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

The Battle of Antares (Space Empires 4X)

 Communication to the loyal Bwendi Federation from President-for-Life Colonel Throckmorton P. Gladiolus XCVI:

People of the Bwendi Federation, today we gather to mourn the loss of the citizens of Vortigern and Sheldon. As you know, over a decade ago great alien doomsday machines first appeared from deep space and sought to destroy all life in our sector of the galaxy. The first encounter with one of these machines, which we called Weasels for their remorseless bloodthirstiness, was fought near the planet Essen. Brave battleship crews stood their ground and defended Essen even as we built up our naval capacity to counter this new attack.

We believed that this was a one-off occurrence until a second machine appeared several years later and also sought to destroy Essen. Our capabilities had been built up by then, but the machine had evolved too. We believe that the first machine communicated our capabilities even as our heroic naval crews gave their lives in aid of its destruction. This battle cost us dearly and we mourn every single crewperson lost in both of those battles.

Plenty of unexplored regions in deep space. Who knows what is out there?

We all hoped that this was it, but, as we know, all bad things come in threes, and the following year another Weasel appeared but from a different direction this time. Our scientists are convinced that it had decided to try a new approach because the previous two were destroyed at Essen. Alas for the people of Vortigern, our navy was not in position to stop it. The Weasel destroyed the whole planet and only a few refugees escaped. We mourn the people of Vortigern. Not content with that, the Weasel flew to Sheldon and destroyed that planet too. More escaped because they now had warning, but too many still died. We mourn the people of Sheldon. May the people of Vortigern and Sheldon forever live in our memories.

However, by this time our scouts had ascertained the Weasel's route. It was clear that it was heading for our capital Altair. We do not know why. We do know that we had just enough time to fortify Antares and to build up our fleet reserve there. It cost us half of our fleet, but our heroes fought well and valiantly on that day when they faced the Weasel, and they destroyed it.

The Doomsday Machine (bottom right of pic) has destroyed half the fleet but it has been destroyed

Praise to the heroes of Essen and Antares. To them, both living and dead, we award the Frog Star of Bwendi, the highest military award we have. On this tenth anniversary of the Battle of Antares, we honour those that saved us. We praise and mourn these heroes, and we declare that the Weasel menace is over. Our scouts have searched deep space and report no further signs of Weasels. Our scientists have modelled the behaviour of those that assaulted us and declared that there are unlikely to be more. We shall remain vigilant and maintain our defences, but we declare too that this day shall be a public holiday henceforth to honour our heroes. May the Great Frog bless them all.

The Game

I played the Doomsday Machines solo scenario from Space Empires 4X from GMT on Normal mode. You can make it more difficult by choosing a different level that will see the Doomsday Machines arriving earlier and being stronger. You can also play on Easy mode which does the reverse, giving you more time to prepare.

You start with a few scouts, a shipyard, some colony ships and a mining ship at your homeworld. You know the Doomsday Machines are coming and you have to prepare to defeat them. It's a race to maximise your resources available, build the right stuff to stop the Doomsday Machines and save the people of your galactic federation. Undefended planets in the machine's path will be destroyed.

I was quite lucky that the first two machines both came from the unpopulated side of my federation. It made it easier to meet them, and the proximity of Essen to my homeworld made it easier to reinforce the planet.

My maintenance costs were also conveniently reduced by my scoutships being lost to black holes and other navigation hazards in deep space. They did enough, but I needed those extra points to build cruisers, then battleships, then dreadnoughts.

The third Doomsday Machine came from the top left of the map where there was a straight line of four colonies between it and my homeworld. Rather than assault it with my cruiser flotilla that was in that area, I looked at how quickly the Doomsday Machine would move through and how quickly the rest of my fleet could gather there and chose to make my stand at Antares. That meant that I would lose two of my colonies, but that I would have time to assemble a force that stood a chance against the infernal machine. There was no point sending in my forces piecemeal, because the machine would heal damage with every planet it ate, so I would lose ships while gaining nothing.

