Chain of Disaster!

Every so often you have one of those nights when things just go wrong.  it happens to me very once in a while. That last time was playing Lord of the Rings against Ian, using the White Rider scenario. That debacle is detailed in an earlier entry on this very Blog.

Well it happened again this Monday.

Just before Christmas I had arranged to have a bash at Chain of Command, the WW2 ruleset from Too Fat Lardies.  I don't normally play that period as it is still in living memory, if you get my meaning, but I am a big fan of Dux Britaniarum so thought I would give them a bash.  Unfortunately I had to call off that game so we had rescheduled it for Monday night.

We ended up playing a meeting engagement, where two opposing platoons are to sweep an area and engage any enemy that they encountered.  Ian ended up playing the British and I took the Germans. 

I had three sections, each comprising of a rifle section of 6 men, and Machine Gun team of three men, accompanied by a Junior officer. Leading this lot was a German Senior Officer.

The British force was much the same, except it also included a light mortar and en extra senior officer, both of which were to have a serious impact on the game.

Chain of Command has a 'Patrol Phase' before the game starts, and this is where you try and outfox your opponent and get yourself and advantage in the game deployment. This results in you having 4 'jump off points' on the board that represent areas where there might potentially be troops, but it is up to you to decide which of these points your troops should be deployed from. I found this a bit confusing and only really understood it towards the end.

Ian one the initiative and got first go, bringing on a Bren gun team  in some woods in the middle of the board. I deployed a full section on my left flank, in the hope of covering the road with the machine gun and advancing with the rifle section.  

In Chain of Command you roll command dice each phase to determine what you can do with your troops. The number on the die dictates what you are allowed to activate. It is similar to other Lardy game except using dice instead of cards.  When you roll the dice if you get a double six you get to retain the initiative and have another go straight away.  Ian managed to do this with alarming regularity in the early game, which allowed him to push his troops forward and effectively pin all my German troop in place. This pretty much set the tone for the game and I never really managed to salvage anything from there.

To add insult to injury all of my commanders must have been having an off day as every time you suffer a casualty there is a small chance that one of your junior officers will get hit. This seemed to happen a lot and I was starting to run out of commanders by the end stages of the game, while Iain had an extra Senior Commander to help his force along. 

To cut a long story short I was seriously outclassed and had pretty much given up by 9:30, and we packed up at 10:30.  I must confess to being a bit frustrated by the whole affair as it seemed I was doomed pretty much by the way the die went, and there was not much I could do about it.

It looked like a good game, but I would need to play it a bit more, under more favourable circumstances to form a proper opinion, as I basically spent most of the night receiving and then trying to remove shock counters and not much else.  The rules apparently reward proper WW2 tactics, but as i am not really a history buff I cannot really comment on that.  SO in a nutshell, they have potential but they were not exactly tested under ideal conditions. I will try and arrange a rematch for February.

I also did not take too many photos as I was too busy trying to keep up with the rules.

And now...The Gallery. Jan 2014

Photos of my completed Late Roman Army for Impetus, along with Hairy allies. Entire army is from Musketeer Miniatures, with bases from Warbases and Transfers from Little Big Man Studios.

Apologies for the terrible photos.

First of the Year

My first game of 2014 was to be a game of Impetus.  Dax had arranged a sort of"boot camp," where he would set up several tables and supply armies for people that have never played the game before to have a go. I decided to join in but brought along my recently completed Late Roman army.

The point were 350, which was more  that we usually use.

I managed to squeeze in:

4 Units of Heavy Infantry with Archer support
2 Units of Lanciarii skirmishers
2 Units of Light Horse (One with Javelins and one with Bows)
2 Units of Medium Cavalry
1 Unit of Cataphracts
1 Unit of Clibinarii

I ended up fighting against Andy, who instead of using his Teutonic knight types was borrowing Dax's Alexander era Macedonians.  His army consisted of:

3 large pike blocks, each consisting of three units.
2 units of Light Foot
5 Units of skirmishers, each armed with various missile weapons
2 Units of Heavy Cavalry, roughly equal in quality to my own Cataphract.

