Alternative Racing Chariots

Having a few games of 'Charioteer!' under my belt I thought that it would be nice to play the game with some models rather than just the counters provided with the rules (not that they aren't nice, but models are nearly always nicer).

Like most people, though, I don't have Roman racing chariots just laying around. Ideally I'd love to discover a previously forgotten stash of the chariots that came with the old Airfix Romans, as they would be perfect, but  can't see that happening. So I had to look elsewhere.

Now, my 6mm ancient armies were put together many years ago, initially for WRG 7th Edition, then for DBM. One of the armies I did was Scots-Irish, and they had plenty of chariots. So I have a few bases of them, plus a couple of packets of unpainted ones. Great - all I have to do is convert them. But, really, the body of a Roman racing chariot is a different shape to that of the Celtic chariots - it's a D-shaped bathtub, with the wheels at the back, rather than a rectangle with the wheels in the middle. Really I'd be looking at pretty much making the body of the chariot from scratch*. Plus for each chariot I'd have to add in a couple of extra horses.

All very good, but I wanted a quick solution to my lack of models.

Then I got to thinking. First the extra horses. Well, I don't actually need them. True the racing the Romans really went for was that of the four-horse chariots, but they did run races with two-horse chariots as well. And 'Charioteer!' is abstract enough that the number of horses pulling the chariot is irrelevant. So, that was one bit of time saved - go for two-horse chariots.

Then I had an 'Aha!' moment. The Romans couldn't have been the only people to race chariots. And, indeed, they weren't. The Greeks did (indeed the rules mention this). But, according to a quick Google search, the Celts weren't above a bit of horse- and chariot-racing as well. True, probably not on the grand scale of the Romans, but sufficient for a game.After all, there's no reason to assume that the Celtic drivers wouldn't have been as aggressive and motivated to win as any Roman charioteer.

And so a simple project was born. Find five already painted Celtic chariots. Strip out the (for a race) redundant warrior, leaving just the driver. Rebase them. Colour code them. Race them. Easy.

Here they are - Heroics & Ros 6mm Celtic chariots, on 15mm x 25mm bases, ready to race on the the green fields of Salisbury Plain or Ireland in honour of Epona or some similar entity.

They are colour-coded Red, Yellow, Blue, Green, White and Grey. I tried black, but it looked wrong.

I may edge the bases in the chariot's colour as well.

Here they are in a faked setup, to show how they'd look in an actual game. I actually have a couple of resin scenic pieces that might make a nice backdrop for them to race against - I will have to see about the best way to use them. But for now I need to give them a proper outing in a game ...

*Spare crew from the various Roman artillery pieces I have would make good drivers, I reckon.

Chariots And Gladiators

Last night we had an evening of gladiators scheduled at the Gong Garage Gamers, although Ralph and Austin played a game of 'Flames of War' that I completely failed to document in any way. 

However we initially abandoned gladiatorial combat in favour of that other arena favourite - chariot-racing. We used my newly acquired 'Charioteer!' rules from Two Hour Wargames. I played this at MOAB on Sunday, and enjoyed it a lot, and had managed a few games during the week, pitting a single chariot against three NPC ones. I was ready to unleash my knowledge on other people ...

Three of us played, but we added in a fourth NPC chariot. We all took different options - Caesar went for speed, Bryan opted for a strong charioteer and I went for a skillful one, The single NPC chariot was unspecialised.

Charioteer uses a neat system where you only track where the chariots are relative to each other, and where they are, as a group, on the track. There's a limited width to the track, and some chariots perform better on the straights whilst other perform better on the curves, so you have to time your overtaking carefully.

You can see the setup here - this is the positions of the chariots as they came out of the starting-gates. White (the NPC) was in the lead, Green (Bryan) was second, Blue (Caesar) was third and Red (me) was bringing up the rear. Despite having a fast chariot, Caesar opted to hold back at the start, as this allows you to build up the game's expendable bonus dice. Sometimes it's best to allow the front-runners some time to wear themselves out before making your move.

A little way around the track and the positions had changed - Bryan and Caesar had both challenged the lead chariot (Bryan suffering a good whipping in the process), and failed, which left me an opening on the inside to overtake them both and move into second position. In this picture you can see Caesar's Blue chariot about to make a passing attempt on Bryan.

He succeeded, and tried to use his speed to take on my Red chariot as well, but my driver skill was equal to the task of holding him off.

The positions stayed much the same for the rest of the first lap, and into the second, until something in the crowd startled Caesar's horse team. His chariot lost ground, and Bryan's collided with it. Both drivers fought for control ...