The final battle was tough but I got lucky with the dice about halfway through. The Doomsday Machine missed five 50/50 shots in a row. Hurrah! My own troops were barely any better, but they scored the necessary hits and the machine was destroyed.

This was a tense game that I doubt I would have won on a more difficult level without a lot more practice. It was fun though. I probably got rules wrong, despite them being very short and straightforward. Next time I plan to get them all correct. We shall see.

Elves for Fantastic Battles

 Between work and everything else, I have run out of steam and not done much hobby stuff recently, so I have not managed to carry on Broneslav's adventures and may have to consider not trying to map everything myself. Still, a little progress om game-related things has happened and I hope to have more time in the near future. Mind you, that's adult life, isn't it? "I'll have time for the thing I want to do next week, once I just get these fifty urgent tasks out of the way." Repeat ad nauseam.

I've been wanting to do something with the 6mm figures from our Talomir Tales campaign for a while now, but have not really been sure what. You can see the National Elf Service as it was on the Talomir Tales blog. Originally I planned to rebase them all to 60mm frontage bases from 40mm and make up fantasy equivalents of historical armies for Impetus. In tandem with this, I have carried on collecting rules sets, because, you know, you can never have too many fantasy wargame rules sets. One of those sets is Fantastic Battles, which I have not tried yet, but which reads well and offers a lot of flexibility, so I have high hopes.

Enough Elves to give an Orc a bad day

So with all these thoughts in my brain, I decided to rebase the Elves first onto 30mm x 30mm bases. Fantastic Battles states 40mm x 40 mm bases, but all my 6mm ancient and medieval armies are on 60mm x 30mm bases, so this would mean I could shove two bases together to make an opponent for a historical army using other rules. With a bit of fudging, I could also use the historical armies with Fantastic Battles, although I'll be restricted to companies with an even number of bases, unless I paint up some smaller bases to use to make change, which need not be too onerous a task.

The Elven infantry with archers in front and spears behind. The general is mounted in the centre and flanked by a druid and the famed bard Elvish, with two heroes on the outer flanks.

I could have left the Elves as they were on their 40mm frontage bases, but rebasing builds in compatibility with other parts of my collection, and I do find the 30mm/60mm base more aesthetically pleasing for no rational reason that I can think of. Also, if I ever play someone else, whose army follows the official basing, I can always use a sabot base for my own troops, so no worries there either. One thing I did consider was rebasing to 1" square bases, because Fantastic Battles uses base widths as the main measurement. As such, it would have been more convenient for game play and require a much smaller table, but it could lead to issues with larger fantastic monsters and war machines not fitting on the standard base.

A full company of Elven knights

In addition to rebasing the existing figures, I painted up the Elven knights who had languished in the Pile of Possibility (aka the Pile of Shame) for far too long. I also found some more spearelves in that pile and quickly slapped paint on them too. I like how the whole army looks. Once I have rebased the goblins, I can set up a game and test the rules properly.

In the spirit of using what I already have, the Elves are supported by a detachment of Centaur light cavalry

It's a simple army with just the core elements and can easily be expanded in the future. When I am back in the UK at Christmas, I shall dig out the Goblins and see if I can get them rebased. Who knows? I might even manage to set up and play a game.

Through the Badlands (Sellswords and Spellslingers)

Returning to Sellswords and Spellslingers, I decided to play the same scenario again, but this time with more focus on what the actual goal of the scenario was. The PCs start on one table edge and must escape off the other. Between them and safety lie four Orc Brutes and a Troll.

The baddies are all set up randomly, which resulted, once more, in the PCs being surrounded at set-up. Three Orc Brutes were within or close to charge range even before the heroes had tried to move. The other Orc Brute and the Troll were across the far side of the table, probably hoping to pick off exhausted PCs and eat them.

As our heroes moved out, Wizard tried to cast a fireball but failed, while Scout moved out yelling, "I'll find a path for you all!"

