Zeke ran the first evening of the MDRG campaign which
many of us have been constructing warbands for over the last several weeks.
I brought my 28mm Boiler Suit Apes -- classified as Mutant Animals, Steve
Sattler brought his "Hellboy" themed team, Joel brought his Mutated
Plant team (based up tree models), Allen brought has Security Detail (humans
and a robot), Keith fielded his Android & Robot warband, plus more.
So many, that counting those who showed up to play NPCs, we had 10 players
rolling dice and sending hails of automatic weapon fire at the enemy figs.
My Apes -- the Sim City warband -- did great their first time out. Our first game was against the Matrix-like agents of the Black Watch. Since they were a Purity squad of four humans, we outnumbered them 5-4. We immediately took cover and engaged them at extreme range. A good shot early on killed one of their agents, increasing our odds ot 5-3. I had deployed both of my short range shooters, Lumbubu with the Flamethrower and Azanti with the Electric Gun, on the extreme flanks. One Black Watch agent was advancing towards Lumbubu, so Cpl. Kammebalango and Sgt. Mpande moved his direction to assist (and make it a three on one situation). Rather than wait to be overwhelmed, the agent jumped out and fired, luckily missing Lumbubu. Kammebalango returned fire with his assault rifle and gunned him down, muttering "Dodge this...!" Outnumbered and down to two characters, the heavily armed Black Watch fled the field. The apes of Sim City delighted in looting the bodies of the two dead agents, stripping them of all their high-tech equipment.
In our next battle, we faced a shambing band of the Wretched. The center of the battlefield contained a cattle pen (with some interesting looking cattle...!), and both warbands were moving in to secure it as food. Once again, Sgt. Mpande ordered the short range weapons to the flanks, while he and the corporal took cover in the center. Long range gunnery took down the Wretched's Leader, forcing some of the leaderless zombies to flee in alarm. The rest of the pack continued to shamble forward. The apes hunkered down in their cover and blazed away on full auto with their assault rifles. Two more zombies fell, which coupled with those who had fled earlier, brought them down to below half strength. The rest of the Wretched ran from the apes' deadly fire, and the warriors of Sim City were soon left in possession of the cattle pen.
Mutants and Death Ray Guns is definitely a game where you need to prioritize your actions. Much as we've learned in the past playing Crossfire, for example, the order in which you roll for your actions is vitally important. It is also a game that favors raw aggression. It the games I played and watched, victory went to the player whose initiative forced the point of engagement and attacked, attacked, attacked! You've got to find your warband's point of advantage among the characters and all the battlefield and push it. Of course, there ARE unbalanced matchups, what with all the different types of warbands and various powers. Terrain can also greatly favor one side over the other. So, despite getting two swings at being the "bat" in this campaign, I'm sure there will be evenings when either my apes or the NPC warband I'm playing will be "the ball" and getting drilled over the center field fence....
by Tom Graves
The battle was indeed, indecisive, with both sides failing a "10 or less" army rout roll after losing just two units each. I thought the playtest of the uncontrolled move during the action phase worked well. The uncontrolled movement of air and water units, also seem to be okay, the movement of the CinC during the uncontrolled move card was also reasonable. We didn't have many examples of morale checks during the action phase, but that was okay, we will continue to test that in future games. The 5(3) Hits per element for the Boxers seem to work well in this game and I think it will be okay to model the loss of faith that occurred when magic lost out to lead.
I like the idea of different factions having different goals, but I may give it a break for a while because it did lead to some odd behavior in the game last night and I need to give it more careful consideration before making it part of the scenario. I think the board was sized okay, it could have been smaller, but the units in the village would have had an easier time to just break out and escape, if so. It was kind of hard to reach the center of the board for moving figs, however.
I would eliminate the random entry for this scenario, having the Euros come on in the center third of the south board edge and having the chinese appear on the East side (south of the river) and the Martians appear on the west board edge (south of the woods). This would make it sort of a break out feel with the reinforcement euros forming a corridor and the Chinese/Martian reinforcements trying to break through and halt the escape.
We moved gaming to Saturday night to accomodate my good friend Jason, who was flying in for the HMGS Great Lakes Big Battle DBA Tournament. It was going to be a quick trip for Jason, as he was using one of my USAirways buddy passes to fly in Saturday morning and back out Sunday morning. However, he'd get in a gaming marathon, though, on Saturday, because we'd planned a Dino Hunt scenario at Keith's for after the DBA.
I took my Avars to New Song Community Church in Reynoldsburg, OH, for the tourney. All in all, it ended up being a somewhat frustrating day. My die rolling was particularly uninspired, and I never really got a handle on how to break the Avars into commands an deploy them. I seemed in more of a reactionary mode -- I would look at the opponent's deployment and "counterpunch" to achieve local successes, rather than having an overarching tactical plan. My score showed my lack of tactics, as I went 1-1-1. I had fun against all my opponents, particularly with Steve Parillo, who drove in from Pittsburgh and brought a nasty Ghaznavid army. He was my tie, mainly because every time one of us set up a combat with an advantage, it seemed we'd lose it. The opponent would then return the favor promptly, and lose his corresponding counterattack. Weird game.
