Category: Rulesets

Work in Progress Wednesday

Jeremey is on holiday this week, so he’s left Tony the keys to the WIP Wednesday post…

We’ll start off with Chairman Mark’s fine collection of 28mm Shermans that he’s been working on for a while, building up towards a big Nijmegen game later this year. There’s been a bit of rivalry at the club over who has the biggest Sherman collection – we suspect Phil is still ahead, with Dave also a strong contender, but Mark’s catching up…

He’s also added a British half-track (likely an M5) and Daimler armoured car, a German bunker and some anti-tank guns (type unspecified, but some internet research points at them being 50mm Pak 38s).

Eric has been turning yet more Matchbox cars into wasteland warriors for a Gaslands game with all manner of add-ons and accessories. The one on the right with exposed wheels looks especially cool.

Stephen has made some 15mm objective markers for Vietnam games, which should also serve for WW2. I suspect a few of us will be hunting for those in an upcoming game of Charlie Don’t Surf.

And finally, I quickly turned out some individually based figures to act as Big Men (NCOs and officers) for a game of TFL’s Quadrant 13. They’re only 6mm, so really they should be Little Men. Or Little Big Men ?

Jeremey will be back next week, you’ll doubtless be pleased to hear !

Somewhere In The Hills Above Dak To

At a recent meeting Stephen ran a 15mm Vietnam game using the Charlie Don’t Surf rules. The scenario was based on the Battle for Hill 875.

Stephen umpired the game and ran the Communist forces. The US forces (A Company, 2nd Battalion, 173rd Airborne) were under the command of Captain Pete, who also ran the Weapons Platoon, with the three Rifle Platoons under the command of Lieutenants Tony F, Andy and Jeremey respectively.

We’ll start with Stephen’s summary of the game:

A Company of the 2nd Battalion, 173rd Airborne, scored an important military victory against the North Vietnamese Army today.
Led by Cpt Pete the company advanced up Hill 875, located the enemy and engaged them.
It was 3rd Platoon under the command of Lt Jeremey who first reached the top of 875.  Meanwhile, a grenadier of Lt Andy 2nd Platoon earned recognition for posting a M79 round through a bunker slit. Lt Tony’ 1st Platoon got bogged down in a vicious firefight and took several MIA.
Company mortars, and a Huey gunship that shredded some NVA recoilless rifles, helped the 173rd to victory.
News on stateside TV reported the battle and civil demonstrations ensued at the loss of American life. It may have been a military victory for the US but the NVA scored a political victory.

Here follows the US Platoon commander’s accounts of the battle.

1st Platoon

First Platoon (Tony) advances early in the game.

This is as far as I got, a vicious firefight with an NVA platoon (and some less than favourable activation draws) saw me pretty much stuck in place for the rest of the game.

The NVA platoon in question, about to receive some 60mm mortar vengeance courtesy of Pete.

The 1st Platoon under fire and pinned. 1st squad suffered badly (7 KIA out of 10), although remarkably 2nd and 3rd squads emerged from the action unscathed.

2nd Platoon

2nd Platoon (Andy) A Company were deployed at the base of Hill 875 with the Weapons Platoon and Company HQ to our left, and 3rd Platoon to our right.
The platoon began its advance with 1st and 2nd squad leading, with 3rd Squad and the Platoon CO in reserve.
1st squad soon spotted insurgent troops further up the hill, the first of the Company to do so, and promptly engaged them. 2nd squad and part of 3rd squad joined in, the remainder of 3rd squad being out of line of sight of the enemy. The fire was effective, causing part of the enemy unit to suffer casualties and become pinned. 2LT Andy reported the sighting to CPT Pete, with a request for mortar support.
3rd squad deployed from reserve to the right of 2nd squad in order to bring its full firepower to bear.
The firefight with the enemy continued, with 3rd Platoon joining in, both 2nd and 3rd Platoons suffered some KIAs, but appeared to inflict more than they suffered.
Under the relentless fire of 2nd & 3rd Platoons the insurgents suffered further casualties and were seen running from their positions back over the crest of Hill 875 and presumably they continued down the reverse slope.
Slightly later a few ranging rounds began to land near 2nd Platoon’s position, expecting an NVA mortar barrage 2LT Andy ordered all squads to advance up the hill as fast as they could. 1st & 3rd squads succeeded, but 2nd squad got bogged down and didn’t move very far.
1st squad’s success in movement proved to be their undoing. They soon came under heavy automatic fire, believed to be either a DShK 1938 or KPV heavy machine gun, in a previously unseen bunker.
1st squad took a couple of casualties, but immediately hunkered down and returned fire, the squad’s M79 gunner achieving an excellent shot which put a 40mm HE round into the bunker, silencing the HMG.
2nd and 3rd squads advanced past the battered 1st squad, joining elements of 3rd Platoon in sweeping across the hill, engaging the remnants of the NVA defenders in the flank and driving them from the hill, at the cost of some more US KIA.
Eventually 2LT Andy’s prediction of a VC mortar barrage came true, but by the time it arrived on it’s original target all US forces had moved further up the hill and none were in the beaten zone.
As 1st squad looked after their dead they discovered a food and material cache buried on the hill side.
The mission proved to be something of a Pyrrhic victory for 2nd Platoon, we engaged and defeated the enemy, destroying a bunker and locating a cache, but at a cost of 5 KIA, 4 of them in 1st squad.
3rd Platoon
3rd Platoon (Jeremey) deployed on the far right of Hill 875. The mission was to assault the hill and so I decided to get moving and threw caution to the wind and advanced quickly up the hill.
Unfortunately after a few moves this left my three squads quite scattered. On top of that the first contact with the NVA turned out to be a real unit who immediately scored a casualty. My return fire was more effective and with support from Andy’s 2nd platoon the NVA were soon routed.
Despite the resistance I decided to continue my advance up the hill, I reached the top of the hill without further resistance but then the bunker was revealed along with more NVA troops. I took a few more casualties and would have taken more if not for Andy’s 2nd Platoon taking out the bunker on the first try.
Laying down some more fire on the remaining NVA, they routed and we claimed the hill.
Company Command
A company’s Forward Observer (Pete) performed well by adjusting the ranging mortar rounds and the subsequent Firing for Effect on the NVA positions on the hill which contributed to the general degrading of the enemy.
Also, significant contributions to the victory came from :-
      • Lt. Tony’s 1st Platoon made steady progress up the left flank but took heavy casualties due fire from a heavy weapons squad with recoilless rifles. These were suppressed by the fire of the Co HQ’s MG squad lower down the hill.
      • Lt. Andy’s 2nd platoon’s impressive accurate fire which neutralised the fortified position on the summit of the hill  soon after the position was observed. The HMG in that bunker would have caused devastating casualties if not dealt with swiftly.
      • Lt. Jeremey’s 3rd platoon made a rapid advance up the slopes of our right flank, although sustaining several casualties, routed the enemy troops before them.
Although Air Support was requested, a Huey gunship arrived after a delay due to the Priority 2 rating of our Area of Operations, but completely destroyed the NVA Heavy Weapons squad enabling all platoons to advance and secure the enemy position on the summit of the hill, seizing enemy weapons and rice caches on the way.
 I, Capt. Pete commanding officer of A Company,2nd Battalion,173rd Airborne, recommend citations for all the commanding officers of A Company platoons.
The view from the other side of the hill
The NVA side of things, as recounted by Stephen. Hill 875 was occupied by a reinforced NVA company – three rifle platoons with AK47s, a pair of recoilless rifle teams, plus the regimental HQ (historically, the rest of the regiment was situated in the hills adjacent and being engaged by the ARVN). Regimental HQ had a mortar spotter (the mortars were actually sited on a hill to the west), wireless team, and HMG in a bunker.
My general plan was to close with the enemy as soon as contact was made to mitigate against the inevitable artillery and airstrikes the US would call in, a tactic referred to as “belt-grabbing”.
The bunker being taken out promptly by US 2nd Platoon took the smile off my face. That HMG would have caused havoc and blunted the US advance and I was going to walk the mortars up to leave the US forces
sandwiched between the HMG and the mortars. But it never came to that.
It was a very historical outcome – the US captured the hill but suffered heavy casualties doing so, and there was considerable public outcry because of it.
And the final word also goes to Stephen:
Thanks to Andy, Tony, Pete, and Jeremey for making it an enjoyable game as I learn the rules. But a special thanks to Pete for his help and knowledge.
Just need to come up with a better name than the toe-curling ‘Big Men’ next…

It’s Getting a Bit Chile – A Slow Burn Project

Club member John reports on a game from a lesser known historical conflict.

