2013 - A Belated Retrospective featuring 2014 - Some Plans

I've not been hugely active on this blog of late, so I thought I would post the obligatory retrospective. Overall, last year was a pretty shitty year for me, for a variety of reasons, but my gaming helped me keep my head above water, and I did write a book that will be published in March (See the Amazon sidebar), so it is not all bad.

Games played:
The list looks longer than it really is, because I logged the modules that ASL scenarios came from as well as logging ASL itself, but I have logged 29 games in the past year. I may have forgotten to log a couple, and I feel sure that there was at least one game that did not have a BGG entry for me to log it. Still, that is not bad at all for me, and my biggest pleasure was getting back into ASL. It has been years since I played it ftf so the appearance of a player in the area is a godsend. I can't wait to get more ASL on board this year.

Game	Qty
Advanced Squad Leader	7
Rally Round the King	7
Tomorrow's War (second edition)	6
Car Wars: The Card Game	2
DreadBall: The Futuristic Sports Game	2
The Last Hurrah - ASL Module 6	2
ASL Action Pack #4: Normandy 1944	1
Beyond Valor: ASL Module 1	1
Chandragupta	1
Doomed Battalions: ASL Module 11	1
DreadBall: Void Sirens	1
Hollow Legions - ASL Module 7	1
Maurice - War in an Age of Gentlemen and Philosophers: 1690-1790	1
Paratrooper - ASL Module 2	1
Polemos: Great Northern War	1
Warheads Medieval Tales	1
Zombies!!!	1

Of the other games I played, Rally Round the King has remained at the top of the list (tied with ASL). It is a superb system for quick battles and the campaign is still ongoing over on Talomir Tales. There is a slight hiatus at the moment due to my workload but I shall be pushing on with it in the next week or two.

Tomorrow's War has come in a close third place. I enjoy it but the layout of the rules makes my head hurt. It really does need a better index.

Dreadball proved to be a fun game. I had dithered over buying it for ages and then was pleased when I did. The way Steve and I play, I cannot imagine us having any of the problems that the forum recounts, so I look forward to playing that some more too.

I thought we had played Warheads more than once, but I appear to have logged only one game. This is another fun game that could easily be played with more normal figures. All kudos to Steve for the Magic Roundabout style terrain that perfectly suited the style of the game though. We need to play this more.

Maurice was another game that we wanted to play more, but things got a bit hectic at the back end of the year. It's on the list for this year. I have some ideas for a mini-campaign, but need to make time for it.

One other thing I did last year that I have not done in a while was delve back into the world of boardgaming. I bought Chandragupta, Chariots of Fire, Lion of the North, Nothing Gained but Glory, Wizard Kings and several ASL modules. These last were primarily to update my ASL set with the newer versions of scenarios and for the Starter Kit style boards they contained. Wizard Kings is a simple game that I have played before and I wanted a set for something light to play when I am feeling brain-dead. The others are all largely in the same series from GMT and cover battles in ancient India, chariot warfare in the Middle East, the Thirty Years War and the Scanian War. Now all I need to do is find the time to read all the rules and play them all.

The Objectives:

I failed on most of my objectives for last year, but I have excuses that I consider to be valid. This year's objectives are both easier and more ambitious at the same time. They are easier because they will involve painting fewer figures, but more ambitious because they involve playing more of the same game without getting distracted.

On to the Future:

This year I have one big plan. I bought the Death of Glory book for Command Decision: Test of Battle and I intend to play it through. I have played Command Decision since first edition and CD:ToB is the latest iteration of the game. Although I have not yet played it through, I have read the rules and am enthused about it, because it really does look like a significant improvement on previous versions. Death of Glory covers the fighting in the Lorraine region in 1914, and includes a bunch of scenarios plus a mini-campaign. Steve has painted a 6mm Irregular minis German army for this and I am painting the French.

If the Death of Glory project succeeds, then I plan to try getting enough commanders on board later in the year to play the 'Home before the leaves fall' campaign from Over the Top, which was the original Command Decision Great War rules. This campaign covers August and September 1914 on both the Eastern and Western fronts. It has room for six or seven commanders and thus has plenty of room for command confusion and stupidity. The commanders are: French, British, Russian, German Overall Commander, German Western Front and German Eastern Front. The Belgians will join in only if they get invaded. The only problem is getting all the games played promptly enough to keep everyone interested, so I shall be looking at either having an abstract system for determining battles and only playing the most interesting one each turn, or recruiting people around the world to fight some of the battles for me. We'll have to see how the Death of Glory project goes first though.

