We Remember

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Kislev Triumphant

Last weekend, I managed a playtest of my latest fantasy wargame rules, featuring the counters I recently created.

My armies are pseudo-Warhammer Fantasy armies.

Set Up

I randomly determined the terrain and composition of the opposing armies.

• "Kislev" - 2 units each of knights, light horse, and heavy infantry, 1 unit of shooters, and a general
• "Empire" - 2 units each of knights and heavy infantry, 1 unit each of light horse and shooter, and a general

I did not create a fancy scenario. They're just trying to beat up the other army.

The Battle

First blood goes to the Kislev light horse (right).

Kislev's knights charge (left) and destroy some light horse. The Kislev light horse finishes off some knights.

Imperial heavy infantry catch and destroy some Kislev knights.

The Empire advances in the center.

While the general leads his heavy infantry against the rest of the Kislev knights. The knights fall.

A mad scrum breaks out in the center. It goes on for several turns. First, the Imperial shot goes down. Then the knights fall.

The Imperial army loses heart and abandons the field.

Thoughts

Just some miscellaneous thoughts about the game.

• I'm happy with the counters. I just need to finish some proper casualty markers.
• At 35 minutes, the game was a tad longer than MicroBattle. But that's not a bad thing, as I hope to play this face-to-face with someone. A bit longer will be better.
• I used an activation method based on Song of Blades and Heroes. I rolled 1 to 3 dice per sector (left, center, and right). Each pass allowed me to activate a unit in that sector. Having a general in the sector added a bonus to pass. It worked all right, but too often a side failed to activate any units. I'm on the fence with this method.
• There were times where heavy infantry attacked cavalry. It seemed weird, but I don't know how I want to address this.
• Combat generally followed the Command & Colors procedures, however I allowed an armor save.
• I added a twist to saving rolls. If a unit was faster than its opponent (light vs. heavy or cavalry vs. infantry), it could turn a casualty into a retreat with a roll of 1.

Into the Orc's Lair

Last Sunday I began my new RPG campaign using Four Against Darkness.

The Characters

One person could not make it so we were down to 2 players (including me). That's OK; we made 2 characters each.

• I ran a warrior named Gerd and a cleric named Haldor
• My brother had a a dwarf named Groin and a wizard named Marlin.

The Setup

I decided to create a more themed adventure for our characters. I chose one of the 4AD bosses - the orc brute in particular - as our primary adversary for the dungeon. I then chose other encounters based on the boss. For example, there were plenty of goblins and orcs about, but no zombies.

The hook for the adventure was simple - the orc brute was leading raids on the nearby settlements. The adventurer's town put a price on the brute's head.

The Dungeon

With the motivation of a bounty, our heroes entered the orc's lair.

Here is a map I created using PowerPoint.

They entered through the room at grid C1, where a spear trap immediately impaled Brother Haldor. They encountered some goblins, hobgoblins, and another spear trap before bribing some orcs (D5).

Deep in the dungeon, they ran into a goblin shaman, who fried them with fire. But they survived and killed the shaman. Then they battled some trolls. Imagine their surprise when one of the trolls regenerated and wounded Brother Haldor.

Next they slaughtered some orcs and then prepared for the epic battle with the orc brute. Except that the battle was anti-climatic. Marlin put the brute to sleep in the first round and then the party lopped off his head! The brute's head, that is, not Marlin's :)

Then they had to run a gauntlet of enemies to escape the dungeon. Our heroes battled through orcs, hobgoblins, and vampire bats before exiting.

The Spoils of Victory

Fortunately, no one died, although there were plenty of wounds. Brother Haldor had to heal himself, Marlin, and Groin (I think). Gerd was down to half life.

Nevertheless, the mission was profitable. Besides the bounty, the party looted plenty of gold and gems. All told, the party members made off with nearly 150 gold each. They used the gold to improve their armor and to stock up on healing potions and bandages.

The party also found a magic hammer (which went to Groin), and some scrolls. Marlin used a scroll to add the lightning bolt spell to his spell book.

