Random Thoughts

While sitting on my couch before church last Sunday, I was having some random thoughts.

Five Minute Fights

While my Five Klicks battle was enjoyable and quick (under 30 minutes including set up), I'd also like something I could do in 5-10 minutes. Thinking again about 3 x 3 Portable Wargame and if I can use something similar for skirmishes.

Icespire Stinks

I've been struggling to play the next chapter of my Icespire Peak campaign. I was pondering why that's the case.

• In general, the adventures are pretty lackluster. Also, they don't translate well to solo play. I have to make some tweaks for them to interest me.
• I am stuck on one adventure - the Woodland Manse. I struggle to transform it into a solo module.
• I finally thought up a plan. I'm just going to make it a linear series of encounters - outdoors, first floor, and upper floor, or something similar.
• I want to get this campaign over with so I need to start simplifying the adventures. Perhaps I'll just create a series of five minute fights?

A Ghoulish Feast

Game Background

I actually had time for a game last weekend! 

I toyed with playing the final battle of my Revolution in Florida campaign but I am still in a fantasy mood. I've been planning scenarios for the next season of my LARP campaign and I thought about running one of those scenarios on the tabletop. However, I don't want to spoil anything in case my players see this post. So I decided to borrow a scenario from last season.

Set Up

The Dark Magi are on the move. The Legion has sent a scouting party out to find the enemy.

Combatants:

• Empire - Optio Infelix (gray meeple) leads 4 legionaries (red).
• Infelix wears heavy armor (save 4+) while the legionary scouts have light (save 5+).
• Infelix can take 3 hits and the legionaries can take 2.
• Dark Magi - a necromancer (black) leads 6 ghuuls (green. They are essentially zombies)
• Ghuuls save like they have heavy armor, which reflects their ability to absorb damage. However, they move slowly and are more likely not to activate in a turn (they need 3+)
• The necromancer has light armor. He can either cast a spell, which works like a ranged attack, or respawn a zombie.
• Ghuuls can only take 1 hit (they're minions after all) but the necromancer can take 3.

The mission: The scouting party must kill the necromancer.

I played the scenario using a skirmish variant of my MicroBattle rules.

The Skirmish

Infelix leads his squad onto the field of battle. They spot some ghuuls.

Legionary Escamus goes berserk, breaks discipline, and rushes a ghuul. It knocks him down then devours him..

The rest of the squad engages. Another legionary is wounded.

Note: I did not have wound markers handy so I put wounded figures on their side.

Infelix cuts down a ghuul. He then rushes the necromancer. Meanwhile, another legionary is wounded.

A ghuul intercepts Infelix while the necromancer backs off. The wounded legionaries perish while the remaining legionary takes a wound.

Seeing that the day is lost, Infelix calls for a retreat.

But the ghuuls catch up to legionary Postremus and slay him.

Infelix flees. His mission is an abject failure.

Thoughts

Not the result I wanted, but it was still a fun skirmish. It's good to be back gaming. 

Quick Skirmish

No-lustee

For Memorial Day, I planned to run a patriotic scenario. Since Memorial Day emerged from Civil War commemorations, I thought about a Civil War battle. I looked through a listing of Battle Cry scenarios and found Olustee. It dawned on me that I never played an Olustee scenario before.

Olustee holds a special place in my heart. During the '90s, I was a Civil War reenactor. Living in South Florida, Olustee was the nearest battle to me. Naturally, I reenacted the battle many times.

As it turned out, there was no Olustee this year. I was too lazy to set it up.

Quick "Skirmish"

But in the evening I wanted to play something quick. I remembered experimenting with a set of skirmish rules called Age of Heroes. As I recalled, they played fast! This is because most figures could only take a single hit, although they had an armor save.

Anyway, I grabbed some counters for a skirmish. I used MicroBattle, but units were more brittle. If hit, a unit rolled a save, Fail and it was gone. Save and it took damage.

Here it is. I played the game in a box lid. Kislev vs. Empire.

At this point, each side lost 3 units. The Kislev heavy infantry charged the artillery but suffered casualties.

The end. The heavy infantry overruns the artillery while the Kislev general cuts down the Imperial general.

All told, the game took about 10 minutes!

Ideas

Back when I was experimenting with Age of Heroes I had the notion of a league for arena fights. The idea fizzled when I never got around to painting the miniatures.

Now I have the idea rattling in my head. But I'll use counters instead of miniatures. I just need to start building the teams.

