Clash at the Crossroads

Yawdryl Puwl of the 7th Crusader Mounted Rhyfles (7CMR) watched the Alithean belch exhaust and rattle up the dirt road to the cottage at the crossroads. He steadied his cadier, snorting angrily about the mechanical beast, and trotted across the field, his squad of Mounted Rhyflers following him. The cottage ahead of them looked snug, with smoke issuing from the chimney. He had a purse jingling with Tokish gold half schillings, and he hoped that the farm wife would be willing to sell them some mothcakes or other stuffs from her pantry.

His Mounted Rhyflers were part of an Advance Guard, or Recce in Force. Along with some troops from 1st Pathfinder Company and the Alithean, they were to probe this valley and set up a blocking position at the crossroads ahead. A heavy shotgun team attached to the combat team was set up behind a hedge to cover the advance.

The Alithean stopped with a rattle and the turret rotated slightly. The short 73mm gun barked, sending a round down the road. The enemy was in sight. Mothcakes would have to wait.

Using pretty much the same terrain as my last game. Just changed the building. The game area is 3x3 demarcated by the hills and the field lower right. But obviously the terrain spills over the edge. Which is kinda nice. If I'd been thinking I would have deployed the Alithean (Lower Right) in the lower left corner, where it would have started the game with flank shots on the Chyweethl (Upper Left).

Traded some excess 3d prints for official CoR Activation Cards. They're very pretty and I'm very pleased. 

 

Coftyran lancers from Lord Strythcyna's Cadiers (Royal Coftyrans) trot forward

Coftyrans lost the die roll and set up first within 10" of the upper left corner

Crusaders set up 10" from lower table edge

The Alithean already has LOS on the Chyweethl and begins firing at it.

Heavy Shotgun team 

Pathfinders finding a path

"Maybe there's some good eats, let's check it out!" Infantry jog forward to try and get to the cottage ahead of the cavalry. 

Pathfinder hits the cavalry Yawdryl's mount, leaving him prone in the dust

Coftyran deployment 

Couple of lancers gallop forward, charging the Pathfinder squad before they get into the house

BLAM! "Oof!" One lancer has his mount shot from under him, leaving him prone. The other Pathfinder misses his snapshot and is skewered by a lance.

Crusader round, the Pathfinder Yawdryl dispatches his prone adversary and two shotgun blasts knock the other lancer out.

Field gun deploys to help engage the Alithean 

The Crusader Alithean immediately began engaging with the Royalist tractor. They exchanged fire, consuming many activations, giving each other equal damage to tracks and hull.

The Alithean, briefly "Rattled," has backed up to try and get some cover behind the house. I probably should have put some LOS blocking terrain in the middle to force the tractors to maneuver a little. 

"Chaaaarge!" Lancers rush forward to engage their opposites.

One lancer wounds a Crusader while the other is blasted out of the saddle with a close range shot. The Coftyran cavalry NCO has stood up and shoots at the Crusader NCO, wounding his cadier. 

The Crusader NCO wheels and engages the Royalist lancer, while the other Mounted Rhyfler charges the Royalist NCO.

Yawdryl Puwl has led his squad around to engage the Coftyrans mainline. A lone lancer blocks his way.

The lancer is knocked OOA. The field gun slews 

to the left! "Action left! Cavalry! Load cannister!" the Gun Milwer shouts, but their round goes wide, exploding in the middle of their LMG team on the hill, killing one and Gobsmacking the other two.

"Hurrah buckos!" Carbines barking and sabers flashing up and down, the Mounted Rhyflers overrun the field gun.

The Crusader Yawdryl buries his saber in the chest of the Royalist lancer, killing him outright. The Royalist NCO is also rendered OOA.

With friends beside the enemy tractor, the Alithean switches targets to drop high explosive on the advancing Coftyran Rhyflers.

The two Mounted Rhyflers still mounted wheel around the enemy tractor and pounce on the Gobsmacked Coftyran infantry. 

With that I ended the game (Game 38 of the year!) in the middle of Turn 3. The Coftyrans, with only 4 Rhyflers still on their feet, didn't have enough troops to recover their OOA figures. I did some rolling on Tend Wounds to tally the final Butcher's Bill.

The Crusaders lost 2 KIA and 2 wounded, plus a wounded cadier and the Alithean is damaged.

The Coftyrans lost 9 as POWs, 5 KIA, the field gun captured, and the Chyweethl is also damaged.

