Archaeology is Hard to Spell

Despite recent setbacks for the Allied Venusian Expeditionary Force (AVEF), the civilian explorers who had tagged along on this inter-planetary adventure were not content to stay put in the security of the AVEF strongholds. 

Thus, it was that Professor Blackwood led an expedition to an ancient site that had piqued his curiosity - a site that bore evidence of a pre-lizard civilization, or at the very least, a center of pre-Bokrug worship. Accompanied by Lady Pennington, late of the Geographic Society and a celebrated traveler of Central Asia, a team of Royal Engineers and an armed contingent of French Legionnaires under the command Lieutenant Candide (who had volunteered his services in hopes of catching the attention of Lady Pennington), the party enjoyed a relaxing afternoon ransacking liberating artifacts from the ruins.

Lady Pennington and Professor Blackwood admire the heretofore unknown iconography.

Unbeknownst to the expedition, although not unanticipated, a native warband encircled their position.

When the fighting started, Lt. Candide ordered the civilians to retreat. Lady Pennington was reluctant - obeying orders isn't high on her list of priorities - but the professor seemed keen to return to safety.

"Ladies first, Lady Pennington."

He was, as she discovered, a bit keener about it than she had realized. Aided by Lt. Candide who engaged one of the great Saurian warriors who had taken a targeted line of attack for the retreating civilians.

"On second thought, age before beauty!"

The lizards breached the walls, but the defenders held their ground - certainly better than the AVEF had performed in recent clashes.

A second Saurian had attacked the Royal Engineers before turning his attentions to Lady Pennington. She would have none of that.

"You filthy creature, do you know who I am? I am your worst nightmare."

As the good Lady put her knife fighting skills to use, the surviving engineers made for a ford and crossed the river.

Lady Pennington left the wounded Saurian and fell back across the river - time was running out to get to safety, as Professor Blackwood reminded her. At least that's what she thought he said - he was running quite fast by that point and moving away from her rapidly.

"Devil take the hindmost!"

Speaking of devils and hindmosts, Lt. Candide was brought down by the fierce leader of the warband. At least he would never experience the pain of Lady Pennington's piercing brushoffs.

Both sides suffered significant loses - the Venusians more so than the Earthlings. The fighting ebbed until both sides disappeared into the jungle in the directions of their respective security.

For the AVEF, their valuable civilian scientists had survived, and the Legionnaires had held the ruins long enough to ensure their escape.

It was not a resounding triumph, but still, it was a much needed boost for the flagging morale of the AVEF troops.

****

Rules used were Age of Fantasy : Skirmish, half ranges for everything since I was playing on a 3' x 3' square. This was a 300 point per side game. The lizards used the AoF:S Saurian list, while the AVEF used the Duchies of Vinci (I use the crossbow stats for the rifles - it works). 

I set 5 turns for the game - to win, the AVEF had to get their two high-value targets out of harm's way, and hold the ruins long enough so they could escape.  

The ruins were contested when the game ended, but Lady Pennington and the professor had escaped.  So that seemed good enough to call it a minor victory for the AVEF (they needed one).

To further aid the AVEF, my lizards were distributed by die roll, which led to them being spread quite far apart - which made some of the heroes abilities to give bonuses to other figures moot.

If you're wondering why the Royal Engineers took off across the river - after they delayed the one Saurian warrior they had really done all they could do. They only had melee weapons as they were on artifact liberation duty.

Lady Pennington, by the way, as is fitting for her, was statted as a Duchies of Vinci assassin (Quality 4+, Defense 5+, armed with dual poisoned arm blades as well as throwing knives). The professor was a Vinci Scholar. Poor Candide was a Vinci Leader, for all the good it did him.

I should add that Lady Pennington and that coward Blackwood have plot armor. If they had been killed, they would have been captured instead.

Age of Fantasy in the Lost World

As an experiment, I decided to try using Age of Fantasy (AoF), with Lizards vs. French Foreign Legion. I have used the Lizardfolk with AoF before, using the Saurian list. For the French, I found I could make use of the Duchies of Vinci list - treating rifles as crossbows. 

Terrain was randomly determined and deployed. I used the typical AoF "capture objective markers" victory conditions. Not great from a narrative perspective, but it works for a one-off just fine.

Geckos advanced through jungle.

Two units of French Foreign Legion, classed as City Guard, plan to seize the hill (there's an objective marker there)

Three Legionairre sharpshooters (classed as a Sniper unit) take position on the Legion left.

