Middle Earth HOTT

Geoff and I played a couple of games of HOTT last night. He brought his vast collection of Middle Earth troops. I'd planned to borrow from those, but took my new Wood Elves as well and, in fact, used them in both games.

In the first game the Elves were attacking Geoff's Army of Mordor. Geoff put down some large areas of bad going, so I anchored my flanks on them and waited for him to come to me. Which he did.

My archers cut down some hordes on his left, but his centre quickly closed into melee.

On my left I surrounded some Orc warband with lurkers and destroyed them. The lurkers spent the rest of the game doing a sterling job covering that flank.

In the centre, Geoff's Uruk Hai blades (which included the general) were pushing me back, but the bad going protected me from the worst of it. Mordor's trolls battled the Elves' ent.

Mordor's general broke through the Elven line.

The troll steadily forced the ent back towards the Elves' baseline.

But the Elven archery was taking its toll; Mordor was slowly running out of troops that weren't hordes (Geoff was sensible enough to bring any of those that were lost back into action).

The ent was forced off the board by the trolls.

But the Urk Hai general was destroyed when he was shot at and his recoil was blocked by some Elf archers.

The Elves picked up a 10g-8 victory.

In the second game Geoff switched to a Gondorian army with a mix of spears, blades, knights and shooters. The Elves defended. I set up a few woods to hide in.

Gondor's archers found themselves exchanging fire with Elves well hidden in the trees. But they stood their ground fairly well; the Elves didn't inflict as many casualties as I hoped they would, despite the real advantage that shooters get for being in woods when there's an exchange of fire.

Geoff's centre just charged straight in, risking knights against shooters. It was 50/50 - he lost an element of knights and I lost one of my archers.

I kept shooting and Geoff kept attacking, and casualties were about even. But I lost my general to a flank attack to give Geoff the win in this game.

With one win each we called it a night.

Spandau & Lewis Version 1.1

As promised in my previous post I have put together the latest version of my Spandau & Lewis WW1 rules and posted it on my Free Stuff page. A lot of the changes are things that I've been fiddling with for the past two or three years - some changes to firing resolution and a lot of small tweaks to the way movement and damage are resolved. The core of the game is the same though.

I still haven't written up any rules for bombing or other interactions with the ground; currently my two-seater missions are simply 'Exit The Board' or 'Overfly A Certain Point'. One day I shall put something better together. I also want to work out some rules for balloon-busting missions, since I bought a couple of observation balloons from Tumbling Dice.

Wings Over Sinai

It was ANZAC Day yesterday in Australia, so I thought I'd set up and play my small Spandau & Lewis scenario covering Australia's first air to air combat. This was on November 11th 1916, in the aftermath of a bombing attack on Beersheba. You can read the scenario HERE.

Here's the planes at the start, with the two Turkish Fokkers to the left and the Australians to the right.

Guilfoyle is in the Martinsyde in the distance whilst in the foreground Wackett is flying the Be2 with Turner as his observer/gunner.

The Turks split up, each going after one of the Australian planes. The idea was that if one of them gained an advantage that could be translated into a kill, the other could then make a run for the Australian board-edge and chase the escaping bombers.

In a terrible start for the Australians, a Fokker got in a close-range shot on the Be2, and killed Turner, rendering the Be2 weaponless.

Fortunately the Turks couldn't exploit this advantage, and they struggled to bring their planes to bear for another attack. Guilfoyle brought the Martinsyde over to cover Wackett's escape in the Be2 - there was no point in the vulnerable two-seater remaining in the area.

One of the Turks left the playing area, their return uncertain.

Wackett escaped in the Be2, and the remaining Turk, a novice, failed to intercept him.

This left Guilfoyle fighting both Turks, as the other pilot quickly brought his aircraft back into the area.

A head on pass with the novice Turk saw both planes hit. The Turkish pilot was wounded, but Guilfoyle was killed.