As Fighter tried to work out which way she was meant to be going, another Orc Brute appeared beside her. Cleric was so stunned she failed to move, but all of the monsters decided that this would be the best time to charge. Unfortunately, the plucky Elven Scout quickly found himself being assaulted by an Orc Brute, but he managed to wound it.  Fighter had the better of the Orc attacking her, while Cleric hammered the one facing her. Then some Orc minions wandered up, wondering what all the brouhaha was about.

The heroes fought bravely as an Orc minion leapt out of the bushes near Cleric, only to be cut down without Cleric even pausing for a breath. However, she was wounded now. Scout discovered the better part of valour, but took a wound to his back as he raced off. Wizard hid in some bushes.

Seeing her chance, Wizard launched a fireball at the group of Orc minions, burning three of them to a crisp. Distracted by the cries of their feeble companions, the Orc Brutes let down their guard. Two were slain and one was wounded again. The odds were looking better for our heroes. Swiftly dealing with her opponent, Fighter turned to aid Cleric, only to see her fall to an Orc blade. Ahead of her, Fighter could see Scout and Wizard racing across the badlands and within sight of their goal. Meanwhile, the Troll was wandering around aimlessly.

Fighter sprinted off as more Orc Brutes arrived on the battlefield. An Orc minion leapt out of a bush and thrust a spear through Scout, just as he was within an ace of his goal. The poor Elf collapsed to the ground as Wizard raced past him to safety. Fighter followed as fast as she could. It was just fast enough for her to outdistance and dodge the Orcs, and she was soon in the pub with Wizard toasting their fallen comrades.

Conclusions

This game went better than the last, mainly because I focused on the objective and not on slaughtering Orcs. However, my heroes still faced a massive number of wandering monsters. The first five times I drew an event card, it was a wandering monster! And then there were others later. In total, the five starting monsters were reinforced by 5 more Orc Brutes and 10 more Orc Warriors/Minions!

"Inconceivable!" I hear you cry, although I think that word does not mean what you think it means.

It was certainly wildly improbable, as was having the heroes surrounded at the start again. To add to the improbability, the main reason Wizard escaped so easily was rolling two 20s for activation in successive turns, so she got a massive number of actions for running. Unfortunately for Fighter and the others, they got more than their fare share of failed activations with Cleric and Fighter both suffering a couple of turns where they did not pass any activations at all.

In some ways, the whole game was gloriously random, and it was good fun, but, as I noted in the previous post on this game, I got the same feeling from it that I did from A Song of Blades and Heroes (unsurprisingly, I suppose). I am not convinced that I would want to play it as a campaign because of the randomness. It seems hard to check the fallen and rescue them with the way the activation die rolls go, and that could lead to too high a death toll of PCs. I want deaths in the party to mean something, not just be minor speed bumps along the way. I could house-rule it to create greater continuity, but I have other games that don't require that. On the other hand, I could completely see picking up Sellswords and Spellslingers for an occasional single game or maybe for a mini-campaign of a few scenarios, and I shall keep a record of Fighter and Wizard so that they can return if the mood does.

11 Ambyrmont - Ever Onwards, Ever Upwards

 Thankful for an undisturbed night's sleep, Broneslav packed up his camp and set out at first light. His experience of ranging wildernesses came in handy as he picked his way up the steep cliffs and hillsides of the volcano. It was difficult going, but he was able to find a stable path that did not slide out from under his feet as he climbed. He cursed the volcanic ash that got into his every orifice as he climbed and that made the climbing all the harder because it was soft and gave underfoot, but he made good progress.

Balancing tentatively on a boulder outcrop, he ate his lunch and looked out over the plateau back the way he had come. The mountains he had crossed before were dwarfed by the volcano he now climbed. Just a little further and he might even see over them to the jungles beyond. As he did this, he kept a wary eye out for the pteranodons and pterodactyls that he had seen before, but they resolutely circled much higher than he was. He praised the immortals and asked their blessing that the beasts might not consider him a morsel worth plucking off this barren hillside.

The volcano got rockier!