The artillery unlimbers and deploys (Carro Armato for AoF)

Gecks supported by a spinosaurus with its priest rider (walking today) advance towards the French snipers (and an objective in the difficult ground)

An overview at the end of turn 1

A unit of Geckos crashes into the French artillery!

Another overhead shot - end of turn 2. The French have the hill well in hand - having eliminated most of the Lizard archers (classed as Chameleons). The snipers are threatened. Both sides control one objective.

The French Captain shoots and kills the Gecko Champion Chief, having wounded him previously.

The Gecko Champion Shaman fells the captain with a single magical strike (the captain failed to block all three hits)

The shaman makes a gamey move and takes the center objective. A large scrum develops around the French artillery position at the end of turn 4. Neither side scoring decisive melee attacks. The judges review the scoring...

In AoF a regular game ends after four turns. The Lizards controlled two objectives to the French one. Victory to the Lizards!

An enjoyable outing that proved I can use AoF for my VSF/Lost World adventures. 

However, I messed up with the Carro Armato and didn't realize it had a tough (9) rating. That works with the stegosaurus being the tow vehicle, but there's nothing in the stats that account for its attacks - only the cannon and autocrossbow (the Gatling). I need to rethink that.

From what I understand, Patreon supporters of the One Page Rules have access to a system to build their own units and determine points. That might be worth a small donation on my part.

However, before I go that route, I think I may be able to port the magic system over to GASLIGHT, using the section on magic in the GASLIGHT Compendium as a guide. Certainly, it's worth a try. 

I'm also not sold on the objective markers/four turn limit for AoF. Of course, you don't have to use them, but in my experience, with the small points values of my battles, it's rare that both sides could continue past that anyway. 

An Unexpected Burst of Painting Enthusiasm

There was a flurry of painting last week and over the weekend. I'm not sure where the motivation came from but I figured I should ride the wave.

I've been digging into my pile of Reaper Bones figures from their first Kickstarter lo those many years ago (I sold off most of them, but still have  50 or 80 or something like that) looking for figures that would be fun to paint, but also to game with.

First up is a pair of figures, their color schemes inspired by The Maxx and Julie Winters:

The Maxx was a comic book in the 90s, which I vaguely recall seeing - at the time it came out, I was in college and spent my money at bars, not comic shops though. However, I did watch the series of shorts that aired on MTV's Oddities at the time.

Here's a grab from one of the comics:

His pointy finger claws are bright yellow - the scene above makes them appear orange, but trust me, they are yellow.

In addition to the first Kickstarter Reaper did, I also purchased select sets when they had their second Kickstarter - specifically I purchased the beastmen. Here are two, with a devil/demon/succubus from the first set (all started and completed over the the last week)

I had originally thought to paint the goat-men like my hero, Black Phillip (from The Witch) but decided to lean into their slight resemblance to the Games Workshop Khorne Bloodletters that I want to pick up eventually - but were it not for my moratorium on figure purchases for the rest of the year.

A victory was achieved in painting these three - I learned how to paint black hair beyond just slapping on black as I am want to do. I watched a YouTube short and used it for ideas.

The basing gave me some fits - all five figures have integral bases that are sculpted to varying degrees. I didn't think the textured base paint would like right with them - I needed something to make a more gentle rise to the figure. In the past I've done this with green stuff, but I'm out.

Finally, I decided to mix a sludge of PVA, old coffee grounds, and two shades of flock and spread the resulting paste on the bases, then re-dip the figure into the mixture to give the ground some depth.

It worked but I think it looks like ground black pepper. Oh well.

With the figures done, I couldn't let them just sit unused, so I broke them out for game of One Page Rules, Age of Fantasy: Skirmish. 

The human faction, led by Maxx and Julie fell far short of my 200pt minimum for the game, and so I filled the points with some friends for them,  painted about eight or so years ago - a Reaper barbarian and some Gripping Beast figures I had purchased when I thought I might try Saga. Although I have never used them for Saga, I have found they make great villagers/low-level NPCs/bandits/etc.

 In any case, they would soon find themselves facing a threat from  their nightmares.

The villagers spot an evil presence emerging from the woods in the distance!

 

The Devil's Daughter has come to collect on a misguided promise from a villager.

Beast-headed men, damned for eternity, chop their way through the village defenders, but Julie has something to say about that.

While Maxx engaged the monstrous brute, Julie unleashed a magical ass-kicking on the Princess of Hell, sending her back to her brimstone keep.

Victory to the good guys!

Not pictured, the barbarian got up from the ground and walloped the goat-men. 

