Ah, poor Game Nights. A month and a half between updates! You'd think that we weren't gaming on Sunday nights or something. Actually, up to this point, our gaming had been rather disorganized, with phone calls and e-mails on early Sunday evening finally deciding where, what and when. Consequently, we played a lot of board games over the last month or so.
One thing we have been doing over the last couple months is playing a Circus Maximus campaign, of sorts. Years ago, Zeke and Steve had constructed a miniatures version of the old Avalon Hill boardgame. Zeke decided to bust that out of storage, and what's more, run a campaign with it. This campaign is essentially a series of 10 (I believe) races, with each of controlling a faction or stable of 5 chariot teams. We rolled them all up to get their various statistics, then field one or two teams per race. The "score" in the campaign is controlled by betting, though. Using the Circus Maximus rules, you wager on your own or other teams to finish first. After four races, Zeke is leading, but I am in a relatively close second.
I remember playing the game a good 20 years ago, and it being a hoot back then, too. It took us a race to get re-familiarized with the rules, but it seems to be flowing along well, now. Zeke's Red faction has won at least two of the races, I won one, and I can't remember who won the other. Allen has shown a propensity for flipping his chariots. Joel has shown a tendency to go through horses. Surprisingly, Tom's NOT winning! It's fun, and we have a good time laughing at each other's misfortunes. I have noticed a tendency for whichever team gets out in front by a decent amount to pretty much run away with the race. I guess it makes sense, being a race and all, but it seems the 2nd through fourth place guys just beat up on each other so much and so often that number one has that much easier of a time with it. We'll see...maybe we simply need to learn to cooperate more and be less bloodthirsty!
No, it hasn't been four months since we've gamed on Sunday night. It's been that long since I updated this part of the website, though! Time was mostly the reason I hadn't gotten around to it. The guys had written entertaining reports of the gaming action. I had pictures of some of the evenings, though the troubles with my camera contributed to the sporadic updating. Also, I was worried about space -- since Earthlink gives me only so many megabytes for storage for this website. With learning how to "hotlink" -- which means storing the photos elsewhere but linking them here so they appear part of the page -- that concern should also be one of the past.
So, here's hoping this latest report will begin more regular use of this feature of Lead Legionaries by me! Here is Tom's report of last night's action:
Sunday evening we met to try the new rules for Queen and Planet VSF. These included, the joker card inserted into the action deck to represent all uncontrolled movement in the game (warband charges, damaged machines, positional instability of water and air craft, also movement of CinC between units). Also, the modified morale rules to limit units that will require a morale check from taking offensive action without making the check.
There was a black smoke projector on board, which required wind rules, but it never was able to fire on the enemy because the Chinese and Allies troops were so intermixed (I'm not sure the Cephlapods would have been as careful of Chinese casualties as Joel played them, but that was good for us).
I liked the joker card very much, it made the warband charge that much more uncertain for both sides. The ability of the warband to charge as many as three times in a turn gives them the leg up they need against the firing superiority of the colonial troops, so that is still working well. The positional uncertainty of the flyers was also interesting as I found them much more reasonable in their (in)ability to just hover around and shoot things. Now they are more 'straffing-like'.
The set up for the game was that the Sino-Cephlapod alliance is in pursuit of a column of retreating civilians and the Colonial allies are tasked with securing the route of escape and holding against the onslaught. The idea comes from the scene in the most recent War of the Worlds where the American armored brigade hopelessly engages the Martians in an attempt to allow the civilians to escape. This battle was quite a bit more balanced!
An 'impassable' river bisects the board with only a single bridge crossing it. Two villages are along the road that runs from West to East toward the safety of a port and the evacuation ships. Ceplapods, Imperial Chinese, and Boxers are pursuing from the west and the Colonial Allies are deployed hidden to try to defend the line of retreat (represented by a supply wagon marking tail end charlie of the refugees).
Each Command (3 Sino-Cephlapod and 3 Allied) had a special ability of some sort (The imperials knew of a ford across the river, the Italians had minefields, etc). Joel had the Cephlapods, Keith the Imperials, I had the Boxer command, Allen had British and half of the Russians and Mike had Italians and half of the Russians. So, of course the Russian command were sacrificed at the point of the spear. However, they aquited themselves very well and absorbed an enourmous amount of Chinese punishment before being forced to withdraw across the bridge. Mike's 'death trap' was never completely sprung, but it held up my Boxer command as I probed for a solution. We played six of the expected 12 turns necessary to complete the scenario. It is hard to tell what the result would have been. The Boxers overran the West Village, but it looked near impossible to have secured the bridge by the turn 8 deadline. Each side had one unit destroyed, one unit crippled at game end, and one unit about half dead. It definitely could have gone either way. -- Tom Graves
And Joel's always humorous take on the action:
The European Powers relief force had collected the threatened civilians and were working on a slow, methodical evacuation. The Allies dug in to provide full cover for their citizens return to safety. The Boxers were on the massed on the right flank of the Imperial Chinese, the Celphalods on the left and back slightly. The battle opened with a Russian machine gun raking an advancing Imperial Chinese unit, then the Boxers took a slower, caution advance on the village. The Cephalods seemed fascinated at the hilariously primitive Sikorsky flier. After two turn their side bets were much more important than the battle in the village & wheat fields. The Italians had hoped on a crossfire to stop the Boxers, but the Russians, to their right were pressed and wavered. Then the sound of gongs, firecrackers and bugles signaled the Imperial Chinese & Boxers to charge on village. The Cephalods were still betting that the Sikorsky flier would/wouldn't crash any minute now. The Italians pulled back in order, then the Russians ran passed and the Cephalods were disappointed the Sikorsky flier, wobbled & dipped but survived the entire battle. Once the British finished their tea & biscuits they were ready for any fight. -- Joel Sams
Pinch-GMing for Tom, who canceled at the last minute on Sunday, Joel had us playtest his idea of using Hordes of the Things rules for starship fleet combat. Having noticed Keith's large collection of Federation and Klingon ships in a previous trip to the Clubhouse, Joel set up orders of battle and HOTT troop type equivalents for a Space dustup. The sides were similarly equipped, with scout ships (shooters) being the mainstay of each fleet. Each side also had a dreadnought (artillery), drones (beasts) and lots of hordes. There were two separate Federation vs. Klingon games set up. One thing that was relatively unique to each army was that they were given a choice for their 4 AP "big ship." I chose the option that Joel presented to use the Enterprise as a dragon, while Keith took his big Klingon ship as a God.