Introduction

Our youngest daughter lives in Chile and she gave me a copy of ‘Andean Tragedy’ a history of the Pacific War 1879 – 1884. This detailed book covered the war between Chile and the allied forces of Peru and Bolivia, a war which started over mining claims in the Atacama Desert. The area was an important source of Nitrates for explosives and fertilisers and when the Bolivian government sought to tax Chilean mining companies mining on Bolivian soil, war was inevitable.

It was impractical to march a Chilean army by land through the Atacama Desert so the initial campaign was a Naval one (itself a good subject for wargaming) where Chile gained control of the sea and could then launch amphibious operations initially on the Bolivian coast and later the Peruvian coast. These were successful with Lima being captured and resulted in Bolivia being land locked (still contentious today). A later Guerrilla war took the fighting high into the Andes before Peru was finally defeated.

The Andean Tragedy, W.F. Sater University of Nebraska Press, Jan 2007

I started to paint up forces from Pendraken intending to use ‘Principles of War’ as the rule set but in 2020 a new rule set ‘It’s Getting a Bit Chile’ was launched and I decided to use this period specific set. This required more troops and a gridded cloth. The project stagnated then Stephen kindly donated me a cloth, the reverse side being ideal for a desert, it was the kick up the backside I needed and within a few weeks I was ready.

Pendraken 10mm  Range of 19th Century Pacific War Figures

Chilean infantry
Battalion Misti Peru
Bolivian Colorado Btn
Libres del Sur Bolivia
Artillery

Review of ‘It’s Getting a Bit Chile’

It’s Getting a Bit Chile, G. Evans, Wargaming for Grown Ups Publications 2020

I was attracted to this set of rules for its period specific nature which I felt was merited after reading ‘Andean Tragedy,’ I didn’t want to use any generic 19th Century rules. When I received my copy, I realised it was more than just a rule book. The book includes a history of the war, a uniform painting guide and a bibliography, it is well laid out and the rules are easy to follow with diagrams to help with explanation, there is a scenario included with the rules and a quick play sheet is included. I also discovered that the author had visited the same location in Peru which was his inspiration, the previous year to us.

The rules are army level where each army can be organised into divisions, though these are smaller than European armies. The rules are I go – you go. The lowest organisational unit is an Infantry battalion or Cavalry Regiment consisting of four bases, Artillery are a single base. Unit formation is determined by how the bases are aligned in a grid square.

Each formation has a different number of firing bases, support bases and melee bases and is a specific target type if fired at and a separate melee target type. For combat a dice is rolled for each eligible base and the sum of the dice rolls is compared on a “To hit multiple” table to determine how much damage is dished out. This avoids the 6 to hit method of casualty calculation and damage is instead noted as disorder. A fresh unit with no disorder fights using a d8 per eligible base, a unit with one disorder uses d6’s and a unit with two disorders uses d4’s. If the target formation has a support base, a disorder marker can be absorbed by the support base allowing the formation to fight unaffected if all disorder is absorbed. Changing formation can reduce the number of support bases and hence increased unabsorbed disorder, reducing fighting capability. Disorder can be rallied off by the unit itself or an adjacent Divisional or Army Commander and this is key to maintaining fighting capability.

The “to hit multiple” table and disorder mechanic are very neat and set these rules apart.

Play Test

The set up

As usually happens with a new project, there was lots of last minute stuff to do which meant I hadn’t spent much time on planning a scenario. I decided to have three objectives on table, two minor ones were to secure water supply either at a village or Nitrate mine.

Peruvians advance on the village
Chileans occupy the Oficina

The main objective being capturing the hill. The Allied forces had an extra infantry battalion and an extra Cavalry unit, this last tied down some Chilean artillery as it threatened to outflank.

The Battle for the hill

In the centre, the Chilean assault on the hill ran out of steam and in true style, the Chilean Cavalry followed the routed Bolivian cavalry off table.

The Cavalry Battle

Thanks to Tony Gibbs and Jon Roche for helping. The rules played very smoothly with hardly any queries. Afterwards, I read through the rules again and posted some queries with the Author. I received an e mail back within 24 hours so excellent support.

Next Steps

I have three Peruvian battalions ready for painting and artillery limbers have arrived this week. I’m considering the small dice holders and dice to keep track of disorder. Whilst the card buildings are OK from three feet away, I’m considering making some better alternatives. Finally, I’ll need to put some time aside to consider scenarios, perhaps working those into a campaign.

Operation Anvil – A Charlie Don’t Surf encounter

Stephen takes us through a recent game of Charlie Don’t Surf.

Throughout 2024 I put together a collection of 15mm Vietnam stuff. The Vietnam War was one of the first historical wargaming periods I ever gamed, back in the early 90s. This was, of course, because of the spate of Vietnam War films of the late 80s and early 90s and because the music of the period was so good. All of which I loved.
However, like things do, it fell by the wayside and I sold it all on. But last year I joined in a game of Pete S’s ‘Charlie Don’t Surf’ and Pete M’s Vietnam game, both of which I really enjoyed. This re-kindled my interest in gaming Vietnam and so I started collecting models and miniatures.
I also enjoyed ‘Charlie Don’t Surf’ so I decided that would be the rules I would use.
So, having put a game in the club diary for May, I decided I would run a solo game so I could refine my knowledge of the rules. I decided on a simple meeting encounter.

It is late 1967. Military intelligence is bringing in lots of reports of large communist troop manoeuvres in the south. Something is clearly going to be happening in the run-up to the Tet holidays. Two US infantry platoons have been detailed to perform a blocking action to prevent troop movement of local VC elements in the locality of the village of Boc An. This village is known to have communist sympathies and, as such, the provincial authorities are keen not to alienate the locals any further. Therefore, this area is not a free fire zone and any use of indirect fire will require authorisation.
On the opposite side are two platoons of Main Force VC infantry. They are armed with AK47s and so will count as assault rifle squads. Their objective is to exit the table on the opposite side they enter from. The VC are operating on blinds (with two dummies). Since this is a solo game I decided that I would dice to see which blinds are dummies and which are real when the need comes.

The table was set up with the VC blinds on one edge and the US platoons deployed within 6” of the opposite. The US forces had two Big Men (God, I HATE that term!) as platoon commanders, one Big Man is company command with a medic. Company mortars are available but will require authorisation. I set the US platoons up in standard formation – one squad on point with the other two squads behind. All US squads would count as machine gun squads (the M60s having been distributed amongst squads rather than as a separate weapons squad).

The US forces would have a slow advance because they were soon having to wade through the rice paddies. I had them avoid the village just in case anything happened that would antagonise the villagers. The plan was to spread out once they’d passed the village to stop any VC slipping through the net. Similarly, the VC also had a slow advance through the jungle – still operating on blinds, so still unsure which units were real and which were dummies. The two central dummies advanced up the hill with the two flanking dummies moving around the flanks to create a dilemma for the US forces.

The US 1st Platoon rolled badly for movement through the paddies so the squads started bunching up. Meanwhile, 2nd Platoon did quite well and so managed to move up to put them in a position should one of the flanking VC units turn out to be real. Mind you, 2nd Platoon would also have a patch of elephant grass to wade through as well, so making a bit of time through the paddies was a bonus. As for the VC, two of the blinds had reached the summit of the hill with the other two making slightly slower progress on the flanks. It would soon be at the point where the US platoons could start making spot rolls as the VC were now on the edge of the jungle.

