Battle in the Backwoods

So, trying Xenos Rampant on a small scale here. I combined some of the units to make them more manageable:

Edwardian sailors, light infantry with heavy weapon (Lewis) and increased squad size - 5 points

Edwardian sailor command, command, light infantry with increased squad size - 3 points

Versus:

Albertine sailors, light infantry - 1 point

RCMP - light infantry, command, increased squad size - 3 points

Welsh Guards - heavy infantry with assault doctrine (bayonets) - 4 points

Setup

The Edwardians will march forward and battle the Albertines for ... reasons. The reason being to test out the Xenos Rampant rules. I ran this in the background of a voice chat on the VBCW Discord channel to keep me motivated.

First move goes okay, most units get it for free.

First firing phase. The sailors with Heavy Weapon score four hits, but one 6 adds an extra hit. The sailors they shoot at have 2 armor, so would normally take two casualties, but are in cover so go up to 3 armor and only take one casualty. They Firefight back, but only score one hit, not enough to crack 2 armor. Now both must take courage tests: Both require 4+ (3+ for having commander nearby). The Edwardians roll a 5, the Albertines snake-eyes.

Oops. They are now suppressed, and may not move until rallied.

Next the other sailors fire on the Mounties:

Because not all of them can see, I gave the Mounties cover.

The Mounties took one casualty point, but their return fire got seven 5+ hits and took out two points. Both pass their leadership tests, which have negatives for casualties but bonuses for cover and leadership.

Albertine turn next. The Mounties move aggressively towards the hill, hoping to get under its shelter and out of LOS. The Guards move to the edge of the forest. The sailors rally.

Half the Edwardians move up the hill, into LOS of the Mounties. The other unit fires.

This time the Mounties get no cover, as nearly all the 
sailors can see now.

I rolled three sixes and a five, for a total of seven hits. The Mounties have only 2 armor, so three casualties. Should've gone to ground. Minus two on their leadership check, and ... they pass. Responsive Firefight - they score two hits back but since the target is in cover and thus has 3 Armor, no casualties. They pass leadership - which must be taken regardless of casualties.

Albertine turn next. Let's try having the Mounties go to ground. The sailors move to the edge of the forest, and the Guards get to fire for free. They need sixes to hit and score four out of ten, but their targets are in cover so only one casualty is scored. Their targets attempt to Firefight back, but even with a +1 to the roll for nearby Commander, cannot make a 7+ on 2d6. They pass their morale check easily.

Understrength Mounties, holding ground.

At this small scale, the only way one side will win is if they force a rout on an opposing unit and thus badly outnumber the remnants.

Edwardian turn. Concentrated fire on the Mounties. The sailors with the Lewis score six (!) hits, killing two Mounties even with their +1 armor for Gone to Ground. They roll their Firefight response, as it's only allowed once per turn and they'd better use it now before they take the casualties off and have half dice. 

(I wasn't sure here if they would lose the Go to Ground for Firefighting, as that's an activation which ends the former - in that case they'd take three casualties instead of two. In the event it didn't matter.)

They score three hits for one casualty. Both sides check morale. The Mounties at -2 (two casualties, under half strength, Commander nearby) and the sailors at normal score (one casualty, Commander nearby). The sailors pass, the Mounties (rolling on only one die) roll a one! Their score is negative so they are removed from the board!

The Mounties were the command unit, so this is even worse - All other units must test, without +1 to the score. Both remaining units are in cover though, for a +1 there, and are rolling on two dice for greater than half strength, so they pass easily.

The Edwardians aren't done, though; the other unit gets to fire still and aims at the opposing sailors. They score three hits on 5+ for another casualty. The Albertines, being a smaller unit, need 6s to hit and score none. Albertine leadership check at minus one - rolls a two. They retreat four inches and are suppressed.

At least they're behind the forest,
thus out of LOS.

In their turn, the Albertine sailors rally and the Guards fire, but only score one hit and their targets easily pass the test. Should the Guards with their Close Quarter Doctrine have done the charging? Well, the Mounties were a larger unit and so actually have the same Attack roll as the Guards. Perhaps it's not as useful a benefit as it sounded when I built the list.

