Saga AAR: Pictus Invictus

My Picts got their second Saga outing last week at Silver King Games & Hobby in Tacoma, WA. This time, they didn't get beaten. 

We wound up playing in the swank(ish) upstairs space that Silver King recently acquired. It's the old office space overlooking the floor of the former adjoining bank, which is now a wrestling club (lots of changes along South Tacoma Way).

It's club space and requires membership. The premium membership allows a member and three guests to use the space. When we showed up yesterday, we realized that the space we normally use wouldn't accommodate us all—our tribe increases. Kevin Smyth and I both have premium membership and others purchased memberships with the result that we could all move up to the nice air-conditioned club space.

An excellent surprise to the day was Bob Mackler showing up. Bob is my most reliable blog reader (hello, Bob) and knew from previous posts that we were playing at Silver King on Wednesday. He's got a Sassanid warband in the works, but for today, he visited and watched. (That's him standing with his arms crossed talking to the seated, fat, balding grayhair, i.e., me.)

I played Dean Motoyama, who used his excellent new Late Roman army (all Gripping Beast plastics). Both our warbands were from Age of Invasions. We played the Feasting and Pillaging scenario from the Book of Battles. The victory conditions involved seizing three objective markers and counting survival points.

I made sure there was plenty of uneven terrain on the table, so that my Picts could skulk about and get the nifty bonuses from their advanced Saga abilities that require them to be near uneven/dangerous terrain. Picts love terrain. 

One disadvantage in terrain placement was that the objective markers must be placed in a line at the center of the table. No terrain can be placed within Short (S) distance of any marker. Where I hoped to have a central patch of terrain, I got wide open space. Nevertheless, it proved to be advantageous ground for me.

I even got my new ruins in the game, although Dean moved the piece I placed back from the center, so it was a non-factor in the game, but looked gloriously ruinous on the table.

I also added my Pictish stones as scatter terrain (one on each flank). It's nice to let the enemy know whose land they're on.

Dean's array looked formidable and I was pretty certain that I'd get crushed. He had three hearthguard units, some mounted archers, a unit of warriors, and a unit of warrior archers. There were a lot of metal-clad Romans facing me.

Facing him, I had my probably worthless crossbows on the left, the fearsome Attacotti in the center, the two mounted hearthguard units towards my right, and my one unit of plain ol' warriors tucked up behind the ruins.

Dean was first player and used manoeuver to get his units right up to the objective markers. He seized the two on the flanks on the second turn, but didn't have a die to do a second activation with his middle unit.

We were a bit vague in our understanding about capturing and carrying away the objectives (having, ya know, not actually read the rule until after the first capture). Dean rushed in with his mounted units only to discover that mounted troops are pretty much crap for snagging objective markers. Their movement is reduced to Short (S) and they suffer a fatigue for each move they make with the objective marker. Foot units also move S, but don't suffer fatigue from schlepping.

Being occupied with seizing objective markers, Dean committed a third of his force—and his best units—to carrying them off. I wasn't sure I'd be able to snatch any back and thought the game might end quickly and ignominiously for me. However, fate took a hand.

Manicotti madness

I sent the fearsome Attacotti through the woods and smashed them into Dean's mounted hearthguard who was poised to take the middle objective marker the first chance they got. Picts have some amazing Saga abilities that allow them to move quickly across a lot of distance and terrain and then strike hard.

The Frenzy advanced Saga ability for the Picts is tailor-made for the Attacotti. It gives you the ability to re-roll ALL your failed attack dice. Along with the Ambush Saga ability that gave me four more attack dice, I threw 20 dice against Dean's eight. My initial roll was lackluster, no lustre at all (I can't believe how few hits I can get on 20 dice), but re-rolling the failed dice upped my hits to over a dozen. Dean only had to fail four saves and his unit was gone.

I came out unscathed—even though at first I thought I'd lost one, I hadn't accounted for a Saga ability that gave me +1 to my defence dice. 

However, Dean had a unit of hearthguard on foot that smashed into the Attacotti on his next turn. This is where it gets dangerous for the Attacotti. On the attack, they get THREE dice per figure, which is more than they can actually include in their initial dice pool if they're six figures or more. One the defense, they're just regular warriors with one die per figure; however, they still get the magical save-three-on-a-six defense roll. Dean's attack bounced without either of us inflicting damage on the other.