Nevertheless, I had fun, while remembering why I don't do a lot of triple-sized DBA tournaments. It is mentally exhausting to play three 2.5 hour games of BBDBA, in my opinion. Luckily, I didn't need much brainpower in Keith's Dino Hunt, which actually proved to be our bloodiest yet...in terms of our lives lost. Mine was one of only two original hunters that survived. Keith was mericiful, and let the deceased players return with a different hunter. The game was its usual hilarity, and I hope to post either some photos or a link to Keith's.
So, both Keith and Zeke have large numbers of the prepainted miniatures that Wings of War is selling to go with its simple, fast-play aerial combat rules. We'd played them a couple times before, and enjoyed them. So, everyone was up for another evening of whirling around in fragile canvas-covered aircraft and spontaneously exploding, from time to time...
Since we had only five players, Zeke suggested we play games with two high quality aircraft against two older, lesser quality ones. This seemed like a good suggestion, and in the first game, it was Zeke and Allen as the Central Powers and Keith, Joel and myself as the Allies. Zeke apparently had the hot hand of death with dealing out the damage cards, and handed explosions to both Joel and Keith (there are only two of these in the double deck we were using, and we didn't even get halfway through the deck!). I flew off the board with one point of damage left, so it was an obvious Hun win.
In the next game, Joel and I played Snipes or Spads, I forget which, and the other guys played older German planes. When Zeke handed me my first damage card in response to Allen's long range shot -- and it was an explosion -- I told him he wasn't allowed to touch them anymore that evening! Joel put up a brave effort, but outnumbered 3-to-1, had little chance, and it was another Kraut victory. In our final game, we decided to take the explosions out of the deck (despite Allen and Joel's objections) and had a much longer, and in MY opinion, more sastisfying game. My plane survived again, dished out some damage again, but I ended the evening not shooting anyone down. Zeke was the evening's big winner, with two or three kills.
It's a fun little game, each mission lasting about an hour or so. We'll definitely play it again...
So, it was a night off from miniatures, and we played the board game Caylus at Joel's place. There were five us, and it was a good time. Here's my take on the evening's festivities...taken from our group e-mail:
We pondered the meaning of the word Caylus Sunday evening, as we played it with our own various styles.
Mike thought the word's Latin root meant, "Why is everybody picking on me?" and proceeded to keep pace with Joel, who was in the lead most the game, and Allen, who came on strong at the end. When the troika decided he was in position to win and made moves to circumvent it, Mike enacted his backup plan: Bitch, bitch, bitch...keeping it up until Joel -- who was in a position to prevent him from winning -- felt sorry for him and let him win.
Steve thought Caylus had an early Germanic root, and meant "I'm so doomed." He proceeded to languish in the rear during most of the game, but quickly spotted Mike's enacting of his backup plan, and called him out on it. At the end, he considered himself a winner for having correctly called that Mike would win, and that the famous "Bitch, bitch, bitch, I win!" strategy is deadly and nearly insurmountable.
Ptom was certain that Caylus has a Macedonian root, and means, "If I'm not winning, Mike must be winning!" He was part of the troika that fingered Mike's surge and moved to put the kibosh on it. When Joel defected from the troika, and permitted Mike to win, Ptom reversed his previously Luddite, reactionary strategy and declared himself a progressive, almost giving the victory right back to Joel.
Joel was certain that Caylus has a Spanish root, and is a vernacular expression that has come down to us today as, "Mi casa, su casa." The game's leader from nearly start to finish, and host of the evening, he felt it would not be politic to win. When he could quash Mike's run at the roses with an easy expenditure of 1 ducat/florein/deiner/quatloon, he chose instead to invoke the Spanish phrase, and give the game to Mike. Then, he gave salad dressing to everyone else.
Allen knew that Caylus has a Hungarian origin and means, "He who sucks up to the King the most, is the True winner -- no matter what the final score says!" As such, he continued his Caylus strategy of building walls, towers and a donjon for the king, constructing nearly twice as much on the king's abode as the rest of us combined. He also finished, like Joel, within a few victory points of Mike, and with a slight widening of his strategy to include erecting a building or two, could easily have won.
Whatever Caylus means, it is certainly an intriguing game, with a variety of strategies. This was the fourth time I have played it, but only the first time I've fulfilled Ptom's neverending prophecy and won. Good game...and I promise to let someone else use the "Bitch, bitch, bitch, I win" technique next time. Maybe I'll build walls like Allen, or try to amass money and royal favors...or maybe I'll look the word up in the dictionary and find out what it really means, and then base my strategy around that...!
So,
for months, my buddy Zeke has been making cryptic comments about "Super
Secret Project One" (as well as occasionally about Super Secret Project
Two!). The grand unveiling for numero uno was our last Sunday evening gaming
session. Zeke had cast in plaster using the Hirst
Arts molds, a three dimensional rendering of the corridors, rooms and
doorways of the Games Workshop "Space Hulk" game. Space Hulk is
an unabashed ripoff of the Alien and Aliens movies, but Zeke knew the sci-fi
terrain would be able to be used for countless other games or scenarios
we might set up using whatever rules. So, he wasn't overly concerned about
how well we enjoyed playing a 3D version of the GW boardgame.
