Basic Training 103 with Tiger Troop (Forgotten Ruin)

 The Colonel looked at Tiger Troop seriously.

"This next exercise is a patrol. The whole troop will take part. Enemy forces will be like you have encountered before. Advance to the objective and then retreat in good order. That is all. I hope it will not be a fiasco like the last exercise, because after this, you will be going through The Curtain and then everything will be real."

Pan cursed inwardly at the reference to how badly the last exercise had gone. She had got overconfident and had almost all her troops KOd. She would make sure it was different this time around. With that thought in mind, she deployed A Team on the right flank and B Team on the left. She took up her position in between then and then gave the order to advance, wondering with one part of her mind what kind of objective the large wooden objective was. She could see what appeared to be wigs and metal rings attached to it, like an ancient totem or something. Both teams moved out.

"Contact on my 1 o'clock," Lance-Corporal Bonolo called, "Sofi, engage the enemy and cover us."

Vesela Sofi acknowledged the order and dropped prone, flicking the bipod of her Gladcorp T33 TSW into place as she did so. A hail of copper-jacketed lead streaked towards the orc archers behind their barricade. The tracer rounds in her magazine showed that it was striking the cover rather than the orcs though. She settled in and took aim again.

As Private Sofi prepared to fire again, the rest of B Team advanced towards the objective, heading for the cover of a large rocky mound ahead of them. Meanwhile Pan and A team were moving through the thick undergrowth to close with the enemy archers. The archers themselves had realised that they were outranged so they moved out from cover and sought to close on B Team, unaware of A Team moving towards them.

"Ha!" thought Sofi, "I got you now."

She sprayed the archers with fire and grunted in satisfaction as one fell.

By now, Pan and A Team were in position at the edge of the undergrowth with a clear line of sight to the archers. However, they suddenly realised that there was another problem.

"Enemy incoming on my 10 o'clock," Pan called to both teams. To make her point, she opened fire with her Gladcorp M23 Assault Rifle. An enemy warrior fell.

The archers fired. Pan cursed as Bonolo fell, hit twice. Fortunately, the other arrows missed.

Sofi's TSW was chattering out a rain of death and orc archers fell. A Team joined in, their Gladcorp M23s pushing out a stream of 5.56mm hurt that saw all the archers KOd in the space of just a few seconds.

With the archers out of the fight, Tiger Troop turned their attention to the remaining warriors, who were getting uncomfortably close. Seeing the approaching lizardfolk, Private Selcuk Immaculada chambered a round in her TAC17 Grenade Launcher. The 40mm round landed exactly where she had aimed and two warriors were immediately taken out of the fight. Not to be outdone, Private Smith opened up with her TSW and showered the remaining warriors with lead, and the rest of A Team also opened fire with their M23s. There was so much lead in the air that it was impossible to determine who had taken out which enemy, but it only took a few seconds before Tiger Troop held the field.

They advanced to the objective and then withdrew in good order. The mission debrief was much less traumatic than the previous one. The Colonel was waiting for them as they filed in for the debrief. It was a short one.

"You have seen some of what you will face when you go through The Curtain. We cannot even begin to prepare you for certain aspects of what you might face. Needless to say, the future of humanity lies in your hands. The 53rd Bwendi Rangers will go through The Curtain in two days. Make the most of tonight. It may be your last night out here in Ztum City for a long time."

That night, Tiger Troop gathered in Munden's Bar, their favourite watering hole and discussed what might be ahead of them. Needless to say, all of their speculations were aeons from the truth of their future.

Final Briefing

The 53rd Bwendi Rangers were gathered in a huge underground bunker. The Colonel was on a large podium addressing the entire unit.

"I hope you have said your goodbyes to your families. We have no idea how long you will be in the field for this mission."

Worry showed on a few otherwise stoic faces.

"There is a nano-plague threatening humanity and it is spreading fast. We have kept this under wraps as much as possible, but it is serious. Your mission is to travel through The Curtain and to establish a safe haven for humanity. We have developed The Curtain, a short-range time-travel device that will land you some years in the future, when our probes suggest that the plague will have subsided. The Rangers will secure key areas and objectives where civilisation can be rebuilt. We shall monitor with our probes and send through engineering battalions, whose role will be to construct safe havens for humanity, once those areas have been pacified. I regret that there is no return from this mission, but we shall prioritise mission team family members, among others, for transport to the newly established settlements once it is safe to send them. I can only wish you good luck and advise you to remember your training. You are the best of the best and I am certain that you will do humanity proud."