Blue Wizard is about to DIE!!!!! (short AAR and thoughts on the game)

We were both a bit frazzled last night, so Steve and I opted for a light game. This was just the opportunity I needed to drag out Blue Wizard is About to DIE!!!! This is a game based around the old Atari favourite Gauntlet, so I was quite keen to try it out, because I had fond memories of spending all night playing Gauntlet with my mates. I bought it from Wargame Vault as a pdf and printed all the components a couple of weeks ago. Now I had the opportunity to see how it actually played.

Description
The game can be played with 1-5 players. Players take the role of Amazon, Barbarian, Elf and Wizard. Each character has three lives, so when you die you are not out of the game immediately. If you use up your three lives, you must buy a new one by putting 50 gold in the slot or you are out of the game. In some variants, one player can take the role of Sorcerer and takes responsibility for moving all the monsters and generally being mean to the characters.

Amazon, Barbarian, Elf and Wizard stand ready to enter the dungeon

Characters are rated for the number of attacks they may make each turn and the amount of damage they can do. Amazon has a low power short range attack and a medium power melee attack. Barbarian is a total melee monster but has no ranged attack. Elf and Wizard both have low power melee attacks and good long-range attacks. Each character also has a special attack, which costs gold and health points to use but can prove quite devastating. Note to self: do not fire a lightning bolt at an adjacent monster. It hurts!

All characters move the same distance, but their speed is represented by the directions they may move in. Amazon may move in any direction. Wizard may make one diagonal move and may pass through one wall per turn. Barbarian and Elf may not move diagonally at all.

They must make their way through three dungeon levels filled with Grunks, Slimes and Spooks to find and defeat Sorcerer on the fourth level. On the way, they can search treasure chests for power-ups and healing, while trying to avoid the dreaded Freeze Trap.

The game is played semi-cooperatively. All players are on the same side but only one can actually win, while it is possible for all of them to lose. The winner is the character with the most gold at the end.

Level 1: Amazon and Wizard work together to clear their side of the dungeon. Barbarian is happy on his own, while Elf is trying to steal all the treasure and avoid the Grunks.

Monsters move towards the nearest players and attack them with little strategy and lots of brute force. They spawn each turn in the corners of the dungeon level and move towards the nearest character. If they end their move in range, they automatically do damage.

Level 3: Spooks, Slimes and Grunts everywhere! Tough level.

The Game
We had a thoroughly enjoyable game. Levels 1 and 2 went well for us. The monsters spawned and were killed at about the same rate. We found some treasure and moved on. Then we hit Level 3 and suddenly the flood-gates opened. We were swarmed by all types of monsters and all the characters lost lives trying to get through from the entrance to the exit portal. We should have had a couple of characters stand on portals to slow the rate of advance but we were not cooperating well, as we tried to get each other killed and take the magic items that the other dropped. Eventually we did it, and fought Sorcerer on the fourth level. After the difficulties of Level 3, Level 4 was almost an anti-climax. Sorcerer did little damage and we wore him down quickly. Victory was ours and Wizard won by having the most gold, despite having blown himself up with a lighting bolt at one point.

The Verdict
It was good fun. The game took longer than expected, but it worked well. The rules required some interpretation in places. They are short and to the point, but could have done with a bit more explanation in places. Aesthetically, the printed components are nice, but I was glad that I had dug out some figures to use instead of the character counters. Next time I shall dig out figures for the monsters too. Using figures lifted the game visually. It also leaves me tempted to produce the dungeon levels using my Hirst Arts moulds. That said, I think this is an occasional game, and not a regular game, so the effort is probably not justified. It is still a very good value-for-money game. At £3 (plus ink and card), I feel like I got a pretty decent product. I shall dig it out again next time we are too frazzled to play something more serious.

So, umm, I wrote a book ...

Over the Summer, a friend and I wrote a book about Vikings. It will be published in March, but is already up on Amazon for pre-order. If you already know a lot about Vikings, then this is the book to buy your friends to get them interested too. If you know little or nothing about Vikings, then this is the book for you. It's a general history with pictures and pull-out sections to illustrate all the points made. It also includes ideas for places to visit that are related to Vikings, so you can investigate their haunts in more detail. I cannot recommend this book highly enough!

