The Butterfly Strikes Again!

With my plans for today having been somewhat disrupted (see my last post),  I've need to try to sate my wargaming addiction other ways - which have included having a peruse of the copy of Field of Glory (Ancient & Medieval) that I picked up (for a very reasonable price) on eBay last week.

Of course this was a grave error of judgement given my trouble staying focussed on any one thing for more than 5 minutes!  So I'm now thinking about my stranded Alexandrian Macedonian project from some years ago.

I suppose the interest was actually rekindled a little looking out the figures for the club DBA tournament last year.  I came fourth with my Late Hoplite Greeks - which I thought was a reasonably creditable performance given I hadn't played DBA for at least 15 years!

 vs the Hussites

vs Polybian Romans 

vs Sub-Roman British 

vs Anglo-Saxons

Of course the tournament creates battles between opponents who could never have met historically due to time or geography (as you can see from my games above) but it's all just a bit of fun and lets everyone join in.

In looking around for an army to play I pulled out my fledgling Ancients project box and revealed the four DBA armies I had put together for it originally - Hoplite Greek, Thracian, Macedonian and Persians.  Which got me to thinking back to my original plan to grow it into a couple of decent armies for a real game.  Of course rules were the real stumbling point - I've never really been a fan of rules which try to lump everything from the dawn of time to 1485 into one period (and, yes, I know FoG falls into this category too) and was looking for some with some more real period flavour.  Having failed to find any I decided I was going to write some of my own - at which point my butterfly syndrome kicked in and I was off onto another project.

So this morning when I had a chance to have a look at the FoG rulebook I was drawn back into thinking about my plans for this project.  I've even started trying to work out the manufacturer of my existing figures so that I can expand them.

Of course FoG isn't going to fit my original plan for a period specific ruleset but given that it has a following at the club I might actually be able to get the figures to the table enough to make it worth making the "investment" in expanding my existing collection.

Mind you all of this will have to survive budget constraints and me flitting off on another flight of fancy...

The Marshes of Mount Liang

Lenin came over for the New Year and we managed to get a few games in before the old year was out. The first was our first play of Hail Caesar using Lenin's latest acquisition - some Sun Chinese.

The outlaws of Liangshan (Lenin) thought they are safely protected by the treacherous marshes that surrounded their mountain hideout; however Governor Kao Chiu (me) had discovered a secret route through the marshes and decided to take the traitors by surprise!

There were, in fact, two paths each passing through the jungle, across a ford into the marshes to another river crossing - on one case another ford and in the other a bridge.  I decided to split my forces, half the infantry and my light troops down the first path and my remaining infantry and cavalry down the second.

The infantry force managed to cross the first ford without incident and advanced into the marshes; however, my second group found their ford to be defended.  With the crossing being relatively wide and shallow, I formed up my cavalry and charged across, spray flying, into the traitor's skirmishers.

The skirmishers fired their bows and formed up before I smashed into them.  But they were no match for my cavalry who charged them down and captured their leader.

Having cleared the way my second force began to advance.  It was clear that both the next ford and the bridge were both defended and by more than just some skirmishers!  With Lenin forming up his cavalry to enable them to cross the bridge, I decided to hold my cavalry back ready to charge him.  He spotted the danger and held his cavalry before they crossed the bridge.  I advanced my supporting infantry and we began to exchange crossbow fire across the river.

At the other ford I had my infantry form up but they came under a hail of crossbow bolts from the temple ruins on the other side.  My light troops were taking casualties but I managed to concentrate enough fire to eliminate one of the enemy units.

Seeing the danger at the ford, Lenin reformed his cavalry and moved them across to it.  Then he readied them and charged across the ford into one of my infantry units.

I wasn't as easy meat as his skirmishers had been and his charge faltered.  He regrouped and charged again but to no avail.  With my crossbow fire taking its toll his units began to fail and the day was ours!

---

Hail Caesar is, as we expected much like Black Powder in a number of respects (for good or ill depending on your perspective); however, it is different in a number of areas and this made the rules a little slower to pick up than we had expected.  As with Black Powder the rules are intended for big, relatively quick games and, as such, certain choices have been made.  I felt the rules didn't have enough flavour to them - but that's an entirely personal perspective and I'm generally biased against rules which try to cover the whole "ancients period" - but I can see them being a useful set to have where you don't have a more period specific set.

Ancient (Greek) Heroes

For our next game Lenin decided to do something different - Greek Myth.  This had been intended as the final evening game but with one chap dropping out we moved it up to number three in the schedule.    It was a chance to try the Ancient Heroes skirmish rules from Foundry's Tribes of Legends books.

The scenario was relatively straightforward, each of us had a small but varied band wanting undisputed control of the temple in the centre of the table.  The one who could hold it for three turns was the winner.  First we had to decide whether we were going to be Noble, Drunken or Mischievous - that determined which character types we could take from humans, centaurs, satyrs and harpies.  Each type has different fighting skill, armour and special abilities.

I chose a drunken band and ended up with a mix of centaurs and satyrs who had an unfortunate habit of staggering towards the nearest vineyard at the end of each turn!

