Hellfire: A little more hell on Dodgson's World

Figures: Irregular Miniatures

Buildings: Various
Terrain hexes: GHQ Terrainmaker

The heroic resistance fighters of Dodgson's World took on the brave liberators of Dodgson's World at my house last night. The rebels arrived mob-handed in a selection of improvised armoured vehicles worthy of the A-Team (circled in blue in the image below). Their goal was to seize the air traffic control equipment from the New Clemency spaceport and make off with it. This would make it hard for ShortCom to land new troops and would disrupt ShortCom activities massively, thus giving the rebels a chance to focus on defeating existing ShortCom troops before new ones could be brought in.

The situation just after the start of the game

 The spaceport defence company, augmented by a small militia company and a company of mercenary Thaugs who acted as the police for the spaceport village occupied the spaceport buildings (circled in red above). A battalion of ShortCom regulars was known to be in the area and they might be made available to the spaceport defence troops. They would enter from the right of the picture when Steve had rolled enough points for them. A single d6 was rolled each player turn and the value added to the previously rolled total. The troops would become available once the total reached their points cost.

Another view of the game at the start.

The rebels rolled forward as fast as they could. The spaceport defence vehicle heroically drove out to meet them, and was promptly destroyed by rebel fire. The militia company holed up in the hangars fared little better and was soon retreating towards the control tower having taken more casualties than it liked.

Lorries packed with troops follow up the armoured spearhead.

As the rebels raced forward, elements of 26T battalion started to appear. The troops in the control tower had made contact and emphasised the seriousness of the situation. Two companies of infantry and two guided missile carriers were soon tearing up the road towards the spaceport. The missile carriers met the same fate as the spaceport defence vehicle but the infantry made it into the cover of nearby buildings and prepared to assault the rebels.

Reinforcements arrive

Rebel vehicles screamed up the apron. The fire from their gunners drove the spaceport defence company and the militia back but returning fire immobilised one vehicle and took out the gunner on another. Light losses for the rebels. It seemed like nothing could stop them.

The lorries approach the control tower ready to deploy their troops and carry off the control equipment.

As the lorries deployed their load of troops, the spaceport defence company was routed. The troops entered the control tower and began dismantling the equipment. (At this point, I got too carried away and forgot to take any more photos.) The troops in the control tower came under fire and took some losses but three turns later they had loaded the equipment onto a lorry and were prepared to skedaddle with the loot. At this point, the two companies from 26T battalion broke cover and close assaulted the vehicle companies. A combination of  melee and RPG fire saw the artic and one of the cars destroyed. The rebels were pulling away. Seeing nothing else for it, a ShortCom RPG gunner fired his weapon at the lorry with the equipment on board. He hit it and turned the lorry into a fireball. At this point, there was nothing for the rebels to do but scoot away. They had not achieved their objective.

The game was a draw thanks to Steve's last lucky shot with the RPG. Up to that point, it had felt very one-sided. Rebel casualties were amazingly low because of the lack of anti-vehicle weaponry among the corporate forces while corporate casualties were huge. Despite this, he prevented me from achieving my victory condition (escaping with the equipment) but by destroying it, he also stopped his own victory. To be fair, I think this was the best outcome he could expect by that point of the game. No doubt both sides will spin this into a propaganda victory.

After two games, we are of the opinion that Hellfire is a decent set of rules. The mental arithmetic that is needed to calculate combats is, no doubt, good for our ageing brains and will offset some deterioration there. However, we are also both of the opinion that these rules, more than many others we play, require the players to play within the spirit of the rules rather than the letter of them. Playing them with a rules lawyer would be even more hellish than other rules sets.

I was a bit worried that I would not have enough buildings to cover the table. Turns out I did, although there is little coherency in the architecture, and I really need to get more of them painted.

