Newline 28mm Hittite Guardsmen

These are the Newline Hittite Guardsmen that I bought to beef up my Trojan warband. It is within the bounds of historical possibilities that the Hittites were allies to the Trojans, and their proportions, arms and armour are stylistically close enough to those of the Redoubt figures.

They have the characteristic chunky Newline look, and are pretty good casts with just some flash in the areas between the limbs and the trunk. The weapons and shields come loose and the right hands have to be drilled to take the weapons.

With these done, I have four units (three of melee, one of missile) and more than enough leader figures for them. I am tempted to say that I will not add any more units to this force, but then it just occurred to me that if the Hittites can send a unit of infantry, then why not a hero in a chariot?

Romans vs Macedonians again

A close-up of Martin's phalanx.

It's actually been eleven months since we played a game of our Dux-Bellorum-Impetus mash-up, so since Martin got a few more bases of pikes painted, we decided we would haul some metal this week.

The scenario was a pretty straight-forward one, with a relatively flat battlefield broken only by three hills. Both sides deployed with the heavy infantry to the far end of the table, leaving the skirmishers and cavalry to contest the other flank.

As the infantry plodded towards each other for the clash, a fierce battle would rage in the low ground between the two hills.

As the battle reached its climax, casualty markers and dice littered the field... In the end both sides were out of Leadership Points, and were close to morale check point, and there was still no clear winner. We decided that honour had been satisfied, and retired discussing further projects.

Rules modifications for Tribal for the Trojan War

Other than the rules for using tarot I shared in the previous post, here are some rules which I plan to add or modify to lend a more Homeric flavour to our games.

1. Playing area

As the tarot cards are larger than poker cards, the playing area is 4' x 4' instead of 3' x 3'.

2. Throwing Weapons

All Chiefs and Heroes gain the Throwing Weapon skill, and may in addition also make an Throwing Weapon attack after a Throwing Weapon attack has been resolved against them by a charging enemy.

A Chief or Hero mounted in a chariot with a driver may perform a special Throwing Weapon attack at another Chief/Hero in a chariot during his activation at the end of his movement if he started the activation mounted on the chariot. This attack has the range of one long edge (measured from any point from the chariot base to the base of the target chariot) and is otherwise resolved as a standard Throwing Weapon attack; the target Chief/Hero may also resolve a Throwing Weapon Attack after the attack.

3. Chariots

Chiefs and Heroes begin the game in their chariots, which each comes with a driver. A chariot may only carry up to one Chief/Hero and one driver and one Armour token. A chariot is considered manned if there is a Chief/Hero or a driver in it. If there is no Chief/Hero or driver in it, a chariot is unmanned.

If a hit from a Missile or Throwing Weapon is scored on a chariot when the Chief/Hero and the driver are both in the chariot, the owning player may choose which figure takes the hit. The driver may not perform any attack, but if he receives a hit from a Missile Weapon or a Throwing Weapon, he is removed. A manned chariot may not be attacked in Melee - if charged, the charging unit is moved into contact with the chariot's base and the chariot is moved one long edge away from the chargers.

If the Chief/Hero is mounted, the chariot is activated during the Chief/Hero's activation. If the Chief/Hero dismounts, the driver receives an activation card immediately. If a Chief/Hero mounts the chariot, the driver loses his activation card the following turn. A driver may not dismount from a chariot.

A chariot moves one long edge during normal movement, and may Sprint, but it may only move in open terrain. As a chariot's base is much longer than a foot figure's base, this gives a chariot a longer movement than a foot figure. A chariot may only move if it is manned. If a Chief or Hero is manning the chariot, he may not make a Throwing Weapon attack.

A Chief or Hero may dismount from a chariot and Walk during an activation, or Walk and mount a chariot during an activation. A Chariot may not Sprint during a turn when a Chief or Hero mounts or dismounts it.

3.1 Capturing Chariots

An unmanned chariot may be captured by the opposing side. A foot unit captures an unmanned chariot by ending its activation in base-to-base contact with the chariot; a free driver figure is placed in the chariot and receives an activation card immediately.