After lunch he carried on picking his way slowly and carefully up the volcano. By late evening, he had to put on his warmer clothes from his pack. The hillside was getting icy and snow lay in patches across it. Further up Broneslav could see that the snow and ice lay thicker upon the hillside. He soldiered on. The snow actually made the climb slightly easier. It was hard frozen and gave firmer footing than the volcanic ash, but he had to watch out for sheet ice that would treachously trip him. Still, shortly before dark, he reached the summit. From here, he could see across most of the island. Though the sun had set on the land below, up here it would shine a while longer. He used that to his advantage to dig his camp into the snow and to light a fire to keep warm. It was fortunate that he had brought wood with him for this purpose, because there was none up here. He settled in for the night and prepared himself for the hard climb down, that would, at least be shorter if not easier, but getting a good night's sleep.

It is fortunate that Broneslav has wilderness skills and that I rolled well for him to see if he made the right preparations. Had I not done so, he would be suffering frostbite now!

Trying out Sellswords and Spellslingers

 It's been on the cards for a very long time, but I finally found the inspiration and energy to try out Sellswords and Spellslingers. I think it has taken so long because I know it is based around a similar system to Song of Blades and Heroes, which I did not get on with despite really wanting to. I mean, who would not want to like a simple and quick-to-play fantasy game? However, I took the effort to make the cards needed for play, because I love preparing for games, and finally sat down to read the rule book.

Five minutes later I was ready to play. I exaggerate, but it's a short rulebook and a little focus will see you finishing it super quick. Then I sat down to create my warband. I opted for the traditional mix of 1 fighter, 1 magic-user, 1 cleric and 1 thief scout. With 60 XP to divide between them, you really don't get a lot to spend on each figure. The magic-user cost nearly half of that just to have the ability to cast spells and their first spell. Thankfully, there were disadvantages that I could use to ensure they had skills enough to fulfil their roles. I gave the fighter the Impulsive disadvantage, the thief scout got Greedy, while the magic-user was Weak. That sorted my points out. On to set-up.

The scenario required my heroes to get from one side of the board to the other. Simple enough, thinks I. They started at the bottom of the above photo and would attempt to get to the top.

That is when the trouble started. Random placement of enemies resulted in too many of them being right next to my heroes. Then I rolled for activation. The magic-user fired a fireball at the troll. The fireball fizzled and the magic-user was out of magic for the rest of the game (a 1 on 1d20 will do that to you). The scout shot at the nearest orc. The monsters all charged and the melee began. The cleric and the fighter charged in and dealt out a few solid blows. More orcs started to turn up. The heroes advanced slowly through the bushes, but they not got more than a quarter of the way before the magic-user found herself beset by baddies, and expired messily. The cleric checked her. Yup, dead as a doornail. The heroes continued to advance slowly.

As our heroes made slow progress, the cleric fell next. Checking her money pouch, the scout found that she was still alive but limping badly. He helped her to her feet and lightened her load so that she could move more quickly. Pushing on, the scout suddenly found himself ambushed by an orc minion, who leapt out of a nearby bush and cut him down. The minion then took the cleric out of the fight before being cut down in turn by the fighter. By now the fighter was thoroughly confused and just stood there turning circles on the spot as the orcs charged. She defended as well as she could, but her armour did not hold, her shield got shattered and it was not long before she too lay on the ground with the rest of her party. They had failed.

Conclusions

Well, that was a trifle chaotic and really did not take that long at all. If I were more experienced with the rules, it would have been an even quicker defeat, but I spent a lot of time checking the rules. I made mistakes throughout the game, but the dice did not help. When your entire party fails their activation rolls so the monsters get multiple turns, you soon get overfaced. It's the same issue I faced with A Song of Blades and Heroes. I like games where you do not have total control of your troops, but this was too chaotic for my poor warband to survive.

So, what needs to happen next is that I play the game and make sure I get all the rules right. Then I can see if experience makes a difference to how well my party does. Understanding the interaction of the system and the dice in a practical way should help me decide how best to approach any given scenario. For this scenario, for example, I really should have focused on moving my troops instead of fighting the bad guys. The fewer turns my troops are on the table, the fewer opportunities there will be for the bad guys to activate.

