Updates to Portable Wargame Fantasy

I've managed to play a couple of games with actual, real people over the last week and this has given me the opportunity to review and in some areas revise my Portable Wargame Fantasy variant.

There's nothing like a good play test or three and it has become apparent from that some aspects were not quite right. The rules on the link above have been updates as follows now:

• Quick Reference Sheet added
• Generals, Spellcasters and Heroes cleaned up to remove ambiguity between troop types and special abilities, plus a lowering of the cost of Generals
• New troop type "Mobs" added to allow for really a poor quality 1 point unit

I've got another solo game planned for tomorrow so will be further testing the mods.

Cheers,

Millsy

Solo Fantasy Campaign - Battle of Ironwald (1)

The first battle of my solo fantasy campaign sees the Orcs get the jump on the Empire of Man and attempt to consolidate their hold on the North, attacking Ironwald from Mageholt with support from Lochpine. The Orcs rolled better when generating army total points and have the larger force.

Attacker - Orcs Force total: 30 + 1d4(3) + 1d4(3) = 36 points Warboss x 1 Orc Skirmishers x 3 Orc Warriors x 3 Orc Wolf Riders x 2 Trolls x 1 Total: Warboss + 9 units Exhaustion Point: 12

Defender - Empire of Man Force total: 30 + 1d8(1) = 31 points General x 1 Handgunners x 1 Halberdiers x 2 Crossbowmen x 1 Knights x 3 Total: General + 7 units Exhaustion Point: 10

The Battlefield

The battlefield is rolling countryside, dotted with low hills, open woodland and some enclosed farmland.

The Battle

Setup

The Empire of Man are blocking the road with the cavalry, with supporting infantry on either flank. The Orcs look to smash the Empire centre with their heavy infantry, while skirmishers advance through the fields on the right supported by a unit of trolls and the wolf riders push up on the left.

Turn 1

The Orcs advance straight forward and are met by the Empire forces. The Orcs cause havoc, wounding three Empire units including two knights with their first charge,

Turn 2

Driven back, the Empire forces consolidate and fight back strongly.

Turn 3

The Orcs attempt to press their advantage with a unit of wolf riders flanking the Empire's right.

Turn 4

Despite being under pressure the Empire forces hold firm, inflict more wounds and rebuff the flanking wolf riders.

Turn 5

Turn 5 sees the first of many casualties, with the Orcs coming off worse despite their numerical advantage.

Turn 6

Both sides are badly knocked around but the Orcs are worse off and have reached their exhaustion point. Blaming everyone but himself the Orc commander withdraws from the field to lick his wounds. A memorable victory for The Empire of Man against the odds.

So that's the first campaign turn over with and victory goes to The Empire of Man ensuring they hold Ironwald. They can no look to go on the offensive and turn the table on the Orcs. Here's a few shots of the troops in melee.

Cheers,

Millsy

Portable Wargame Fantasy Event and Terrain Cards

I've created sets of 36 x Event and 36 x Terrain cards for my solo fantasy campaign to add variety.
If you want copies you can find them here.

Solo Fantasy Campaign

I've been planning a fantasy solo gaming project for some time now and the current situation means there's a lot more time available to me and the inclination to keep myself busy is also there.

I mentioned previously I had been working on fantasy rules based on Bob Cordery's Portable Wargame and had been painting forces. That has continued on and off in a very ad hoc manner and I now have Orcs, the Empire of Man and Undead completed. I've decided to kick the campaign off using the Orcs and the Empire of Man.

Background

The winter of 1230-31 was the worst in recorded history, so bad that the very seas froze over and the island home of the Empire of Men became connected to the wider world by an ice bridge.

Driven from their lairs in the mountains by the harsh conditions, the Orcs crossed the ice bridge in search of food and plunder, spreading out across the island in the depths of winter. With the coming of spring the ice bridge melted leaving the Orcs trapped and determined to consolidate their hold over the island.

War between the Orcs and the Empire of Man is inevitable and as the campaign season begins we find the opposing forces in control of various provinces and ready for war...