The Edwardians, a bit wary of moving forward, rain fire on the Guards in the hope of suppressing them. But only one passes its action roll. That one scores five hits, causing a casualty, but the Guards pass their morale check and Firefight back - scoring only two hits which would cause one casualty IF the target wasn't in cover and thus required three hits. The Edwardian sailors pass morale.

It's the Albertines' turn. The battered sailors move back into the woods and the Guards fire again, again to no result. The target fails its Firefight response.

I would like to see what a charge does for testing purposes, so the Edwardians will advance. Well, leapfrog. The Lewis squad tries to suppress the Guards and scores seven hits - not quite enough for two casualties. They pass morale, but their return fire is still for naught. The other Edwardians move to the front. but are still in cover.

Precariously so.

At this point I decide to skip a turn and test a charge without more desultory fire in between. The Guards have the Assault doctrine (+1 to atttack rolls) and I want to try it.

So let's assume they run at each other like madmen.

The Guards get +5 attack rolls for having Assault, the sailors defence rolls of 4+ for being a reinforced unit. The Guards have better Armor, though, so will it even out? They score three hits on the sailors for one casualty, the sailors score six back for two casualties. No, it didn't. The sailors take a Courage test at -1 and pass, the Guards take on -3 (two casualties, under half strength), and fail. They have a positive score still, but retreat and are suppressed. I'll end the game there.

Do I like these rules? Yes! They're less complex than I make them sound. The activation rules in particular (which could be a serious problem in a game this small) are easier on the player than they are in The Men Who Would Be Kings. The game went pretty quickly (barring breaks, cat removal and writing time for this post). With larger armies, I could see running this at the club. Next time...

Black Powder! (Not That One)

Fellow South Florida Miniatures Gamer Mark Ritchie - who wrote Tactical Combat as played here and here - has Ancients and black-powder rules too - Pilum and Firelock respectively. Last Sunday he ran me and "Oriskany Jim" Johnson through a late-16th-century encounter. The club has been very busy lately, with games almost every Saturday, but I've been working every Saturday for over a month and jumped at the chance for a Sunday game. Unfortunately that meant there were only four of us there. Mark GM'ed the game.

Ron and I played an Imperial/Hungarian force:

Jim got the Poles, including their famous winged lancers:

We played the battle of Byczna, January 24, 1588, part of a civil war between Swedish- and Imperial-backed claimants to the Polish throne. The game is low-scale - each base represents a company of fifty to eighty men.

The battlefield, from the Imperial side. Brown for roads,
blue for rivers, the colorful patches round the village
are cropfields. There is a low hill at center-bottom.

The goal was for at least one Imperial base to hold the road for 15 turns, or alternately to eliminate twenty opposing bases. Both had a mix of pike, shot, pistoliers and lancers or hussars (lots of these); the Imperials also had two guns. A hex is 50 yards, and musket range three hexes. There are also rules for caracole - cavalry move-and-fire - and limicon, which I hadn't heard of before but is roughly the same thing for infantry.

We set up first in the southeast (from my perspective) quadrant, and our options were dire. It wasn't obvious which way Jim would come, as he could set up anywhere about 15 hexes from our line. Ron took the guns and half our army to the left, setting up on the hill east of the village. I set up my infantry across the road, wary of an assault from the northeast, with my cavalry in reserve to go either direction as needed.

Jim, of course, then set up his entire army on our left flank. My troops would have some humping to do...

The Imperial forces, badly strung out; to rear of picture
the Poles. Clumping of troops is deliberate, as orders
are best issued to groups.

My half, now facing the wrong direction, but with
cavalry positioned to support.

Ron's side. Each unit had 6 or 8 hit points, with loss
denoted by colored pipe cleaners; here the guns start
with only four HP apiece. Tags denote leaders.

Jim's cavalry races forward.

Not all units could be moved; each commander generated 1d6 orders, which could be transferred to other commanders. This is where the clumping comes in; a single order can be issued to several units at once provided they are contiguous. There is an action economy, and there were times our side rolled poorly enough to have to seriously think about what moves we could make.

