets messy when you are dealing with weapons with range dice like D20D20D8.

You are either going to get on with this or you aren’t. It’s a marmite thing. Like I just said, it’s not as bad as it sounds like it could be, so long as you restrict yourself to predominantly infantry actions with just a few different armoured vehicles.

Movement is also a bit novel. Infantry can, in theory, have an unlimited move. But what they can’t do is finish their move, nor can any part of their move, take them more than 12” from where they started. The player must trace the movement route so the opposing player can announce if and where he can make an opportunity shot.

These are the two big Fireball Forward things and I wanted to get them out in the air at the beginning.

For initiative you need a pack of playing cards. You draw a card and keep drawing until a different colour comes up – you put that card back on top of the deck. You check how many cards you have and then you mark your units with a number and activate them in that order – lowest first. So let’s say I draw 3 red cards and the fourth is black. The black card is put back. I have three red cards which means I can now activate three Allied units. Once all units, of both sides, have activated a new turn begins. What’s really good about this is that both players are involved at all times and there’s always a chance you can salvage a bad situation.

I realise I’ve spent more time discussing mechanics than actual game play, but that’s OK – after all, this is about letting you know about these very different sets of rules. I bet those of you who are into rules writing and game design will enjoy reading Fireball Forward.

So let’s deal with the actual game. This one turned into a much harder fought encounter. Both sides used more or less the same tactics as previous games – the Germans moved along the northern edge into the woods and then tried to force their way south, down the road, into the farmyard. Meanwhile, the Russians advanced along the southern edge, behind the wheat fields, hoping to outflank the Germans.

This time the Germans were more successful. They eliminated the Russian platoon occupying the farm and then moved in themselves. The German machine guns halted the Russian advance down the western road and brought up a platoon through the fields to outflank the guns. Meanwhile, the Germans in the farm pressed the attack and came round behind the Russians to launch an attack against the Russian company command and Maxim gun. The Germans finally achieved a win!

Conclusion

I’m not going to offer scores or say which is best and that kind of thing. Instead I am going to say how they suit me and my gaming – in a club setting with multiple players on a Saturday.

Battlegroup is a very ‘traditional’ game. By that I mean it is an IGOUGO system with nothing particularly ground-breaking mechanics wise. I don’t mean that negatively. If you have several players, none of whom have played Battlegroup before (or even WW2), then they will pick it up soon enough. Which is what you need in a club. It’s also aimed at being a ‘big’ game – with combined arms. Battlegroup, as the name suggests, is about lots of infantry and armoured columns having at each other. The simplicity of the rules does mean it has less subtlety or tactical finesse and I imagine it could get a bit vanilla, but that also suits group play.

By contrast, Crossfire is a game for the gamer. It may be the oldest of the three but it’s also the most innovative. It’s really aimed at infantry-only games. Yes, there are armoured vehicle rules, but they do seem a bit tacked on and the rules writer himself admits they aren’t the best. And they aren’t. Fortunately for me, infantry actions are what I’m most interested in, so I don’t play Crossfire with vehicles. Although it’s a simple game, the novelty of some of the processes will take a bit of getting used to for a newcomer. The game mechanics are very simple, but the tactical choices and options are what make it complex – the mark of a good game! A one-on-one game with someone new would be a good way of introducing the rules and be a real pleasure. Crossfire is my go-to WW2 rules. If you are inclined to the tactics and experience of the infantry commander then you could do a lot worse.

This leaves us with Fireball Forward. Like Crossfire, it has some innovative components, particularly the dice mechanism. Like Battlegroup, it is also about combined arms and integrates vehicles into the rules in a better way than Crossfire. But I have to underline the dice mechanism. It reads worse than it plays. In practice, you roll the hit dice and range dice at the same time, and I found myself looking at the hit dice first to see if there was even a chance of hit. This made it playable and you will pick it up in just a couple of turns of combat. This is OK so long as you aren’t dealing with too many varieties of range dice. Infantry will, generally, be using a D20. Though some vehicles will use a tortured combination such as D20D20D8D8. No. Just no. As such, for my money Fireball Forward works somewhere between Battlegroup and Crossfire – mainly infantry actions with two or three vehicles in support. Which is what I’m looking for.

There’s a place for all these rules. What you go for will depend on what you are looking for. They all provide a different kind of game and they all provide a good game. You won’t go wrong with any of them, but I think I will mostly be sticking with Crossfire (with the odd game of Fireball Forward).

Oh, one last thing. Yes, I have heard of Chain of Command. Yes, it is a very good game. But I don’t own a copy.

Wars of the Roses – Battle of Bosworth – Battle Report

After 11 battles our Wars of the Roses campaign has finally reached the defining battle of Bosworth Field. With the Yorkist having an unassailable lead of 8 victories to 2, the Lancastrians (now Tudor) forces were fighting for pride. Given the significance of the battle we decided to go big and have 1000 points per side, with each side divided up into three commands. Stephen commanded the Tudor forces as Henry himself, with Andy as the Earl of Oxford and simply because he was the last player to arrive Tony F played the part of the Stanleys already declaring support for the Tudor cause.
As usual I commanded the Yorkists with a new player to the campaign Mark W acting as the Earl of Northumberland. Our other player couldn’t make it so as well as commanding Richards forces I also took charge of the Duke of Norfolk.

The Yorkists are on the left with Northumberland facing the marshland. Henry Tudor is on the right of the picture facing the farm building

As with the other games in the campaign we looked for anything of historical note that influenced the battle. For Bosworth we decided both players must have at least four mounted units and some artillery. As for the battlefield we had a set of hills for the Yorkist forces to start on with some marshland on the Yorkist right.

I divided the Yorkist army so that Northumberland and Norfolk had equal amounts of archers, billmen and mounted men at arms to guard the flanks.
As per history Northumberland was on the Yorkist left with Norfolk on the right. With Richard in the centre I went for a very mixed force of artillery, cavalry, pikemen and dismounted men at arms.
Stephen had done something similar with his Tudor forces with Stanley and Oxford having similar forces while Henry had only cavalry. Stephen also placed Henry on the Tudor left, Oxford in the middle and Stanley on the right.

The battle got underway and the Yorkists won the first initiative. In a change to Northumberland’s inaction historically Mark immediately advanced his archers into the marshland to take the fight to Tony and the Stanley forces.

With Norfolk on the Yorkist right flank I started with a steady advance as well rather than wait for the inevitable cavalry charge. Stephen had mounted men at arms in a front rank and currours behind, I wanted to try and get a few volleys from my archers to try and soften them up.

I don’t think I needed to provoke the Tudor cavalry, Stephen took the first opportunity to close the distance. I rapidly advanced some dismounted men at arms and my cavalry to threaten the Tudor cavalry in the flank if it charged the archers. A volley from the archers had little effect.

With the Tudor cavalry on the move, King Richard rode to the artillery to get them into action but the first shots failed to cause any damage.

After a run of bad activation dice, Tony finally managed to advance his archers. This delay allowed Mark the chance to charge in on the far left flank and managed to rout some of Tony’s archers.

Back on the Tudor left flank and Stephen’s cavalry charged against Norfolk. The first charge actually went in against the Yorkist men at arms and came close to routing them. Seeing the danger I took the unusual step of charging some archers into the melee, but failed in turn to rout the cavalry.

In the Tudor centre Andy began to advance his archers and men at arms. Andy also had some artillery that began to creep forward.

Despite managing to get a few shots off the Yorkist artillery was charged and routed by Henry Tudors knights.

After another round of melee Stephen’s cavalry managed to rout some of Norfolk’s archers putting the flank in danger. The Yorkist men at arms would have to do their best as the rest of Nofolk’s units were also locked in combat with the Tudor forces.

On the Yorkist left flank Mark and Tony were beginning to exchange volleys but neither were causing much damage. Mark’s cavalry had continued on pass the Tudor flank forcing Tony to act. In the centre King Richards forces were also starting to trade volleys, I’d brought my mercenary crossbows to make up the number but they had never really done very well for me.

Although they did give a good account of themselves this time, they were the only missile troops in the centre, leaving Andy unopposed attacks against the my infantry. They had managed to dispatch a unit of men at arms so I had no choice but to charge my other dismounted knights forward.

