Somewhere on the Southern Front 1918ish

I hope you will forgive the indulgence of posting a non-monthly update, but the other day, for a change of pace, I played the One Hour Wargames "Machine Age" rules pretty much as written and I wanted to get my thoughts down sooner than later. 

The only rules modification was to treat cavalry as OHW "Rifle & Sabre" cavalry (mounted w/lances, rather than dismounted with rifles).  

The scenario is one of my favorites, "#12 An Unfortunate Oversight". The playing area is roughly36" square (roughly because I can't cut fabric in a straight line).

The Italians took the role of the Blue Force with 4 infantry units, 1 heavy infantry unit, and 1 cavalry unit. The Red Force was played by the Austro-Hungarians, with 4 infantry units, 1 heavy infantry unit, and 1 unit of artillery.

At the start. Italians have found a ford to cross on their right and avoid the bridge. Both sides are intent on holding the hill.

  

The Austro-Hungarian force reaches the hill first. Italian infantry, supported by machine guns, attempt to open the crossing at the bridge, while the majority of the Italian force crosses at the ford.

The village is cleared momentarily for the Italian infantry on the right. But they are battered and Austrian reserves are poised to move into the village as well.

Meanwhile on the Italian right, attempts to dislodge the Austrians from the hill top begin.

 

Lancieri make a final valiant charge to drive off an enemy heavy infantry unit. It was both their greatest and last success of the day.

  

At battles end, a lone Austro-Hungarian unit surveys the bloody ground; an abandoned field gun battery stands guard over the dead.

I used individually mounted figures but that didn't really change anything other than the appearance - still, it had an appreciable impact on my enjoyment of the game by giving it something of an "old school" look (to my eyes, having never actually played when old school was not yet old school) that I enjoyed greatly.

If there's a practical benefit of single figures with rules that don't have casualty removal, it's that the figures stay on the table far longer.

In any case, I had fun and was swept up into the game. Which also accounts for the minimal picture taking, but I'd rather be caught up in the game than snapping pics.

As it had been awhile, I had forgotten that in the Machine Age rules, artillery is direct fire - albeit with a 48" range (I just assume an officer has binoculars or similar).  Unlike the mortar rules for WWII, which can hit anything any unit can see, regardless of intervening troops and terrain, WWI artillery, in these rules, are equivalent to 75mm field guns, and require you to keep your own troops out of the way of your gun, lest you hamstring them.

In this game, that led to a swath of table that the Austrians tried to keep clear. It also meant if the Italians could move enough, they'd force the gun to have to rotate (move) and thus not fire that turn. This game of of cat and mouse was, well, gamey, but also fun.

And unrelated to rules in any way, for reasons which are known only to the dice gods, the lancieri performed terribly.

Early on they had a perfect opportunity to deliver a flank attack to infantry that had yet to take high ground. Instead of the double-digit damage that I hoped, they rolled a 1- a whopping 2 points of damage. Alas, rolling a 1 was repeated under less favorable circumstances several more times.  

When they finally rolled a 5 (reduced to 3, for attacking uphill) the unit they destroyed already had 14 points of damage to it, delivered primarily by Italian infantry.

It was, by any account, not their best showing. Perhaps they were trying to tell me to finish painting up the officer already.  

I still find the lack of infantry close combat in the Machine Age rules mind-boggling. That said, as long as the scenario requires one or both sides to take an objective or to exit the table, movement and getting close, rather than a stagnant long distance fire fight is the rule.. When opposing units got close, I just treated it like shooting combat - such as when the Italians tried to take the village and the Austrians counter-attacked.

The difference really is only of being locked in combat or not and it worked fine in this case. 

If I'd had arditi or stormtroops on the table, I'd have used the standard OHW close combat rules and given the assault units +2 (I also have them take 1/2 damage when attacked due to their dispersed formations and increased individual initiative, relative to the regular infantry, even late war, at least in Italy).

October Review

 

Role Playing 

For our Family Fall Festival this year, I did end up running a game after all - the player who had wanted to run a game just didn't have time to flesh out their idea. With two days to prepare, I went into research overdrive like I was writing a final paper, and like those days of yore, got it done at the last minute. 