A captured chariot may be 're-captured' by the original side if it subsequently becomes unmanned again.

A captured chariot that is moved off the table via the player's home edge gains the player 2 Honour Points.

4. Stripping and Capturing Armour

A killed Chief or Hero may have his armour stripped and taken as a prize. To strip an enemy Chief/Hero of his armour, a Chief/Hero must spend one activation in base-to-base contact with the killed Chief/Hero - at the end of the activation, place an Armour token next to the Chief/Hero - he is now carrying the Armour.

The Armour token then moves with the Chief/Hero; while carrying Armour, a foot figure may not move faster than Walk. If the player moves the Armour token off his home edge in a chariot, he gains 2 Honour Points if the Armour was stripped off a Hero, and 3 Honour Points if it was stripped off a Chief, whether the Armour had been stripped from a Chief/Hero from his own side or the opposing side. If he leaves the table with the Armour on foot, no Honour Point is awarded.

A Chief/Hero carrying Armour may not charge but may fight normally when charged. If he loses a combat, he drops the Armour token onto the field/tabletop before he retreats. The dropped Armour may then be picked up again by a Chief/Hero figure that moves into base-to-base contact with the token.

To place an Armour in a chariot, the Chief/Hero carrying the armour must end his activation in base-to-base contact with a chariot. A Chief/Hero does not have to mount a chariot to place the Armour into the chariot - if he mounts the chariot while carrying the Armour, the Armour is in the chariot. A chariot may move normally while carrying Armour. A chariot may only carry one Armour token.


Again, feedback is welcomed. Thank you.

Olympus Tarot and using tarot cards for Tribal

Now it's no secret that I like the Tribal rules, but that's not to say that I don't think it can be spiced up a little, especially since the Trojan War is not specifically covered in the rules.

One of the things that occurred to me was that divine intervention in the Iliad can perhaps be represented by the addition of special cards to the deck, and that a good source of an 'off the shelf' deck of cards with special cards is of course tarot cards. Some googling turned up the Olympus Tarot, which comes in the standard tarot count of four suits of 14 minor arcana cards and 22 major arcana cards. Each card depicts a god (for the major arcana) or a scene from a tale from the Greek mythology (for the minor arcana); many are familiar, but I can't tell what some are supposed to depict because the manual that came with the deck is in Russian.

It is relatively simple to use the minor arcana to replace the standard deck: the four suits (sword, wand, cup and pentacle) represent the four suits (clubs, spades, hearts and diamonds), with values running from 1 to 14.

The major arcana required a little thought.

As the major arcana each represent one Greek god, I thought I would model the effect of each card based on the manner in which the gods intervened in the Iliad. But as not all the gods intervened in the war, and some intervened only for one side, I cannot use all the cards. My current idea is to just include eight of the major arcana, to be split between the two players: the Trojan player will add Aphrodite, Ares, and Apollo to his deck, and the Greek player will add Athena, Hera, and Poseidon to his deck; one each of the remaining two cards, Hephaestus and Zeus, will be dealt hidden to the two players, such that each player has a deck of 60 cards. Alternatively, both players may each receive one Zeus card and one Hephaestus card. The Card Pools rule will be used.

The major arcana cards may be played as a 'numbered' card, in which case they are of the suit that the player chooses, and beats all minor arcana cards (but does not Overpower) if played in combat. If two major arcana cards are played, the card with the lower number in the sequence of the major arcana beats one of a higher number.

The major arcana cards can also be played as an event cards outside of the normal situations called for in the main rules (called a divine intervention) and they have the following effects:

Zeus (I): Zeus forbids the gods to intervene! Played after a divine intervention - negates the effect of the divine intervention.

Hera (II): Hera seduces Zeus! Played after Zeus has been played - negates the effect of Zeus.

Aphrodite (III): Aphrodite rescues her favourite! Played when a Chief or Hero has been charged or is in combat - removes the Chief or Hero in combat and places him three long sides away.