Our side fires. In addition to HP loss, units can be
shaken or routed, denoted by colored caps.

There is more to firing and combat than just the fighting; units must take morale checks when they take casualties or when fired on by cannon (even if it does no damage). On one failure, the unit is shaken and takes a yellow marker; on two it is broken, takes a red marker, and retreats a random number of hexes. If broken in close combat, it is eliminated outright. Like in Warhammer Fantasy, close combat would make the real difference here, and units could overrun and enter combat with another unit.

The combat result table links number of attacks plus assorted bonuses to a 2D6 score that can cause up to three hits on the opposing base (though both sides may attack). Hits may be saved; those that aren't require morale checks, which ultimately resolve the combat. It's possible to be eliminated by hits alone, but more likely to eventually fail a check and either retreat or, with two failures in CC, be eliminated that way.

Turn 1: Jim threw a unit of fast horse archers at us, then swept across our left flank while his infantry followed more sedately. I hastily moved my flank towards the enemy, but at the rate they were going, the infantry wouldn't make it in time to participate. Roads do allow extra movement provided half the unit's move is on that road, and luckily I was mostly deployed near it.

Turn 2: The hussars charged Ron's hill. We lost two pike units, a gun, musketeers, and horse, while a second horsed unit broke and fled. Five units lost already - close combat in this game is a quick way to die. The other gun managed to hold off the winged lancers, and in our turn, we variously rallied shaken units and advanced. Our counter-attack was weak and did little to push the Polish army away from our flank.

The winged lancer charge goes in. Units can also support, so
it's good to gang up on each other. After the forward lancer
eliminates the gun, for example, the rear one handles the pikes - 
which don't help against the longer lances of the cavalry.

The first gun captured, lancers go after the second.

Reiters attempt to rescue it.

Turn 3: The hussars continued to chew through our flank, but I passed eight (!) morale checks (which, like Warhammer, are roll-under). I exchanged dice during combat but then started rolling high on morale checks and lost a few units any way. I charged on my own "northern" flank, to little effect. My infantry, some of them very good landsknechts, were too far away to help.

Turn 4: More of the same. My infantry finally got close enough to fire shot at Jim's also-slowly-slogging infantry while his cavalry continued to rampage through what remained of Ron's end. Partway through, we lost our twentieth base and the game was over - Jim had lost four, two of them on the last turn. I'd taken a lesson from his tactics and made sure to gang up on his units to force more morale checks. If we'd continued, my infantry close-combat types were now close enough to do some serious damage, but his cavalry would have swept behind me and finished the job.

Lancers tear the crap out of Imperial reiters, though in the
distance you can see my own attack going in. The yellow-
capped bases are in trouble; one loss in CC and they'll be gone.

Melee on the road - from the darker colors of chenille
and the yellow caps, I'm finally achieving something.

A fun and exciting game, but unfortunately lost in the deployment phase. Tactics have never been my strong suit, despite far too much reading on the topic. Maybe that's why I like 18th-century, when they were mostly stolid. Pike and shot isn't my thing either, and the revelation that lances could basically ignore the whole point of pikes was devastating. Jim's winged lancers lived up to their reputation.

A few more close-ups of Mark's nicely-painted figures:

Infantry in trouble. This arquebus base has 1 of 8 hp left.

Jim's view of same combat.

Poles hold off the Imperial charge.

Poles closing the trap. Dice denote order "pips" available
to commanders; the CinC can distribute these to others.

I neglected to bring some of my 18mm Wofuns to test on the hexes; I'd be happy to play again using horse-and-musket tactics with these rules. We'll see. Jim again took video for Sitrep Podcast but it won't be published until August, I'll post a link then. Happy gaming, all.

Lookit, We Painted Something

... On the one hand, the paint-and-take program I ran today was chaotic.

On the other hand, the kids (and parents!) were enthusiastic and clearly enjoyed themselves. I had several ask to do a second figure. Several parents asked for more information about Warhammer and I gave away a few of the magazines, which contain coloring sheets, background information and simple game rules. I also suggested they look for painting videos on Youtube, but cautioned them about the Grimdark theme of the games - as long as they stick to the painting videos and avoid showing their kids the lore, I probably won't get any complaints!