We used the 30" boards that were still set up for Tom's HOTT campaign from the last meeting there. Joel had distributed a series of asteroid belts across the middle of each table, along with patches of "dark nebula" which could be used for hidden movement. Both games ran relatively long (about 2+ hours each), which really is fairly lengthy for HOTT. Of course, shooters and hordes are NOT going to result in a lot of quick kills, so once both sides' drones were mostly dead, it became a game of converging lines of starships blasting away at each other. Keith's God came on relatively early, and he quickly used it to charge my dreadnought (artillery). By dispatching my dreadnought, he crippled my line when it came down to a shooting war. Even though that was his God's only success (he rolled a "1" for pipsabout 6 turns later, and departed via warp drive), it proved enough. That, and the fact the Enterprise (my dragon) never showed up, meant his dreadnought plus shooters were able to wear down my shooters and hordes.
Of course, I should have known better than to roll dice in Keith's basement against Keith (with Keith's own dice!). The Federation got what it deserved for that tactical blunder, and the Klingon violation of the neutral zone went unpunished...
MIke Stelzer had been wanting to come over from Springfield to run this WW II aerial combat game for us. Since Monday was Memorial Day, that meant he could stay out later on Sunday night and join us. I'd played the rules once before -- way back when it was in its final playtesting at Cold Wars 2008. I'd thought it was bit more complex than I wanted in a rules set, so eschewed it. However, it has caught on like wildfire around the miniature gaming community, and I figured I should give it another go (especially since I have a copy of the rules).
We had a great turnout, with 8 total of us. For the allies, flying Hurricanes and Spitfires, it was Joe Merz, Joel Sams, Steve Verdoliva and myself. The axis was Keith Finn, Allen Sams, Tom Graves and Mike Stelzer, and they flew ME109 and ME110s. Each of us took control of two planes and we were soon whilrling around the table, blazing away at each other (mostly ineffectually, though I got off a few good rips and damaged a couple Germans early). Joel seemed to be having difficulty mastering the movement system, and went on a wide arc around the battefield before finally zooming into one of the melees.
It was a good time, though we found out quickly that CY6 is serious when it says its design focus is that the Man is more important than the machine. This is not the rules set for some tank-head who thinks mechanics should be all about muzzle velocity, penetrating power and other mechanical arcania. There are four crew qualities, and these rule the game. An Ace can outfly and outfight several Green pilots in most circumstances. In this sense, the rules seem realistic in that sense to me. All in all, the group seemed to enjoy them, and willing to play them again. I guess this should help jump start my dormant WW II aerial project, as now I don't have to tinker and create my own rules like I thought I was going to do.
So, I look for more of this game on Sunday nights in the future!
Zeke and I drove up to Toledo for Drums Along the Maumee 10. We were planning on arriving Friday late afternoon and staying till about 7 pm or so, Saturday. Zeke kindly agreed to come back Saturday night so that I wouldn't have to drop two shifts, which I wasn't sure if I could afford to do.
So, we arrived towards the end of the "second session" of gaming on Friday, and Zeke began setting up the event he was running at 7pm. I put my stuff out for the Flea Market table -- mostly books and rules sets, with some miniatures or terrain. Our buddy Steve Smith was arriving from Indiana, and got their shortly after we did. We roped him into Zeke's game -- "Assault on Vault 34." This is a Sci-Fi skirmish game from the world of "Fallout" video games. Along with Steve, we had Mike Stelzer and two teenagers whose Dad runs Fort Meigs. Zeke's terrain was spectacular, and he received lots of compliments from passersby. The game was fun, and heated up once the marines cleared the caverns and entered the vault. The "Mutants and Death Ray Guns" rules worked good for the action, and there was enough carnage but not so much that it lost its point.
Afterwards, six of us repaired to Frickers, our new post-Drums hangout in Toledo. The bars closing at 2 am made us happy, since we didn't get out of the fort till 11:30 pm or so, but then made us agree to skip the next morning's session of gaming. This meant I didn't play in John Lawitzke's DBA tournament in the morning, and then I opted for Jim Wonacott's Iraq War game (based on the "Generation Kill" series) in the afternoon session. I ended up losing, but it was a nail biter. Fun system, though I don't see the need to abandon my own Modern Africa rules. I think mine work every bit as good, and some of the fiddly things about theirs don't appear in mine.
We adjourned to dinner, then came back and decided to begin packing up to go. I ended up selling $80 worth of stuff in the Flea Market -- which paid for my room and meals, and more. I didn't buy a thing. I honestly saw nothing I needed. So, it was a inexpensive weekend, in addtion to being a fun one.
For more photos of Zeke's game, check out the page he put up on his site.
I would have to say that this is the most fun I've had playing a Big Battle DBA tournament in awhile. For some reason, three games of it didn't overload my brain and give me a major headache like it usually does. Maybe it was the enjoyable folks I played against, or perhaps it was the army (Later Visigothic), but I still felt reasonably fresh at the end of three rounds. I did fairly well, too, going 2-0-1 in my three games, coming in fourth overall between the two brackets, I think. My one tie was a classic Yin-Yang battle. My opponent Bob Boggs loaded up his right flank and tried to encircle and destroy my left, while I did the same against his left. Our troops were probably too slow for such sweeping manuevers, though, and we simply didn't kill enough to come to a resolution at the end of 2.5 hours.
I was a bit worried when I heard the opponent's army in my second game -- Medieval German. One third of my force is warbands, which qualify as speed bumps at best against knights. However, Les Steingass, who'd made the trip down from Lima with my friend Dan Joyce, had a Swiss ally that was composed mostly of blades (halberdiers). Since my warband "quick kill" blades, I set up the battle to slam into that command and break his line. My plan worked to perfection -- chiefly because my dice rolling for my warbands were pretty hot. After their dismal performance in the first round, they made up for it in spades against the Germans and Swiss. Once we'd broken his line, the game was over relatively quickly. It was nice to have some time between rounds, and I took the opportunity to walk around and watch the other games.