Meeting at Longlier - CDTOB AAR Part 3

We completed the Meeting at Longlier scenario some weeks ago, but I have only now managed to edit the photos and write the game up. I am such a slacker! Anyway, this is the final part of the scenario write-up. Part 1 and Part 2 were posted some time back on the blog. At the end of the last turn, the Germans were pushing hard on their left flank and things looked grim for the French on that side. The town of Longlier was hotly disputed in the centre with both sides occupying half of it. The battle on the right was much more open and the German cavalry had broken round the flank and were aiming to capture the French regimental command.

The situation at the end of Turn 7

How it looked to us

As the French cavalry chased the German cavalry, a French company was dispatched to intercept the Germans, Meanwhile another French company captured a village near the railway bridge and a third company of that battalion was moving to capture the village on the ridge, but it was going to have to fight through a German company in the woods first.

French infantry move to intercept German cavalry

The battle in Longlier saw the Germans pushed back and taking losses, while two French companies closed the pincers on the town to ensure that the Germans would have nowhere to go but into the bag. Artillery and machine-gun fire were doing a good job of suppressing the Germans to ease the French advance.

Longlier from the south (The beige markers show pinned German units. The French are on the left of the photo)

Longlier from the north with the French on the right of the photo

On the French right flank, it was a completely different picture. The fight in the woods had heated up and lead was flying everywhere. The French 75s were working overtime to try to suppress the Germans, while the battalion commander was busily rallying one of his companies. The Germans were starting to take heavy losses here too, but the French definitely had the worst of it with damaged and demoralised companies trying to hold the line and give the artillery time to escape.

The battle for the southern woods. Beige markers show pinned German units. The other pin markers are French and the red and green markers show demoralised French troops

Fortunately for the French, the German infantry had found the whole affair too hot for them too and their entire left flank became pinned down. At this point, the German commander decided to cede the day to the French and regroup his troops. There was be time enough another day to assault Longlier.

French losses

German Losses

Notes

French losses in this game were very light, as the photo shows. The Germans took horrendous losses. This was one reason why Steve called it a day and ceded the game to me. I got lucky in that his morale rolls at the end of turn 7 were terrible, resulting in a very large part of his army pinning. His morale might have held out better had this not happened, because he could then have driven home against my battered troops there. This would have freed up his left flank to relieve Longlier. He would have had between 1 and 5 turns for this, depending upon the game end die roll, so it could have been feasible. Having to rally and regroup his troops first meant that he probably would not have had time for this.

This was a good fun scenario. It worked well as a training scenario to teach Steve the new rules and to remind me of how Command Decision works. I am now keen to play the rest of the scenarios in The Death of Glory, but I also wonder about reducing them in size. They are all really too large to suit the available time we have for gaming, so we need to consider how best to reduce the size of the forces and still play an interesting scenario.

Meeting at Longlier - CDTOB AAR Part 1

Last night, we continued the Command Decision: Test of Battle game that we began last week. At our current rate of progress it will take us another couple of weeks to finish the game. The scenario is the second one in the Death of Glory supplement. It pits the French versus the Germans in the Lorraine area in August 1914. Both sides have a regiment of infantry, a battalion of artillery and a recon cavalry squadron. The game will be 8-12 turns long depending upon a random die roll.

The game began with the recon cavalry ensconced in and around Longlier. The French had dismounted to occupy the town better while the Germans remained mounted. Reinforcements in the form of a battalion from the regiment arrive each turn, marching to the sound of the guns. The German artillery battalion must arrive as a unit, while the French artillery battalion arrives as individual batteries together with an infantry battalion. After three turns the French forces have all arrived and the final German battalion is nearing the battle area.

The situation at the end of turn 3 (Not all units are shown to make things clearer)

The French in blue arrived from the south. The Germans in grey arrived from the north-east. As you can see, a traffic jam was building in the town of Longlier. The northernmost French recon cavalry unit (hollow blue symbol) charged the German recon cavalry in the rear but the Germans were able to turn to face and eliminated the French unit. It was at this point that I realised that cavalry charging get no significant benefit from doing so. Boo! We are French, we are dressed well and we have style. We deserve significant bonuses for that!!