The US company command as well as 1st Platoon all failed in their spot rolls and so when it came to the VC activation they had a choice – stay where they were and remain hidden or, with the US platoons in the open, take advantage of that and open fire. I went with the latter – it was going to happen sooner or later and so it made sense to let rip while they had the advantage. I rolled for the two VC blinds on the hill to see if they were the real units. And, you know what, they were! So troops were put on the table. This meant the game would turn into a straight fight rather than a hunt and pursue.

So the VC let rip with their AKs. US 1st Platoon were caught in the open. They’d crossed the paddies and were in the area of scrub between the road and the hill. The lead squad took a pasting and accumulated several Shock and became Suppressed. I was surprised at how lethal the game could be, but then the fire was at a unit in the open at close range. It wasn’t looking good for the US platoons. When the US activated they managed to give back a little of what they’d received, but the VC were in the jungle, so whilst it was at close range it was still a poor shot. Nonetheless the lead VC squads took two kills as well as being Pinned and Suppressed. Ouch!

The firefight now brewed up. The US 1st Platoon commander found himself in a dilemma – whether to get his squad returning fire before the VC went again or to rally some of the Shock to make them more effective. There was only one choice; with all the Shock they’d taken their fire would be ineffective, so he had to take the gamble and rallied some of the Shock on his troops. Meanwhile, the company commander recognised the potentially lethal situation he found himself in and called for the company mortars to strike the hilltop, but he would have to wait until authorisation came through. The VC fire came in once more and this time it was deadlier – two US killed! However, the Critical Wound card came up, meaning one of the killed was a serious injury. The Medic called in a casevac chopper and proceeded to tend to the wounded man and try to get him to a suitable LZ for evacuation.

Two things then happened. The US 2nd Platoon spotted and engaged the second VC platoon. The VC took one killed and a few Shock. Seeing the kind of fire-power the US could give out, the VC second platoon pulled back to the downslope of the hill, the intention being to disappear back into the jungle and find another way off the board. Also, authorisation for the mortars came through nice and quickly (clearly, higher command saw the urgency of the need), which meant the mortars might be coming in soon. 1st squad of the US 1st Platoon pulled back after the mauling it had received so the other two squads of 1st Platoon could engage the enemy.

Then it happened. In came the mortars. Only the shot hadn’t been as accurate as hoped. The barrage actually missed the VC and hit the side of the hill, which meant the barrage also fell on part of the village! The villagers well and truly copped it – not only Pins, Suppressions, and Shock, but four civilian fatalities! Not good. Not good at all. This caused the company command a dilemma – should he call off the mortars or would he be able to correct fire in time. If he called off the mortars then this may result in more delays as authorisation would be needed to resume firing, but if he couldn’t correct fire then the village would take another leathering. Such is the fate of war. Well, such is the random turn of cards. He kept the fire up and just hoped that he could correct the mortars in time.

And lucky him, because that’s just what he managed to do. Yup, his card came up before the mortar card came up. It’s as cold and simple as that. But he managed to correct fire and put it straight on top of the VC 1st Platoon. The effect was devastating.

The VC 2nd Platoon had pulled back, returned to a blind and, when the Di Di Mau card came up managed to bring on a dummy blind so it was hard to say which was the actual platoon and which was a fake. The two dummies split up and went back to the original plan of moving around the flanks. Meanwhile, the VC 1st Platoon moved to get away from the mortars, but the US company command just walked the mortar barrage with them to keep up the pressure. It was now starting to look unlikely for a VC victory. The US casevac also came in allowing the medic to pass on his charge and off it went with the US wounded.

It felt like things were coming to a conclusion. The US 2nd Platoon cleared the elephant grass and made a spotting roll for the VC blind that was moving around that flank. A successful roll, so now to see if it was the actual unit or a fake. It was real! This meant the US would have the VC trapped and their whereabouts known. The VC were not idle though. Whilst their 1st platoon was now stuck under falling mortars, their 2nd platoon opened up on the US 2nd platoon, causing a fatality as well as Suppressing them. It was far from over.

That said, the numbers were starting to tell. The VC 1st Platoon was really piling up the Shock and they were about to break. And with the rest of the US 2nd Platoon coming up to engage the VC 2nd Platoon and the ever-present threat of falling mortars, it was obvious what was going to happen. The result? The US had won a military victory, but with the casualties sustained and, more importantly, the mortar strike on the village, the VC had won a political victory.

See you at Salute!

A slight change to our normal Wednesday progress post this week. Members are busy preparing to take our newest show game to the big wargames show Salute on the 12th April.

Bradley (l) faces off against Atari-1.

This year we are putting on a rendition of the classic arcade game Battlezone. If you’re going to be at the show do come along and try your luck against three other opponents! You won’t need a stash of 10p pieces just some good dice rolls.

You can hear more about the game courtesy of OnTableTop’s coverage of our game at the Cavalier show in February.

Atari-1 has Brigade in its sights.

This is our entry in the Salute line up: Maidstone Wargames Society – Battlezone – Futuristic Tank Warfare in 1980 – STAND: GK11

Hope to see you there.

The Norman Conquest, part 1. A Lion Rampant Campaign

Stephen reports on the beginning of a new Lion Rampant Campaign. Andy’s apologies for taking so long to get this onto the blog.

After the debacle of our Crusades campaign I demanded satisfaction from Andy and we agreed to another campaign based around the Norman Conquest.

My Normans rarely see the light of day so this was a chance for me to get them out and gain a bit of glory. Andy took the English.

In the same vein as the Crusades campaign we upped the points values a bit – two 24 point forces, two 30 point, and the final game would be a 48 point bloodbath. Each army gets an extra free point that can only be spent on Leader skills (though more points can be taken from the army total to buy more expensive Leader skills). As before, army lists have to be drawn up ahead of the campaign and assigned to each battle before they are rolled for.

So to kick off we rolled to see who would be Red (Andy) and who would be Blue (me).

And then we rolled for the first encounter of the campaign – we rolled The Village and then rolled again to see which specific scenario – The Taxman Cometh!

So it begins.

For this first game I had a 24 point, fully-mounted, force. I purchased the Strongbow Leader skill. My force consisted of 2 Elite Cavalry (the knights), 2 Heavy Cavalry, and 1 Heavy Cavalry with crossbows.

Andy’s Anglo-Danish force had 30 points, comprising 2 x Elite Foot (1 containing his leader), 2 x Heavy Infantry, 1 x Light Infantry and 3 x Skirmishers. Andy’s leader purchased the Commanding Skill.

Club member Mark placed six tax counters face down on the terrain – these all had a (hidden) value and each side would gain Glory equal to the total value of counters they could get off the table. In addition to this players gain Glory for making Boasts. My Boasts were ‘I shall strike the first blow’, ‘They shall tremble before me’, and ‘I shall burn their homes’. Andy went with ‘They shall tremble before me’ and ‘I shall destroy more than I lose’.

One of the counters had been put in a church and, since I had a mounted only force, we had to make a decision on mounted troops being able to enter a building. The rules say nothing on this. So we rolled randomly and decided that mounted troops could not enter buildings. Although this went against me it made absolute sense and was the right decision. However, this left me with a dilemma – it meant that I would be unable to secure one of the tokens. This shaped my choice of Boasts. I decided that since I would be unable to get it I would try to deny it to Andy by burning down the church! I think you’ll find that such actions are all part of the job description and duties of being a Norman tyrant. (Andy: Sacrilege!)

The first couple of turns of the game were a general advance on both sides. We both did well on Activation rolls and as I recall we both managed to activate all units for the first two turns.

Norman knights out for a ride

Andy had put his skirmishers on his flanks, where two of the tax counters were hidden in the woods, and he managed to secure both. He also made a general advance in the centre with his light infantry, heavy infantry, and dane-axe wielding elite huscarls.

Anglo Danes take the hill

I steered one of my units of heavy cavalry to the woods on my right flank to get the tax counter there, and my mounted crossbows to snatch the tax counter hidden in the woods in the centre.

Shall we shoot or shall we burn something

Those had been the easy ones. The struggle was going to be for the two central tokens – one in the church and the other in some ruins.

View from the Anglo Danish side

Surprisingly, Andy’s unit on his right took their token and fled the table (you only count tokens you get off table). I thought they might stick around for a bit longer to hold the flank. Then he advanced a unit of skirmishers into the ruins to claim a third token.

