Learning to Skedaddle!

I decided to try some more things and set up a bigger game with 2 squads plus some Specialist Support options and leaders.

Points add up very fast when you're being greedy.

2 squads plus officer, Cook, Messenger Squirrel Handler, a Master-Yawdryl, and a couple of scatter guns adds up to 750+ points. 

I was going to use the Tollyn-Maeryn as the other side, because I wanted to try their rhyfle grenades,  but they're all green troops and very cheap. I could only muster around 360 points.

So I got the Crusaders out again. Added a couple of H11a LMG teams, a Cook, an officer, and did some non-canonical upgrades to make a Bomber Squad. Because I still dream of doing some reskinned First World War battles with a platoon divided into rifle, bomber, Lewis gun, and rifle grenade sections.
 

During Saturday's game, everyone was doing Reaction Fire when shot at (giving the active player a further -2 skill modifier). This time I tried Skedaddling, which gives a -4 modifier. If the shooter misses you check what they rolled and that might mean the attacker gets to decide where the target takes cover.

An LMG fired at a group, who all Skeddadled. 1 rhyfler was hit, but for the others the Crusaders rolled low enough (but still higher than their Skill Target number) that the target rhyflers ended up dispersed in all directions, out of Command Radius, prone and Gobsmacked. Which effectively ended their advance. It would take them about 8 Actions to regroup.

The Scatter Gun is another interesting weapon. The Bomber Squad across the road spent a lot of effort trying to keep it from firing at full effect. It managed one volley, which knocked most of the Squad down!

BLAM! Scatter gun in foreground blasts across the road.

Several casualties together was a a prime use for the Cook, who can do Tend Wounded to everyone within 2". And his Medic skill means he gets a +1 to his Tend Wounded roll as well. It's nice that there is a difference between Cooks and Medics since most of my armies have both.

The Cook, on his delivery bike, raced down the road, dodging fire from a rhylfer by the red roofed hut. 

Crusaders advance into the village

Crusaders advancing on the right

It was a big, confusing, slow moving exercise. Definitely must reign in my megalomania and keep games to under 600 points. Although with multiple players on a side, each player could run around 300 points and they all get the same activations. It might get tiresome though if one player has done his initial 3 actions and is now waiting for his team mate to stop the table talk and focus and do his, so they can find out if they have a fourth and fifith.

But it gave me some good questions that I got answered on the Quar Discord. There were definitely a few things we were doing wrong on Saturday night.

However, this increases my enthusiasm for my small band of sweater wearing Ergydir in their fisherquar caps and the chance to get my small handful of partisans on the table. Just maybe I don't have to build every force up to a company battlegroup?

Nah. Don't be daft.

Clash of Rhyflers

Clash of Rhyflers (or CoR) is the official squad level Quar skirmish rules from Zombiesmith. You can download the basic version for free here. You can also purchase the full rules (inlcuding heavy weapons, tractors, and cavalry) as either a PDF or hardcover from Zombiesmith or Wargames Atlantic.

I thought rather than constantly reinventing the wheel I really should just give in and try it. And if I like it, then just buy the hardcover book. Plastic cavalry is out now, so I'll be making an order by the fall, so...

So I set up a table of typical rural Alwyd using a mix of the Sarissa Precision buildings Big Pat gave me and some 3d prints. The windmill is from TTCombat (but they don't seem to be available anymore).

Opposing forces were a basic squad for of Crusaders and Coftyrans. Each squad had one rhyfler upgraded to a marksquar. I think both sides weighed in around 290ish points. Pasha Dan took the Coftyrans and Wierdy-Beardy ran the Crusaders.

3' x 3.5' table Coftyran squad in foreground divided into rhyfle group and Cryfen LMG group

Each squad could set up within 12" of their road exit

Crusader squad in foreground in it's 3 fireteams. Their set up is within 12" of the road on their right corner.

Cryfen LMG group moves around the windmill on the Coftyran right

Yawdryl brings rhyfle group forward on the left. Rhyfler besdie the blue house is going to have a very bad day, getting hit multiple times.

Crusaders advancing

"Buck down!" Coftyran Designated Marksquar gets first hit

Milwer and fireteam moving into the village

Yawdryl advancing on Crusader right

Cryfen LMG group getting into the fight

Lots of fire going up and down the street. Couple of Coftyrans are seriously wounded by the grain field. Cryfen LMG is shooting up Crusaders trying to take up position by the well

Long firefight with Coftyrans behind the blue house. Coftyran rhyfler keeps getting knocked down and gobsmacked, then knocked down again as soon as he's recovered. The Yawdryl is going to try "Tend Wounded" on his two companions and roll two '1s'.