My plan was to set up all my infantry on one flank and try and hold his pike blocks in place, while my numerically superior cavalry duffed in one flank and then turned on to the flanks of all the pike blocks.  It turns out the enemy commander was Alexander himself and was genius level. Basically all of Andy;'s troops were very very reliable and I did not manage to win an initiative roll for the entire game.

My Left Flank

My Right Flank

Mid Game and the pikes are closing in.

Cavalry try to turn the flank.

Early game I managed a few successes, with my two units of light cavalry managing to eliminate a base of light foot, and some good shooting from skirmishers.  Eventually though the pike blocks made contact and I was expecting the worst. However I was reasonably lucky and managed to weather the pike blocks, even managing to eliminate one in the later stages of the game!

My stalwart Roman Infantry save the day (again).

My cavalry make an arse of things.

How to trap a big pike block with some skirmishers.

Desperately trying to finish of Alexander!

My cavalry on the right managed to make a right hash of things. I had a fairly impressive advantage but all my heavy cavalry kept missing their attacks, or Andy managed to pass his cohesion tests. Numbers tell though and I was managing to make some headway, albeit costly and slow.  

Towards the tail end of the game I actually managed to defeat on the pike block and managed to reduce Andy to almost his army break point, while having a healthy margin left on my own. Unfortunately it was business as usual and my cavalry fluffed all their attacks and cohesion tests and what was looking like a good chance of victory in mid game turned into a desperate hunt for a draw. My cavalry let me down and once again ti was down to my heavy infantry to come through with the goods and break Andy's army, leaving me with a hard fought draw.

In the end it was once again my infantry that one the day, with my cavalry punching well below their weight.  It was another really enjoyable game and a fine start to the years gaming. It was very interesting using cavalry that were not all Impetuous and I had never used Light Cavalry before (it showed), and I looking forward to getting in a few more games.  I definitely need to get some Dice of Destiny though as there were a fair few annoying Cohesion test roles on both sides that I would have loved to have altered.

Once again apologies for the terrible photos.

Happy New Year

So 2014 rolls in and I quite glad to see the back of 2013, for various reasons that are not related to toy soldiers.

Looking ahead to gaming and painting in 2014 I seem to be looking at a bit of an odd year.

Painting wise I am looking at painting quite a lot of terrain, including finishing of my Dark Ages buildings from Grand Manner, building the walls to Balins Tomb and finally building the Amon Hen kit I bought at salute aboute seven years ago.  That will probably fill up the first half of my year.

I am also looking at doing some repair work.  My Lord of the Rings collections is a little bit worse for wear and could do with some TLC.  There are a lot of broken horses, spears and pikes that all need repaired, not to mention a large volume of sabot bases that need finished of. I ordered a large quantity of War of the Ring style sabots from Warbases when the game was first released but at some point he changed the dimensions of the bases so I will need to get a custom order of bases done at some point.  I also need to do some repair work on my recently completed Romans and Saxons. It seems that a spear falls of one of my Saxons every time I look at them, and one of the boxes of Romans had an accident and requires some work.

 

Apart from that I don't appear to have any plans. My Romans are all finished (for Impetus use anyway) and I can't see myself purchasing any more WHFB models (although you never know!).

I still have my sight set on a 15mm army for use in FOG but I seem to be unable to make any final choices about what to do so that has stalled a wee bit.  My Aliens vs Predator kickstarter will hopefully land in May and that will be a substantial set of models that will need painted so that will probably take up a good part of my painting year.  

I also always seem to keep going back to the Warlord Games Engoish Civil War Range, as ther are some very nice miniatures that I think would look very nice on the gaming table.