Ares (IV): Ares fills a captain with battle fury! Played just before combat - a Chief or Hero in combat draws two extra cards for his combat hand.

Athena (VIII): Athena encourages her champion! Played when a Chief or Hero charges - the Chief or Hero may cast a Throwing Weapon twice* or gains another long side to move into combat.

Poseidon (IX): Poseidon rouses the troops! Played after completing the activation of a friendly unit - another unactivated friendly unit may activate immediately.

Hephaestus (XI): Armour of Hephaestus! Played when a Chief or Hero receives a hit - the hit is negated, even if it was an overpowering hit.

Apollo (XIX): Apollo thwarts my enemies! Played when a Chief or Hero is charged - the enemy unit that has declared a charge against the Chief or Hero must end its move a short side away from the Chief/Hero instead.

Once played as a divine intervention, major arcana cards are not re-shuffled back into the deck when all the cards are played, but are kept aside.

That's all I have for now. In the next post I will share some other additional rules I am planning for Homeric warfare.

(* - I plan to modify the Throwing Weapon rule such that all Chiefs and Heroes gain the Throwing Weapon skill and may in addition also cast a Throwing Weapon against a Chief or Hero after the charging Chief/Hero has resolved his attack.)

Malifaux test games

Set-up for the first game. A 3' x 3' playing area is pretty big for a low figure-count game.

Yes, I know I said we were going to use Empire of the Dead for our Victorian period game not more than a week ago, but a week is a long time in wargaming...

Anyway, after discussing the rules last week, fg and I decided that neither EOTD nor In Her Majesty's Name fit what we were looking for. I went on google to try to find a set of VSF skirmish rules, and after a while Malifaux came up. Now fg had talked about Malifaux a while back - he bought two starter packs and had painted one faction up. I downloaded the free fluff-free version of their rulebook, and after a brief read thought it was do-able.

I chose the most human of the factions to represent my Penny Dreadful party, and within the Guild faction I picked the Ortega family as their special rules emphasise sticking together and protecting each other, which to me is in the spirit of the party in the show (except for the end of Season 2, which was kinda stupid...).

Instead of the Resurrectionists, fg picked the Nephilim sub-faction of the Neverborn faction to represent his vampire party, which actually fit pretty well too. I suppose I will pick the Resurrectionists to represent my Mummy faction, and fg can use his Chinese Tong for the Ten Thunders faction.

Fg brought some very nice terrain.

Malifaux is a 'small skirmish', competition-orientated game - you run a handful of models, but each has its own special rules which interact with the other members of your warband (called a crew), and on top of that you can buy upgrades for the models, adding even more special rules and interplay to the mix. This means that it takes some studying to figure out the best way to put together a crew and to use them in a game.

We played the first game with 25-points crews, with the scenario awarding victory points for being within 6" of the centre of the board. I found that my supposedly shooty crew actually have very short shooting ranges that are really shorter than charge range of the vampires. Fortunately, some of the crew can hold their own in melee.

The first game ran seven turns, and fg won on victory points. Although we were slowed down by our unfamiliarity with the special rules, we had plenty of time left and we decided to play a second game with a Master added.

Lots of crunch.

For the second game we just needed to inflict casualties on the other side, and I additionally chose two secondary victory conditions that gave me points for being in the enemy half of the boar - this turned out to be a mistake: I should have stayed on my side of the board and shot at the vampires as they came for me. The game ended on turn 2, when my boss characters were killed.

Our heroes are outmatched by the forces of evil!

We enjoyed the game enough to want to play it again, perhaps this time with more thought!

Empire of the Dead party

From L to R: Mr Nathan Sandler, Dr Frank Ernstein, Ms Veronica Clives, Sir Michael Moray, and Sam Benett.

Here are the West Wind Empire of the Dead figures which fg passed to me and which I painted as a not-Penny Dreadful party, based on the cast photo below:

They are not a good likeness of the original (for that, see here), but I thought it would be better to paint something 'good enough' while the interest is there than to spend too much time looking for the perfect figures and losing steam before the whole thing is done.