For a visual element, with no time to make any bespoke terrain, I settled on atmosphere and re-used the LED candles and table cloth/runner, and autumnal wreath from last year, but replaced my DIY Shub-niggurath statue with a skull that was part of my son's Halloween costume last year. 

The setup: Every 66 years on the night of the Harvest Moon, a dark, crooked house appears on a hillside overlooking the small village of Hallowfeld. It disappears at sunrise. Of course, it is rumored that those who enter are never seen again.

The hook: This year is, according to a drunk merchant, the 66th year since the last appearance, and so the party decides to journey to Hallowfeld just to see it and partake in the Harvest Festival there. At the village tavern, while sitting around the fire and enjoying ghost stories, and old man comes in and tells them that he went in the house as a boy and managed to escape, but he left something behind - he doesn't know what, just that he needs it back, and he begs them for help.

It went pretty well ending with the party finding the lost thing (part of the man's soul), defeating the boss monster (a shadow, which should have been tough for a level 1 and 2 party, but between magic missile spells and the paladin's ability to have any one weapon be treated as magic once a day, it lasted one round), stealing the house's "battery", leaping from the porch as the house collapsed while throwing the unstable battery into the distance - where i took out a chunk of countryside.

We didn't have time to do administrative tasks after, but at least one PC leveled up (they had been trailing the others, having missed a few sessions). 

There are two sessions scheduled for November!

Wargaming

For reasons, I decided to break out my Southern Front WWI collection.

The scenario is, hopefully, recognizable - although I suspect the bridge would have an Italian name in this case - let us call it Esplodere Bridge.

Rules were G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T. (modified for 8-figure infantry/4-figure cavalry units. MGs counted as having 5 crew members) with some Contemptible Little Armies and In Good Company thrown in.

The game area is 36" x 24". Movement and shooting ranges were cut in half. Movement was variable as per CLA. Victory would go to the side that controlled the bridge after 10 turns (which would mean having units on the other side of the bridge for my purposes and enough of a force to be able to hold the bridge)

The Italians have one infantry unit, one MG, and one cavalry unit. The Austrians have two infantry units (1 figure with an LMG) and an MG. 

Italian infantry storm the bridge while an Austrian unit struggles to ford the river.

Perhaps a turn later, the Italians are nearly across (at the expense of shooting, since in GASLIGHT, it's move or shoot). Meanwhile the Austrians continue to struggle crossing the river, but their other unit and MG prepare to slaughter the Italians on the bridge.

 < REEL MISSING > 

(I was all wrapped up in playing)

The Italian force is in ruins at the end of turn 10. Really at the end of turn 9, but i thought, what the heck, let's keep playing. The Italians are on the bridge but even with their MG intact, they have little to no chance in my opinion.Victory to Austria-Hungary

Miniatures

No paint was applied to anything this month - although I did re-base my WWI Southern Front collection to individual bases (cut from mat board) again - because rebasing is my hobby and toy soldiers are just an excuse to do it! 

 

Those new bases still need paint, as visible above.

I did however, pack away about half of my figure collection to see if I even want to keep them or if they can be sent to good homes. I tend to make no decision when presented with many options - hello Kanopy watch list, I'm looking at you - and so I usually end up not playing anything, even when I have time.

I am a huge fan of books and podcasts about decluttering (i like to *think* about doing it at least), but I really glomed on to "the container concept" from "A Slob Comes Clean". Essentially, she stresses that the purpose of a container is to limit things, not to store them, but to provide boundaries to how much you keep. 

"You can keep anything you want, but you can't keep everything" (more or less a direct quote)

This idea sings to me. As well as the one about designating a day of the week as laundry day instead of waiting until you're out of socks or whatever. I digress.

Anyway, I designated a single 6-bin (they are like 14" x 14" x 3" - for scrapbookers but handy for 54mm and 28mm/32mm figures /- especially those with banners and such - too) organizer for my wargaming figures and that's it. (I have 12 bins worth, hence half my collection will be kept out).