The table at the end of turn 3

At least by this stage I have deployed two artillery pieces and can bring fire to bear on the Germans. With any luck I can suppress the enemy infantry with artillery fire in the next turn and my brave poilus can charge home and drive the enemy from the woods with great elan. For the rest of it, I think there is going to be a turn or two of marching and re-ordering the troops so that we can occupy good firing positions and protect our homeland.

View from the west towards Longlier. French troops march bravely to support their brethren while singing lustily as they go

The scenario requires both sides to capture built-up areas, and to destroy the enemy. There are 3 victory conditions: one for capturing the most built-up areas, one for destroying enemy personnel (infantry/cavalry) stands, and one for destroying enemy artillery stands. The winner is the player that has achieved more victory conditions. I made some French and German flags to mark control of the built-up areas.

View from the south-western road. My artillery deployed on the reverse slope where their commander can call fire onto the enemy positions. A second artillery piece will take up position next turn

I am hoping that artillery on this hill in the south-east corner of the table will be a good firing position for my artillery. With two pieces there and the artillery battalion commander, I can call fire onto the approaching Germans and also shell Longlier in support of my own troops as needed. It only requires that my infantry drive off the Germans in the woods. I think I'm going to need better dice!

Figures by Irregular Miniatures

Hexes are GHQ Terrain Maker hexes that I fettled myself

A quick and simple Viking camp for Impetus

I needed a Viking camp for my 6mm Viking army, so I bought the Viking settlement from Irregular and then contemplated how best to produce a camp. In the end I opted for the layout below. It is simple, uses only one house from the set, along with the tree, the hedges and the looting pillagers that came with the set. The pillagers are obviously warming up in anticipation of their army's victory. I shall make one or two built-up areas from the remaining buildings in the set but that can wait for another day.

I reckon this is the home team's camp, so I shall also need to construct an away team camp for when the Vikings are visiting their neighbours. What would suit that? A burning church with monks fleeing and Vikings chasing? The more traditional longship on the shore look? A trading camp (would involve scratch-building tents. Boo!)? All of the above for use according to my mood? Probably this last, I suppose.

Tarting up the Troops

I mentioned tarting up my troops in the last post. Here is a before and after shot of Austrian (left) and Russian (right) stands from Irregular miniatures. In the background is the Russian general's new car, which I found in the bits box. All figures are Irregular miniatures and show how the WW1 infantry come based (three figures to a stand). I rather wish they did their WW2 infantry this way too. For some reason the modern infantry that I have is based similarly to the WW1 infantry but not WW2 stuff. Odd.

Orange Blossom Special?

Train, trees, track and village by Irregular Miniatures
Hexes by GHQ and all flocked up by me

I started a Red Actions play by email campaign recently. I am umpiring it and my players (one in Australia and one at the opposite end of England) are busily plotting and counterplotting against each other. Steve and I are refighting the battles for them. You can read how the campaign is progressing on my Red Actions blog, but more importantly, this campaign has inspired me to revisit my WW1 6mm figures.

I have Russians, Austrians, Germans, Italians and British forces available to use but have not played anything with them in ages. These chaps are now proxies for the Estonian and Freikorps forces in our campaign. Railways are important in the campaign and I realised how bad our table looked without proper railways on it, so I ordered an armoured train pack from Irregular Miniatures and some track for making railway tiles. I ordered on the Thursday afternoon and the figures arrived on the Saturday morning. By Sunday they were all painted and I could start fixing railway track to hex tiles. I did the final basic work on the hex tiles this morning.

I chose to keep the train's paint job generic because I have not decided if I am going to choose one particular force to field and I currently want to be able to use it with all the forces available to me. The village and trees are from Irregular Miniatures too. I have had them for years and it shows. I really should get around to repainting them all. The hex tiles are GHQ. It is frustrating that they are not precisely cut but I still like the overall effect and flexibility. As my eyesight deteriorates with age I should become better able to ignore the gaps between the hexes! I also need to return to the hexes I made first and do more work on them because I am not happy with the colour of the scatter material. It is too dark.