I kept the colours to a muted black-grey-grey-brown as in the photo, but decided to tie all the figures in the party together by giving each a red accent around the neck region.

For the fluff I thought I might stick close to the Penny Dreadful storyline (spoilers ahead!), and have the characters be an Amercian (non-werewolf) shootist, a medical doctor, a woman with arcane powers, and an explorer and his faithful manservant, in this case a native American instead of an African (because the figure looks like it can pass for the former but not he latter).

Our intrepid party will face the malevolent forces of Merneptah (will Professor Flinders Petrie swtich sides mid-campaign as Professor Lyle did?), and the diabolic vampire master and his thralls that fg is current painting.

Will good triumph over evil (or at least be left alone to do their Victorian things)? Will the mysteries of our heroes' past come back to haunt them? Will I have enough terrain for this campaign? Stay tuned to find out...

Dropzone Commander Resistance force for Horizon Wars

This little force here had its origins as models for the Axles & Alloys game, but once I got my hands on the Horizon Wars rules I realised I could use them as the nucleus of a low-tech, rebel/resistance style force.

I used black as the main colour for the force - it is easy to paint and shows up well on the light sand terrain we plan to use for our games, plus it gives them a Fremen look - but couldn't resist painting the school bus in a traditional yellow. The bus will serve as the company HQ for my force.

The force is small for Horizon Wars requirements, but if I borrow the vehicles and bikes fg painted, I should be able to field a larger force that can go toe to toe with the other guys' mecha forces.

With these guys out of the way, I hope to paint up some 28mm VSF figures for our Empire of the Dead project. Hopefully my eyes can still do 28mm...

July Giveaway

This month, I am giving away the Tamiya 1/48 scale M20 kit.

I bought this with the intent of converting it to a Space Marine vehicle, but as I mentioned in this post, it was too small for my purpose and I ended up buying a 1/35 kit instead. So let's you and I try to make the best of a bad situation and hopefully get this kit to someone who is already using 1/48 scale vehicles for their WW2/Bolt Action game, shall we?

Let me know if you want the above by leaving a comment, and I will draw a winner on the 15th of the month. This is not a first-come, first-serve offer,

To save on postage, I will be sending this kit in a padded envelop with only the top half of the box folded flat to provide some protection. A few parts (the main chassis) have been cut from the sprue, but otherwise the kit should be complete, with instructions, decals, and a length of string for tow cable.

This offer is free; once I let you know you have been drawn, do let me have your email and mailing address, and I will mail it to you. You don't even have to pay for postage. I am doing this not to get some money back, but to give these toys a good home. If you want to pay back somehow, I ask that you make a small donation to a local charity, or consider doing the same thing I am doing and give some gaming stuff that you no longer need/use a new lease of gaming life.

Thank you.

Mid-Year Review

As we reach the mid-point of the year, I feel the need to take stock and see what the rest of the gaming year may hold for my little group.

The two Chain of Command campaigns are progressing at a reasonable pace: we are two games into each campaigns and I have almost all the terrain necessary for the upcoming games made.

On the 28mm skirmish front the Immortal rules are still in oblivion, but thankfully Tribal has stepped up to the plate. The photo above shows most of the figures I have painted for a Trojan faction, and they will be facing wahj's Trojans/Greeks and fg's Crocodile Games Amazons when they are painted. I think it says a lot about Tribal that it made me complete a project that has been stalled for over two years in just two months. In fact, I have ordered some Hittite Royal Guards from Newline so I can have another unit of melee troops. I have purchased the Olympus tarot decks, and once they arrive I want to start making up rules for using them.

The other event that we have been waiting for this year is the delivery of the Heavy Gear kickstarter, which will start shipping next month. What came as a surprise to me though was Martin coming on board with the project and getting himself a copy of the Horzion Wars rules and some Dropzone Commander figures too. But even before the Heavy Gear stuff arrive I should have painted up the Dropzone Commander stuff that I already have to be able to field a small Resistance force. With luck we should be able to play our first games in the last quarter of this year.