... and Bryan failed, his chariot flipping down the track as a battered wreck. His driver walked away uninjured - his great strength saved him there. The marker was courtesy of the 'Flames of War' game.

Now it was a three chariot race. I held onto my second place, carefully building up bonus dice. But at the start of the third lap Caesar challenged me, and kept doing so until he took second place for himself.

On the final straight I made a bold try to get past Caesar and the NPC, but couldn't manage it. On the last section Caesar threw everything he had into challenging the NPC chariot, and his speed was sufficient to pass it ...

... for the win!

'Charioteer!' delivered a great race, easy to play, but with a number of different strategies for the players to try. Bryan was unlucky that his charioteer's one advantage was whipped away from him early in the game, whilst I couldn't convert my skill into position when it counted - perhaps I should have gambled more and used it to force other players off the track. That has its disadvantages as well, however, as other players are sometimes your best shield against other other players ...

You'll note that the game-controlled NPC chariot actually held the lead for most of the race and came close to winning it.

We switched to gladiators after that; I adjudicated a game in which we taught Bryan the basics of 'Munera Sine Missione'. Bryan took a Thracian against Caesar's Murmillo.

It was a brisk fight - Bryan managed to inflict a few light wounds on Caesar, using his extra speed to dart in and attack, but a few good blows from the Murmillo saw the Thracian down and appealing to the crowd. The crowd were merciful.

I then played Caesar, as he pitted a Retiarius named Cupido against the awesome Hero.

The piece of paper was an emergency net, to show that Hero was entangled. However despite being in that state for about half of the game, Hero fended off Cupido's attempts to finish him and even cut his way out of the net. However Cupido finally managed to gain the upper hand, and forced Hero to yield. This time the crowd were not merciful. Possibly the fact that both gladiators spent a lot of the fight falling over their own feet and dropping their weapons didn't help.

Both games delivered sufficient entertainment for the evening, so we called it a day.

HOTT at MOAB

Phew! I've just got back from the HOTT tornament at MOAB. Eight of us took part, four of which were myself and my family - it was us versus the Rest of the World really ...

The format was matched-pairs, and despite a few reservations it worked well - each player brought a matched pair of armies, and in a given round they would either use their own pair or that of their opponent. Whoever didn't own the armies chose which of the two they would use for the game. It was then played as normal. The draw was set up, wherever possible, so that in four rounds a player would use their own armies in two and those of another player in the other two.

There were a couple of rules modifications in play as well. The usual Shooter/Warband movement swap, of course. Sneakers were given a boost by allowing them to break off by moving forward through the enemy element they were contacting, and also by allowing them to 'friction kill' any enemy element. And finally Clerics were boosted (slightly) by being allowed to move into contact with Gods.

I took my Inuit matched-pair, which features a Sneaker, a God and Cleric, giving us a couple of opportunities to try out the changes. Catherine too a Redwall pair - the Defenders of Redwall Abbey against Cluny's Rat Hordes. Cei used his medieval Ceidonians against some Dwarves, whilst Maya opted for the legenday Pumpkin King's Halloween Hordes against some Elves. The other pairs in use were Dwarves vs Celtic Barbarians, a Greek/Mycenean match, Dark and Light Elves and Arabs against Normans.

The first round gets underway. I was drawn against Geoff, using his Elves. My head said to go for the Light Elves, a safe mix of Shooters and Spears, but my heart wanted the Warbands and Sneaker in the Dark Elves. I let my heart rule my mind.

In the foreground Caesar and Kaleb played Maya, beyond them Catherine played Peter and Cei was playing Martin.

Cei used his Dwarves against the Ceidonians.

Here's Geoff, waiting for me to stop taking pictures and make my first move.

Early on I popped out a Lurker and took out a Spear which had foolishly strayed into bad going.

I spent most of the battle working at his right flank Spears with Warband and a Sneaker, trying to kill his general. I got him, on a very, very lucky combat roll, to take the game.

Catherine played with Peter's Arab/Norman pair, but was defeated.

Here's my family in one shot, albeit the back of Cei's head.

Maya concentrates on her game.

Peter's Arab/Norman pair in action.

The Ceidonians and Dwarves.

In my second game I played Peter, with my own pair. He opted to use the Inland Dwellers of Etah; a tricky army to use, but with a God. The God came on early.

I tried a flanking move with Riders and a Behemoth.

The God and Etah's Behemoth stopped it.

They even finished off my polar bear between them.

The battle now switched to my line of archers. The God got caught up in a duel with a Shooter, and couldn't quite finish him.

