New Apartment, New Game

I noticed Friday that Wargame Vault was having a summer sale and scooped up Dominion of the Spear Revised Edition to try it out with my orcs and lizards.

It was super late at night and I may have missed something in the rules but I wanted to play so I grabbed a small 14.5" table and had at it. I used the basic rules without using any of the options.

The lizards had two Melee Foot, one Elite Melee Foot, one Missile Foot,  and one Melee Cavalry. 

The orcs had three Melee Cavalry, one Melee Foot with a Defensive Advantage, and one Eliete Melee foot.

Lizards won the roll to be the attacker.

The overhead lighting here is not great for pics of minis at 1AM and I haven't moved my lamps from the old apartment yet. So, apologies for the heavy shadow.

Turn 1. 

The battle lines were drawn.

On the left, lizard archers ineffectively rained arrows down on a unit of charging Boar Boyz who were held off by the archers and forced to regroup for another charge. In the middle Geckos and Black Orcs clashed in fierce melee, but neither line moved. On the right, the elite foot of both armies, Gators and Wild Orcs, crashed in a bloody melee, that saw both units devastated and driven from the field.

To replace the Gators, the Skinks were brought up from the reserves. A unit of Boar Boyz rode to the front to replace the fallen Wild Orcs.

Turn 2.

The lizard archers unleashed an unrelenting barrage of arrows on the Boar Boyz before they could make contact, and the orcs were driven from the field. In the center, the Black Orcs were overwhelmed by Gecko ferocity. But on the right neither the Skinks nor the Boar Boyz could gain any advantage.

The Boar Boyz in the reserves charged to meet the Geckos, but their left flank was totally exposed as a result.

Turn 3.

The exposed flank would be their undoing. With the orc center gone, the Boar Boyz on the right were now exposed on their flank and the Geckos attempted to take adavantage - but finally some luck went the orcs' way and the attack was repulsed. Their luck did not last long, and though they managed to drive the Skinks from the field, they Boar Boyz were destroyed in the attempt.

I think the game took something like five or six minutes. Certainly fun, but I like the changes that are in Dominion of the Trenches as they give the player more decisions. Those changes are included in Appendix A in this revised edition.

I'll be using "Option C" for determining battle sector (instead of all three every turn as in the core rules) and the Unreliable Disadvantage. Both of those options are standard in Dominion of the Trenches. The Rally and General options in the appendix also look good, and I'll try those eventually as well. 

The other thing I like about Dominion of the Trenches is that you bring up reserves to the sector that just fought, and it's not guaranteed, ie. you have to roll for it. So, I will probably use that (it adds a lot to the narrative).

However, I plan to modify the die roll with the same modifiers used for different troop types facing each other. For example, an archer unit in reserve would get +1 to its roll to move up from reserves if it would be facing a Mounted Melee unit. Conversely, a Mounted Melee unit being sent up to face archers would get -1 to move up from reserves, to reflect that extra effort it would take to motivate them to face a rival that has an advantage.

Finally, I'm thinking of stealing Leadership Points from Battles of the American Revolution  and givng each side the opportunity to spend 1 point per turn to add +1 to a roll. That one I'm less sure about though. I'll have to try it out a few times. Which means I need to play some games. Boo-hoo!