Tudor cavalry in the centre had routed the artillery and in their pursuit also routed a unit of knights, I still had a unit of mounted men at arms. Rather than try and turn them round to counter Stephens cavalry I chose to have King Richard accompany them on a charge straight down the centre against Andy’s archers.

The charge swept the archers aside and to my horror I found history repeating its self, I had forgotten about the pursuit rule. Richard continued charging across the field and into some Tudor billmen. This charge however did not manage to defeat the billmen and so Richard was deep in the enemy’s side of the battlefield, with other Tudor forces closing in.

Meanwhile Stephen’s cavalry in the centre had found its self in melee with a large unit of mercenary pikemen and some militia billmen. Normally this would have spelt doom for the cavalry but the knights were going to prove almost impossible to dislodge.

Things had gone better for Norfolk out on the right flank. A number of Stephen’s cavalry had been destroyed. This freed up some archers who were in a position to fire on the second line of Tudor cavalry making an approach.

I also (with much ridicule from the enemy) moved King Richard from the stricken cavalry charge, back to the centre to support the attack against Andy’s archers. Tactically this also brought Richards forces back into command range.

On the Tudor left flank Stephen managed to get part of his second line of cavalry to charge some billmen who were supported by Norfolk himself. The charge didn’t manage to rout the billmen but also didn’t result in the destruction of the cavalry. But the move did mean I suddenly found my last unit of mounted men at arms facing the flank of Stephens second line of cavalry that had yet to charge.

On the far left flank of the Yorkists Mark had managed to cause Tony’s forces some damage but had eventually come off worse, even the flanking cavalry had succumbed to Tony’s billmen. Mark took the decision to consolidate his infantry and move towards the centre of the field in support of King Richard.

Despite getting a volley off Norfolk’s archers were still charged by the Tudor currours, but unlike the previous charges they failed to rout the archers. They had some billmen in support but they were not needed and the melee was locked in stalemate. However elsewhere on the field the Tudor loses were enough to push them to their first morale test.

Stephen finally managed to get his last unit of mounted knights into combat by charging the mercenary pikemen in the rear. But it wasn’t enough to destroy them and the counter from the pikemen managed to rout the cavalry. But in a close game it was the turn of the Yorkists to also test their morale.

King Richard was once again in the fray supporting his billmen against Andy’s archers in the centre, and remarkably the mercenary crossbows managed to score some good hits on Andy’s dismounted men at arms.

At this point the battle was reaching it’s final stages and both sides were trying their hardest to push the other to breaking point. Mark had advanced his dismounted men at arms into the centre and immediately came under fire from the Tudor artillery. Andy had done quite a lot of damage with his guns but despite having a two bonus dice failed to cause any damage to Marks knights on this occasion.

It was at this point that I managed to get Norfolk’s knights charging against the flank of Stephens remaining currours. The luck of the dice had changed (literally, because after a few bad rolls I swapped my dice), destroying the first currours for no loses and dispatched the second unit pushing the Tudors to their breaking point and handing a close fought victory to King Richard and the Yorkist cause.

This battle ended up being quite close, the score don’t show it but we’ve not had many battle where both sides passed their first morale checks. Stephen did much better in this battle with his cavalry, but that also put them in a position of being outflanked. For Richards command I should not have had such a variation in unit types. Between the guns, cavalry billmen and archers it was hard to co-ordinate things. North sides had some good and bad luck with the dice, but what was noticeable were the amount of failed activation dice in the game.

Although the Yorkists have changed history and won the campaign we will be visiting Stoke for the last battle of this period, just for completeness and to give the Tudor forces one last attempt for glory.

Yorkist Loses
3 Units of Mounted Men at Arms (12 points)
5 Units of Longbows (15 points)
2 Units of Artillery (4 points)
3 Units of Dismounted Men at Arms (12 points)
Total loses 39 points (Army break point 56)

Lancastrian Loses
2 Units of Northern Boarder Horse (6 points)
4 Units of Currours (16 points)
4 Units of Mounted Men at Arms (16 points)
6 Units of Longbows (18 points)
1 Unit of Militia Longbows (3 points)
1 Unit of Dismounted Men at Arms (4 points)
Total loses 59 points (Army break point 57)

Drums… Drums in the Deep

Pete M describes an underground encounter in Middle-Earth.

Background

The scenario is based on the encounter at the dwarf king Balin’s tomb, where the nine members of The Fellowship are trapped while making their way through the old underground Dwarven Kingdom known as the ‘Mines of Moria’, a massive complex of caves, tunnels & chambers, hewn out of the living rock itself!!! Sorry, slipping into Pythonesque ‘Tim The Enchanter’ mode again there…. Unfortunately, soon after discovering the tomb the party is discovered by the new tenants, namely a shed load of Goblins/Orcs & orcs, assisted by the odd mountain troll and a very, very grumpy Balrog. The objective is simply to hold-off the hordes until Gandalf secures a means of escape – to the fateful Bridge at Khazad-Dum…

The Game System

As with the previous outings (see credits), the home-grown system is partly based on the excellent but now sadly difficult to find Hasbro boardgame “Star Wars Epic Duels” (see links at the end). The key features of this design are that each player controls a small team, with one main character (say, Darth Vader), plus one or two little helpers (Stormtroopers in Vader’s case). Normal movement is fairly standard, although some variability is introduced by means of a die roll. However, the design really scores because teams also get a dedicated pack of cards which are used for both combat and any unique ‘special abilities’ – such an elegant, simple way to reflect widely varying attributes, and without resorting to thick books of charts and +/- tables!

The use of the dedicated card packs adds so much to the ‘period flavour’ of the game, hopefully reflecting the different combat options and other unique actions of the various Fellowship, Goblins/Orcs & the Troll. For example, the Goblins/Orcs can gain advantage by deliberately sacrificing figures in massed attacks or simply ‘shoving’ (the ‘active’ group drags one or more adjacent ones with it); whilst the Fellowship archery and spear-throwing are deadly. And whilst your immediate choice of tactics may be affected by the cards in your hand, like any ‘real’ historical combat, victory will go to the side which can maximise their peculiar advantages whilst exploiting the weaknesses of the enemy.

“Mines of Moria” was perfect for a straight adaptation of this team-based, low-figure count approach, with the four main players each handling one main character (Aragorn, Legolas, Boromir or Gimli) plus one Hobbit (Frodo, Sam, Merry or Pippin). As with previous games, having no cards at all left in your hand if confronted by a bunch of Goblins/Orcs etc could be bad news – but the Hobbits could also prove useful given their special abilities. And unlike previous games, the action this time is very claustrophobic, taking place within the confines of the tomb chamber. But this this does not mean it is any less intense, as nuanced tactical considerations of blocking, retreating, counter-attacking are just as vital as any big battle.

Each turn consists of two phases per player, movement then two actions (Fellowship can do in any order, Bad guys must move then do one action). Normal movement uses a modified die roll to generate movement points, albeit with new variations to account for the slow-moving and incredibly dim but tough Mountain Troll. However some ‘special moves’ are also possible, such as Hobbits ducking between groups etc! Play alternates in a random manner between one Fellowship then one goblin group, so it can be that not everyone is quite in the right place at the right time…

But what about Gandalf, I hear you ask? Well, the basis of the scenario is that the four main players must buy time for Big G to work his magic on the (only) exit from the tomb. By placing some of their ‘special action’ cards in the Gandalf ‘pot’, at the end of each turn these can be converted (via die-roll) to magical protection points.

The game ends when either:

The party think there’s enough to try and make a run for it (dicing for survival against the total less distance or any intervening groups of Goblins/Orcs) OR
Bernard the Balrog turns up at the entrance to the tomb (said Balrog makes it’s way along the outer passage in a slow but inexorable manner; makes a great ‘turn counter!)

How Did It Go ?

Well, despite only one player ever having used the system before, we actually managed two games on the day. In the first, the group did well taking out the fearsome troll by ‘suckering’ it further into the tomb so it could be attacked from it’s vulnerable rear. The waves of Goblins/Orcs came and went, but in the end only Aragorn caused some concern, having been left somewhat behind when the bug-out started with the summons of Boromir’s ‘Horn of Gondor’ (a special move which shuffles all friends a bit closer to him)!