The publisher's blurb:

'From the remote and unforgiving landscape of northern Europe, the Vikings voyaged to far-flung areas of the world with extraordinary consequences. The Viking Experience examines the origins, explorations and settlements of these seafaring people, exploring their impact on the world as colonizers, craftsmen, traders and state-makers. This highly illustrated book provides a revealing portrait of the Vikings incredible legacy with a collection of facsimiles and translations of rare documents, including: Drawings and photographs from archaeological dig sites An extract from the Anglo Saxon Chronicle, describing a Viking raid on Lindisfarne The Skálholt map that marks Norse discoveries in the western Atlantic A page from the Stockholm Codex Aureus, an illuminated manuscript that was looted by the Vikings The Vinland map showing Norse exploration of America as an example of recreated Viking history.'

I really have to admit to being a little giddy and excited about this. :) 

Lack of Progress

I have been painting some Irregular Miniatures 6mm WW1 French troops for our planned 1914 campaign next year. I have also done a little more work on expanding the 15mm Pieces of Eight/ Maurice army. However, progress is slow and painting time is limited, so they are not finished and ready for photographing yet. I am also finding that I am not motivated to paint much at the moment, so, instead, here is a photo of my cats. Javier asked for cat pictures, so blame him. :)

Victor (left) and Jasmine

Maurice - The First Battle and First Impressions

We played Maurice last week. It was out first time out with the rules and we were interested to see how they worked. For those that do not know, Maurice uses a card draw system instead of rolling dice for command points or just permitting you to move everything at one go.

Each player starts with a hand of cards, which have a number in their top left corner. This number is the distance in base widths from the general, that a force (group of units) may be activated. To activate a force, you measure the distance to the force from the general and play a number of cards whose value equals or exceeds that distance. The actions you take determine how many new cards you may draw on that turn. If you charge, you get no cards; if you pass you get three cards; and other actions permit you to draw one or two cards to replenish your hand. This means that attacking is difficult because you can quickly run out of cards and thus the attack loses momentum.

The game is very much about hand management then. Maurice also uses a system of alternate activation. The first player activates a unit or force, and then the second player does the same. Repeat until the battle is over. However, you are not restricted to only activating units that have not previously been activated. Instead, you can activate the same force continuously until it is annihilated or runs out of steam. This permits grand flanking manoeuvres at the expense of the rest of your army standing still.

Steve brought his newly painted Russian Great Northern War army round, while I used my Swedish GNW army. For the sake of simplicity, we ignored pikes and early eighteenth-century artillery rules, which are in Maurice for just this period.

The view from the Russian lines at the start of the battle

We chose to play a standard encounter battle and adopted the set-up procedure from the free Maurice Lite rules, although we used the full rules for everything else. Steve chose lots of infantry, while I chose a force with a balance of infantry and cavalry.

Russian cavalry open the assault with a charge on the Swedish left wing.

We began with a bombardment on both sides, which gave us a chance to cause some disruption to the enemy, while also building our hands up to permit an assault. The cotton wool in front of the guns not only looks cool, but it is also a marker showing that the guns cannot move without being given a march order first. The Russians charged first.

The Russian charge stalls

Although they succeed in causing more damage to the enemy than they suffered, the Russian cavalry assault stalled because they were too far from their general and Steve quickly ran out of cards trying to press the assault. This gave me a chance to rally my troops, who were closer to my general, and then to throw them back at the tired Russian cavalry.

Russians charge in the centre, while the Swedish cavalry clears the right flank

In the end, this first assault saw two of the Russian cavalry units and one of the Swedish units routed. I managed to gain the advantage, but my dice rolling was very low throughout this game, so I did not do as well as I should.

Meanwhile, in the centre, Steve advanced his infantry, only to find a previously unseen bog in his way. Some cards permit you to play events instead of using them for command purposes. One of these is the much complained about "how did that get there?" card, which allows you to place a small area of rough going at any point on the battlefield. I got it and used it to slow Steve's advance. The rest of Steve's infantry managed to advance and drive off one of my infantry regiments at the cost of one of his own. By this point I was cursing my dice and threatening them with a watery grave, because I could only roll low and cause minimal casualties, while he seemed to be rolling high for everything.

On the right flank, things were a bit different. My cavalry charged and drove off his cavalry. They then turned and prepared to charge the flank of his infantry, who were slowed by the bog, and his artillery, who looked ripe for the picking. It was also at this point that I got too excited with the game and forgot to take any more photos!

As it turned out, Steve's high rolling did for him. Each army has a morale total. When units rout you dice to see how many moral points the army loses. Steve's high rolling throughout the game caused his army's morale to disappear in a welter of high rolls. Although I took more casualties, my low rolling also meant that my army stood firm. I had lost more units but retained my morale and won the day. Huzzah!

Opinion
So, what did we think of the rules?

