Games Expo 2024

After making contact with another wargaming group during a convention in October, we were invited to put up a game for their own convention in December. Martin and I decided to attend and reprise the Indian Mutiny game FG and I ran in the previous convention, since we already had the scenario and charts ready.

Once again we managed to run two sessions, and although the British came closer than ever to winning, victory continues to elude them!
 

The convention featured other games, including an A Song of Ice & Fire tournament, many boardgames, and a few RPGs, but the centre-piece of the convention was a giant Bolt Action Bastogne game which ran for some eight hours. 

Martin and I made more new friends, and no doubt more gaming will come from these meetings.

Conquerors & Kings and Kill Team

For the month of December we played the long-awaited battle between wahj's Late Romans vs Martin's Sassanid Persians. They were a matched pair of armies, but have not met in the field for many years.

Adrian and I played the Romans, and we managed to roll what I thought was a good terrain set-up for our predominantly infantry army. Our main line was anchored on two patches of rough ground, with the centre on a hill, and a small reserve force in the rear. Cavalry covered the extreme left flank.

Martin was worried about the deployment, but nevetheless decided launching cavalry charges on the flanks was the best option. On the Roman right the charge in the rough ground was repelled, but the troops in the open ground were routed by the Persian heavy cavalry, and the reserve force was unable to plug the gap.

On the Roman left there was a large cavalry melee, but Persian cataphracti triumphed against Goth and Roman cavalry. The Roman lines was thus cut up and surrounded.

Roman counter-attack on the left

This was the second game in a row where heavy cavalry settled the issue quite quickly and decisively. I wonder if this is a feature or bug of the game, as the lists do allow armies with historically large cavalry proportions to replicate that in the game. Or perhaps it is a matter of us not having figured out how to counter cavalry-heavy armies.

The next game should hopefully fit two infantry-dominant armies, and we'll see if they give a closer game.

For our second game we played Kill Team, pitting FG's newly-painted Ork Commandos versus Adrian's newly-painted Veteran Guardsmen. The figures were beautiful sculpts and the players did a great job with them, but I found the play rather complex and slow. Perhaps this is a game that requires investment on the part of the player to appreciate its full potential.

Battle of Hollabrunn

Last week we managed to get together for a mid-week game of grid-based Napoleonics. What's more, we hosted two members from another gaming group whom we got to know at a convention we went to the month before.

The scenario was Battle of Hollanbrunn, a rearguard action in the aftermath of Wagram that saw Massena's Corps catch up with the Austrians.

The game started with a Vincent's Division holding Hollanbrunn in the middle of the table, and the French cavalry arriving at their base edge. FG, commanding the cavalry on the French left, thrusted his squadrons forward and engaged the Austrian cavalry. In doing so, he crested a plateau and found another two other Austrian divisions behind the town.

The Austrians sent their cavalry and half of Kottulinsky's division to counter the French movement - a fatal error.

The opening set-up

On turn 3 the player playing the role of Massena, arrived late to the session but in perfect timing for the game. He quickly assessed these situation, and Neuenstein's Division on a march through the woods on the Austrian left, and then sent the light infantry from the Friedrich's Division to skirmish against Hollanbrunn's defenders while he organised a grand battery on the ridge overlooking the town.

While there are no national characteristics in these rules, the French had six commanders (albeit two being cavalry commanders that commanded only their respective squadrons), to the Austrians' four. In addition, Vincent had to command both cavalry and infantry and artillery. Having over estimated the importance of the French cavalry attack on their right, the Austrians were in addition plagued by poor dice rolls on the part of their artillery, and superb dice rolls on the part of the French which saw them moving through the woods on the flank at great speed. Belatedly they realised their peril, but with only three real commanders to speak of they could not redeploy their forces in time to counter the French, lost the town, and only by running down the game clock did they avoid a French major victory.

Mid-point of the game, with the French flank attack developing and the Austrians making their countermove

It was a fun game, and the timing was perfect, with the battle played to a resolution just as the game clock ran out and within the time we allotted for play.

In the discussions after the game one of the players was inspired to start painting 15mm Napoleonics, and Martin was motivated to paint up a few more units for his British-Portuguese army, which will allow us to play some Peninsular Wars scenarios in the future.

Kill Team

 Adrian hosted a game of the latest edition of Kill Team, where I pitted my warzone Bauhaus and Shieldwolf Miniatures figures against his Traitor Guard figures commanded by FG.

The rules are pretty standard to me, but the range is really helped by the beautiful figures and terrain. The gang have ordered several starter armies, but I have managed to pass the Saving Throw. I did scratch-build a Mekboy workshop shed for Adrian's terrain set, inspired by Orktober and GW's Mekboy Workshop terrain.

