One Weekend Two Games

Two very different games this weekend. 

Romans on the right. Palmyrans on the left. Both starting with 11 Reputation

Saturday Evening, Game 28

Pasha Dan messaged me on Thursday to see if my Romans wanted to face a Palmyran army in a game of Midgard. I tweaked my army list a bit to make it more shooty, and hard hitting, since I'd be facing a nasty combination of cataphracts and archery.

Palmyran center. Their one unit of heavy infantry is just to the left.

Cataphracts

So many cataphracts. That's Zenobia following along behind on her camel.

Weirdy-Beardy was on my side with my 3rd century army. Electical Pete and Handyman Huw ran the Palmyrans with Pasha Dan giving colour commentary from the sidelines. I failed the roll and had to set up first. I decided to keep my cavalry all together on the left wing and anchored my right on some low hills and brush. I put more centuries of infantry in the front line, only keeping two back in the second. My eastern archers were depoyed as four units of skirmishers across the front to increase my shooting.

Carolianus Silex in the center

The Palmyrans faced my cavalry and center with a mix of horse archers, massed archers and skirmishing archers, and one unit of heavy foot. Five units of cataphracts ("knights" armour 4, hit on 4+ in their first combat) with the general braved the rough ground on my right to try and ride down my infantry.

Archers fail to evade! But they used up that unit's 4+ initial attack.

My cavalry had a good day, getting in several good charges and eliminating the opposing light horse before smashing the sole unit of heavy infantry. My cavalry leader was wounded by Palmyran arrows, but held onto his Today We Fight to Win Mighty Deed until that final charge so that the Roman cavalry rolled over the Palmyran heavy foot.

Meanwhile, Weirdy-Beardy has been getting pushed back by the tide of iron horse, and things were getting tense. My Prefect, Carolianus Silex and Centurion Primus both put in local counter attacks, using Today We Fight to Win. Weirdy-Beardy charged into the opposing General's squadron who rolled three 1's on the Risk to Heroes, a Roman spear thrust obviously finding a fatal chink in his armour and putting him in the dust. That coupled with losing a unit of Cataphracts caused the Palmyran Reputation to be at 0 by the end of the turn.

Both sides are hurting. If not for this Risk to Heroes roll, I'd have probably broken first.

Sunday Evening, Game 29

Big Pat has been busy painting all of the 1/2400 scale WW1 Starter Squadron Packs from Dobbie's Hobbies that he got at Hotlead. 

He's got enough done that he was ready to try a small game of the fast playing Dread Not! rules.

Russian pre-dreadnought coastal battleship 

Turkish pre-dreadnought 

Turkish dreadnought (formerly the SMS Goben)

Russian torpedo boats

Russian battleship, the Rurik I think

The set up is interesting.  Pat had to deploy first and a die roll determined how far from the center of the table and in which direction. 

I then rolled for my bearing and got to set up on the Turkish starboard quarter! Presumably our fleets were steaming around blindly when the weather cleared and we sighted each other at very close quarters!

Of course battleships have a maximum range of only 20", so we were probably several kilometers apart.

Opening moves. My cruisers (left) are moving behind the Turks, while my torpedo boats move in for an attack. My battleship squadron (foreground) is steering to try and bring their broadsides against the Turkish battleships. 

Firing is general. My torpedo attacks roll very well, sinking a cruiser and a pre-dreadnought.

The Turkish dreadnought Sultan is still crossing my T (my battleship is in foreground)

End of game. Torpedoes and guns sink the Sultan, but my cruisers (left of frame) are both torn apart by Turkish torpedo salvos.

That took an hour to play. Of course if my deployment roll had put me further away there would have been a few additional turns of maneuvering.

This was quite a small game for these rules I think. Gunnery is to simply add up firepower brought to bear by all ships engaging, compare with target armour to get odds, and roll on an old fashioned Combat Results Table. 

Damage is mostly ticking off boxes until you sink. Not nearly as detailed as Snorkers, but Snorkers isn't trying to do fleets actions. 

Crusader Long Range Recce Pathfinders

Last year Sarissa Precision sent me a 10% off coupon because they missed me. I was sorely tempted to get something really big like the Samurai castle, but good sense prevailed and I remembered that they stocked the plastic Quar sets. So I got the Crusader Specialist set and then set them aside while waiting for Donski to print some Toulmore heads.

