Christmas Meetup 2023

Last night was the club's annual Christmas get-together, where we went to a local RSL for food, drink and a good chat. and we had all three of those, despite the place being rammed full of humanity escaping the heat (and hoping to win the meat raffle).

We spent a lot of the evening chatting and putting the world to rights. But we did have the annual Christmas Quiz, with people competing for the coveted Golden KV2 trophy.

I'd written the quiz during the year, and it was intended to be in the traditional 'people shouting answers out until someone gets it right' format. However late in the day I had a request that maybe we could have written answers instead, so switched to that. However I didn't rewrite the quiz, which had a lot of questions written on the assumption that there would be loads of guesses until someone stumbled on the right answer. This long preamble is to justify the fact that the winning score was a mere 5 out of 20 - it was quite hard.

On the plus side, everyone went away having learned stuff.

How would you do? No Googling. And I'll post the answers in the comments.
(I fact-checked the answers as best I could. I don't guarantee they are correct.)

1 - In which sea-battle in 32BC did Mark Antony and Octavian square off to decide who would rule Rome.

2 - Which country has an AK47 on its flag?

3 - If you were a medieval knight, what part of your body would be protected by a poleyn?

4 - The Knights of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta operate as a unit in the army of which country?

5 - The battle of Poltava saw the end of Sweden as the dominant power in Northern Europe. In what year was it fought?

6 - The British defeat at Majuba Hill in 1881 occurred during which war?

7 - Finnish sniper Simo Häyhä, known as The White Death was claimed to be the deadliest sniper ever. In a career that lasted just around 100 days in 1939-40, how many kills was he claimed to have made with his rifle? (Up to 10% each way)

8 - The victory of the indigenous Mapuche people at The Battle of Curalaba in 1598 halted Spanish expansion in which modern country?

9 - Which conflict was ended by the Peace of Westphalia

10 - When first written this piece of music had a title which translates as ‘War Song for the Army of the Rhine’. By what title is it now known?

11 - The so-called Pastry War of 1838-1839 was fought between France and which other nation?

12 - In the American Civil War the 1864 battles of Sabine Crossroads and Pleasant Hill were part of which campaign?

13 - In Edgar Rice Burrough’s John Carter books, what name do the Martians give to their own planet?

14 - Who was the British nurse executed by the Germans in 1915 for assisting more than 200 Allied soldiers escape from German-occupied Belgium?

15 - On the 9th August 1942, during the Siege of Leningrad, the Russians launched Operation Squall, a coordinated bombardment of various German artillery positions. This was to prevent the Germans from disrupting what?

16 - After WW1, the mother of Italian flying ace Franceso Barraca presented the personal emblem his plane carried to a car company, who have used it as their emblem ever since. Which car company is it?

17 - What is believed to be the first example of an attack coordinated by synchronised watches took place in which conflict?

18 - With 11 kills (8 confirmed) what nationality was the most successful F14 Tomcat ace of all time?

19 - Which campaign is the central feature of the first Flashman book?

20 - The US WWII armoured vehicle designated T17E1 was known by which name?

(If question 20 seems a bit specific - it is. It was thrown in as a nod to one of the club-members)

Anyway, Ralph relinquished the trophy at the start of the quiz and then went home with again at the end. He's setting the quiz next year as well.

Bryan then revealed this lovely cake with a spectacular WWII Christmas Cheer cake-topper he'd printed and painted. We all rolled dice for it - lowest won. After five exciting rounds, Bailey's 4 pipped Dave's 6 to make him the winner.

Aerials For 'Galleys & Galleons'

The 'Fayre Winds and Foul Tides' expansion for Galleys & Galleons adds all sorts of fantastical delights to the game, including a range of aerial options. I made a few of these back when I started playing, but up until this week I hadn't rebased them in keeping with the current look of my fleets. When I used a couple of ornithopters in the game I played last week I decided afterwards that it was time that I rectified this. 

So here's my original batch of aerial vessels - some airships, including the small airship pirate Opehlia Vitrix, and a trio of ornithopters, including the all-red machine of the legendary Crimson Count.

My game last week also inspired me to make a few more ornithopters, and here they are. The fuselage is a piece of matchstick and the rest is card and cunning painting.

I decided to have a go at a larger vessel - a bomber of sorts. It came out OK, and I may make some more.

And encounter between two flights of ornithopters.

My other aerial element (still unbased) - the flying island of Laputa.

Sink The Iron King!