View across the battlefield

That was annoying, but I saw it coming. I knew it would be difficult to budge them – we classified the ruins as rough going with cover. This made it all the more essential that he didn’t get the token in the church. With that in mind I activated my archers to loose their bolts at the English light infantry who were approaching the church doors. I scored a couple of casualties and this forced him back. With my mind on the Boasts I’d made, I then stuck the spurs into the Leader’s unit and charged the English heavy infantry.

Norman Lord leads the charge

We caused casualties on each other but we both passed our Courage checks and bounced off each other.

On your marks, get set, go!

I then took my chance with the church. A unit of heavy cavalry had moved up and now I made a roll to see if I could burn it. With only 6 men in the unit this meant I needed a 9+. I rolled and scored…11!

Up went the church. This meant it now counted as impassable terrain making it impossible for anyone to get the last tax token. That’ll teach those English rebels, I laughed haughtily.

Normans set fire to the church

Meanwhile, out on my right flank, I could see Andy was trying to find a way of harassing me with his unit of skirmishers. Problem was that in the woods they were safe but out of range. To get in range they had to leave the woods and this would put them at risk of a cavalry charge.

Then something unexpected happened.

On Andy’s activation he charged his heavy infantry into my Leader’s unit. I rolled to counter-charge but failed!

Anglo Dane Elite Infantry charge the Norman Leader

Oh well, I thought – those knights are well armoured and might take a casualty but not the end of the world. And, yes, they did take a casualty. But I rolled a double 1 which meant it was the leader that coped it!

Down he went.

The Normans were now leaderless.

However, one thing was in my favour. The two tax counters I had were high value ones, and I’d also managed to fulfil all my Boasts. So, despite the loss of my Leader, I figured I was still in a strong position.

Problem now, though, was that my mounted crossbows, who had a token, were in a difficult position with both the English heavy infantry and elite infantry getting within charge distance. If I lost them, and their token, then the fortunes of war would be reversed, and I could see in Andy’s eyes that he knew that too.

So the race was now on – get off the table with what I had.

Being mounted had an advantage because I was faster than him. Andy started pulling back his skirmishers with the tokens to secure them, whilst trying to put the pressure on me.

It got a bit hairy when I failed an activation roll to move the crossbows, but Andy was just out of charge range and the following turn they were off and that was the end of the game.

I had secured 5 points of tax tokens and gained another 5 Glory for my Boasts plus an extra 0.5 Glory for facing a larger enemy. This gave me 10.5 Glory.

Andy also scored 5 points of tax tokens, but failed to achieve either of his boasts, so lost a point for each, giving a total of 3 Glory

The first game went to the Normans with a convincing 10.5 to 3 win.

The winner gets to choose the next game and I chose The Road. We rolled for the specific scenario and came up with Meet The Neighbours.

In this game players start in opposite corners and gain Glory for units they get off the opposite corner (plus Boasts).

In this game I had 30 points and my (new) Leader had also taken Strongbow. My force consisted of 2 Elite cavalry, 1 Heavy cavalry, 1 Heavy infantry, 1 foot crossbows with pavises, and 2 skirmishers. My Boasts were ‘Their arrows shall be lost like tears in the rain’, and ‘I shall avenge them’ (I chose his Leader’s unit – after I had lost my Leader I couldn’t let him get away with all the goading that would be coming and had to even things up!).

Andy had a smaller force this time, only 24 points, a single unit of Elite Infantry containing the Leader, 2 units of Heavy Infantry and one of Light Infantry, the force being completed by 3 units of Skirmishers. Andy’s leader purchased the Commanding Skill again.

Boldly he chose ‘Half the Enemy shall fall to my Swords’ and ‘I shall destroy more than I lose’. At least he’d start with an extra 0.5 Glory for facing a larger enemy.

Going into the second game I was cautious. Andy is a very good player and could easily turn fortunes around. So I decided that I would avoid combat where possible (the exception being to nip off the English Leader). My plan was to advance as quickly as I could with the infantry and use the cavalry to protect flanks and threaten any English units if they tried to attack.

That was the plan.

So the game started. The problem we both had is that we couldn’t get all our units in the deployment area, meaning those units off table could only come on with a successful Move activation. Andy went first and made a general, broad, advance. He managed to activate all his units and even bring on the excess unit.

Off to war they go

Things didn’t go quite so smoothly for myself. I started with my Leader’s unit off-table. The first unit I tried to activate failed and without a Leader to prompt a second attempt that was it! The English advanced again.

Back to me. Well, a bit better – I managed to move one unit, which created a gap for me to bring on the Leader. Which I failed. He had another try. Failed again! That breakfast croissant or pain au chocolat was obviously keeping him busy.

Andy advanced again. He swung two units of skirmishers south, toward an area of woodland which meant that if I wanted to advance that way I’d have to endure some bow fire.

By this time Andy was halfway across the table. I’d moved some units but still had others in the deployment zone. It was obvious my plan of getting across the table was going to fail. Andy would be off sooner than me and would win the game with a good score. I had to change my tactics. The only way I could win is if I prevented Andy getting off the table and the only way I could do that was by eliminating his entire army! I went on the attack!

Norman firing line

It was more by luck than design. By the time our two forces came face to face I hadn’t advanced too far but the position I found myself in was an advantageous one. To one side of the road was a hill and to the other was an area of rocky ground. I decided I would put the crossbows on the hill, the skirmishers in the rocky ground, and use the heavy cavalry and spearmen to plug the gap with the knights behind to act as a mobile reserve where they could either exploit a gap in the enemy or charge to the defence if the enemy broke through. It was a strong position which I can’t take any credit for.

The key to this would prove to be the rocky ground. I think Andy recognised that and I could see him manoeuvring units that way to launch an attack. Lines were drawn. Now the battle started.

Anglo Danish thanes and huscarls make a steady advance

My skirmishers in the rocks opened fire (thanks to the Leader’s Strongbow skill) on Andy’s light infantry, causing a couple of casualties. Meanwhile he started moving the heavy infantry around the side of the rocks and his Leader’s unit came forward. The English skirmishers opened up with some desultory bowfire – thankfully the rocky ground provided good cover.

Norman archers in the stones

Seeking an opportunity I thought I’d try my luck. With his Leader within charge range of the Norman heavy cavalry, and an eye on my Boasts, I thought I’d give it a go. In went the cavalry. I caused one casualty against the English (failed the Lucky Hit to bag the Leader) but Andy had given me a fair wallop – I took three casualties. Not only were the Norman cavalry Battered but they were at half strength as well. Oh well, I thought, I’ll use them as an expendable unit and see what more damage they can do to the English Leader (a perfectly acceptable attitude for an invading Norman tyrant).

On Andy’s turn he did something that surprised me – he charged his light infantry into the rocks to take on my skirmishers! Well, I suppose I don’t blame him. If he left them there then it would cause a lot of problems. He had to do something. In response to the charge I decided to Evade. That took me out of the rocks but it caused casualties on the charging English which meant they had to retreat. Meanwhile, to the south, the English skirmishers in the woods and the Norman crossbows on the hills just stared at each other. I moved a unit of Norman knights behind the hill but in position so they could charge if the skirmishers dared come out the woods.

Norman corssbows supported by Norman knights

The fight around the rocks continued. The English heavy infantry moved forward. This could be a potential problem. I had two choices. Ideally, I wanted to shoot with both my skirmishers to loosen them up, and then charge with the Norman Leader’s knights. The skirmishers would shoot on a 7+ and the knights charge on a 5+. If I failed with either of the skirmishers then activation would switch to the English and I’d miss out, so maybe I could just charge with the knights? The Norman Leader had the Strongbow skill, but I’d used that to order the crossbows to shoot at the English Leader’s unit (another casualty on them, but still not the Leader).

Anglo Danes march pass the POND OF DEATH

I decided to put my faith in the dice. I rolled for the first skirmisher unit. Success! They fired. Then I rolled for the second unit of skirmishers. Another success! OK, so the English heavy infantry had taken a few casualties. Now was the time. In went the knights, led by the Norman Leader – let’s just hope it wouldn’t be a repeat of the previous game.

