Swiss Army Blades

Just two people at Jim Dundorf's regular DBA Days at the club (formerly Das Krieg Haus, now The War Office). I don't go often to the club these days, partly because I'm only free every second Saturday, but I took this last week off work to take a breather and catch up on ... stuff. I expect to see many members at the Recon convention at the end of April; I'm planning to go just for a day, mostly to shop.

Every time I visit, the club shelves have been revamped slightly. There isn't room for all the books, some of which are going to a club in Naples. At present there are a bunch of board games, including a handful of non-war types like Munchkin that I occasionally, ahem, borrow for work. I found my copy of Charge!, which I'd left at some point along with my "'45 Rebellion" Wofun figures. 

Having become interested in the Italian Wars, I wanted to try Swiss again. Jim didn't have a historical enemy in his otherwise comprehensive collection, but he had Catalan Spanish only a bit out of time period.

My Early Swiss, mostly halberdiers (or Fast Blades in DBA).

The field of battle - ploughs, hill and forest.

Jim's Spanish - pike, light units and a couple horse, including his CO.

Jim reckoned my Fast Blades (moving three base lengths in all terrain) would kick his ass. As usual, though, my indecisiveness and poor luck with the dice got in the way. Jim feels that - despite the disparity of our armies - the game as a whole is balanced because a player can think like a general, do what that general would do in a situation, and the rules will allow it.

So I tried.

I moved my big halberd-block forward, skirting the too-defensible hill, and sent my light cavalry unit - capable of three moves a turn! - towards the opposing camp. My own was protected behind my army, with two psiloi (light infantry) in the woods on my left.

First game turn, angling towards the center. My command base is to
left of the center block, my one cavalry base is on its way to the rear.

Refused my right to avoid going up the hill, exposed my left in the process.

My General (+6 vs. infantry) tackled an opposing unit, but lost due to the dice
(mine poor, his good!). Luckily, they weren't destroyed and were still close enough
to the rest of the army to "lead."

My army a bit trapped now by that pike unit on the left, I
refused this flank as well.

Meanwhile, my horse were bashing their heads against the Spanish camp.
Its mere camp followers fought back for three turns with potatoes and hand tools.

In the end, I managed to take the camp and sweep my cav down on Jim's right-rear, at about the same time that I also flanked and destroyed his general, and that was the game!

To be fair, Jim was coaching me all the way, or at least stopping me from my usual analysis paralysis to think about my options. I'm still not familiar enough with DBA for it to be second nature yet, but he thinks I'm getting the hang of the rules. A good teacher (and a good GM for the games and tourneys at Recon).

My next step, I think, will be experimenting with Pikeman's Lament. Looking forward to it, at least if I can fully clear off the table...

The Upteenth Battle of Blasthof Bridge

Countless gamers have fought across the fair fields of Blasthof in the last fifty years, and tonight it happened once more. Ron and Mark, two stalwarts of the South Florida Miniatures Gamers, kindly consented to be my guinea pigs for the evening. We met at The War Office (aka a small office suite) for the set-to.

As we were playing with my 18mm Wofuns and centimeters, rather than the classic 30mm Spencer Smiths and inches, the field needn't be large.

Unfortunately, we had neither a river nor a bridge in the club!

Due to the available terrain, Blasthof Farm and the Blasthofberg were relatively larger than the original, while the River Blast was reduced to a desperate trickle. At least the bridge was sturdier than the original paper.

The sides were drawn from, respectively, my WSS French and '45 British collections.

Ron:

• 18 1e Cuirassiers
• 32 1e Guard Francaise
• Anvre Battery (2 guns)

Mark:

• 12 Yorbourne Dragoons
• 40 Royal Kempston
• Halmouth Battery (2 guns)

As usual, I failed to take enough photos, but here's a representative selection.

Mark moves his guns to the hill as his Dragoons cross
the river; Ron moves stolidly towards the "bridge."

Mark spreads out his troops and opens fire (to no effect).
His light horse are already to midtable.

As Ron slowly moves upfield, the range closes and Mark's
guns start to pick off his infantry. Ron's cavalry are
angling towards Mark's dragoons, who are out of view behind
the farmhouse (out of LOS of Ron's guns).

Ron's Guard Francaise are on the bridge,
while his cuirassiers charge Mark's dragoons.
Unfortunately, both French units are under
short-range crossing fire...