Well, he needn't have worried, as it was a blast. We all sat around, bemoaning the fate of the poor Space marines about to be slaughtered by the "genestealers" (read Aliens). And our predictions came true. The first group of three players to take on the role of cleaning out the derelict spaceship were torn to shreds in an hour and a half. We then switched sides, and Tom, Joel and I tried a turn of fighting off the attack of the voracious purple people eaters. We did a wee bit better, but succumbed to the Alien fury nonetheless. Keith has written a humorous account of what may have occurred over the radio headsets of our little spacemen, that were soon to be puddles on the floor of Zeke's excellent looking 3D spaceship. It begins:
Gunnery Sgt. Pthomas "Mass" Graves thought what crappy time it was to run across an uncharted space hulk. Six freakin squads of virgins, and you know the Major is going to order a panty raid to see we what could pick up! "You have to understand the big picture, Sgt Graves," said the Major, from his telecom station. "The newbies need a run-in, and this will beat the training simulators all to Hell. Think of what HQ will say about your squaddies with this experience under their belt!"
"Sir, I still think we take four squads in at one entry point, and keep two in reserve. I gotta bad feeling about forcing two entry points with three squads each," said Sgt. Graves, trying hard not to add "You IDIOT" at the end of the sentence.
The Major sighed. "Nonsense Sergeant, you're acting like an old woman. This hulk is probably empty, it will be no more dangerous than a live fire exercise. And don't load the men down with too much ammo, that stuff costs money. And don't let the flamer men run wild. And Absoutley NO grenades - you know what happened last time! Just move quick, check your corners, watch your back, and everything will be just fine. Bring a nice souvenier back for me, will you?"
"Yessir" muttered the sergeant ,as he logged out of the net. He then sent an updated will to his perscomp, and wondered if the idiot major knew which of the the gun the bang came out of. "Squad meeting in 5 minutes, squads A, B, C, D, E anf F, suit up, lance corporals to me soonest" he broadcast over the company net. "Awright, listen up. The Major wants a panty raid, but it smells more like a bug hunt to me. All your men are newbies, and most of you just a jump up your own self. The Major wants three squad sweeps from two different entry points. I know, I know, but them's the orders! Don't let em wander around, watch your back, and for God's sake, don't get everyone all tangled up in one corridor. And no 'own goals' this time, OK? No, the officers are NOT coming this time, they are running the show from the telecom suite. Shut up Sams, I don't need no lip!"
"What?" "Whats the plan!" "Open the door and die horribly." "Turtle, just like always!" Sgt. Graves was getting really tired of pre-disaster briefings...
TRANSCRIPT from telecom link, ENTRY POINT ALPHA, SQUAD A (green), SQUAD B (Blue), SQUAD C (Red)
So, Joel had a scenario in mind for a Modern Africa free-for-all. It was based loosely on Warren Zevon's song, "Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner." Keith, Tom and myself each took a faction, while Keith brought along some new players to run the fourth. I ended up with Roland himself, who was the mercenary guarding a supply convoy that had been ambushed by "that sonofabitch Van Owen" (played by 11-year-old Patrick, coached by his Dad, Jimmy). True to form, Van Owen came gunning for my forces right off the bat with one of his squads, while the other two advanced on the ambush site in the center of the board (Roland's forces, having been driven away from the vehicles, are assumed to have regrouped and are heading back in from a board edge like the other players).
I'll let Joel take up the description from here:
Mike: Roland; Keith: Mulele (Simba rebel leader); Patrick/Jimmy: VanOwen; Ptomas: Never formally introduced
VanOwen arrived early, as it should be, at the ambush site, walked the grounds, and asked a lot of hard questions. Roland arrived late to his ambush, as it should be. Two soldiers were killed right away, one truck damaged, the two Duce & halfs abandond. Roland regrouped and deployed en masse to counterattack the ambush.
VanOwen(Patrick) deployed the Aka
pygmy warriors in the jungle on his left flank, hoping to slow down Roland's(Mike)
counterattack, as he simultaneously advanced on the abandoned trucks. Suddenly,
the LMG from Mulele - Simba Leader, opens up and tears into the supplies
spilled on the ground. Yankee Dollars, English Pounds and French Francs
flutter to the ground and the entire battlefield is quite as everyone realizes
'This is nothing more than armed robbery!" VanOwen now moves a little
faster to secure the last of the money bags. Hans & Franz the 'Jerryatric'
brothers (Ptomas) move slowly, knowing it is not safe to rush to the center
of the battlefield first. Besides, they have a different goal this time.
Hans simple trick of "who's there?" to find out who are the crouching
militia (Keith) to his front doesn't work. So, Franz puts some bullets over
their heads to move them on quickly, that doesn't work either. Hans &
Franz find themselves in a shootout with the militia the rest of the battle
AND the bulltes fly. Meanwhile VanOwen's gang reaches the money bags, and
everyone else takes notice and slowly whittle away at VanOwen and the rest.
VanOwen is the last to fall as he tries to reach the safety of the jungle.