In they go

No, it wouldn’t be. The English infantry took more casualties and failed their Courage test. They fell back, Battered, and below half strength. They’d taken enough casualties that it would be hard to recover.

Feeling cock-a-hoop with my charges I sent the Norman heavy cavalry in against the English Leader again. Another casualty on the English meant they were now at half strength, but in return they eliminated the last of the heavy cavalry. I didn’t care. They’d done their job. It was now starting to look good for the Normans and I could see another victory coming.

Andy realised he had to go for it. The skirmishers to the south moved out of the woods and shot at the crossbows. They caused a single casualty but I fluffed the Courage roll and they had to retreat behind the hill. My skirmishers moved back into the rocks and continued firing at the English light infantry causing more casualties and Andy obligingly rolled a double 1 for their Courage. Off they went. It was now looking very good.

We were moving into the end game. My thoughts turned to Glory points. If I entirely eliminated the English army that would be game end but since I hadn’t got any units off I would only receive Glory for the Boasts I’d made and none for the game objective. It was going to be hard to do anything about that.

Andy points an accusing finger at the Norman spears

Andy still had a unit of heavy infantry in the centre. They lined up against the Norman heavy infantry and went in. It was pretty much a draw, with a casualty on either side. In the meantime my skirmishers kept opening fire on the English Leader, but bad dice rolls meant I just couldn’t cause any casualties. I then sent in a unit of knights against the English skirmishers and completely eliminated them. In response Andy moved the other unit back into the woods where they would be safe. The Norman heavy infantry charged the English heavy infantry and, again, a couple of casualties on either side but the Normans failed their Courage test (and would ultimately fail to rally and rout off table).

Then came the final act. The Norman Leader ordered the crossbows to open up at the English heavy infantry. At close range the bolts thudded in and off they went. The skirmishers drew their bows, took aim at the English Leader and…down he went at last! All the English had left was a unit of skirmishers hiding in the woods.

Ironically, I didn’t want to destroy them. What I wanted to do first was get some of my troops off-table. Andy knew this, so it was in his interests for the skirmishers to either be eliminated or get off themselves to bring the game to an end before I gained too many Glory points. What I also wanted to do was weaken the skirmishers to reduce their effectiveness but without actually killing them. A burst of fire from the crossbows did the trick, reducing them to half strength. Both sides made a rush for the table edge. The English, though, were closer and were soon off, bringing the game to an end. I hadn’t got any of the Normans off.

Final Glory scores were just 3 for the Normans (for successful Boasts). The English had got a half strength unit off, earning 1 Glory, and had the extra 0.5 Glory for having the smaller force. But they had failed both Boasts meaning -2 Glory giving a final total of -0.5 Glory.

A second Norman win! Glory tallies at this point are 13.5 for the Normans, and 2.5 for the English. We still have three games to go. Andy is a good and capable player, so whilst I’m happy with this lead I am not complacent.

Wars of the Roses – Battle of Stoke Field – Battle Report

Although we were only going to play the Battle of Stoke Field as a tie breaker if the main campaign ended in a draw. We thought for completeness we should play the battle.  The Lancastrians were definitely playing for the last scrap of honour they could muster with this battle having already lost the campaign.
Reading about the battle we decided for Stoke Field, the Yorkists should have at least half their army made up of mercenary and militia units to represent bringing together a rebel army. While for the Lancastrians, half of their army would start on the players baseline to simulate the King’s forces arriving late to the battle. Although not a big battle historically we decided to go big with 1000 points per side, with each side divided up into two commands. Stephen and Andy took up command of the Lancastrians (well Tudor) forces, while Tony G joined me to share the Yorkist (well Rebel) army.

I arrayed my forces in typical fashion with the archers in the front and infantry behind. When we play these high points games I normally have to bring everything I have painted, so I also brought my mercenary pike block and a fair bit of cavalry in the form of Mounted knights and currours. I put the pike block on the right and all of the cavalry on the left to try and outflank the enemy.

Tony G went for a similar deployment, Tony was facing Stephen as the Tudor King who had to deploy right at the far edge of the battlefield. I was facing Andy who had deployed as far forward as permitted.

Very much like the historical battle this meant that within the fist activation of units Andy and I were already in bow range before the King had even got moving. The initial exchange of arrows saw the Yorkists inflict more damage, but didn’t come away unscathed.

Some favourable activation dice also allow the Yorkist currours to quickly advance on the flank and threaten the Lancastrian archers. I’ve used this tactic in a number of battles. The cavalry cannot be ignored so I often find they end up drawing units away from the front line. Andy moved some archers to contest the cavalry, but I decided to be bold and charged my cavalry in.

The charge worked and first blood went to the Yorkists. This was to be the start of a trend on the Yorkist left. With four cavalry units the Lancastrians were in for a hard time having brought no cavalry of their own.

Meanwhile on the Lancastrian left Stephen had started to move his forces forward, but the dice were not being kind and so the advance was somewhat piecemeal.

Back on the Yorkist left and emboldened by the initial cavalry success I decided to continue the charges. These were not as successful, Andy’s archers managed to hold off one attack and he had brought forward his billmen units to halt a further charge.

The deployment for the game ended up turning it into a battle of two distinct halves. The Yorkists forces on their left had manage to almost wipe out the Lancastrian archers and had engaged in several rounds of melee combat with the cavalry charges, while on the Yorkist right not a single dice had been rolled in anger.

I had suggested to Tony as my fellow commander to just wait for Stephen’s forces to advance and not worry about moving forward to engage. With the unique activation system in Sword and Spear armies can often find themselves breaking up during an advance if the dice are not being kind.

On the Yorkist left the cavalry charges continued the Currours continued to be locked in combat but the first of the mounted knights pushed through a unit of billmen and charged off in pursuit of the fleeing Lancastrians.

Seeing the Lancastrian casualties mount up I suggested to Tony to ditch the idea of setting up a defence and to take the fight to Stephens forces. Losing no time Tony got his archers into range and started the customary exchange of arrows.

Tony like me had moved his cavalry into a position of harassment on the right. Stephen had attempted to get his crossbows to within firing range but the restrictions on Crossbows not being able to move and fire hampered his efforts. But Tony decided to follow my example and charge in his currours. Unfortunately the Yorkist fortunes had turned and the cavalry were halted.

Tony soon sent in his other unit of currours but it wasn’t enough and the Lancastrian crossbows had prevailed. But the rest of the Yorkist forces on the right were starting make an impression, adding to the growing Lancastrian loses.

Not wanting to wait for the archery duel to play out Tony charged in some billmen, but they could not dislodge the enemy archers. To counter Stephen charged in his highlanders but they were checked in turn by Tony’s infantry.

After what seemed an age Stephen finally managed to move his three large units of pikes in to melee, this was certainly not to little, but it was too late. The Lancastrian forces had already passed their first morale check, which saw a number of units suffer a loss of strength. They failed to destroy the archers giving me time to move my own pike block into the melee.

The Lancastrian cavalry woes continued over on their right flank. The Yorkist knights had managed to defeat several billman units and were running rampant behind the Lancastrian front line.

Tony continued his assault and managed to defeat the last of the Kings archers pushing them over their break point and handing victory to the Yorkist cause. As the last of the turn was played out the Lancastrians suffered yet more units destroyed despite committing more of their forces in an attempt to even the score.

Stephen’s pike blocks had managed to destroy a the unit of archers with a second unit reducing the Yorkist pike block to half strength.

The Lancastrian Highlanders fought hard with a bonus dice in the melee to try and push aside some of Tony’s billmen, but it ended in stalemate.

In the centre of the field I’d made the mistake of putting a bonus dice on my crossbows (crossbows can’t use bonus dice for shooting attacks), and neither did they have a valid target, so with nothing to lose I charged them into the flank of the pike block. It was far closer than it should have been and the crossbows took the pike block to just two remaining strength points, losing only one themselves.

