A Successful Dungeon Crawl

A few months ago, I posted about a particularly unsuccessful expedition into the dungeon. Last weekend, we gave it another try.

Jimmy and Elizabeth chose the wizards while I played a warrior. My strategy was to head for the tougher levels. I cleared out a few rooms of level 4 on my way to level 5. The wizards, who are actually more powerful than the warrior, took a more conservative approach. Elizabeth primarily stuck to the first few levels; Jimmy initially worked on levels 3-4 (although he later delved into the deepest level, but with little success).

Another part of my strategy was stubbornness. If I lost a battle, I would go back in until I defeated the monster. Even if I lost some treasure, I eventually reclaimed it. Similarly, I spent several turns trying to get through a secret door.

My treasures. Not many, but of high value

My strategy paid off. Even though I did not collect as many items of treasure as Elizabeth, my loot had much higher average value. Once I reached 20,000 g.p. I raced back to the Great Hall (avoiding combat as much as possible). I got stuck at a secret door; after several turns of frustration I took a longer route. Nevertheless, I made it out safely and won the game. Elizabeth was close (she had about 24,000 g.p. but as the wizard she needed 6,000 more).

More Francesian History

A while ago, I presented a short battle report from the chronicles of Francesia.  

Now I offer a belated follow-up.

With their victory at Blancport, the bulk of the Redgravian forces massed around the city. Meanwhile, King Frederick’s Capitol Army, depleted by reinforcements sent to the battle, assumed a defensive position in Middle March. Learning of its weakened state, Emperor Lester advanced.

Frederick positioned his forces on the far side of a fordable river. Lester had a nearly 2 to 1 numerical superiority, but the bulk of his troops where unreliable Landwehr (militia). Despite the terrain and the lack of training of his troops, Lester decided to attack.

Bravely, the Imperial forces marched forth into battle. As they tried to cross the stream, the Imperials met a withering fire from the Redgravian defenders. Disordered by the stream and hammered by the sure and steady enemy volleys, the Landwehr lost their nerve and broke. With the bulk of his forces running back to the Imperial capital, Lester had no choice but to retreat.

Casualties:

§  Empire (Lester) – 37,000 troops engaged; 4,500 casualties

§  Redgrave (Frederick) – 19,000 troops engagded; 2,000 casualties

Random Thoughts

I haven't been doing a lot of gaming lately (Jimmy and I did save the castle last weekend) so I haven't posted many game reports. Today, I came across a file with a bunch of random gaming ideas about which I planned to blog. Hopefully, this will allow me to present a steadier flow of material.

Anyway, below is my first random topic.

Ace of Aces

My all-time favorite aerial combat game is Ace of Aces. 

Each game included two booklets, each representing a single aircraft. The Handy Rotary edition featured a Sopwith Camel vs. a Fokker Triplane. Players chose maneuvers; then there was a neat little algorithm which took you to a page in the book. The page showed you the view from your plane’s cockpit.

The Allied pilot gets a shot at the Hun

I loved this game and played it to death in high school (even during some really boring classes). Unfortunately, it doesn’t really lend itself to multiplayer games. Years ago, I decided I wanted to transfer Ace of Aces to a board game. I managed to translate the maneuvers to a hex-based movement template.

The letters on the template refer to a maneuver as labeled in the Ace of Aces Balloon Buster set. The starting position and facing is shown by the colored arrow and the other arrows display the final position and facing based on the maneuver.

With this template, I think it would be possible to play Ace of Aces as a multiplayer board game or pbem (play by e-mail) game.

A Medieval Day

Now that this season is over, I've been suffering from Game of Thrones withdrawal. It's so bad that I actually started to read the books (the horror!). Anyway, I was searching for the book series on my nook, I found an interesting Game of Thrones cookbook, which I promptly downloaded. The recipes look tempting so I decided to try my hand at some. Elizabeth and I designated Saturday as "Medieval Day."

This was not in the cookbook, but this is my favorite medieval style lunch. I typically bring this to Dagorhir events.

 A simple lunch of bread, cheese, and sausage with mustard on the side.

I also prepared a medieval dinner. The menu included a salat (salad), beef and bacon pie, and sweetcorn fritters. We washed the meal down with a strawberry champagne punch and then finished with Sansa's favorite - lemon cakes.

The table setting: red tablecloth, wood or "gold" plates and bowls, no forks.

We went for a medieval look as much as possible. I have some wood plates and bowls, but not enough. We picked up some nice gold plastic plates (left) from Party City. The don't look conspicuously modern in this picture. We did not use forks, because they weren't really used in medieval times.

The meal: Pie on the left, fritters on the right, salad in the background (far right), and punch behind the fritters.

I couldn't find all the ingredients called for by the "Sansa Salad" so I just whipped something together. The pie and fritters recipes came from the book. I know - corn was not known in medieval Europe. George Martin does mention sweetcorn fritters in one of his books, though.

A prepared plate

The beef and bacon pie was very interesting. In addition to the meats, it included raisins, dates, and prunes. The dried fruits added a note of sweetness that nicely counterbalanced the heaviness of the meat. The fritters were awesome (even if I got a minor burn from splattering oil). The punch did not come from the cookbook. Most of its drinks were like hot mulled wine. We wanted something cooler for a hot summer day. Elizabeth found online the recipe for a punch made with champagne, ginger ale, and strawberries. Refreshing.

Dessert: lemon cakes - Sansa's favorite

We ended with the lemon cakes. This is a medieval recipe that is more like a cookie than a cake. Nevertheless it was very tasty!

All in all, a very good meal. It certainly attracted some attention.

Who could that be?

It's Cooper!

Catan is Mine!

We followed up our medieval day with a game of Settlers of Catan. This time, we did random set-up. There were some really interesting dynamics in this game. Because of luck of the dice, we kept generating a lot of sheep and wood, but precious few bricks or ore. At trading time, we kept going around asking if anyone had any brick, but to little avail.

The board at game end. I own the white settlements

I ended up trading in bunches of sheep for materials I needed. Although I never built a city, I had a thriving little realm with the longest road, the largest army, 5 settlements, and a palace. Thus, I took the victory.

1:1 Scale Wargaming

I have been remiss in posting lately, primarily because I haven't played many games this month. However, last week I engaged in an activity that one could call wargaming at 1:1 scale.

Pictured above is a shot of one of the battles at last week's event of the local chapter of Dagorhir Battle Games. In Dagorhir, participants engage in mock combat using medieval-style weapons made of fiberglass and foam.

Most Dagorhir events simply feature a series of unconnected battles, which are simply an excuse to hack and slash each other. I ran last week's event, however, an introduced a storyline to give some purpose and plot to the battles. Two battling warlords learned of a dragon's egg which had been imbued with dark magic. Whoever could claim the egg would claim great power and become the Dragon Lord.

First, we held a tournament to see who would be the warlords. Agnar and Barnabis were the tournament finalists; they chose their teams and the battles began. After a few field battles, the warlords found the egg. They fought to see who could first claim the egg and return it to their castle. Barnabis ultimately prevailed and became Dragon Lord.

I tried to put an end to the Dragon Lord's reign, but I was defeated.

Here I am (in the white armor) taking on Barnabis

I had some other scenarios planned. Agnar was to attack Barnabis's stronghold (we string rope between trees to create a "castle") in an effort to take the egg. Then there was to be a final showdown between the warlords. Due to the extreme heat of the day, however, we had to cut our battles short. I will include these scenarios the next time I run a "1:1 scale wargame."