Prester John vs Ceidonia

I bought a new folding table yesterday, so I can set up games in my office and avoid having to annex the dining table instead. In the afternoon I gave it a first outing, and what better way to do that than a game of HOTT?

The Ceidonians defended against Prester John's attacker. They are both medieval style armies with a core of knights, plus archers, spears and blades. 

Both armies advanced but Prester John halted about halfway to take advantage of a hill. His warband charged the Ceidonian levy on that flank and destroyed them. 

Then the two lines met, with the Ceidonians boldly attacking up the hill. 

The attack was hurled back, and the Ceidonians took some heavy losses. Their left flank was practically destroyed. 

Prester John's army pressed forward to exploit the advantage. 

The Ceidonian steam-tank crushed some of Prester John's knights. 

And now the two might behemoths - the tank and the elephant  - faced each other in the centre. This was a critical combat for the Ceidonians as losing it would see their general crushed under the tank's wheels, and lose them the battle. 

They won the fight and Prester John's elephant was pushed back towards his victorious right flank. 

It broke an element of blades and soon threated the native warbands as well. 

Meanwhile the Ceidonian rally continued on the other flank as Prester John's army became fragmented. Ceidonian swordsmen cut down the archers facing them.

More succcess for Prester John as he personally accounted for some Ceidonian blades. 

Meanwhile on the other flank he warband had avoided disaster and the elephant pushed back the Ceidonian tank into some of its own knights. 

Losses were heavy on both sides and fairly even, Prester John was attacked and driven into some of his own troops, destroying him. However his losses were lower than those of the Ceidonians so the army kept fighting. 

Both armies were looking very sparse in terms of elements now. 

The key turn arrived. A win for Prester John's troops here would destroy the tank and push the Ceidonians over their 12AP break point. 

The fight was a draw. And the Ceidonians overlapped some knights to push Prester John's losses over theirs.  

So it was a narrow 11g-10 win for the Ceidonian. Had their tank been destroyed then even the loss of those final knights wouldn't have prevented a 14-11g win for Prester John. Definitely a game won and lost on a key combat. 

I pronounce my new table well and truly christened. 

Back To The Baltic

With the ships all labelled up and still to hand after my game on Thursday I had another go at my Scanian War scenario yesterday afternoon. I went a little more ambitious this time, by adding an extra ship of the line to each side, so the Danes got Gyldenlove whilst the Swedes acquired Mercurius. In addition I dropped the Carronades trait from the two big ships and replaced it with Master Gunner. This gives them a bonus on firing at all ranges. 

I also wanted to try a small house rule. Currently if you are at long range or closer and you roll a 6 then you score a critical whether you otherwise hit or miss with the shot. This makes chasers surprisingly useful, since there's a not unreasonable chance you can inflict some real damage by banging away with them. The change is simply that if you roll a 6 and you miss, you only score a critical if the target rolled an odd number. This roughly halves the chances of a miss scoring a critical; it's still possible though. 

I sent with the same setup as I used on Thursday, but I randomised the positions of the shallows and small islands, as well as the entry corners for each side (although the randomisation of the latter was weighted in favour of 'good' corners and against obviously bad ones such as deploying sailing directly into the wind or an island).

Here's the action a couple of turns in. The Danes are on the left with Gyldenlove to the fore. To the right are the Swedes, led by Draken. 

Things started badly for the Danes. Draken fired on Gyldenlove, scoring a hit and some rigging damage. When Gyldenlove activated it rolled a '1' on its red dice and had to check the All At Sea table. This had it fire on the nearest ship - its flagship Sophia Amalia. The only guns in arc were the stern chasers. The shot scored a critical, damaging the Sophia Amalia's rigging. 

Gyldenlove now found itself under fire by both the Draken and the Stora Kronan. With their flagship slowed by its rigging hit the other Danish vessels were slow to come up in support. 

The Danes moved to cut the Swedish line and get in behind the Stora Kronan. 

The head of each line was moving towards the shallows and an island. The Swedes opted to turn and board the Gyldenlove in order to avoid a running fight in such dangerous waters. 

The Danish flag Sophia Amalia ran aboard the Hieronymus and also initiated a boarding action. The rest of the Danes headed for the rear of the Swedish squadron. 

