The Best Laid Plans

After 2 battles in my Anarendor campaign, I was planning to complete the campaign during my Thanksgiving holiday. I have 2 scenarios worked out.

I just needed to set up the board and play. On Thursday I was busy cooking and turned to video gaming and football (American style) to wile away my free time.

On Friday, real life decided to intrude. I visited my parents and my father was in pain. He had fallen a week ago. He thought he was OK and refused to see a doctor, but now he was doing poorly. We took him to the emergency room, where they discovered that he has a broken hip.

In 2 hours he will be going in for surgery. Once I finish my breakfast I'll be heading over to the hospital.

As a result of all this, I won't be getting in a game (much less 2-3) this weekend.

A Big Thank You

Thank you to all who served our country

And a special thank you to one in particular - link

LARP Kit Update

With Christmas just around the corner, I'm taking an inventory of my LARP gear and preparing a Christmas wish list. Last December, I posted a couple of wish lists (for basic and supplementary stuff).

Since then, I picked up a few items. Here is a picture from March:

I dyed my white tunic and red hood to give them a more ranger-like appearance. You can see that I acquired a bow; I also have arrows but they're not in the picture. In addition, I picked up some bracers and greaves (arm and leg armor).

I also purchased a gambeson and made a quiver for my arrows.

Technically, I'm all set with my kit. Of course, like miniatures gamers, LARPers are never satisfied with what they have. I still have some items on my wish list.

Hosen - I have a pair of black hosen (tights) but I'd like to get another pair, preferably in brown, size large. Available from Kult of Athena.

Shoes - I also want to get new shoes, like these. In brown, size 9.

Headgear - I'm still undecided on what to do with respect to headgear. I like the look of the hood, although it provides no protection whatsoever. I could go with the padded coif, or find something that would go under the hood.

Arrowheads - my lovely wife gave me a set of the Gorg arrowheads last Christmas. They've been awesome! I could use a few more (orange or tan preferred).

Invasion of Zirconia

In my galaxy, Zirconia is a human outpost in the neutral zone between the Federation and the Dominion. Although officially neutral, the Zirconians have been influenced by the Federation, even using Federation military equipment.

Seemingly out of nowhere, the robot armies of the Dominion land upon Zirconian, intent upon conquering and enslaving the human inhabitants. A small force of humans tries to stop the invasion.

The robot army (starting from the bottom edge) advances

One wing of the robot army tries to flank on their left but are opposed my a unit of armor. Robot armor unleashes a barrage on a unit of infantry hidden in the rocks.

The robot armor (left) takes a beating but makes it across the gorge

The robots root out the infantry in the rocks. Meanwhile, more robots smash the infantry on the road, forcing them into cover (upper right)

A general advance on the left. Zirconian missile launchers (on the center hill) try to stop the robots.

 But are blasted into oblivion.

Robots converge on and destroy the defenders in the rocks (upper right),

The battle is over and the invaders are victorious.

Game Notes
Last weekend I got my new sci-fi armies into action. I started a 5 game campaign for control of the planet Zirconia.

The scenario is # 26 - Triple Line from One Hour Wargames. The invading army must try to seize the hill. Clearly, the robots had no trouble with this objective.

The armies are as follows:

• Dominion (robots) - 3 infantry, 2 armor, 1 artillery
• Zirconian (human) - 2 infantry, 1 armor, 1 artillery

I used my WISER rules. For modern/sci-fi games, the rules are mirrored off Memoir '44.

This was also the first outing for my new, larger battle board. I am quite pleased with it.

A Thought on Leaders

During my recent fantasy battle, I experimented with rules for leaders. Initially, I just gave units with attached leaders a +1 to their Attack. Then I thought that leaders should help with defense by rallying the troops and bolstering morale. So I allowed a +1 to defense. This just made leaders way too powerful. For example, Sir Dennis's infantry (pictured below) went from a 2/2 rating (that's 2 Attack dice and 2 Defense dice) to a 3/3. Sir Dennis practically became invincible!

Sir Dennis (bottom R) ready to receive an attack

Since then, I've been thinking about the rules for leaders. I can see a leader having an effect on both attack (leading from the front and getting the men to follow) and defense (encouraging them to hold their ground). But this would just be too powerful. Then it dawned on me - would a leader be able to do both at the same time? Probably not. If he's up front, it would be difficult for him to encourage the laggards. And if he's behind, the troops probably won't rush forward. He needs to choose one or the other.

This revelation creates an interesting new decision point during the game. Each turn, the player needs to decide what to do with the leader. There are 2 options:

• Lead the Charge - the leader is in front of the unit, leading the way. +1 to Attack
• Bolster Morale - the leader is walking behind the line, encouraging his men. +1 to Defense.

For the non-player side, I can either roll randomly or just use one option throughout the entire game. For example, I think the Evil Army will only use Lead the Charge (I may call it Drive Them Forward for evil leaders. They don't lead from the front; they push their troops forward through fear and intimidation, heedless of any losses).

With this change, leaders are still going to be powerful but not as much as giving bonuses to attack and defense. Furthermore, the player now has an extra decision - how to optimize a leader's abilities. It sounds promising; I'll have to try it out soon.