Of the 16 participants, half were from out of town, which was great. As always, it was good to see folks I hadn't seen in awhile. The New Song is a great venue -- well-lit, spacious, and John & Company provide a hot dog lunch for us every time. He runs two BBDBA tournaments a year at New Song -- the Post-Tax one and the HMGS Great Lakes BBDBA Tourney in the summer, usually August.
My last game was against the guy who'd driven the furthest to play: Great Lakes President John Lawitzke. A handful of us had actually met him for dinner when he drove down the evening before, and it was great to catch up with him. He said the two of us hadn't played against each other in quite some time, so he was happy we were match up. If he'd known how good my dice rolling was going to be, though, he may have had second thoughts. His large command composed entirely of Frankish knights swept around his left to attack my right. My light infantry ambushed the end of their battleline out of a patch of woods, while my cavalry raced forward to pin them and force the battle to be fought in the shadow of the woods I controlled. What won the game for me was that my mostly Cavalry force was able to hold off and get the better of his Knights. His mounted attack was his best chance to win, as quickly became apparent when my warband crashed into his Viking ally after a long march across the center. The Visigoths warbands sliced through the Viking blades, and it wasn't long before the Vikings were fleeing, demoralized -- just like their Knightly allies on their left.
Thanks to John for running the tournament, and to all the folks who drove the distance and took the time to participate!
I'll let Keith Finn do the report for this evening's gaming:
We did 2 replays of this battle:
(From Wikipedia)
The Battle of Callinicum took place between the armies of the Eastern Roman Empire under the command of General Belisarius and Sassanid Persians under Sepahbod Azarethes on 19 April AD 531 during the Iberian War. Belisarius had been skirmishing with the Persian forces after the Battle of Dara in an attempt to incite a rout, but the Persians were generally successful at Callinicum and both sides withdrew.
Battle
Belisarius' forces consisted of about 20,000 men and another 5,000 Ghassanid Arab allies, who had been marching down the road leading into the heart of Persian territory along the right bank of the Euphrates in what today would be northern Iraq, then the eastern borders between the Roman Empire and Persia. The retreating Persian forces numbered about 10,000 with an additional group of 5,000 Lakhmid Arabs. After several days of forced march, the Persians turned and deployed for battle.
Both groups formed up differently, Belisarius again choosing an "odd" formation that confused his opposing general. In this case he anchored his left flank on the bank of the river with infantry, put the Ghassanid Arab allies on the right flank, and placed several ranks of heavy cavalry, the cataphracts, in the center of the front line. In more standard formation the Persians split their forces into two roughly equal groups, with infantry in front of cavalry.
The Persians broke through the Roman right flank, forcing Belisarius to retreat in an effort to re-form his line, but the retreat was followed and soon the Romans found themselves pressed against the river. Here, the Romans were able to resist the Persians and withdraw much of their army across the river. The Persians chose not to follow up this victory, and returned to their withdrawal from Roman territory.
Battle 1 - Steve V modifed DBA-DBM system, with commands instead of PIPS
Romans - Keith & Steve; Perisans - Mike & Allen
The Persians (Mike) broke through the Roman right flank, and were in the process of pinning Keith against the river
Battle 2 - Steve V modifed DBA with PIPs, Roman roll D4, Persian roll D6
Romans - Mike & Allen; Persian - Steve & Keith
The Persians (Steve) broke thru the Roman right flank, and were in the process of pinning Allen against the river. Now who says you can't get historic results with DBA? Hmmmm?
I ran another game of Song of Blades and Heroes using my 25mm Dark Age troops. The Britons of Strathclyde would see their first appearance, faced off against the Picts. I wanted to test out the relatively new Shieldwall rules from one of the supplements, as well as the Standard Bearer rules. So, each force was composed of about 3/4's warriors able to fight in Shieldwall and the rest were archers. I decided to take a page from the Song of Arthur and Merlin supplement and reflect better armored troops (The Briton raiding party) with a Combat score of 4, while the unarmored Picts had a 3.
It was a light turnout for gaming that Sunday. Allen played the Britons and Joel the Picts. Joel did a good job of using a small portion of his forces to occupy the two toughest Britons -- the leader and standard bearer. Meanwhile, his own leader attached to the Pictish battleline and was able to rout the opposing British one. Allen's dice were abysmal. Despite his forming shieldwall while Joel did not, the Picts used their leader to activate more often than their opponents and overwhelm them. I was happy to see that troops that were on the face of it weaker (the Picts), could triumph using tactics (and aided by the poor die rolling of the Britons). So, I considered the playtest a success, despite me not realizing the warband's standard "works" against only the first morale failure by its troops -- not all of them!
As always, here's Joel's entertaining take on the action:
Allen (11 Strathclyde Warriors) vs. Joel (12 Pictish Warriors)
It was on a cold evening during the week of the eagle, Picts, lead by Drest the Grey son of Alpin of the crannog, won a minor victory defending their homes and women folk from yet another Strathclyde raiding party. Drest the Grey deployed his band in the "ram" formation: Young, eager men, moving quickly, designed to probe the flanks of the enemy. He gave strict orders if either flank met opposition, circle back and return to the main formation at once. The left flank was met by deadly arrow fire from woods and circled back to the main battleline. The right flank move unopposed toward the enemy standard and leader with a fierce combination of arrow fire and youthful bravado.
The Strathclyde leader defeated one on the right flank, but was unable to punch the other foolhardy Pictish warriors back. Drest the Grey moved his battleline forward and meet the shieldwall of the enemy. The two lines locked (Allen and I rolled equal numbers like only brothers can). With the Strathclyde leader locked in battle a distance away, his sheildwall held but then cracked, and then cracked again. Drest the Grey was able to maintain pressure and the enemy sheildwall broke and victory was ours. Afterward a god looked on the battlefield and noted who stood tall and who was cut low.