Solitary Hero

Over at Wargames Website, Daniele V. posted a link to a game he created. Called Solitary Hero, it is pay what you want over at Wargames Vault.

The price is right and it seemed up my alley - a quick game on a small board. I picked it up and decided to give it a go.

Set Up

I rolled randomly for items of impassable terrain.

I decided to play the ambush scenario. A gang of thugs (black Meeples) surround and attack my hero, Sir Grey.

Sir Grey's objective is to defeat all the bad guys.

The Fight

The thugs activate first. One thug advances and attacks. Sir Grey takes a wound. Fortunately, he can take 6 wounds.

The thugs keep winning initiative, but their attacks fail. They are not as hardy as Sir Grey. Soon, a pile of bodies grows at Sir Grey's feet.

Then a couple more get added to the pile.

Sir Grey finally takes command of the situation. He advances and attacks one of the thugs. He loses the initial scrap, and takes a wound. But he rallies and defeats the thug.

He then wipes out the last one. Victory!

Thoughts

I enjoyed the game. It was quick and simple.

I like that the bad guys are weak (they take 1 wound) while the hero has a lot of health (6 wounds). This allows the hero to plow through a horde of enemies and still win.

I did not care for the card activation system. I must admit that I did not feel like searching for a pack of cards so I substituted a die roll. As a result, I skipped over some nuances. For example, the Ace of Hearts allows the hero to regain 1 health. 

My big issue is that the side that activates gets to do stuff while the other side just sits there. For example, for several turns, Sir Grey just stood in the middle of the field while enemies rushed him one at a time. For future games, I'll probably change the activation system.

Hurray for Meeples

One problem I have with using miniatures for fantasy skirmishes is that I have difficulties finding just the right figures. This even applies to tokens. For example, I wanted to try out today's skirmish using the counters from THW's Warrior Heroes of Talomir Quick Play. After a few minutes of digging through the pile looking for 6 orcs, I gave up. What I like about my Meeples is the black ones can stand in as any humanoid enemy.

Thoughts on Skirmishes

Buckle up, this is going to be a long and meandering post.

Lately, I've been thinking of skirmish gaming, and want to jot down my thoughts.

The Inspiration

My latest gaming digression comes courtesy of this.

Pulp! is an upcoming title from Osprey. I pre-ordered a copy from Amazon.

I love the cover. Two heroes braving a hail of gunfire, presumably from a bunch of goons whose a** they're going to kick. It reminds me of some of my previous skirmish experiments, like the adventures of Kate and Kip.

Kip and Kate (left) vs. the Brainiacs

The Problems with Skirmish

You might notice that I don't play many skirmish games. Oh, I've dabbled, but never really got too deep into it. A few problems have led to this state of affairs.

1. Lack of figures
I just don't have all the figures needed for skirmish games.

I have a scattering of fantasy and sci-fi figures, which I've used on occasion for skirmishes and RPGs. However, I am short on enemies.

A skirmish with Blandalf the wizard, Nocan the crappy barbarian, and Gimlet the dwarf.

I also keep getting distracted by other eras. In the last couple of years, I had short-lived plans for Byzantine and 1666 skirmish campaigns. Both stalled after I ordered some 10mm figures. Now I want to do some pulp scenarios, but I find the thought of painting figures daunting.

2. Lack of Terrain

While I have some terrain that would work for 10mm skirmishes, I don't have enough variety for all the possible settings I'd like to use. Even if I managed to create the terrain, I just don't have enough storage space.

I tried using dry erase boards but found them lacking.

3. Indecision on Rules

Although I have some suitable candidates (a MicroBattle variant, my D12 RPG rules, Age of Heroes, or even Fistful of Lead), I have yet to settle on a set of rules. I keep investigating other rules sets (like Pulp!) and end up in analysis paralysis.

4. Coming up with Scenarios

It just dawned on me that this is a major factor. It's the reason I haven't been doing many RPG sessions lately. I'm kind of stumped on the next chapter for Tweedle and Dunh, and I found the adventures in Dragon of Icespire Peak to be somewhat lackluster.

Below, I will examine consider some solutions to these problems.

Figures and Terrain

I've been very pleased with my experiments with counters (as seen in this battle) and realize that they can be a solution to my skirmish issue. Counters and 2D terrain are easier for me to create and take less storage.

Right now, I am debating how to position the counters. Should I go with top down or side view? 