Pro-tips for doing a public painting program with small children:

• Have extra experienced painters at the table.

That's it, really, but the fact that there was only one of me and, at times, a dozen or more people crowded around the painting table meant that:

• I spent most of my time replacing dirty paint water.
• I couldn't spend enough time going over the basics, which in turn meant...
• ...That people were sitting down while I was away from the table sidetracked by something else, and making a mess.

I wasn't expecting quite that many people at once, nor was I expecting to keep getting sidetracked. Next time I'll train a coworker or two on the basics.

When I do this with the teens, I usually only have a handful, they're all starting at the same time, and they're all paying attention. Doing it as a "drop-in" event is, as I said, chaotic when all the painters are newbies. My normal procedure is to make sure everyone has a brush, an undercoated mini, and starts out with one (1) paint bottle. Open the bottle, draw a little paint from the cap (or, with Army Painter bottles which I am learning to prefer, squeeze just a little), mix it with a bit of water, and start painting. Even better is if I have a mini of my own to demonstrate each step. With just a few kids (and there were a few older ones and parents too) I could clearly explain the "two thin coats" thing.

This worked alright early on, before we were crowded and when most attendees were in our auditorium looking at live critters brought by a parks authority. Everyone could see and everyone paid attention.

Later, it was a real scramble. The younger kids were impatient. Painting directly from the pot isn't that big a deal, but opening the pot wide and pouring it directly onto the table is. Mixing it in the bottle... was, in hindsight at least, hilarious. At least I hadn't paid for the bottles! We had some "one thick coat" minis, and I scrambled for paper to wrap them in for the ride home because obviously they weren't going to dry.

At least no paint got on the floor, and coworkers convinced me to put two layers of paper on the table.

Ah, kids.

Pictures!

Setup: Magazines and an action figure for inspiration,
minis, paint, water and wet-wipes.

Some of the results:

So, yeah, reasonably successful. One coworker was optimistic about the possibility of painting skeletons or building zombies for Halloween. I'll burn that bridge when or if I get to it...!

VBCW and Xenos Rampant

Finished Xenos Rampant. I must say, after 40K it's pretty refreshing to have simpler mechanisms. I'm still a bit iffy about the activation rolls (having tried a round of The Men Who Would Be Kings where neither side did anything for turns on end), but it seems to have been modified, in the sense that the roll is now on 2d6 rather than 1d6. Having units be more abstract is a little tricky, too, especially since I may try this with beginners at work. The zombie rules in particular would be useful for a Halloween-themed game.

My first step is to experiment with Very British Civil War. If I stick with what I bought on the first day at Recon, this will be on a very small scale. The standard army is 24 points.

Mountie command - Light Infantry, Reduced Model Unit, 1 point.

Mountie rifles - Light Infantry, 1 point.

Left, Mounties with rifles. Right, the Inspector,
a grizzled Sergeant, and Scotty the wolfhound.

Welsh Guards with bayonets - Heavy Infantry, Assault Doctrine, 4 points.

Summer Sailors - Light Infantry, 1 point.

Vs.

Winter Sailor Command - Light Infantry, 1 point.

Winter Sailors - Light Infantry, 1 point.

Winter Sailors with Lewis gun - Light Infantry, Heavy Weapon, 3 points.

Winter Sailors with SMGs and Molotov cocktails - Light Infantry, Area Effect, Close Quarters Doctrine, 1 point.

This is six points for the sailors, and seven for the other lot. I could add to the boys in blue:

Open-topped truck with added Vickers gun - Soft-skin vehicle, Single Model Unit, Technical, 3 points.

The sailors steal a civilian vehicle and bolt on a Vickers gun
from the ship's armory before setting out for their objective.

And upgrade the RCMP units to Recon for 2 points. Given their red coats, this may not fit, as Recon are supposed to be Hard to Target! Perhaps it could be attributed to their open-order skirmishing?

That would be nine points a side. Cover the field in pine trees, add a cabin and maybe a stream, and we're set for a (very small) action in the backwoods.

