End of June Cornucopia

I'm moving soon - Monday officially, although I'll have two apartments for July while I finish moving bits and pieces of things - and sorting through things to decide what to bin, what to donate, and what to pack this past week has taken up a lot of time. 

Still, I did manage to squeeze in hobby time last weekend to alleviate some of the stress of the whole thing.

First and foremost, I finished my Adepta Sororitas Hospitaller. 

That "rock" is the foam core from a piece of well, foam core. I peel off the paper on the front and back and just use the foam bit.

Hers was the first base I used flowers and various grass tufts on - pleased with the results, I finished the baes on the rest of my Sisters:

One squad has predominantly red flowers, one has predominantly black flowers. The red flowers are a better product frankly, but I like having the color distinction to prevent intermingling on the tabletop. 

For Father's Day last Sunday, I received this little gem:

And it's literally little. It's Worthington's Battles of the American Revoltion : Oriskany & Freeman's Farm travel sized set. 

I've only played the Oriskany scenario so far - and it took five attempts before I got my first American win. The Americans have a restricted setup zone but the British and their Native American allies can set up anywhere on the board as long as they aren't adjacent to an American unit or inside the American setup zone.

The setup for my most recent game.

Victory is achieved by the first side to earn 6 Victory Points. VPs are earned by eliminating units and for the Americans by exiting a unit off the board via the road hex on the left edge.

End of Game, the Americans eliminated 6 British units

Each side has number of leadership points and only one can be spent per turn per side. The question of when and where to spend and on which bonus (Rally, +2 movement points to one unit, or +2 combat points to one unit) adds interest to the game.

The rules are pretty short and a far cry from something like ASLSK or Great War Commander or even Hold the Line (which I used to own). There are definitely questions that arise as a result. 

For example, can a retreating unit end up adjacent to an enemy unit that it was not in combat with previously? I originally thought no, but then I found this led to very short games - a unit taking a one step loss was then forced to take a second step loss by being adjacent to a new enemy and thus eliminated. So now I say yes. 

Another example, must a unit attack every unit it's in contact with? Some people BoardgameGeek say yes. I'm not sure about this - again it's a question of game length.

My only other, not gripe, but occasional annoyance, is that the counters fill the hexes and it's too easy to nudge adjacent units when trying to move a unit. I get that compromises must be made to be travel-size and it doesn't really bother me all that often.

Those issues aside, it's a fun, light game that is quick to setup and takes up just a small space.

I gave Scenario 2 from Great War Commander another try as well, this time intentionally placing the French at the start, rather than randomly determining how they'd deploy.

The French deployment - Leaders within command distance of other leaders allowing for many more units to be activated by a single order.

I won't do a turn by turn narrative - I need a better system for note taking for that. But, I will say, the French got off to a bad start, with friendly fire from the pregame barrage landing on one of their own.

The French received an Offensive card on the first turn and so I immediately put to use - trying to play them aggressively, in-line with the historical event.

The effect was ... not what I imagined.  Almost every French unit involved in the Offensive was broken by coordinated op-fire. 

Also visible in this picture, The French called in an artillery strike. And it nearly landed on their advancing units. smh.

Despite the rough start, the French reached the village and engaged the enemy at the point of the bayonet.

The game ended in Sudden Death with then time track reached 10. The French squeaked out a win by just two VP, but as the picture above shows, they were dominating the Germans. 

The Germans had taken shelter in buildings in the town center, but they were virtually surrounded with adjacent buildings in flames or occupied by the French.  A lone German unit, isolated at the edge of town, was essentially bypassed by the French.

Finally, I got out my lizards and orcs for some One Hour Wargames using the 'Dark Ages' rules.

The orcs had one shield-wall, one warband, three heavy cavalry (treat as knights from the Medieval rules), and a unit of goblin skrimishers. The lizards had one unit of archers (treat as Ancients archers), four warband, and one cavalry unit.

For scale, bases are 3" wide x 2" deep.

I played the scenario twice. Both times, the orcs dominated. The fact that they are predominantly cavalry means, in this scenario, their reinforcements can get where they are needed quickly. Their other benefit, the shield-wall depoloying on the hill gives them a unit with a lot of staying power (1/2 damage for shieldwall, 1/2 damage for being on a hill).

Unfortunately, it may be a bit before I can get in any wargaming again - everything is going to be boxed up later today. That said, next weekend is July 4th and I'll be running a game session of our ongoing Basic Fantasy RPG campaign or possibly a one-shot RPG related to the holiday.