I am leaning toward the approach I took with my virtual skirmishes (like the Kate and Kip illustration above). Figures are side view but terrain is top down. This is kind of the approach used in old school video games. But the jury is still out.

Rules

I will likely use either MicroBattle or my D12 RPG rules, but I'm perusing through some Ospreys that I previously purchased to glean ideas.

This leads me to a rant.

For a recent last family game night, I toyed with pulling out Mice & Mystics. Eventually, I demurred because it is a bit of a pain to set up and it can drag. However, I thought my wife might enjoy a skirmish game with anthropomorphic animals. Following this train of thought, I purchased Burrows and Badgers. I was aghast when I saw the roster.

I highlighted in red the space for the nine characteristics players have to track for each character. Yes, nine! Overkill in my mind.

Anyway, rant over.

Scenarios

For battles, I have the luxury of the scenarios in One Hour Wargames. If I'm in the mood for a game, I can quickly pick a scenario and throw together a game. I just don't have the same resource for skirmishes. I've dabbled with generators, but they are not generic enough to be a one-stop resource. I've also used scenarios from various commercial rulesets, but these are scattered over a plethora of books.

I should come up with a generic generator.

What Next?

I think my first order of business in creating counters. Stay tuned.

Which Way to Go?

 I'm already rethinking my Byzantine skirmish project.

My original thought was to build a small squad of half a dozen 10mm figures. The rules would feature:

•  Activation, movement, and combat by individual figure, and
• Figures with special abilities.

I quickly expanded the concept to a larger band of approximately 20 figures. Rules for these would feature:

• Activation and movement by unit
• Individual combat, and
• Hero figures that could act independently.

I became a bit concerned by this larger approach. I don't have a large enough board or terrain in 10mm. The project started to seem a bit daunting.

Then I started thinking about doing 6mm skirmish. This approach, however, would seem to preclude individual combat because I would most likely mount figures on stands, with each figure = 1 man. But if I have combat by unit, I'm basically playing MicroBattle. I'd like a skirmish game to have a different feel to it.

I keep going around. I think I need to experiment a bit with rules before I decide on figures.

The Chovoli Project

I need a new project like a hole in the head. I still haven't finished my chariots or galleys.

Nevertheless . . .

Background

I am borrowing this campaign's lore from my LARP group.

The Chimera Legion is a tagma of the Byzantine Empire.

Note: We use legion in our name rather than tagma because no LARPer knows what a tagma is.

The Empire has posted the Legion to Chovoli Isle, a fictional island in Eastern Mediterranean. Pirates have been attacking Chovoli, so the Legion has been ordered to defend the island.

While on Chovoli, the Legion began receiving reports about monster attacks in the interior. The commander dispatched a detachment to investigate. They find a cave entrance that leads to a hidden valley overrun by mythical creatures.

Yes, this is essentially a fantasy campaign.

The Legion forces

My first mission is to find figures for the Legion. I know I want 10mm, but from whom?

What are my options?

• Irregular - They have become my go-to. I like that I can order small batches. But they don't have Byzantines, or Late Romans. Perhaps I could use their generic Dark Age figures?
• Pendraken - No Byzantines, but I could use Late Romans. With packs of 30, I'll have extras.
• Magister Militum - They have Byzantines. Again, packs of 30.
• Old Glory - packs of 100? No thanks.

Right now, I'm leaning towards Irregular's Dark Age line. Here is a photo from their website. I think they'll do.

As mentioned yesterday, I plan to do small "units." Now I am thinking 4 infantry and 3 cavalry figures per "unit" - essentially Portable Wargame size.

My current organization plan:

• 1 commander
• 2 units of spearmen (skutatoi)
• 1 unit of axemen (Varangians)
• 1 unit of light cavalry

The enemies

I found this great blog post that lists different 10mm fantasy lines. I am spoiled for choices.

I want to have some monsters. I'm thinking cyclops, harpies, a hydra, minotaurs, etc. So far, I have found most of these.

But what about the main bad guy army? I had a few possibilities in mind:

• Amazons
• satyrs
• skeletons

Right now, I'm leaning toward skeletons, like those that Jason fought.

And Irregular offers skeletons.

A Week of GADD

Since my last post, I have been busy. It just hasn't been entirely gaming, though.

Scroll down for my latest wargame ponderings.

LARP Projects

On the LARP front, I have made progress on a few projects.

