Yet another Midgard game (planned for May 2nd)

 

So, this weeks scenario comes from the Midgard Chronicles book, scenario 7, Too eager! Last couple of games saw the defenders with no incentive to move. this time around, the defenders will be split with one contingent well separated from the other contingents, but holding on to the main objective. It will behoove the defenders to advance in support of this isolated group to both save them from destruction and to hold the objective.

Once again it will be Orc vs Dwarf  and this time around we will randomly determine who is the attacker and who is the defender. We may well play this game twice on Saturday with two different groups, all depends on who all can attend and when (morning or afternoon)

Midgard Heroic Battles game

 

I have watched a few videos of this game in action, I think it is time to give it a try. 

Here is a LINK to an introductory video by Two Fat Lardies. They have more posted on Youtube.

It does do a lot of what Fantastic Battles does not. Some of my more important (to me) homegrown rules amendments for Fantastic Battles are apparently standard rules in Midgard. The good news is that there are no issues with basing! There are similarities, but also differences.

• Units can be forced back/retreat 
• Units that are reduced to 1/2 strength have reduced combat
• Leaders are important but do not dominate just like FB
• Leaders can still issue challenges
• Incorporates a command roll of 3+ but leaders can help out should you fail
• Every unit can move independent of the command roll, command roll allows second move
• Similar trait system for creating units
• Looks easy to use, rules light

Overall it looks like a fun game! There is a new supplement being released now with campaign rules and 15 new scenarios.

Fantastic Battles July 31st game day

Finally got together for our much delayed game day (my fault as it took longer to shake my cold than anticipated) 

The day consisted of one game, Fantastic Battles and general chit chat, good times . Three armies converged on the table top, 1500 points of Dwarfs vs Orcs and Undead with a combined total of 1500. It was good to play out the rules again, a few mistakes were made by us (nothing that would have impacted on the outcome) and we yet again were able to finish a big game in one day.

Full AAR can be found HERE

Next up we will return to Pulp Alley and also (by popular demand) to What a Tanker!

Date to be determined...

 

 

Fantastic Battles AAR posted on Rants & Ramblings blog

 

Click HERE to be taken to the full AAR on this exciting game.

More games of this to come with more Warhammer armies converted over to the system! Hopefully very soon...

Here are some samples of some of the stats for unit used in the battle.

Wolf Chariot (Vehicle) Points 78 Resolve Move Melee Shoot Def 2×39 5 5 3 - 5+ 10 RES Unreliable -1 on MISHAP & IMPETUOUS rolls Fast +1 Move [included] Furious charge +2 MEL when charging – in addition to regular +1 charge modifier Expendable When scattered no ripple of RES loss & do not count towards triggering army defeat.

Wolf riders light (Irregular) Points 44 Resolve Move Melee Shoot Def 2×22 3 6 5 1/- 4+ 6 RES Unreliable -1 on MISHAP & IMPETUOUS rolls Mounted +1 RES, +2 MOV +1 MEL [included] Reckless -1 RES,+1 MOV & MEL [Included} Belligerent See cheat sheet

Warhammer 6th edition, the clubs first game in far too long! (an AAR on the game)

 

Dwarves to deploy on the right, Greenskins on the left, the sticks show the deployment zones

So, it has been quite a while since we last played Warhammer but like riding a bike it all came back to us once we got started (the good and the bad) It was a classic match up Dwarf vs Greenskin. In this case the two Greenskin armies were aligned but not combined. Each was commanded by their own hero. One army was entirely made up of Orcs, while the other was all Goblin save for a single giant. At the start of the game the two Greenskin commanders fought a duel to see who would be the overall commander, the Orc chieftain was victorious knocking the Goblin leader even more senseless.

The armies were pretty basic, no lords only heroes and only 2nd level wizards for the Greenskins. The Dwarves had four leaders one of who was a Rune smith. No magic items or special banners, I figured we should just try a simple army battle with limited big hero intervention. The scenario was from one of the annuals, a three player variant, which also included some rules governing the selection of the war chief. 

The Dwarves defended the center of one long table edge while the attackers came in from the opposite side of the table, but from the corners, their center area was unoccupied. 

The Dwarves anchor their left flank to the old tower.

The Dwarven right flank terminates on the rocky outcrop.

The massed Goblin hoard

The Orc army

 

The opposing armies arrayed for action.