Another possibility for more points would be to count all units as Heavy, making them more effective, and/or perhaps count the Guard section as Increased Squad Size to improve their hit points and combat scores. But I think I'll stick to the simpler versions for now. And I won't use commander traits, either, which are a little too random for my taste anyway.

On a larger scale, ALL of the above could be added to an armored car or two for a full 24-point army, which would face off against the 8th-Army types with their tank and transports. Possibly for a remote game, once I have the rules internalized.

So with lists ready, next post - unless I have a painting or work post instead - will be an experimental battle report.

Second Blogaversary

Two years of blogging. Still a bit surprised I've kept this up, but then again it may have been the blog that kept me going.

Not nearly so much gaming played as read about, but that's typical for me. Here's the wargaming goals I set myself a year ago:

• Finish my solo '45 campaign.
• Done, with help but in style. Thank you, George.
• Start a solo colonial campaign using The Sword in Africa.
• Nope. Did get to play a game at Recon, though.
• Run some more of Over the Hills and Far Away.
• Nope.
• Run some more of Glory:1861.
• Nope.
• Play some more Portable Wargames.
• Nope. This is looking bad, isn't it?
• Go to a convention!
• Now that I did, and got a whole four blogposts out of it into the bargain. It was an enjoyable experience and I'm happy I pushed myself to do it.

Whether I get to the next one depends on whether I'm still here. I'm looking for jobs not in Florida, at the moment. So one goal for the next year is to get off my butt and:

• Run Picacho Pass, soon. Now that I have some appropriate terrain and useful rules, I just have to, er, learn the rules. Maybe in the next couple months.
• Get started with VBCW. Now I've got some appropriate minis and the Xenos Rampant rules, I can do some solo playtesting.
• Another solo thing - the Mike Lambo English Civil War rules. I should be able to use my Memoir '44 board and tiles to recreate the hexgrids in his scenarios.
• Playing the solo Charles Grant scenarios, with 18th-century imagi-nations. Rules are up in the air here, kinda like the '45 campaign. I want to do the Junior General Leuthen scenario one of these days, but don't QUITE have enough minis yet. A couple packs of the 18mm Wofuns may cover it, but then the 10mm Wofuns are also on the way... we'll see.
• Run a historical game at work. Juneteenth and 4th of July are coming up, I really ought to be able to fit one in. And that model of Battery Wagner is still sitting by my desk... not in great condition but the kids won't care.
• Do The Sword In Africa thing. Possible, maybe if I can get anyone at the club to come in on a Sunday. Remote games might work too - any takers?
• Something Northwest Frontierish, just because I've never gotten to play anything in that particular period/niche. Not sure how. There are a few semi-solo campaigns for the genre out there; the one in Grant's Programmed Scenarios might suit. I want to run it with Bob Cordery's Bundok and Bayonet, which might assuage my guilt over not doing much with Portable Wargames.

The RPG types Over the Hills and Glory: 1861 fell by the wayside, mostly because they aren't really playable solo. I'm sorry about that, because the creation/design phase of gaming appeals most to me. I enjoy those pencil-and-paper RPGs, too, which start out with some worldbuilding, setting up what the group wants to play. If I thought I could get my local group (or my teens) to do them on a regular basis, maybe I'll try again.

Hmm, maybe if I have the teens build a map to play on? I've seen another librarian on Facebook do it...

As usual, I'm a butterfly. Too many ideas, too little time. But then, that's half the reason I started this blog in the first place - talking and writing about games is more than half the fun! Thanks for following me on the journey, whether you're lurking or replying - every little bit helps.

Storing, Packing and VBCW thoughts

Went to the gun shop again today, and picked up two metal cash boxes for my new historicals. The 8th Army figures already had magnetic bases, and when I showed a couple to the staff they were flabbergasted by the detail. I think they have a better idea now of why I'm using their wares to keep my collection - though they still didn't have the harder customizable foam, just the wavy type that doesn't really hold small models in place. I got a little of it anyway, to help secure vehicles.

Sisters of Battle vehicles.

WWII era vehicles. This box is too shallow for a layer
of proper foam under the models.

