Play Date With the Mad Padre

The Mad Padre began some post-Easter vacation by tootling down for a visit on Friday night. He was eager to give my new favourite game Snorkers! (Good Oh!) a try and brought his 1:2400 scale metal Royal Navy and Kriegsmarine collection.

Game 1: Massacre in the Mist

So Friday night we had a small game with three destroyers and two light cruisers on each side. The British had two Leander CLs and three Tribal DDs, vs two Konigsberg CLs and three M1936 class DDs.

There were a lot of fog banks between us (randomly tossed like a frisbee onto the table by me before we set up), and I maneuvered my units to port to try and get on his flank and sink one of his light cruisers. Mike did the same, moving his light crusiers to his port and screening with his destroyer flotilla.

Flotilla of Tribals moving ahead with a Leander, the Achilles off to port.

 

Germans open the fight by launching a torpedo, which misses

Tribals concentrate on center German, and the Achilles launches a couple of torpedoes 

Devastating barrage! Bridge hit, on fire and now crippled. I'm really liking these 3d printed markers.

After British attacks cripple the tailing destoryer, the lead destroyer moves at flank speed into a fog bank and leaves a smoke screen for the rest of the squadron to retreat behind. Achilles has raced up to launch torpedoes and open fire at the German light cruiser


Oof! The Konigsberg eats two torpedoes!

Smelling blood, the Tribals move at flank speed to race past the smoke screen and also launch torpedoes to finish the two crippled Germans off. The burning Konigsberg disappears into the grey North Sea, but the destroyer in still afloat and the Cossack takes her crew off.

Game 2: Slaughter in the Solomons

The next morning after a breakfast of ham and eggs (if I'd had my thinking cat on, I'd have gotten some sausages so we could say "Snorkers! Good Oh!" at breakfast. Oh well, opportunity missed) we went back to the Basement o'Gaming.

Mike wanted to play more Snorkers, and try my Pacific fleets. I set out a promitory to give us a bit of terrain to think about and again randomly tossed mist down on the table. Mike took the Americans, with a Northampton class CA, a Brooklyn class CL, and an Atlanta CL plus nine Fletcher DDs. Each cruiser was escorted by 2 DDs and then he had a squadron of three DDs as a seperate unit.

The IJN had two Mogami class CAs, six Fubuki class DDs, and four Kagero class DDs. The IJN was divided into 3x destroyer flotillas and a unit with the two cruisers. I deployed the cruisers in the center. The Kageros on the port flank and the Fubukis on the starboard. The 3rd Flotilla with three Fubukis and one Kagero was ahead in a skirmish screen.

View from IJN side. Destroyers all advancing at speed.

Mike's leading destroyer screen has turned and unleashed a salvo of torpedoes and gunfire on my skirmish line

One destroyer is instantly crippled and on fire. It turns into the mist patch and limps away to survive the battle.

The survivors turn to port and launch torpedoes

The USN replies in kind

I bring in an airstrike on his 8" Cruiser

His CAP and flak have whittled my attack down. A Betty dropped a torpedo which was promising, but then missed.

My destroyer screen (under fire) has one sunk. As you can see in the back, Mike is bringing his 8" and 6" cruisers around to bring their broadsides onto my destroyers and be ready to engage the Mogamis when they emerge from the mist.

Mike brings in his airstrike. Because the other cruiser is hidden in the fog patch, we ruled that the flight of SBDs would go after the nearby destroyers.

Things then got very exciting and I didn't take any pictures. The flotilla of destroyers in the picture above got a Queen card (+1 to torpedoes), so I took them through the fog patch to ambush the Americans massed on the far side. Rather than crossing the American T, I turned hard to starboard and charged into the middle of the USN formation, bridge crews shouting "Banzai!" The Atlanta and her escorts were to my port, his destroyer screen to starboard, and the other two cruisers with escorts ahead with the Brooklyn slightly to starboard. Each Kagero destroyer emptied all of their torpedo launchers, putting 24 missiles into the water aimed at six different ships.I then proceeded to roll very hot on the torpedo tracker. His Atlanta CL took two or three hits. The Brooklyn CL took four hits. I also targeted four destroyers (I couldn't get a firing solution on the Northampton, which I was charging directly towards). He failed most of his evasion rolls. After a flurry of dice rolls, his two CLs and three of his destroyers were going down.

Ouch, baby. Very ouch.

Game 3: Destruction in the City of David

After lunch Mike wanted to play his new board game, Storm Over Jerusalem, which is about the great siege of AD 69. It's interesting, especially having read the account in Josephus. There are cards to manage to get things done. Mike gives a good overview of how it works on his Wargaming Blog HERE.