We played out our fifth turn of Zeke's post-apocalyptic campaign using Ganesha Games' "Mutants & Death Ray Guns." For those that don't remember, I purchased some Eureka 25mm Planet of the Apes figures to build my mutant contingent for the campaign. The Sim City warband has done well, so far, losing only one battle over the course of the games. And that was when we simply saw no possible reward: The enemy was well armed, but we would be unable to loot their equipment as it was infected with the "Wretched" virus (think zombies). So, after some desultry long range sniping, we simply walked off the board, surrending the battlefield to the enemy.
Last night's battle was a different story, though. We faced a "Purity Squad" of humans -- which meant we outnumbered them 6 to 4. A Purity squad's supposed advantage is its superior equipment. However, Sgt. Mpande and the rest of the Sim City apes were as well armed as a result of the loot from our successful battles. The humans were four scuba-wearing frogmen from an underwater city. They waterhole we'd stumbled upon must have been an outpost of theirs, with an underwater passage to their secret city. Two patches of scrub surrounded the pond, along with a long, ruined wall. The Untersiemensch (I think that is what Zeke called them) occupied one patch of scrub and we infiltrated the other. Lt. Mankey and Pvt. Huto moved up on one end of the wall, while one of the frogmen took up a firing position on the opposite end. Meanwhile, Pvt. Azali took up a hidden position on the edge of the scrub and sent silent bursts of poisoned needles at the enemy. One frogman was injured and fell back. The rest of the warband soon occupied positions along the edge of the scrub, and our superior firepower began to tell. Huto and Mankey gunned down the man opposite them along the wall, then Cpl. Kammebalango's burst struck down another in the scrub.
Down to half strength, the frogmen fled for the edge of the table. Huto gave chase and riddled another frogmen. Only their leader survived the fray. As the Sim City apes stockpiled their weaponry, it became apparent the warband has a weapon for nearly every enemy. Facing robots? Hit them with the Nanite gun? Humans? The needler from a hidden position is deadly. Zeke joked that perhaps he should just call the campaign and hand victory to the damned, dirty apes, but I don't think the others are ready to call it quits. I know I'm not!
So, as usual, the gang headed off to Lancaster for Cold Wars. Since others had broken the sacred bounds of "Guy's Weekend Out" last year (and you know who you are), I told Jenny she was welcome to come along this year. The only problem was I had a class that met till 7:30 pm Thursday night. This meant I'd be following along later, and would miss the traditional Dieners Amish Buffet and board game night. I made record time driving solo to Lancaster that night, arriving around 1:30 in the morning (most of the gang were still up drinking beers and waiting for me!).
Cold Wars is always a good time. This year, I have decided to paste each attendee's e-mail reflections on the weekend, starting with my own:
I just finished stowing away my loot from Cold Wars. Though it doesn't approach the haul of Keith or Zeke (and certainly doesn't include an Easter Island moai), I'm happy with it. My own results:
Thursday: Made it to Lancaster in record time. On the road at 7:15pm, arrived 1:45 am = 6.5 hours.
Friday: Played in "Booty Train" with Jason and Jenny. My Spanish mule train guards were massacred by amped up Pirates of the Caribbean. Played in Midnite Madness (DBA version), and much to my surprise, won in a field of 10. Got lucky with a bye in the semif final round, and got lucky on die rolls (or opponent's lack of...) in all other rounds.
Saturday: Surprised myself by waking up and making it to my Jacobite Rebellion game (also played with Jason and Jenny). The three of us, as Renaissance era Irish Jacobites, held off the attacking English. Game was gorgeous, but pretty poorly designed as far as player involvement. Jenny was given the chance to do little but receive artillery fire, while more than half of our troops sat, out of the action, throughout the whole game. "Playtest, folks, playtest..." All the while, I was rushing back and forth to the flea market where a friend was selling stuff I'd brought along like hotcakes. I made nearly $200, I'm guessing.
In the evening, Keith, John Loy, Jenny and I tested out Keith's new boardgame, "Dante's Inferno." Works like Settlers of Catan but set in Hell, I made it through the 9 rings of Hell and goat-swatted Lucifer to establish my rein there. First order of business was to remove the picture of his son, Steve Smith, from the desk...
Sunday: All of us skipped the DBA Themes, and looks like we weren't the only ones. John Loy said there were only 12 total players among all the themes!
Good time at Cold Wars, as usual. The loot included two Celtic buildings for Dark Age skirmish, a new HOTT army using Splintered Light's Satyrs and Fauns (and Iron Wind animals), some more modern terrain like barrel barricades from Acheson Creations, and a 1/72 armored car for Modern Africa. I can see some painting of buildings in my immediate future...
Unofficially official Zeke results
Collapsing from exhaustion now ...
Thursday: Had a genial car ride in the Zeke-mobile with Jenny and Zeke. Felt a bit like Walter Mitty due to Stella telling us what to do the entire trip. Enjoyed a huge fish sammich for lunch at some non-descript joint between Columbus and Lancaster. Managed to somehow beat the Bug to the Host - much to my relief, as we had to stop to replace the Jaegermeister bottle that I left in the freezer. Enjoyed way too much food at Deniers. Skipped the pie, not knowing it would be my last chance for Vanilla Crumb. Failed to prevent the skin-job Cylons from eradicating the human race despite my throwing Admiral Adama in the brig. I blame our failure on beer (not enough thereof). Enjoyed a glass of Woodford Reserve KY bourbon as we awaited Mike's late night arrival.
Friday: Ate way too much again. Drank almost enough. Played in a Stargrunt 2 game that was quite fun, but came to the conclusion that our Sunday night group will never get its head around the dice shifting mechanic as it would take several sessions before it became simple enough to play sporadically. Did manage to blow up two APC's, but our commander took a joyride that cost us the mission. Purchased some scaled down military sci-fi rules based on the Hammer's Slammers universe. Bought four GZG Stargrunt figure blisters. More whiskey. More beer. Purchased some wine and mead. Stayed up until 3 AM watching Keith and Mike win their respective Madness tourneys.
Saturday: Again, ate way too much. Purchased a couple of scifi terrain pieces, went in with Zeke and purchased three scifi bunkers for eventual Hammer's Slammers use. Enjoyed some mussels, shrimp, and micro brews at the Lancaster Brewing Company. Played in a great GASLIGHT game run by the author, Buck Sardu. Managed to rescue two kidnapped princesses but couldn't get them back to the boats in time to get any points as I was slowed down by a giant scorpion, an angry rhino, four crazy bears, and several bone-nose island natives. Clarified my 'costume' philosophy with everyone, as I'm sure they all had questions about it.