One peeve I do have with the system is the rather restrictive army lists, but hopefully that means that the lists have been playtested for balance.

I am tempted by the aesthetics of a Genestealer Cult army, so if we continue to play Kill Team, I may need to make another Saving Throw in the future.

The Men Who Would be Kings at Campus Game Fest 2024

Other than my usual home RPG group and my wargaming group, I have been gaming off and on with a public gaming group at a community centre these past few years. The group plays mainly RPGs and boardgames, and some Battletech Alpha Strike; I run the occasional one-shot RPG there, and play the occasional boardgame.

This year, the group was invited to take part in a games convention at a school, and I was invited to put up a historical wargame there.

This was when I realised that, while I do have many paired armies, most of them are sci-fi or fantasy, and the historical armies that I do own both sides of are not painted by me, but cobbled together from various ebay purchases. The only armies which look presentable are my Indian Mutiny forces, which were mostly painted by a single painting service.

Now while I do enjoy The Relief of Luckpore, I thought that a grid-based wargame would not be a good representation of most historical miniature wargame, so I went through to my library and decided on Dan Mersey's The Men Who Would be Kings, which I helped playtest with these same figures in 2015.

I modified the command rules a little to allow for five players - two on the British side and three on the Mutineer side - with three units each. I picked out a scenario from Colonial Conflicts: The Indian Mutiny, adjusted the set-up to fit, and with the help of a few friends tested the scenario, made some adjustments, and we were ready.

The set-up

Civilians in the village

The British train

We were scheduled for 4pm to 9pm, and I imagined that gave enough time to run two or maybe three games, each with five players on each side and FG and I umpiring. As it turned out the crowd were mostly there for the e-games and card games, and we didn't draw much attention apart from the other miniature wargamers who were there. One of them played the mutineers against me, and beat me resoundingly with incredible dice rolls.

We then had a student of the school walk by and he decided to take a swing at playing the British. He had better luck than me, and almost made it to the mutineer lines before his luck ran out.

The situation at the end of the second game

Over all the amount of gaming we did out of the session was probably not worth the effort of preparing the charts and cards and traveling down, but I did make friends with some historical wargamers and we might be getting some gaming in in the future, so that made the whole evening worthwhile.

Conquerors and Kings

We played another game of Peter Pig's Conqueror and Kings. Despite revising the rules briefly before the session, I still managed to get the multiple combat wrong by confusing the rules with those of an ACW set I am working on (also a grid-based game) 

View from the Ayyubid line

We fielded my generic Saracen army (mostly painted figures bought off ebay) against my anachronistic Late Byzantine army, using the Ayyubid list and the Crusader list.

Adrian, playing the Ayyubid, saw that his advantage was in cavalry, and that he would be at a disadvantage if the battle became an arrow duel, and so launched an all-out charge on turn one, using the 'Advance' Battle Tactic. wahj, playing the Byzantines, managed to survive the initial onslaught, and even managed to launch a counter-attack on the Ayyubid cavalry that were now outflanked. But dice luck determined the eventual outcome, and the Byzantine units that were pushed off the table failed to rally and return in time to shore up the line, and we called it an Ayyubid victory.

Byzantine counter-attack that ultimately failed

The game was quick because we did not do the whole pre-game sequence and the 'Piggy Chase', and while the strategic choices seem limited once the army list is made and terrain placed, there are still tactical choices to be made like whether to push forward on a sector where the attack is more successful, or pull back and reorganise the line to prevent outflanking.

This game was a little lopsided due to the list-making - my fault - which in turn was limited by the figures I have at hand. Perhaps in the future I should field a list with Close Order bowmen, using my Norman figures.

The next game of C&K is scheduled for November, when we hope to pit Late Romans against Sassanids. Stay tuned.

Lone Wolf - Adventures in Magnamund

I have sworn off Kickstarter after a few bad experiences, but I have made an exception for this new project.

I own at least three iterations of Lone Wolf RPGs, and have played two long campaigns in the Lone Wolf setting, and they are both memorable ones. There is something about the dualistic cosmology and the heroic narrative of the characters that instantly lend gravitas to the campaigns. Lone Wolf RPG characters can't help but to be heroic because the stakes are so high - all they need are a campaign premise to allow them to shine.

This current iteration is for the Dragonbane rules, which I do not own nor plan to buy; I am backing it chiefly for the fluff, the art, and most importantly the modules. The delivery date for the project is Nov 2025, although with the number of stretch goals being hit I will not be surprised if it will be late. It is too far ahead to plan, but hopefully I will have a stable of players ready to take on the Darklords when it arrives.