Next turn, the fearsome Attacotti—using Frenzy, Ambush, and Feint again—hit the foot hearthguard and vaporised them, again without loss to me. At this point, the center of the field was clear of Romans and my Attacotti were invincible as well as fearsome.

Elsewhere

I still didn't have possession of any objective markers and Dean was busy carrying away two. I was loth to screw up my Attacotti's mobility or my mounted hearthguard for that matter. I ignored the center objective marker and focused on Dean's left.

Over there, my warriors had come out from behind the ruins and had gone after Dean's bowmen, who proved tough to kill. I charged them with my warriors, but got as good as I gave (3/3) and bounced. They shot down one of my hearthguard. The remaining three hearthguard charged them and inflicted damage but after the carnage there were still two bowmen left standing and I'd lost two more hearthguard. 

Dean was still in possession of two objective markers and I had none, although the middle marker was still up for grabs and I was in the best position to take it. What I needed to do was snatch a marker away from Dean.

I used the Scouts ability to move the fearsome Attacotti into the woods that Dean's cataphracts were passing on their way off the board. I had to be sure not to place them too close and invite Dean to smack them first with his cataphracts. I already had Frenzy activated and was waiting till next turn to trigger it.

Just shoot me

Meanwhile, on my other flank, the Pictish crossbowmen were underwhelming all who beheld their performance, mostly me. I suspect, however, that Dean was delighted.

I managed to inflict just two casualties on Dean's horse archers (the ones carrying off the objective marker) over three turns of shooting, but little else. I'm starting to think that levy missile troops are a waste of a point. They're tempting because they inflict their damage from afar (well, 30cm), but they require a rare or uncommon Saga die to activate and the target saves on a 4+. Also, the shooter gets no benefit from target's fatigue, but the target can up its armor using the shooter's fatigue. 

Dean has a natural magical save ability, which was aided and enhanced by the Scuta Saga ability that gave him re-rolls for failed saves (not that he ever needed to re-roll much). Lots of crossbow bolts bounced harmlessly off the shields of Dean's troops. If the Attacotti hadn't been rolling 20+ dice in their attacks, I would never have even dented the armor on Dean's hearthguard.

Not only are levy missile troops a waste of a point, they may also be a waste of Saga dice, too. The rare or uncommon die used to activate them may be better used for other Saga abilities. Scott Appleby told me he's stopped using levy missile troops precisely for the reasons I'm reconsidering it. That would mean no slingers, however. I love slingers.

The bloody end

Having moved my fearsome Attacotti into position to strike Dean's cataphracts, I triggered Masters of the Field for the wood that they were in (it negates movement penalties for all my foot troops for the turn), then Frenzy to charge, then Ambush for the melee.  

It was another slaughter. It's hard to survive someone throwing 20 attack dice at you. However, the Attacotti lost half their number in the exchange. So far they'd had a charmed life, not losing a single figure in the preceding three melees. That six-saves-three characteristic is very nice to have.

By vaporizing the cataphracts, the now diminished yet still fearsome Attacotti got control of their objective marker. Dean's warlord took a fatigue and I decided to throw caution to the wind and charge Dean's warlord with my intact mounted hearthguard unit. I lost three figures, but Dean's warlord was no more. He was left with two bowmen on his left; on his right were 8 warriors on foot and six horse archers.

I'd moved my crossbowmen into the wood the previous turn, having decided that they were doing no good shooting, and was in position this turn to jump out and seize the middle objective marker.

After six turns, we counted our spoils and survivors. I wound up with 18 points to Dean's 7. The ferocious Attacotti had devoured all three of his hearthguard units and my hearthguard had taken out his warlord. It was a grim day for Rome in the far north of their crumbling empire.

The fearsome Attacotti were the heroes of the day. I still think they're a glass hammer; I just got lucky in surviving three melees intact. From the start, I expected the results would be more like the fight against the cataphracts with attrition from every melee. 

I fared much better than in the Picts previous game against Dave Demick's Picts. Even without Attacotti of his own, he used Frenzy + Ambush to smack me around. Being in position to attack the Attacotti gave him the advantage, despite the Attacotti's miracle save (I just stopped rolling 6s at one point).

I think the moral of the story is that only a Pict can beat a Pict.

Dice fetish update

After realizing two weeks ago that I could be rolling more than 16 dice in melee for the fearsome Attacotti, I knew I needed a bigger bucket o' dice. Besides, playing Saga again made me want to break out the venerable Viking dice I've collected over the years. They're so adorably grotesque and misshapen that I can't forgo their use. However, I wasn't sure where I'd put them...

