November Review

This is kind of  a long one, so best to pour a cup of your favorite beverage, hot or cold.

November saw an explosion of gaming activity - but not a single drop of paint applied to anything.

Unfortunately, although I took photos, i didn't really document anything, so the photos below are of various games without much of a narrative. 

That said, I set out to try a variety of rules/options and I include my thoughts at the end of each section.

Fantasy

All of my fantasy games were of the same One Hour Wargames scenario, #4. 

 

One Hour Wargames 'Dark Ages' with 3" Squares inspired by Morschauser

 

I kept all of the ranges as written, despite units being half as wide as the maximum recommended width.

 

My rationale was that Morschauser's ranges are significantly greater and he suggests up to 3" squares.

 

Something is in focus in this picture, just not anything that makes it easy to look at.

G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T

 

This required some adjustment, as G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T. assumes 10-figure infantry and cavalry units. 

 

However, it's easy enough to allow for any number of figures in a unit, provided that number corresponds to either the number of sides of a die or half the number of sides of a die (assuming you have a set of polyhedral dice available, and I have more than my fair share. So, a d6 works for 3 figure units, and a d10 works for 5 figure units).

 

The markers indicate the unit lost a figure this round. In G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T., when a unit loses a figure, it must check morale the next time its card comes up.

These vintage metal Boar Boyz were an eBay score and painted by the previous owner. Most of the boars are missing their tails - someday I may get around to making them out of Green Stuff.

One Hour Wargames, 'Dark Ages' with Single Figures

 

This is basically the same as rules-as-written, without a base, as I did for my previous WWI post.

 

Sneaky goblins.

The hill is clearly the objective here.

I just love this scene. Pteranodons are straight up Dark Ages cavalry, whereas the Boar Boyz have +2.

One Hour Wargames, 'Dark Ages' with 6" x 3" bases

 

Standard OHW basing really. Actually, it's two 3"x3" bases side-by-side. Which, while I did not do it here, has the advantage of allowing a column for road travel. 

 

Orc Boar Boyz followed by their Beastfolk allies - since I don't have enough orcs to make six units.

What is not pictured above is Age of Fantasy, which I did play as well. 

I am more certain than ever that One Page Rules are fun for playing against others, but not so fun for solo games. For me, there are far too many special rules (nearly every unit has them) to remember for two sides.

G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T. worked surprisingly well in a game that featured melee over shooting. To balance smaller units vs larger, I gave the smaller units saves for all the members of the unit rather than just main characters. It wasn't a perfect solution, but it still gave a satisfying game.

That said, One Hour Wargames for the win. 

Whether 3" squares, 6" x 3", or individual figures (but no figure removal), the games were fun, and "felt right". I am not a huge fan of the "one unit remaining" end to games, so I will start adding in my preferred modifications: dicing for # of units to be activated per turn, morale tests, and leaders with rallying ability.

For Dark Ages OHW, the lizard units, other than the archers (which I treat as Ancients archers, as the Dark Ages rules do not account for archers) and the cavalry (dinosaurs and Pteranodons), are all warband (inspired by Neil Thomas's suggestion for a Viking army). 

The orcs are somewhat up in the air but I'm intent on building them to a cavalry dominant force (a la Neil Thomas's suggestion for a Frankish force, with a +2 bonus when attacking, and swapping cavalry with shield wall when generating a force), supplemented by shield wall (Black Orcs), warband (Savage Orcs), and skirmishers (Goblins). 

Science Fiction

 

G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T.

 

Arguably, this is what G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T. is intended for, although not the grim dark future. To keep tanks from dominating the battlefield - because I gave them MMGs and artillery options, in order to shoot at infantry units, they would have to make an acquisition roll first (an idea I borrowed from Disposable Heroes/Coffin for Seven Brothers) - which was just a roll vs their Shoot score. It worked as hoped.

 

Sisters advance, tasked with breaking through the Plague Marine position.

Plasma weapons function as anti-tank weapons. Too bad he missed and was then gunned down by the tank's MG shortly after.

A nice top-down pic of the winter-scheme Pz IV by Solido.

The Sisters would eventually drive off the Plague Marines and break through with minimal losses.

G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T. Again

 

The above game was actually the 2nd game with G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T. For the third game, I made some additional tweaks (explained below).

 

The Plague Marines had the Churchill tank. It was knocked out of the fight about mid-way through the game by a Sister with a Melta.

Sisters capture the objective.