Two other side projects I hope to work on this year are for Empire of the Dead and Dystopian Wars.

For the first I am planning to paint up a 'not-Penny Dreadful' faction using the West Wind figures fg passed me. It may be some time before we have enough figures for a campaign, but I guess VSF is a period that we will come back to eventually.

For the second I am doing some terrain work. I have earlier planned to build an island fort based on a real-life Genoese fort in Turkey, but the construction proved to be beyond my skills. I used the buildings I bought for that project to instead build a harbour-fort based on a Turkish town I visited once, and hope to get that completed soon. Perhaps I will work on some other terrain project after that and gradually acquire the know-how to build the island fort eventually.

Chain of Command: Kampfgruppe von Luck Game 2, The Grizzled, and Three Cheers for Master

Panzergrenadiers making their tentative way through an orchard.

Martin and I played Game 2 of our CoC campaign this afternoon. The scenario required my Germans to cross the table dominated by a cluster of walled buildings on one end, and couple of hedge-enclosed areas. I did pretty well in the patrol phase, managing to secure a Jump-Off Point in the middle of the table.

The scenario called for a lot of vegetation... Those are all the trees I own.

Unlike in his previous game, Martin did not deploy his units early, forcing me to probe along the orchard with one section. This section was quickly engaged by a Vickers hidden in the attic of the building overlooking the road and orchard.

I sent another section up the other fork of the road and pushed into the woods. This section was then engaged by another section Martin deployed in response.

At this point I must state that Martin rolled incredibly well, managing to rack up three chain of command dice to my one, rolling several phases in succession, including four sixes and a random event that forced me to deploy another one of my squads before I intended, causing them to be exposed to enemy fire.

With my squads under fire (and one of them broken) I sent in my secret weapon: a Grille M proxying a Lorraine Schlepper (f). The big gun forced the Vickers in the attic to withdraw, whereupon I decided to push my luck: I sent the section on the left running towards the table edge, while the Grille put pedal to the metal and rolled down the road.

Martin quickly redeployed his Vickers and stopped my squad on the left, and with one of his (many) chain of command dice ambushed by Grille as it raced forward.

With my momentum lost and Force Morale low, I called a retreat.

Fg, wahj, Martin and I then played a couple of boardgames.

The first was The Grizzled, a WW1 themed co-operative card game where players take runs playing cards that represent either group adversity or personal psychological trauma. The aim of the game is to play through the deck and not accumulate too many of one kind of adversity during each round (whereupon the game is lost) - if you survive till the end of the deck, you have survived the war.

I generally do not like co-operative games, and this is no exception. The theme is pretty dark, and we felt that it can probably be re-themed to depict bomber crews during WW2 or infantrymen during Vietnam.

The next game we tried was Three Cheers for Master. This is a competitive tower-building/climbing game where foreminions make minions stack themselves atop each other so they can form the most impressive cheer-leading tower for the master.

I am not quite sure we got all the rules right, but the game looks like it has a lot of potential for strategic play. I would liken it to a game of Robo Rally where the cards you play stay relevant until the game's end. I would certainly like to give this game another try.

Redoubt Trojan War archers in tunic

Here is the last unit in my Trojan War project. I have a few casualty figures primed and started, but those aren't essential for the game.

With the painting out of the way, the next step is to come up with some rules so that we can use the major arcana in a deck of tarot cards to represent divine intervention and special events. This is perhaps best done by assigning a game event to the scene depicted on each card, but unfortunately there seems to be some trouble with eBay, Paypal, or the seller, and I cannot complete the purchase I made. Maybe I should consult the oracle for some advice...

Redoubt Trojan War spearmen

Another week, another unit. The only good thing I can say about these figures is that at least I have only one more unit (of archers) to go and then a few casualty figures, which are really optional.

What is driving me is the fact that I love the Tribal rules and I think I will enjoy playing a Trojan War themed game (or games) with the appropriate figures. In fact, I am now wondering if it is worth paying for a couple decks of Greek mythology-themed tarot cards to use for the game, which will allow me to incorporate some themed special rules.