Sunday: Uneventful ride home. Stopped at the Cabela's in PA and purchased a small leatherman for my key chain. Marveled in fear at the stuffed Grizzly. Bonded with Stella some more. All in all a good time was had! Beer, whisky, wine, amish food, friends, games...what more can a person ask for?
Thursday: Watched Sesame Street with kids in morning before driving to Lancaster. Had fun playing Battlestar Galactica and becoming a Cylon halfway through the game.
Friday: Played in a "Look Sarge, No Charts" early WW II game. Germans (me) successfully defended against a Soviet attempt to capture a town. Also played in "Booty Train" with Jenny and Mike; my pirates had fun killing Spanish. Played in the RCW "Assault on Tsartisyn"; Whites attacked the Red-hold defensive works. We got across the trench but not all the way to the town; had a fun time. Wrapped up the evening with Midnite Madness using my new Early Hungarians and lost in the second round. Liked the army, will use it again.
Saturday: Same experience as Mike with the Jacobite Rebellion game; great-looking but a sub-par scenario. Hate convention games where a player's troops never see combat! Spent Saturday night playing a TYW battle (Lutzen). Great scenario taht was played to a conclusion. Rules were "Age of Pike" by Frank Chadwick, currently still being playtested. A quick-flowing set of rules that easily handled a 10-12 player game, perfect for a convention. Capped off the night discussing "hats" and "camping".
My loot was: A resin Saurian Idol for a Lizardmen camp, a bunch or resin scenery pieces for various games, a farm complex from Paper Terrain for my Doctor Who game, a couple of British Army mortars and some scientists (also Doctor Who), some magnetic sheeting, an El Cid book, and 4 packs of Essex figures to round off a couple of armies.
Thursday: Rode over with Zeke & Steve (thanks again) listening to a great music mix & enjoying the banter between the two of them. Made it to Lancaster right behind Jason & well before the others - mission accomplished. Had my first Diener's experience (YUM!) then managed to slowly sabotage & take over the Battlestar Gallactica with the help of the President & Admiral. Drank lots of beer.
Friday: Looted the Spanish donkey train in "Booty Train" with Mike & Jason, had peanut butter pie & lunch at Lapp's, checked out the dealer room & hung out watching several games. Played in Midnight Madness with my Greeks against the same army. He rolled lots of 5s & 6s while I rolled lots of 1s & 2s. Lost in round 1. Watched Mike & Keith win both Midnight Madness tourneys. Drank lots of beer.
Saturday: Woke up in time for our 9am game (still not sure how that happened) with Mike & Jason. Sat on the left flank & got myself shot to pieces by artillery while unable to move my troops since the field was so constricted. As Mike says, beautiful terrain, just not well thought out. Had peanut butter pie & lunch at Diener's. Checked out the dealer room & made a few purchases. Watched other folks play their games since the games I wanted to play that evening were either cancelled or full. Watched Mike make his way to the center of Hell while being sidlined by lots of demons put in my way. Had pizza & drank lots of beer.
Sunday: Had breakfast at Lapps (no pie), made my last purchase in the dealer room & headed home.
Loot: Robin Hood army from Splintered Light (so I can have an "acceptable" HOTT army & stop borrowing Mike's) some bases to put my new army on and some road to start my own terrain collection. Thanks again to everyone for putting up with a girl all weekend. I had a great time!
Thursday: Up at 4:30am (Jennifer has to catch a 7am flight to Miami). Just as I get ready to leave for Allens house, work calls with problem that turns out not to be problem, but I now I be late. Uneventful drive to Lancaster, with Allen in the radio shack (this is not a race!). Ate too much at Dieners -- this established a pattern for entire weekend. Played Battlestar Galactica game, using a character I found was a really an evil Cylon in the TV show. No wonder everyone was looking at me squinty eyed.
Friday: Even though I knew better, I played in a 9am game. Do NOT do this next time. It was Damn Battleships Again. I was Japanese Admiral, and the Russians sneered, although I felt the battle was a draw. First pass at the dealers room, got things on my shopping list
Retired to room for nap. Wake up, make first pass at Flea Market
Supper at Lapps. Wasted the evening, putzing around looking at stuff, and then decided to bring a HOTT and a DBA army, and let the GMs decide where to put me to balance brackets. I ended up in HOTT Midnite Madness, with the Hellboys army (Aerial Hero General "AHG", 3 flyers, 1 Behemoth "Cerebus", 1 Beast, 3 Blades). Started at 11pm -- 5.5 hours later I was the ch(a)ump!
Opponent 1 - Snow White and 7 dwarfs. I win, 4-9, by killing Snow White with Gen AHG!
Opponent 2 - High Elves, I win 10-14, My toughest match, and I should have lost. Gen AHG! is ensorcelled TWICE, but comes back! Elvish Mage is frogged, and I land a stand of flyimg devils on her froggy spot. The Elf Spear line is trapped between Gen AHG! and the blades, and get recoiled to death.
Opponent 3 - The Drow. I win 0-4, killing the General. Our amies are very similar, and I am tired. I swoop Gen AHG! and the flyers over the flank, and confront the Drow Hero General. Bostwick accepts the implicit challenge, and we have a Hero to Hero mano-a-mano - Gen AGH! win! And now we wait two hours for the other HOTT game to end. This gives me a chance (a lot of chances) to view style of play.
Opponent 4 - Very Wierd Army. (Mage Gen, 1 God, 1 Dragon; 2 Flyers, 3 Blade, 1 Beast) I win 0-8, Gen AHG! kills Mage general in double flyer overlap. On turn one, Gen AHG! and the flyers contact his flyers and blades. Opponent does not respond well to sudden assault. Two turns later, Gen AHG! and 2 flyers catch and kill the General. Pass Out. This is the only sound sleep Jason gets, because I was not in the room snoring.