Almost no one present managed to keep the shock from their faces at this news. They still responded with the required "SIR!" though.

An hour later, it was Tiger Troop's turn to march through The Curtain. Loaded down with kit and dragging barrows piled high with even more supplies, they formed up in single file and followed their platoon leader and the rest of Felid Company through the shimmering light-field that was The Curtain.

The training mission went better than I feared this time, although there is nothing you can do about the enemy rolling lots of 6s in a row while shooting at your troops. Fortunately, there are Story Points to deal with that sort of thing. I had better make sure that I earn lots of those during the actual campaign. It is going to be interesting seeing how the Rangers stack up against hordes of melee troops, and how quickly they can arm themselves in a way that lets them fight on an equal footing against those troops.

PBEM framework for an Oathmark campaign

 I'm thinking of running a PBEM for two friends, specifically with Oathmark, but I feel that this process could work for a lot of miniatures games. One of the things that triggered this was watching Ash and Stone's video about playing Oathmark solo, a technique that could work well for me as GM fighting battles on behalf of two players. Watch the video here and check the info on it for a download of his solo rules:

That pretty much covers the tabletop side of things. For the campaign, the kingdoms that each player has would be publicly available, so players will know what types of troops they might face, and the available figures for each terrain type are listed on the Oathmark page on this blog. That gives the players some degree of foreknowledge, but they will not know what the enemy army will actually look like until they face it in the field.

 The key question for me is how to streamline the campaign, so that it involves the fewest possible exchanges of emails. If I strictly follow the sequence of play in the Oathmark rule book, I get something like the following:

1. Players muster their armies and send the lists to the GM
2. The GM checks the lists and tells the players what the scenario and battlefield layout are
3. Players send the GM a deployment map each.
4. The GM tells the players how the enemy is deployed.
5. Players then send the GM a battle plan each.
6. The GM fights the battle, reports the results and adjudicates how this affects the campaign.
7. If the campaign will continue, start at point 1 again.

This framework involves three emails from the players to the GM and three from the GM to the players. I wonder if it would make a huge difference to the progress of the individual battles if the sequence started with the GM sending the players the battlefield map and the scenario, and they then reply with their army for that battle and their list, deployment and proposed tactics. That would result in the following sequence:

1. The GM informs the players about the scenario and the battlefield layout.
2. Players muster their armies and send the GM army lists and a deployment map each.
3. The GM tells the players how the enemy is deployed.
4. Players then send the GM a battle plan each.
5. The GM fights the battle, reports the results and adjudicates how this affects the campaign.
6. If the campaign will continue, start at point 1 again.

That is still three emails from the GM but reduces the input required from the players. It would be possible to reduce it still further by combining points 2 and 4, resulting in this sequence:

1. The GM informs the players about the scenario and the battlefield layout.
2. Players muster their armies and send the GM their army lists, a deployment map each and their battle plan.
3. The GM fights the battle, reports the results and adjudicates how this affects the campaign.
4. If the campaign will continue, start at point 1 again.

This reduces the campaign turn to two emails from the GM and one from the players, but also reduces the level of control the players have, because they must plan their tactics in more general terms without knowing how the enemy army is deployed. Some players would react against this, while others would be happy sending more general orders to try to cover various eventualities. I guess it would come down to the players' preferences and desire to be actively involved, plus their willingness and ability to respond quickly to game emails. With a planned turnaround of one month per battle, it should not be impossible to follow the first framework, but I shall have to ask my players what they think.

Basic Training 101 with Tiger Troop (Forgotten Ruin)

 I picked up Forgotten Ruin back end of last year. The premise of modern soldiers being dumped into a fantasy environment appeals, and takes me back to my school days, when we tried out the scenario from Dragon magazine where a WW2 German platoon winds up facing off against a Dungeons and Dragons wizard and his henchfolks. It has taken me a while to get around to playing though, because I have been in a bit of a solo-gaming slump for a while. Anyway, I finally got set up and played the first, very simple, training scenario. I'll try to keep the momentum going and head into a campaign, but we'll just have to see how it goes. Still, even getting one game in so 'soon' after buying the rules is winning. I have plenty of rules that I have had for years and have never yet used.