And thus ended the turn and the battle. This was a really interesting fight with mine and Andy’s forces engaged in the fight from turn two, on one side of the battlefield, while on the other side Stephen and Tony’s forces did not even exchange missile fire until around turn five. By that time the Lancastrians had almost reached their first army morale point. Things could still have been turned around but being so far behind in casualties gave the Yorkists forces a morale boost and the confidence to throw caution to the wind and step up the attacks.

The Lancastrians retreated from this final battle adding to what had been a disastrous campaign, but historically the Lancastrians lost more of the major battles during the war they just managed to win the important ones, sadly that wasn’t to be this time round.

Yorkist Loses
3 Units of Currours (12 points)
1 Unit of Billmen (4 points)
3 Units of Militia Archers (9 points)
Total loses 25 points (Army break point 57)

Lancastrian Loses
1 Unit of Crossbows (3 points)
5 Units of Billmen (20 points)
10 Units of Longbows (30 points)
3 Units of Dismounted Men at Arms (12 points)
Total loses 65 points (Army break point 55)

 

The Stairway to Heaven

Stephen takes us through a Stargrave adventure based around some weird dreams…

‘All that glitters is gold’

Recently a bout of Luna flu has been doing the rounds of the bars and cantinas of many-a-starport. And the less salubrious ones at that. It’s a highly contagious virus but not dangerous – sufferers mainly complain of nausea, tiredness, and delirium.

It seems that some space crews had recently been hit by the virus and the wild dreams sent them on a wild goose chase – and the Galactic Commission intercepted three messages. These come from the Rhythmic which is on record as being an ex-military freighter and captained by a veteran soldier, Gloria Fuster (Charlotte). The other is from captain Garo Braven (Tony) of the Cepheid Variable – a crew made up of mercenaries and mystics. The last is from the Serenity, captained by Mal Reynolds (Andy), and crewed by a prolific group of smugglers, murderers, and pirates.
We’ll let them speak for themselves…

THE RHYTHM: SOLDIER GREEN’S LOG

COMMENCE ENTRY

The Rhythm did not go looking for trouble, but it sure found us.

This morning, we landed in a strange jungle on an unfamiliar planet, home of a fabled Stairway to Heaven. Captain Gloria was convinced the ancient structure was hiding something valuable following a strange vision. Our mission was simple: find the item and bring it back.

Two rival crews from the ships Serenity and Cepheid Variable seemed to have the same idea. Worse, Gloria recognised the gunner of the Cepheid as the same man who’d insulted her mother a few planets over. Even worse than that: there was a shapeshifter in our midst.

Was it the inexperience of working with the Rhythmics, or was Gloria too distracted by her greed? We received orders to take out the gunner and rival crews and loot what we could while Gloria searched for the valuable item. Things soon escalated and became a free-for-all, although whether the Serenity and the Cepheid had an accord is uncertain; this soldier notes that they did not fire at each other for the duration of the battle.

The Rhythmics split at the southern hill, with half going after the Cepheid’s crew and the others facing Serenity. After two bouts of searching for loot under fire, the shapeshifter posing as Mintz made itself known. A Rhythmic duly took it down, and another killed the Variable’s gunner. That’ll teach him to call Mrs Fuster a [AUTO-CENSORED].

To the east, the Rhythmics took on the Serenity’s crew. We wounded one of their crewmen, angering them so that they took out both soldiers Yellow and Blue.

All crews fought fiercely, while Gloria focused on transferring the data loot she’d found to Simmons, fearing that the Serenity’s drone had already taken what she really came for. Soldier Squid was killed instantly by the Serenity, but we retaliated and took out one on their side.

The Cepheid crew continued their own search for loot, but took down Gloria after she’d shot at their Captain. Her first mate Estefan was not far behind her. A brave Rhythmic attempted to climb the Stairway in a last-ditch effort to find the gold and a vantage point. He was eventually killed after his carbine jammed and left him vulnerable on a rocky outcrop, not long after his good friend Han also fell to the Serenity’s guns. Remarkably, the Rhythmics survived the fearsome native creatures that kept appearing to torment the other crews throughout the battle.

The only Rhythmics left standing were Simmons and myself, who returned to the ship with data loot and physical loot respectively. There we found the real Mintz waiting for us. Gloria, Estefan, and two crew members eventually regained consciousness and returned to the ship after the battle. We head on to our next mission, to be confirmed once the crew receive medical attention. I have advised Gloria to take caution before committing to visions in future. After all, there’s still time to change the road she’s on.

ENTRY ENDS.

Gaden’s Log Begins:
Kal Gaden quickly exited from the Cepheid Variable’s tail ramp with the rest of the crew while the autopilot held it in a stable hover a few inches above the surface of the clearing. A quick command on the Captain’s wrist comlink and the ship took itself up into a parking orbit, ready to be recalled when the mission was done.

This was more like it, Kal thought – a well-trained, professional disembarkation with a bunch who looked like they knew what they were doing. Granted, some of the crew were really inexperienced, their only previous venture being the mission on the snow moon to rescue that old man in the red suit. It had turned into a bit of an easy turkey shoot (or more accurately a penguin shoot), but that was exactly what the crew had needed to shake out some of the rust. And they were looking like they had learnt from it – not like that shower of amateurs that he had been caught up with a couple of orbits ago.

As luck would have it, they came down just off of their intended position. The target, an ancient set of giant steps which apparently had a pretty fancy bit of treasure at the top, was on the wrong side of a fast-moving jungle stream. But the Captain led them towards it in close order, and they advanced with their eyes peeled. Sharal, the fastest of the crew, went ahead and hacked into an old data terminal that she almost tripped over, probably kit left behind by a previous expedition. It turned out that she had unlocked a set of plans for some pretty advanced alien armour tech – that alone would make the trip worth it.

At that point the local fauna began to make itself apparent, with a giant scorpion-like creature emerging from the undergrowth. Koor Vane, one of the newer recruits, took it down with a few well-placed shots.

Kal found the entrance to what looked like an old crypt and told the crew he was going to check it out. The inside was full of a blue-ish mist which, as he entered, congealed itself into a form which, if he was superstitious, he’d have called a ghost. But he wasn’t, and instead he peeled off a volley of shots – that went promptly straight through it. Instead he pulled his combat knife and by slicing it repeatedly through the apparation he somehow manged to dispel it, although he didn’t feel any contact with anything solid, just a sense of cold. It was worth the struggle however, as further inside the crypt was a military issue chain gun – a bit grimy, but cleaned up it should work a treat, and Kal knew that Tan Gariss, the crew’s specialist gunner, would appreciate it.

He stepped outside, and only at that point realised that the thick stone walls of the crypt must have been blocking his comms, as all hell had broken loose. The Captain had taken down some menacing bat-like creature with a single giant eye that had appeared over the watercourse, and now there was a full-blown firefight going on. It seemed that a rival mob (the Rhythmics) who held a grudge with a few members of the crew had landed nearby. It stemmed from some long-forgotten bar fight he was told later – and Gariss himself had gone down from a single nasty one, and didn’t look good. The crew was returning fire and Kal could just about make out several figures moving through the foliage a few tens of yards away. Fire from Rook and Kyorla smacked into one of them – it looked like a droid from the way it was moving – but it didn’t go down. The Captain organised the main bulk of the crew into a firing line and they slowly advanced into the jungle, blazing away as they went. Keeping tactical discipline, Sarai took down the leader of the other crew and the Captain himself accounted for their first mate. Kal had to admit he was impressed.

In the meantime, the diminutive first mate Gerbo had disappeared inside a giant stone head. No one followed him and he was vague about what he found inside, but after what sounded like numerous swipes of his void blade, he emerged a few minutes later clutching a fancy looking power sword and nursing a headache – ‘powerful it was, but conquered it I have’ he said in his weird reverse dialect.