As it was my centaur was the first to enter the temple but could I hold it?

Unfortunately, the answer was no.  I ended up fighting off two other bands but was so weakened that the final band was triumphant - well at least they were Amazons!

Which is more Important: Your Morale or Your Troops' Morale?

We played a Late Roman skirmish last week using Pax Romana and the game raised some interesting questions for me. One related specifically to the rules, and more of that later, and the other to the issue of morale. Crazy Dave was playing the Franks raiding inland from the Medway and I was fielding the Romano-Brits defending (later ably aided by Gav and Ben when the reinforcements arrived). The game started slowly with Dave picking his way through the early morning fog and eventually spotting my settlement but not before I'd spotted him and nipped off to inform the local garrison. Dave advanced his veteran troops towards my village, which was only defended by armed farmers and it looked like it was all going to be over pretty quickly. But when my lone archer loosed a couple of shots Dave decided to retire to the woods to regroup. By the time he'd got himself organised a patrol from the garrison had arrived and the fight looked like it was going to be a little more even. Unfortunately for Dave his reputation for unpredictable dice rolling was well earned and getting into the village was pretty heavy going for him. But he'd awung some of his troops in a flanking manoeuvre which surprised us from the rear and despite the patrol it started to swing Dave's way. Then more reinforcements arrived from the garrison and we all thought it was over for Dave. But despite the odds Dave moved onto the offensive and charged into the approaching units some of which broke and Dave's vets made their morale rolls. After a lot of heavy fighting Dave was eventually beaten but at a huge cost to the locals.

This all made me think, the game would have been quite different if Dave had used his aggression when advancing on the village in the first instance and had someone else been playing his troops later when the reinforcements arrived they could have simply run for the hills (which given the odds was what we were expecting!). It really highlights that no matter the morale rules for the troops the morale of the players is just as if not more important. It also goes to show that no matter what the odds any game with dice can go either way!

As to the rules one of the things that helped Dave was his veteran troops which get more actions than the less experienced troops. On reflection we were concerned that the veterans were getting rather too much of an advantage from this which was difficult to justify logically. Ben suggested using alternatives including getting several activation cards and being able to choose the highest thus allowing them to react faster. Bronze is now pondering so there may be a revised version coming.

Athens & Sparta Arrives!

My pre order copy of Athens & Sparta by Columbia Games finally arrived today. I've only had chance to unwrap and open the box (so I still have the unrivalled fun of the stickers ...) but the game certainly looks interesting. Obviously as a Columbia block game it has the usual step reductions and it's card driven with the map being hex based - all of which we have seen in other of their games. The productions values are the same as their other games with the same file box and sleeve arrangement with an unmounted board etc. but that's only to be expected.

I could quibble about the release delay (1 month) and the lack of any sort of communication from Columbia about that (I found out from checking their website) despite them having my email address and moving from a "Coming in September" to a "Coming Soon" message without warning. But now that I have it this seems a little churlish.

Expect my first impressions once I've got myself into the appropriate Zen state to do the stickering and run through the rules...

Wargames Weekend Update

Managed to get quite a few games in when Lenin visited last weekend including Troops, Weapons and Tactics, Metal Storm, Renaissance Raiders, Savage Worlds and Commands and Colors: Ancients Expansion #1.

Troops, Weapons and Tactics is heavily based on the Too Fat Lardies previous rules I Ain't Been Shot, Mum! (IABSM) and that is very apparent. As the rules are lower level, with the tactical unit being a fire team rather than the IABSM section, a few additional mechanics have been added. This was only the first try out but our initial impression was that, whilst they did provide an interesting game, the additional chrome didn't produce a result which was a pleasing as Nuts! in terms of the "feel". Obviously this is highly subjective but I think the additional mechanics confuse and complicate the basic IABSM approach but don't deliver proportional added value - which is a shame as I am a big fan of IABSM and use them as my preferred rules for the next level up.

Metal Storm was another first outing. The rules appear to be heavily based on Peter Pig's AK47 Republic rules with the addition of different dice sizes and rules for more modern weaponry. As with all rules which use up and downgrading using different dice sizes (d4, d6, d8, d10 etc.) the statistics are a little iffy but the overall result was a fun game (though we're reserving judgement on the realism element) and I expect these will see another outing (though possibly with some tweaks).

For oue first go at Renaissance Raiders from the Antwerp Fusiliers, we pulled out my 28mm Vendel Border Reivers, Grand Manner Bastle House and Gripping Beast livestock for a little sheep and cattle rustling on the borders. The rules are heavily influenced by the Commands and Colors system and are intended to be hex based. Since I don't have any hex terrain I chose to restructure them slightly to allow them to be used on a normal tabletop. Again they gave a fun game but in my view the card and average dice initiative mechanic was a little too involved for the type of game we were trying and the cards needed to pop up more often (and be a little more varied) to add flavour. The core approach is sound but a few changes are what's needed for it to become ideal for a Reivers game rather than a more traditional Renaissance battle.