However the Dannebroge contrive to collide with the grappled Gyldenlove, taking damage. Meanwhile the Swedes were bringing the Hieronymus up in support.  

Outnumbered by two to one, and facing the massive Stora Kronan to boot, the Gyldenlove struck. Draken detached from the melee, and worked around the surrendered Danish ship to engage the Dannebroge on the other side. Meanwhile the Stora Kronan took possession of Gyldenlove and grappled it to the Dannebroge. The Hieronymus came up on the Dannebroge's port side. Things were not looking good for the Danes. 

Meanwhile the other ships in the fight were struggling to turn into the action thanks to poor activations and a shift in the wind. 

With a prize crew on board the Gyldenlove the Stora Kronan moved off in order to engage the other Danish ships. But this assumed the the Draken and Hieronymus would grappled and board the Dannebroge. Both fell short. This left the Dannebroge with a small window of opportunity. It boarded the captured Gyldenlove and drove off the prize crew. The Hieronymus then finally grappled Dannebroge, but was quickly and brutally defeated, striking after a short melee. 

The Dannebroge had sent a prize crew onto Gyldenlove, who swung it into Draken, grappling it. The Dannebroge swung in place and was able to grapple the Draken's bows.  

Grappled at both ends the Draken struck after a short fight.

Seemingly outnumbered three to one the Dannebroge had, by careful timing and a lot of luck, recaptured the Gyldenlove and captured two Swedish vessels!

The wind had now shifter to an arc unfavourable to both sides. The Stora Kronan was limited in its movement by the shallows, and the other Swedish ships were reluctant to engage the two larger Danish ships in the foreground. For their part the Danes had a tricky job sailing to engage the Swedes as well. 

By mutual consent the two sides broke of the action.

After a poor start the Danes had won a significant victory, recapturing their only loss and capturing two Swedish vessels as well. 

The scenario changes worked well; the extra ship on each side made the action more interesting, whilst the nastier gunnery on the flagships made them a force to be reckoned with.

The chaser guns were less dangerous than before, but not toothless, as the rigging hit on the Sophia Amalia showed. I'd not used prize crews much before, and found the rules a little vague. But it turns out the assumptions I made were correct. I'll probably tweak the rules a little to make them smoother, however. 

Baltic Battle

Last night was our naval week at the Gong Garage Gamers. So I set up a small Galleys & Galleons game for June and I.

It's one I've played before - a hypothetical scenario between a Danish and a Swedish squadron set during the Scanian War of 1675-1679. Both squadrons are led by huge warships - in fact the largest warships afloat at the time: the Swedish Stora Kronan and the Danish Sophia Amalia. Historically they never encountered each other, but that's the fun of wargaming; they can on your tabletop.

Each squadron is identical in Galleys & Galleons terms - they have one of the big ships as a flag, two regular ships of the line and one frigate. The frigate's primary purpose is to repeat signals. 

June took the Danish squadron: Sophia Amalia (Flag), Christianus V, Dannebroge (SoL), Fenix (Frigate)

I took the Swedes: Stora Kronan (Flag), Hieronymus, Draken (SoL), Hommeren (Frigate)

We both selected positioned some terrain - two small islands and two areas of shallows. We then randomly determined wind direction and then chose an entry corner. June (top left) opted to come on with the wind on her beam, but with a tricky navigation of some shallows and an island. I came on bottom left with the wind astern, aiming to intercept the Danish squadron as they struggled past the island. 

The two squadrons close. 

The first shot of the game saw Sophia Amalia fire a long-range broadside at the Hieronymus. It scored no damage. 

The Hieronymus closed with the big Danish flagship and returned fire, scoring a hit. But at close range the Sophia Amalia's heavier broadside began to tell, and the Hieronymus was not only damaged but  lost its wheel too.  

Draken came up to support Hieronymus, whilst beyond the Sophia Amalia the Christianus V was firing in support of its flag. 

The Swedish ships were getting the worst of the fight as the big broadside of the Sophia Amalia pounded them at close range. But a hit from the Hieronymus started a fire on the Danish Flagship, and with a shattering roar it exploded!

On the post-explosion confusion the Swedish flagship Stora Kronan collided with Hieronymus, taking light damage. 

The explosion of Sophia Amalia started a fire on the supporting Christianus V. A short time later it too exploded. 