If you're unfamiliar, G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T. can handle what amounts to a platoon with an independent leader figure and some kind of support (vehicle/mech/etc.) and avoid dragging down the game. Battles by G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T. can go larger - in large part (or entirely?)  due to rolling one morale result for an entire unit rather than for each figure in the unit - I have Battles as part of the G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T. Compendium, but I hate dealing with that massive PDF.

I tweaked some things each game and by game 3, I had something that I think works really well. My goal is to have 5-figure units for all foot. Neither side in this game can field more than one such unit at this time, so, 3-figure units for the Plague Marines and 4-figure units for the Sisters. Guess I better get painting!

Weapons were as much as possible mapped to existing G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T. weapons.

To mimic the differences in armor - which, to me, is a big part of the grim dark setting that needs to be addressed - all figures have an Armor Save, based on their One Page Rules Defense score and any additional special abilities in OPR that impact that roll.

It's very similar to how G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T.  handles vehicle armor. The difference is that I ignored the Save Roll Modifier for weapons when attacking infantry except for Plasma and Melta guns.

Speaking of, Flamers and Melta guns are brutal in G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T. All area-effect weapons are, but I like it so I'm keeping it.

Main Characters also have the standard G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T. save if they fail their Armor Save. 

I know I've converted One Hour Skirmish Wargames to work for me for the grim dark future setting, but that tops out around 13-15 models per side. I do at some point hope to field my complete Space Marine and Tyranid forces on the table (when painted) and that will be much larger than OHSW can handle and just about perfect for G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T.

Purchases

With Christmas coming, and being responsible for my own gifts, I ordered a job-lot of ten mostly vintage Boar Boyz. Most are missing shields, so I ordered some shields too. The Boar Boyz have arrived but as thy are a Christmas present, I have to refrain from starting on them until then.

 

Although I am not gifting myself any wargames books per se, I ordered two old Adepta Sororitas titles, Faith & Fire and Hammer & Anvil.

 

I'm tempted to buy one of the omnibuses but we'll see.  

RPGs

The party played through "Goblin Gully", a one-page dungeon, with nary a scratch - which makes sense as its really intended to be a challenge for 1st and maybe 2nd level characters, not 2nd and 3rd level characters. However, as part of it, they found a map that ties to another adventure location and to my surprise, that's where they want to go next.

I say to my surprise, because it's a mini-campaign - if the regular episodic adventures are like TV episodes, then this is the made-for-TV movie special.

It's also going to require some prep on my part before they can dive into it. One player expressed a desire for more role-play opportunities (it's mostly a hack and slash campaign so far). So I'm adding in lots of layers upon layers, like an ogre (Shrek joke for you fans out there). 

I started in on it at the end of the month and made some decent progress on setting up some NPC personalities and relationships. (Not going overboard since you never know what players will latch onto or ignore)

December Preview 

I'm not running a Christmas game this year, although I am helping out the GM. Possibly making scenery and painting figures as needed.

 

Mostly, I intend to play more fantasy games with OHW and some more G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T. in the grim dark future with different forces to make sure my adjustments work across factions. And Blitz Bowl. I haven't gotten in a single game yet.

 

Oddly, I have been feeling like painting lately, so that may be a thing. Who knows? 

 

And of course, I will be filling out the material needed for the first session of the next RPG adventure as described above. It's time for practical things like the first level of the map, stats, etc.

See you next month! (or sooner. I think I'm tired of these monthly wrap ups and may go back to posting on a whim)

NP '42: Deciding on Tabeltop Rules

Over the weekend, I set up trying to settle on a set of rules for the North Pole games. There were quite a lot in contention, but the top contenders for this experiment were: One Brain-Cell Toy Soldiers (1BC) with card-based unit activation, G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T. with half-sized units, and One Hour Skirmish Wargames(OHSW).

For the scenario, a German platoon of three 5-man sections, one HMG, one light mortar and a platoon leader is advancing to capture some buildings on the outskirts of Christmas Village. An under-strength platoon of British paras, consisting of two 5-man sections, an HMG, and a platoon leader, move into the area to hold off the German advance. The Germans win if they capture both buildings, otherwise it's a win for the British.

You can tell this is non-canonical as I didn't break out my dozens of Christmas trees for the woods.

The fact that the pictures below tell a cohesive story is completely by accident. They are from multiple games.

British occupy the ruined building on their left.

 

"Knock! Knock!"

British assault the house.

The German right advances under cover of light mortar fire. The mortar was more devastating in some games than others. This must be from the GASLIGHT game where the max range was 24". In OHSW it's infinite (and can't move), and in 1BC, off hand, I believe it's at least 36".