All the Turks now had to do to win was exit the board before the end of the game. This is random, though, and time ran out just as they reached the edge. This meant that the bombers would now be too far away to intercept.

So despite losing a plane and two out of the three crew involved, the Australians had held the Turks to a draw, albeit a close-run thing.

I had to play some of this game using scribbled notes I'd found for various changes to the game currently published here, so I will make an effort to get them written up and a new version of Spandau & Lewis posted for download.

 

Welcome To The Machine

I'm not big on putting together specific teams for Gaslands, preferring to adapt the cars I have to the various sponsors. However I have put together a trio of vehicles with the same look for the technological terror of a sponsor that is Mishkin. Today I finished a fourth vehicle for the team.

I started it ages - years in fact - ago, but had only put the base coat on. But a couple of pre-work morning sessions, plus some detailing during a 3am anxiety episode, saw it completed over the past couple of days.

As you can see it's a fairly non-descript pick-up truck, with a 3D printed 'technological weapon' on it. The weapon could be a death-ray or arc-lightning projector. The crew figures are from Ramshackle.

To fit the theme of my other vehicles this one is called Welcome To The Machine.

And here's my Mishkin team - from left to right is Shine On You Crazy Diamond, Wish You Were Here, Welcome To The Machine and finally Have A Cigar.

Here they are again. In fact in any given game I wouldn't be using more than two of them, but there's a few option there now.

The Battle Of Ambridge

'The Archers' is a British institution. Set in the village of Ambridge, this BBC radio 'everyday story of country folk' has been running since 1951, and is now the longest-running drama series in the world. At some point in its history it was established that there was a battle at Ambridge during the English Civil War so, of course, it would be rude not to have a go at refighting it.

To be fair, from what I can find out, there is pretty much no information about the battle aside from the fact that it happened in 1642, so any reconstruction is going to be somewhat conjectural. However Battle Of Bridgeton at Elenderil's 'Small But Perfectly Formed' blog is probably as good as we're going to get for a source, since it's based on notes provided by the BBC to a group from the Sealed Knot who were involved in a episode of the series which featured a reconstruction of the battle. In the comments on the blog Elenderil speculates that the battle may be based on that of Powick Bridge, which was certainly fought in the same area as The Archers is set, but his scenario isn't Powick Bridge.

Elenderil's scenario has the following background:

"The Royalists are preparing for the 1643 campaign season by bringing new recruits from Wales and the Welsh borders into Central England to join the King's main field army. After reaching the West Midlands they find the route blocked by a well fortified garrison at a significant river crossing. Marching downstream to secure crossings away from that garrison they hope to cross at the small village of Bridgeton where an old Roman road crossed the river at fords and a medieval bridge. As they cross a ridge line to the West of the village their Cavalry scouts report a force of the local Parliamentarians approaching from the East. The Parliamentarian force is tasked with denying the crossing to the Royalists and preventing them from moving further East"

Anyway, I took Elenderil's scenario, and fiddled with it a little, firstly in order to scale down the forces and terrain in order to fit it on an 8x8 portable wargame grid and, secondly, to put the village of Ambridge closer to the centre of the action by allowing some deployment on both sides of the River Am. For some reason he sets it in early 1643, although the only map I can find showing the location of the battlefield says 1642.

Here's the terrain setup, looking north. The River Am runs north-south and cannot be crossed except at the bridge. The village of Ambridge lies to the east of the river. The Royalists will approach from the south, looking to secure the road and the river-crossing in order to avoid a large Parliamentarian garrison on the river elsewhere (maybe the nearby town of Borchester). Parliament has sent troops from the garrison to hold the crossing, and they have marched from the east along the road and formed up to the north of the village.