Here is the result. An armoured train steaming through the countryside. Let's hope the village and woods do not contain partisans bent on blowing the train up!
(Click the pics for larger images)

More Clearing The Decks - TYW Swedes

I recently rebased my Thirty Years War Swedes to make a couple of armies. OK, so technically it is not two completely separate armies. It is two armies with a core of models in common and additional elements to make up the rest. I played Impetus the other day and really enjoyed it, so I decided to quickly rebase my Thirty Years War Swedes for the Basic Impetus variant Basic Baroque. I am hoping that BI and BB return the same level of fun to ancients and renaissance gaming that DBA did in the early nineties. I have had this Swedish army for a goodly number of years but, like many other armies I own, it was never completed due to lack of opponents interested in the period. The army was originally put together for Renaissance Principles of War, which means I have quite a few spare bits for the BB armies now. I am thinking of reworking some of these to provide a Danish or Imperialist opponent for the Swedes. Given the small size of the armies, that should be feasible with minimum additional expenditure.

The figures are all 6mm by Irregular Miniatures on mdf bases from East Riding Miniatures.

The early Swedish army (Click the pics for larger images):

Later Swedish army:

The figures are all based on 60x30mm stands, because I had them to hand and am getting used to using them. I am not sure that this was the right choice but it is done now. I think I should have opted for 80mm frontage stands instead, which is another option that the game gives. This would have given the cavalry a bit more space for the commanded shot. Still, it gives me another army that is ready to use, and the point of wargaming for me is rolling dice and talking shite with my mates. This army is ready for another bout of that.

Tusk Junior

My wife and I have had her nephews to stay for the weekend (our weekend runs from Sunday to Monday). Yesterday we took them to the Walking with Dinosaurs live show at Sheffield Arena as a birthday present. It was a pretty good show, although I felt that the emphasis on the 'special effects' over story let it down a bit, but I am old and jaded, so what do you expect? The dinosaurs themselves were really good and the size of them was impressive too. It really gives you sense of perspective.

One of the boys has been pestering me to show him how to play wargames. They play Heroscape but are fascinated with the array of figures in my office/games room. So, one of them asked me last night if I would "show them my moves"!!!!! By this he meant, how to play the games, not anything else. Today I caved in and asked them if they wanted to hunt dinosaurs, to which the response was an enthusiastic "Yes". I dug out Tusk, set up a 2'*2' board, gave each of them a small party of cavemen and we set to. The table had one each of Tyrannosaurus, Brontosaurus, Stegosaurus and Triceratops on it. I explained how to measure moves and they set to with gusto, each charging his hero in as fast as possible. The Tyrannosaurus fell first. It was simply not as aggressive as a small boy. Then the other nephew brought the Stegosaurus down. Both boys were enthusiastically throwing rocks and spears at the other two dinosaurs and the Brontosaurus saw the writing on the wall first. It fled for the edge of the table and away to safety. The Triceratops was less savvy and stayed to fight, surrounded by cavemen. It gored and trampled one group of them but could not take on the full might of two cavemen tribes. The elder nephew slew it and took credit for the kill as well as winning the game with two dinosaur kills overall. The younger one had only killed one dinosaur but his tribe had been halved in size, so I think the food will go around well enough.

Both boys, who are 6 and 8 by the way, picked up the game really quickly. Even the reaction system for the dinosaurs, which confused them initially, became clear with play. Flushed with their first hunting success, they left the game very happy and I could bask in the warm glow of being a successful uncle and leading them into bad ways. I wonder what I should teach them next ...

Tusk - A Review

Tusk: Mammoth hunting from 12,000BC to 1914 is a set of rules by Matthew Hartley and published by Irregular Miniatures. The rules cost £3.00 for a 16 page A5 card-covered booklet. The art-work is amusing, though amateurish compared to more modern, glossy rules sets. On the other hand, it is also amusing and there are a couple of really bad jokes in the pictures that I appreciated (I have a terrible sense of humour!).