The Campaign

I'm a big fan of the campaign system Peter has put together on his Grid Based Wargaming - But Not Always blog and will be using something very similar.

Each season will contain a random number of between 2 and 4 battles, with campaigning happening in spring, summer and autumn. For each battle the attacker will choose to attack a province under enemy control, with limited bonuses to their force based on number of friendly provinces adjacent to the province under attack (i.e. supporting forces). The outcome will decide ownership of the province in question, with draws meaning the defender retains possession. The winner of a battle (or in the case of a draw, the defender) decides where the next battle will occur and is the attacker.

Ultimate victory will go to the force able to capture all provinces on the island or I get tired of things!

The Battles

Battles will be fought using 15mm fantasy armies on a 70mm grid using Bob Cordery's Portable Wargame rules. Before each battle forces will be composed from available troops up to a point total using the following formula:

Attacker: Base 30 points + d4 points per attacking province and supporting province (max 3).
Defender: Base 30 points + d8 points per defending province.

On the map above if the Empire of Man were to attack from Oldmead into the Orc held province of Faywick they would compose a force of 30 + 3d4 points. The Orcs would defend with 30 + d8 points worth of troops. Minima and maxima of troops are according to the army builder on my Portable Wargame Fantasy page.

Table setup will be generated randomly using a set of terrain cards and mechanics allowing for some rearrangement, again based on Peter's ideas found here.

What's Next...

I'm planning on running a test battle or two during the week to iron out how I want to run the defender in each battle e.g. tactics, aggression level, etc. I have loads of options to choose from in my collection of wargame books but it needs to be simple and quick to fit with the Portable Wargame ethos.

That's all for now. More when I kick things off properly.

Cheers,
Millsy

Portable Wargame Fantasy rules

I mentioned in my last blog post that I've been formulating plans for a solo fantasy campaign using Bob Cordery's Portable Wargame rules to fight the tabletop battles. There is no current "official" fantasy version of the rules but a few people have drafted some tentative rules of their own.

I've also had a go, especially given I intend to use these as mentioned above. I've created a new Portable Wargame Fantasy blog page to capture my thinking on troop types, special abilities and spells.

Painting is going very well with the Orcs & Goblins and Empire of Man forces complete. More on that soon once I have had time to take some decent pics.

Cheers,
Millsy

Have You Tried Turning it Off and Back On Again?

And..... I'm back! I could give you all sorts of quite lengthy, detailed and for the most part genuine excuses for where I have been for the last few months but that just seems like a lot of effort.

Instead I'm going to pretend the blog was misbehaving technically somehow and we can all go back to doing whatever seems fun and pretend that never happened. Sound good? Excellent! In the words of Mel Bose the Terrain Tutor... Lets crack on!

So anyway, I actually have been doing quite a bit, it just hasn't made it as far as the computer and consequently not onto the blog. Of late I have become quite frustrated by the lack of face-to-face gaming time.

Consequently I've embarked on a pretty in-depth solo project using 15mm fantasy armies and Bob Cordery's excellent Portable Wargame rules which I have now read several times over, plus the accompanying volumes.

There is currently no PW fantasy variant documented by Bob, although a few fellow enthusiasts have done some bits and bobs (no pun intended). To fill the gap I've pinched bits from theirs and then had a stab for myself which I will share in due course.

Along with the rules I've also developed some troop type definitions by extending Bob's ancient period ones. I've also put together some army selectors along the lines of the old Warmaster Armies ones which fit the idea of the various armies I intend to paint and play with e.g. Warhammer Fantasy-esqe.

From a campaign perspective I've been really enjoying the ECW campaign material of Peter from Grid based wargaming - but not always and have shamelessy appropriated his campaign style including maps, terrain generation and much more. It's wonderfully compact, well thought out system and looks like a load of fun so I can't wait to start using it.

That's enough from me for now. Its good to be back in the saddle and there's more to come over the weekend including a bunch of painted 15mm orcs from the superb Ral Partha Demonworld stable.

Cheers,
Millsy