Wednesday 28 October 2015

Dungeon Saga


My dungeon saga pledge arrived today.   

I didn't realise quite how much stuff it would include.   Early impressions on the quality are good, although I think I have spotted a few broken models in the mix.  

It looks like it is all here but I will have a proper check tonight.   There was an issue with the the adventurers companion about missing page references but there appears to be a sheet of paper in the front of the book with a short note and the missing references, so it's all good.  

I will do a more detailed review when I have finished checking it all and hidden it from my other half.




Thursday 22 October 2015

Here Come the Yanks, Campaign Turn 4

Turn 4 of our campaign has finished, with 2 actions as the americans try to push back the German defenders.  Field reports as follows:

Report by Leutnant Franz Beckenbauer (German 2nd Platoon, just North of Ophove):
The Americans attacked with support from a 4th rifle section and a flamethrower section. They advanced through the village on our right flank but their 1st platoon was caught rushing across the open road by our 1st section on overwatch and took 4 casualties. The American 2nd and 4th sections, supported by a flamethrower team, advanced to support the 1st section and their 2nd section advanced through the wooded area towards the centre of the village.
Our 2nd section took up position to support 1st section and 3rd section came up to hold the centre.
Our 8cm mortar battery OP took up position where he had a good line of sight to the American positions and brought down a barrage which was so effective that it pinned all of the American forces. A firefight ensued on our right flank and our 1st section lost 3 men to fire from the American flamethrower, however their infantry fire proved ineffective. With our mortars continuing to give support our firepower eventually overwhelmed the Americans and drove their entire force from the field.
Their 3rd section wisely decided to stay off the field.
In addition to losing their entire supporting 4th section and flamethrower team, the American platoon took 13 casualties (6 KIA).
German losses were restricted to 3 men(1 KIA).

Gerrman 3rd Platoon (in Defence of Arques):
My platoon was desperately pushed forward to plug a gap in the line, one section took up position in a ruined bombed out cottage to block the rapidly advancing enemy, they came under accurate and fairly constant fire from the beginning, unfortunately the section leader and the platoon commander became casualties during this early stage of the fight.

The remainder of the platoon began to move up to an adjacent supporting position but also came under fire, again a section leader was killed during the first exchange of shots, the enemy attacked on this right flank catching our men with no commander. Despite this disadvantage the first enemy assault was repelled in a desperate close quarters clash.

Realising the predicament that they faced the platoon commander (having recovered from his minor wound) dashed back to rally his men but to many had fallen to the enemy assault whilst the enemy fire to our front remained constant and deadly.

We had no option to withdraw from combat to regroup, reform and prepare for the next round of combat.

USA 3rd Platoon of the same action:
The patrol phase worked well for the allies who were able to take up good positions nearly halfway up the board after the first move facing off against the one German section in a building on my centre right. They were soon softened up by one allied section plus the HQ and suffered an NCO killed and officer wounded.

My section in the centre caught a German section advancing down the road and once again killed the NCO. They bid a hasty retreat. The final German section was committed to their left leaving my left flank section virtually unopposed and able to make a flanking move. My centre section also advanced down the road

My target was the rear German jump off point which was now defended by a weakened German section with the now recovered officer coming over to lend support. The left allied section made what turned out to be an overconfident assault which the Germans were able to throw back. This was only a temporary respite however as the next firefight saw the Germans in full retreat.

Allied losses were 4 men ending on a Force Morale of 11

German losses were 16 men (including 2 NCOs)and they ended on a Force Morale of 6.







So at the end of urn 4 the Yanks are finally making progress, but the men are starting to feel some resentment towards their CO's due to high casualties, while the German troops and CO's remain fairly ambivalent about things so far.

Our options for turn 4 are:

In Turn 5 the Yanks can keep the initiative by pressing on with their attack along the Ophove Road towards the rail bridge defences in an Attack & Defend scenario. Meanwhile The German 2nd Platoon (John) could either launch a counter attack to drive the Yanks back out of their toehold in Arques or consolidate the defences at the eastern end of the village. The latter would mean that the initiative would switch to the Americans to launch an Attack on Arques in turn 6, both sides having recovered their wounded.



I think the Germans will withdraw their 3rd platoon to give it a chance to rest and recover wounded, while the 1st will take their place.  The German 2nd Platoon Commander will be given the freedom to act as he sees fit, either to consolidate his defence or take the fight to the Yanks.

Tuesday 6 October 2015

Kings of War



This week Ian and I finally managed to get a free week and decided to give Kings of War 2nd edition a try.   Ian pre-ordered his direct from Mantic and has had his copy for several weeks now.  O jumped on the Kickstarter for the rulebooks only and have yet to receive anything, so thanks a bunch Mantic.


As it was our first game we opted for 2000 points, straight fight with no terrain as that would give us the best test of the combat system.
As I had not yet received my book I did a basic force using the free lists and then modified it on the night using Ian rulebook.  My force consisted of:

Ax Horde
Ax Horde
Morax Regiment
Morax Regiment
Skulk Troop
Skulk Troop
Gore Riders Regiment
Gore Chariots Regiment
Troll Horde
Kludger on Foot
Kludger on Gore
Flagger on Gore
Wizard on Foot with Heal spell.

Ian’s Ogre force was something like this:

Ogre Legion
Ogre Horde
Ogre Horde
Shooter Regiment
Shooter Regiment
Beserker Regiment
Beserker Regiment
Chariot Regiment
Chariot Regiment
2 Flaggers
1 Chieftan


We deployed pretty much in a straight line opposite each other and advanced.  One unit of my skulks was the first casualty, run over by a unit of Ogre Chariots, and in my turn two the two sided got stuck in properly with engagement breaking out all along the battle lines.   My Ax hordes proved to be no match for the Ogre onslaught, with one horde going down in one turn to the Ogre Legion (how many dice?!), with the second one succumbing to a flank attack late on in the game.  Elsewhere on my right flank the combination of Morax and Chariots succeeded in destroying the Ogre left flank, while the Ogre heavy hitters destroyed my centre.   Late game and the battle had swung with my left flank turning to face the Ogre centre, but the game only lasted 6 turns so we had to call it there, resulting in a draw.   We did a few things wrong I think, and only one person having access to the rules did not help either.


Cant remember the last time I put this many orcs on the table.


My centre about to be swept away, while I make gains on the right

Ian cavalry are stunning. I should have taken a better picture!




The state of play at the end

My initial thoughts on the game were pretty much confirmed by tonight’s effort.  Like the element based style, you can put lots on the table and still finish in an evening quite comfortably but the game is very IGO UGO, which I am not sure I like.   There were a couple of instanced where a unit was destroyed in one round, without actually doing any damage to its attackers at all. Which seems wrong to me.  We will try it again sometime soon, and this time use some terrain and a different scenario. Perhaps I will have a try with my Dark Elves as the two armies on the table tonight were very basic, leaving little room for fancy tactics.  We will definitely play a few more games though as it is better than Warhammer 8th, and we don’t mention Age of Sigmar…

Now is only Mantic would sort themselves out and send me my sodding copy of the rules…..

I am planning on doing an entry on Kickstarter soon, but was waiting for a few things to happen first (Im looking at you Prodos games!!!!!!) but it might be that waiting for that to arrive means I will never get round to it, so I might write it up soon anyway.

Friday 2 October 2015

Malifaux Complete



So I have managed to finish painting all of my current Malifaux collection.  I shall probably come back to it at some point to add some more stuff but for now there is enough to keep the game interesting for a little whil