Here's the two forces involved:

Parliament have:

1 x Commander

1 x Artillery

1 x Raw Horse

1 x Trained Horse
1 x Raw Pike & Shot

2 x Raw Pike & Shot

1 x Trained Dragoons
8 Initiative Dice, Breakpoint 11

The Royalists have:

1 x Commander

1 x Artillery

1 x Veteran Horse

2 x Trained Horse

1 x Raw Horse

1 x Trained Pike & Shot

3 x Raw Pike & Shot

10 Initiative Dice, Breakpoint 14

Deployment could be in the first two rows on the respective north (for Parliament) and south (for the Royalists) edges of the board.

The objective is for the Royalists to control the whole length of the road, by having no Parliamentarian unit on or adjacent to it at the end of eight turns. Obviously forcing the opposing army to break is an automatic win as well.

Both sides massed their horse to the west and foot in the centre. Some foot were on the Ambridge side of the river.

A cavalry action started to the west, and it was obvious that the superior Royalist numbers were going to win the day.

Both sides fought each other across the hedges to the east of the village.

Royalist horse routed one of the Parliamentarian units ...

... then turned on the flank of the foot.

An overview of the battle. At this stage the Royalist foot hadn't made much headway in the centre, but their horse were very much in control of the western end of the battlefield, and Royalist numbers were beginning to tell to the east of Ambridge.

Indeed the Parliamentarian troops to the east of the village quickly routed.

Parliament's commander fell as the Royalist horse kept up the pressure.

The Parliamentarian foot kept fighting and holding off theh Royalist horse, though. Royalist foot were now engaging the Parliamentarian dragoons across the river. The dragoons were the only unit Parliament had controlling the road.

The Royalists reorganised for one final push.

A Parliamentarian regiment was now surrounded, but kept fighting; the Royalists seemed unable to finish it off.

The dragoons were driven from the enclosures by the river.

This was enough to break Parliament's army. The Royalists picked up a win in six turns.

On the whole it was a pretty easy win for the Royalists; they never seemed in much trouble. I ran it through again, and they had a slightly harder time, but still picked up a win in seven turns. I may tweak the forces a little to make their job a touch harder.

Not that Elenderil's scenario has the village on the other side of the river; I moved it to make the main area of the board less cluttered. There are two river crossings as well. I simplified that too. Looking at semi-official maps of Ambridge, it actually appears that the river runs east-west, and that the main part of the village lies to the north:

And the battle takes place north of the village.

So maybe a scenario redesign is also in order. I must confess that I like the idea of the troops fighting through the village instead of just near it, though.

Lion Rampant Practice

Next week I'm playing in a Lion Rampant tournament - my first time playing in a wargames tournament in five years or so. So on Thursday a group of us who are playing had a practice game to get used to the rules. It's always I good idea to be familiar with the rules, I find.

We mostly used reduced figure units, because Caesar didn't have enough figures to accomodate three of us. Theo used his own figures but they were mostly either just undercoated or not even assembled (his light cavalry unit consisted of a single horse and five empty bases). Theo has promised that the army will be painted by next Sunday.

Anyway, we just had a free-for-all to get used to mechanisms, but I did at least use a force that's basically what I plan to use.

I'm borrowing figures for a Sub-Roman British warband, but I used various figures from Caesar's collection to replicate the troops I plan to use.

I didn't take photos or keep a record of what happened in most of the game. It was all a bit of a wild free-for-all. The tournament will consist of preset terrain and scenarios, so it will be interesting to see what forces people come up with given that they will have no idea what they will be required to do.

One thing we had in our game were a lot of leader challenges. Stuart's leader challenged mine, only to discover that I had a skill that made my leader harder to kill. The duel was a draw.

Caesar wasn't so lucky - his leader was slain by Theo's undercoated commander.

Theo's commander was part of a group of warband infantry lurking in some woods in the centre. I avenged Caesar when Theo's unit strayed too close to the edge and one of my skirmishing archers picked off his leader with a well-aimed arrow.

I then demanded a rematch with Stuart's leader, and this time killed him. This meant that I was now the only player with a leader on the table.

There were numerous wild swings of fortune but in the end Caesar and I came out on top. I think we have the rules sorted now though, and should be good to go for next Sunday.