King David 300pts

 Hi

I had another go at the old King David rules yesterday, but playing solo. Both games were 300pts, getting close to the upper limits of what the system can comfortably handle, with the suggested size being 200-250pts, but as I had the day to myself, I wanted to try a bigger army. First game was New Kingdom Egyptians VS Sea Peoples, and the second Hittite vs Assyrian. Both games were from ( very ) approx 1200bc. 

I didn't bother with the Divine Favour rules as , given that I was playing solo, forcing myself to reroll and trying to counteract that would get very confusing very quickly, as I would forget who I was supposed to be rolling for ( or against).. 

I found the Hero mechanism of the game fun, with most of the effects having a penalty as well as a bonus. I gave Rameses II the Gazelle hero type, as a bonus to movement seemed appropriate. He hurtled off at high speed and met his ancestors shortly thereafter. The initiative penalty this forced on the Egyptians proved disastrous , and ended in ignominious defeat, with  the loss that broke the army being a light chariot without the Action points to turn going full speed straight ahead into impassible ground ( an oasis) and dying.

The second game was more balanced, with the chariots proving their worth ( and high points cost) on both sides and the Infantry archers achieving little of value. The Hittites had the better of the clash and came back from an early set back to win the game. Rolling very well for trophies ( a D6 roll of a 6 after destroying an enemy in melee gives an extra victory point along with the value of the unit ) meant that they broke the Assyrians before their counterattack could gain ground. 

Overall, I really enjoy this quirky rule set. The back & forth  initiative system could have been messy, but marking each activated unit with a little D6 kept it clear enough and lead to a chaotic battlefield rather than the standard activation systems we are more familiar with. The chariots are very difficult to control once they inevitably speed out of command distance and careen around the battle field doing drive bys and crashing into each other. 

Three elves in a fountain.

Hi Guys

Played a fun game of the GW Lord of the Rings skirmish game. I bought a shoe box full of 300+ figures for about €40 a few years back and they get taken out every once in a while to see the light of day. They havent gotten the attention they deserve, but I have hit a flat spot with 15mm ancients and painting the current batch is more a chore than pleasure, so I may set aside the Romans for a while and do LOTR stuff instead. All the models are still as they were when I got the box.  Some of the figures are quite well painted, just needing the base done, but would really profit from an ink wash & dry brush. Other figures look like they were painted by a colourblind chimp during a bad acid trip. I will probably alternate between these. I can get all of the elves to a quality I would happy with in one or two evenings, so it is tempting to do these first. The Goblins need more attention, possibly medical. I plan to lay out all the figures and work through the box race by race, Elves first , then Goblins and so on. I have about 7 Gandalfs and 5 Saurumans. Ed has suggested putting them together into an Istari cover band. I picked up the rule book second hand for €5, and made all the buildings myself, so this is frugal gaming in the extreme. The only proxy we did was we couldn't find the troll model so used Sauron instead. It is a lovely model and probably the only time it will get used, so I wasn't too worried.

An open urban set up

Multi level wizards house with viewing tower.

Searching the ruins

Goblins search the storehouse / outside toilet.

We didn't field any wizards, he just looked good there...

Chop !

The "Troll" does some smiting



We played a modified version of the rules and used a simple scenario . We were both looking for an unnammed treasure. Each building could be searched for it. On a 2D6 roll, a twelve would find the loot in the first turn, 11+ on subsequent attempts. Small buildings could be searched once, medium buildings and ruins twice and the big buildings three times. On a roll of double 1, a creature with the stat profile of a troll would be disturbed and attack the searchers.  No treasure was found and no trolls disturbed but a good laugh was had with some appaling dice rolls. Will have to play LOTR again soon.

Phil