The combat went badly for Ron (who spent much of the game
rolling nothing but ones and twos), and his defeated cuirassiers
are rallying in the field. Meanwhile his infantry, trapped on the
bridge, are at least fighting back while they get the crap
shot out of them.

No more game photos, but suffice to say that by turn seven, not only were both of Ron's regiments understrength (requiring them to retreat from the field) but his guns were charged and taken by the dragoons (despite a game blast of canisters that killed four horsemen. His infantry had to rally on the bridge in full view of Mark's infantry and guns and would probably not survive to retreat!

So a solid victory for Mark. Though, to be fair, Ron rolled badly all game, and even his heavier cav (+1 versus lighter cav) didn't help. Both enjoyed the game and seemed to like the rules despite the fiddliness of one-to-one melee alongside multi-bases.

They were also impressed by the look and feel of the Wofun miniatures. Which allows me to segue into the Paperboys I've built this week:

A DBA "camp" base for medieval Scots. As the miniature
soldiers are 3D, I removed the paper figures, but the tent and
shields look pretty good!

Added a light gun to my Continental troops guarding the
America250 book display at work. Unfortunately,
their command base was destroyed in action.

Til next time...

Binge Weekend, Part 2

Well, we didn't do Charge! today, but we had a good time. Five attendees this time, and we played Waterloo with Command and Colours, then a small action from Pontiac's War with Fistful of Lead.

I didn't participate much in the first game; I got the British "center," and most of the cards our team drew covered the left and right. But I did get a feel for the game. Card-driven games aren't my favorite, they feel like you have less agency. Though to be fair, that is the nature of Murphy in combat. What felt weirdest was moving units in less step with each other than they would have been in real life - it's easy to isolate a regiment here if you're not careful. That's why the rules allow you to avoid retreating if you are "supported" by other units in touch.

The figures are very attractive, the customized board more so.

I was tempted to "borrow" it for Portable Wargames.

The Prussians arrived quickly for the scenario.

We stopped around three hours in, once it was obvious
that the Allied reinforcements could flank Napoleon.

Mark Ritchie ran the Fistful of Lead game, with some lovely buildings:

The sides were about even - 25 assorted Indians with three chiefs (chieves?) vs. a mix of British line troops and Rogers' Rangers.

Based loosely on the Battle of Bloody Run during the siege of Detroit, in which a British relief force under Captain Dalyell was ambushed and driven back.

British start to cross the creek.

Appropriate card deck for the occasion!

Bloody melee at the crossing.

While Rangers and light infantry engage on the left.

My officer ably directs matters whilst exposed.

My partner really drew this hand!

The decimated British retreat back over the creek.

So the historical result achieved at any rate! A good game, and I've also familiarized myself with Command and Colours, a popular ruleset for Paperboys.

A busy weekend. See you next week!

Binge Weekend

Sometimes the local club (renamed, as of Wednesday, the War Office) has "pocket" conventions of its own, two or three days straight of gaming. I made Friday evening's round of Wings of War:

Fokker in period camo

James McCudden's SE5

I feel like Snoopy as I get the hell shot out of me

I wanted to steal this carrying case

I also tried to talk Steven into loaning me a handful of Red Tails P-51s for a library display in February; we'll see!

Today I came late owing to other commitments, missing John's Cruel Seas scenario (but see our new Facebook page for coverage of that). John next ran Zona Weirdos, a fairly simple build-your-own-team skirmish game with dice-step mechanics, postapocalyptic vibes and a Necromunda-esque campaign. With just four figures a side, with practice we might one day try an all-day campaign.

Steven's and my table, somewhere near...

Chernobyl

The table next to ours

My vaguely Nurglite team of explorers

The goal was to explore the board, collecting left-over scrap and blasting zombies and each other as we went. There was also a counter that went up for every shot fired; at the end of a turn it might produce anything from a storm to stygian darkness to an irradiated product of monstrous mutation. It can probably be played solo.

Very much in the vein of
"Kick in the door and fight the zombie."

Two of my daring (read: stupid)
chaps get in each other's way
as they check out the Nissen hut

My leader kills the opposing team medic
as he crosses the room to come to the aid
of a fallen comrade

About four turns in, me beleaguered (Steven's team collected
a sniper rifle and used it and better positioning to gain ascendancy

My bruiser has cleared this house
with a grenade

Zombie dead pile (they can shoot in this game!)