Roland could not reach the last of the supply trucks safely, and the few Simba rebels make sure the trucks are of no use to ANYONE. Mulele Simba leader was killed in battle, but was easily replaced, and his soldiers fought well and could claim a minor victory with the death of VanOwen. VanOwens troops were dead all along the battlefield, some with dollars stuffed in the pockets, others with dead cold fingers still on the triggers. The 'Jerryatrics Brothers' were slow to get into the fight, BUT their victory conditions were achieved for them (Kill VanOwen + Kill Mulele). So, they left the battlefield able to claim a major victory. Ptom "Trick C" won! -- Joel Sams
So, I haven't talked about it much on here, but I've been running a Seven Years War campaign using a modified version of Warfare in the Age of Reason's "Sport of Kings" rules. For tabletop battles, we use my HOTT Lead variant of Hordes of the Things. We fought out two of the campaign's battles this past Sunday at Tom's house. Tom's Turkish kingdom had invaded a Prussian province that had been cut off from the rest of the kingdom by a Russian advance. To give them a retreat route, King Frederick the Great invaded Russian-controlled Poland. If Mike Stelzer (Prussia) lost that battle -- and lost to Tom in Galicia -- that medium sized army there would have no province to retreat to and would be captured. "Fritz, have you ever been in a Turkish prison...?"
The battles were lopsided in elements, but Mike fought a pair of masterful battles and nearly pulled off the major upset. He was outnumbered 15-8 in Galicia and was within a Hussar's whisker of victory. After destroying twice the number of elements he'd suffered, though, Mike's crucial third loss occurred and Galicia fell. This made the follow up game with King Frederick all the more important. Mike's great die rolling in the first game was counter-balanced by awful rolling in the second. He still battled back and almost won, again. Both players were exhausted after two grueling games.
Keith, Joel and I, meanwhile, had played the Rio Grande boardgame "Masons," that I got as "swag" from the senior volunteer party at Origins. Good game, and Keith proved with his victory that my "vast" experience playing boardgames at the Columbus Area Boardgaming Society (CABS) meetings doesn't ensure anything...
So, for me, Origins was DBA overkill. I was all smug that I had to run only two tournies, and that I would get to play in the others. What I didn't take into account was that is one heck of a lot of DBA. I was thoroughly tired of it all by the time I played in Terry's Battles from History tournament, but I'd promised him that I'd play if he had open slots. So, next year: I will play other things! I swear. I fully intend to keep trying to get other DBAers to take over running selected tournaments so that I keep myself down to running no more than one or two. One, preferably. And I will *not* play in all the others. There is so much to do at Origins that I really feel like I missed out.
One thing that I didn't miss out on was meeting Andrea Sfiligoi, the rules author of Song of Blades and Heroes -- which I've talked about at some length here. Andrea stayed at my house the Monday before Origins, and is a great, enthusiastic guy. We had a good time chatting away for hours. His demos of Song of Blades were very successful at Origins. He had a great time doing it, and promises to be back next year. All my friends that went over and participated in his demos came away enthusiastic, as well. I lent Andrea my terrain (with some help from Keith "Dino Hunt" Finn for post-apocalyptic stuff), and it was always kind of funny walking by his table and seeing my stuff out there! I'm glad I upgraded my terrain a few years back so that I could help him out. If you haven't purchased his rules (only $5 for a pdf), I highly recommend them...
Dino Hunt3.0: Steve V- (guide) Allen, PTomas, Mike, Joel
casualty rate = 0.0 %
The investment group had been clamoring for proof of return on their Pound Sterling on H.G.'s newest "travel" machine. So representatives of the wealthy clients showed up at H.G.'s lab dressed for a "safari to Africa." Nine members crowded into the cage and Zzoink!! they were off to shoot big game. After the disorientation of travel wore off, the guide started to move the party toward a rocky outcrop that the large reptiles used as a rub to remove loose skin and parasites. The guide had to constantly remind the eager shooting party on "gun etiquette" - please don't shoot across the party sir! -NO walking backward with a loaded Nitro 606 Sir! -gunbearers really should fire AFTER the sahib ...please sirs.
The targets were many as all the pea brained lizards seemed to be attracted to the lightning and sparks of the time machine, so the hunt was on right away. The excitement was real, the guide had trouble keeping track of all the targets, but kept moving the party toward the protective rocks. It was not until the someone in the party fired at the Brontosaurus AND the little compies attacked at the same time that the guide had to act and fire his gun. It took a group effort to bring down the big Bronto, but it was down inside the shooting perimeter. After a sigh of relief (and reload), the party was ready again.
The hunt was marred by one incident: A reload into a hot gun barrel
discharged, and Col. Mustard was accidentally shot as he contemplated shooting
yet another brontosaurus. "Sorry's!" were said, and
reluctantly accepted, and the party moved off toward the time machine for
the trip back home, trophy dinoteeth in hands... --Joel Sams
So, the next set of rules that I was considering for my Dark Age skirmish project was from Two Hour Wargames and called, "Montjoie!" It is intended for Medieval skirmish, but they produced a free supplement called Sagas and Shieldwalls, which adapted it to this time period in particular. Two Hour Wargames all use a very flexible construction of time, with units reacting to other units movements, fire, etc., with their own shooting, charges, or whatever. Thus, even though it is not *your* turn to move, you may get a chance to fire your archers when, say, a unit of spearmen advance towards them. The rules also used as their core mechanic a "Reputation" for each figure. These range from 2 (horrible) to 6 (incredibly heroic), average 5 for Leaders and 4 for Rank & File. When called upon to do virtually anything in these rules -- including combat -- a player rolls 2-3 "checks" vs. their reputation with six sided dice. To pass, you must score your Rep or under on the dice. Thus, you may pass two, one or zero of the checks (each dice is its own separate check).