From a gaming point of view again there are no concrete plans.   Play some of everything really.  Top of my playing lists at the moment are Impetus, Lord of the Rings and Mordheim. Apart from that I am pretty open.  I am going to give Chain of Command a bash in January and am also looking inot teh Beta version of Koncordia from the same people that wrote Impetus.  The rules look quite interesting and will give me an excuse to dust of some of the old sci-fi miniatures that are in the loft. I would also like to play some more Dux Brittaniarum and some Saga.  I have both sets of rules but dont seem to use either as often as I would like to.

The other rule set that I would dearly like to get back into is Epic Armageddon. It is my favorite sci-fi ruleset and seems to do a much better job of recreating warfare in the 41st Millenium than 40k does. Unfortunately in a fit of madness when the game was first published I gave away two of my three epic armies (Marines and Eldar) to other club members in order to stoke the fires of the game. Unfortunately both of these people have since pretty much left the club, and with the Epic lne being discontinued by GW I am left with a rather large Imperial Guard army and on one to fight against. A very sad state of affairs.

The other thing I would like to do this year is get a bit more involved with the club.  It is an excellent club and we have done some great stuff in the past year, but I seem to manage to miss most of them. I missed the Longstreet campaign, which seems to have swallowed up half the club and looks like it is great fun. I suppose part of the problem is that model wise my collection has a very narrow focus, which can make playing other periods a bit tricky. I think I will need to start leaving some Monday nights free and just wandering in and seeing if I can join a game.   In 2012 I made a point of trying get at least one game in with every member of the club, which I really enjoyed doing. Perhaps I will make that my gaming goal for 2014.

This Year I have Mostly been Painting....

So as it is coming to the end of the year, it seems that that the done thing on Blogland is to have a wee look back at the year. 

I thought I would start this with a look back at what painting I have completed n 2013. No photos I'm afraid as I don't really have anywhere to take decent photos.

So this year, in no articular order I have painted:

1 LOTR Uruk Hai Battering Ram
1 LOTR Uruk Hai Seige Ballista
26 LOTR Moria Goblins
1 LOTR Cave Troll
2 LOTR Nazguls on Fell Beasts
24 Musketeer Late Roman Unarmoured Infantry
4 Musketeer Saxon Slingers
4 Musketeer Saxon Archers
6 Musketeer Late Roman Late Cavalry (3 Javelin and 3 Archers)
8 Musketeer Late Roman Armoured Cavalry
8 Musketeer Late Roman Cataphracts
6 Late Roman Saxon Characters (all the named ones from the range)
4 Judge  Dredd Miniatures
LOTR Mines of Moria Terrains set.
10 WHFB Dark Elf Harpies
10 WHFB 6th Edition Dark Elf Black Guard
1 WHFB Dark Elf Cauldron of Blood
6 15mm Niksphorian Byzantines (as a test for a future project)
2 Beastmen Chaos Hounds for Mordheim
1 Beastman GOR for Mordheim

So that is 21 cavalry, 2 large flying beasties, 101 Infantry, a few bits of terrain, one large infantry model and some war machines.  That is not a bad haul for a years painting.  

 The best thing about this is that the painting has all been very focussed. I have managed to complete a number of projects, and the rest have all been in the advancement of existing projects.

All the musketeer miniatures have been painted to complete the Impetus Late Roman Army and for Dux Brittaniarum.  I now have about 600 points of Late Romans for Impetus and enough models to supply both sides for an occasional game if Dux Britaniarum.  I now consider the Late Romans finished (hooray!!) and don't really feel the need to paint any more.  I still have all the Arthurian characters waiting to get painted and a few other bits and pieces but as I have enough painted just now I can happily wait until I am in the mood.

The LOTR Uruk Hai were done so that I could run Helms Deep, and the Nazgul on Winged Beast were done so I could try out a few scenarios, which we managed to do.  The Moria Goblins were painted as part of the next phase of my Lord of the Rings project, which is put all the pieces together to do most of the Scenarios involving the Fellowship.

The few Beastmen were done as part of the clubs ongoing Mordheim campaign and were needed as my warband expanded.