The hand management aspect is rather good. It forces you to consider your priorities and plan ahead. It also meant that the game had a rather stately pace as we acted, paused to recover/draw cards and then acted again. Assaults petered out as cards ran out, and both sides had to step back to recover. This felt right for the period.

The activation system was good. Being able to repeatedly activate one force was both a blessing and a curse. It meant that you could get lost in trying to push one part of your plan while forgetting about the rest. Also, if you focused on a flank and moved your general over there to make it easier, then you were in trouble if your other flank was attacked, because it would cost a lot cards to respond.

Overall, the pace and structure of the game worked for us. We enjoy games where you have to plan several moves in advance to be able to carry out your plans, and this is one of those games. You cannot simply react as you might in a lot of other games. We are looking forward to our next game now. I can still imagine using Polemos: GNW for historical games and these more for imagi-nation games, but it will be interesting to try a historical refight or two with Maurice.

I think that these rules will work well with C. S. Grant's Scenarios for Wargames, and I plan to string several of them together as a mini-campaign, once we are suitably au fait with the rules. I am also keen to try them with Grant's Programmed Wargames Scenarios. They have the right Olde Skool feel to them, which is good.

Anyway, I would suggest giving Maurice a try, if you are interested in the first half of the eighteenth century. Now I must also consider how to include the devices and engines of our Lacepunk game in Maurice terms. Hmmm ...

Spectators at the Picnic War and Other New Stuff

I am a sucker for making nice markers for my games, and for games with extras, as it were. Following the production of my objective marker for the Swedish GNW army, I decided to make a morale tracker for Maurice too.

The Morale Tracker
The scene: Outside a small country inn in Pommedeterrania, Nord Sachsen.

"Don't you two have anything better to do with your day?" Frau Brauerinne asked the two gentlemen that were were only customers at his unearthly hour of the morning.
"But Frau Brauerinne," protested Herr Rotearmee, "How could we have anything better to do on a fine Tuesday morning than sit outside your inn with our wargame, while the armies of Geataland and Shortengrad gather on the plain before us?"
"Indeed," added Herr Blaupants, "Your ale is the finest in the region, the weather is good and we have a grand entertainment before us. What else could be better?"
"What is more," appended his colleague, "We have here on our table the finest in kriegsspiel. We can model the battle that is about to be fought over the honour of Miss van Frufru based on the dispositions of the two armies as we observe them."
"Yes," continued Herr Blaupants, "It will be a grand entertainment, and when the citizens of Bad Reinigung come out to observe the battle, we can use our model to make a small fortune by betting on the outcome."
The two old gentlemen cackled heartily and toasted each other with steins of ale.
"Oh ..." Frau Brauerinne failed to finish her sentence, speechless. She waved her fist with frustration and stomped off.

Building found in a box at Caliver Books.
Figures and benches by Baccus 6mm.
Tree from Irregular Miniatures.
Dice frames from Minibits.

Other new stuff
Every so often I paint a Swedish army for the Seven Years War in 15mm. I have sold every other one that I have painted, but have started another one for our Pieces of Eight game that will one day see the light of day. These two units will be government musketeers in Pieces of Eight. I rather hope that I shall be able to expand this army to a full Maurice army too.

Upplands Regiment

Västerbottens Regiment

Figures are Freikorps 15 from LKM.

The Battle of Stamford Bridge, September 21st 2013.

I've been somewhat tardy in posting this report. I dragged my poor, long-suffering other half to Stamford Bridge on Sunday 21st September. The Battle of Stamford Bridge Society were spending the weekend commemorating the Battle of Stamford Bridge, which saw Harald hardrada defeated by Harold Godwinsson on 25th September 1066.

There were reenactors aplenty wandering around with tents set up and happy to talk to anyone with questions. The society had a small stall with information and some goodies to buy. Chris Rock (no, not that one) was selling his pamphlet/book on the battle, and there was barbeque to be had too. I'm looking forward to the 950th anniversary of this battle now and hope that this event expands significantly before then. Here are some photos to whet your appetite for all things Viking (and Saxon too, if you lean that way).

Warming up for the main event. There were demonstrations of all the melee weapons used by both sides

Facing the shieldwall

Viking food, but not a pickled herring in sight!

Part of the camp

Please park your longships only in the designated bays. Failure to comply will result in the issuing of a Fixed Penalty Notice

The Saxon standard

The Vikings arrive (apparently Tostig was delayed due to a hangover)

The Saxons arrive. They achieved surprise by sneaking up behind a hedge. I think they should have done that at Hastings too.

The Vikings form up for the battle

The whole of the camp area