Tiger Troop

Tiger Troop (Felid Company, Predator Battalion, 53rd Bwendi Rangers) were sceptical. They had been training with the rest of the battalion for a secret mission, but the training made no sense. It was all about being rushed by soldiers with hand weapons and primitive bows but no guns. The only part of it that they truly understood was the survival training. They were the poor sods who got sent into every inhospitable, if not downright deadly, environment and had to get by with whatever they could take with them and find along the way. They were used to that. Even their troop leader, Panorama MacCaffery, was a veteran of that type of operation, so they had confidence in her, despite the fact she had only recently got her stripes.

• Sergeant Panorama MacCaffery (troop leader, personality) is Aggressive but Helpful. A veteran of many covert ops, she accepts only the best from her troop. Anyone not pulling their weight will soon regret it.
• Corporal Justice Adeyemi (A Team leader, personality) is Friendly and Supportive. He frequently soothes ruffled feathers when Panorama has been less than tactful, as happens often.
• Private Mary Smith (A Team, personality) is Accepting but also Determined (knack). Panorama's outbursts are water off her back. Even when she has received a tongue-lashing, Mary just gets on with the job and finds a way to make things work.
• Private Tarquin Bjornson (A Team, grunt)
• Private Wigbert Osmaer (A Team, grunt)
• Lance-Corporal Chidubem Bonolo (B Team leader, grunt)
• Private Vesela Sofi (B Team, grunt)
• Private Leaf Moondream (B Team, grunt)
• Private Selcuk Immaculada (B Team, grunt)

Basic Training 1

" B Team, Tiger Troop, you will face a wave of hostiles. Your mission in this exercise is to put the hostiles down. Simples!"

Panorama did not get what this training would achieve, or why they were doing it, but she would be damned if she would let her troop show her up in front of the brass.

The B Team (left to right): L-Cpl. Bonolo, Pvt. Sofi, Pvt. Moondream and Pvt. Immaculada (GZG New Israeli infantry figures)

"Lance-Corporal Bonolo, your team better damned well be ready. You've been briefed. Get out there and destroy that opfor."

Lance-Corporal Chidubem Bonolo was just as much in the dark as his troop leader. he led the others out onto the training ground. The briefing had been minimal. Deploying his troops in a skirmish line he advanced the team into the exercise area. As he did so, two hordes of opfor soldiers out of the dead ground behind some rocky formations. One of them charged at full speed across the open. They were wearing ridiculous masks or rubber suits and appeared to be armed with antiquated swords and clubs!

The training ground. B Team is at the bottom. Two hordes of enemies are at the top.

"Wot da funk?" muttered Bonolo. Despite the incongruity, he did not hesitate. "B Team, move to cover on our right, pick your targets! Aim! Fire!"

A crashing burst of fire rang out from his soldiers, who reacted slowly, shocked by the nature of the opfor. This was not normal!

Two of the orc horde fell in that first volley as the team moved towards the cover of the nearest rocky formation, although Pvt. Sofi clearly forgot to switch the Squad Assault Weapon to full auto, and Pvt. Moondream dropped her first grenade over the top of the orcs.

Yes, I forgot about the SAW in the first round and should have rolled a lot more dice! Lesson learned.

Undeterred the orcs and lizardmen continued to charge. Bonolo opened fire at point blank range at the two orcs charging him and missed by a good country mile. The others opened up on the lizardmen, dropping two and causing one to run away.

As the opfor charge continued, Bonolo emptied a magazine into one of the orcs, but was soon faced with the remaining large orc with a two-handed sword intent on cleaving him in two. By sheer grit and determination, he managed to fend it off and push it back, although his environment suit took a nasty gash from the enemy's sword.

The remaining lizardman put on a spurt and closed rapidly with Immaculada, who dropped it with a single shot. B Team had achieved their objective.