A relaxing afternoon of blasting each other in an irradiated hellhole. The players next door had a more terrifying time from the sound of it, as they uncovered some large monsters in the course of their game. It's not in shape to publish yet, sadly, but that means we may get more chances to playtest. So the future is bright, for the War Office too!

Tomorrow, I run Charge! Dare I hope for as good a reception? I'm torn on the scenario, so we'll see. Wish me luck!

DBA, a Bit of Fistful of Lead, and a Bit of Painting

Went up to Krieg Haus 2 yesterday, There were seven or eight people there, but we used three smaller tables instead of one big one, so it didn't feel quite so crowded even in the smaller space. Jim ran DBA and Mark ran Fistful of Lead.

Me, I (or my minis) ran headlong into heavy fire.

A few of the armies on display.

Having been reading up on pike-and-shot lately, I wanted to try Swiss. I ended up doing a mid-Swiss-mercenary army, with seven Pike bases plus a Pike general (who had to be proxied by a Blades unit with huge sword), two Blades bases (halberdiers) and two Psiloi (crossbows). My opponent, Stephen, fielded Hundred Years War troops - mostly archers which turned out terrifying because they can shoot twice a turn!

Opposing deployment ...

... and mine.

Turn One, approaching the hill as the English hastily climb it.

Turn Two, not quite in range to fight.

Turn Three, almost there. My only shooting units are too far to help.

Turn Four, my assault is pushed back.

And back...

And back...

In DBA, you roll a die to see how many units you can activate. You can keep all units touching and count them as one (see both deployments) but if units are forced to recoil or flee this can be broken up and suddenly you have three or four discrete groups instead of one. If you then roll a two on the activation die, your army becomes less effective.

My pikes, strong though they were with a bonus for attacking in column, were fighting uphill (minus one to their roll) and as my force broke up and the victorious enemy moved into the gaps, they had greater support (more minuses).

My command element is surrounded... game over.

My mistakes:

• I was under the mistaken impression that both sides deployed terrain, and was hoping to raise Difficult Hills for my (Hilly home terrain) Swiss to block lines of sight. Nope, once a low hill was raised, that was it.
• And I'd conceded it to my opponent during the choose-an-edge phase.
• My deployment also isolated my camp. If my opponent's mounted troops had tried to take it, there's not much I could have done to stop them.
• While my General's base counted as Pike, it didn't look like one (the center figure is hefting a massive sword instead) and so I failed to support it with more Pike and it was isolated and easily surrounded, losing me two victory points. Lose four and the game is over.
• In the first turn of combat, I fought with only one row of Pike, not realizing they had a bonus to fighting in depth.
• I kept marching up the hill into steady bowfire; even weak enemy bases were able to hold me off with support and an uphill bonus.
• My shooty guys never really got into action. At one point, I could have used them to flank the HYW army, but I only rolled one move for that turn and decided instead to march six pike blocks back into action instead.

Suffice to say that for such a small, quick game, DBA is more complex and tactical than it looks.

On a better note, my Swiss had to proxy their camp with a small square of cloth - a required objective for any DBA force. Afterwards, I asked Jim if I might try making some Paperboys-style base camps for his 15mm DBA armies and he jumped at the prospect. We agreed to trade small DBA hills (of which I could use more for my own 18mm Wofuns) for bases, and I will use the robust 32-pound paper, magnetic bases and various camp elements, appropriately reduced in size, from the Paperboys website and Helion books. For example, the Roman Invasion volume has druids and ritual items that could serve well for any Celtic army.

I had to leave soon after, but I was able to take a few turns at Fistful of Lead. It was a Northwest Frontier scene based loosely on The Man Who Would Be King:

The minis belonged to a member of the club who died last year,
but who loved the period and the movies it spawned.

The scenario had about 45 figures on the board, with British outnumbered by Pathans who spent most of their time charging across the board and (unsuccessfully) providing cover fire with rifles.

I crept up close to get into charge range but
lost nearly everyone. Still an incredibly fun game...

... that makes me eager again to get that damn Picacho Pass
scenario on the table. This spring. Really.
You believe me, right?

Paperboys-wise, I have finished assembling my Fyrd. Just need to slip them all into an envelope and send to Peter, but I'll need to wait til I'm back at work tomorrow to print the labels.

The command strip - my low-class mob only gets a couple flags.

Finally, I picked up some Speedpaint markers from the FLGS, which has finally got them in (and they seem popular, as some colors were already gone). I also received the starter set of ten basic colors. More on them next post!

Catch you next time...