8th Army infantry. Or Mobile Division, if we revert to 1938.

I bought a roll of magnetic tape and adhered it to the VBCW types:

Haven't quite figured out how to get the plastic
bill retainers off, but there's plenty of room for what's there.

I received a copy of Xenos Rampant today; with its modular, generic army-building rules it's popular with the VBCW crowd. I found a discussion group on Discord which will be having a chat tomorrow on the topic. For the moment, with just a few pages read, here's what I have in mind to begin with:

A reduced-model Mountie command, Mountie squad,
sailors in summer uniform, and British infantry.

Eighteen sailors in winter uniform, including a couple
submachine guns, Molotov cocktails, and a Lewis gun.

The scenario involving all of these will be set in the Canadian wilderness somewhere on the coast, with Mounties, sailors and Guard protecting Albert's daughters in a hidden cabin, while a kidnapping team of opposing sailors tries to get past them. The Edwardian sailors are in winter uniform because their ship was sent from south of the Equator.

My new Rohan hut may work for the cabin. We shall say it was built by an immigrant from the Shetlands or Faroes:

(One of the few things I pride myself on is being able to scrape together a story from a selection of random elements. Comes of doing children's storytimes on short notice for sixteen years. Handy for running roleplaying games, too.)

Speaking of work, the last photo is of prep for the summer reading kickoff:

Three dozen Warhammer Alliance minis, undercoated
and almost ready for paint-and-take.

I may have the teen interns go over these and touch up their lower regions with the undercoat color, but I have less than two more weeks to prepare. Some of the minis in the kit are fiddly, particularly the fantasy ones, which are armed with thin, breakable spears, so there are only three dozen instead of four dozen models here... good thing they're free!

Nuns With Guns

 I brought a lot of minis to work this week, using the tech lab's light box to photograph them. Wednesday was the turn of my new, but nicely-painted Sisters of Battle army.

I got a couple teens to help me set up the field of battle:

Assorted rocky outcrops surrounded a ruined shrine, which would be the objective for the game. Each side got three squads and one vehicle. The players varied over the course of the hour-plus we played, some dropping out and others turning up.

The rules were Third Edition, using the army lists in the main rulebook. I made two mistakes - I gave the Sisters better ballistic skill, and forgot that the Immolator tank's weapon had a special quality.

A new player ponders his first move.

Another learns to measure moves.

In the first turn, the two sides simply moved; nothing was in range to shoot. The side with the blue Sisters made its first mistake - it advanced the squad over the hill, and rolled poorly on its difficult terrain checks for the rest of the game.                                       

STEM requirements of the program were met when one of the teens started taking some fairly good pictures.

A transported squad.

In the second turn the mounted squads - a command unit and heavy weapons squad - dismounted from their transports and fire was exchanged, to little effect.

I explain how to disembark figures - placed near the hatches.

Explaining how Tank Shock and Death or Glory work.

Jump-pack Seraphim tackle heavily-armed Retributors...

... as the Immolator tank flames an oncoming infantry squad.

Sadly, I counted the Immolator's weapon as a regular heavy flamer; in practice it should have been an Inferno cannon which automatically breaks its target. Given that the blue squad also on the Immolator's side never got into action, this would have made a difference to the result, as that side was thus badly outnumbered in the center of the field.

Sisters advance upon Sisters. This is where a different army
would have come in handy. I'll have to paint the base edges.

The game ended at 5:30pm, four or five turns in, after an internecine combat between assault and heavy-weapons squads over the shrine. The heavy-weapons sisters eventually broke and fled. The assault side, at this point, had only one unit on the shrine - its Rhino transport. Victory to them. The players of the other side learned a lesson about not isolating half their infantry (still standing on the corner hill and plinking storm-bolter shots across the board). I learned a lesson about learning rules better before demoing a game - or at least making clear unit cards so I didn't have to keep checking the army list. Such instructions were extremely useful for new players in many of the games during the convention, and I'll take them into account in future.

Ultimately a good game, and I had about a dozen players or observers in the course of it. Next week we'll go back to DnD. But STEAMFest is coming up in less than a month, so I have to build and prime the Games Workshop freebies before then...