As they returned to barracks, B Team voiced their confusion, but were merely told that all would become clear soon enough. For now, they had earned their pay for the day and could chow down with a good conscience.

That went smoothly enough, apart from forgetting the SAW. There are a couple of wrinkles that are new to Forgotten Ruin, but I have two more training scenarios before getting into any kind of campaign.

Gaming Zen

 Well, who would have thought it? I became a counter clipper. There was a time when I would have sworn that I would never bother clipping counters, but it is really quite calming for when I just cannot be bothered painting figures. In addition, the clipped counters are rather aesthetically pleasing, and it keeps my focus on games I own instead of on the new shiny. This last is a Good Thing.

Of course, RSI is a potential problem from too much counter clipping, but it's meant to be relaxing, so just clip a few counters, drink tea, watch TV, and take it easy. Those counters will be clipped before you realise it. Now if only I could manage to read the rules for these games with the clipped counters...

Apologies to those that thought this post might be about a Zen-based game. Sorry about that.

An Elf Army for Oathmark

  It is time for the elves to take to the field in Oathmark now, so I am currently working on painting up all the elf figures I have. I decided to hold a parade to see where I have got to with the past few weeks' painting in the hope that it encourages me to keep on keeping on. It's slow going (for reasons), but I have completed a few units and am working on more. I'll post again once all the elves are painted

In my background/head canon, the elves themselves embody a strange duality with their use of technomantic constructs alongside nature magic. The final army will include both constructs and walking trees, when I eventually paint them. This is mainly an excuse to use figures I already have, but need to get around to painting.

The whole army

The whole army currently amounts to around 5000 points, so I can easily field a standard 2500 point Oathmark army with a range of options. Elves are expensive, so you do not get many of them for your gold pieces.

Unless otherwise noted, all the figures in this army are 15mm figures from the Demonworld range sold by Ral Partha Europe, although some of these actual figures were bought before RPE acquired the range.

Looking at these pictures, I am reminded that I really do need to get a better set-up for taking photos, and take more time over them!

Elven leaders and champions

These are the elite Sidhe. Many have lived hundreds of years and carry the weight of that experience into battle with them.

Tally: 6

Elven spellcasters

Battlefield support is provided by an eclectic bunch of sorcerous types.

Tally: 5

Elven soldiers and spears

The rank and file of the Elven army is a person with a shield and a spear or other hand weapon. Even though they are the lowest ranking troops, they are still more highly trained and better motivated than their human or Orc equivalents. I am using Elves with spears to represent both types of troops for the time being, but I do have plans for more standard foot-soldiers.

Tally: 20

Elven archers

Elven archers are the best standard missile troops of all the races, which also makes them very expensive.

Tally: 20

Elven linebreakers

Elves with polearms and big swords are useful for disrupting enemy formations. They like to get stuck in and cleave their way through the enemy's ranks.

Tally: 10

Elven hunt master

Elves are great fans of the hunt and maintain kennels of dogs trained for this purpose, but they do not distinguish the social hunt from the hunt on the battlefield. It is all just a hunt to them.

The hounds do not fit comfortably nose to tail, so I am using spacer bases and counting those as part of the unit to make it a larger unit.

Tally: 20

Rangers

Elven rangers are masters of stealth, camouflage and laying traps. They are also deadly archers. As such, they are consummate light troops who excel in their roles of scouting and harassing the enemy. 

Tally: 10

Elven mounted rangers

These fine unicorn riders are crackshots and highly mobile, ready to plague the flanks of any enemies by raining sharp pointy death from afar.

Tally: 12

Ballistae

Elven artillery support is provided by ballista constructs. These products of ancient Elven technomancy carry huge bows that are devastating to enemy massed troops. They are supported by a small contingent of Elven skirmishers, whose main role is to restock the arrows and provide light support, but the constructs are vulnerable to close assault just the same.

Tally: 4

Modrons from Nolzur's Marvellous Miniatures as the ballistae, supported by RPE Elven skirmishers

Wulvers

These giant, animal-like people are fearsome forest dwellers. They are rarely seen by others, except when they join the army to fight, which they do exceptionally well. In part this is because their wounds knit closed even as the weapon is withdrawn from it, and in part because they are simply exceptionally violent and love fighting.