That means, I can have 6 collections at 1 bin each, or 1 that fills all 6 or any combination that adds to 6 bins. That's it. (OK OK, i did cheat by putting a bunch on display a bit ago - playing games isn't the only way to appreciate toy soldiers after all)  

What remains? 

1. 54mm WWI Southern Front - it came down to WWI vs Colonial England/French Foreign Legion and both collections give a similar kind of game - lancers, infantry, machine guns. Only the costumes change and that's not enough reason)
2. 1/35 WWI Horror - I mean, it's 8 figures, plus monsters, most of which serve for RPGs as well.
3. 54mm-ish North Pole '42 - Weird World War II. Germans and  robotic tin soldiers commanded by a greedy industrialist are the bad guys.
4. 32mm Grim Dark Sci Fi - it's a collection that my son expresses even a little interest in,so it of course stays. Plus, I love the figures. It also scratches the same itch as 1:1 WWII skirmish games, with the advantage that I can play with others locally when the mood strikes.
5. 28/32mm Fantasy - I'm choosing to focus on two factions (inspired by Norm over at Battlefields and Warriors): lizard folk and orcs. Any other factions - and even some of the orcs - are borrowed from my RPG figure collection. I can also include Blitz Bowl here, but that's really a board game.

So, what in fact got moved to "storage":

• 54mm Colonial
• 54mm Fantasy,
• Brick WWII
• 1/72 WWII.
• 54mm AWI (well, a handful of militia from last Christmas's game) 

In some cases, storage means unceremoniously tossed into a big jumble, while in some cases, it means the current bin is just earmarked to go into a closet (which has to be cleared first).

I feel greatly relieved by this situation already and I've already played a few wargames in November!

Of course, once all this was decided upon, I realized my orcs needed cavalry - and after watching eBay for a bit, I scored a great deal on 7 painted boar boyz and they are on their way. So an October figure purchase, with a November arrival.

If I don't post again before then, see you in a month! 

September Review

Well September seems to have flown by and now we're in one of my favorite months of the year (because Halloween!). So, what did I do, gaming-wise, in September?

Not much. 

Miniatures / Wargaming 

Not a whole lot of anything happened with regards to miniature gaming - I did no painting of any real consequence, and the only game I played was One Hour Skirmish Wargames modified for the grim, dark, future.

Role-Playing Games 

I did run a session of Basic Fantasy RPG - and with just three players available, they decided to send their secondary characters out on an adventure. 

The adventure itself was based on The Delian Tomb adventure, which apparently is a well-known (online at least) introductory adventure, but I've been out of the online RPG space for a few years now, so it was new to me. It's essentially a 5-Room Dungeon model, although I don't believe that was the intent. 

Because the party has a goblin-focused mission coming up, I swapped out the goblins and bugbear in the original design for what I think are the BFRPG equivalent to duergar in D&D. I also reduced their numbers, since they are somewhat hardier than goblins.

It wasn't enough I guess? The evil dwarves handily defeated the party and it ended in a TPK.

Undaunted, the players sent in the third-stringers (new names written on the second-string character sheets in two cases at least), who managed to defeat the dwarves. They also found the hidden treasure and wiped out the resistance there too, before looting the tomb as all good adventurers do regardless of alignment.

My plan from the beginning was to allow and encourage the players to swap their characters in and out as they please, depending on the adventure and what the other players are sending out (you don't need three necromancers in the same party EVERY adventure, for example). Now that some of the backups have had some play time and one even has a magic item, I think the players may be more apt to mix and match.

Upcoming 

I don't have any plans to run BFRPG in October, but one of the players has floated the idea of running a session for the Family Fall Festival, and would like me to facilitate the rules and stats and such. I'm happy to do it, so I guess if anything I'll be assistant GM-ing at the very least (and I'll be able to roll up a character which is always fun).

If there is interest from the players, of course, I will run a game for them. 

As for miniatures, that I have plans to paint is certainly true, but whether I will or not - who knows? 

The same can be said for getting a game on the table, but it is fall, and it is football season, and it seems *very* likely that I will play some Blitz Bowl at the very least. 