Organizational standards at the Sullivan Institute for Applied Numbskullery (SIFAN) are a bit lax. I had to cogitate for a while on when I'd last used them, which, it turns out, was the Row Well and Live game that Dave Schueler, David Demick, Kevin Smyth, and I played on Dave's lawn in August of 2020. It was our last 3DK (3 Daves and Kevin) event.

So, I just needed to find the box I put everything in after the game...

On Tuesday evening, I sorted through the shelves in my Garage of Despair, found the right box, and—after a bit of sifting—found the dice within it in their nifty spalted tamarind dice vault that matches my spalted tamarind dice tray. I'd been concerned by the mismatch of the bocote dice vault containing my other (more refined, i.e., almost nearly but not quite cuboid) bone dice and the spalted tamarind tray.

Bill Stewart hates these dice. I think they charming—and they harmonize well with the ancient/Dark Age theme of Saga.

Insta-Irish

Fresh from completing a near-instant Saga warband from my long-unused Old Glory Picts, I took stock of my painted Old Glory Dark Age Irish only to discover that I'm just shy of a Saga warband with them also. To that end, I've rebased all the painted figures I had. That amounted to 32 figures (so far) that I had to pry off their old bases.

Some people base their figures in such a way that simply soaking them in a shallow pan of water will soften the adhesive and basing material sufficient to make removing them from their old bases easy. Some people have no sense of adventure.

My Irish (like the Picts before them) were super-glued to 0.10 thick plastic bases then further cemented in with heavy spackle built up around the figure base—the kind of spackle used in place of concrete for the fortifications of the Maginot Line.

I have an old wood-carving tool that I've used for centuries to pop figures off their bases. It's never been easy. I have to strong/insane a commitment to creating un-debaseable bases. I don't recall how I ever got the Picts off their bases (it was years ago when I started that), but I'm sure it left the cats in a state of trauma from all the cursing. Working away at the Irish, it didn't take long to realize that my tool was inadequate. That's never a good realization.

Accordingly, I went shopping for a full-on, industrial-strength, take-no-prisoners wood chisel. Why outflank the Maginot Line when you can just bash your head against it until one or the other breaks? But the chisel did the trick. 

Despite warnings that I was endangering my fingers and/or toes, I triumphed over the un-debaseable Irish and got them all on new Litko 25mm x 30mm bases. (I like big base and I cannot lie.)

I also completed two three-figure warlord stands with Himself plus two others: a guy to hold something inspiring aloft and a guy blowing a horn—figures that are otherwise wasted for Saga. 

I did two warlord stands because the Irish are pretty morphable. The initial effort will be to create a warband of Scotti, which are in the Old Friends, New Enemies... section of the Age of Invasions book. They use the Irish battle board from Age of Vikings, but have unit types that are pretty much all javelin armed.

By adding some axe-armed hearthguard (I have the minis, but need to paint them) and some axe-armed warriors (I have several painted, but they need to be debased/rebased—pray for the safety of my fingers), I can make them regular ol' Irish from Age of Vikings. Also, without any further figure changes, I can use them as Norse-Gaels from Age of Vikings.

So, the Insta-Irish are a serendipitous three-fer. Expect them to appear soon on a table near you.

The three-fer Irish got me thinking about morphing the Picts into Scots, a two-fer. I already have enough Old Glory mounted Scots warriors to create a hearthguard. I just needed to order some more spear types. I can re-use the Pictish archers I have. I also ordered the Scots high command pack, so I can make a Macbeth warlord stand. 

Dice fetish update!

My devoted reader(s?) will have noted that I have a dice fetish. Not only do I own a whole lotta dice, but I'm drawn to unique or even downright weird dice. My latest find to feed the fetish is some solid brass bullet dice that are a hexagonal cylinder with the sides numbered 1 through 6.

They're wider and squatter than a 9mm round. Maybe about the diameter of a .45 ACP, but shorter. Being solid brass, they weigh about as much as a real bullet and more than the average 28mm metal mini, even if mounted on a 1 1/4" fender washer.

I got 'em because I was looking for D6 dice that would harmonize well with Xenos Rampant. The bullet dice will do nicely really for an 19th - 21st c. games where shooting is involved. I don't know what dice What a Cowboy! use, but of it's D6 (WaT! uses D6) I'm ready.

They ain't cheap, but I picked up two sets because they come six to a box and I need 10 for Xenos Rampant and 12 for other "Rampant" games where they might be suitable.