In the second game the group tried a new tactic with the troll, namely letting it trundle forward then knock seven bells out of Legolas, Merry and Boromir (well, anyone in range), whilst Gimli tried not to attract undue attention – at least, that’s what seemed to be the plan…… 🙂 ). It was a good idea for Gimli to dart behind, just the Troll didn’t get the memo leading to several anxious turns of Gimli ducking and weaving (and cutting chunks off said troll), before the massive brute was finally finished-off – by a ranged slingshot stone from a Hobbit!!

My tremendous thanks, as ever, to a fabulous bunch of guys at the Maidstone club.

Credits

Rules and Card Decks
As with almost all my games the rules are home-grown stuff and, as such, possible to extend or amend as you wish (the mark of a good product/system in my view). Hopefully these will appear on the blog site ‘real soon now’. If not, come along to the club and try it some time!

Original game
Details of the original HASBRO “Star Wars Epic Duels” by Craig Van Ness (with assistance from Rob Daviau) can be found here.

Figures
The basic figures all from the fabulous “Armies of Middle Earth” (AOME) range by PlayAlong Toys and ToyBiz. This vast range of 1/24th scale (3.5” or 75mm), multi-pose figures covered everything from the RingWraiths (fabulous sculpts) and Fellowship, and includes no less than three different sets of Orcs/Uruks, five different Wargs and numerous Rohirrim (foot and mounted), as well as a number of special sets (like the great Uruk-Hai siege crew – the battering ram crew were the source of the ‘pikemen’, among others) and even siege towers! As they are semi-animated, it is possible to create different poses and even mix body-parts, Timpo-style! I have to say that, at this scale, a couple of hundred Orcs or 30-ish charging Rohan cavalry are quite impressive…

Unfortunately, as with many of my games their availability seems to diminish the closer I get to putting them on show! However, if you want to risk it a quick browse on eBay still pulls up a fair number of hits, which is OK to provide all you would need for a normal skirmish. Of course, you could also use those tiny 32mm ones some people prefer… 😊

The 7” Mountain Troll was a fantasy figure from PAPO toy range, suitably based and painted by Kevin Dallimore. Actually, AOME does a troll, but it’s the up-armoured one from Return of the King which is used to push the 16”-high siege towers in ‘Pelennor Fields’…

The large ‘Bernard The Balrog’ was another cross-range recruit from the extensive ‘MacFarlane SWARM’ range of fearsome, wonderful monsters – do scan this lot if you need any 8”-10” villains.

{As an aside, the hard-plastic figures have some advantages over their metal cousins, in that it is easy to make some bits transparent – there’s a version of Frodo with ring on, plus the MacFarlane monster is drooling clear yellow bile…..}

Other Previous Outings

‘One Ring’ (Weathertop or Amon Sul): 4+ Ring Wraiths vs pre-Fellowship
‘Fords of Isen’: ambush of Prince Theodred by massed Orcs & Wargs
‘Pelennor Fields’: the charge of the Rohan cavalry vs besiegers, including 1/24th Mumakil!

For more pics and other rules, see here.

There is a great fan-following on the net as well (for this and the original Star Trek game), with lots of suggestions for other card deck, scenarios etc.

BTW, I am also in the process of using the wonderful character-specific card system for such diverse topics as:

‘Seven Samurai’ (final battle in the village); objective for the bandits is to kill as many as possible (especially peasants), thus making it a challenge for the deadly, professional samurai to protect them!
‘The (Roman) Empire Strikes Back’; a massed skirmish somewhere on the 1st/2ndC frontiers of empire between a mixed Roman expeditionary force/patrol and loads of Celts. This uses a base (I have 4-6 28mm figures) as the granular unit rather than individual figures, but the structure of the system will allow for both, or even 6mm. But then, as the sides are defined by their specific decks, the more devious umpires out there could introduce something much more weird in the woods as per Call ofCthulhu… You could even be tempted to adapt it to that fabulous David Drake book, ‘Ranks of Bronze’, in which a defeated Roman Legion is sold into slavery to – some aliens! All you need are the troop-specific cards and you’re away…

Stay tuned to this blog……

Maidstone Rampant

Tony F reports on the club’s first encounter with an alien ruleset.

The club has played a lot of Daniel Mersey’s Rampant rules, both the original Lion and the fantasy Dragon spinoff. So there was a lot of interest when a sci-fi variant, Xenos Rampant was announced. We wanted to see how well the game engine would translate to the new setting with (presumably) more emphasis on shooting than close combat. And to be fair, not everyone thought it would work.

Recently, four of us managed to finally get ourselves organised and gave the rules a try (yes, we know that the book came out months ago – the wheels sometimes turn slowly in Maidstone). Eric and Mike had 30mm armies derived from WH40K forces, while Marcus had a 15mm force of mainly Khurasan miniatures and I cobbled together a force in the same scale from my Hammer’s Slammers armies (you can see those in the header photo).

Mike and Eric ran each other very close in their game, with just a handful of figures left on table at the end (although I’m not sure who actually won!) – sadly I didn’t get any photos. Marcus on the other hand had some dreadful luck with the dice and got a bit of a thumping.

My command team (Brigade Models’ power armour) prepare to unleash all sorts of pain into Marcus’ tank (GZG).

We then switched round and I took on Mike, while Eric switched to a 15mm force of Brigade Models miniatures. Mike and I fought a very tight game, I just prevailed but with very little of my force left on the table.

Mike’s heavy infantry (Khurasan) prepare to close asasult

While my infantry (Brigade) dig in on the hill.

Halftrack and supporting infantry take shelter

Marcus’ luck improved a little but he still went down to Eric eventually.

Overview – Eric’s tank takes a pot shop at Marcus’ ornithopter

Eric’s Rapier tank and infantry (all Brigade Models)

Closeup of Marcus’ ornithopter (Khurasan Miniatures)

So our conclusions? We felt the game worked well, there are plenty of options to customise units to give your army a unique feel. The familiar game mechanics helped for those who have played other games in the series.

All of our games were 24 points, and we managed two each with plenty of time to spare. Units, especially vehicles, are relatively expensive so none of our forces had more than 5-6 units, and the game ran pretty quickly. So we felt that 36 point games would be perfectly manageable. One thing we found odd was the limit of only one vehicle – none of us could see an obvious reason for this.

We’ve penciled in another session for later in the year, some sort of mini-campaign or tournament. These will be 36 point games, and we’ll ignore the one vehicle rule so expect to see a bit more heavy armour. We seem to have won over a couple of previous refuseniks to give the game a go, so look out for another report in a few months, along with plenty of work-in-progress reports as people build up their armies.

Stargrave: A New Hope?

Marcus fesses up to his Stargrave woes and how he’s gone about recruiting a new crew.

I’ve had some problems playing Stargrave. It’s not the game. I am sure it isn’t perfect, but we love playing it at the club. It’s not even my club-mates, who keep shooting me. It’s my crew. Well, that’s not fair. I do like my crew. But they look quite…similar. Too similar. And it hasn’t helped that I used the original Stargrave roster from the book, downloading it from the Osprey site. In the middle of a game I would find myself shuffling and flipping over sheets trying to work out which character was being fired at, or acting, and not exactly sure which one I was looking out without checking.

The concept of that crew was something like the Bynars from Star Trek: The Next Generation (the episode 1.15 “11001001”) with an added dose of psionics. The crew comprised some small Copplestone Grey’s, the brains, and the mean looking, vat-grown “Big Greys”, which were from the now defunct Griffin Miniatures. I had never managed to get around to using these before. It took me long enough to get around to painting the mean Greys, although I really like them.

The Old Crew. Left to Right: 101, or is that 110..?

I might use them in Xenos Rampant in the future, although we have been using 15mm figures for that so far. But I digress.

In an effort to solve the problems in my personal organizational abilities I needed two things:
Firstly, a one page roster so that all that stats were right in front of me. I had tried looking at creating roster cards, but they just didn’t seem to work for me. I wanted everything, the whole crew, on one side of A4. Fortunately club members, noticing my travails, kindly offered me a selection.

Stargrave Roster

(Editor’s note: If you print this roster, make sure you open the “More Settings” option in the print preview screen and have “Fit to Printable Area” selected.)