Savage Worlds once again proved it is a versatile ruleset allowing you to meld various genres successfully. Lenin presented an excellent Pulp meets Call of Cthulhu game which was tremendous fun.

And having spent ages putting the stickers on my Greek and Eastern Kingdom expansion for Commands and Colors: Ancients (CC:A), I was determined to actually use it - so we set up and played the Gaugamela scenario. CC:A is still a favourite and the card system provides some real challenges for each commander.

News: Athens and Sparta

If you're interested in block games the latest Columbia Games offering Athens and Sparta is due for release next month. Using a combination of traditional block mechanics and a card driven approach it looks interesting, through not revolutionary. But as it's a period I'm interested in (and one I'm not likely ever to collect enough miniatures to play on the table top) I'm probably going to pre-order it.

The game has an odd back story, this release is by Tom Dalgliesh rather than the originally touted game by Craig Besinque. There appears to have been a parting of the ways some time during the development process and Carig has taken his game to GMT Games to be published as Hellenes: Athens vs. Sparta. Superficially the games seems pretty similar with the Columbia offering seeming slightly simpler/shorter (which is what I was looking for anyway). But it will be interesting to see how they compare when the GMT game comes out (it's still on the P500 list).

First Look: Typhon

Typhon by Alternative Armies is a set of miniature wargames rules designed to accompany their range of 50mm Greek Myth figures but can be used with other figure scales. Typhon is aimed firmly at Greek Myth and provides a synopsis of all the most well known stories. In addition to combat the rules allow the players to pray to the Gods for support either by granting special powers to various items or by bestowing skills or favours upon them. The object of the rules is to form your own adventuring band and create your own myth through a chain of scenarios.

I picked up a comb bound softcover copy of the rules at Salute for £12 but they are available direct from Alternative Armies either on its own or as part of a package deal with some of the 50mm figures (which are available both unpainted and painted).

C&C:A - The Battle of Akragas

I broke out Commands and Colors: Ancients in order to teach myself the rules, so I gave the first scenario, the Battle of Akragas (406BC), between Syracuse and Carthage, a go solo.

The rules are very easy to pick up (especially to someone used to miniature wargames) and give a quick game. The command card system certainly gives you plenty of challenges as the commander on each side. The combat system is pretty straightforward but with a few little "exceptions" that you need to keep an eye out for.

The blocks work well and the cards are made from good stock. The game board sits reasonably flat if you back fold it but is certainly a weak point if viewed from a boardgamer perspective. All round it's fine if compared to board wargames but doesn't compare well to the higher production values of other Commands and Colors games such as Memoir '44 or Battlelore.

Victory went to Syracuse, not least due to them having one more command card than Carthage. I am looking forward to getting the game in front of a real opponent!

First Look: Commands and Colors Ancients

Commands and Colors Ancients by GMT Games is a light board wargame recreating battles between the Romans and Carthaginians. The rules system by Richard Borg appears in his earlier ACW game Battle Cry and more recently in Battlelore by Days of Wonder. Whilst it doesn't have the production quality of the Days of Wonder product, with blocks and a rather thin board, it has been said to be the best implementation of the Commands and Colors system (BTW when will our colonial cousins learn that "color" has a "u" in it?). Not having played it I can't comment but with games taking around an hour I should be able to get a few in and post a proper review in the not too distant future. I have just finished applying the stickers to each side of each block which, whilst a bit of a chore, is strangely satisfying when you have finished. I'm not entirely convinced by the sticker approach to the battle dice but I understand they are considerably better than those supplied in the first edition. I am looking forward to giving this one some table time.

First Look: Antike

Antike by eggertspiele and Rio Grande is a light civilisation type boardgame for 2 to 6 players. The game allows you to play various civilisations from the Babylonians to the Romans with the focus on securing various victory point cards rather than eliminating your opponents. There is combat but it is resolved very simply (and expensively!). The game has a playing time of between 90 minutes and two hours.

It is available from various sources but I managed to secure my copy at something less than the RRP on eBay. Look for a full review once I have had a chance to play it a few times.

Ancients - It's not a period!

When will people realise that Ancients is not a single period? I mean just 'cos people were only using pointy sticks and swords doesn't make all combat from the dawn of time to 1485 the same! Wargames rules that aren't period specific just don't float my boat. Where's the flavour? OK, I'll give DBA its due (albeit some people think its not a proper wargame), it is quick and its fun - but does it simulate ancient warfare? Of course there's DBM - that's DBA with all the fun sucked out! I always thought it was like taking a motorbike and using it to tow your caravan! Am I missing the point here? Isn't it essential to have a set of rules that allows you to fight Samurai against Hoplites? Mmm ... let me think about that - errr NO!

Anyway, so it's hats off to The Perfect Captain who have taken the time to produce Hoplomachia, a set of rules specifically created for the wars between the Greek City States. It has a campaign system too. OK, its not for everyone but it simply oozes period flavour.

So lets have less Ancients and more period specific stuff which reflect the weapons, strategy and tactics of the times!