The HMG covers the building in case the British capture it, while the English and Germans exchange fire from the relative safety of the trees. Either 1BC or GASLIGHT, because tripod HMGs can't move in OHSW.

The Germans hold the farm house, and the defenders of the other building are defeated in close assault.

Things take a turn for the worse on the British right.

Game over. This is most likely from the OHSW game, as contact with a downed figure is immediate figure removal.

I'm not sure I'm any further along in deciding.

I *can* say that, while it's no secret I love OHSW,, 18 units (the Germans, each figure or weapon team is a unit) on one side really felt like it was straining the system. 

The action felt less chaotic whirlwind and more disjointed than usual. At best you can take action with 13 units, and more often than not less than that. If you want to move and shoot with each figure even drawing a King, you're looking at 6 figures taking action.  To make it work, I'd have to drop one of the 5-man sections or support weapons or some similar combination (never mind that I have tanks, half-tracks, PAK-38s etc. for the Germans to use at the North Pole).

Both GASLIGHT and OHSW handle characters and vehicles easily - so a coin flip there.

GASLIGHT requires some adjustments for the under-sized units: morale and Shoot values primarily. Morale is somewhat silly in GASLIGHT, which I love, but maybe not for WWII troops (definitely would use for woodland creatures, elves, etc.).

1BC wins for simplicity and adding card activation made it more like GASLIGHT. There's no vehicle rules so they require improvising - nothing I haven't done before, and I could probably bolt on either of the others in some way, but still, it's extra work.

I really like the Force Motivation and Force-level Morale check in OHSW as opposed to individual unit morale checks in GASLIGHT or 1BC. Although, this was the first time I ever came close to a side failing their morale check - the paras lost their PL (a Leader(3) in OHSW terms) and only had their section leaders (Leader(1)  in OHSW terms). They came within 1 point of failing their morale check.

So, each set has things that work, and things that work sort-of. And I like them all. 

Maybe I'll just choose whichever one I'm feeling on the day? Or maybe, more play tests are in order? Oh darn.

More games!

This weekend featured quite a lot of gaming again, but almost entirely D&D, so there are no pictures.

For your viewing pleasure, here are photos for one of last weekend's many games:

How it started ...

How it was going ...

How it ended.

I thought the greater firepower for the Russians would offset the numerical disadvantage. 

I was wrong.

Rules used were G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T.

This was the last game for the Cossacks. They are heading to Canada. The Imperial Russians are heading to a new home near me.

 ***

The D&D campaign we started on our vacation, continues. Although school started back up on the 1st, it's barely put a dent in our gaming.

Indeed, I haven't played this much D&D since I was a kid.

My son asks to play almost every day - so much so, that we've churned through almost everything I prepped in advance. And, having little to no time between sessions, I had to call last night's session short.I felt like the quality of my DMing was dropping rapidly. 

I've been using a couple of sample dungeons (Holmes and the one in the Swords & Wizardry quick start, both of which I've run many times before), and some of the many freely available one-page dungeons for this megadungeon - reskinned to connect them thematically. However, we have gone past what I reskinned, and I was having to do that on the fly.  While I can improvise easily with an unkeyed map, I can't help but feel compelled to refer to the key when one exists. That led to disjointed play with me flipping back and forth between pages.

I'll spend some time tonight finding or creating some unkeyed maps, make a quick list of what occupies the level and generate contents on the fly so we can play unhindered again. I don't need detailed descriptions of room contents to run a game, I just need to know in advance the relationships between the entities on that level and their relationships with entities on other levels.

I'm a big fan of dungeon economies (which gives PC's an access point to gold without having to fight, if they can find a way to become a part of it) and preparing relationships between factions that the party can get involved with. The latter produces emergent story, and that's my preference - rather than a particular plot (the only hook for this campaign is the PCs are seeking fame and fortune), I like the players to decide what matters to them, and for the game world to react to their actions.

We are using the Moldvay/Cook Basic/Expert rules (I was in 6th grade when I got them. He's in 7th now.), supplemented with some OSR-created products, including the Labyrinth Lord Advanced Edition Companion and some new classes.

So far, it's working like a charm.

 **** 

We played Blitz Bowl together this weekend and he had a great time. That he trounced me by 11 points might have something to do with it. I'm not bitter - he made a great use of one of the bonus play cards to score the winning touchdown - but I demand a rematch! 

It also made me want to get paints for the Nurgle team but there's a bunch of stuff in the paint queue currently.

In related news, my son has expressed interest in possibly playing 40K (he's met some kids at school who play). My wallet weeped a little, but I do like a lot of the figures.