Secondly, I needed to recruit a new crew. A more individual crew of characters.

And it really isn’t that hard to stat a crew up, at least not if you can be decisive about it! In a nutshell, recruit a Captain and First Mate from the various specialities (akin to schools of magic in Frostgrave) available and spend 400 Cr. on recruiting the rest of your eight crew.

The specialities I referred to are “abilities”. The Captain chooses five, with three of four from the characters background e.g. psionics as i referred to for my first crew, or veteran. There is quite a range with new backgrounds being added in the inevitable supplements to the core rules. It makes for an interesting comparison with Five Parsecs from Home, which regular readers of the blog will know I have also been playing solo (I should really complete another episode soon!) However, in Five Parsecs the choice of crew characteristics is all based on random rolls reminiscent of the old school Traveller RPG. It’s much more about the whole crew even if the Captain is the first among equals. In Stargrave it is very much about the Captain and a little about the First Mate. In truth, everyone else is disposable to a greater or lesser extent. The First Mate chooses four abilities, with two or three from their background. Previously I chose two Psionicists, but this time I chose a Cyborg Captain and a Veteran First Mate.

Why did I make this choice? I am not entirely sure. I was looking through the core rules on character creation with the intent of choosing a new crew but the process became influenced by the models I had available or fancied using and the narrative that began to create in my head. I think that is a good thing!

I initially had the idea that I would use figures from a Kick-Starter project that I had received: Star-Schlock. This at least started out rooted in influences of the pulpy Sci-Fi TV of the 80’s. Buck Rogers in the 25th Century crossed with Star Trek and maybe a dose of Star Wars and 80’s Flash Gordon, in particular.

Some similarity occurred to me between the Star Trek: TNG era and Buck Rogers slightly more campy second season. Something akin to the rescued Borg Seven Of Nine in Star Trek Voyager. I had the idea of using some unused cyborg miniatures which I had from the old Scotia Grendel Urban War range, the VOID Syntha biomechs, making them a kind of Star Trek Borg analogue.

I had already started painting some of these after a long time in the lead pile. I was intending to put them to use in Spy-Fi games as some kind of, well, Fembot for want of a better word. Yeah Baby!

Then I hit a problem.

It was only when I compared the completed Syntha miniatures to the Star Schlock figures I noticed a considerable size discrepancy! That was pretty much the deal breaker although at this point I realized that I was in some danger of repeating the same folly using some Star Schlock rank and file figures; a lack of clear characterisation.

Repeating the same problem. Do they look a bit similar?

I was now fixed on using the Syntha as Borg analogues but the sizing discrepancy made me think about using at least some more old school miniatures. Hence a look at EM-4’s range of early Grenadier sculpts. It was a chance to pick up some older, characterful miniatures that I had regularly seen pictures of, or seen new versions of older sculpts, but had never quite managed to add to my collection. Since i was basing this crew around the escaped cyborgs I wanted a crew that at least in part were themed around interconnection, robotics and coordinated firepower. At least that was the plan.

The Black Rat

Also known as Six of Seven, Black Rat is to be my captain. She had somehow managed to escape some Authority “black-ops” experiment as government broke down. She has very little knowledge of her origins, but is on a quest to know more.

I chose to give her:

Camouflage (she is wearing a stealth suit)
Target lock (allowing her or another member of the crew to automatically hit the target of a grenade/grenade launcher attack, even if not in line of sight.)
An energy shield (absorbing some shooting damage)
Control robot (interface with a robot and take control)
Drone. I am rather partial to using drones, not that they have done me much good so far. (Draw line of sight from the drone)

She also has a carbine (2 spaces), a pistol, light armour, a deck for hacking and a filter mask.

Harriet “Harry” Barber

I originally had a figure in a beret picked out for this role, but Harry has grown on me. I first saw the figure many years ago. It normally has a truncheon and I think is supposed to be a “space police” figure. I removed the truncheon and added a small pouch in its place. In my mind there is a similarity to Glynis Barber in the 80’s series “Dempsey and Makepeace” where her character was called Harriet Makepeace. She is some kind of ex-security figure (the kind of security that doesn’t use a truncheon or wear a uniform) who along the way helped the Black Rat escape from her captors.

Fortune. (She is a bit of a Han Solo and you might call her lucky, or perhaps it is her roguish charm?)
Armoury (Harry has a way with weapons and can field power armour without the upkeep cost or increase the damage on one standard firearm)
Remote Firing (Can select a robot in the crew to make a +3 line of sight shooting attack)
Repair Robot (Yes, Harry is good with robots too)

Harry also has a filter mask (always handy), light armour, a carbine taking up two spaces and picks for breaking into physical objects.

Moving on to the Standard and Specialist figures, these are much easier to select as they are very much modular, “plug in” selections.

The “White Rat” (Three of Seven) – Commando

Naturally, also being a cyborg and a comrade of Six (or part of the same hive mind), the White Rat needed to pack a bit of a punch. They were specialist operatives after all.

Ratchet the Robot

Picked up from some abandoned facility and reprogrammed by Harriet, Ratchet is an armoured trooper. Thanks to Harry’s Armoury skill she can offset the upkeep cost. Originally I costed out Ratchet as a grenadier, making that rather large gun a grenade launcher of some kind. I changed to admittedly costly power armour as a result of choosing the armoury skill for the First Mate.

Troopers (3)

There have been various iterations of this crew, but they always seemed to revolve around having three troopers. These are Viridian, (with the green skin and yellow jacket), Sal Buco (long green coat and pistol) and Cy An (Blue skinned alien). At the outset they all have a carbine, heavy armour and a knife. Yes, I know Sal appears to have a pistol. Does anyone remember the pistols in the original “Man From Uncle”? Well Sal has picked up something like one of those. He can attach an extended barrel, long magazine and collapsible stock. Hey presto: a carbine. Originally Sal was going to be a simple recruit, but I had another idea…

Hacker – Zero One

A nod to my old crew. Zero One now stands out in a crowd. It is my hacker equipped with a pistol, light armour, a deck for hacking (of course) and a knife.

Recruits (2)

Finally, my two recruits. Originally I was going to fit in a guard dog, but the dog cost 10 credits and frankly can do less. I am not a min/maxer, but when you want to fit in certain options the free figures give more flexibility. And a bit of colour. These miniatures came from the Hydra “Retro Ray-Gun” range. It is a nice range although the figures tend to be a little larger overall. But these two are I think teenagers. I painted them up with no clear objective for using them. I watched Firefly again recently and it occurred to me that these two, the “Citrus Kids” could be analogues to Simon and River Tam (except he isn’t a doctor and she isn’t a psychic killing machine). That points to the one thing which might be slightly dissatisfying with the rules. As I pointed out earlier, if you aren’t a Captain or First Mate, there isn’t going to be much progression, beyond adding a better bit of kit. That said, I don’t think that is what this game is for and is why I like a bit of solo Five Parsecs.

Recruits have a pistol, light armour and a knife.

So that is the crew of the “Dirty Rat”. I’m looking forward to seeing how they do in an outing at the club mysteriously entitled “Oubliette”, very soon. I am sure there will be a report.

Quest Round 2

Tony F reports on the further adventures of Frodo and the rest of the Hobbits as he and Phil, along with guests Jon and Andy, play through the Quest of the Ringbearer. You can read his report of the first two scenarios here.

Scenario 3 – Buckleberry Ferry
“Two steps on the water”

Scenario three saw the Hobbits attempting to cross the Brandywine at the Buckleberry Ferry. They had to race three ringwraiths to the ferry to cross the river. The game went encouragingly well for the Good side initially, with one wraith despatched in short order (we were discovering that at this point in the Quest they were, if not feeble, then certainly not as frightening as we expected in combat, even to hobbits).

But then our game took a rather odd twist. In a move probably not foreseen by the scenario writer, Andy had one of the ringwraiths jump on the ferry before the hobbits reached it and take it to the other bank, leaving them stranded. The four hobbits managed to gang up and take down the remaining wraith on their side of the river, but we were left with a bit of a standoff. The hobbits were on the wrong side of the river, with the vital ferry on the other bank guarded by the single remaining ringwraith. Their only option would be to swim, but the swimming rules and the hobbits’ fear of water meant doing that would probably allow the wraith to pick them off one at a time as they emerged. So in the end we called it a draw, as neither side could see a way ahead.