This was fun, and relatively quick despite my inexperience, so I do want to try again. Assuming that all the games are this chaotic though, I am not sure if using Sellswords and Spellslingers as a campaign engine will be right for me. We shall see.

On the other hand, I could totally see using this as a simple system for a quick, cooperative, pick-up game with a friend, so there is that.

10 Ambyrmont - The Plateau

 Waking early, Broneslav packed his things together and set out towards the ruins. It was easier going across the plateau which was strewn with small rocks and boulders and scrubby brush, but nothing to hold him up like the jungle had.

Detail will be added to this map as Broneslav explores.

The journey went faster than he had thought it would. By midday he had reached a river that crossed the plateau. He slaked his thirst, filled his waterskin and waded across it. The river was not deep, but the cooler air on the plateau made the water feel colder than he liked. Climbing out on the other side, he shivered a little in the breeze, but it dried him quickly too as he pressed on.

By mid-afternoon, Broneslav was standing at the base of the volcano staring up at it. It had looked smaller and less intimidating before. Now he could clearly see that it would be a steep, rocky and difficult climb. Worse yet, more of those giant birds were circling in the air far above. He could just make out their raucous screeches far overhead. It would be hard work both climbing and fighting if he had to do both at the same time.

Broneslav decided that the climb would take too long and that he would not make enough progress to warrant starting now, so he sat down near the river and got out his fishing line. Later that evening, he was cooking fresh fish over his fire and feeling quite pleased with himself. With a full belly, he lay down and went to sleep. Tomorrow would be a hard climb and he wanted to be well rested for it.

Galtor 3025: One Last Push? (Battletech: Alpha Strike)

 Jennie was in the control trailer cursing the damage her Battlemaster had taken in the last engagement. She should have been with her people. Beside her, Eileen Dover was in a similarly frustrated funk. However, there was not time to repair their mechs. The Lemmings needed to drive through the gap that Alpha Team had made. Morale among the other Lemmings was high because the Kurita Atlas and their commander had been taken out in the last engagement. Scuttlebutt said that Kurita morale was commensurately low.

"Lemmings," announced Jennie, "You are going to take the fight to the enemy. Blow their base and we should be rid of those Kurita goons once and for all. That is why you are going in as an ad hoc battlegroup. Your mechs are all we have until we can get the parts we need for the ones destroyed or damaged in the diversionary action. You have been briefed. You know your mission. Identify the key structures and demolish them. We are throwing everything we have at them. Make it count because we might not get a second chance!"

Barb Dwyer led the ad hoc lances out. Her Awesome was the heaviest mech here and would be relied on to be the door opener. Beside her were the rest of Bravo Team plus Theresa Green in her Griffin from Alpha Team. Gamma Team had lost Mike Hunt's Wolverine, but Tim Burr's Blackjack had come through the last action unscathed, so Tim would be fighting alongside the rest of Gamma Team. It was not clear what Kurita had salvaged from their own lances to throw straight back into the fray, but at least they knew the Atlas would not be part of that.

The Mission

The Lemmings have the objective Find the Target. They place three objective markers. To find the target they must have a mech within 6" of the objective marker and must roll 7+ on 2d6 to successfully scan it. Once scanned, the target can be attacked in future combat phases. Destroying 2 identified targets is an automatic victory for the Lemmings, assuming the Kurita forces have not achieved their victory goal.

The 8th Sword of Light have the objective Hold the Fort. They have two objective markers and score victory points from Turn 3 onwards by having uncontested control of them. If they score 10 VPs before the Lemmings achieve their objective, then they win.

The Forced Withdrawal rules are in play, because neither side is totally suicidal.

Both sides start off table as they rally to the operations zone from their previous deployments.

Both sides have 250 PV of mechs.

Forward to Death

True to their name, the Lemmings raced forward with their throttles wide open. The earth shook as seven medium and heavy mechs thundered over the plains and fields at full speed.

"Lemmings, this is Lemming 4," Barb announced, "Confirm comms."

