Falklands War with Dead Man's Hand

Last Friday I took a trip over to my friend Mark D's place to help him play test a Falklands War game he's going to be running at our club this upcoming game night. The rules used were Dead Man's Hand by Great Escape Games.

I haven't played this rule set before, but I was quite impressed with the elegance of the activation system. After the game I immediately ordered myself a copy of the rules.

We drew lots to see who got which side. I drew the British. They had a unit of paratroopers and a unit of mountain troops drawn from the military academy training cadre. My paratroopers had a sniper which was a fun figure to play with. Mark had the Argentinians. Our missions crossed paths in the middle of the board insuring conflict would be quickly manifested.

I had some excellent rolls early knocking out several Argentinians. Mark compressed his two squads together into a fire base and started to bring the casualties back towards even. During this time I pressed onto both of my objectives. In each case I secured the objective, then immediately had a casualty with the capturing figure. At the end of the game I had a narrow lead, although with a full six player game who knows.
 

The rules seem fun, the scenario is quite balanced. My only regret is I'll be running a game myself at the same game night so I won't get to play in this game myself when he runs it!

Saga Saturday

This past Saturday I hosted a 'Saga day' in my basement at the encouragement of my friend Mike and the rest of the club members who were interested. Having a twelve foot long table I can host three separate Saga tables at one time. With the addition of a pair of folding tables I can have four simultaneous games running.  Saturday we had two people who couldn't make it so the big table was enough space. The official Saga playing areas are marked out using orange masonry string.

On the left table Mike and Dick squared off. Dick was commanding a Milites Christi force and Mike was pushing a Saracan warband. I believe Dick won this table. I'm sorry the battle reports on the neighboring tables are unexciting. Playing a Crusader army for the first time had me more than overwhelmed just trying to play my own game.

 The right table featured Ralph's freshly painted and beautiful Teutonic Knights against Michaels Mutatawwi'a with their awesome and lavish encampment. This was a close affair, but I believe Ralph squeaked out a win mostly thanks to an early elimination of Michael's warlord.

 Here's a close-up of Ralph's Teutonic figures.








My battle was against Greg's freshly painted and also beautiful Spanish. I used a borrowed crusader army loaned to me by Mike. Mike's crusaders had a unit of levy and a unit of pilgrims. The pilgrims are awful soldiers, but with the right encouragement from the battle board, can be made to fight. Losing pilgrims also motivates the rest of your force allowing you extra Saga actions. This encourages you to get the pilgrims stuck in and dead, which I did. Early on they gave one of Greg's hearthguard units all that they could handle driving them from the table. From there on it was all Spanish as Greg's javelin-armed force picked my apart in detail with their hit and move tactics. A push at the end made it a closer affair, but the points total showed that Greg had me going away. His Spanish are a tough army to fight against, particularly when well played, which Greg did quite effectively. Good game Greg!

Hopefully later this fall we'll do some more Saga. For now, it's back to the workshop for me to continue working on the Salerno Tobacco factory terrain for our club's October game day.

Saga Crusades Extravaganza at Mike's

First off, rumors of my demise are greatly exaggerated. Sorry to have not been posting lately. Family commitments and a three-week sinus infection has put a damper on gaming and painting. All is better now so gaming and painting has resumed. We now return to our regular programming in progress....

Last Friday my friend Mike (pictured left) invited a couple other club members and me to his house for an afternoon and evening of Saga 2.0. Mike has been running a few games at our club's monthly events recently. With the publishing of the 2nd edition of the rules and the Crusades army supplement, Mike has taken it upon himself to offer to get those in the club that are interested in Saga up to speed.

I showed up at Mike's in the early afternoon for some 1 on 1 games and after a dinner break, Charlie and Michael joined us. In the afternoon Mike and I were able to play three games with me getting to learn three different armies and their associated battle boards. All games were four point games with the basic scenario from the core rule book.

The first game I played a Mutatawwi'a force against Mike's Crusader force. These are fanatical eastern Muslim jihadist. Their battle board features many skills that allow them to lower their armor to increase their attack power. They also have the ability to sacrifice a figure to do a targeted attack on an enemy unit. The latter seemed a bit more modern of an interpretation, but the rest of the skills seem in theme for the period.

I set up my archers in a small palm tree grove and Mike calmly ignored it instead preferring to anchor his flank on his own grove. I got a lucky shot with my bows against his hearth guard (elite) unit and then we started trading figures in successive attacks. In the end I used my depleted bow unit to invoke the skill that sacrificed a figure to attempt to attack the enemy units. After a few attacks my bow unit was depleted, but Mike's remaining hearth guard unit was eliminated sealing the game.

Game two I chose the more traditional Milites Christi army and Mike tried again with the Crusader force. In this game I mismanaged one of my hearth guard units, isolating it behind a palm grove. Mike skillfully used the grove to keep my unit out of the battle fighting my army with his four units against my three. In the end I did finally get my hearth guard back thanks to aggressive pursuit by Mike and the accidental reserve unit turned the battle right at the end.

The third game Mike let me have his Crusader army with two units of warriors and two units of hearth guard. Mike opposed this with his other Crusader army 'The Twelve' which featured three mounted hearth guard units combined to form two six-figure mounted units with an eight-figure warrior unit backing them up. Mike's larger units hit like a truck, but once one was eliminated, the lower dice pool of the army became very limiting. I eeked out a win in this one. All in all I think Mike may have been 'letting the Wookie win' in order to give me a good tutorial on the rules.