So, how did it work? Well, even with only two units per side, we felt there was a LOT of dice rolling in this game. And lots of it -- particularly combat -- worked out to be half a dozen or more dice rolled only to have a "no effect." The figures remained locked in combat. And though when talking about battle between Dark Age shield walls, this *may* be accurate, as one of my players commented, it doesn't necessarily make for a fun game. Another criticism is for a rules set with lots and lots of reaction tests, one seemed to be curiously missing: Morale tests due to losses. The players would take Enemy Threat tests when a foe advanced within 12", Received Fire tests when shot at, Want to Charge, Being Charged and sundry other tests. Nowhere in the rules could we find a morale test due to losses. There was one for when your leader was lost, but you could be the sole survivor of a large group and not be forced to take a reaction test. Or at least if we played it correctly, this is the case!
The net result is "Montjoie!" will be put on the shelf and it looks like Song of Blades and Heroes will be my rules set of choice for Dark Age Skirmish. Now, Ganesha Games -- the company that makes SBH -- is working on a "big battle" historical version of the rules, so I may switch over to that when it is released. But for now, the hunt for a rules set has ended. Incidentally, I'd decided awhile back that "Pig Wars" (one of the others I bought) simply requires too many figures. Maybe I'll try it out in a year or two when I've built up larger forces. For now, though, I like the thought of being able to field a force having to paint up only about a dozen figures or less!
Joel wrote a humorous version of the events, which I've included below:
Wolfgar the Viking was sick of pickled herring for the fourteenth time in ten days, and order the Longboat 'Finns Finest' to shore. It was early morning and the farmers were not in the fields yet, so Wolfgar ordered his men to spread out and find some food. The bowmen found two fields of cabbage and shadows watching from the distant woods. Then Wolfgar saw three cows, and made a culinary command "Veal for dinner tonight -- get that fatted calf!" The band of Viking raiders roared with approval and moved in unison toward the cows. Meanwhile the watchers in the woods moved closer to the bowmen raiding the cabbage patch. Just as Wolfgar approached The Shrub on the Green (villagers pride, a topiary to look like a toy poodle), three Pictish javelin men broke from the woods gave a yell as the heaved their javelins at the Viking bowmen in the fields. Wolfgar thought of forming a shieldwall, but hunger made him move on. Then, more angry Pictish townsmen with looong pole arms marched from behind the woods, moved to meet the Vikings and the Vikings paused.
-(insert cameo by Lynda and Melissa here)-
The battle renewed, but with a changed tone, as the Pictish leader
was now fighting to impress the women folk, while the Viking leader was
fighting for cabbage & beef. The brawl was a push, forcing
Wolfgar to give a mighty battlecry "Do you want Pickled herring
for breakfast AGAIN?!" to his troops. To this the Pictish leader's
battlecry was "For the women folk!" Slowly, the pride of the Picts
pushed the Vikings back to their longboat and the women and the shrubbery
(although trampled) were saved. -- by Joel Sams
So, after moving from Cincinnati back to Columbus, Zeke was ready to host us on our regular Sunday gaming night. He even went out that weekend and bought a beer refrigerator to be kept in the downstairs gaming room. Zeke had been itching to do some HeroClix, and had a Galactus scenario ready for us to try out. In this, Zeke as GM played the world-eating, arch-villian Galactus, while we played swarms of "ordinary" superheroes buzzing around him like gnats. My team of The Beast, Banshee and Havoc from the X-Men were just about as amazingly ineffective as could be imagined. We did a grand total of 4 "clicks" of damage on Galactus, while being knocked out to a man. We won in the end, though, chiefly because after Jean Grey was K.O.'d, she turned into the Phoenix and delivered the coup de grace to the big lug from outer space. It was a fun time, and thanks to Zeke for hosting us and letting us drain his beer refrigerator of some of its excellent stock!
So,
Zeke and I headed up to Toledo, OH, for the ninth annual Drums convention,
which this year moved to the Fort Meigs Visitor Center. Cool place for a
gaming convention -- no doubt about it. The Colby Street Irregulars, and
Doug Johnson in particular, did a great job organizing and running the show.
On Friday afternoon, Zeke and I played in a Korean War air combat game using C21 rules. These are fast, simple, "Beer & Pretzel" style rules that took maybe 15 minutes for the GM Ted Bender to explain. Each of the six players controlled a pair of planes. I was particularly impressed by the clear acrylic flight stands and mini-magnets that kept the 1/300 aircraft on their bases. I liked the way it worked so much that I decided to scrap my basing system I started for my, as yet, unborn WW II aerial project! I ordered a pack of 25 flight stands from Litko Aerosystems and bought a pack of 50 of the magnets from I-94 Enterprises at the show. Us Russkies were no match for the better armed Americans, and one of my planes was shot down while the other disengaged after expending its extremelly limited ammo. We did seriously damage one Yankee that one of our comrades later shot down.