I decorated a shield cover.

The sigil represents my new LARP unit, the Chimera Legion.

Onyx had to inspect it.

I also made a dragon sigil.

It's for a tabard.

I whipped this up due to a recent change in the Amtgard rules, which opened up eligibility for the paladin class. Paladins who have not received an Amtgard "knighthood" display a white dragon to indicate their class.

This dragon sigil came from a LARP realm called Dragon Coast, which I helped to found back in 2009.

Wargame Thoughts

Recently, I've been in a mood for a skirmish game, which got me thinking about doing a Byzantine themed project in 10mm. Two different approaches came to mind:

• a small-scale affair with 5 individually based figures, or
• a larger skirmish with about 20 or so figures, probably based in small groups

What to do? What to do?

It dawned on me that I could combine the approaches. Have leaders and specialty figures based individually with grunts combined on bases.

Here's what I'm thinking for organization:

• 1 commander
• 2 units of spearmen with 6 figures + 1 officer each
• 1 unit of archers with 6 figures + 1 officer
• 1 unit of light cavalry with 3 figures including the officer

Each unit of infantry will have 1 base each of 3 figures, 2 figures, and 1 figure. Cavalry will be individually based.

My player "warband" will be Byzantines. What about the enemy? I plan to use fantasy bad guys. I'd like my warband to run into minotaurs, chimeras, and other classical monsters. I'd also like some Greek-themed hordes, but I'm not sure what. Amazons? Satyrs? I haven't decided yet but I will say NO ORKS!

Heroes in Space

Sci Fi Arena
Around the same time as receiving my 10mm fantasy minis, I obtained some 10mm sci-fi figures from Pendraken. I managed to finish painting these first, so I had to try them out, using Age of Heroes.

Imperial Legionnaires (red) vs. Federation Marines (blue). The Imperials wipe out the Marine center for the victory.

Next they faced the Saurian lizard-men. Once again, Imperial marksmanship triumphs.

Finally they take on the alien monstrosity. Oh the horror!

But massed firepower proves superior!

No Can Do - An Arena of Heroes Report

I finished a couple more 10mm fantasy figures, so I decided to play another game of Age of Heroes, once again set as a gladiator battle between 2 teams (hence the Arena of Heroes title).

A shot of (most) of my adventurers. From L to R - Nocan the Barbarian, the wizard Blandalf, and Gimlet the dwarf. Nocan and Blandalf are new.

The arena is set. The adventurers (with an added archer) are ready to face a band of orcs (from L to R - an archer, orc champion, and 2 warriors).
I upgraded my barriers to 3D, using bits of balsa.

The orc warriors rush forth. The orc champion and Nocan the Barbarian remain very complacent.

 But the leaders finally act. The orc champion charges Blandalf while Nocan assists Gimlet.

The orc champion cuts down Blandalf.

And then Gimlet falls.

At this point, the herald trumpeted the end of the bout. A clear victory for the orcs!

An utterly disappointing start for Nocan and Blandalf (who earned their names because of their ineptitude). They caused zero hits and Blandalf fell to an orc.

Notes

• For the most part, I am playing Age of Heroes as written, except as noted below.
• Force compositions were slightly different:
• I used 4 figures teams rather than 5. Don't ask why, it's silly.
• Once again, the orcs had no upgrades (although I think they earn one with today's victory).
• Nocan was the hero, Gimlet was tough (can take 2 hits), and Blandalf had piercing shot (no armor save). The only problem with piercing shot is that my wizards can never hit anything!
• I transferred movement to a grid, with a maximum move of 3 spaces (vs. 10 cm). Missile weapon range is 10 spaces (vs. 30 cm).
• I also added an activation roll. On a team's turn, roll a D6 per figure:
• 1 = figure takes no action this turn
• 2-3 = figure may move up to 1 space this turn and then attack, or run 2 spaces without attacking
• 4-5 = figures moves 2 spaces + attack or runs 4 spaces
• 6 = figure moves 3 spaces + attack or runs 6 spaces

I like the fog of war that the activation roll creates. It especially makes my solo games more interesting.

Arena of Heroes

After my successful experiment with Age of Heroes, I began to ponder using the rules for fantasy skirmishes. At the same time, Kaptain Kobold's recent gladiator reports (here's the latest) got me interested in gladiator games. How about using Age of Heroes for team battles in an arena?

I experimented with a virtual board.