I am also thinking about terrain items which will add flavour to the tabletop. Baueda has some very nice Mycenaean buildings, but they are in 15mm. Any suggestion will be welcomed. Thank you.

The phalanx seen from the front

View from the figures' left, showing shield patterns. These guys must really have worried about being shot in the back...

Redoubt Lukka Warriors

Five more figures done. These are Lukka swordsmen, and will serve as a short weapon unit for Tribal games.

Next up will be some Trojan infantry with spears. Slow and steady does it...

Heroic Maps Pharoah's Tomb and Finger and Toe Models Catacombs

I blame Netflix, I do...

After getting the rules, painting up the figures, and doing some terrain boards, our VSF/EOTD project stalled as we moved on to other genres. Now, after watching Penny Dreadful (excellent series - great acting, and the sets are just begging to be reproduced on the tabletop), I felt the need to do some work for the period.

As my faction is Egyptian-themed, from the outset I have wanted an Egyptian-themed headquarters for them, so this became the choice for my project. I imagined a Victorian mansion that looked Victorian from the outside, but had Egyptian decor on the inside.

Due to a lack of storage space, I knew I wanted something that can be taken down and packed more or less flat, but I also wanted it to be interesting from a game-play point of view.

I went to my usual source for 2D terrain: Heroic Maps. After looking at a few of their Egyptian offerings, I ended up getting their free Pharoah's Tomb - Upper pack (there is a - Lower pack which depicts the underground part of this pack.

The pack shows a pillared courtyard that rises in a few levels to lead to an interior.

The architecture of the area represented made me decide to try something I have always wanted to try: a 2.5D terrain. This would involve gluing multiple layers of materials on top of each other, and I knew that the material I would use is 1mm PVC foam sheets, which are now my favourite craft material. Instead of representing the pillars in full-height, I would use something that is about man-height instead.

For the interior, I decided to go for full-height walls. For the texture of the walls, I went for Finger and Toe Model's Catacombs pack. This pack provided walls and pillars "skins" for Egyptian, Greek, and Roman interiors.

After some calculations, I decided to get the foam sheets in 1mm for the courtyard, in 3mm for the walls, and in 5mm for the interior. I had planned on getting wooden thread spools for the pillars, but the art shop did not have them, so I settled for corks instead. To colour the sides of the foam sheets, I also bought a coloured marker.

After four straight hours, I managed to complete the project, shown here with the walls tacked together by removable tape.

Here is a more lateral view of the set-up, showing the elevations of the terraces.

The whole set-up is broken down into three parts: the courtyard with a platform in the middle, a terrace of steps, and the interior space. Broken down, the largest piece has the footprint of just under 28cm x 22cm.

I am quite happy with the result, except that the corks aren't tall enough to block a figure entirely; I might glue two corks narrow-end to narrow-end instead, or just buy some wooden spools from ebay.

(Added: Check out this large battle-board made with Heroic Maps' geomorphic tiles.)

Sarpedon and friend

My Trojan War project is still progressing at snail's place. Today's addition depict Sarpedon and his chariot driver on foot. Or at least they are in my books.

They wield more substantial swords than Hector and his friend, but along with the five other Lukka swordsmen I have lined up next, they are poor casts and needed a lot of cleaning.

Nevertheless, I will for now continue to work at them with the aim of eventually painting the remaining two dozen figures I have. Hopefully by then the Tribal community would have come up with rules for chariots!

June Giveaway

(image from onthewaymodels)

This month, I am giving away a 20mm WW2 Soviet bundle.

A while back I bought the Italeri JSU-152 box set that came with two kits in it: one for a "standard" model, and one for a quick-build "wargamer's" model. After examining both kits, I decided to build the standard kit and give away the quick-build kit.

You get a complete kit in single sprue, depicted above, plus some decals that came in the box. To save on postage I am sending the sprue in a padded envelop, with the box collapsed.