I ran the Galleys & Galleons Blockade Run scenario today, giving it a fantasy setting, but basing it very loosely on history (you'd have to squint very hard to see how though).

The mighty Dwarven ironclad Iron King is sailing in northern waters, attempting to reach the open ocean where it can wreak havoc on Ceidonian merchant shipping. Some Ceidonian warships, supported by ornithopters, are trying to stop it.

The two forces are:

Dwarves

Iron King - Q3 C4 - Steam Engine, Ironclad, Heavy Bow Chasers - 72pts

Ceidonia
Duke Otto - Q3 C4 - Square Rigged, Carronades, Chaser Guns, High Castles, Trained Gun Crews

Serlo's Blessing - Q3 C3 - Square Rigged, Chaser Guns, Razee

Ornithopters - Q2 C2 - Ornithoper, Bombs, Bombardier

The Iron King has to steam from one corner to the opposite. The Ceidonian vessels are set up in a line along the opposite diagonal, facing into the wind. So whilst they outnumber the Iron King by three-to-one in terms of points they have to get themselves organised.

The early stages of the game saw the wind rapidly shift from the west (left of picture) to the south, leaving the sailing vessels somewhat stuck. they also rolled very badly for activations, so didn't really get moving for a while. The ornithopters, meanwhile, did get themselves into position, and made an early attack run on the Iron King. However the Iron King got a chance to fire at them first.

One was lightly damaged. The other caught fire!

The one that was on fire quickly extinguished it, but missed out on its attack. The other, however, flew over the Iron King and dropped some bombs. But they only caused superficial damage.

The ornithopters began the slow process of turning back for another attack. Meanwhile the Iron King was making a run past the stationary Duke Otto

Thanks to poor positioning by the Dwarven ironclad, the Duke Otto had a gift of a shot an close range. It fluffed its activations, though, and only managed a ragged broadside as the Iron King went past

The Iron King returned fire with more effect, and damaged the Ceidonian warship. To the left of the picture the race-built galleon Serlo's Blessing was coming up in support.

The two ships exchanged fire again as the Iron King slowed to make a turn past Serlo's Blessing and the island.

Serlo's Blessing inflicted the first hits on Iron King, but had to scrape through the shallows near the ice to do it. Iron King was damaged and suffered a hole below the waterline, which would make it unwieldy.

But Iron King was through the blockade and ready to make the run for safety. The crew piled on the coals to raise more steam.

One of the ornithopters swung around for a second pass, but Iron King's broadside spoke and the aircraft exploded.

Duke Otto had finally got moving, and swung around rapidly. In the direction of the chase the large galleon had the legs on the slower ironclad, but could they get in a shot or two before the Dwarven ship escaped?

The second ornithopter was also closing fast.

Duke Otto couldn't afford to give ground at this stage to yaw and fire its broadside, but a shot from the bow-chasers inflicted some light damage.

But the faster galleon soon drew alongside the Iron King, and fired a broadside. It bounced off the armour.

Iron King returned fire, and the damage was enough to force the Duke Otto to strike. 

But here comes the ornithopter!

The ornithopter flew above the Iron King, and dropped bombs, scoring some more damage. I wasn't sure what happened when one vessel was directly above another, though, and allowed the Iron King to fire back*. The ornithopter was damaged, and lost altitude, colliding with the Iron King, and causing the former to take another hit. I repositioned the ornithopter by the minimum necessary to allow it to sit next to the ironclad.

Serlo's Blessing had also been coming up fast, thanks to its razee ability, But the best it could manage before the ironclad escaped was a shot from the chasers, whist was stopped by the warship's armour.

So the Iron King got away, leaving a downed ornithopter and a struck galleon in its wake. Its armour had stopped a lot of shots (although it's an expensive trait, so you'd hope it had some effect), but the Ceidonians were unlucky early on with several wild changes in wind and some terrible activations which meant that they never really got their act together before the ironclad was upon them. Duke Otto, for example, is well equipped to grapple and board the Iron King, but never really got the chance.

*I asked the author about this and his view was that if an aerial ends its move over a vessel at sea-level then they can't shoot at each other (unless the aerial has bombs). I thought that it might be fun to allow them to exchange small-arms fire as well. 

Friedland 1807 With Valour & Fortitude

We played a big game of Valour & Fortitude last night - an ambitious project since whilst we have all played it at least once, none of us really know the rules. We chose a bath-tubbed refight of Friedland; the attacking (initially) Russians had four or five brigades of three units plus artillery, whilst the French were initially defending with about four brigades, but had as many more arriving as reinforcements. The Russians had to grab an objective in the French lines (literally) and then carry it off their side of the board, nicely simulating their initial attack followed by their falling back in the face of increasing French numbers.