The recent playing of Clash of Rhyfles has been inspiring, so I assembled some Special Forces infiltrators for my Crusader Battlegroup. The set includes shotguns and camo taped Bogens for Pathfinders. I also loaded them down with hand grenades for trench raids. The only difference between the Crusader trench Raider with the Derringer shotgun and Pathfinder with pump action shotgun is in the snap fire stat. So I'll just proxy them. I like the pump action shotgun better anyway. 

Note extra shotgun shells on the shoulder straps

If I include a Pathfinder Yawdryl, then I'm allowed more than three and can make a 300 point patrol entirely of Pathfinders. The metal veteran Yawdryl will be very good in that role.

Metal veteran fits right in

Last year I also received a sprue of Crusader rhyflers from Alex (Storm of Steel) Southeran. He'd gotten it free at Salute and shipped them to me. So I turned one into an easily identified Milwer (equivalent to a corporal). The other two will be added to the Toulmorese Specialist build once I get the heads.

Crusader Light Armour

Finally got these 3d printed vehicles finished off.

First is a Krassyl Mod(4) Armoured Contraption, or armoured car to us humans.
 

It is a three quar, reasonably fast, armoured recce vehicle with a turret mounted light cannon in the front.

I haven't read the vehicle rules yet, so not sure how well armoured it is. I assume it's faster than, but not as well armured as the Alithean.

I also got a pair of these cute little Squad Tractors, the Orythil.

I painted one for my jungle themed Toulmorese, even though they officially don't get one in their list. But light armour in a jungle makes better sense.

It has a larger gun than the Krassyl, with a bigger blast template, but less anti-tank ability. Finishing these was delayed as I decided after painting, to add stowage.

Metal packs and rolls of camouflage netting from cheese cloth. The bin on the left side of the Crusader vehicle is from a Sherman Firefly turret.

With my other Toulmore tractor, the Twaenhyr

Mail Call!

Some arrivals this week, just in time for the Civic Holiday Long Weekend. Tuesday UPS delivered my hardcopy of Clash of Rhyfles. and the new plastic cavalry. 

I was going to wait, but Zombiesmith had a sale on, so I ordered direct and got the printed pieces to convert them into Toulmorese Dragoons and Gwynt Lancers. The Gwynt Lancers will be a mounted troop for Princess P'trysha's Lifeguards.

Both sets include dismounts. Toulmorese Dragoons can dismount to skirmish, but anyone might end up dismounted if their mount is killed. People have recommended around 30% for dismounts, so not sure how to split the boxes between Crusaders/Toulmorese and Coftyrans/Gwynt yet. 

So this weekend I plan on charging about with my metal cavalry to get a handle on how they work before I start gluing figures together. 

These also arrived in my mailbox today.

Rising Sun Over Java is a scenario and campaign supplement for my favorite naval rules Snorkers! (Good Oh!). There are some new rules, and 16 scenarios. Fortunately I have some older USN destroyers on order from Donski's Printer Farm. I might also see if they can be reskinned for Royal Navy vs Regia Marina or perhaps the Kreigsmarine, since I've got several German ships also on my print list.

Trench Raid!

I left the trenches set up from last week and played the Trench Raid scenario from the full rules. The defenders get 300 points; a basic squad with 1x rhyfler upgraded to sharpshooter, and an attached H11a LMG. They deploy half in the first third of the table and the rest in the middle third, guarding important locations in the trench system.

The attackers get 400 points. I wanted to try my Coftyran Special Forces Group and broke the Patrol Building rules by allowing mysef far more Trench Raiders than is strictly legal. The attackers got a Trench Raider Yawdryl, 6x Trench Raiders, and a Support Team made up of a Sharpshooter and 2x rhyflers armed with Cryfen LMGs.

Crusader set up. Coftyrans come in from bottom left of picture

9 Commando, 11th Special Operations Group, slipped through the wire like tendrils of mist. Yawdryl St'nyr posted his Support Team, a sharpshooter and two armed with Cryfen LMGs in the center and left among the shell craters. The rest of his trench raiders would infiltrate into each flank.