Everything was set up as per the instructions for the scenario, the forces were deployed, loins were girded and battle come down. The Greenskins were the attackers and tried to race forward to engage the stunties. However animosity did impact these plans. At first it had limited impact, round one went by smoothly. But, subsequent rounds, especially for the Orcs saw animosity create some serious traffic jams. For the Orcs the only truly successful units were the cavalry and the chariot. These two unit were able to attack the flank of the Dwarf army and in fact the cavalry were the only Orc unit to engage the Dwarves in melee. The Orcs did have plenty of success with their archers, driving back a Dwarven Thunderer unit, and the mage did become a nuisance too. 

By turn 3 the Orcs have contacted the Dwarven left flank

Meanwhile on the Dwarf right flank, the Goblins have leapt forward with their chariots and wolf riders in the van. They attempt to weaken the dwarf defenders with volleys from their rock lobber and doom glider. While the Goblins were remarkable adept at estimating the range, fate often intervened to weaken the actual impact. 

The dwarf crossbow men did inflict many casualties on the wolf rider but could not halt them and the chariots crashed into the Dwarfs inflict grievous damage. The canons seemed to be manned by drunks as they missed, a lot!

 

The Greybeards hold the far right of the Dwarf line take a lot of damage from the impact of the chariots
 

Crossbows and Greybeards were pushed back, but the rough cliff face slowed down any pursuit. Strong leadership kept them in the battle. The followup by the Wolfriders brought them into contact with the Iron Breakers while the second chariot slammed into the spear armed Dwarves..

 

Note the wolf chariot in the background fled into contact with the giant

 

 The spear Dwarves felt the impact of the chariot and 'fled' as only Dwarves can, very very slowly. Somehow, the chariot failed to overtake them in pursuit, must have been too much ground Dwarf gumming up the wheels.

The chariot was able to rally and prepared to attack once more.

The Orcs succeeded in their charge smashing through the clan troops. The threat caused the Dwarves to break up their battle line in an attempt to respond to the greater threat. The Orcs continued to suffer from traffic jams as a result of animosity and were also bothered by the persistent buzzing of the Dwarf gyrocopter. The copter focused it's attention on the Orc arrer boyz on the plain almost slaying the Orc wizard who was attached to the unit.

The rear areas of the Goblin army saw some action. The Dwarves had a ranger unit that had been hiding in the woods. This unit came out to threaten the rock lobber which forced the Goblin player to redirect a wolf cavalry unit to turn and attack the ambushing Dwarves. 

The battle did not go well for the Goblins. One rider was slain by throwing axes while seven more were hacked apart by the heavy two handed axes wielded by the rangers.

All that remained of the wolf boyz was, amazingly, able to rally!

 

By the way, you might wonder where the doom catapult is. Well it did not make it past the second turn! Unfortunately for the Goblins it suffered a critical and flipped over!

 

The game went well, but time was the greater enemy and we had to call it a day after turn 4. It was great to get together again and play a fun, simple game. It was nice to see three good size armies fight it out, but really the best thing was the chance to talk and joke and have some fun.

 

One note, not all who attended were caught up by the excitement, some just seemed to take a very relax view of the entire thing...

 

Reflections on the online campaign that never quite made it...

 

Back at the start, more or less, of the Covid 19 pandemic we tried to get a play by email game of Mighty Empires going, it did not work out well. It is a pity as it could well have filled in some of the gaming gap that we were feeling. Certainly not a replacement for miniature gaming, but still it had the promise of  a multi player, multi fantasy race strategic game. The hope was to provide a casual pastime with weekly turns. The hope was that being weekly it would not adversely impact on anyone's free time.

So what went right, what went wrong?

Fantastic Battles miniature game

 

Bad picture, but good looking game. It is another open game, no predetermined world to play in rather you get to build armies based on the figures you have at hand. A note worthy aspect of this game is the inclusion of one of our more remote members as a play tester for this game (as noted in the credits)

The rules are covered in the first 40 or so pages, then they have 4 pages discussing campaigns, and finally 24 example army lists to give you an idea of what you can create with the rules. Troops are defined by traits, with 40 to chose from.Some traits cannot be combined with certain other traits, but for the most part you are allowed to define your troops the way you feel they should be defined.

I will do a bit more of a review of the game over on my ranting blog, but maybe our play testing Lord beyond the ocean will contribute some additional comments here? 