Finally, each party member is eligible to make a roll to level up. We'll see how that goes next time.

Progress!

Over the past week I finished a couple of small projects.

Four Against Darkness

To expedite my upcoming co-op Four Against Darkness campaign, I built an automated dungeon creator in Excel.

Here is a shot of the results page.

With the press of a button I get a complete room laid out.

I also created a map template using PowerPoint.

To ease mapping, I greatly simplified the number of different rooms and corridors. I've done this before and it works fine.

With the tables in Excel, it becomes quite easy to create custom dungeons. For example, I built the tables for an orc lair with the orc brute as the boss. For this new campaign, I plan to create special dungeons themed around each of the bosses in the main game.

Looking forward to trying this out next Sunday!

Fantasy Battle Game

I did a little more work on my latest fantasy wargame rules. I created some counters and markers.

Here is an army inspired by Warhammer's Kislev (which is inspired by the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth). I found the images on Junior General.

Here is an Imperial army.

The unit counters are designed for 1 inch squares.

I also made some half inch shields. I'll use these as casualty markers.

A New RPG Campaign

I haven't made much progress on my proposed fantasy wargame inspired by Command & Colors. Instead, my thoughts turned to roleplaying.

A couple of months ago, I started a roleplaying campaign using the Dragon of Icespire Peak module.

However, I was running it using Swords & Six-Siders.

But the campaign was short-lived. One player dropped out and then another has been unable to make the last two sessions. Given our inconsistency, I decided to drop the campaign altogether.

I still want to meet up occasionally for some good, old-fashioned dungeon-crawling, so I decided to pull out an old favorite - Four Against Darkness. We'll be able to play even on the days when we are down to 2 players. And because adventures are short, we should be able to finish in one session, so it won't matter if we are missing someone.

However, I just can't leave well enough alone. One of my beefs with 4AD is that the random dungeons are too, well, random. I started experimenting with themed dungeons. I am now revisiting this concept and prepping for our initial 4AD session. My idea is to create an orc's lair. The adventurers must kill the Orc Brute to gain the bounty.

That's all for now. Stay tuned for more updates!

And Now For Something Completely Different

I've probably used this title more times than Monty Python, but it fits. I flit around from project to project and idea to idea like a crazed butterfly. Anyway, here is my latest "project."

The Inspiration

Well, it is summer in Florida. Which means it is HOT! Too hot for LARPing. So I'm looking for something to fill the void. I'm thinking I can find a game that my LARP buddy and I can play in lieu of sparring.

Idea # 1

My friend is a big fan of the Polish Winged Hussars and I'm an Austrophile. It would be cool to get Polish and Imperial armies and pit them against each other.

Even though these two powers did not fight each other when the Winged Hussars were at their peak, we could create an imagi-nation type of war.

Idea # 2

But if we're going the imagi-nation route, why not go whole hog into fantasy? Actually, something like Warhammer Fantasy could be a lot of fun. Empire vs. Kislev would seem appropriate.

The Set Up

Neither of us played Warhammer in the past, and I really have no interest in getting sucked into it. But perhaps I could find some rules that would allow us to create Warhammer-like armies.

My idea is for a game that will fit on my coffee table. A 2' x 2' board would be perfect. I plan to draw a grid on the board so we don't have to fiddle with rulers.

I don't plan to use miniatures - too much prep work. I'll probably make counters. To keep things simple, I would like to have a single counter per unit. I'll create markers to indicate casualties.

Rules?

Not Warhammer. I took a quick look at Warmaster because it uses bases, but it seems too fiddly.

What about my MicroBattle rules? Well, I designed them for fast play solo battles. For face-to-face, they may be TOO fast play. What else?

My next thought was...

HOTT has a number of traits I like:

• Each base is a unit. 
• Pretty simple and quick game. 
• Flexible in terms of developing armies.

I've dabbled with HOTT before, using a PDF version. But I finally ordered a hard copy.

I also thought about the Portable Wargame. For face-to-face, however, we may enjoy rolling more than 1 die per combat. This thought leads me to Command & Colors.