The Lemmings squawked their comms to confirm that all was in order.

"Lemming 4 to all teams. Don't forget the plan. Bravo Team, swing left. Gamma Team, swing right. Both teams must find and destroy their objective before converging on the central objective. Last one to the central objective will buy everyone beer for the rest of the month."

Both Lemmings teams confirmed that they understood. As they reached the ops zone, they swung apart towards their primary objectives.

"Kurita goons in force on left flank!"

"Roger that. Right flank is weakened. Gamma Team moving in."

The Sword of Light mechs were gathered around the objective on the left flank, using the buildings as cover. Bravo Team knew it was in for a fight now. Gamma Team was facing fewer mechs and all medium or light. This meant that their job would be more straightforward. Well, they hoped, anyway.

The view from the Kurita lines. Blue objectives are the Lemmings' targets. Brown objectives are the points that Kurita must defend.

As the Lemmings raced forward, the Kurita mechs held their ground and aimed to keep their ground crew safe. Barb could see the Kurita ground crew streaming out of the target points and mounting up in whatever vehicles they could find. As they did this, the Lemmings poured fire at the Kurita mechs. The Kurita mechs fired back. As crimson fire blasted across the fields and missiles rained down around the objectives, fewer ground crew emerged and more hunkered down inside.

"Take that ya muddy funster!" yelled Paige as she hit a Phoenix Hawk. Huge chunks blasted off the lighter mech. Theresa Crowd and Tim Burr joined in. The Phoenix Hawk's armour melted off its frame. it was an almost naked Phoenix Hawk that quickly fled the field after that.

On the left flank, Theresa Green's Griffin had taken an absolute hammering, so she jumped behind the Kurita mechs to scan the targets and lock them down. The left flank building was confirmed as a target so Ophelia opened up with her LRMs. Huge clouds of concrete dust billowed around the structure as missile after missile tore chunks out of it.

Meanwhile, Theresa had spotted an Archer fleeing the field. Even with half her weapons destroyed and an arm hanging off her mech, she still had enough firepower to cut the Archer down.

"You'll not be back to bother us," she snarled as she headed toward the central objective. Her Griffin was a mess, but her scanners were still working.

The Lemmings push aggressively forward into the town, and a bit more carefully over the open ground on the right flank. Meanwhile, Barb is giving the Kurita Wolverine a kicking in the woods on the left.

With the fight moving into the city, a Wolverine suddenly raced out to attack from the woods. Barb immediately charged it, smashing its leg actuators and ripping its right arm off. The Wolverine raced past Barb's Awesome and got behind Ophelia's Catapult, letting rip a horrendous blast of fire into the missile mech. Ophelia's head rang and blood dripped from her face as she spun her mech around the Wolverine and gave it a massive kick in the jump jets. The weight of her mech crushed the Wolverine and its auto-eject sent its pilot skywards.

"I'll teach you to sneak up behind me and scratch my paintwork!" growled Ophelia as she kicked the Wolverine to the ground and stomped all over it.

"Come on, scumbag, I got a present for you!" Barb advanced towards the town and the Battlemaster that was carving chunks off every Lemming it could see. She pounded her firing button as fast as her weapons recharged and reloaded. Armour melted off the Battlemaster, but it returned the favour and her own panel started lighting up with warning lights all over.

The dance of death. The enemy Battlemaster is surrounded and outnumbered.

Meanwhile, Andy Peacock had jumped his Wolverine over the objective and was sneaking around behind the Battlemaster. A couple of shots in its back soon killed its ardour and it started manoeuvring to cover. But it was surrounded and there was really nowhere to go. It pulled back to try to get away.

Another dance of death as the two Shadow Hawks take turns to run rings round each other after the Kurita Stinger was smashed up by Theresa Crowd.

"I'm red lights all over," yelled Tim, "Gotta skedaddle! My engine and fire control are trashed. Pulling back now."

On the right flank, Tim's Blackjack had taken the worst of the hammering from the Warhammer, Shadow Hawk and Stinger that were holding the objective and giving their people time to flee with critical gear.