Parting Shot

As blogging is a visual medium, I should include some kind of picture. So here is a photo from the end of September - there's a walk/run/bike path near my apartment and there are sculptures along it. 

Maybe it's just me, but the other day I was struck by how much this one brings to mind a Quar Napoleon. 

One Hour Skirmish Wargames in the Grim Dark Future

Sometimes an idea won't go away. So it was with my desire to capture the Grim Dark Future: Firefight experience in a system that I find infinitely more enjoyable as a solo venture.

Contemplating Alex's comment on that previous post, I realized I had gone too far in leaning into my attempt to 1:1 reproduce Kill Team / Grim Dark Future: Firefight vibes.

The better way to proceed would be to capture whatever it is that feels essential to me for that kind of game. 

At the top of that list is the power armor and handling those with and without, in a way that doesn't involve a million card draws. Related to this, it's important to me that my Sisters not have the same kind of power armor as Space Marines and similarly equipped factions.

This is followed by capturing the variety of weapons, again without over complicating.  And finally to allow room for "army traits".

FUBAR 40K pointed me in what I feel is the right direction here. 

Now, why not use FUBAR 40K? For one it's for a full-size game with multiple squads and vehicles per side, for another, I find FUBAR can take a long time with more than a few units per side- and if I treat each model as a unit, a game will take forever. I like my games to be done in 60 minutes or less.

FUBAR 40K relies on the FUBAR Core rules for armor - which is a 6-tier system (from none to battlesuit). Combining this with Defense values from Grim Dark Future: Firefight, I ended up with a 5-tier system:

• Unarmored humans (like Repentia) have Armor(0)
• Tyranid termagants (unarmored but have a chitinous shell) have Armor(1)
• Battle Sisters (power armor but not as big/bulky as Space Marines) and Necron warriors (living metal) sit in the middle with Armor(2)
• A typical Space Marine will have Armor(3)
• Space Marine Terminators (basically a battlesuit) have Armor(4) (this is the only one that gives me pause - that's a lot of cards).  

To keep it from getting crazy with card draws (which can greatly impact turn duration and thereby game duration), I am only drawing Armor cards against hits received, not for every shot received. So shooting and melee remain rules-as-written. Only if the target takes any hits do they draw their armor value to try to prevent the knock down. 

Essentially it's a saving throw.

Anyway, in OHSW format: 

Armor(X) - model draws X additional cards per hit received. Applies to both range and melee. In melee, if the hit is absorbed by armor, the model is pushed back 2"instead.

Each point of armor is 1 add'l point cost for the model. 

For weapons, rather than trying to convert stats from GDFF or KT into card draws, I decided to follow the FUBAR 40K approach and map them to existing weapons as much as possible. To keep things simple, armor penetration is ignored for everything except AP(4) (primarily plasma weapons, but not exclusively so). If armor penetration is 4, then I give it an AP(4) in OHSW - for use against vehicles. 

Each AP point is 1 add'l point for the model.

A terminator armed with energy fist and stormbolter is 11 points on its own (4 points for Armor(4), 2 points for the stormbolter-a 2 shot LMG, and 5 points for the energy fist - brute(1), AP(4)). So, a squad of five would be 55 points. For the same points, you'd get 14 termagants (they are 4 points based on how I stat them). That's pretty much the largest force I would field in OHSW.

For the first play-test, which took place last night, I fielded a squad of six Battle Sisters (including a squad leader) led by a Cannoness against nine termagants and two hive swarms. I should note, Battle Sisters have an army rule that I totally forgot to use, and the Tyranids do not ever have to check morale (that's their army rule).

The Sisters were trying to reach an abandoned radio station (middle of table) to call in a drop ship for extract. The Tyranids were just running rampant over the planet.  To successfully call in the drop ship, I borrowed the rules from the WWII scenario in the rulebook, a model could attempt to call the ship by spending an action. They draw one card, and and on a face-card, the call is successfully. A single model can try up to three times per turn, at a cost of 1, 3, and 5 points respectively.

Tyranids start up to 6" from their base line. Sisters start pretty much on their baseline (up to two bases deep).

