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

Operation Getting To Know You

At Hotlead we've always thought of ourselves as the friendly convention. I gladly make the effort to help people connect after each show. So last Hotlead, a fellow approached me. He's moving to Stratford when he retires after working in the US for 30-plus years. He's coming up to visit family in June and could we get together? He'd like to meet some of the local gaming scene since he'll have to rebuild a hobby life when he moves.

We email back and forth, compare calendars, and settle on Sunday afternoon to get together for a little bit of dice rolling and meeting some of the guys. I send out an invite and gather some of the gang. Don't want it too big, but not too small either. A happy throng would be welcoming. Fortunately Sunday was cold and rainy anyway, so a good day to spend the afternoon inside wargaming.

Two brand new heros in combat? Oh dear, this will be interesting.

Then I'm overthinking; what to put on? Snorkers? Midgard? Something else? There's a time limit so it can't be too involved. Fantasy or historical? How does Ed feel about fantasy? Of course I didn't know if two of the guys were available until the day before which affected the chosen game as well.

I eventually settled on Midgard and sorted out my 3rd century Romans. Over lunch I learn that Ed is a big Roman history nerd. (Yay!) I also learn that he's a big Tolkien fan and has all the expansion sets for the War of the Ring boardgame that I've played a couple of times with the Mad Padre. (More Yay!)

So we had a furiously bloody and swift game. I helped Ed, and our Gothic feoderati overthrew the cavalry of Cohortes IX Britannarium. Who really have never done very well. I must think about how they are used and maybe buff up their leadership.

Big Pat on our other flank was meanwhile hammering the opposing infantry. My Gothic foot warriors had a big opening in front of us and wheeled to start taking the Roman infantry in the flank.

Big hole where the Roman cavalry used to be

Duplicitous leading his cohorts to crash into the enemy line.

Duplicitous won 6-0 this, my eighteenth game of the year, so his march on Rome continues.

Big fun was had. Dice were rolled. Some beers were drunk. Chins were wagged. Freindships were begun. 

Yay! New friends!