I have also included a couple of sprues from Zvezda, being:

(image from plastic soldier review)

a single Soviet 45mm anti-tank gun depicted above, including the mini-diorama base but MINUS the crew figures. The sprue comes with parts to build the gun in tow position, so you can either use it for a towed gun model, wreck it for a wrecked gun terrain piece, or supply your own crew.

and:

(image from plastic soldier review)

the two rifle-armed infantrymen on the left side of the picture above - two of the first and one of the second, a total of 3 figures.

Not nearly enough to recreate a Russian horde, but hopefully just what you need to round out that platoon. 

Let me know if you want the above by leaving a comment, and I will draw a winner on the 15th of the month. This is not a first-come, first-serve offer,

This offer is free; once I let you know you have been drawn, do let me have your email and mailing address, and I will mail it to you. You don't even have to pay for postage. I am doing this not to get some money back, but to give these toys a good home. If you want to pay back somehow, I ask that you make a small donation to a local charity, or consider doing the same thing I am doing and give some gaming stuff that you no longer need/use a new lease of gaming life.

Thank you.

Tribal games

A bad omen as two jokers are played!

Adrian, fg and I got together to play Tribal today. Adrian and I played the Revenge scenario, with him fielding his dwarves against my Night Goblins. He fielded his Slayer champion as a Berserker hero, while I took a unit of archers for a total of four warrior units.

With more terrain and units this time the game was more tactical. My gobbos were doing very well until the Blue Shield units moved in to defend their wounded Chieftain (one wound from death!), whereupon they were attacked and wiped out. It turns out that they were the target of the dwarves' vengeance, and Adrian won the game by a single Honour Point!

After the game we cleared the terrain and turned the tabletop into an arena.

I made stat cards for some of the gladiator figures I already have the evening before: printed an arena backdrop, posed the figures in front of it, then made the cards with an online Magic card maker.

The point costs didn't allow an even split, so I invented a system of drafting where we took turns to buy from the stable of gladiators, with any leftover Honour (or should it be Fame?) points kept for victory purposes. There were no rules for multi-players in the rules as written, but it was a simple matter of each player drawing a card for initiative.

As predicted, the game played very differently from a standard battle. The presence of armour made things more unpredictable and exciting. We each had three gladiators, and it was a free-for-all. In the end it came down to two of fg's gladiators against one of Adrian's, and against the odds the lone survivor of his ludus defeated both opponents to emerge overall champion.

The game was a lot of fun, and would have been even better had there been more specific rules for say the net or kicking sand into an opponent's eyes (Dirty Tricks?). Perhaps the rules can be expanded for gladiatorial combat with rules for running a ludus, including recruiting for gladiators, advancement, and accounting for winnings and fame?

We ended the afternoon's gaming with another game of Small World, which Adrian too won. So all in all it was a great day out for Adrian.

Le Fantome de l'Opera and Small World

With lots of time left even after two games of Chain of Command on Sunday, fg and I decided to play Le Fantome de l'Opera, one of the boardgames my brother passed to me. I didn't care for the theme, but I liked the rules enough to want to try them.

The game components are lavish, which added the play experience. The game itself was a bit like Cluedo, where the perpetrator of a crime is identified by a process of elimination.

I found the game to be a little unforgiving, as a poor hand in the first turn can easily eliminate half of the suspects, making things very difficult for the Phantom player. It was a fun game nonetheless, and worth a try if not actually owning the set.

The next game we played was Small World, which is based on the game Vinci, which I loved.

Small Worlds is a fantasy and more thematic iteration of Vinci, and the fluff lends the whole game a less serious but no less challenging feel.

Again, the game components are superb, right down to the counter tray. One major difference between Vinci and Small World is that the latter uses a hidden victory point track instead of an open one. This on the one hand eliminates the problem of boredom for the trailing players when they know they have no hope of winning the game, and on the other hand prevents the ganging up of players against the obvious leader.

We played two games, and enjoyed both enough to want to play the game again. We are now talking about getting some expansion sets and playing the computer version of the game. If you like a strategic game with a fantasy theme, I recommend you check this game out.

