Rearguard at Pevensey

The final game of our wargaming weekend was another outing for the I Ain't Been Shot Mum from the TooFatLardies.  I picked a scenario from the old Operation Sealion book and Lenin and I reprised our usual roles.

The Home Guard (Lenin) are defending the edge of Pevensey when the Blitzkrieg hoves into view.  Their task is to hold up the Germans until the regulars can come to the rescue.

My German infantry came onto the board and straight into a crossfire from the town and the train halt.  After having taken a few casualties I managed to get my machine guns deployed and concentrated some fire into the town which quickly put paid to the first Home Guard unit.

It was then an interesting exercise in FIBUA with the Home Guard slowing up my advance whilst their reinforcements advanced across the table.  Here are some pictures of the game:

 

I have to say that if I were playing this one again I would move the town into the centre of the table as we really didn't use the top half of the table which was a bit of a waste.

Alaska Bob and the Sonic Laser

In our ongoing search for a set of Pulp rules we both like Lenin decided to give Pulp Alley a try.

The scenario was built using the scenario generation mechanisms in the rules so we ended up with Lenin playing the hero, Alaska Bob, trying to stop me, as the dastardly Count Smirnoff and his henchman Fekov, from assembling the terrible Sonic Laser (yes, I know that makes no sense but, hey, it's Pulp!) in my secret hideout in the frozen north.

We both assembled our leagues, again using the mechanisms from the rules,which were pretty straightforward, and started to play.

The game started with Alaska Bob having been cut off from the rest of his league and surrounded by Smirnoff's men.

With neither Smirnoff nor his right hand man wanting to take any chances Bob was managing to hold off their lackeys.

The rest of Bob's team began to advance into Smirnoff's camp and came to the notice of the dog sled team.

A couple of them tried a sneakier and more roundabout route.

One of Bob's chaps managed to calm the huskies and started to examine the crates.

Meanwhile Feckov decided to see what had alerted the dogs and Smirnoff went to check on some of the key components for the device which allowed Alaska Bob to whittle down the remaining opposition.

Whilst Fekov managed to deal with a couple of Bob's crew, he and Smirnoff thought thinks were getting a little too hot for their liking and melted away into the woods...

More Maurice

I wanted to give my WSS collection a bit of an outing and Lenin was keen to try Maurice again but using the full rules - so we did a pick up and play game using the set up from the book.

The key additions from our previous game were National Characteristics, Notables, early 18th Century artillery and variable weather.  National Characteristics are handled through points for this type of game but I suspect we would choose them for a more historically based one.  We chose to have two Notables each - these are drawn from the whole period the rules cover and so you can get some rather strange combinations (as indeed we did!).

Lenin took command of the English forces and chose Lethal Volleys as his only National Characteristic and drew Jonathan Russell, Earl of Bragge and Kershaw, Earl of Brent as his Notables.

I reprised my previous role as commander of the French choosing à la Baïonnette! as my only National Characteristic.  I then drew the Reverend Howard Whitehouse and Giovanni di Tripodi as my Notables.  We both decided to utilise one of our Notables as a Chief of Staff and placed the other with the cavalry.

Terrain placement was an interesting phase as Lenin focussed on creating an excellent defensive position for me to assault and so missed the chance to mess up my deployment and communications with some awkward placement.  We ended up with a hill in centre with woods and a marsh around it and a large town to Lenin's left.  The objective was, of course, in the town.

Lenin deployed his artillery on the central hill with most of his cavalry massed to their left and most his infantry between them and the town, with one unit as a garrison force.  His remaining cavalry and his other infantry were placed in column to his rear (something I suspect he would have done differently now) with the cavalry behind the town.

I deployed my forces with my infantry on my right in two lines facing the town, my artillery in the centre and my cavalry to the left.

Initially my foot advanced towards the town.  So the English advanced their horse to threaten my infantry's left and moved the remainder of his cavalry through the town to reform and threaten the centre of my foot.

I countered the horse on my left with my own horse and my foot stood and volleyed the English horse as emerged from the town.

A cavalry battle ensued with the Earl of Bragge leading repeated charges at my horse but having squadron after squadron shatter against the superior French!

Meanwhile the English horse facing the centre of my infantry were being decimated by volley after volley of musketry and eventually fell back.  I then advanced on the town extending my right flank to concentrate my fire on the English garrison.

The English advanced their foot in the centre but I threatened them with my horse and my foot eventually overcame the English garrison in the town.  The remaining English advanced to the rear of the town to prevent me outflanking them and moving into their rear.

With the English morale failing but the objective still contested dusk fell and the engagement was declared a draw.

First Play: Disposable Heroes

For our next game we decided to give Disposable Heroes & Coffin for Seven Brothers from Iron Ivan Games a try.  Whilst Nuts! remains our favourite WW2 skirmish rule set they aren't perfect so we're always on the look out for alternatives.

Lenin set up a game, based in Italy, using one of the basic scenarios with a few minor changes to suit his available figures.  We used my collection of Eslo buildings for some factory ruins.  These were to be occupied by Lenin's US force and I had to throw him out and occupy them with a similar sized German force but with a Panzer IV in support.

My first concern was obviously the fact that I didn't outnumber him - I would normally work on a 2:1 at least for this sort of action and whilst I had the tank the rules didn't help me use it to improve the odds!