Saturday morning: Ugh, I feel terrible, like I had been up all night, fighting. Buffet at Lapps - can you eat Too Much Bacon? YES! Saturday afternoon - Food induced coma, spiced up with lack of potassium leg, foot, hand, and other assorted cramps. Joel (The Savior) takes me to Target, where I purchase more Potassium tablets. Feeling better by Saturday evening. The ATM is empty! Play Inferno Game (John Loy is doomed to hell). Mike is winning, says the game is like Settlers of Catan in Hell. We have a serious discusssion on Hats. Pizza is eaten.
Sunday morning: Double urk! Sometime in the night, my roomates hold a pillow over my face, and then pound a wastebasket over my head. Fortunetly, my snores blast the wastebasket and pillow in their component atoms, thus averting disaster. Mike takes most of my bulky swag in his car (Yay, Mike!), including the 7 (seven!) bottles of vino.
Additional swag I discover on unloading
Once home, I pass out.
We had 20 players show up for the third annual Hordes of the Things tournament in "big battle" format -- using armies of 36 AP instead of 24 AP. My new Badger Men, The Feral Legion, fought very well. I ended up in second place, and at one point had broken the center of the eventual tourney winner. He recovered and I had a spate of "1's" in combat show up that enabled him to turn the tide. But that's the way the dice rolls in HOTT, so I certainly wasn't disappointed. I got a $25 gift certificate for more Splintered Light Miniatures -- which I'd already planned on buying a significant amount of at Cold Wars! So, it worked out...
Check out Zeke's 3rd Annual HOTT Wax report on his web page.
So, with the digital camera at the repair shop, no pictures of our modern warfare session at Joel's this past Sunday. Here's our host's account of the game he ran:
"Some called it bizzaro world.
"Shots fired at UN troop. They immediately "arrest" a pig on suspicion. The pig squeals. National Police loot (secure?) NGO rice bound for the poor of Haiti.
"It was my attempt at simulating the Haitian Food Riots of '08, with AK-47/Heroscape rules. The government players were Keith, with two squads National Police, and Zeke, with one squad of Brazilian U.N. troops. The well armed mobs were Mike, Steve V and Allen. The government troops set up in the middle of the board, the wild mob surged over two edges.
The government kept the initiative, but had trouble finding enough good cover. Keith took cover in a warehouse and the cheap 'Notell Motel.' Zeke was on the road when shots rang out and took the nearest cover he could find. The Brazilians took cover in a pig sty and dealt with Allen by giving well aimed fire we expect from the UN troops. Keith's squad in the Notell Motel suffered a terrible toll in a crossfire from Mike and Steve. The mobs broke into warehouses and grabbed anything of value. Keith retaliated by effectively dropping flash grenades into the mob in the street and stairwell. The mob moved back. Then, tragedy struck as the UN came under fire and three soldiers from Brazil were killed (the paperwork hasn't stopped yet).
The mob was declared the victor and ruled the field that day.
Meanwhile...
Some where in dusty hot Reallyreallybad.....
Afterward a few of us stuck around for quick glimpse at Firepower (modern fire skirmish rules in the Song of Blades test). A British foot patrol (Allen) was ambushed by Sheik Kover (Keith), mujaheddin leader. The mujaheddin draw first blood and Pvt .Kilkenny S.A.S. dies a gruesome death. After initial panic and shock, the British strike back by dispatching Ali, then Muhammed and finally AliAliMuhammed. The mujaheddin quickly withdraw...
We had all 8 players show up for the first turn of Ptom's HOTT campaign. Among those 8, there were six battles to be fought out. If I deciphered things correctly, the following players fought battles:
I think half of the games ended up as player victories. I know the Undead, Spiders and Feral Legion were victorious. I'm pretty sure the Aves lost, but am not sure about the Hobbits or the Orcs. Zeke and I were (probably too) vocal about all the modifications to HOTT that the campaign rules threw in -- racial bonuses, special troop types, special terrain types...it seemed too much to us. Ptom was definitely amenable to change and has scrapped at least some of them.
My Badger Men started out great, whacking the Hobbits' four shooter stands, going up 8 AP to 0 in losses. Then the wheels started to come off, and Jenny took some chances and reversed the tables, killing 9 AP worth of troops. The game ended with a Legion victory, though, when her Rider General was caught in the bad going and killed by a beast and blade stand. Tough game, though, and I'm hoping that all those 1's aren't a foretelling of things to come in this campaign...!
Steve wanted to retry the scenario he ran for us a few weeks back using a different set of rules. These are based on the Regimental Fire & Fury rules set, which incidentally, none of the rest of us had played. We all agreed we preferred these rules over the first set. There is a lot more feeling of attrition going on, which is probably how it should be in the Horse & Musket era. The game ended as the first one did, with a French and American victory, but was a much closer affair.
In fact, the battle was so stirring, it inspired Joel to compose a poem commemorating the "high water mark" of the British advance. His co-commander, Tom, had advanced a grenadier unit all the way to within charge range of the final French line and its supporting unit of artillery. Musket and cannon fire devastated them, though, and excessive casualties drove them back towards the British lines. That sealed the fate of the British break out attempt, and the army's fate would soon be sealed at Yorktown.
Here's Joel's poem:
I was unable to make Sunday evening's festivities, but Joel sends a report of some naval action:
Red Sea - Convoy BN7 was attacked by Italian destroyers based at Massawa in Eritrea on the (October) 21st (1940). The escorts, including New Zealand cruiser "Leander" and the destroyer "Kimberley", drove "NULLO" ashore with their gunfire, where she was destroyed next day by RAF Blenheims. (www.naval-history.net/WW2CampaignsNearEast.htm)
0723
U.K: Enemy sighted/ Cpt. Allen orders increase speed. HMNZS Leander opens fire (no hits reported).
RM: Enemy sighted/Flank speed /evasive action/ hold fire.
0729
U.K.: Enemy MAS boats sighted/ Cpt. Allen directs AA guns to MAS boats - 2 dispersed 1 destroyed. HMNZS Leander continues fire at enemy ships - damage reported.
RM: Cpt. Tomas continues evasive action and orders open - fire hits reported to CL. Rm Nullo reports damage top side.
Both side fire torpedoes.
0735
U.K.: HMS Kimberley hit by torpedo. CL evasive action & torpedoes miss. HMS Kimberley hit by gunfire & reports flooding.