Yawdryl Puwl picked himself up beside the Coftyran field gun, it's crew were all bleeding and groaning like his now prone poor, faithful mount. He shouldered his carbine, but the few Blues still on their feet were running back up the road, following the rattling Chyweethl. He began checking the prone figures around him and hoped that the Pathfinders wouldn't eat all the mothcakes in the cottage.

Quar Clash of Rhyfles Chaos!

Had six of the gang over on Saturday night for a big game of Clash of Rhyfles. CoR breaks down at bigger ponts levels so I bascially ran a Convention game and set up three 1v1 patrol games and laid out a 6 foot table dividied into three boards. I then planned out six approximately 340 point patrols trying to get a few different things on the table to see how they work. The patrols were in teams, Royalist and Crusader. Each patrol on each team got to do the activations on their card. So if the Crusaders had a 4 card, then each Crusader Patrol got to do 4 actions.

Crusaders deployed along the left hand edge, the Royalists on the right hand edge.

Yellow dice on cloth edge marking the board edges, dividng the table into three 2 foot square zones. Although there was a bit of sniping into adjacent zones.

Gloam Hyyn had a Yawdryl, Milwer with Cryfen LMG, 5x rhyflers, 1x marksquar, a cook, a poacher with shotgun, and a trapper. 340 pts.

Coftyrans had a basic squad of Yawdryl, Milwer, Cryfen LMG, 7 rhyflers, a Caerten, and a Cook. 338 pts.

The PPCLI had a squad of Yawdryl with SMG, Milwer with SMG, 6 ryhflers, 2 grenadiers and Scatter Gunner. 332 pts.

The Tollyn-Maeryn had a Yawdryl, Milwer with SMG, 2 LMGs, 2 rhyfle grenadiers, 6 rhyflers, the Irrascable Lone Buck (infiltrate and Skill 13), and the Home Dyna. 340 pts.

The Crusaders had a basic squad of Yawdryl, Milwer, 4 rhyflers, 1 marksquar, 3 rhyflers with ryshis, an LMG and a loader. 338 pts. 

 

The Toulmorese being all Skill 13 were much more expensive. They had a Yawdryl, a Milwer,  4 rhyflers with bogens, 2 with ryshis and a mortarquar. 340 pts.

Coftyrans, commanded by your humble correspondent advance in the center.

PPCLI advance into the village 

Tollyn-Maeryn moving forward on the other side of the village 

Crusaders advance in the center opposite the Coftyrans 

Toulmorese in the jungle 

Gloam-Hyyn in the jungle too. The traps were interesting but not game changing. Next time I should try the Sarf-Cyn handler.

Weirdy-Beardy ran his Scatter Gunner over the bridge to enfilade the bulk of Scotty's squad deployed along the stream. BLAM! A grenade followed up, leaving most of Scotty's patrol OOA

The Rhyfle Grenadier in the yard has been tended to by Mumsy and takes a break from lobbing bombs across the stream to shoot the Scatter Gunner. 

The Irrascable Lone Buck has infiltrated behind the PPCLI to get into a fight with a Grenadier, eventually winning.

Another grenade lofted across the stream to take out the Rhyfle Grenadier behind the fence, but the grenade deviated onto Mumsy! The Home Dyna was knocked OOA and the offending PPCLI grenadier was Gobsmacked with shame. 

After more grenades and sniping, the Tolly-Maeryn Yawdryl charges out of the house with what was left of his squad and over the bridge. One of his team renders the Gobsmacked grenadier OOA. *thump with a rhyfle butt* "And THAT'S for hurting Mumsy!"

Gloam-Hyyn getting stymied in the brush

End game in the village. All of the PPCLI are OOA or actually dead. The Tollyn-Maeryn have 3 still standing on the PPCLI side of the board. 

End game in the middle. The Crusaders and Coftyrans have stalemated at the center line.

End game in the jungle. Between the ryshi and the mortar breaking up any attempt by the Gloam-Hyyn to do anything, and the Gloamers potting exposed Toullies, they are stalemated as well. 

"What's going on? Did I miss something?"

It was loud. It was crazy. It gave me a headache. I was essentially trying to play and GM 3 different games. It was kinda fun though. But we did a bunch of indirect fire and got a better handle on grenades and the mortar. I need to do some solo games to learn heavy weapons, blast weapons, and tractors so I can start putting those on the table next time. I also need to make some blast templates.

This was Game 32 of the year!