The basic rules deal with how to hunt with cavemen. There is a points system that allows you to buy your hunters. These can consist of hunters with hand weapons, hunters with missile weapons, fire-makers (they can set fire to things!), Og the Hero (a character) and dog packs. Once you have bought your hunters it is time to set out and catch some dinner.


Irregular Miniatures 6mm Caveman pack (click the pictures for a larger image)

The system uses Action Points , much like DBA PIPs, and you roll 1d6 each turn to see how many you have. You then use these points to move your hunters and set fire to things. You can move hunters more than once per turn by spending multiple Action Points on them.

Fires, once lit, have their own place in the turn sequence and can spread across the table if you are not careful. They are useful for herding mammoths over cliffs, but you could also wind up getting burnt yourself.

Combat occurs when hunters with missiles are in range or hunters are within 2cm of their target. 2d6 are rolled and if the roll is high enough the target is dead.

The basic beast in the rules is a mammoth and the first two scenarios deal with hunting mammoths. Beasts do not have their own turn per se. Instead, their reactions are controlled by a reaction table. Each turn, each beast tests its reaction according to the most serious circumstance that pertains to its situation. Circumstances include: being near to a fire; being attacked in close combat; being near dogs; being attacked by missile fire; and a couple of circumstances determined by how close they are to humans. The reaction table will tell you what to do with the beasts, which could include running away, attacking or just simply grazing, among other possibilities.


A herd of Irregular Miniatures 6mm Mammoths

So, that is the basic system. It is simple and elegant and finishes with two scenarios. The first scenario is a solo mammoth hunting one. It is really a training scenario. You place a mammoth in the centre of the table and try to kill it. I played this through a few times and it was amusing, but began to pall after a while because there is a technique to mammoth hunting and once you sort that out, then you can win most of the time, subject to the luck of the dice.

The second scenario is a competitive game. The king is dead and the players are vying to become the new king. To prove their worth, the players must hunt mammoths successfully. The player that kills the most mammoths wins. The number of mammoths in the herd is determined by the number of players, so there should always be plenty of mammoths for you to hunt. I have not played this scenario yet, but my experience of one of the later ones suggests that it could easily descend into the most enjoyable chaos as players try to kill mammoths, drive mammoths over their rivals and generally disport themselves disgracefully.

The appendix then deals with Victorian hunters and also adds dinosaurs to the mix, specifically Brontosaurus and Tyrannosaurus Rex. Instead of hunters, the Victorian party will consist of Adventurers, Stalwarts (regular soldiers, etc) and Rabble (porters and similar ilk). You also have the option of recruiting Sir Harry (hero) and Artillery! Now, it may seem unsporting to use artillery against dinosaurs, but sometimes needs must.


Irregular Miniatures 6mm Sir Harry Pack

The appendix finishes with two scenarios using the new troops types. The first is a solo game where you try to capture specimen dinosaurs, much like the mammoth hunting scenario, by driving them into pits you have dug. I have not tried this one yet, but suspect that it could get nasty if you try capturing Tyrannosaurs. Mr Hartley recommends starting gently with Brontosaurs.

The second scenario is one that I remember fondly from many years ago. We had a most enjoyable evening's gaming as we tried to escape from Island X before the volcano on it erupted. Unfortunately, between us and our boat was a herd of Tyrannosaurs. Eek! The players must try to get from one side of the table to the other, past the Tyrannosaurs, and the winner is the one who gets the most of his group off onto the ship before the dice roll indicates that the volcano explodes and wipes the island out. This is a scenario where you try to position your troops so that they drive the Tyrannosaurs into your opponents and then gloat as your opponent gets eaten, and I highly recommend it.

Figure Packs
As you will have seen above, Irregular Miniatures also supports these rules with a number of packs of figures, both in 15mm and 6mm. I can only comment on the 6mm offerings because that is all I have bought. I received four dinosaurs in each of my packs and bought my mammoths separately.