RM: Suaro hit by gunfire topside.
0741
U.K.: Castle Bristol reports torpedoes sighted & miss. HMS Kimberley request permission to break formation & lay smoke.
RM: Battisti hit by gunfire topside.
0747
U.K.: HMNZS Leander hit - boiler room reports flooding.
RM: Battisti AND Nullo hit by fire. Cpt. Tomas orders break off of attack.
The Regina Marina could not muscle past the HMNZS Leander to get at the convoy. Although significant hits were scored the Royal Navy convoy BN7 still got through. Later that day the Royal Air Force would mop up the damage Italian destroyers. Moral victory for the Italian Regina Marina.
Last Advance the Colors in Springfield, OH, I played in Paul Potter's Hordes of the Things game, "War of the Ring." It was a very clever concept, with armies maneuvering on a huge tabletop, representing the storyline of The Lord of the Rings. Each player's force was represented by their commander stand until they came within a certain distance of an enemy force. At that point, all of the army's elements were deployed on the tabletop. This grand tactical aspect made the table almost like a giant map that the forces were marching and countermarching across. I enjoyed the game quite a bit, and was intrigued on ways I could import Paul's idea into a game of my own.
To me, the obvious application was in my 15mm Age of Reason games using my modifications to Hordes of the Things that I call "HOTT Lead." I'd been chewing over ideas, solicited input from Paul, and came up with some rules. We would use Keith's Clubhouse, because he has the mightiest table in the Sunday night gaming group. At 12'x5', it should give plenty of room for maneuver. I set up an 18th century landscape with roads, villages, hills and woods. Each player was given control of two brigades of 6 stands each. As in Paul's game, they would begin the game represented by their commander figure. The commander moved along the tabletop, rollling 1d6 (2d6 if entirely on road) for his distance. Each pip equaled 2" of tabletop movement (3" if the command was entirely mounted). When generals came within 10" of an enemy general or deployed stand, they stopped and deployed their force into a 1x6 column. If what stopped them was an enemy general figure, then the enemy likewise deployed in a 1x6 column after the moving player.
I made it easier to get out of column into battlelines by allowing them to spend pips to expand (1 pip to go from 1x6 to a 2x3 column; A second pip into a 3x2, and so on). From that point, the play was pretty much exactly like my standard HOTT Lead games. One exception was each command's "break point." I ruled they became demoralized when they lost half their stands OR lost their general, who had to be attached to one of the six stands. When one side has had 3 brigades become demoralized, the game would be over.
We ended up with 3 players per side, which is the size I wanted. It was a multinational battle, with the Prussians being reinforced by two brigades of British, and their Austrian enemies augmented by two brigades of French. Allen, having brought the French, was Marshal de Saxe and the commander in chief, with Joel and Keith as his allies. Steve Verdoliva took the British brigades and was CnC over Steve Sattler and myself. The game flowed well, with brigades being deployed on the table by turn four at the latest. It certainly allowed for a lot more variety and maneuver than a standard set-piece battle. The players' grand tactical movement was relatively straightforward, but all agreed the system worked and they could get trickier and try more tactical evolutions in future games. It shaped up with Steve Sattler's two brigades facing Keith's two and one of Allen's French brigades on our left. Meanwhile, we had the advantage of numbers against Joel's Austrians and the remaining French brigade.
The Austrians (Keith) won the battle between the two cavalry brigades, and Steve's cuirassiers and hussars were cut apart quickly and became demoralized. His infantry and artillery put up a much stiffer fight, and held off the Austrian right for the rest of the game, preventing them from exploiting their success. In the center, Allen's Frenchmen bloodied my Prussians' noses, and nearly demoralized them. My other brigade was able to swing onto the flank of the Frenchmen and begin to drive them back, though. Allen began a tactical withdrawal to keep the brigade in play and from becoming demoralized. Steve's English were the lions of the day, though. After several turns of fighting, the broke both of Joel's brigades, shattering the enemy's left. This proved to be the telling blow, and it became apparent that the Prussians would eventually secure victory once Allen's withdrawing brigade was brought to battle, again.
I was very happy with how the game looked and felt. There was more scope to the battle, I felt, with the initial grand tactical maneuverings represented. It felt like there was more opportunity to create and implement a battle plan. The HOTT Lead combat rules continued to work well, though I may tweak one or two of the modifiers. I would like to research a historical battle from either the Seven Years War or the War of Austrian Succession and use these grand tactical rules to recreate it. I think it could be an enjoyable convention game for 6 players. Thanks to all the guys for helping with the playtest, Allen for bringing his French, and Keith for hosting!
A board game at Steve Sattler's was on the menu this Sunday evening, and "Formula De" -- a race game -- was the chosen entree. We'd played this one once before, in summer of 2007, according to Steve. It is a very elegant game system, with different sizes of dice reflecting the different gears your driver is shifting into. Smaller dice equal lower gears, bigger dice equal higher gears (all the way up to a 30-sided dice for sixth gear!). You keep track of wear on your tires, brakes, engine, etc., and it is all very simple and easy to learn. Steve had the five of us each take two cars which we would race for two laps around the "Monte Carlo" track.
The little plastic cars that come with the game reminded us of flags of various European countries, so we chose that as a designator. My yellow and white car was called "The Vatican," while my yellow and green one was "Brazil." I'll let Joel summarizes the action from this point, suffice to say, I did very well in the game. The cries of "Mike's winning!" won't be silenced from this evening's performance...!
In the casino: Keith, Ptom, & Zeke
It was a warm December day, good dry track and eager drivers waiting the Monaco challenge. The lead change four times through the first six curves. Coming out of the hairpin turn and the tunnel it was Team Mike that had the lead and was able to keep it. The rest of the pack had to learn the track, AND watch traffic, Swiss Driver had the most trouble with traffic and quickly took body damage to his car. On lap two Team Steve S was able to challenge Mike at the Rascasse turn before the finish but Mike went on to win by three car lengths.