I think I'll use my leather and felt dice tray with them lest they do damage to my other dice trays. It'll also muffle the thunk.

They aren't my first metal dice. About a decade ago (maybe longer—I'm old, time becomes more fuzzy) I bought some at the local Dragonflight convention in Bellevue, WA. They were for a game that never went anywhere, but produced an initial, albeit short lived, enthusiasm. It was a sort of tactical dice game where the style and color mattered in ranking dice value in opposing rolls—or so I dimly recall. The game wasn't much, but they made D6s and D10s for it. 

They had other styles of D6, which were cool and spacey looking, but hard to read—not a good thing when your opponent wants to see what you rolled, but only you can decipher it. ("All sixes, I swear, just trust me.")

I have 12 of one type (the easier to read ones) that I could use, but I discovered that after sitting in a dice bag in my garage for many years, they acquired some metal corruption. I'll try soaking them in white vinegar, which mat restore them. We'll see. They are actually pretty cool dice, but I'm not sure if they're available anymore. Also, the coloring wears off with use.

My new bullet dice, being brass, may be less susceptible to corrosion. They also won't be sitting in a dice bag in my garage.

I used the older metal dice in a few games of I-forget-what (maybe Bolt Action?). They made a loud clunk on the table. I eventually decided after the novelty wore off, that plastic dice were a better option. That's before I discovered bone dice and acquired several vintage sets of bakelite dice. I love the bakelite.

You say BO-coat, I say bo-CO-tay

'Tis the night before Christmas and my Christmas shopping is done. Whenever I'm spending money, I can't help spending a bit on myself. One of my presents to Dave this year was a new Wyrmwood Gaming dice vault made of bocote wood. I took advantage of one of their flash sales to get it much reduced from it's normal price. Bocote is normally a custom wood for any Wyrmwood product, so it was a great bargain at $60.00.

The dice vault arrived just a few days ago and it's splendid. But I am left with a bit of, not buyer's remorse, but buyer's perplexity. I think I was seduced by a good deal to buy something I don't really need. I'm sure that feeling will pass.

The dice vault isn't my first Wyrmwood product. Wyrmwood dice vaults came on the scene in 2013 as a kickstarter project. I didn't get one then, but I did get a dice tray made from beautiful bubinga wood. I blogged about it in October 2013.

It was $35.00 in 2013. The same item now is only available as a custom wood. You have to ask for a price quote. When you have to ask the price, it's never cheap. The dice tray in standard woods, the core 16, run from $75.00 to $285.00.

Subsequently, I did buy a dice vault in splendid spalted tamarind wood. I use it to store my beloved Viking bone dice, all 30 of 'em.

Don't let that capacity fool you. The bone dice are small and irregular. Their shape ranges from vaguely cuboid to roughly six-sided. I wouldn't rule out that some have five sides or seven. I love them all the more for their misshapeness. However, if playing in competitive games, some players may not appreciate crudely hand-carved instruments of fortune.

For normal dice, the capacity is less commodious.

In addition to being much less expensive back then, the dice vaults came in two sizes. I got the larger one, which is now the only size available. The upper and lower parts of the vault are held together by perfectly matched rare earth magnets.

So, being seduced by a good deal, I bought a new dice vault in Bocote. I have yet, however, to find a good purpose for it. I know, the obvious thing would be to store dice—but there's the rub. I play a lot of bucket o' dice game, like Lion Rampant. You need 12 dice in hand to fight or shoot in LR. Rolling fewer means you're in trouble. 12 normal dice won't fit in the vault.

This one does not go to 11—never mind 12

The dice vaults were designed to be used by troll-rollers who typically want a classic seven-piece Dungeons & Dragons set that runs D4, D6, D8, 2xD10, D12, D20. Pulling out a custom dice set from a hand-crafted exotic hardwood vault is about as gangsta as RPG gaming gets.

If we historical minis gamers want to get gangsta, we have to be a little more ersatz.

The dice tray and dice vault that I bought previously came unadorned, apart from the beautiful wood grains. For the last several years, Wyrmwood brands their products with their shield logo and company name.

I don't begrudge a company its right to brand its products, but I think it takes something away from the beauty of the piece. It interrupts the sensual pattern of the wood grain and makes the object less striking. I'm quite glad my first products are unbranded. The branding has set me back a bit when I've contemplated buying other Wyrmwood products like another dice tray.