Initial set up

I was fortunate in that I got the two cards to build siege ramps in the first turn and put one against the Temple and the other against Herod's Palace, which are the Roman objectives. I had to take them within eight turns. After a couple of assaults and aided by a Ballista card the Xth Legion stormed the Temple, and I played the Roman Brutality card to destroy retreating Jewish units, including one of his two leaders.

And being a Roman I also played the Deface the Temple card to grab an easy 2 VPs.

I then concentrated on Herod's Palace. Attacks into the lower city to the north were merely a diversion to keep him from reinforcing the Palace. Capturing at least one part of the city is important to deny the Jewish defenders from getting VPs. And since you can only put 5 units into any zone, you may as well attack wherever you can.

As you can see below, I tightened my ring around the Temple and was eventually attacking with a siege tower from the lower city, I had broken into the old city in the south and built a siege tower, the XVth Legion has attacked up the siege ramp again, and finally, aided by a battering ram, cohorts from the Vth Legion made a breach and stormed in, massacring the garrison.

Victory! Titus wins a Triumph.

A clear Roman victory.

But playing 3 games with my bestie, putting my tally to 12 for the year, was a definite victory.

Crisis in the 3rd Century

It was a year of turmoil, as many were at that time. Usurpers, pretenders, generals raised to the purple by mutinous soldiers. Another year of swords and fire and sudden murder in the dark.

Duplicitous, Comes of Raetia, along the Danube frontier was one such, and found himself marching west with some Roman troops that had declared him Imperator, and a host of Gothic mercenaries, to have a show down with a rival, Gladius Maximus, Comes of Germania Superior, who had a tribe of Franks filling out his army. The winner would get to march on Rome.

Dan was very excited and had searched through his figure inventory and pulled together a significant force of Frankish troops and was getting them nice bases for Midgard. So for Saturday's game we decided to pit our armies against each other. Each of us had a core of Roman troops supplemented by a significant contingent of barbarian feoderati. Both armies came to 450 points.

I won the roll and got to set up second, so I deployed my cavalry on the right, facing his Frankish foot and skirmishers. My center and left were in two lines. Gothic warriors in front and then four units of Romans supporting them from the seond line.

Duplicitous' army on the left, Gladius Max on the right

I refused my left and attacked with my right while advancing and pinning with my center.

My Gothic feoderati cavalry crash into some Frankish warriors

Dan maneuvers a band of Frankish warriors in to engage my supporting line

Gothic skirmishers about to get smacked out of the way.

Lines clashing in the center. I put the Goths in front with the Roman troops in support.

Gothic cavalry enveloping Gladius' flank

Facing off against Frankish skirmishers

Fighting is general in the center. Upper left you can see Gladius' Roman cavalry trying to turn my left wing which I've refused

Gothic Hero Hengist (R) level 2, takes on the Frankish chieftain (L) who is a level 3, but wounded (but presenting a really lovely command stand in spite of that)

Hengist wins after 2 rounds leaving the Frankish King food for the crows. This put Dan at -1 Reputation

So I had to finish the turn and not let bad dice or disaster steal the victory from me.

To finish the turn my cavalry keep pushing. I just need to stay in the Plus for Reputation

Equus Fornicatus, Gothic chieftain leading the cavalry, has his squadron of cavalry killed but challenges the wounded Frankish hero to single combat and slays his opponent!

End game on my right

End game view of center and left

My Reputation at the end. The replica Roman coins were Dan's idea for Reputation and Mighty Deed Tokens

This game saw our first two single combats which was very cool. Having them decide the victory was even cooler. I'm sure Wagner will be writing an opera about this in a few centuries.

This was my ninth game of the year. I'm doing pretty well on that front. I'm also really enjoying the heck out of Midgard.

Death to the Man-Things!

Another batch of Skaven has rolled off the painting bench of the Underrealm. This group has a Midgard unit of 8 more heavily armoured clan rats and two more rat ogres, all ready to wreck destruction upon the kingdoms of men.

Look closely and you can see regular rats poking out by their feet

Love this guy, Wish I could do an entire unit or two of him as Stormvermin

And two poor, tortured, and quite angry about it, rat ogres. If there aren't humans to kill I'm sure they'll take their frustrations and pain out on the closest warlock.

Used red ink to make the skin around the Horned Rat sigil look angry and sore and probably infected

Green contrast paint over yellow and then some red ink in the skin cracks to make this look very ouchy as well

Each rat ogre will be it's own unit, with some 3d printed swarms of giant and regular rats to fill their base out with.

Painting is pretty simple. Brown undercoat, Dry brush steel bits. Block paint the skin, clothing/rags and fur (using GW Vermin Fur!). Then it's burnt umber ink wash. Highlight metal again and do some dteails like the warp stone and claws.

Done.

Only 5 more units of clan rats, some artillery and some characters to go. Might have enough to play with then.