I initially massed my force in the woods on my left to try to create enough of an advantage and try to turn the US flank.  But my attack was slowed down somewhat with fire from the US forces in the centre of the table.  I wanted to try to use the tank to suppress the enemy in the centre; however, I just couldn't get the tank crew to spot them.

Eventually I managed to suppress the US on the left which would allow me to advance but Lenin was moving the men on his left across the board so it all I had managed to do was to pivot the battlefield.

In the end we decided to abort the game rather than carry on as we weren't warming to the rules.  Disposable Heroes uses an alternate unit activation system which we found a little cumbersome and was prompting some rather gamey thinking rather than encouraging proper tactics.  The rules also seemed not to address or have abstracted a number of areas which we felt meant Nuts! provided a better experience for the type of game we wanted to play.

Dead Man's Hand Side Street Building 1

As you may have notice from a previous post, one of my purchases at Salute was one of the new 28mm buildings to accompany the Great Escape Games Dead Man's Hand rules.  At launch the range is five buildings, 3 single storey and 2 two storey ones but they are talking about expanding it to a fairly extensive selection in the future.

I only picked up a single building as I wanted to (a) see how it went together and (b) how it scaled with my existing Western buildings.  As with the previous 4Ground buildings I have had, this is a pre-painted laser cut MDF kit and it went together really easily - more easily than some of the other buildings I have had from them.  Here are a few photos of the finished building showing it alongside some of my existing collection (the one to the left is from Hovels and the one to the right from PMC on eBay).

I think they all work pretty well together and I'm really pleased with my new addition.  The kit is £18 from Great Escape Games (the 2 storey ones are £36) but they're not (yet?) available from 4Ground directly.

Jason and the Bracers of the Titans

With Lenin having taken the plunge and picked up a copy of the new Crooked Dice 7th Voyage rules (plus haveing brought me some rather nicely painted hoplites to add to my collection), we were both rather keen to try them out.

The rules are clearly closely related to 7TV, which we have played before, and have a deliberately cinematic feel.

The scenario was built from the rules and geared around the figures and terrain we had available. So we ended up with Lenin taking the part of Jason and his companions.

The Argonauts were looking to steal the Bracers of the Titans from me, the evil Aeëtes, King of Colchis.

Whilst Jason has his crew and some Amazons he'd picked up on the way, I started with only a couple of mercenaries and the multi-headed Dragon of Colchis to guard the Bracers (which were at the centre of the ruined temple).

Jason and his band advanced slowly, obviously awed by the ferocious dragon whilst my mercenaries tried to get around their flank.  A few of the crew of the Argo broke away from the others to tackle my men.

But I had a surprise in store.  I began chanting and summoned of the children of the dragon's teeth.

The Amazons began to shower the dragon with arrows and the Argonauts put paid to one of my men but, as the dragon and my skeletons advanced, their fearsome appearance turned their blood cold and they found they could not approach them.

Eventually Jason and one of the other Argonauts managed to overcome their fear and attacked the dragon.  But the Argonaut fell to the dragon's maw and Jason had to withdraw.

With my skeletons ganging up on and putting paid to the Argonauts and the attack on the dragon failing to make headway, the Argonauts retired to fight another day.

First Look: Dead Man's Hand

One of my purchases at Salute was a copy of the new Wild West rules from Great Escape Games, Dead Man's Hand.  The rule book is 44 pages long in a softback, staple bound, full colour format.  It comes with a set of small cards in a plastic box.

Other than the contents page, the rules are laid out in a single column format with large section and sub-section headings and are interspersed with photographs of miniatures and comment bubbles from various line drawn characters.  The inner side of the front and back covers are a quick reference sheet with one in metric and the other imperial measurements.

The game appears to be intended as a cinematic take on the West and provides for 4 separate factions - Lawmen, Cowboys, Outlaws and Desperados.  Each faction is intended to be represented by a gang whose stats are similar but not identical and who have slightly different abilities.

The game uses the pack of cards both for initiative (using their number) and also as special events/actions (using the text printed on the card).  The card suits are allocated one to each gang.

Each player is dealt a hand of cards from their suit and then uses the remaining cards in the draw deck for initiative purposes.  You have some control as the first card is dealt face up but the remainder are face down; however, there are some switching and abilities which may affect the final allocation.

Each figure has three actions per turn including moving, aiming, shooting, reloading and recovering (removing the effect of markers).  Shooting is based on a d20 mechanism using ranges with some simple modifiers, whilst melee combat is based on a d10.  Target figures have some limited opportunities to interrupt an active figure and there are some morale rules when your gang reaches certain casualty levels.

Games are intended to be played as a series of linked "scenes"; however these can be played separately.    A selection of scenes is provided within the rules and these can be played in various combinations as they differ in size and duration.

The rules are rounded out with a page of markers which you can copy and cut out or a set of lazer cut MDF markers are also available:

The rules and cards are £20 and the markers will set you back another £8 (although you could cut out your own).  Great Escape have also commissioned a set of pre-painted laser cut MDF buildings from 4Ground (one of which I also picked up at Salute).  I am looking forward to getting these rules to the table and it has certainly reignited my interested in Western games.