Being branded isn't all fun.

Nevertheless, I'm contemplating a spalted tamarind dice tray sometime next year. They're not cheap at $175.00 (!), but I'm keeping my eye out for it to appear as a flash sale for much less.

Oh, and I can fit 24 smaller normal (i.e., truly cuboid) dice in the vault. I can get up to 26 of the 12mm Chessex dice in the vault.

On the other hand, the larger of my vintage bakelite dice (also truly cuboid), barely fit eight.

And it's a job trying to get the vault to close. It looks like a dice sandwich.

So, there it is. Look for a bocote dice vault to appear in my forthcoming adventures.

Or is it bo-co-TAY?

En Garde! in the Bronze Age

Kevin Smyth, Phil Bardsley, and I gave Osprey's recently-released En Garde! rules a first play on Saturday at The Panzer Depot in Kirkland, WA.

These rules are a variation on the author's earlier Ronin rules. The game engine is pretty much the same only the game is moved from feudal Japan to 16th-18th c. Europe (or places where Europeans trod in that era, for example, the Americas). Kevin and I are working on Aztecs and conquistadors for these rules, as well as for a variation of Lion Rampant. In lieu of any figures for the period, we reached back into the Bronze Age for our play test and used my 40mm Monolith Designs prehistoricalistic Europeanoids for the game.

The game

The rules work for this era without any variation required; the technology is all there. I made up some character sheets for Bronze Age warrior types and checked to see who I could sucker in. Only Phil and Kevin were takers, so we played a 3 against 3 scenario (theoretically, that is. The game wound up as 2 against 1 with me being the 1).

Splitting my forces, a great tactical maneuver in the Custer tradition

I have myself to blame for the 2-1. In every cutthroat kind of scenario, I instinctively split my forces assuming—incorrectly—that my two opponents will also split theirs. This is the reason I hate playing Risk. I always wind up being the muggins who gets wiped out first.

Kevin advances into the woods—against me

I was in a big field, while Kevin had a wood to hide in. I ran my two bowmen out to start taking pot-shots at his open flank.

First shots of doomed men

Kevin, however, ran a couple of his slingers against me and soon knocked me silly. Being a confirmed slingophile, I should like that, only it was me on the wrong end of the lithic trajectory.

Phil's band cowering behind the hedge

Phil ran his warband up to a hedge in the assumption that I would attack him across it. In a rare impulse of good sense, I decided to go around the hedge instead, prompting him to change front. It also gave me the option of getting a brief 3-2 advantage against him.

The 3-2 advantage worked in my favor. I managed to put two of his warriors hors de combat before he brought the rest of his warriors, including his champion and chieftain, against me.

Bardsley, last of his tribe, steps into the open

Kevin and I wound up fighting in the woods. I had a bit of an advantage, but wound up getting my champion killed, my chieftain wounded, and my other warriors killed too.

I wound up with 50% of my war band killed off and had to check morale, which I passed easily. However, we called the game since it looked like certain doom for me (Kevin and Phil operating under a truce).

Evaluation

The game played very well. The rules are pretty simple, once you get the habit of them. We did one thing wrong. I assumed that combat results went either way. Instead, an attack that fails spectacularly is just a failed attack; the attacker suffers no adverse effect. My chieftain was lightly wounded as a result of a  poor die roll against one of Kevin's schlub warriors. The result would have been grievous if not for the chieftain's armor.

In making the character sheets for the war bands, I gave the slingers a 2 shooting value because I feared that they would prove to be anemic otherwise. I got that wrong. Kevin's slingers were death-dealing sharpshooters. My bowmen, with only a 1 shooting value were outclassed.

We each had nine figures in our war bands. Handling them was no problem. We completed the game in just over an hour, though it might have gone longer if we played it out to the bitter end.

Kevin, Dave Schueler, and I are planning another En Garde! game at Meeples in West Seattle later this month. I'm hoping to have some conquistadors, Aztecs, and Tlaxcalans ready to roll by then.

Dice fetish update

We used my newly-acquired 3/4" vintage bakelite dice for the game. I got these just this last week from an Etsy shop. This purchase may just satisfy the bakelite phase of my ongoing dice fetish. I rolled consistently badly. Phil and Kevin tended to roll much better. My evaluation of the shooting may be skewed by Kevin's hot-dicing me in the missile exchange between his slingers and my bowmen.

Original box

The dice came in their original box from the 60s.