 I could pick up Battlelore.

But I owned 1st edition and found it a bit fiddly. Furthermore, the board is bigger than 2' square. 

However, I remember back in the day before Battlelore that there were some fantasy variants of Battle Cry. I even found one.

This gives me a good start on creating my own variant. I can also use ideas from the Portable Wargame. I started jotting down rules ideas.

An Experiment

I decided to experiment with some ideas. Rather than pull out a board, I decided to go electronic.

I picked up a pack of paper armies from Wargame Vault. Human vs. Undead.

Here they are in action on an Excel battlefield. Humans are on top and undead on the bottom (except the cavalry is human)

I'm using shields as casualty markers. I made some shields as markers for Battles of Medieval Britain and liked how they look. I think they make sense as casualty markers - routing troops drop their shields as they flee.

Here is the end of my mini-battle. The human cavalry cause 3 hits in one round, wiping out the undead warriors.

A promising test.

Some Design Ideas

Just a few thoughts after my experiment.

Activation

Commands & Colors uses specialized cards to determine activation of units. I don't really want to mess around with cards, however, so I'm considering different activation systems.

My first thought was to use pips, like DBA and HOTT. It's still a possibility.

For this experiment, however, I tried something based on Song of Blades and Heroes. I divided the armies into commands. I then rolled activation per command, using the SoB&H method. It seemed to work. I'll have to play around some more with it.

Combat

Combat comes straight from Command & Colors. I need to play around with the number of hits and the number of combat dice for the units.

One thing I missed, though, is saving rolls. MicroBattle uses saving rolls to negate casualties and I kind of like them. I'm thinking of adding saving rolls. If I do, I'll have to alter the to-hit targets and possibly the number of hits a unit can take.

The Future

We'll see how far I get with this project. Stay tuned!

The End

Napoleon in Italy Campaign

Battle # 5

Background

After staving off Napoleon's attack, General Alvincy and the remnants of his Austrian army take shelter in the town of Spumoni. Archduke Charles hurries west with a relief force. Napoleon readies himself to smash Austrian resistance in Italy.

Set Up

Alvincy holes up in Spumoni, just west of the Casino River.

Napoleon sends a division of light infantry to hold the bridge across the river. He gather the rest of his army, 3 infantry divisions, a cavalry division, and a grand battery, for an assault on Spumoni.

Archduke Charles arrives on the east bank of the Casino. He sends 2 divisions of cavalry out to search for a rumored ford across the river. He hurries up with 2 divisions - line infantry and Grenzers. Another 2 divisions follow.

The Battle

Austrian infantry pushes across the river. A division of cavalry (right) finds the ford and charges across.

A cavalry action ensues (top right). Meanwhile, the French overrun Spumoni and destroy a division from the relief force.

The French wipe out the Austrian cavalry. Charles leads another Austrian division across the bridge.

A second Austrian cavalry division crosses the ford and engages the French cavalry (top right). This time the Austrians prevail.

Charles gets thrown back across the river as the Austrian cavalry charges into the fray.

But Napoleon's soldiers hold firm, sending the cavalry packing.

As dusk approaches, Charles's army is spent. He has no choice but the retire.

Aftermath

Alvincy is now a prisoner. Furthermore, word reaches Charles that Turin has fallen. The Kingdom of Sardinia surrenders to the French.

With the Austrian raison d'etre gone, Charles sues for peace. Napoleon is victorious in his Italian campaign!

Game Notes

Well, my naval craze did not last long. Actually, it is still simmering beneath the surface. However, it stimulated another mission, which led to this game.

You see, I was looking for my latest naval rules. My rules are scattered about here and there, both electronically, printed, and in handwritten notes. Seeing how disorganized my rules are, I decided to try and sort them all out. I am working on a compendium of all my rules. I plan to have a PDF version that I will store on my laptop and a print version.

Anyway, while sorting through my rules, I noticed that I did not have my latest big battle rules in electronic form. I decided to write them down, and then try them out. The result is this battle!

Now I plan to move on to other eras so stay tuned!