The game was scheduled for six turns (I assumed there would be more deck churn than usual with the armor draws), but at the end of turn six I'd roll a die. On a six the game would end (either the drop ship would arrive if the call had been successful, or the Sisters would be overrun if not), otherwise the game would continue and I would check again after the next turn (a 5+ would end the game then, then a 4+, and so on, for a maximum of 11 turns).

 

In the event, the Sisters managed to successfully call for extract on turn 5, and at that point the had suffered no losses. That changed moments later and they were down 1. At the end of turn 6, the game continued, and then they were down 2, then 3, and then at the end of turn 7, they were down 4! Finally, at the end of turn 8 (mercifully short thanks to an early Joker), the two surviving Battle Sisters and the Cannoness were extracted. 

The rules worked well and I found the game quite enjoyable. It was much more to my liking than my previous attempt - it captured the vibe without a lot of overhead added to a relatively simple set of rules (unlike the previous iteration). 

The Battle Sisters were at high-risk in close combat (the squad leader and Canonness have swords that give a bonus in CC) and were better off staying back and shooting, whereas the Tyranids had their best chance by closing in, either to get their 2 shots with their bio borers (OHSW submachine guns) and to use their Brute(1) bonus for their talons - in melee, which felt right.

The points (from the book with my addition for armor) gave a reasonable balance at least between these two factions despite a difference in force size.  

Definitely something I'll be playing again. 

Lemuria Campaign - Year 1, Season 1

The following is the result of feeding my significantly more detailed write up of the battles into ChatGPT and having it summarize it all "in the style of an Osprey publication". I'm not sure how well it did, but it is definitely shorter than what I had written!

 

---

Battle in the Foothills

The Qamarian vanguard advanced easily through a mountain pass into Waaaghland but met with an ambush by a Waaaghlander detachment led by the warlord, Grug Loghrol.

 

The clash was bloody, and the Qamarian commander was killed. 

 

Despite heavy losses, the Qamarians held their ground. With only a reserve goblin unit left, Loghrol ordered a retreat. 

---

Battle at Skullhammer Crossroads

The Qamarian Jarl, Thorken Varanger, took command of a small force and led a swift push to seize a key supply junction.

Though initially successful in damaging Waaaghlander defenses, the tide nearly turned with the arrival of Waaaghland reinforcements.

However, Grug Loghrol was killed in the chaos, which precipitated a Waaaghlander withdrawal. The Qamarians secured and fortified the crossroads.

---

Battle for Grashnak Hollow

Varanger aimed to capture a crucial bridge near Grashnak Hollow. 

After breaking the orc defenses, the Qamarians briefly held the bridge. Waaaghland, under the warlord, Blood Sneeze, counterattacked by launchnig a flanking maneuver utilizing fords undiscovered by the Qamar army. 

Clash at the bridge!

Intense fighting followed, with both sides suffering heavy losses. In a pivotal clash, Blood Sneeze was killed and his forces routed. 

The remaining Waaaghlanders abandoned the bridge, securing a hard-won Qamarian victory and control over the region.

---

Thus ends the first campaign season of year 1. I may give the season names and change the year value to an in-world value, but for now this works.

Qamar won 6-0, which isn't a great showing for the Waaaghlanders. In any case, it raises the question of how I might use the points to mean something in the campaign, besides determining the victor, keeping in mind that I don't want to have to track anything.

Here is the map now:

To illustrate a point in the campaign "rules": if Qamar were to invade Waaaghland again, they can attack any of three regions. If Waaaghland is the invader and they attack Qamar, it will be an attack on the occupied territory.

My Low Maintenance, Laid-back Fantasy Campaign

As mentioned in my previous post, I've begun a fantasy campaign. 

Background

My main objectives are to provide some stakes for my fantasy battles, to witness the rise and fall of empires or at least the conquering and retaking of lands, and to amuse myself assembling a history of a fictional continent over an extended period of time in the real world - here I am clearly inspired by Tony Bath's Hyboria campaign, but also by Gygax's World of Greyhawk.

Having no preferred fantasy setting, I opted to create my own "continent" and countries/realms therein. In the end, I suspect it's not terribly unlike Warhammer Fantasy, based on what I've seen of one of my son's video games.