Here's the setup, with the Russians on the right and the French on the left.

The Russian advance was slowed by streams and by us trying to work out the rules for a whole range of things. The lively discussion occupied some time. There's a logic to the rules that's not always obvious and sometimes not explained as clearly as it could be. 

I was commanding the Russian left under Bagration (and, yes, we occupied some time working out how to say Bagration). My cavalry engaged that of the French and, frankly, didn't do that well.

The French had anchored their right on a small village, so it seemed rude not to attack it. I massed up some infantry, hampered by the infernal streams.

Meanwhile my other infantry brigade (I'd been trusted with two of them) was forced into square because of French cavalry. Ralph decided to see how hard it was to charge squares. It's hard. His cavalry fell back and was slowly shot to pieces by the infantry and supporting artillery.

My troops kept pushing forward, but what's that on the table edge?

More French! On no!

The reinforcements started to make their presence known, and the Russians prepared to fall back. At that point we ran out of time, and given that the Russians had suffered  two brigade morale failures and teh French none it was really a French victory at that point.

It took us a while to get going with this game, both with the setup and the play - the former because of the size of the scenario and teh latter because of our inexperience with the rules. But once we'd got past the first half of the evening we found that the mechanisms flowed pretty well, and all of teh players knew what they were doing and, more importantly, how best to achieve what they wanted to do (always a key thing to know how to do in any set of rules). They have some quirks, but are very playable and surprisingly quick. I think with a less ambitious scenario - we did deliberately set out to try and break the game - we could get a decent conclusion within an evening.

My thanks to Ralph for putting together all of the kit, Caesar for putting together the scenario and the other players for a great evening. 

Little White Bull

I've been doing some testing for a small change to the Palaeo Diet rules to fix a bug in some of the reaction tables, so have been running some hunts with affected beasts to see how they work.

Here's some aurochs. They are not some of the beasts affected, but still make a nice centre-piece for the hunt. One of them is a rare white bull, and the job of the hunters is to kill that one and one other. I ran the aurochs as giant grazers, but with a resistance of 4+ and only 3 bulk.

I had five hunters in play. You can see two of them here.

The others went on a wide sweep. The plan was to use the one archer to drive the white bull away from the rest of the herd and into these three hunters

The hunters in position.

A couple of shots failed to wound the white bull, but did drive it towards the waiting hunters.

The waiting hunters then proceeded to botch the hunt, failing to inflict any wounds on the bull, whilst taking wounds themselves.

And all that gory action attracted some nearby Outfolk (the subject of some of my testing). I had an outlying hunter whose job it was to keep them back with threats and shouting.

My hunters finally managed to injure the bull, but they were making heavy weather of it.

And, ignoring my hunter, the Outfolk came in to join the hunt, just as one of my hunters was gored and put out of action.

To add insult to injury, the archer had been doing a great job of driving the white bull back towards the hunters, but ended up being wounded by another member of the herd.

And it gets worse. The Outfolk scared off my hunters and then killed the white bull. I had to drive them off the kill immediately or they would claim it as their own*.

I didn't. So the hunt was a complete failure. I lost one hunter out of action and two wounded.

Anyway, the thing I was testing didn't seem to be too bad. Basically there is a logic flaw in the reaction table for some beasts, if they have a column headed 'Hunter within one M'. This is generally the second column from the left in the reaction table, and when testing for reactions you work from left to right until you hit a relevant column. So all of the columns to the right of it can only apply if there are no hunters within M. However there are reaction results in columns to the right of it that only have an effect if there are one or more hunters within M of the reacting beast (Roar and Pelt, specifically). They are redundant results. Rather than change the results, because there are some interesting ones in there, I am experimenting with moving the 'Hunter within one M ' column further to the right - to just before the 'Any Other Circumstances' column. This will make the other columns, which are generally fairly specific situations, more likely to happen along with their more interesting results.

From a couple of test games it doesn't seem to cause any weird issues, but I will do some more testing.

If you have the rules (and supplements), this affects the following beasts:

Hominids (Palaeo Diet)
Outfolk (Fireside Tales)
Witch Doctor (Pulp)
Mummy (Pulp)
King Carnivore (Pulp)

*If they were in contact with it at the end of the turn each Outfolk hunter would eat one bulk of the kill. The three of them would basically scoff the lot.