The Captain had meanwhile been monitoring the site remotely using the Cepheid’s sensor suite and had found that a drone belonging to the Serenity – nobody had even realised that ship was on the planet – had made it to the top of the spiral stairway, and figured that the treasure was probably gone. Deciding that discretion was the better part of valour, the ship was recalled from orbit and the crew began to make their way back to the clearing. The indigenous wildlife had woken up by that point and tried to make life interesting – Jaon Rook was bitten by a poisonous giant river wyrm which required treatment from Gebro and his medikit, then a troop of what looked like rock apes crept in from their flank – Kal took out two with well-placed blaster rounds, Sarai and Jaon the others. Just as they reached the clearing the jungle itself came alive, and a weakened Jaon was dragged down by creeper-like appendages. Kyorla, the sniper, found her range and the plants’ weak spots and rescued Jaon and the others.

As they rendezvoused back at the grounded Cepheid, Sharal and Koor emerged panting from the other side of the clearing clutching another abandoned data terminal. In the confusion no-one had noticed them slip off into the jungle after more loot, but their diversion again proved fruitful.

The ship lifted off with Jaon and Gariss strapped into the med-bay – both were out of danger thanks to the robo-doc’s ministrations. Although the main prize eluded them there was still a decent return from the mission, and Kal looked forward to a spot of R&R somewhere a bit more civilised with his share of the bounty from the haul.

**SERENITY LOG**
“OK Wash, get us off this goddam planet, I’m headin’ down to sick bay to see how Kaylee’s doing” Mal said as he turned and left the flight deck.

“How’s Kaylee, Doc?” Mal asked as he entered sickbay.
Simon looked up from the MedSuite controls “It was touch and go, but due to the Advanced Medical Suite you had installed last year, she’s still with us.” came the reply.
Mal turned to look at Kaylee lying in the MedSuite, bandaged and with an arm in a sling.
“Well Captain, I cain’t say I’ve never been better, but I think I’ll pull through.” she said, “but I ain’t gonna be much use till this arm’s healed though.”

Mal cast his mind back to the day’s events…
He had had a series of incoherent dreams, but a constant feature in all of them had been a rock pile known as “The Stairway to Heaven” on one of the nearby planets. He was convinced there was worthwhile loot to find on or near the Stairway.

On orbital insertion the Serenity’s sensors picked up two other ships in nearby orbit, the Cepheid Variable, a ship and crew Mal had encountered before, and an unfamiliar ship, the Rhythm.
The name of the second ship prompted Mal to remember a rumour he’d heard about that ship, that one of the crew had been found unconscious on a space station, recounting a tale of being attacked by some form of alien, and seeing said alien walk away transforming into an identical copy of the crew member. Mal had dismissed this account as the ramblings of a deep space afflicted mind, but on the off chance that the crew member was telling the truth, he sent a personal “Your Eyes Only” message to the Captain of the Rhythm, recounting the tale, just in case there was a polymorph hiding amongst the Rhythm’s crew.

The shuttles landed in one of the few jungle clearings south of the Stairway, Mal lead Wash, Kaylee and Derrial towards the Stairway, while Zoe, Jayne, Inara and River headed towards a stream. Simon, Tracey and the Repairbot followed behind.

The jungle was very thick, visibility was restricted and the Stairway itself out of sight, but its position had been locked into the nav units, so they knew they were on the right track.

Almost immediately Zoe and Inara were ambushed by a couple of mobile, carnivorous plants, Zoe received a savage bite, but Inara despatched her opponent. They reminded Inara of something she read in an old novel from Earth-That-Was, “Triffids” she thinks they were called.

Zoe beat off the surviving Triffid, and Inara put it down with a well-aimed shot. Mal reached some physical loot, and unlocked it, but Jayne was less fortunate, rustling in the undergrowth revealed a Bileworm which attacked and stunned him.

Jayne somehow managed to fight off the Bileworm, Mal and Zoe opened up on it but both their guns jammed! Simon, Tracey and Derrial also shot at the Bileworm, Derrial getting in the fatal shot. Meanwhile Kaylee’s Repairbot trundled up to the loot Mal had unlocked and picked it up.

With the Bileworm dead Jayne used his medic kit to neutralise the poison coursing through his veins. Zoe’s team saw movement on the far side of the stream, and came under fire from the crew of the Rhythm.

Mal and Wash reached a Data loot near the Stairway and Mal unlocked it, as some type of rock ape appeared on a butte above them. Zoe launched a Drone and sent it towards the top of the Stairway, but Kaylee was shot by one of the Rhythm’s crew and wounded. Jayne and River returned fire and took down two of the rival crew.

More of the crew of the Rhythm appeared across the stream, firing at Mal & Wash but missing. Mal threw some smoke grenades to block the line of sight, while Wash downloaded the data Mal had unlocked. Although wounded Kaylee took a shot at the ape above Mal, but missed. The Ape descended the butte and attacked Mal.

River crossed the stream to reach a Physical loot, Simon reached Kaylee and treated her wounds. And two more Triffids appeared!

Before River could try to unlock the loot, she was shot and KO’d by one of the Rhythm’s crew. Mal fought off the ape, killing it, and Derrial despatched another Triffid. More gunfire was heard to the north, perhaps from the crew of the Cepheid Variable, but they didn’t come into sight.

Zoe crossed the stream to aid River, while Simon shot and killed another Triffid. Kaylee was slowly making her way back to the shuttles when she was attacked and KO’d by a Wraith-like creature, a swirl of blue mist. Zoe’s drone had made it to the top of the Stairway, and picked up the Treasure of the Ancients.

Mal avenged Kaylee by destroying the Wraith, while Jayne laid more smoke to block the Rhythm’s crew’s line of sight. The Drone laboriously made its way down from the Stairway with the Treasure, heading slowly back to the shuttles.

Zoe hosed down one of the Rhythm’s crew with her RFG, putting him down. The Repairbot safely returned to the shuttles.

More of the Rhythm’s crew appeared from behind the smoke screen; they shot at and took down both Zoe & Jayne.

Yet another of the planet’s fauna, resembling a Velociraptor from Earth-That-Was’ prehistory, appeared, attacking Tracey. After a sustained fight the Raptor took Tracey out of the game.

Derrial spotted one of the Rhythm’s crew climbing the Stairway (not sure why as the drone had already liberated the Treasure of the Ancients). This crewman took a pot shot at Derrial, missing him. Derrial fired back taking him out.

Inara killed the Raptor, but was in turn KO’d by a Ryakan that had been flying around seemingly at random.

As the crew fell back, they lost sight of the remains of the Rhythm’s crew, but the Ryakan still posed a threat. Fortunately, Mal managed to bring it down without it causing further injury.

Given the number of aggressive indigenous fauna and flora the crew had encountered at the start of the mission, surprisingly the remaining members of the crew made it back to the shuttles without any further encounters and returned to the Serenity.

Although over half of the crew were casualties during the mission, most only had scrapes, bruises and concussion, except for Kaylee. Whether the Wraith like creature that took her down had some lingering toxic after effect, Simon didn’t know, what he was certain of was that it was only the Serenity’s Advanced Medical Suite that let Kaylee pull through, even if she would take weeks to fully recover.

**LOG ENDS**

BATTLEZONE: MWS 2025 Show Game

Stephen takes us through the creation of this year’s retro-futuristic show game.

For 2025 the MWS Show Game is a table-top version of the arcade classic from the early 80s, BATTLEZONE.

This used to be a favourite of mine and I would get through pocketfuls of 10p coins playing this. It featured a stark black landscape with wire-frame graphics. You took control of a tank and manoeuvred around geometric obstacles trying to shoot enemy tanks.

So when we started to think what our show game for 2025 should be I suggested we create a table-top version of Battlezone.

There are a few things to keep in mind for a show game. Yes, it should be playable and quick and easy to pick up. We aim for a game to last about 45 minutes – that gives players a good taster and also means they don’t have to commit too much time and can get back to enjoying the show. We also need to think about transport – getting the game in and out. Ideally it should disassemble so those attending can carry it in and out rather than get stuck in a queue to unload and load. And there’s also cost, especially for games like this which will have components with little use outside of the game.

The good thing about our Battlezone game is that it would tick all these boxes – there’s no intricate scenery or terrain (but what there is, is bespoke for this particular game), as such it all breaks down so it is easy to transport. And with Too Fat Lardies’ ‘What A Tanker’ rules (which we decided we would adapt) many gamers will already be familiar with the concepts behind the rules.