The hobbits find themselves on the wrong side of the Brandywine facing a lone ringwraith – but with no way across apart from swimming…

Scenario 4 – The Old Forest
“See those trees, bend in the wind, I feel they’ve got a lot more sense than me”

The final scenario of our first session was a bit unusual, with the hobbits trying to cross the Old Forest in the face of – er – nothing. Just trees. Instead of orcs or wraiths, the trees of the Old Forest came alive and tried to hem them in and trap them – the trees couldn’t kill the hobbits, merely capture them.

Our game ended quite quickly, with all four hobbits rapidly overwhelmed, and hoping desperately for rescue. In hindsight, the scenario setup wasn’t particularly specific about how many trees should be placed on table, and we we may have overdone it, leaving the hobbits little chance of getting to safety – Jon and I barely made it halfway across the table.

So this one went evil’s way, leaving the score at

Good 2-1 Evil

The Quest will resume at the club’s Christmas meeting, where we hope to get through another 3-4 scenarios.

Wars of the Roses – Battle of Tewkesbury – Battle Report

As we near the end of our Wars of the Roses campaign we find ourselves at the Battle of Tewkesbury. As with the other games in the campaign we looked for anything of historical note. For Tewkesbury we decided the Lancastrian player would set up the terrain to represent the fact that the ground was of their choosing.
This was a standard 800 point battle with Stephen commanding the Lancastrians left with Charlotte acting as second in command on the right. Assisting me with the Yorkists, Tony F made a return to the field facing Charlottes forces while I took the field opposite Stephen.

This was the battlefield as setup by the Lancastrians. They formed their battles between two sets of walled fields with some marshland just in front to further impede movement. Their right was made up of a mix of archers and billmen, but on the left Stephen had formed up no less than four units of mounted men at arms, and two units of dismounted men at arms in the centre.

The Lancastrian right flank was protected by some archers, while on the left were two units of hand gunners using the walls as a fortified position.
Seeing the Lancastrian deployment, I took some bold choices with how the Yorkists would deploy.

I placed my mounted men at arms in the middle of the field since no Lancastrian flank was on offer. I also felt there was no point trying to face the mass mounted Lancastrian units. I was convinced Stephen had placed those there to perform a mass charge against my forces. I wanted to provoke the Lancastrians into moving rather than wait until my Yorkist forces had advanced between the two walled areas.

Fearing the Lancastrian mounted units I was determined not to leave my infantry behind the advancing archers. So used my commanders to keep the units moving. Although I had some men at arms and retinue billmen, the second line should it be needed were only militia billmen.

But the Lancastrian cavalry didn’t move and it was clear that they were waiting for the Yorkists to advance past the hand gunners in their protected position or to spend time trying to dislodge them.

Trying again to goad the Lancastrians out of position I advanced my mounted men at arms to within charge range, and suggested to Tony he should do the same out on our left flank.

Still no reaction from the Lancastrians cavalry, so I had no choice but to advance my archers and use a few bonus dice to get a speculative flight of arrows in against the mounted units.

And in a result that shocked everyone the archers volley managed to destroy the flower of Lancastrian nobility!

That got the Lancastrians moving but only piecemeal. Stephen sent a lone unit against some advancing men at arms, who managed to blunt the charge and hold up the cavalry.

But the Yorkists didn’t have it all their own way. Tony’s mounted men at arms suffered at the hands of the Lancastrian archers placed behind the marshland. Tony decided the best counter to the loss of the knights was to advance his archers and billmen and take the fight to the enemy, but took some early casualties from the Lancastrian archers.

With my cavalry in the middle of the field still threatening to charge, Stephen decided to advance both his units of dismounted knights. The activation dice where in my favour and although Stephen had stacked the bonus dice onto his men at arms, it was my cavalry unit that got to charge first, however they failed to destroy the men at arms and got bogged down into melee.

Having managed to destroy the first mounted unit sent against the Yorkist right flank, Stephen sent another into the fight, this time he also managed to get off a volley from the hand gunners but to no effect.

The clash in the centre of the field reached a climax with the destruction of the Yorkist cavalry but not before managing to take one of the Lancastrians dismounted men at arms with them.

Over on the Yorkist left flank, despite the Lancastrian archers favourable position behind the marsh, the rest of the Lancastrian line was starting to take casualties with Tony’s archers punching holes in their ranks.

On came the last of the Lancastrian mounted men at arms, but despite giving his cavalry a bonus dice the Yorkist men at arms again refused to budge and the two sides were locked in battle.

At this point the loses for the Lancastrians pushed them over their first morale check. The test saw a number of key Lancastrian units quit the field adding to their misery.
Over on the Lancastrian right flank Tony was still on the offensive. Having dispatched most of the enemy archers he was advancing his men at arms into the fray.

With one last desperate charge Stephen sent his billmen in against my archers. These were actually my Militia archers and I gave them all the dice I could spare for the fight. The militia took the most damage but it wasn’t quite enough to destroy either of the units.

The final stroke came when my men at arms finally got the better of the last Lancastrian cavalry which pushed them over their break point and handed victory to the Yorkists.

The Lancastrians were left scratching their heads at the end of the battle, asking for clues as to what went wrong. The difference in losses suggested a rout, despite their forces having started in a defensive position.

Maybe the Lancastrians can take heart while marching towards the Yorkists greatest defeat on the fields of Bosworth.

Yorkist Loses
2 Units of Mounted Men at Arms (8 points)
2 Units of Longbows (6 points)
1 Unit of Spearmen (4 points)
Total loses 18 points (Army break point 46)

Lancastrian Loses
2 Units of Dismounted Men at Arms (8 points)
6 Units of Longbows (18 points)
4 Units of Mounted Men at Arms (16 points)
Total loses 42 points (Army break point 40)

Yorkist Victory

Lion Rampant Five Battles, Day 2

Andy completes the write up of the Crusades mini campaign.

First off, I must apologise to my fellow gamers, it has taken me far too long to complete this report.

Stephen and I continued the Five Battles Campaign from Lion Rampant Version 2. This time we were joined by two other members, joining Stephen with the Ayyubid Egyptians was club treasurer Mark, and joining me with the Frankish Settlers was new member Charlotte.

Photo credits: Charlotte, Stephen and Andy.

To recap the first day, we played three games, with my Pullani (Frankish Settlers) forces winning each battle. I had 3 victories and 23 Glory, Stephen had 3 defeats and -1 Glory. You can read about these games in a previous blog entry here.

The second day would comprise two more battles, the final battle using double size armies

When planning these games, we had prepared five warbands with differing points values for the five battles, and had assigned each warband to a battle before the campaign started. Stephen had used his larger warbands in the battles on the first day of the campaign, so would be at a disadvantage in the first game of day two.

Having won the final battle on day one, I got to choose the first battle on day two; I chose “The Road” and the die roll resulted in “The Convoy” scenario with Charlotte and I as the attacker (see part 1 for the battles that make up the campaign).

In this scenario the attacker has three convoy tokens that must be conveyed from one corner of the table to the opposite corner. For our game these comprised of a cart, a group of pious monks and a group of civilians. Each token had to be assigned to a unit, although more than one token could be assigned to the same unit. Escorting units were restricted to a maximum move of 6”. The convoy tokens have no effect in the game, other than marking the escorting units.

Stephen and Mark’s forces (Ayyubid Egyptian) comprised:

- - 1 x Mounted Mamluks (Heavy Cavalry with Bows) Leader Blessed (Once per game, reroll any one full set of dice by any player) @ 7 points
  - 3 x Mounted Turcomen (Wild Turk Light Cavalry) @ 4 points each
  - 1 x Foot Ghilmen (Light Infantry with Javelins) @ 4 points
  - 1 x Ahdath (Skirmishers) @ 2 points Total 25 points

Andy and Charlotte’s force (Frankish Settlers (Pullani))

- - 1 x Knights (Elite Cavalry, Motivated), Leader Strongbow (Once per turn, unit within 12” automatically passes shoot activation) @ 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 Total 31 points

The scenario requires the attacker to deploy the units escorting the convoy tokens first in one corner of the table. The defender then deploys their forces, placing at least 4 points of units in each of the other three corners of the table.