Maxx had managed to drop the brute's hit points and with the Princess defeated, I figured the brute wouldn't stick around. So not quite knocked out, but Maxx was in a better place at the end of turn 4.

Plus by One Page Rules standard, the game ends after four turns. It's a weird rule and I'm inclined to ignore it most times, but most games do seem to be over by then anyway.

The game was a little over 200 points per side - you can have a fun game with low figure count and the One Page Rules. I felt like the magic rules were different than from when I last played, but I may have either been 1)doing it wrong in the past or 2) just don't remember them.

Rumble in the Jungle

Today marked my last day teaching guitar lessons for the year and I wanted to do something to mark the occasion. A wargame seemed like a good choice.

It also happens that my son has gotten very much into Warhammer (albeit the video game), I figured perhaps I could entice him with a fantasy-based game using Age of Fantasy. I still wanted to determine a winner in the impromptu round-robin between the knights (as Chivalrous Kingdoms), Tanitians (as Dark Elves) and lizards (as Saurians), it seemed an ideal opportunity to draw him into a game.

He made most of the decisions for both sides - I used it as an opportunity to introduce the rules as well as practicing thinking ahead and weighting options.

The table was set, then a die rolled to determine which side of the table the forces would deploy on. A fordable river crossed the battlefield - I added a scenario rule that any unit that entered the river cannot leave it in the same turn.

The Saurians deployed their Geckos in front of their Saurian Warriors who deployed atop the hill. The triceratops and the shaman deployed on opposite flanks.  The Dark Elves deployed their Black Guardians and Dark Warriors (accompanied by a Champion) in a thin line, screening the Abyssal Beast and anchored by the Snake Lady on their left.

Deployment! The black and white stones are difficult and DANGEROUS ground, meaning units entering the rock field could potentially suffer damage.

End of turn 1. The Lizards have captured one objective point, the one in the middle of the river is contested.

On the other side of the table, the Black Guardians enter the river en route to the woods opposite, intent on capturing the objective.

Turn 3 ends with the Dark Elf center collapsing and the triceratops and the Abyssal beast preparing for the afternoon's most-anticipated match-up.

Turn 4, the final turn. The archers atop the triceratops tried to soften up the enemy but were just a minor annoyance. The Abyssal Beast charged the triceratops and the very ground trembled with their collision.

The Beast is poisonous and managed to take down the 12 HP triceratops in a SINGLE ROUND. Meanwhile the lizard shaman killed the Snake Lady, but the Dark Elf center managed to dish out far more hurt than they received. The Saurian Warriors failed their post-melee morale check and routed.

To our collective surprise, it was a Dark Elf victory. When they Saurian Warriors routed, they left the Dark Warriors in control of the objective in the middle of the river. That gave them two objectives, to the lizards one.

So, at the end of three games, the Dark Elves are the winners!

1. Dark Elves 2-0
2. Saurians 1-1
3. Chivalrous Kingdoms 0-2

EDIT:  I can't believe I didn't mention my son's reaction to the game. He actually thanked me for letting him play (this is so rare it merits a mention!). He had such a good time and he really seemed to enjoy trying to make the best decisions for each force.

Bridgehead of Fantasy

The other night, I decided to play another round of Age of Fantasy and pit the medieval humans (Chivalrous Kingdoms) against the Tanitians (Dark Elves). For a scenario, I chose scenario #5: Bridgehead, from One Hour Wargames. 

The forces had around 800-850 points I believe.

Using OHW for the scenario setup required some adjustment - instead of using the turn arrivals, because AoF only has 4 turns in a game, I used each sides activations for unit arrival. This worked pretty well.

Victory for the scenario is that there is to be no enemy unit north of the bridge, but for AoF, which uses the conceit of objective markers, I put 4 markers down in the vicinity of "north of the bridge" that would effectively mimic the same thing.

The Chivalrous Kingdoms started the game with a 10-figure unit of foot knights, north of the bridge. 

This resulted in something of a log jam - which is not atypical even when using One Hour Wargames rules. Although the High Champion had "War Duty" which allowed him to command the foot knights to move towards the woods to their left (war duty allows him to command any unit within 12" to move 6" even if they have moved already), he himself was blocking everyone behind him.

The silver archers ended up in a crowd with less-than-ideal lines of sight.

End of Turn 1.

The Dark Elves/Tanitians concentrated their deployment on the flank behind the thick jungle. An unfortunate decision as this greatly hampered the advance of the infantry. The Abyssal Beast (elephant) arrived in a boulder field which hampered its movement as well.