Teams consisted of a hero, 2 warriors, and an archer. The archer had limited ammo. I randomly placed 4 obstacles that could be used as cover.

The games were a lot of fun. In fact, I've played nearly 20 games on my virtual board.

Of course, I ultimately want to convert to miniatures on an actual board. I went a bit crazy and ordered enough 10mm figures for a dozen teams! Well now I had a dilemma, how to store all these new figures?

Work came to my rescue. Earlier in the year I celebrated my 15th anniversary at my company. They gave me a nice trophy (which is sitting on my desk at work). It came in a nice box.

Being a minimalist, I normally don't save stuff, but I made an exception for this box.

Good thing. I think it will make perfect storage for all my fantasy figures.

The box top made a perfect play space. I cut out an 8 x 8 grid from a Pathfinder flip mat and then made obstacles from the leftover bit.

I created two teams from my existing fantasy miniatures (still waiting on my order):

• A knight hero, dwarf warrior, an archer, and sorceress, vs.
• An orc warlord, 2 warriors, and an archer

Here is the final position.

 The knight (with 2 wounds) and dwarf are still alive along with an orc warrior. The adventurers scored 3 kills on 5 wounds while the orcs scored 2/4. Victory for the adventurers!

I did not use upgrades for my virtual battles but did so for the miniature session. The dwarf was tough (+1 Health) and the sorceress had a Piercing Shot (no armor roll). Too bad she never hit anything before being cut down by an orc warrior.

Sci Fi Skirmish with Age of Heroes

For years I have been experimenting with different sci-fi skirmish rules, and the quest continues. Recently, I picked up a free set posted to Lead Adventure Forum. Called Age of Heroes, the author calls them "a set of fast, fun & open wargame rules." I decided to give them a try.

AoH is a very simple set of rules. There are 2 types of characters - heroes and and warriors. Naturally, heroes are a bit better. Your warband starts with 1 hero and 4 warriors. There are optional upgrades available but I did not use any.

A squad of robotrons have boarded the Federation Starship Fortitude. The ship's Marines, led by Corporal Simmons, rush to the scene.
AoH has a movement allowance of 10cm; I adjusted it to 3 squares.

As Simmons comes to an intersection, a robotron fires on him. Fortunately, it misses.
Attacking requires a simple D6 roll, needing to score equal to or above the figure's Shoot or Fight score.

One of the Marines guns down a robotron.
If a hit is scored, the target gets to make a saving roll against its Armor value. Failure results in a wound. Warriors can only take 1 wound.

Return fire misses. On the left, Simmons engages in close combat while his partner gets cut down.

Robotrons gang up on Simmons, but his armor protects him. On the right, another robotron goes down.

But a Marine is killed. Simmons takes out a robotron.

The last robotron on the right falls.

Simmons retreats through a room then pops back out and blasts the last robotron.

Victory for the Marines!

Thoughts

• These are very simple rules, right up my alley. I will likely play some more with them, perhaps adding some upgrades.
• Still, I think I may tweak them some more. Every figure can act in every turn. I prefer to have some kind of random activation in my games; it adds a bit of drama to the game. I will probably play around with something.

Rangers in Action

With some free time this morning, I decided to play around with my sci-fi skirmish rules. It also gave me a chance to try out my 6mm miniatures. I mapped out a cavern complex and sent my heroes through - dungeon crawl style.

Here they run into 3 mechanoids. Ace (bottom blue figure) smashed one with his rifle butt while Spades blasted the other two.

Then they ran into a space monster. It knocked down Ace but Spades blasted it.

And that's where I stopped. For the life of me, I just could not get good photos. I'm thinking that 6mm may be too small for skirmish action.

So I pulled out some 15mm figures I have lying around ( a very early blog post covered my purchase of these minis). Once again, Ace (left) and Spades (right) take on a space monster.

Our heroes blasted it repeatedly as it closed, to no effect. The monster attacked Spades and knocked her down.

As it tried to finish her off, a surprising turn of events occurred. Spades dodged, jumped up, and blasted it at point blank range. One of the shots penetrated the monster's thick armor, killing it!

In game terms, the monster hit but Spades scored a critical success on the pluck / survival roll. In such as case, I've been giving the defender a free counter-attack. Spades then scored a critical success on her counter. This forces the target to make 2 survival rolls. The monster passed the first but then failed the second!

Anyway, you can see that the photos are much better quality. I think that 15mm is the way to go.