We deployed our Foot Sergeants with the Monks and Civilians, and the Foot Yeomen with the Cart in the south east corner of the table, along with a unit of Skirmishers. We couldn’t fit anything else into the deployment area, so our remaining units would have to enter the table as a Move activation.

Stephen and Mark deployed their main force of the Mamluks and two units of Mounted Turcomen in the North East corner.

In order to satisfy the requirements to deploy at least 4 points in each of the other two corners they deployed a unit of Mounted Turcomen in the South West corner

And their Ghilmen and Ahdath in a village in the North West corner (our exit point).

Prior to the first turn of the game the units escorting the convoy are allowed to attempt one move activation as a “head start”. Our Yeomen succeeded in their attempt and moved forward with the cart, but the Foot Sergeants refused to budge.

Our first turn was more successful, the first unit of Skirmishers and both escorting units succeeded in their moves, and we also managed to bring on both units of Mounted Sergeants, one on each flank. Our Crossbows and our Knights also made it onto the board. We deliberately kept our Leader’s Knights close behind the Crossbows to maximise the use of the leader’s Strongbow ability. The only unit that failed to come on was the second unit of Skirmishers.

Andy’s contingent advances, well, some of it! (Andy)

Stephen and Mark brought their Mamluks and Turcomen forward from the North East corner, to get in a position where they could block our path to the North West corner.

In the North West corner, the Ghilmen found a wall to hide behind and the Ahdath occupied a building.

Stephen’s Ahdath occupy a building (Stephen)

I think Stephen wanted to use his only infantry units to block our exit from the table, but it did mean that in the early stages of the battle he would only have four units totalling 19 points to try and slow down our force of 31 points, or 24 points if you exclude the units escorting the convoy.

In our next couple of turns Charlotte and I concentrated on getting our units forwards, and didn’t advance the convoy escorts. We had a unit of Mounted Sergeants on each flank, with both the Crossbows and Skirmishers near to the Leader’s unit. Actually, looking at the photos I think we forgot to deploy the second unit of skirmishers!

Andy’s force spreads out (Andy)Stephen’s main force continued to advance ahead of us, with one unit of Turcomen lagging behind, and the lone unit of Turcomen advancing towards our left flank getting close enough to shoot at our Mounted Sergeants and inflicting a casualty.

On our Northwestern flank one of Stephen’s Turcomen units engaged our Mounted Sergeants, but with the help of our skirmisher’s shooting honours were even with both units being reduced to half strength.

Stephens main force skirmishes with Andy’s right flank, casualties on both sides. (Andy)

Meanwhile Stephen’s Mamluks came within range of our Crossbows, and with our Leader’s Strongbow ability guaranteeing a shooting activation each turn our quarrels took out a couple of figures, the Mamluks eventually came to blows with our left flank Mounted Sergeants, both sides taking casualties and falling to half strength but his Leader didn’t succumb to any lucky blows!

Stephen’s leader’s unit, or what’s left of it, and a unit of Turcomen (Andy)

Remnants of Andy’s Left Flank face off against Stephen’s leader (Charlotte)

Meanwhile our convoy stayed back near the hill guarded by the Crossbows and Knights.

Stephen’s Turcomen closed on our Crossbows, and managed to kill one of them, but the Crossbows stayed firm and their return fire decimated the Turcomen.

Stephen’s Mamluks charged our Mounted Sergeants again, but this time his luck ran out and his leader fell.

One of the units of Turcomen got close enough to the Yeomen to shoot at them and caused a casualty, but they passed their Courage test.

Stephen’s flanking force, Turkomen Light Cavalry (Charlotte)

Our Crossbowmen continued to shoot at anything that came within range, guaranteed by the Leader’s Strongbow ability and both the Mamluks and Turcomen were practically wiped out, only a couple of figures were left, allowing the convoy and escorts to advance off the hill.

The only functioning units Stephen and Mark had left were the Ghilmen and Ahdath in the village blocking the Pulanni’s exit. Although our Mounted Sergeants had been sorely damaged, our Crossbows and Skirmishers had only taken a few casualties and it was apparent that eventually we could position our Crossbows where they could shoot at the Ghilmen and Ahdath every turn from outside the range of their bows and javelins, and even with the benefit of cover they would eventually be whittled down, allowing us to escort the Convoy off the table.

So, at this point Stephen and Mark conceded the game.

Stephen and Mark made three boasts: “They will Cower before me” (3 Glory, failed). “They will Tremble before me” (2Glory, failed) and “My Arrows are Deadlier Than my Spears” (2 Glory, success). The failed Boasts cost 1 Glory each, so that made a total of zero Glory for the Ayyubids.

The Pullani only made two boasts, “They will Tremble before me” (2Glory, failed), and “I will Destroy more than I Lose” (2 Glory, success), making a total of 1 Glory to add to the 2 glory points per Convoy marker escorted off table. That gave the Pullani an additional 7 Glory.

After the fourth battle the Pullani had 4 victories and 30 Glory, the Ayyubid Egyptians had 4 defeats and -1 Glory.

The final battle.

From the outset of the campaign, we had agreed that the final battle would be a major clash using the Bloodbath scenario, and that each side would bring 50 points, split into two contingents, each with a leader. The two contingents did not have to have equal points.

On the Ayyubid Egyptian side the two contingents were:

Emir Mark al-Harris.

- - 1 x Mounted Mamluks (Heavy Cavalry with Bows) Leader @ 6 points
    - Skills: Commanding (+2 points), Insipid (-2 points), Strongbow (+1 points)
  - 2 x Mounted Turcomen (Wild Turk Light Cavalry) @ 4 points each
  - 2 x Foot Ghilmen (Light Infantry with Javelins) @ 4 points
  - 1 x Ahdath (Skirmishers) @ 2 points Total 24 points

Emir Stephen a’t-Ucker

- - 1 x Mounted Mamluks (Heavy Cavalry with Bows) Leader @ 8 points
    - Skills: Blessed (+2 points) and Strongbow (+1 points)
  - 2 x Mounted Turcomen (Wild Turk Light Cavalry) @ 4 points each
  - 1 x Hashishin (Warrior Infantry, Assassin) @ 5 points
  - 2 x Ahdath (Skirmishers) @ 2 points each Total 25 points

Notice the sudden appearance of the Strongbow skill in both contingents?

The Pullani contingents were:

Count Andrew:

- - 1 x Knights (Elite Cavalry, Motivated), Leader @ 9 points
    - Skills: Commanding (+2 points)
  - 1 x Sergeants (Heavy Cavalry) @ 4 points each
  - 1 x Foot Sergeants (Heavy Infantry) @ 4 points
  - 1 x Archers @ 4 points
  - 1 x Holy Characters @ 2 points
  - 1 x Skirmishers @ 2 points Total 25 points

Holy Characters are a unit type from the Crusader States supplement, they are similar to Skirmishers, but with only a 6” move, no shooting capability and lacking all the Skirmisher’s special rules, they do however allow, once a turn, a partial re-roll of dice for units within 6”. Re-roll 2 dice if 12 were rolled, otherwise re-roll 1 die.

Countess Charlotte:

- - 1 x Knights (Elite Cavalry, Motivated), Leader @ 8 points
    - Skills: Strongbow (+1 point)
  - 1 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
  - 1 x Skirmishers @ 2 points Total 25 points

Summary of Leader skills

- Strongbow: Once per turn, one unit within 12” of Leader’s model automatically passes a shoot activation)
- Commanding: Each turn may re-roll one failed Move, Attack or Shoot activation withing 12” of Leader’s model.
- Insipid: The Leader does not give the usual +1 modifier to Courage tests to unis within 12” of Leader’s model
- Blessed: Once per game, re-roll any one set of dice, rolled by any player.

Stephen included his Hashishin in his contingent again, this time their dastardly plan failed and the Assassin sent after Count Andrew met a grisly end.

There would be no subtlety about the final battle, no scenario objectives other than defeating the enemy.

On the Christian side Andy deployed his contingent on the right flank. Archers on the left of his front line, then the Foot Sergeants, Skirmishers on the hill and Mounted Sergeants on the right flank.