Looking all vintage-y

The bakelite dice have that wonderful ivory-like patina that yellows with age. They also have a denser feel than the plastic dice that are all that's available today (except for metal dice, which are too dense).

C'est Incroyable! C'est Manifique!

I dropped by The Panzer Depot in Kirkland, WA today where Steve Puffenberger ran a small Napoleonic game using the Black Powder rules.  The scenario was a small encounter in Spain. Two French brigades with some cavalry and artillery support attacked two smaller British brigades holding a small hill top town position. The British also had a supporting Spanish brigade coming up to their rear. Mark Serafin and I were the Frenchies, Steve and Ken Kissling were the Brits and Spanish.

At the outset, Mark and I viewed our chance of success as minimal. British troops in line holding a decent position are pretty secure and in Black Powder towns are nearly impregnable fortresses. Faced with the immovable object, we did not see our troops as anything like an irresistible force.

I had three légere battalions and two ligne battalions in mixed formation with skirmishers deployed forward. Facing me were Steve's two British line battalions, a battery of 9 pounders, and a rifle company.

Mark had four ligne battalions, a battery of horse guns, and a squadron of Hussars. We also had an 8-gun battery of divisional troops. Facing mark were Ken's three British line battalions with a squadron of light dragoons in reserve.

The game started with a small preliminary bombardment that managed to inflict casualties and disorder a couple of the British line—although that was't something we could take advantage of. Our first turn saw Mark and I both failing our first move attempts and the initiative passed to the Brits.

With turn 2 things started moving faster. Mark and I both managed to move up with all our units and start trading shots between our skirmishers and theirs. On my third turn, I decided to grasp the nettle and charge in with a légere battalion in colonne d'attaque against one of Steve's line units. Another léger battalion smacked into his battery, with the third battalion in support of the two in contact.

I gritted my teeth expecting the withering fire of Steve's British, but he wiffed the shot, rolling 1-1-1-2 for closing fire. My battalion attacking the battery was not so lucky. I took a hit and was disordered. However, I passed the break test and the combats proceeded.

I beat the line battalion just barely, but Steve rolled a '3' for his break test and bye-bye line battalion. The guns also lost the combat and were taken. Having expected the worst, I was suddenly in a commanding position, even though there were two unbroken British line battalions and a detachment of riflemen nearby.

At this point, Steve counterattacked with his remaining line battalion. My closing fire inflicted a casualty, and in the ensuing combat, Steve again lost and rolled low for his break test. The second of his line battalions was gone, only his riflemen remained and his brigade was broken.

Steve counterattacks!

Steve broken, Ken's flank exposed

On my next turn, I attempted to charge the flank of Ken's rightmost battalion, which was now exposed with the collapse of Steve's brigade. However, I failed to roll well enough on my command dice and didn't manage to contact.

At this point, Ken withdrew the battalion into the town before I could try to hit it again. Steve plinked away at one of my légere battalions, which I'd put into line, and managed to cause it to become shaken. Steve would keep at this unit, which remained shaken for the rest of the game, but always managed to pass its break tests.

Ken withdraws to the town

I still had four effective battalions, but I was afraid I'd just keep battering my head against the town. By this time, too, the Spanish brigade had come up, although Steve kept it back and out of trouble.

I charged into the town with one légere battalion and another in support and got shoved back. I tried again next turn and although I lost, I managed to stay in contact.

First assault

On my third attempt at the town, I managed to bring one of the ligne battalions into another face of the two, so I had 2-1 odds, plus more support from other units. In this final attack, the British lost and broke on their break test (they were at -3 for shaken and excess casualties).

Final assault

La ville est à nous!

On Mark's side of the board, he'd been skirmishing with Ken's other two battalions, one of which was in another two section. He'd managed to shoot the other one into a shaken state. With the loss of the one battalion in the town and another shaken, Ken's brigade was broken and the game was over. No one expected the Spanish to save the day. They were too few and too bad.

The game did not go at all as expected. I thought Mark and I would get shellacked on our attempt to take the position. Instead, much to our surprise, the British crumbled in just about 8 turns.

I'm sure the news made Wellington's stiff upper lip a bit stiffer.

I'd be remiss not to mention that this game saw the debut of my newly acquired vintage bakelite dice. I picked up 25 of them in a few purchases on eBay and Etsy. They're nicely yellowed and range from a kind of jaundiced putty to a deep butterscotch, which gives them character. A nice addition to my dice collection and—for this game at least—lucky.