Unofficial Finish:
Brazil, Team Vatican-OMG, Sweden, U.K, Estonia, Portugal, Swiss, Poland
(For more info on Formula De, check out: www.boardgamegeek.com/game/173 and wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Circuit_Monaco.svg)
Steve wanted to test out a scenario he wants to run at some of the cons next year, so we were the willing guinea pigs. Steve's home rules are based off of the "Might of Arms" ancients set. They worked well, except perhaps not being bloody enough in melee. Of course, that could have been caused by the fact he found out after the battle that we'd forgot a combat modifyer that should have resulted in a lot more casualties. I took my camera, but the batteries crapped out before I got one photo. Gotta remember those spares!
Here's Joel's take on the action:
British: Allen -right side(C-in-C) British Guard; Steve S- left side (American Loyalist) a.k.a. Future Canadians from America
American: Steve V- (Delaware & Massachusetts Militia); French: Mike -left side (C-in-C) & Joel- right side
Thomas Graves - On station at sea
Keith Finn - sick bay
Zeke - M.I.A. on the Ohio frontier
With supplies low (no beer) the British attempt a break out of Yorktown. The American Militia manmed the barricades as the French marched out of camps, with fife and drum music playing, to meet the advancing British. The Hessian skirmishers advanced to cover the line troops march. The American militia stood up to the well trained, disciplined British, and were able to hold till the French units maneuver into position. With the militia standing in position, the American Cavalry charged the Tarleton Loyalist Cavalry in the center. They fought to a standstill. The French are then able march into support the flanks of the militia and threaten the flank of the British. The determined British push on. Tarleton's cavalry clash with the American cavalry again in the center, but the result is another standstill. The pressure on the British flanks became too much, and the American Loyalists on the left fell back. The French marched forward and it becomes harder for the British to break through. Their hope is renewed late when the Delaware Militia on the left, break from the barricade and the British take that ground. But as the sun sets, the French hold, the British are unable to break through and the world is (about to) turn upside down.
Zeke had been wanting to get us all together sometime during football season to play Blood Bowl. He has a good number of extra teams, some of them with excellent paint jobs. So, he understandingly wanted to get them out on the tabletop. He and Steve Sattler had played a number of times, and as we found out, Steve Verdoliva used to play a decent amount back in California. Joel, Allen and myself were novices, at best, though. Here are some of the accounts:
" tricks" he can pull on his brother">
The Skavens of Gotham brushed past the rascally rabbits of Flatbush in a slooow, sloppy game of bump and grind. The Gutter Ratz were able to score first with a fine run/pass 'play' that saw Slym the Rat dodge, run, and ooze past a tackle at the goal line. The Flatbush bunnies were...well...flat, having difficulty passing and threatened only once in the first half, despite the fact that Bruuzer Bunnie was in top form. Score at half time was Gotham 1 Flatbush 0.
The Bunnies received the second-half kickoff and ran a Girly girl play down the left side that scored quickly but Bruuzer Bunnies was beginning to show signs of fatigue, a dirtyrat foul at the end of the half must have had some effect?? With the score tied, the teams got down and dirty. We are talking a toe-to-toe, knock-down game. Bunnies went bottoms up, rats bloodied, injured even. Surprisingly, the ball did not move as the players pummeled each other. With seconds to go and the crowd heading for the gates, the ball moved, popped straight up, in fact. Suddenly, a volleyball game broke out as each side bashed or slapped at the ball, as no one could hold on the spiked skin. With 23 seconds left, Lemmy the lineman got the ball for Gotham, took two steps and pitched a dying duck of a pass to the surprised Blackfist .....15 seconds to go....The last diehard fan and two cats rose to their feet (& paws) in the stands and cheered in surprise as Blackfist chugged into the open toward the goal-line. Blackfist pushed and pushed again AND collapsed across the goal-line.
Final Score: Gotham 2. Flathbush 1. Injuries: 2 Skaven, no deaths!
The overconfident Vikings kicked off to the She-Elves and immediately began the effort of stomping them into the turf. While the Vikings knocked them down quite often they learned the hard way that these babes were no sisters of mercy. The first half was played mostly on the Elves end of the field, and the Vikings recovered a fumble and were driving for the end zone near the end of the half when they fumbled away their chance to score on the goal line. Meanwhile half their team had been carted off the field badly hurt or dead!
The second half began with a penalty when the Girls couldn't even kick the ball across the midfield line. This gave the Vikings the opportunity to hand the ball to their star full back and they began setting up a student body right play to form a path to the goal line for their big bruiser. The girls were as gallant and as vicious as the first half and the vikings continued to be carried off on stretchers. The girls used their agility and the vikings used their brute strength and once again, near the end of the game the Vikings looked like they were driving in for the go-ahead touchdown, only to fumble at the goal line. The Elvish thrower scooped up the fumble and found their catcher that had been keeping herself wide open the whole game. One short pass and two long runs and a go for it at the goal line saw the vikings sacked and watching from their backsides as the girls crossed the goal line as time expired for the go ahead touch down.
Final Score: Elvish Ladies 1, Vikings 0. Injuries: many (mostly Vikings). Deaths: 1 each
The Dark Elves, having recently made the jump from the "Championship Division of Blood Bowl" to the "BCS Division," were matched up against a tough opponent. Every single dwarven player had the "block" ability, while only three of the Dark Elves had the muscle to put a dwarf on his backside. As such, most of the game, dark elves were on their backs, scattered across the field. The Dwarves pushed and shoved the Dark Elves around as they wished, scoring both times during the game that they held the ball. In fact, in the first half, they cleverly played "time of possession" and left not enough time for the Dark Elves to move the ball all the way to the other end of the field.
The Dark Elves showed why they made the jump in Divisions on the opening possession of the second half. They moved the ball quickly down the field and scored to even the tally, 1 to 1. The Dwarves took the kickoff, though, and slapped the dark elves around as they had all game, easily pushing the ball into the end zone. Not enough time was left on the clock for the Dark Elves to score, so the Dwarves triumphed, 2-1.
The post-game disucssion in the broadcasting booth became heated as some sportscasters held that there was no way the Dark Elves belonged in the same division as the dwarves. Others maintained that this TYPE of team had beaten all comers in the BCS Division before. The fault lay in the Dark Elf coaching. Either way, the Dark Elf training staff was seen calling for an emergency shipment of "Bilbo's Butt and Back Cream" for their black and blue linemen.
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