Andy’s Knights and Holy Characters (the monks) were kept in reserve.

Andy’s contingent, the monks are the Holy Characters (Andy)

Charlotte deployed on the left flank, she kept her Knights and Mounted Sergeants in the centre of her deployment, with the Foot Yeomen on her left and Foot Sergeants on her right. Her Skirmishers and Crossbows were deployed in front of her cavalry, both within 12” of her Leader, to make best use of her Strongbow ability.

Opposing us Stephen deployed opposite Charlotte, and Mark deployed opposite Andy. We didn’t take many pictures of the Ayyubid deployment, but here’s a close-up of Stephen’s Turcomen and Hashishin Ahdath,

Stephen’s Turcomen and Ahdath in the village (Stephen)

Mark wasted no time advancing his cavalry towards Andy’s troops, lots of mounted archers approaching!

Mark’s cavalry approach Andy’s troops (Charlotte)

The exchange of arrows was fairly one sided, with two of Mark’s attacking units taking casualties with no loss to Andy’s forces.

Andy & Mark’s contingents, latter has taken some casualties. (Andy)

On the other side of the battle, Stephen advanced his Ahdath and a unit of Turcomen towards a village, with his Leader’s Mamluks supporting them, while his Hashishin and other Turcomen unit failed to advance. Charlotte’s crossbows and Yeomen also entered the outskirts of the village, with the Knights and Sergeants following up.

Charlotte’s and Stephen’s contingents (Andy)

Back on the Christian right flank, Andy and Mark’s troops came to blows, Mark’s cavalry charged Andy’s Archers, and after the latter took 4 casualties, they failed a courage test with a very low roll and routed from the field. The same fate befell Andy’s Skirmishers.

Andy then committed his cavalry; the Knights drove off one of Mark’s Turcomen units and then charged Mark’s Leader’s unit. After a couple of rounds of combat Mark’s leader fell dead as his unit was wiped out, meanwhile Andy’s Mounted Sergeants forced back Mark’s other Turcomen unit.

Andy’s Holy Characters took the hill previously occupied by his Skirmishers, a touch of religious frenzy perhaps?

Andy’s contingent, his Archers and Skirmishers have routed, but the Ayyubids have also suffered losses (Andy)

On the other side of the battlefield, Charlotte’s and Stephen’s troops exchanged missiles, both Charlotte’s Crossbowmen and Skirmishers took a beating, being reduced to half strength and failing their courage tests and becoming battered, but one of Stephen’s Turcomen fled the field. One of Stephen’s Ahdath also fell to half strength, but were made of sterner stuff and passed their courage test. Each side also suffered slight losses to their mounted troops.

Charlotte’s crossbow and skirmishers reduced to half strength and battered. One of Stephen’s Ahdath reduced to half strength. (Andy)

Their battle continued, Charlotte’s missile troops rallied, but didn’t seem keen to get back into the fray. Her Yeomen drove off one of Stephen’s Turcomen units. Stephen had advanced his Hashishin, and Charlotte’s Knights charged them and battered them sending them falling back, however this left her Knights exposed to Stehen’s Mamluks and Turcomen.

Charlotte’s Knights advance as the skirmishers flee. (Andy)

Stephen’s Hashishin recovered their composure, but Stephen decided it was time for his leader to show his mettle, and brought his Mamluks forward to face Charlotte’s Knights, supported by a unit of Turcomen.

Stephen’s contingent commit against Charlotte (Stephen)

Charlotte brought her skirmishers back to support her Knights, taking up residence in some bad going and just in range of one of Stephen’s Ahdath, who took more casualties from the skirmishers and fled the field. Charlotte’s skirmishers then turned their attention to the Mamluks.

Finally, the Mamluks and the Knights came to blows, and eventually wiped each other out. Fortunately, Charlotte’s units all passed their subsequent courage test forced by the loss of the leader.

On the other flank, Andy’s Mounted Sergeants and Mark’s Turcomen came to blows, the Turcomen winning this battle and the Sergeants fled the field.

Andy’s Knights however made short work of the Mark’s other Turcomen unit, routing it.

By now both Mark and Stephen had lost their leaders and just over half their original points value, so were both forced to take Courage tests on their remaining units (although Andy was also close to that point as well). Several of their damaged units failed the courage tests and became battered.

At this point, with several battered units and both of their leaders now dead or having fled the field, Mark and Stephen conceded the final battle.

Totting up the losses the Ayyubids had lost 28 points of troops, 14 each for Mark and Stephen, while the Pullani had lost 18 points, 10 points of Andy’s contingent and 8 points of Charlotte’s.

This gave the Pullani 5 Glory for the victory, now on to the boasts.

Stephen’s boasts were: “They Will Tremble before me” (2 Glory, success). “My Arrows are Deadlier Than My Spears” (2 Glory, success) and “I shall Slay Their Leader” (3 Glory, failed). The successful boasts gave Stephen 4 Glory, but he lost one for the failed boast making a total of 3 Glory

Mark’s Boasts were: “We Shall Avenge Them” (2) (success), “My Arrows are Deadlier Than My Spears” (2) (failed) and “They Will Tremble before me” (2 Glory, failed). The successful boast gave Mark 2 Glory, but he lost one for each of the failed boast making a total of 0 Glory

The final battle gave a total of 3 Glory for the Ayyubids.

Andy made two boasts, “They will Tremble before me” (2Glory, success), and “I will Destroy more than I Lose” (2 Glory, failed), giving Andy a total of 1 Glory

Charlotte made only one boast, “I will make them run” (1 Glory, failed), so she ended up on -1 Glory

The final Glory tally for the Pullani was 5 for the victory, 1 for Andy’s boasts and -1 for Charlotte’s boasts, a net gain of 5 Glory

After the final battle the Pullani had 5 victories and 35 Glory, the Ayyubid Egyptians had 5 defeats and 2 Glory.

A conclusive campaign win for the Pullani!

Stephen wants revenge and has already issued a challenge, the same 5 battles campaign, but this time set during the Norman Conquest of England! We have put these in the diary for later in the year.

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 we 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 and their points value 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
We Shall Avenge Them	Secretly choose one enemy unit, you must rout of kill it during the battle	2
I will make them run	One of your units must be the first to fail a Courage test	1

Open Day 2024

Our 2024 Open Day is just over a month away and there has been lots of progress on this years games. The Open Day is on the 22th June this year. We’re open to the public from 11am – 4pm on the day.

This is a great day to come and see the society in action and maybe throw some dice at one of the various games we will have on the day.

This year we have a good selection of games, which might just be the incentive you need to either get back into the hobby or to find a new home for your own armies and games.

We will have a game of Barons War complete with scratchbuilt castle.

There will be a game of Project Z for some post-apocalypse fun!

The Elephants will be on the rampage in a battle between Romans and Carthaginians

The Soviet/Afghan war will also be covered this year

Along with a big World War 2 battle somewhere in Europe

And last but not least the magical treefolk will be fighting their ancient enemy the rock warriors in an entirely scratchbuilt fantasy game.

Details of where the club meets and location of the Open Day can be found on our About the Society page.

The Tedious Invasion

Stephen reports on a one day SAGA Campaign

In the year AD1058 there was a Norse invasion of England. The Anglo Saxon Chronicle doesn’t have much to say about it, just ‘In this year came a pirate host from Norway; it is tedious to tell how it all happened.’

And that’s it.

So Eric and myself decided to refight this tedious invasion using Saga.

I created a matrix of games from The Book of Battles, the game moves on to the next fight depending on who wins each encounter. If you also fancy giving this a go then below is a copy of the matrix. You can work out what to do – who is attacking and defending should be apparent from the previous game and what works best to create a story.

Eric had Vikings led by Sigvald Ironhand, and I had Anglo-Danes (the English) led by Edward Oswaldsson. We used Warlord Experience from The Book of Battles to have games with a bit of depth and also to help create a narrative flow.

First game was Feasting & Pillaging. Three objectives were laid out (loot from the nearby church) with the Vikings trying to steal as much as they could and the English trying to take it away from them. We went with 6 points each. The English had three points of hearthguard, two points of warriors, and one of levy. The Vikings had two points of hearthguard, two of warriors, and two of levy.