Chain of Command: Old Hickory Games 1 and 2

fg's GIs make their debut

I currently playing two of TFL's Normandy campaigns concurrently: Kampfgruppe von Luck versus Martin's British Paras, and Old Hickory versus fg's US.

For the first scenario I decided to attack along the rail line, hoping to use my superiority in support points to quickly roll over the US defences. Fg set up a minefield before his Jump-Off Point on the ridge, and a wire obstacle in front of the fence guarding the approach from the north.

To develop the enemy, I sent one section moving tactically along the road towards the railway station, while another was sent on my right flank to try to put pressure on the gun position on the high ground overlooking my approach.

The opening moves

Fg's MMG defending the fence line of the station quickly decimated my squad. I decided  to risk it and sent my Panther in before he could deploy more units.

My Panther also debuts!

The 3" gun on the ridge took aim at my Panther's side armour, and rolled a stunning 8 hits on 10 dice! By contrast, my 11 points of armour only managed to save against 2 of those hits - the tank explodes, causing the squad beside it to flee the battlefield.

Game 1 was a crushing defeat for the Germans.

With still a lot of time left, we decided to proceed to Game 2. FG did some redeployment, but I decided to come down the same road again, hoping that he had shifted some of his forces away.

This time round I decided to go the anti-infantry approach and took an FO, an MMG, *plus* an infantry gun - surely this time I will triumph?

My FO called down a barrage on the station, and my infantry gun put down effective fire on the American gun position on the ridge, but was unable to cause any significant casualty due to their prepared position.

A glorious start to the battle as the mortar barrage lands on target!

After a seemingly auspicious start, the German attack petered out as the dice god abandoned them and favoured the Americans. The FO was sent fleeing with some good shooting, the barrage lifted, and the Americans fought back with a vengeance. I was unable to roll well enough to bring more troops onto the table, nor did I wish to now that the volume of fire was becoming deadlier. I finally decided to abandon the attack when all three of my support units were destroyed. I have not brought in any of my organic platoon other than the Senior Leader.

The open approach proved to be difficult. For the next game I will have to considered a more concealed approach, which will no doubt be slower.

Arcadia Quest and The Builders: Middle Ages

Fg and my brother are both downsizing their boardgame collections, and it devolved on me to hold their unwanted games until I can find a home for them. I took the opportunity to look through some of the games to see if I wanted any.

Anyway, when fg came over to drop his game off, we played a couple of them.

The first was Arcadia Quest, a chibi dungeon crawl game, which fg brought. As with the more well-known Super Dungeon Explore, which it resembles, the gameplay is inspired by console games.

Now boardgames based on computer or console games are always difficult to design and sometimes play: the mechanics of the game such as combat, finding and using treasure, and leveling up as all part of the experience, but can be labourious when performed "by hand" - which is why we employed computers for them in the first place. But while Super Dungeon Explore struck me as being repetitive and labourious, Arcadia Quest seems to hit just the sweet spot, with combat that offers some choices, is challenging (the monsters level up as your party progresses in the campaign), and a skills system that is easy to understand and track. The scenarios are also short, which means we managed to play three of them in an evening, taking us halfway through the campaign. We liked it enough to keep a record of our parties' progress, and plan to complete the campaign another day. 

The next game we tried was The Builders: Middle Ages. The game looks really nice, with a custom tin box, cute artwork, and nice plastic silver and gold coins. Unfortunately, it belongs to that category of games which I hate: one where there is little or no interaction between players.

The game is a resource-allocation game where you have a limited number of actions to take on building contract/s, recruit, and deploy workers. For every contract you complete, you gain victory points based on the size of the project. The game ends when one player reaches 17 victory points, so in theory the players are competing against each other. However, as there is no real way you can affect the other players' actions, in reality you are just playing solo, against a time limit.

Perhaps it will appeal to people who like to compete but not in a confrontational way, like maybe doing the same jigsaw puzzle as your friend and seeing who can complete it first.