It is, as of now, a four-sided campaign, to make use of my four largest fantasy collections (that is to say, I can field at least seven two-figure units - six units + a general's unit): 

• Thuum'ha - Lizard folk/snake folk/gator folk/etc.
• Waaaghland - Orcs and goblins.
• Qamar - Humans/elves/dwarves/halflings/etc.
• Mors Umbra - Undead.

The Map 

I'm not interested in map movement, but I do like making maps, so I made one.

My map is a variation on a six-sided campaign map that I came across in a back issue of Lone Warrior. 

Made in Google Draw, I hadn't intended to either grid it or color it in when I created it, hence the wonky coloring.

 

The land has gone through several name changes during my planning process. For quite a long time in my notes, I was calling it Arnax, after Dave Arneson and Gary Gygax. However, I have decided finally upon Lemuria - in my case, the name is inspired by Lin Carter's work, but your mileage may vary.

The Campaign Year

• The campaign year is divided into four seasons (convenient, no?)
• Each season, I'll roll dice to determine who the invader is and who the defender is and then determine the area being fought over 
• It must be the area closest to the attacker's lands.
• In the event of multiple such areas, they will be diced between.
•  I have yet to decide if there will be seasons where no one invades.

The Campaign Season 

• Three battles will be fought between the armies in a campaign season
• The first is worth 1 point, the second is worth 2 points, and the third is worth 3 points (I saw that somewhere else and borrowed it). 
• In the event of a points tie after three battles, a fourth battle will be fought worth 1 point. 
• After the last battle, if the attacker's total is higher, the area is added to their country, if the attacker loses, nothing changes on the map.
• Rules for the battles will be my One Hour Wargames Fantasy Mods.  

For now, battles will be One Hour Wargames scenarios, determined by dice as well, though I may choose one that suits my idea of the area being fought over. I'm also free to choose from other scenarios I have or invent a new one. 

Small encounters between warbands of individually based figures may be fought for additional narrative color. These may take place between battles in a season or between seasons. Regardless, they won't change the map, only add to the history.

Logistics 

I know some people really like managing supply lines, communications, troop movement, etc.

I want to like it, but I don't.

So, there is no concern about or tracking of attrition, supply, or anything else. 

For now, that's all just narrative fluff to be added as I feel like it. Maybe later, I'll create some additional campaign rules - although, even then, they aren't likely to be more than creating a table of events that relate to these areas that I can roll dice for.

***

That's it. That's the whole of the campaign rules. Very light - just to provide a structure on which to hang my games.

August in Review

August saw not one, but two Basic Fantasy RPG sessions. 

When the Purple Worm Graveyard ended, we didn't have time for doling out XP or for the party to pick a new adventure.  So, our next session was going to be admin and then I prepared and ran a short, Five Room Dungeon format adventure to fill the remainder.

To my surprise, it ended up spilling over into a second session. 

It was supposed to be a simple rescue mission: find and return some missing teens from the old witches cottage. But, it went south pretty fast. The party was nearly TPK'd by animated furniture in the living room of the cottage, and that was supposed to be a relatively easy encounter.

Later, after they had dealt with the "big bad", they triggered a trap that basically had a big neon warning sign pointing to it. 

I felt badly about the furniture - they were short a party member and I forgot to adjust the size of the encounter. I felt no remorse about the trap as I telegraphed it repeatedly and the party was well aware that it was a trap even in their meta-discussion, but they just couldn't help themselves. 

I decorate my son's lunch napkins - he's in HS but he hasn't told me to stop. Anyway, this is my rendition of the party after they took out the two old women living in the cottage.

Several party members reached second level after we tallied XP. They also picked out the next location they want to visit (on my pen and paper GUI). 

In miniatures updates, alas, no paint was applied to plastic or metal.

However, I did kick off what I intended to be an ongoing, low maintenance, fantasy wargame campaign. The rules I'm using are my OHW modifications, though I may fight some small skirmishes with Age of Fantasy: Skirmish or even Sword Weirdos. 

I'll post on the campaign in a subsequent post or two.