In
the evening, we tried out Tom Oxley's "Flintloque" game that he
runs at various HMGS Great Lakes conventions. It is a fantasy black powder
game, with the "world" being peopled by Napoleonic French Elves,
British Orcs, etc. Each of the six players controlled a handful of figures
(I had four). It was a fun little game, and the mechanics could easily be
adapted to historical black powder skirmishes. We thought it was particularly
interesting that the first player who had all his troops killed off was
the game master! So much for experience! Afterwards, we repaired to the
new Drums drinking establishment, "Frickers," and enjoyed some
quality beers and, er, uh, yeah...conversation!
The next morning and afternoon Zeke and I both participated in John Lawitzke's DBA Tournament. He had recently decided to expand it to a Book I/II (Early Armies) in the morning, and Book III/IV (Later Armies) in the afternoon. I decided upon a challenge and took my Nubians to the morning tourney. They did amazingly well, and could easily have gone 3-0, but were denied in their final game against their nightmare matchup, a Marian Roman army (Bows vs. Blades...not pretty!). Nevertheless, I'll take 2-1 with the Nubians any day with all those heavy foot armies out there (Zeke won the tourney with another Marian Roman army). I haven't had the best of luck with my Siamese, so decided they needed more practice in the afternoon tourney. I honestly think some armies are simply cursed. The Siamese seem to have this tendency to lose critical die rolls. As I always like to say, as general, I put them in position where they can win, but they just don't fight hard enough (read "roll dice well enough") to win. They scored a disappointing 1-2, though I was in position to win (I felt) in both of my losses.
I capped the evening's gaming off running another playtest of my Dark Age skirmish using "Song of Blades and Heroes." This time, I made the statistics for both sides nearly identical. Warriors were Quality 4, Combat 4, while missile men were Q3, C3. Each of the three warbands per side had a leader who was Q3, C4. The Viking leaders and warriors had the Heavy Armor special ability, which ended up meaning they had slightly fewer figures on the tabletop. The game was much, much more balanced than my previous playtests. The Vikings even ended up losing 2 of their 3 leaders. Even though they won again, it was more due to the Pictish players commiting their forces piecemeal rather than in a concerted effort like the Vikings. All six players (and my peanut gallery of Zeke) were enthusiastic about the rules. So, it looks like I have a winner, so far, for rule sets. Although, conversely enough, this means I will drop SBH for the time being to give Montjoie a playtest, now. If I don't like Montjoie, I will go back to SBH because I know I like the rules and they work.
As far as shopping goes, I'd brought a boxload of stuff to sell in the Drums Flea Market. My thought was I would take the money I got from sales and use it for the Dealer Area. My stuff sold great -- nearly everything went. So, I bought a number of 25mm Dark Age figures from Matt Gilford of Alternative Armies. Even more of a find, though, were the buildings I bought from St. Paul Irregulars carried by Battlefield Designs. I had been looking for city buildings with each story and roof lifting off of the other for my 20mm Modern Africa stuff. Although these were technically for 15mm, I pulled out my trusty sample 20mm Liberation Miniatures figure I always take to cons and it fit perfectly with them! Score!!! I ended up buying three of their resin buildings -- a one story hut, a two story storefront, and a 3-story corner building with arched arcade underneath. They should look great painted up, and be incredibly function as I can drill out the thin layer of resin covering the windows. I am excited to paint them, and after I finish what's currently on my painting table, they may be next!
We closed the convention with another visit to Frickers for more wings, beer and, er, um...conversation...!
Since the first Dino Hunt was such a blast, Keith ran another one on the first Sunday in May. Word had gotten out on the thrill of gunning down the "leathery brutes," and we ended up with seven hunters out to bag their quota. The dinosaurs, also, were glad of the increased numbers of hunters to hunt, and reacted with alacrity to our return to the Lost World. Read the report here....
Just to prove that, yes, the guys CAN game on a Sunday night when I'm not around, Tom ran a Victorian Sci-Fi Boxer Rebellion game at Keith's. The Italians and Russians were assaulting an escarpment held by the Boxers. Sounds like it was a bloody battle, and after much fighting, the Europeans were able to force their way through the pass. Read the report here...
Keith picked up Saurian Safari at Cold Wars, along with a tablefull of plastic foliage at Michaels Craft store, and had us over on Sunday night to test out the rules. At first, the dinosaurs fell easily, and the hunters think it would be a Walk in the (Jurassic) Park...
I decided to stage another playtest of the "Song of Blades and Heroes" rules at our monthly Talita's restaurant Saturday. I had six players, this time, so there were three 300 point commands per side on the tabletop. Read about another Pictish disaster here.
We did a playtest of "Song of Blades and Heroes" at my house, finally getting my Dark Age Picts and Vikings out on the tabletop. "SBH" a simple set of man-to-man skirmish rules, actually written for fantasy, but easily converted to historical fights. The rules are available on the internet as a PDF file download (for only $4!), and worked well. Read the full report here.