Eventually I got my Cleric into action, using the rule change allowing them to contact a God, and with the help of a few overlaps drove the God from the table. A few more AP picked up from killing Beasts, and a lucky kill on the enemy Behemoth, gave me the game.

So there I was with two wins, and two games to go. I faced Martin, and went for a Celtic Warband against his Dwarves - a combination of Blades and Artillery. I avoided his Artillery by attacking on the flanks.

The dice weren't with me though - my first Warband charge swept away one element, but I had no success after that, and my brave warriors were slowly cut down. Martin picked up his third victory.

Meanwhile Catherine played Caesar and Kaleb, in the one drawn game of the event.

Maya used Peter's matched pair, and lost.

And Cei lost with the Dwarves again ...

... when Geoff's Behemoth recoiled over a Hero and another element.

The final round. With both of them on three losses, Cei and Maya ended up playing each other. At the other end of the table Catherine, with one win, was playing Geoff. I drew Caesar and Kaleb - they had two wins and a draw against my two wins.

We used my Inuit, and again my opponent selected the Inland Dwellers of Etah - the giant head, Kajutaijuq, and the God seemed to be a very enticing lure.

The Inland Dwellers of Etah charged.

Their Beasts smacked into my Shooter line. My general was in danger of being killed in a couple of combats, but I survived and steady archery drove the Beasts away.

I worked my dog-sled Riders around the enemy flank, assisted by the Cleric shaman.

Catherine beat Geoff to pick up her second victory of the day!

Caesar and Kaleb brought on their God, and he took on my trickster hero Sneaker, who fled through several enemy elements.

The end - Kajutaijuq was surrounded and cut down, to give the Inuit another victory. In the distance my Sneaker was heading towards the enemy stronghold.

That left me with three wins, but Martin had three as well - only Catherine had beaten him. Ties were decided by enemy AP destroyed, and Martin had 45 to my 39, so picked up first place. Here he is with his trophy.

Victor awarded a prize for the top-scoring member of my family, though, so I went home with a set of paints - very useful.

The final results were (taking into account tie-breaks):

1 Martin - W3, L1 - 9
2 Alan - W3, L1 - 9
3 Caesar/Kaleb - W2, L1, D1 - 7
4 Catherine - W2, L1, D1 - 7
5 Geoff - W2, L2 - 6
6 Peter - W2, L2 - 6
7 Maya - W1, L3 - 3
8 Cei - L4 - 0

Many thanks to Victor for organising a great day (great couple of days in fact). I did pick up some wargames show loot, but that can wait for another day.

Gladiators at MOAB

As part of MOAB this year, Victor invited myself and Frank of 'Adventures in Lead' to come and run our respective gladiator games, as either demos or participation. My own rules are quick and easy to learn, and lend themselves well to public participation. Frank's are more detailed and difficult to teach, but make a gorgeous demo. So after much email discussion we decided to run short games of 'Munera Sine Missione', plus an extended demo of Frank's 'Blood on the Sands'. To break the day up, Victor provided a couple of chariot-racing games - one a boardgame whose name escapes me, and the other being 'Charioteer!' from Two Hour Wargames (a game I was keen to try).

The start of the day - a referee checks the arena, whilst the Emperor appears to have turned up early.

An early bout, a thraex defeats a murmillo.

Two bouts at once, as we get ambitious ...

After the first session of 'Munera Sine Missione', Victor ran a chariot game whist I trawled the bring and buy. Then we set up Franks 'Blood on the Sands'. I had a thraex - a left-handed thraex, doomed to die, which made him a desperate man.

The data sheets for Frank's game are really lovely; he's produced some great components for this game.

My thraex faced a murmillo, being run by Victor.

Steadily, over several turns, I sliced Victor's murmillo to pieces. Each mark on the figure is a wound, four of which were bleeding heavily. Basically, being left-handed meant I was a difficult opponent to hit or dodge, and being desperate meant that I had some useful rerolls which stopped Victor exploiting certain advantages.

Finally I closed in for the kill ...

... and got it. The crowd spared the murmillo, though, as he really had put up a good fight.

Victor ran some more 'Munera Sine Missione', whilst I played another game of 'Blood on the Sand', using a secutor against a retiarius. This time I was slaughtered.

Finally we set up a five player game of 'Charioteer!'. I really enjoyed this chariot-racing game, with its innovative passing mechanism. Enough decisions to keep it interesting, a dash of luck and not too complex ...

... indeed I liked it so much that I bought a copy.

After that we were all too hot to do much else, and my family turned up to collect me anyway.

Thanks to Victor and Frank for making the day so enjoyable, and to all the players for taking part.