We primed some of fantasy figures from my Pile of Plastic this weekend and one of his sci-fi looking "army men" and we'll do some painting sessions, so he can find out if it's something he likes enough that he'd want to paint up an entire force (Kill Team only requires 10 figures per side, so that sounds like the best entry point to me).

His birthday is coming soon, and I would be happy to buy him a 40K starter set(he likes the set with 5 marines and a bunch of Tyranids), or a box of figures and paints, if that's what he wants.

1917 Fictional Strafexpedition Game 2

Major Neurath was ordered to press on with 5th and 6th company, 2nd battalion, Sacher regiment, to support the stormtroops of 3rd company,501st battalion, lead by Hauptman Mahler, in their effort to capture Fromagio. The trench line was held by 9th Company, 3rd battalion, 212th Regiment supported by a machine gun platoon.

The attack was preceded by a heavy barrage on both the left and right trenches.

That pile of blankets in the upper right is actually our dog.

The Italian machine gun platoon quickly reduced the numbers in 5th company.

But further scheduled artillery cleared the right trench and 5th was able to take it without opposition thereafter.

However Italian reinforcements arrived and launched a counterattack to reclaim the trench.

On the left, the stormtroops easily overran the few remaining defenders, and Neurath redirected 6th company from planned attack route to instead aid 5th company. Meanwhile, an additional Italian company had arrived and moved into positions within Fromagio.

With the right trench cleared, the stormtroops, supported by an MG platoon, assaulted the town.

With the remnants of 5th company (amounting to less than one platoon) holding th right trench, 6th company proceeded per their original attack plan, and moved to attack Fromagio from the West. However, Lt. Colonel Dattoli arrived with another of his battalions MG platoons to the rear of 6th company which forced them to break off their attack to deal with the threat.

Although not pictured, the fighting was fierce. 6th company was badly mauled by the machine guns before they were silencedt. Major Neurath, who had reluctantly moved up to aid 6th company, was killed by none other than Lt. Colonel Dattioli in a dramatic shoot-out. The Lt.Colonel himself being wounded and captured by a squad from 6th company.

Meanwhile, the battle within the town limits raged, with the stormtroops emerging victorious in the end. 

It was a costly win for the Austro-Hungarians. 

Major Neurath (admittedly as much a liability as anything) was killed, as was Hauptmann Hass of 5 company (in the storming of the right trench when it was still held by the Italian machine gun platoon). 5th and 6th company were both nearly wiped out by casualties, as were the stormtroopers. As such, the advance by 2nd battalion on this prong of Sacher Regiment's attack must halt.

On the plus side, the capture of Lt. Dattioli, to join his 2nd in command, Major Lizzio, was something of potentially great value.

The next game will take a look at how 1st battalion did on their advance.

1917 Fictional Strafexpedition

Spring, 1917, Austria-Hungary makes a little-known (read: fictional) second attempt at a strafexpedition...

Following an artillery barrage, elements of the Austro-Hungarian "Sacher" Regiment, 1832nd Schutzen Brigade, attacked the Italian hill-top trench position north of Fromagio. 

Aggressive action by 3rd company of the 501st sturmbattalion and the regiment's 7th company, 2nd battalion, led to the defeat of the defenders (12th company, 3rd battalion, 212th Regiment, "Fagioli" Brigade), including the capture of the battalion's 2nd-in-Command, Major Romeo Lizzio. 

An Italian relief force, composed of 11th company of the 212th regiment, and a heavy machine gun platoon, came under heavy fire. They retreated seeing the trench in enemy hands.

The Austro-Hungarian 8th company, also assigned to the attack, did not see any combat and were delegated to man the trench, while 7th company attended to their wounded. The sturmtruppen were sent rearwards for rest, having accomplished their mission pressed ahead to the next objective. Major Neurath, who never was within rifleshot of an Italian, sent word of his success in capturing the position to his commander. 

The remainder of the battalion proceeded south towards Fromagio.

*******

The scenario was from One Hour Wargames. The others will be as well. I intend to play a 5-game campaign as Neil Thomas suggests in OHW. The rules however are G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T. + Contemptible Little Armies. Units are 6-figure companies with a 7th leader figure. Machine gun bases are platoons.

In addition I have created personalities for the leaders of each company, battalion, regiment, and division involved, using a system by Paul Le Long from the pages of an old print edition of Lone Warrior. The system uses percentage values assigned to five stats. Of particular note for this write-up, the personality system has a health stat. So, I decided that if a leader fails his G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T. save, after the battle I would roll against their health stat to see if they survive or not.