Gamma Team pushed in hard and blasted the Warhammer which soon fled. In doing so they locked down the objective and prevented more critical materiel from being removed. However, the Shadow Hawk and Stinger were holding on still. Theresa's Shadow Hawk charged in and crushed the Stinger as it tried to dodge within the woods. The Kurita Shadow Hawk dived into the melee and both mechs circled each other for a while until Theresa got behind the Kurita goon and hammered it with her mech's fists. She ripped critical panels off the enemy mech and tore into its innards.

Suddenly the Kurita pilot turned and sprinted away at full speed. The right flank objective was now in Lemming hands.

Ophelia got cocky and jumped into the ruins of the building she had just destroyed, not realising that the Kurita Battlemaster was ready for her. Both mechs fired simultaneously and both mechs fell.

Over on the left flank, Theresa Green had identified the central objective and was pouring as much fire as her damaged mech could into it. The left flank objective had been destroyed. Barb pushed her Awesome through the buildings after the retreating Battlemaster.

"I got it," called Ophelia through comms to her commander. She fired up her jump jets and landed amid the wreckage of the objective with a clear shot at the Battlemaster. Hitting the firing stud, the last of her LRMs flew from the pods and the area around the Battlemaster erupted in showers of dirt and stone and dust. The Battlemaster disappeared from view in the firestorm.

Unfortunately, as Ophelia did this, the Battlemaster's pilot opened up on her Catapult with everything it had, redlining the entire fire control system. Laser fire poured from the assault mech and smashed into the Catapult. The auto-eject powered Ophelia into the air. As she drifted down, she saw the Battlemaster exploding into a thousand plasteel shards as her missiles hit its engine and detonated the fusion turbine that powered it.

Epilogue

"Congratulations, Lemmings. We took this sector. Kurita has pulled back and another company will be cycled into this sector, so it's R&R time for us. Better yet, the ticket has hit our bank accounts, so you will all be paid as soon as Anna has reconciled the accounts."

Jennie was pleased. Although their mechs were battered, the salvage and the paid invoice would cover it all and quite a bit more too. As she looked around at her team, she thought back to the early days and was proud of what she and Anna had achieved with this team. They were all misfits, but that was why they all fitted in here. Yes, they might be battered and bruised, and that bandage on Ophelia's head looked ridiculous, but they had done a good job and worked well together.

"Ok, you lot, you have a week's leave, then I need you all back here. We've a new ticket starting next month and we need to make the jump ship in good time. Anyone not here before departure will find themselves stranded on Galtor without their mech!"

The Lemmings cheered. They knew it was an empty threat, but they would pretend to believe her.

"Oh, and the drinks are on Ophelia. She lost her mech, so she has to pay the forfeit."

The Lemmings cheered twice as hard and raced to the bar.

Conclusions

Campaign over and no permanent losses is not bad. It was fun trying out all the different rules with this mini-campaign.

I like Alpha Strike and am keen to introduce the additional rules from the Commander's Edition book, so that is a plan for another time. It would also be fun to introduce the battlefield support rules. I did not use them this time around, but feel like they will introduce a new dimension to my games. Love the idea of air strikes on mechs!

Battle Suit Alpha worked really well, but I also feel like it will work better with an opponent than solo. 

5150: Mecha Combat is fun and works really well solo, but it lacked a bit of crunch for me, and light mechs felt way too fragile. That said, the campaign system in it is brilliant and easy to combine with whichever rules I choose to use.

All three rules sets are good in their own way, so each is likely to see my table every so often, according to my mood and whims. Now, what should I play next?