So, the gang made its annual trip to Cold Wars on the first weekend of March. We were sadly without Steve Sattler, who caught a nasty flu bug the day before we left -- talk about horrible timing! So, Allen, Tom, Keith and myself loaded up in Allen's SUV, while drivng up alone were Jason (coming from South Carolina) and Zeke (we didn't know till lunchtime about Steve's illness). Joining us there would be Dave, Joe, Rick and Mike. The drive was a blast, as usual, with us chatting about everything from politics to gaming to Keith's comical animal stories. Upon arrival, Jason followed Zeke to Pep Boys to get a new tire (yep, another Cold Wars, another flat tire for someone!), then we all met at Diener's Amish buffet for the Thursday tradition of stuffing ourselves before our equally traditional evening board game(s). This year, Zeke, Tom, Jason and I played the new Brittania. I got off to a hot start with my Belgae sacking some Roman forts, and my Picts avoiding too much damage from the Romans. Jason proved to have the killer dice and ended up winning with the Saxon coalition, and I flopped way out of contention with the most fizzled Norman invasion ever. It was fun, though, and much beer was drunk while the fate of Dark Age Britain was settled.
On Friday, I had the day free till my 7 pm Howard Whitehouse game. I'd always wanted to play in one of his games since reading his incredibly humorous articles in MWAN. So, I took it easy throughout the day, doing the bulk of my shopping in the Dealer Area (see my Projects page for details on that), and wandering around and checking out the games. I had talked both Jason and Keith into playing in Howard's game, which turned out NOT to be a Dark Age Skirmish, like I'd envisioned. Instead, it was a quasi role playing, Heroic Quest kind of game. Keith and Jason both enjoyed it, but I was honestly disappointed. There was very, very little structure and seemed to be on the order of an extended session of D&D where whoever talked a good story had their way. Our game was also taken over by three kids (well, okay, maybe two were teens) which Jason and I nicknamed "Harry Potter," "Hellboy" and "Cartman" (yes, of South Park infamy!). Suffice to say, I won't be signing up for any more Howard Whitehouse games no matter how much I love his writing!
We ended in plenty of time to make the trek down to the Ancients area for Midnight Madness. The gang did fairly well. When it was down to six players (well, seven, someone had a "bye" round), Allen, Tom and myself were all still in the running. Allen defeated Tom, though, and I lost to a Canadian guy when my dice went really, really cold (4 "1's" in combat, 4 dead elements). We thought this was Allen's year, though, until Dave Kuijt, the Wicked Warlock of WADBAG, put on the most amazing display of dice rolling that I'd seen in a DBA game in quite awhile. Dave NEVER lost a single opposed die roll. He won every shooting roll, as well as every combat roll. It was astounding, but we learned the next day his dice betrayed him when he lost in the finals on a 6-1 bowshot on his general. What does that kid on the Simpsons say? "Haaaaanhhh-haaaa!"
The next morning...rather LATE in the morning, I might add, I wandered down to the Dealer Area for my final purchases. I then headed back to the Ancients area for the "Collapse of Civilization" DBA Campaign Tournament. This is one of our Emperor of Great Lakes style games that the WADBAG guys have adopted with great success. Jason had talked me into playing, but then fiendishly backed out a few days before Cold Wars. Nevertheless, I had fun, going 2-1 with my Canaanites. The only game I lost was after I had crushed the flank of Larry Chaban's Early Hebrews, then Jehovah had punished my combat dice for doing so. Even HE was surprised to win that one (Larry...not Jehovah). The game limped to an end, though, when Civilization itself DID collapse in the form of a power outage at the hotel and up and down the strip for a mile. This led to the very, very bad decision to join Mike Justice for dinner at "Jennie's Diner." Either the chili or the meatloaf gave me food poisoning, and that put the kibosh on the rest of my fun at Cold Wars. I gamely tried to watch the Team Cup Event, but knew something was wrong and couldn't drink any beer. Well...I realize it goes without saying if *I* can't drink beer, something is terribly wrong. I was up all night puking, so had a disappointing end to my gaming weekend.
It took a full two days before I started to feel better, and just at that point, was hit by a nasty cold bug that downed me for nearly another week. So, to paraphrase, "Beware, Caesar, the bugs of March...!"
So, you'd think the doldrums of Winter would be a time with not a lot going on, event-wise. Not so! We followed up last week's HOTT Wax (see below) with Battle at the Crossroads, a convention in Cambridge, OH. My friends Tom and John were running an unusual style DBA Tournament there known as a "Pyramid Tourney." Basically, the winner of the first round's one-on-one matchups becomes CnC for the second round when he and his former enemy play a two-on-two game against another pair. The interesting rub is that losses in battle are permanent, so you army gets smaller each round.