Tally: 6

Battle cats

Elven Battle Cats are eldritch giant cats that side with both the Seelie and Unseelie for mysterious reasons of their own. They are fast, light troops who can harass the flanks of the enemy effectively, while that enemy is distracted by the heavy troops to their front. I am using the wolf stats from the Goblin list for these.

Tally: 12

Nekomata from Alternative Armies

Animated trees

Some elven sorcerers specialise in nature magic over technomancy. They are able to animate the great trees of the forest and bring them to the battlefield.

I am defining these animated trees as Living Statues from the Bane of Kings supplement, although it is tempting to field them as Animated Idols instead, as a nod to the nature gods of the elves.

Tally: 3

Everdell: Capsule review

 I seem to have lost steam on a lot of gaming fronts lately, but one area that keeps going is my after work boardgaming session each week. My friend and I have been trying to score 400 points in Dorfromantik for an absolute age now (we're nearing our 100th game soon) and we are failing miserably, so we have started playing one game of Dorfromantik and one of another game when we meet. The newest hotness is Everdell, which I have to say is a really fun game, even though I keep losing, and it has a cosy theme that just makes it a delight to look at. Better yet, it has solo options, and a supplement with an alternative solo/co-op mode, which is perfect for me.

Image from BGG

The idea is that you lead a group of critters out to settle a new territory and you have one year to develop the best settlement before winter comes. You do this by placing workers to gain resources and using those resources to play cards into your city. The cards will score you points at the end of the game and some have effects that are triggered during play, such as production cards that give you more resources when you play critters or constructions into your city. However, you also have to manage what you play properly, because you only have fifteen spaces in your city and it is not easy to remove critters or constructions once played. Sending them to the dungeon or to the cemetery are a couple of options there, but that means you need to draw those cards.

Image from BGG

Personally, I keep forgetting the special effects and keep getting lost in the theme of my city, hence why I lose a lot. Still, my cities are always more aesthetically pleasing than my opponents' cities, so I win in my head! The game also makes my head hurt. With loads of options and limited capacity to do them all, there is a lot to think about here, and it makes my head hurt at times.

It may be a negative point for some, but there is little player interaction in the game. There is a card you can play into your opponent's city and some cards that instruct you to give resources or cards to your opponent, but beyond that the biggest point of interaction is whining at your opponent when they take a card you wanted from the common pool of face-up cards. But then the whining is part of game playing. If it's not them stealing the cards you wanted, it's complaining about your dice rolls in other games.

Overall, for me this game is a winner. The aesthetics of the whole thing are great, the theme is cosy, you have meaningful choices to make at every stage, and it makes for a good social and sociable game with my friends that can be played in about 90 minutes (time spent whining and sledging included). If you like worker placement and tableau building with a cute animal theme, then I recommend this to you.

Oh, and it has expansion sets. You can never have too many expansion sets for a game! Or accessories. Accessories are good too.

One Step Beyond (Battletech)

 When Jennie walked into the Lemmings' control room, she found Anna dancing beside her console, headphones on and oblivious to the world.

"Hey, Anna, whatcha doing?"

Jennie had to repeat herself several times before Anna realised she was there.

"It's the new album from Sadness."

"What?"

"You know, Sadness."

IYKYK

"No, I don't know. You know I don't listen to music."

"It's those guys from the Dorkonis Combine. They've got a new album out."

"Wait! What? Dorkonis Combine?" Jennie laughed.

"Yeah, one of the techs called them that and now it has stuck in my brain. So, they have a new album out and it's brilliant. Say what you like about their military chops, they really know how to put together a catchy House-K-pop tune. Here, listen."

Anna switched the feed to the speakers in the control room, and soon both of them were caught up in the music.

I painted up some more mechs for House Kurita, and when I lined them up on the painting table it reminded me of that album cover. Sorry. I do like how the decals from Defiance Industries Wargaming finish the mechs off nicely, but the varnish has given the mechs a slightly satin finish, despite being ostensibly matt, so I shall have to go over that again.

Also, apologies for the very hasty work to remove background shadow.

Catalyst Game Labs plastic mechs from various lance packs and boxed sets