Seeing the advance of the Black Guardians to the north flank of his foot knights, the High Champion charged into the fray. 

Unable to do anything resembling damage, the High Chamption braced for a terrible counterattack. Indeed, it was devastating - the High Champion, struck down. With the Dark Warriors still struggling through the tangled jungle, the foot knights turned to face their flank and crashed into the Black Guardians. Overwhelmed, the Guardians were wiped out to a warrior.

Retribution!

This left the Snake Lady to deal with the foot knights in the absence of "the lost battalion".

Her magic was strong and brought down many, but it was not enough. She too fell.

Meanwhile the mounted Realm Knights crossed the bridge to attempt to intercept the Abyssal Beast. 

This seemed like a good idea. Until it wasn't.

Run away!

Although the Dark Warriors finally clashed with the foot knights, neither was eliminated. Meanwhile the silver archers rained arrows from a nice safe distance, however ineffectively, at the Abyssal Beast, who lumbered about undisturbed. 

Both sides had lost their leaders and both sides were fairly well whittled down. Realizing there was nothing to gain and everything to lose, the sides broke off (end of the 4th turn)

Neither side met the OHW condition for victory. The Dark Elves controlled two objectives, one was contested at game end, and one was completely ignored by both sides because the random arrivals (per the scenario) had led to a lopsided deployment for the Dark Elves. 

So, at least in AoF terms, the Dark Elves/Tanitians won.

I have decided a final battle is needed to determine the overall winner, and so the lizards/Saurians will face the Tanitians/ Dark Elves in the near future.

More Age of Fantasy

After assembling three 705-ish points army lists for Age of Fantasy, I set up a table and then drew two of the armies to participate. The result was a rematch of lizard warriors against medieval humans, or Saurians vs Chivalrous Kingdoms, in the parlance of the rules.

The armies would fight over a pass with four objective markers scattered about. Deployment was determined by die roll.

Activation in Age of Fantasy is by unit, and alternates between the sides. To make this more challenging as a solo venture, I assigned each unit to a card and each side had it's own deck. On that side's turn, they drew a card to determine which unit would activate. Thus sometimes, the order of units was not ideal, or rather did not meet my plans, and thus forced some changes to my thinking, which was the point after all.

Games are limited to four turns, which doesn't sound like much, but given movement rates and devastating combat effects, it seems to be more than adequate to determine a winner.

By way of example, the human archers were quickly cut down by the triceratops (the onboard crew did not even attack - as you can either shoot or melee and they are shooters. So it was all dinosaur stompin' time).

In the middle, the scrum lasted a touch longer, with the marine iguanas holding out against the foot knights for two turns.

The mounted knights charged the geckos and it went about as well as could be expected for the tiny lizard warriors.

That fellow in the lower right has the right idea.

 However, they passed their morale check and the survivors hung on.

For their part, the knight's victory was short lived. The lizard shaman (using the Frog-Mage stats) has some seriously powerful spells - and wiped out the entire unit with ONE spell!

On turn three, the Chivalrous Kingdoms, who had been quite aggressive to this point, found themselves consolidated into a rather thin line.

The High Champion, who must have truly been high, decided to make a bold move.

The results were predictable. In my defense, I didn't realize he only had a Tough trait of 3. I thought it was comparable to the same trait for the Triceratops. It was not - the triceratops has a Tough of 12.

Barely inconvenienced by the stupidly brave man on a horse, the triceratops and crew turned their attention to the human archers.

This pair began to seriously reconsider their life choices.

A similar miscalculation on my part with respect to hero hit points occurred in favor of the humans, when I failed to realize the lizard shaman only had three. However I also screwed up the way close combat works when attacking a single figure. I could not find anything in the rules, so assumed it was like so many other rules sets and allowed only three attackers. 

Later this was clarified for me in a Facebook group (oddly enough, I'm one of the admin) - the rules apply exactly the same. So potentially many more of the attackers could have been involved.

You might argue that the shaman survived the attack as a result. However, they have an insanely good quality of 2, so it's very hard to cause them any damage at all. 

In any case, it wouldn't have changed anything. The Chivalrous Kingdoms were down to this one unit of knights.

Here is the overview at the end of turn 4.

The lizards controlled two objectives, the Chivalrous Kingdoms had one, and one was contested at the end of the game. The humans had lost all but one unit of foot knights, compared to the loss of but one entire unit by the lizards.

A lizard victory. Not a bad accounting for the shaman's first outing.