The English hearthguard massed on their right flank, with the levy and the warriors on the left intending to use some woods as cover. This was because the Vikings had put their bow-armed levy in the middle meaning that a lot of missile fire would meet anyone there. I think Sigvald was being a bit cautious to start with since his raiders didn’t make the most of their moves – coming forward only slowly. Meanwhile, Edward knew that speed was of the essence and so started double-timing his troops, huffing and puffing as they went, to try and secure the church valuables.

The Vikings advanced through an area of standing stones (clearly this site had been of religious significance for centuries), which also slowed their advance. This allowed the English hearthguard to capture one of the objectives. However, in the centre the English warriors realised that if they were to stop the Vikings then they would have to expose themselves to some bowfire if they were to secure one of the objectives. So they made a dash for it! The bowfire came but no casualties were taken. The Vikings hadn’t been idle though. Their warriors came forward and they managed to capture the last of the objectives.

The English levy, hiding in the woods, were within striking distance of the Viking thieves. But they had a dilemma – they could stay where they were and loose their slings or they could rush out of the woods and charge the Vikings. If they were going to stop the Vikings then a flurry of sling bullets was unlikely to take them all out – clearly they were going to have to get stuck in!

They made a valiant attempt. The Vikings took casualties but they also gave them out. The English levy lost this exchange and were pushed back. This gave the Vikings the chance to make off with the treasure. On the left Sigvald had moved his Vikings through the stones and saw Edward ordering his hearthguard to make off with the loot. Another unit of English hearthguard had moved to shield the laden hearthguard and took a round of bowfire on the chin. Ouch! Down went three hearthguard.

And that was it – game over. The English had managed to get two of the objectives off the table, whilst the Vikings were in control of just one. Victory points came out at 36 to the English and 32 to the Vikings. Edward gained 3 experience points and took the level 1 Exploration ability. Sigvald gained 2 experience points which wasn’t enough to gain any abilities.

So checking the game matrix we see that, with an Anglo-Dane win, we move on to the Ambush scenario. The Vikings, having only partial success with their raid on the church of St Hildaburga, are now trying to flee the scene. The English are going to see if they can cut them off, finish the job, and take back what’s been stolen (which includes some slaves!)

We had 4 points each in this game. The English took two points of hearthguard, one of warriors, and one of levy. The Vikings had one point of hearthguard, two points of warriors, and one point of levy. In this scenario all units start off-table and you have to choose when and where to bring them on. There are three units of baggage moving across the table and the aim is to capture the baggage.

The English went first and brought on about half their units. They came on roughly in the middle, the thought being that by the time they got to the road so would the baggage. Sigvald’s Vikings did similar. I then made my first mistake – I brought the rest of my units (mainly hearthguard) on at the far edge of the table. My thoughts were they could block the baggage if anything made its way through. Turned out this wouldn’t happen – both the Vikings and English would intercept the baggage in the middle, this meant I had put one of my units out of the game because they were too far away.

Eric had learnt something from the previous game – sometimes it pays to double move a unit and take the fatigue. Especially in the games we’d played so far, where speed and movement were important. So that’s what he did and soon took control of one of the baggage items. In the middle my levies stepped on to the road to block another of the baggage items. This is where I made another mistake. Because I decided to pull them back (still don’t know why) rather than leave them where they were so they could start peppering the Vikings with their slings. Thus taking another of my units out of the game!

Then something bad happened that was out of my control – I rolled my Saga dice and the result meant I would be unable to activate my warriors (sorry, can’t remember what symbol I needed). I had one of the helmets so went for the Activation Pool, rolled them, and…they all came up the same as well! This meant that I could not move the warriors who I intended to charge the Vikings carrying the baggage. I did move up the hearthguard and Edward though.

And on Eric’s turn he did what any man of honour would do – sent in Sigvald so we had a warlord versus warlord scrap!

This did not go well. Sigvald had 12 combat dice and Edward was on 10. That’s even enough and with the warlord’s ability to turn hits into fatigue I expected us both to come out of this alive but with a few cuts.

But no.

Edward got two hits on Sigvald. But Sigvald got ten hits on Edward, of which eight went through!

That’s a dead warlord.

At the end of the game it was 21 Victory Points to the English and 34 to the Vikings. A convincing win. Edward gained 2 experience points and Sigvald gained 3 and took the level 1 Tenacity ability.

So we move on to our last game – Guard The Loot.

The Vikings, having escaped the English ambush, are now nearly home and dry. All they need to do is get their plunder aboard the boats and off they go.

The rules of this scenario mean that each player places 3 objective markers. At the end of the game you get Victory Points based on how many you control – those placed by your opponent are worth more than ones placed by yourself.

We had 5 points each. The English (now led by Edward’s son, Gyrth Edwardson) had three points of hearthguard, one of warriors, and one of levy. The Vikings had two points of hearthguard, two of warriors, and one of levy.

I made a slight mistake in my deployment. There were six objectives on the table but I only had five units. This meant it would be impossible for me to control all six objectives, but if I’m honest, I reckon that would be hard to achieve anyway. So not that bad.

We’d set up with a river running across the table with a bridge in the middle. This was slightly on my side. Normally you roll for how passable the river is at the beginning of the game but we decided we’d roll for it when a unit reaches the river. We decided we’d roll separately for the river either side of the bridge.

Both the Vikings and English soon gained control of two objectives each. The Viking warriors found some crates in the woods and Sigvald and his hearthguard found some more near a hill. The English levies took control of some cargo beside the river but rather than cross to another piece of loot just the other side of the river they chose to stay where they were so they could shoot at any Vikings that tried to claim it. Edward and his hearthguard soon took control of some barrels. The fight was going to be for the remaining loot. I had placed one of the loot tokens on the bridge which, being on my side of the table, meant I should be able to grab it. However, due to the scores I knew I had to push it and gain as much loot as possible and, ideally, the ones Eric had placed (worth more Victory Points) if I was to win the day.

I pushed a unit of hearthguard and warriors toward the bridge. The intention was that the hearthguard would cross over where they could make a grab for one of the other pieces of loot and the warriors would come up to control the loot on the bridge. With Edward controlling one piece of loot I decided the other unit of hearthguard would cross the river to ultimately attack the Vikings with the loot in the woods. I let Eric roll for the river. Impassable! Yup, a steep, slippery, bank and deep, fast-flowing, rapids made it impassable. So I made the decision to double-time them to the bridge where I could launch an attack on the Viking side of the river. Meanwhile Eric moved a unit of hearthguard to control the loot by the river. The English levies opened up with their slings but…nothing!

Now things hotted up! The first unit of English hearthguard crossed the bridge and made for the Vikings in the woods. Eric did the brave thing and backed up. And the Viking levies opened up with their bows. I used the Shieldwall ability to raise armour to 6 and thought that would be enough to stop the arrows. But no – three casualties caused! I then moved the warriors on the bridge along the banks of the river (and behind a hill to protect them from any arrows) so I could contest control of the loot there. This meant Eric only had control of two loot tokens whilst I had control of three, and the possibility of taking control of a fourth. Would that be enough to win the day?

On the last turn Eric decided to go for it. Realising the difficult position he was in it was clearly an all or nothing situation. He counter-attacked on the bridge, meaning the English lost control of the loot token there, and then he brought up a unit of hearthguard to charge the warriors who were threatening control of the loot by the river. In this fight it went the Viking way – no Viking losses but two dead English warriors. This meant the warriors had to withdraw and therefore the Vikings would regain control of that loot token.

And that was the end of the game. The Vikings had just managed to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat – they had three loot tokens worth 9 Victory Points and the English had control of just two loot tokens worth 6 Victory Points. A close one.

But final Victory points for the day came to 63 for the English and 75 for the Vikings. A narrow Viking win. They had got away with some loot but not as much as they could have.

Thus came to an end the tedious invasion of 1058.

Category: Periods

D DAY FOR WW2 RULES

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Drums… Drums in the Deep

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The Game System

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Maidstone Rampant

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Stargrave: A New Hope?

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Quest Round 2

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Lion Rampant Five Battles, Day 2

The final battle.

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Open Day 2024

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The Tedious Invasion

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Background

The Game System

How Did It Go ?

Credits

Other Previous Outings

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Good 2-1 Evil

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The final battle.

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