We played 3 rounds, culminating in two separate four-on-four big battle games. The theme was the Crusades, and I brought an army for each "side," letting the GMs asssign me to whichever side needed players. I ended up on the Arab side, and played the Khwarizmians. It looked like a fun army, with 5 Cavalry stands, 5 Light Horse, 1 Elephant and 1 Bow. I was fortunate and got to play a couple of guys I don't see very often in my first couple rounds, Steve Parillo and Kevin Serafini, from Pittsburgh. In both of my first two rounds, the battles were hard-fought and ended in ties, but with my army ahead in enemy destroyed. So, in the third round, I got to be the Grand Pubba and sent the armies of Steve, Kevin, Dave Welch and my own depleted one against the even more depleted coalition of Tim Ryan, Nick Gillispie, Bob Boggs and Rich Baier. The Khwarizmian Alliance triumphed, chiefly due to Dave and Kevin's spear line killing Tim's commander-in-chief stand, and winning us the game.
For a complete report and pics, go the GLADBAG site.
I took my brand new Dogs of War Hordes of the Things army to Zeke's tournament. Despite some last minute cancellations, flu bug and other problems, we equalled last year's attendance of 12 players. I didn't repeat as winner, but the puppies came in a respectable 3-1. We lost our third game and ended up in third place -- a satisfying day of gaming, if for no other reason than we finally got the "Black Hoof Clan" monkey off our backs. Yes, my dogs defeated Ptom's pretty pink ponies for the first time. It didn't stop Ptom from going on and winning the tournament, though.
Thanks to Splintered Light Miniatures and Alternative Armies (who makes the dogmen) for their wonderful prize support. For the second year in a row, Splintered Light donated a painted, 36 AP HOTT army, as well as more than half a dozen other painted stands for other prizes. I won one of the Alternative Armies gift certificates, so will certainly use that at the next convention I see Matt Gilford.
For the full details, check out Zeke's report on HOTT Wax 2008.
Jason's BBDBA game at Siege of Augusta, with (L-R) Chris, Tony, Rick, Dave and Marty
Except for last year, I've made a habit of flying down each January to visit my buddy Jason in South Carolina. Besides enjoy the break from bitter Ohio winter weather (and eat amazing barbeque), I always make it a point to attend on the weekend of the nearby gaming convention, Siege of Augusta. This year, we decided to go down on Friday and stay overnight, rather than doing a day trip to the con on Saturday. Jason got the necessary OK's from his wife, made reservations, and we were off!
Jason
ran a Big Battle DBA scenario on Friday night featuring a historical refight
of a clash between Sicilian Arab raiders and the Holy Roman Emperor and
his Lombard allies. Marty Schmidt, DBA's Florida stalwart, brought up three
friends and played the side of the Arabs. I joined the South Carolinians
-- Jason, and the always pleasant Chris Pagano -- on the German side. It
was an amazingly tough fight. My dice were cold, cold, cold, which presaged
what I would experience all weekend. Jason's command broke quickly on my
left, while one of my two center commands also broke. I kept hammering at
the Arabs, until on one turn, all my dice frustration evened out and I broke
their center command. Chris had broken Marty's command on the right, so
together we drove them back. One of my generals captured the enemy camp
to end a hotly-contested game. We then celebrated our victory by sitting
around, drinking beer with the other players and discussing DBA and life.
Saturday began with the Matched Pairs tournament, for which I'd brought New Kingdom Egyptians and Canaanites. I fully expected my opponents to choose the Egyptians and "be stuck" with what appears to be a less powerful Canaanite army. However, I think the Canaanites -- and Auxilia in general -- are very underrated by most players. My Canaanites proceeded to give the other players fits, but unfortunately my dice were giving me worse fits. I went 1-3, but in every defeat had the opponent down 3 of the 4 stands he needed to lose before my final dice collapse would invariably occur. It was frustrating, but I take refuge in the fact that it meant all four of my games were close and fun. No rollovers here!
Jason
& Tony in the Matched PairsIn the second session, Jason and I played in Splintered Light Miniatures demo of their own fantasy miniatures rules set. As luck would have it, I controlled the Lionmen army (I won a painted Lionmen army that Splintered Light had donated in last year's HOTT Wax tournament). Jason controlled the Hobbit army, and two other players ran Goblins and Dark Dwarves. The rules were fun, and involved some incredibly quick and bloody combats. Magic was handled in an interesting way -- one that was not too overpowering, but gave a nice flavor. The rules are definitely worth playing at a convention, but I will not be switching from HOTT to them.
Jason and I debated whether to stay for the third session and the DBA Open tournament or not. I let him make the call, and his wife Kitty generously urged him to stay. I took my Canaanintes for more futile dice rolling fun, going 1-2. Jason won the tournament, though (he'd come in second in the Matched Pairs...so at least ONE GLADBAG member plays well down here), so I'm really glad we stayed. Plus, Marty, Dave, Tony and Grey are such great guys, anytime you get to game with them is fun. I feel like the OSU Buckeyes of DBA, though. Everytime I go to Siege, my performance is crap. I win up here in Great Lakes country. I win in the East tourneys. But when I fly down to SEC country, I play like Troy Smith after he won the Heisman. Seriously. Marty joked that it was the superior competition, but I pointed out that in virtually every game, I put the opponent at a 3 element loss disadvantage. Not to downplay great players like Tony, Grey and Chris, but damn! I wish I wouldn't go down to SEC country and pull a John Cooper while representing GLADBAG!!!