The packs give you around 25 points or so of troops, which is enough for the scenarios in the rule book. You also get two pits (actually shell crater models) for capturing beasts. The figures are typical Irregular Miniatures fare. Some are a bit rough in the lead but they all paint up well. Personally I think that the weakest sculpts are the Stegosaurus, but even they are not too bad once painted and on the table, despite my paint job. The main problem I see with the packs is that both come with dinosaurs. It would have been more useful to get mammoths with my cavemen and Tyrannosaurs and Brontosaurs with the Sir Harry pack, because the Tusk rulebook does not specifically include Triceratops and Stegosaurus. Still, you can treat these latter as Brontosaurs for the purposes of your games and all will be fine.

Conclusion
I like these rules. I am not sure how much longevity they really have because they are a beer and pretzels rules set but they are fun to haul out every so often. They take no time at all to learn, so everyone can play and enjoy themselves from the off, even if they have not played before. I would recommend Tusk to anyone wanting a game that they can haul from the shelf whenever they do not feel like playing a "serious" game.

I like the figure packs that Irregular produces for Tusk too, despite my reservations above. The figures were easy to paint up and you get enough for one player in each pack. For the price, it is definitely worth investing in the 6mm sets. I am currently working on the Piedmontese International Scientific Survey and will add them to my set. After all, the game is fun and is worth playing every so often.

On a final note, there are two supplements for Tusk: Tusk II The Wrath of Kong and Steel Tusk III: Apocalypse Soon. I plan to review Tusk II once I have tried the rules in that supplement, but do not have Tusk III yet. As a taster, I can tell you that Tusk II includes rules for Raptors, Giant Wolves and Triceratops. It also adds rules for attacking other players, trained beasts and various new figure types and weapons. I am looking forward to trying this one out too.

Mission: Ooh Shiny - March Update

Woohoo! All goblins painted!! That gives me an available force of:
6 stands of Black Moon Goblins
10 stands of Goblin Archers
12 stands of Goblin Warriors
6 stands of Goblin Light Wolf Riders
2 stands of Ogres

The whole army:


This force will be more than enough for the Warrior Heroes game that we are planning next month. It amounts to twice the number of compulsory stands, which will permit some variety in the way I field the army. It really needs some more Goblin Warriors but I shall wait to get those until I have some spare cash, which may be a while now. As usual, click the pictures for larger images.

Irregular Miniatures Ogre allies:


The units are all based on 40mm by 20mm stands, with as many figures on each stand as I feel like putting on there. I like the 40mm by 20mm stands. They are neat and look good. For some reason I prefer this style of basing to the more normal DBx bases sizes that many rules use. I think it is because the stands rank up neatly together. The character figures are based on 20mm x 20mm stands with one or two figures per stand.

Baccus Goblin Wizard:


The figures are predominantly Baccus 6mm with a few Irregular Miniatures figures to provide those elements that Pete Berry does not produce. I really like the characterful goblins that Pete produces and they paint up really easily, but I do wish he would expand his fantasy range a bit. Mind you, having been made redundant recently, my gaming budget has been drastically reduced, so it is probably just as well. Perhaps it can wait until I have a new job.

Baccus Goblin Heroes:


The Irregular Miniatures figures paint up nicely, but they tend to be a bit lumpish in the lead. These particular Irregular figures do not have the same character that the Baccus figures have. This is a shame really because Irregular Miniatures are one of the nicest companies I have ordered from and they are really helpful if you ring them up with queries. They also have the fastest mail order system I know of. I believe they must either have Mystic Meg working for them, predicting what they need to package up in advance, or they have a time machine so that they can get your goodies to you immediately! Anyway, apart from their WW2 vehicles, I would still recommend Irregular to anyone wanting cheap figures and good customer service.

Irregular Miniatures Goblin Archers in the foreground with Baccus Cavalry and Infantry behind:


Irregular Ogres and Baccus Cavalry: