More Fantastic Scuffles

Nic sent through a new playtest version of Fantastic Scuffles last week, so over the long weekend I played a couple more games and generated a pile of new questions and comments.

I reworked my warbands, because some of the things I've been using have changed cost or how they work. In fact I also upped the overall cost to try more things out - these games were played with 120pt parties.

In the first game I used the Uruk Hai against the Elves

The Uruk Hai fielded two characters (their leader Kurtz and The Berserker), plus three minions with sword and shield. Their mission was to topple an altar in the centre of the board and all escape alive. You can see the altar in the centre of the board - it's that plinth with the skeleton on it.

The Elves had one character (Temu Elrond) plus three sword-armed minions and three bow-armed ones. Their mission was to recover an item from the Uruk Hai berserker. They could do this by simply killing him and rifling through his pockets, or thieving it from him. The former seemed the best bet.

Kurtz and teh Berserker made the mistake of crossing open ground in front of the Elven bowmen. They may be minions, but when they activated they rained down a hail of arrows on the Uruk Hai leader, heavily wounding him.

Still, it prevented them from shooting the Uruk Hai minions, who rushed towards the altar.

Thanks to them using a wild-card activation and getting an early initiative draw on the second turn, the warriors quickly reached the altar and with a lucky roll were able to team up and destroy it. Now all they had to do was run for home.

In fact the two Uruk Hai characters moved as close to the exit as they could, whilst hiding from the archers. The other warriors fell back.

(In fact the Uruk characters could have left the table, and that would have caused the minions to flee as well, ending the scenario and giving them maximum points.)

Temu Elrond came in alone to take on the Berserker. 

Blows were exchanged and they both ended up badly wounded.

Meanwhile the Elven swordsmen attacked the Uruk Hai minions, making it harder for them to exit.

Temu Elrond killed the Berserker. Kurtz was unfazed and went in for revenge.

A hit followed by a double ten for damage. Temu Elrond has magic armour which means teh damage roll is the lowest of two D10. With two tens that was going to hurt regardless.

Temu Elrond was dead.

This meant that, as minions without a character in play, the rest of the Elves fled. They really need a backup character. Or one less likely to get stuck into a fight.

So the Uruk Hai won; the Elves got 1VP for killing the Berserker, whilst they got 4VP for toppling the altar and killing Temu Elrond.

The Uruk Hai stayed on for the second game, and I fielded the Kobolds as their opponent.

The Kobolds also had one charcter (their Kaptain), plus three groups of minions - two with axe, two with short-bows and six with swords (or equivalent). Their mission was to get a message to the opposite corner of the table. One of the axe-kobolds had the message; you can see the two of them off to the side of the rest of them; their aim was to head down the left of the board and then along the bottom, avoiding the wood in the centre.

The Uruk Hai had clues to some treasure that was hidden in the wood in the centre of the board. They needed to recover the treasure and get it off the table.

The warriors were on the ball again, quickly reaching the wood. The Berserker moved to cover their rear. He took a few arrows from the fast-shooting, and surprisingly accurate, Kobold archers.

The main mob of Kobold minions crossed a stream to attack the Berserker. The first one missed and was killed by a counter-attack.

That caused a morale check and two of the others fled.

The Uruk Hai found the treasure. Now they had to escape with it.

The Kobold Kaptain attacked one of the Uruk Hai from the rear. After all, if they could kill one then the others would take a morale test and maybe flee, dropping the treasure.

He missed.

Some surviving Kobold warriors neatly sidestepped the berserker (who had killed another one of their number) and attacked another Uruk Hai in the rear. They wounded him but couldn't quite get the kill.

The Kobold archers shot down the Berserker.

One of them tried to shoot the warrior fighting their Kaptain. He missed and his shot went wide, hitting the Kaptain instead!

Meanwhile Kurtz had set off alone to intercept the messenger and his friend. Facing them across a stream he intimidated them.

They ran, but fortunately not off the table.

Rallying they attacked, one from the front and one from behind

However the Kobold Kaptain was making heavy work of trying to finish off his opponent, and was then killed by the minion! As the only character in the Kobold party, the rest of them fled (including the messenger).

The Kobolds got a VP for killing the Berserker. The Uruk Hai got 6VP for finding and recovering the treasure, and killing the Kobold Kaptain.

Both scenarios were pretty fun, although getting back into the various numbers, factors and interactions took a while in the first game. And between them the games raised what I hope was useful feedback.

Thursday HOTT

'Thursday HOTT' is becoming a common title here. That's because (i) my wargames club meets on a Thursday and (ii) I sometimes play HOTT. 

Anyway, yesterday was Thursday, I went to wargaming and I played HOTT. We have new furniture in our rooms. Not sure if I like the chairs, but the 2' x 4' tables are now a constant height which helps assemble larger playing areas.

Anyway, I played a couple of games with Geoff. He brought something medieval. I used the Sorceress of Lanai (Hawaiian mythology) in my first game. It has an awful lot of ghostly hordes. 

It also has a god. She came on nice and early and hung around long enough to scare an airboat and destroy the enemy artillery.

Then it just became a matter of waiting for Geoff to pile into my mass of hordes.

Which he did.

Killed a lot of them too. Still, I could use PIPs to bring them back.

My magician general broke through the enemy lines and attacked the enemy knight general. It was a bit of an inconclusive combat.

The thing with running a horde army and planning on bringing them back is that it helps to roll more than 3 for PIPs on at least one of your bounds. I didn't. So my army was starting to look a bit low on numbers.

Anyway, before I could do anything to restore my lost army my general (who was using what PIPs I did get to at least try and keep Geoff busy) got overlapped and killed. End of game and a staggering 16g-9 loss for me.

For the next game I switched to my Alexandrian Macedonians (But Renaissance). So essentially we were playing a late medieval/early Renaissance game of DBA. 

I defended and got a lovely hill flanked by woods to set up on. Lucky me. Geoff obligingly advanced.

On the open right flank my knights rode down a double-ranked block of spears and opened things up for me.

Alexander came to the fore and, risking the enemy artillery, took out some blades. 

I then gambled on destroying Geoff's artillery. For once the dice were with me.

From there it was a simple job to recoil Geoff's knight general into the cleric behind it, for a classic right-flank cavalry sweep 7g-0 win.

After that we went home, with one game each.

The Puebla Campaign

I have very much enjoyed playing around with Dominion of Pike & Shot and thought that it would be fun to try some kind of campaign. However I was also going away on a short holiday and didn't want to take my pike & shot armies with me. So I decided instead to buy the colonial rules, Dominion of the Spear and Bayonet, because I knew that they had lists for both the South American wars of Liberation and the Mexican Adventure. I sorted out a variety of figures from my 6mm armies for the latter and was able to pack them in a small box with necessary dice, markers and other things I'd need for a game.

I decided to base my campaign around the French advance on Mexico City in 1862-63. As part of this they decided to capture the key town of Puebla, and since the first battle for that place is very famous I made that the objective. The campaign merges a number of historical elements and is more about the vibe than any kind of accurate representation of what happened. The French are trying to capture Puebla without losing too many battles (and therefore international prestige), whilst the Mexican Republicans are trying to hold them off for as long as possible. The French may have to contend with guerilla raids, whilst Mexican forces sympathetic to the French may attack Republican armies.

The holiday was mostly about relaxing, so I was able to spend the first afternoon and evening writing up some rules and drawing a map. The campaign rules are based on one that Mark Cordone posted to the Portable Wargame Facebook Group for refighting the Peloponnesian Wars. I thieved the basic mechanisms and then reskinned it for 19th century Mexico. He used the Portable Wargame to resolve battles. I used the Dominion rules.

Here's the setup. The bull is a work thing. It has nothing to do with the game.

And here's my accurate map of the French advance to Puebla. The word 'accurate' is working very, very hard there.

And these are the campaign rules.

Victory

Mexicans: Defeat the French in four battles.
French: Capture Puebla without being defeated four times in battle.

Turn Sequence

On each campaign turn both players roll a D6 for initiative. The highest score goes first and takes their turn, then the other player takes their turn. If the scores are equal then there is a random event:

Double 1 - Disease or Disaster. Determine a random area. Neither player may activate an army in that area or move an army into that area on the next campaign turn.

Double 2 - Guerilla Attack. Select a random French army. It is attacked by guerillas. See below for the makeup of their army. If the French lose their army is destroyed and it counts as a loss.

Double 3 - Conservative Allies. Select a random Mexican army. It is attacked by a force of Mexican Conservatives. See below for the makeup of the Conservative army. If the Mexicans lose their army is destroyed. If the Conservative army loses then it is not counted as a French loss.

Double 4 - Supply Concerns. If Veracruz is unoccupied then the French must immediately move one of their armies into or towards it if possible. If it is occupied then the French player may not move the army out of it on their next turn.

Double 5 - Orders From Mexico City. If Puebla is unoccupied then the Mexican player must immediately move an army into or directly towards it if possible. If it is occupied then the Mexican player may not move the army out of it on their next turn.

Double 6 - Reinforcements. The next player to win the initiative may choose to build a new army instead of moving.

If a player rolls a 6 for their initiative and there is no random event then they may chose to build a new army instead of moving. New armies can be built in one of that sides' deployment areas and then only if it is vacant. The French may only build new armies if they currently hold Veracruz. If they don't, and they are eligible to place a new unit, then place one in the Gulf of Mexico which then immediately attacks Veracruz. 

If they don't build a new army, a player may move an army they currently have in play. Armies move one space. Only one army may occupy a space. If any army moves to a space occupied by an enemy army a battle takes place. The moving army is considered the attacker. After the battle the losing army is destroyed. Use Dominion Of The Spear And Bayonet to resolve all battles.

Armies

French - Use army 56 from the rules

Mexican Republicans - Use army 57 from the rules

Mexican Guerillas - 1D3+1 Ambushers. The rest of the army is Skirmishers.

Mexican Conservatives - 1 x Cavalry, 1 x Line, 2 x Skirmishers, 2 x Ambushers

If the Mexican Republicans are defending Puebla or Veracruz, they may drop an Ambusher and add Defences to any two units of their choice.

If the French are defending Veracruz, they may drop one unit (not the elite infantry) and add Defences to two units of their choice.

After a morning walk, coffee and lunch I was able to set up the campaign on the second afternoon. I played it outdoors on the verandah of our cabin.

Here's the initial setup. The blue blocks are French forces. The red blocks are Republican armies. The green dice shows the campaign turn.

Turn 1 - The French win the initiative 3 to 1

They advance an army from Orizaba to Tehucan and attack the Republicans there.

The first battle of the campaign is set up. In all pictures the attacking army is at the bottom.

The battle was quick with the Mexican's regular cavalry riding down all before it to give them the win.

So the French now had one loss against them.

The Republicans moved an army from Huamautla to Xalapa and attacked the French there.

Another battle.

And another Republican victory as their line advanced with bayonets to drive the French from their positions.

So at the start of Turn 2 the French were now confined to Veracruz and the Mexicans were halfway to a win.

Turn 2 - The Republicans won the initiative 5 to 3, so went first.

The Mexicans attacked the French in Veracruz.

The French get defences, and occupied them with their elite line infantry.

Skirmishers vs cavalry on the flank.

Republican infantry attack the French defences.

A French victory!

After their victory the French advanced their single army from Veracruz to Xalapa

Turn 3. The French won the initiative 6 to 1. They used the roll to build another army in Orizaba. The Republicans advanced from Tehuacan and attacked the new army.

The Republicans ambushed the French force on the march and utterly destroyed it.

Turn 4. The Republicans won the initiative 2 to 1. They moved into Veracruz to stop the French getting any more reinforcements

The French moved from Xalapa to Huamautla.

Turn 5. The Republicans won the initiative 3 to 1. They could have attacked the French but chose to sit tight and defend Puebla. 

The French advanced and attacked Puebla. This was going to be the end of the campaign one way or another; if the French won they'd capture Puebla. If they lost then it would be their fourth defeat and the weight of public opinion back home would see them withdraw from Mexico.

The battle set up. The Mexicans relied on their skirmishers and cavalry to break up the French attack on their line infantry in their defences.

French troops drove off the Mexican cavalry and advanced on the first fort.

Another fort comes under attack.

Victory on the right flank put the French one roll away from a win. And they made it, capturing one of the forts to reduce the Republicans to one unit.

So the French won a narrow victory. Whilst the Mexicans occupied Veracruz they'd now be obliged to withdraw to defend Mexico City. The next stage of the Mexican Adventure is about to begin.

The campaign rules above were actually tweaked a little after this game, and a couple of other undocumented playthroughs I did afterwards. There were no random events in this one, for example. In some later games the French fought guerilla raids, whilst the Republicans found Conservative forces coming to aid the French.

This was a great little holiday project and it was nice to create a frame work around which to play some games. The whole campaign took less than an hour to run.