The Full Throttle Lemmings

Campaign Morale: 6

Alpha Team:

1. Commander Jennie Raytor (Rep 5) - Battlemaster (Class 1)
2. Eileen Dover (Rep 5) - Marauder (Class 2)
3. Theresa Green (Rep 5) - Griffin (Class 3)

Bravo Team:

1. Barbara Dwyer (Rep 5) - Awesome (Class 2)
2. Andrew Peacock (Rep 4) - Wolverine (Class 3)
3. Ophelia Paine (Rep 4) - Catapult (Class 3)

Gamma Team:

1. Mike Hunt (Rep 4) - Wolverine (Class 3)
2. Paige Turner (Rep 4) - Thunderbolt (Class 3)
3. Theresa Crowd (Rep 3) - Shadow Hawk (Class 3)

Delta Team:

1. Timothy Burr (Rep 5) - Blackjack (Class 4)
2. Joseph King (Rep 5) - Commando (Class 5)
3. Paul Bearer (Rep 4) - Locust (Class 5)

House Kurita

Campaign Morale: 0 (1 at start)

The Kurita mechs are not organised into teams for this campaign. I have made a deck of stat cards and draw the appropriate number of cards as needed when they are encountered. The mechs available are:

• Atlas (Class 1)
• Battlemaster (Class 1)
• Archer (Class 2)
• Orion (Class 2)
• Warhammer (Class 2)
• Shadowhawk (Class 3)
• Griffin (Class 3)
• Wolverine (Class 3)
• Phoenix Hawk (Class 4)
• Valkyrie (Class 5)
• Wasp (Class 5)
• Stinger (Class 5)

All mechs on both sides are Battletech figures, so I have listed them with the names they have in Battletech.

9 Ambyrmont - Pteranodon Pterror!

 The next morning, Broneslav gathered his things together and set out to cross the rope bridge onto the plateau. Its presence indicated that intelligent creatures lived in this area, but there was no guarantee that they would be friendly, so he was wary as he approached it and took time to survey his surroundings. He noted giant birds circling in the sky at a distance, and their coarse cries wafted to him on the breeze. There was no sign of other activity here, beyond the usual small birds and animals that scattered from the area as he approached.

He was halfway across the bridge when several piercing shrieks rang out in quick succession. A trio of the giant birds swooped at him. He was startled, but their cries alerted him to the attack. He swiftly drew his sword and grabbed his shield, ready to defend himself. As he did so, he became excessively aware of the ricketiness of the bridge he stood on. There was no time to run to the end and get onto solid land, so he would just have to watch his footing.

As the first pteranodon swooped in, Broneslav cut towards its neck with his sword. The blade bit just behind the creature's crest and sliced on through to decapitate it. The follow through nicked the following pteranodon, causing it to flinch away from him, missing its chance to strike at the young warrior. The third one struck towards Broneslav, but he ducked under it.

As it flew past him, his blade struck true again and the pteranodon screeched its pain as blood flowed freely from a deep wound. Once more, Broneslav ducked and weaved on the wobbly bridge, just barely keeping his footing, as one of the pteranodons bit through a gap in his armour, and his own blood started to flow. He was startled but still managed to evade the attack of the other one.

Bracing himself once more, Broneslav swung wildly at the nearest swooping pteranodon, just barely cutting it again, but it was enough. The birds innards sprayed outwards and it plummeted to the ground far below. Undismayed, the final pteranodon struck for Broneslav, but with only one remaining, he was able to focus properly on it and block its attack. As it swooped in for another go at the heroic lad, he thrust hard with his blade. It struck in the creature's sternum and the dinobird's own momentum carried the razor sharp edge through its own body, tearing it open from stem to tail. Blood and bile sprayed everywhere as it followed its fellows on the long fall to the ground.

The whole plateau (A very basic map!). At its centre is a volcano.

Broneslav quickly bound his wounds and crossed the bridge to the plateau beyond. It was weirdly flat and steppe-like. Grass blew like waves in the breeze and there were woods all around. Ahead, he could see the volcano that the city must be within. Its sides were steep and would take a long while to climb.  Thin wisps of smoke rose from its top, just barely visible, but clearly not an imminent eruption. If he carried on, he could reach the volcano late in the evening, but it would be dark by then, so he sought shelter in a small woods ahead of him instead. He would sleep first, and march to the volcano in the morning, so that he would arrive in daylight with plenty of time to explore and see how he might get up it.