The Danes were now down two ships, although three Swedish ships had been damaged in the fighting. The Danish frigate Fenix risked the shallows and attacked its Swedish opposite number. In a quick boarding action it captured its opponent. 

The wind had backed by a fair amount by this stage, leaving the Danes limited in movement. But the Swedish were also having trouble disentangling themselves and were facing the wrong way to move on the remaining Danish ships. 

The Dannebroge came up and attacked the Stora Kronan. For a few turns they battered each other, both losing masts, and the Dannebroge even managed to sip past the Swedish ship's stern and hit it with a punishing rake. 

But the two squadrons were separating now. and with the wind where it was, and the presence of wrecks and shallows it would take time for them to re-engage. 

The Hieronymus moved into a position where it could be engaged by the Dannebroge, but with the Fenix coming up in support as well the Swedish ship decided that perhaps it would be an uneven fight, and sailed on. 

Both sides withdrew.

The Swedes had lost a frigate, and their ships had all taken various amounts of damage. The remaining Danish ships were less damaged, but they had suffered the total loss of their flagship and a ship of the line. So on the whole this was a Swedish win. 

Thanks to June for the game. It was a lot of fun. The chain of explosions was caused by her rolling an improbable number of near consecutive sixes. 

Here are the stats:

Stora Kronan / Sophia Amalia
Q4 C5 - 72 pts
Square rigged, Carronades, Chasers, Drilled Soldiers, Flagship, High Castles, Sluggish

Draken / Hieronymus / Christianus V / Dannebroge
Q3 C4 - 52 pts
Square Rigged, Chaser Guns, Drilled Soldiers

Hommeren / Fenix
Q3 C2 - 40pts
Square Rigged, Chaser Guns, Razee, Relay

The First Kill Revisited

 Last year I tried a quick scenario for Spandau & Lewis based on the first confirmed kill in an aerial dogfight, scored by a French Voisin 3 crew over a German Aviatik in October 1914. You can read about it HERE.  

I set it up again this afternoon, although on a 2' square play area this time. In addition I added two objectives for the German plane to observe. If they could spot one and get home then that would be a draw. Spotting two and getting home would be a German win. Shooting down the French plane would obviously also be a German win, so long as they spotted at least one objective as well. The French simply have to shoot down the German plane. 

I note that in my previous write-up I missed a couple of stats. Both planes have a power rating of 0 (as you might expect), and both crews are average. 

Here's both the planes and he two objectives. Once again the French Voisin is played by a Farman. Tumbling Dice now do a Voisin 8, which will pass as a 3 at a pinch. I'm looking at ordering a set of their newer French planes. 

The German tried to throw off the French plane by switching objective. The Voisin turns to follow. There is an exchange of fire and the Aviatik takes some damage. 

The German observed the first objective as the Voisin came in for another pass. It scored some more minor damage.

The French crew was slow in turning in pursuit. These early-war planes are not agile. 

The Germans observed the second target and turned for home, but the French plane was coming in on an intercept course. 

The German observer kept up a steady fire with his rifle, but didn't come close to hitting the French plane. The French dropped in behind the German aircraft. 

But the French couldn't finish the German lane off. The Germans turned to throw off the French pursuit. Both aircraft were now low on ammunition. The Germans fired one last shot, which missed. The French observer kept his last burst back until the pilot could get him into a better position. 

The final French burst missed, and both planes headed for home with no fight left in them. The German plane was damaged - it had taken half of its hits - and the French plane was unharmed. But the Germans had made both observations so were the winners.

(I did test for the damaged German plane turning back onto a course home; if it went off one of the side edges then there was a chance it would be lost. And the damage it had taken made that a possibility.)

The second game went badly for the French from the word go, as the Germans slipped past them, firing a cheeky rifle shot that almost hit the Voisin. 

They observed the first target whilst the French plane struggled to turn in pursuit. 

Try as they might the French crew couldn't get a clear shot at the German plane. 

The Germans observed the second target and headed for home. 

The French pursued, but some nifty side-slipping by the Aviatik prevented a clear shot. 

Indeed the Germans managed to completely wrong-foot the French plane and leave it heading in completely the wrong direction. A burst of speed saw the German heading for home, undamaged and with both observations for a convincing win.

The French crew had managed only four shots all game. The German observer had, once again, emptied the magazine of his rifle, but had, once again, failed to score any damage.