Cryfen LMG group advances to put more fire on the Crusaders down the street

Blue chit indicates seriously wounded, can't fight and needs to be carried off table. Casualty figures indicate Dead. Wierdy-Beardy kept rolling '1' on his Tend Wounded actions.

We did just over two full turns (a turn equals a run through the Activation Deck). But Wierdy-Beardy eventually had every quar down and no one left to activate. He had 4 dead, 2 seriously wounded and the remaining 4 were OOA (Out of Action, requiring a Tend Wound action to determine if they can just get back in the fight, are Gobsmacked and need an action to recover, are wounded and limited to 1 action per round, seriously wounded, or dead). Pasha Dan had 4 Seriously wounded, 1 wounded and 5 still active including his Cryfen LMG and both NCOs.

I probably got some things wrong. Must check if a figure can "Tend Wounds" on themselves and if a figure can interrupt and do a snap shot if someone crosses their line of sight. I was allowing that, which caused Wierdy-Beardy a few casualties as his rhyflers tried dashing across the street covered by the Cryfen. 

But fun was had. Pasha Dan downloaded the rules as soon as he got home and stayed up to 0330 reading them. 

I'm going to leave the table set up and try some other squads and a few specialists this week.

This Old Black House

At Hotlead I bought a box of lovely poured resin Hudson & Allen early and high medieval buildings from an estate sale. 

As purchased there's a couple of smaller buildings not pictured 

The three stone "dark ages/highland" buildings were what I really wanted because I've always fancied doing some Picts to fight my 3rd century Romans, especially now that there are a couple of plastic options to build a Pictish warband with. The Medieval buildings were a nice extra and worth paying a few more dollarbucks for the lot.

As you can see my friend had painted them rather unimaginatively without much in the way of shading or depth or highlights. As you can see above, the roofs on two of the Pictish houses were a solid dark green, the same green he painted the grassy bits on the integral bases with. And the third with the sand roof is just well.... ummm. Let's just leave it at that.

So everything got a nice coat of burnt umber ink and then I started drybrushing. Couple of shades of grey on the stone. Couple of shades of green on the sod roofs and the grassy bits of the bases.

After fretting over how to paint the sod roofs I said "Sod it!" and decided to just use the same flock that I would put on the ground.

 This took a couple of nights to accomplish. And then after shaking off the excess I went over the bare patches, which were sculpted to look like old roof in need of refurbishment, with watered down burnt umber.

With out any Picts yet, some of my Romans are checking the village out.

And the Quar like them too. I think these will be nice for any Quar living in the rugged mountainous regions of Alwyd.

Gunkan Kōshinkyoku

The Gunkan (Warship) March

IJN Surface Action Group conducting high speed sea trials

The first 1:1800 scale units for the Imperial Japanese Navy are painted and undergoing sea trials until they get their labels. 2x Takao class heavy cruisers, 2x Tenyru class light cruisers, 6x Fubuki class DDs and 6x Kagero class DDs. 

Japanese heavy cruisers were very much the same in profile, so this one stl will do for many of them.

Takao Class CAs

Most Japanese CLs were intended as Destroyer Division Leaders, and they also looked much the same. At least the early war ones used around the Solomons up until 1943. Although the Sendai class had a different arrangement of more guns and torpedoes. But for game purposes their profiles aren't much different.

Tenyru Class CLs

IJN paint schemes are very simple: dark grey hulls, linoleum brown decks for anything smaller than a battleships. Tamiya helpfully makes IJN ship colours.

There are different shades of grey depending upon the shipyard, but I'm not getting into the weeds that deeply! I used the darkest grey for the hull and the lighter shade to dry brush the upper works. Successively lighter greys are used to drybrush the upper works some more and paint the boats.

Fubuki class DDs

The big difference in the IJN destroyers is with the torpedo load out. The Fubukis have 3x triple torpedo launchers, the Kageros have 2x quadruple launchers.

Kagero class DDs

Like the USN I have some other types of destroyers getting printed. Once they arrive I'll print everyone's labels.

These models caused some problems. Some supports from the turrets were stuck to the deck and I caused some damage trying to clean them up. These prints also had quite noticeable curving at the bows. I applied liquid putty to try and remedy both issues. I don't think anyone will notice mid-game.

Note odd little bits sticking out from torpedo launchers and turrets, and the big ding in the fo'castle