The Judge Dredd miniatures were painted for a friend and were the only display quality miniatures that I have managed to paint all year.

Having a focused painting plan is very rewarding as you can see definite progress being made, and completing and progressing projects is a great motivator to get more done.  I usually plan and purchase my painting a year in advance, and next year is already looking pretty full.

So far I have planned:

5 Lovely dark Ages buildings from Grand Manner

Finish some simple terrain to represent the wall of Balins Tomb and the Bridge of Kazad Dum

Acquire and paint a Balrog!

Put together and paint the Amon Hen kit that has sat in the loft for the last 7 years!

Paint enough Uruk Hai scouts to make a decent fight for the Fellowship (that will need to be a lot!)

That is probably more than enough for the first 6 months. To top that off I bought into the recent Aliens vs Predator kickstarter, and that should(!) be delivered in May.  I would also like to paint a few more display quality models as well.

I am also eyeing up a 15mm Field of Glory army, probably from the wonderful Legio Heroica range. My taste in gaming is as always dictated by the ranges of miniatures that I like rather than any particular interest in any period.  Wargaming is about being sociable and having an excuse to get the models that I have been painting on the table.

All this on top of a very busy cycling schedule, and an attempt to sell our house and buy a new one so next year is looking like a busy one!

A Hard Won Victory...or not!

Game six of the clubs Mordheim campaign rolled around and I was feeling pretty good about it.  Mordheim is one of my favourite games and this campaign has been quite successful for my Beastmen, with two victories under their belt and fairly minimal casualties as well.

There are 5 regular players in this:

My beastmen
Rory's Kislevites
Andy's Sisters of Sigmar
Dave's Marienburgers
Ian's Reiklanders

So far in the campaign Dave has been forced to retire his original warband due to losses and Ian has had to miss a few games. Andy, Rory and I have been present at every game and are probably on fairly  even footing in terms of the power levels of our warbands.

The scenario was straight treasure hunt, in a ruined village.  In addition to this as I had manage to 'mislay' the Amulet of Alex in the last game it was also up for grabs.  There were 6 treasure tokens on the board and we each had to grab as many as we could, with one secretly being designated as the missing Amulet.

The ruined town, peaceful for now!

My Beastmen, waiting to get stuck in.

 Once again we decided on random deployment, with Ian and Rory deploying quite closely to each other, almost side by side. Dave was at the far end of the table. Andy was quite lucky and managed to get in the middle of one of the long edges, opposite Ian and Rory and most importantly of all within easy distance of three of the six treasures. I ended up deployed at the far end of the table, well away from the action.

Deployment, just slightly out of the action.

Early game saw an instant start to hostilities between Rory and Ian, who pretty much laid into each other right form the first turn.  This pretty much went on for most of the game, with Ian eventually coming of worse and being the first to exit the game.  Andy quickly took up some high ground in the middle of the board and secured three of the treasures, including the missing amulet.

Kislevites advance

Sisters take up a commanding position in the middle of the battlefield

Early game, you can just see my Beastmen at the far end of the battle.

Dave's Marienburgers also took up a commanding position at one end of he battlefield and advanced towards the Sisters of Sigmar in an effort to try and secure some treasure, which they managed pretty much without anyone noticing.  

My trusty Centigor failed his drunkenness test for the first two turns of the game, basically stopping me from getting very far, but I still managed to secure one of the treasure tokens.  

Mid game saw Dave and Andy fight for possession of the treasures, with neither side gaining much of an upper hand.  Rory tried to consolidate his position after seeing of Ian and started heading towards the centre of the table.  My Beastmen advanced up the table as best they could, taking full advantage of the large amount of cover available.

Sneaking up the board.

Hiding behind every wall.

Still sneaking and hiding.

More sneaking and hiding.

Towards the end of the game I was finally starting to get close to the action when Andy decided to withdraw towards the other end of the table.  Just as I was getting close to the enemy Dave and Andy decided that they had had enough and left the table, leaving only Rory and I in contention.