Major Lizzio failed his save in hand-to-hand, so after the battle I checked vs his health stat (72). He saved, and I thus ruled he was captured.

Hauptman  Philipp Waltz of 7th company failed his save in hand-to-hand and then failed his roll vs his health stat (a lowly 15, apparently he had suffered from longstanding injuries sufferd on the Russian front) and was thus a casualty. 

High health is not a guarantee of survival either. Captain Martino Giannetta, of the Italian 12th company defending the trench, failed his G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T. save. His health stat of 85 seemed like shoe-in to recover (albeit he'd be captured). I rolled a 99. He succumbed to his wounds to say the least.

Oh and a final note. One of the stats is Courage. Neurath has a ONE. Hence the jibe at him at the end of the report.

Many Wars Ago

Norm's relatively recent post entitled Too Much Stuff had had me thinking quite a bit about wargame rules and my various figure collections. I realized that one of my favorite sets of rules, G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T., by Buck Surdu and Chris Palmer, hasn't been on the table in ages. This is not because I don't like them anymore, I do, but, as part of that whole "modern age" thing, I am spoiled for choice and find myself always chasing the next rule set. It was time to put this game on the table again.

Saturday night, I set up an Italian assault on an Austro-Hungarian held hill-top, inspired by a scene from the movie, Many Wars Ago, itself based on A Soldier on the Southern Front, 

G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T. is written for 10-figure infantry units. Morale checks are directly impacted by unit size - however, if you have polyhedral dice, you can have units of a variety of sizes, although technically the math won't be exactly the same/ (A 10-figure unit that loses 1 figure has a 10% chance of failing the morale check, while an 8-figure unit that loses 1 figure has a 12.5% chance. Still, I'm OK with all of that because it makes the game flexible.)

The Italian's have three 6-figure units (5 soldiers and a leader - I tend to treat the soldiers as representing some number of men, while the leader is just one person. I don't know why but I"ve almost always done this with G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T. even though, I am now fairly certain that the intent is 1:1 for everyone), while the Austrians have one 7-figure unit and an HMG unit. 

The discrepancy in the number of figures relates to the sizes for companies given in H.M.G. (a WWI ruleset). While I did not use the numbers given there exactly, I wanted to reflect the differences in the size of the units just the same. The Austrians to have more men per company than the Bersaglieri (a standard Italian infantry unit would have nearly 1.5x as many men per company as the Austrians).

Finally, I set the shooting value lower than usual (normally for trained regulars I use 8-10, so I went with 5 in the event), in order to give the smaller units a chance to survive a little longer.

In any case, enough rambling!

The Battle

The Italians ready in their trenches. There is some concern that there is not much cover on this hillside.

An overview of the battlefield. Both sides are in trenches at the start. I had each Italian unit dice to see if they'd leave the trench when their card was turned. Only the one on the far right in the above picture went over the top on the first turn.

Machinegun fire begins to take its toll almost immediately.

The Italian center and left go over the top - no doubt spurred forward by the gathering carabinieri

The Austrians take fire from the Italians left but they unleash devastation on the Italian right.

The unit on the Italian left is almost to the enemy trench!

The center struggles to advance under oppressive fire. Meanwhile on the Italian right, the unit is destroyed through casualties and desertion. The commander races back towards his trench in a panic but, seeing the gleaming rifles of the carabinieri, he thinks the better of it and eventually makes his way to cover up the hill, where he can fire ineffectively at the MG.

The Italians crash into the waiting Austrians and a viscous hand-to-hand struggle ensues.
Close combat in G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T.  can result in neither, one, or both combatants being eliminated.

The carnage after two rounds of violent man-to-man fighting.

Unphased by the chaos to their right, the HMG keeps firing away, chewing up the Italian center and sending the survivors running back down the hill. 

One of the great things about G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T. is the potential for larger-than-life leaders - the Austrian officer prepared to hold his ground against the Italian wave, but the Italians called off the attack. It had been too costly.

The Italians lost 2/3 of their force but distributed unequally between their three units. Not visible in the pictures, the Austrians had two more figures on the table (they had 3 casualties and 1 desertion) - the two had abandoned the trench on morale failures but were still within 12" of the leader figure. That means they could move to rejoin him on their next card. 

I'm not sure if it felt like a WWI game or not. I think it pretty much did. It felt like G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T. for sure though ( a little silly, a lot of fun, bloody) and that was good enough for me. They will definitely see more use with my Venus collection, which had always been my intent anyway, but now I see them as a strong candidate for small games set in The Great War.