It was obvious that we would not be able to buy the tank models. Back in the day, that would have meant scratch building with plasticard. But in these days of 3D printing it was obvious what was needed. Fortunately, Phil and Tony of Brigade Models are both club members and both are very IT literate with a 3D printer. I’ll leave Tony to explain how they went about this:

Tank 4 (the ‘Brigade’) at design time in Wings3D. As you can see, the basic designs are suitably minimal.

We started by searching the internet for images of the original tanks in the game. Finding images was easy enough, although a bit more work went into finding ones that were directly head on or side on so that the dimensions weren’t too distorted. Eventually I found enough information to draw up the basic outlines of the two tanks that looked about right using a 3D modelling package called Wings3D. I also designed the UFO (which didn’t make it into the final version of our game) and missiles, although we drastically scaled these down from the tank-sized killers that they appear to be in the original. We went through several iterations of the designs with slightly different details until we were all finally happy. We toyed with the idea of making them wireframe models but in the end the consensus decision was that they’d be too fragile on the tabletop. So we went with slab-sided models with the wireframe outline etched into each side to help Stephen with the painting process. The tank hulls were one piece, with the guns printed separately (it made the print process easier). Phil then printed them on our Phrozen 8K resin printer in grey resin and handed them over to Stephen for painting.

Three tanks plus a bunch of missiles arranged in our printer software ready for printing.
The same collection of models coming out of the printer.
And finally, those three tanks after cleaning in isopropyl alcohol.
The basic tank – ‘Atari 1’ – printed, cleaned and ready for painting.

We wanted a four-player game. There were already two tank designs that featured in the original arcade (we designated them Atari 1 and Atari 2). Tony also uncovered an interesting bit of trivia – that the US army used the Battlezone game engine to train drivers for the (then) new Bradley IFV, so that was another natural choice (and we designated that one Bradley). The fourth tank was an original design by Tony, keeping to the Battlezone aesthetic – and this final one we called the Brigade (note from Tony – the basis for the fourth design came from a suitably old 1980 sci-fi book called “Tour of the Universe“).

Memory messed with me a little when it came to the missiles. I wasn’t sure the original Battlezone had missiles in it yet at the same time I do remember a tank game that had missiles, just unsure whether it was Battlezone or not.

But what the hell! It’d give an extra dimension to the game so missiles were in! As it turned out there were missiles in the game.

‘Atari 1’ with a coat of satin black and the painstakingly (not to say painfully) applied neon green outline.

Now on to terrain.

There’s not much of it, just pyramids and blocks. We did discuss 3D printing these as well. However, Brigade’s 3D printer was naturally busy with printing items needed for the business. So I decided that I’d purchase some 1.0mm thick plasticard and make them – not the world’s most complicated modelling job! I made squares, pyramids, and rectangles in various sizes to give some variety.

The whole thing about Battlezone is that stark, neon, vector graphic look. This was going to be the main appeal of the game and central to getting it right. Now, on the surface of it this looks like it couldn’t be simpler – spray black and then paint the lines.

And, yes, that is exactly what I did. All the tanks and terrain got a spray of satin black. Nice and easy. And then on to the lining. This was a real ball-buster. What didn’t help is that the lines had to be done twice. I first had to do them in white as an undercoat (the neon wouldn’t take being painted straight on to the black) and then go over that with the neon paint. This got very tiresome. Very, very, VERY tiresome. I don’t want to see neon paint again for a long time.

The simple geometric terrain blocks, true to the original game.

Another important part of the game is the background. The horizon in the game is an endless border of mountains. So it wouldn’t be enough to just plonk the models on a piece of black felt, I also wanted to create that field of distance. There’s also a practical element to it as well, since it defines the gaming area. These borders were made from some decking bought from Wickes with a simple slot to link them together and then painted. I thought about the height – it had to be tall enough so that it looked like a barrier but not so tall that it became a faff to lean over.

A side-on of Atari-1 in the battlezone.

All the game components were complete, all that was left were the rules.

There was obviously only one contender – TFL’s ‘What A Tanker’. Now, this has been used in show games many times already so that was nothing new. One of our club members, Marcus, had created his own sci fi version which he called ‘What a Grav Tanker’. Since this had received some play testing I decided I’d adapt that. Truth be told, the rules we are using are not fully ‘What A Tanker’ but anyone familiar with that will see clearly where the inspiration came from and will immediately click with the logic behind the rules. This is our rough-housed version that is designed for show games that need to last a fixed amount of time.

With the kind permission of TFL, you can download the rules, battleboards and turn cards from the links below:

Rules

Battleboards

Turn Cards

Bradley (l) faces off against Atari-1.

Like all projects, there’s no way this could have been completed on my own. That’s the advantage of being in a club – you have the skills and abilities of gifted club members to help realise your original plan. For that reason I must express my thanks to club members Tony, Phil and Jeremey who all chipped in to help and without whose invaluable talent and knowledge the game could not have made it to the table. Thanks also go to Pete, Andy, and Eric who helped with the playtesting.

Atari-1 has Brigade in its sights.

So this is our club game that we will be bringing to shows in the south east during 2025. Currently we are planning on being at Cavalier (Feb 23rd), Salute (Apr 12th), Broadside (Jun 14th) and RE-Play (Oct 25th) but we could also find ourselves attending other shows in the year. You’d be more than welcome to join us for a game.

France 1940 – The Bridges – Battle Report

Alan takes us through a big game of Chain of Command set in France 1940.

The purchase of a Cigar Box Battle river mat on eBay sparked thoughts about the interesting challenges of a game with one side having to make a strategic withdrawal across a river and the other trying to seize the crossings.

This led to the purchase of not just one, but two bridges from Sarissa Precision, a road and a rail bridge. The latter then led to building the track to go with it and then a station. To make the game work it needed to be big both physically (a 12 foot by 6 foot table) but also from a Chain of Command perspective; this meant at least a company a side. This was the result.

It saw a rag-tag French outfit as the defender facing a determined German company supported by a platoon of tanks. The French were made up of a platoon of Foreign Legion and a platoon of Tirailleurs Sénégalais on one side of the river, needing to withdraw across the bridges and a Motorcycle platoon holding those bridges. The French also had some support in the form of an anti-tank gun and some engineers in a truck – the latter to demolish the bridges before the Germans could capture them intact. Along with two Bouteilles Incendiaires, two roadblocks and a couple of full Chain of Command dice for the withdrawing troops, this was the defending force. The Germans, in addition to their infantry company and tank platoon, had an Adjutant, a Pioneer team in a Kubelwagen, a SdKfz 222 armoured car, an infantry gun and a truck with four rubber boats. It wouldn’t have been an early war game without a Shabby Nazi Trick – the German players selected a fifth column sniper (Jean-Claude). We played through the patrol phase which saw some interesting jockeying for positions around the buildings on the German side of the board. With jump off points then positioned we were ready for the meat of the game.

The Foreign Legion were covering the French left flank and the Tirailleurs Sénégalais on the right. The Germans began their advance with the platoon on their right flank making serious progress until they encountered the Legion. The other German platoons soon found that the Tirailleurs weren’t going to be easily dislodged and put them under heavy concentrated fire. The roadblock constrained the easiest route for their Panzers and so the main armoured advance was through the farmland to the right of the road.

Repeated exchanges of fire were telling on the French forces as they tried to hold the Germans long enough for their engineers to deploy and mine the bridges.

Eventually they began to fall back but not before taking serious casualties. Meanwhile Jean-Claude who had been placed in the church tower (it’s traditional!) was causing the French some unexpected problems.

With the French C-in-C desperate to blow the now mined bridges he ordered a full withdrawal but this was easier said than done with the Germans covering most of the routes to the bridges.

The Tirailleurs were aiming for the road bridge but when they got there the C-in-C ordered them to switch to the distant rail bridge so he could blow the former.

Meanwhile the German pioneers were making heavy weather of destroying the roadblock and the motorised elements of the German force were still held up as a result.

In the end only a single Legion section got to safety before the second bridge was blown and with neither side having been able to meet their victory conditions we declared the game a draw.