Cryfen gunner in center moving through a gap in the wire

Soon the rapid chatter of the Cryfens and the sharp crack of the sharpshooter's Harlech broke the silence as they tried to lay some suppressive fire on the trenches so the raiding teams could infiltrate.

Cryfen in center quickly moves up the middle trench to give supporting fire to either flank

First Raider infiltrates into the trench on the Crusader right

Sharpshooter and 2nd LMG laying down fire from the blasted copse

Yawdryl Vaark with fireteam in the center

Trading shots with sharpshooter and Cryfen

Nod blasted away with his Ryshi over the parapet. There was a blue sniper hiding among the blasted trunks and shell holes. Byrt fired quick 3 round bursts from his Bogen. 

Suddenly bullets came from their right, chewing up the parapet. "Ancestors! There's blues in the forward trench Noddy!"

Getting flanked. 

Nod turned and fired heavy rounds down the trench,  splinters flying from the walls. A masked trench Raider did a quick burst of fire around the corner with his Doru SMG. 

The dark shape of a grenade arced through the air, bursting between Nod and Byrt, knocking them flat.

Raider throws a grenade and then charges in while the rhyflers are prone

Designated sharpshooter Podwyn and Daffyd with the H11a engage the threat on the right flank

Milwer Derval had been directing fire on the Cryfen gunner who was steadily advancing up the center communications trench when he saw Noddy and Byrt get taken out by a Blue Commando.

"Daffyd! Pudding! Get that grub over there! There's Blues in the forward trench!"

Daffyd hefted his H11a LMG around, and Podwyn carefully sighted with his Bogen. He was called "Pudding" by his squad mates after an evening at Madame Maeb's All You Can Eat Beetle Buffet. Both Rhyflers began blasting at the parapet. Podwyn saw a head go down.  Two more commandos dashed across the craters, chased by Daffyd's machine gun bullets to jump into the trench.

Yawdryl and two more Raiders successfully infiltrate into the left flank trench

Yawdryl Vaark was trying to do what little he could to direct the battle. With bullets buzzing just over the sandbagged parapet his control was reduced to the fireteam immediately with him.

There was a lot of fire coming from Derval's team off to the right, so they were still in the fight. A Blue with an LMG was trying to come up the center trench to get in between them. Vaark was directing his Ryshi to try and take the sneak out when the chatter of SMGs came from the trench to his left!

Marksquar Podwyn puts Raider OOA

Two more Raiders infiltrate into the trench on the Crusader right and are joined by the Cryfen gunner. Fire from the Marksquar and the H11a knock another OOA. The Raiders do Tend Wound on their OOA comrades. Two are seriously wounded and would need to be carried out. But they capture one wounded Crusader before LMG fire suppresses their activity.

Podwyn moving up to clear the trench. Tend Wound actions on friends could get them back in the fight (except I rolled '2' serious wound on both), and Tend Wound action on enemy OOAs makes them prisoner or confirms they're KIA.

Raiders throw a grenade and charge in from the left

A grenade sailed through the air, and the Blues followed it, SMGs chattering. Olyf met the first blue and staggered back from a blow. Shaking his head he roared and smashed the blue, throwing him right over the parapet. 

One Raider is knocked clear out of the trench where he is rendered OOA by a ryshi. A second raider is also OOA.

Raider Yawdryl charges forward and kills the Crusader outright!

A short range exchange of gunfire wounds one Crusader and puts the Raider Yawdryl also OOA. Another rhyfler moves up to start Tending Wounds and taking prisoners. The Yawdryl and third Raider are seriously wounded.

"You're nicked sunshine!" The Yawdryl Vaark has had a short range firefight with the Cryfen that had moved up the center trench to support the team coming in on the Crusader left. The Raider is knocked OOA and the Yawdry rushes forward to take him prisoner.

The sharpshooter had moved further up but was laid low by a Ryshi bullet. A Tend Wound action at game end revealed that he was KIA.

The final tally was that the Crusaders had lost one rhyfler taken prisoner, two were seriously wounded, and one was lightly wounded. The Raiding Patrol had suffered seven taken prisoner (1 unharmed, 4 wounded, and 2 seriously wounded) plus 1 KIA.

The large number of elites with Skill 13 didn't really unbalance things I felt. The Crusaders being in pretty heavy cover and the short range of the Doru SMGs helped balance things out.