 

these are your empires, at the start of the game. U/d mar 30th

map test

 

First look with 6 starting places (white circle) new map added

Overview map

Now we are six

So we have our 6 players, and our 118 hex map.
I need to do some adjustments (I have some 'new' tiles to mix in) and I will set up the locations of the capitals and post a picture soon.

Rules will also be sent out.

Players should ponder what .fantasy. nation they want to play. The choices will be loosely based on the Warhammer 3rd edition armies book, which includes listings for the traditional fantasy armies. If you are keen to try something different email me and we can look at fleshing out something that will fits the system.

Important, do not post or otherwise reveal your choice to anyone but me, I am trying to have a blind element to this game to avoid any preconceived/preexisting ideas about the players. This way all you will know is that the enemy is, say, Orcs, not that Frank controls them. Also it means that you may not realize which nation is actually an NPC nation, if one exists.

A reminder, since we will not actually field any lead figures we can just build off the lists without any concern about having the appropriate figures.

and so we take another step

The map is being built today.
So far there are three players signed up.

Once the map is built, and the rules sent out nations can be selected.

more updates to follow

Delays in getting this going, but this too shall pass...ouch

Sorry for the tease about a campaign, my recent bout of health issues have slowed me down a bit.
I thought I was done with passing, but based on today's events I may not be out of the woods yet, and I really do not know why. At any rate hopefully I will have a better understanding after a doctors appointment on Monday.

On to the game.
I now have two ideas for a campaign, the original fantasy campaign, vs or also, a space campaign.
The space campaign might be easier to run, but it would certainly be a very combat oriented campaign.

For the fantasy game, I will set up a Mighty Empire game. I would use the original booklet that came with the game, and any and all White Dwarf supplements that I have, which should be all of them.
I can supply a copy of these rules to those who do not have the rules.

Armies will be based on the old 3rd ed Warhammer Fantasy Battle system. Again, I can supply a copy to those who require a copy.

Battles will be resolved with a somewhat abstract resolution system.
I have three choices:

1. The system presented in Mighty Empires, modified somewhat by an old C&S strategic system
2. A modified version of the 2 Hour Wargames reaction system.
3. A modified version of the mass combat system from Birthright, an old AD&D campaign system.

Each resolution system is more complex than the preceding system adding more player interaction with the battle which may or my not be wanted.

New game plans...

Floating out an idea, to allow us to play games, and yet keep us seperated!

I am, once I have shaken off some of the impact of today's event (see Rants & Ramblings blog for details) planning to try a campaign game, maybe Mighty Empires or some other game. The idea would be to run a Play by Email (PBEM) game, with me as the GM, or even as a player.

The rules are readily available and given that we will not get together to play out battles the entire thing could just be played with any forces as we will not be limited by our miniature collections.

Certainly other games could be used, and other styles of play could be attempted, we will have to see what we all want to do.

More later, oh and for the time being, I do not plan to host any in person games...

Reworked the game a bit

So, I have moved the game over to the smaller table, reworked the town, and the wall, put in a new moat, and figured out what figures to use. The stage is set! 

Drawing up our battle plans

Just in case we actually do want to play a big siege game, or campaign I thought I would list what I can contribute to the enterprise. Please feel free to add your stuff.

Siege stuff that I have.

1 Mighty Fortress, original Styrofoam. That's 4 towers, 4 wall sections, 2 gate sections

3 Plastic Mighty Fortress sets (to be assembled) That's 12 towers, 9 wall sections, 3 gate sections

39 card stock buildings ( old GW Townscape)

Stuff for a moat

Generic attack/defend stuff:

1 large trebuchet, 1 medium trebuchet, 1 large catapult

2 siege towers, 3 covered rams, 2 cauldrons, 2 rock droppers, 2 stone droppers,

Orc/Goblin:

1 Medium Goblin trebuchet, 2 Orc onagers, 1 Doom glider catapult, 2 Goblin ballistae

Undead:

3 Undead catapults, 4 Undead ballistae

Dwarf:

3 Dwarf cannons, 1 Dwarf flame cannon, 3 Dwarf ballistae

Chaos:
1 Hell cannon

2 Giants

Military elements, to form up either defender or attacker, but not a massive amount of any one army, but enough to be part of a larger force.

Dwarf, Bretonnians, Orc/Goblin, Khemri, Vampire counts, Chaos.

Next big game?

Aiming to do a big siege game, Saturday June 8th, looking for forces for both defenders and attackers!