Finally getting ready for the big charge.

Come back you cowards!

Rory's Kislevites and I then faced off. The only die I had rolled all game was the drunkenness test for my Centigor so I was keen to get stuck in. Rory was one model away from break point so took up a defencive position in readiness.  I managed to get pretty close to him and launched the first wave of my assault, consisting of the chaos hounds and the centigor.  That was less than impressive so in went wave two, but as soon as Rory had enough casualties to allow him he decided enough was enough and legged it, leaving my Beastment victorious!

Kislevites looking a bit nervous.

The Beastmen finally get stuck in!

So victory number three for my Beastment, although not through any effort on my part. Man of the match had to go to Andy as he managed to make off with half the treasure. In the end I lost one Chaos Hound and managed to some pretty decent advances on some of my Heroes.  More of a filler game for me, with not much going on and a chance for wounded to recover and funds to be restored.  With the campaign now past the half way mark the prospect of purchasing a Minotaur are looking pretty remote. How much use he would be this late in the campaign is debatable, but it would still be nice to get him anyway just so I can paint one up!

Game seven in the January. I cannot wait!

Church Raid

No games for the last couple of weeks so there have not been any updates.

This was my second game of Dux Britaniarum and was a follow up to my game against Dave a few months ago.  This would follow my Saxon Lords raids into the English kingdom of Caer Colun, located on the Saxon Shore on the East Coast of England.

We rolled for the random Raid scenario and I ended up trying to rob an English church. In Dux B most of the various details of the scenarios are generated randomly.  As it turned out the church was located at the far end of the 6x4foot table, with just over half the English defenders arriving mid way up the opposite long edge of the table.  I was lucky and my force managed three full turns of movement before the game started proper.

Early game I sent a unit of Hearthguard and a unit of warriors towards the church to start searching for the loot, while the rest of my force, commanded by my Lord and one of his nobles took position on a hill in a n attempt to keep the English away and buy some time for the church to be ransacked.

The Saxon raiders

One group make for the church, although they forgot their glasses!

Saxons take the hill, ready to stall the English

Two lines of English, good warriors to the front, Levies huddling at the rear.

The English advanced in two lines, with the front consisting of the main warriors and elites, and a second shieldwall of Levies reluctantly forming a second line.

The Saxons reached the church quite quickly and started to look for the loot and it was not long before the two forces clashed on the hill.  The initial combats went the way of the English, with some excellent dice rolling from Dave and some clever use of the Fate Card deck meaning that my Saxon force was depleted very quickly, due to a lot of kills.

Luckily my two units of elite managed to salvage the centre and it quickly became a war of attrition. After three turns I decided to give up the looting of the church as I was running short of men and the group that was in the church came out to join the fight.

The initial clash of warriors. the Saxons came of very badly from this!

Elites take advantage of the poor manoeuverability of the shieldwall.

Running out of troops!

Saxon Lord runs out of troops and decides to make a run for it!

The game went right down to the wire and I eventually managed to break Dave's forces, but I only had one point of moral left myself. The main difference was that I had chased of a large chunk of his force through accumulation of shock, whereas I had had a lot of men killed.  

In the end I only managed a narrow victory, mainly thanks to the extreme amount of casualties I had suffered, while not managing to inflict many in return.

Post game discussion turned to the scenario itself. We both agreed that while we liked the raid scenarios there was not really much point in trying to actually complete them. The chances of them being successful were quite slim and the Saxon forces were strong enough at this stage of the game to just take on the English in a head on fight. Of course the risk of this is that casualties can become a problem. I was lucky in this game as I rolled very high for my initial roll and had a moral of 8 against Dave's five. Otherwise it would have been a disastrous day for the Saxons. Perhaps there needs to be more incentive ot actually try and complete the raid propoerly, although some of them look very dificult to complete!

I still had a good time and am keen to play again, but I don't think that it will be a game that I play a lot of. Perhaps 2-3 times a year.