After dinner Michael and Charlie arrived. Since Charlie was new to Saga, Mike played a couple of games with him while Michael and I squared off. Michael wanted to push the Crusaders so I ended up with the Mutatawwi'a again. This was a close fight with the two key moves being a long-distance charge from one of my foot warrior units (a Mutatawwi'a special attack) and some finishing suicide attacks.

For our final game Michael and I swapped sides and for this one the Mutatawwi'a came out on top again, but in a very close affair. Michael out played me by using an ability that put my own dice against me. His Mutatawwi'a ability reduced his armor, but in trade made my missed attacks damage my own troops. Michael chose the perfect time to spring this ability on me, when I had a maximum 16-dice attack. The ability cost me three extra damage, two of which I had to use one of my own abilities to abate, the third killed an additional figure on top of the losses from his attack. I had counted on my ability making the engagement safe, but that didn't work out quite as I planned. Late in the battle I made some desperate attacks, but Mike's troops held up. Well played. 

I ended up playing five very fun games, all to conclusion in one afternoon and evening. What a great day of gaming. Thanks to Mike for hosting and Michael and Charlie for the chance to get together. I wouldn't be surprised to see some Saga war band figures on the painting table in my future.

30 Years War Skirmish at Ed's

My friend Ed from Ed M's Wargame Meanderings Blog invited my friend George and I to his gaming loft for a play test of the game he's going to run at the Huzzah! Convention later this month. Ed's game is a 30 Years War skirmish using his own rules. The game featured Ed's wonderfully painted figures with both mounted and matching dismounted figures as well as beautiful terrain, mostly from Miniature Building Authority, with other various bits tossed in. The scenario is set in a post-battle-ravaged town, with Croats, Cossacks and other various looting troops trying to raid a supply depot that was put in the town during the battle, but guarded by an inadequate force. I was given command of a squad of Croats - just my style! They're pictured to the left, mounted and dismounted. Each figure is used as desired to represent the character on the table.

Ed goes over the rules and the scenario. The rules feature a points budget for each figure from which it buys actions, move, shoot, fight, manipulate the environment, etc. The system is very straight forward and easy for convention goers to pick up quickly. Figures last a little bit in combat and are rarely 'one shot'. This means a small squad of figures with which you get to do a lot. Fun.

Ed's known for his work with the word processor and desktop publishing software. His game's QRS and troop tracking cards are helpful and easy to understand. 

As for the game, because it was a play test, we only played a few rounds and then had fun talking about the rules and scenario to help Ed tune the game for Huzzah!

I dashed in with my Croats, dismounted two with muskets and two with pistols. My officer tended to the horses and shouted orders. I bribed one of the quartermaster's men who shot at Ed half heartedly and then ran. My muskets placed a scalding volley on George causing absolutely no damage. My other troops fired on Ed causing only a minor wound. The Croats weren't very good shots rolling five ones out of six die rolls including a 'snake eyes' roll to damage on the one shot I hit.

Ed and George fought a melee in which Ed charged in mounted against one of George's kneeling musket-armed troopers. George counter-charged with another man who drew his sword and made the affair an even fight. Ed still carried the battle due to the fortunes of war. Speaking of fortunes, George picked up an array of small arms in the looting and 10 guilders. Ed scored a couple guilders from two different loot piles. I got only two guilders from the loot store under the Quartermaster's table. Never hide the best loot in plain sight I guess.

This was a fun relaxing evening with friends. The game, for Huzzah! looks to be a fun one; as George would say, 'a ripping yarn'.
 

(Not) Brother Against Brother Napoleonic Skirmish Game #2

Last Friday my friend Ed had Byron, Charlie, Mike, George and I over for another go at his Brother Against Brother Napoleonic house rules. This time George and I were the French and Byron, Charlie and Mike were the Prussians. Like the first go around, the Prussians got a good jump on the half-timber barn and commanded that flank from it. George and I pushed into the park with our forces. George had about the same luck pressing the Prussian left as the first playing of the scenario (none at all). Pressed from the hard cover of the barn, I eventually also withered. The Prussians handled the French roughly and won the scenario by a good margin. Well played to them.

This is a good scenario and a second play reinforced the fact that Ed's house rules are all good steps forward in an already good game system. I'm looking forward to more games using Ed's modifications.

(Not) Brother Against Brother Napoleonic Skirmish Game

Today, the Saturday of Historicon, those of us who stayed home were invited our our friend Ed's house for "Historicon North". Planned was a day of gaming with multiple games. In truth we had so much fun playing the first game that we played straight through lunch and pretty much spent the day on it. I think I speak for all who were present, it was totally worth it!

The game was Ed's first unveiling of his house rules for the popular Brother Against Brother ACW skirmish rules.  Ed's changes include a new dice-based morale check system which includes risk to officers and special events. It also contains some formation choices for units that are on the 'nice and simple' side of complexity. Just enough for flavor without being difficult to use.

The game was a meeting engagement between the French played by Mike and Charlie and the Prussians played by George, Peter and myself. Control of three of five terrain objectives would win the game. Four of the objectives were quadrants of a garden park and the fifth was a villa outside the park. The Prussian plan was to try for the villa, but if the French beat us to it. switch our attack to one of the French quadrants of the park.

Early on it looked good for the French to snipe one of our quadrants. Just as Peter stabilized things there, George took control of the villa. This position would prove dominant for the remainder of the game. On the other flank, Peter's green Prussian Reserve company was unstoppable. They simultaneously dueled a French line unit and conducted charge attacks against a French grenadier unit in the flank. Holding out to the last two men they held the flank and helped drive the French from our quadrant sealing the game. That unit only had 2 privates and a sergeant left at the end of the battle, but before they fight again they'll be a lieutenant and two sergeants!

Thanks for the great game Ed. It's was the next best thing to going to Historicon.