First Game of the New Year

Friday night, with my vacation winding down and Monday looming in the distance, I figured I really ought to get a game in on this break.

One Hour Wargames "Dark Ages" and scenario 14: Static Defense won the toss, with the lizards winning the roll to be the attacker. 

The lizards had three units of warband, one unit of archers (based on Ancient archers), and two cavalry (Pteranodons) units. The orcs were on defense and put the shield wall (Black Orcs) in the village, supported by a warband of Savage Orcs. Savage Orcs also held the the hill. The three cavalry units (Boar Boyz, who get +2 in melee) would cover the ground in front of the hill.

The Lizards advance a token force on the right and send the mass of warriors for the hill.

Overhead view

Pteranodons charge the Savage Orc warband while a Gecko warband positioned itself to prevent the Black Orcs from flanking the Pteranodons.

On the left, Boar Orcs charged the lizard archers and delivered a thunderous charge and forced them to engage in melee.

Cavalry clash! (not pictured, the lizard attack on the village did not go well)

Red-Tailed Skinks made their way to to the hill to challenge the Savage Orcs holding it, eventually driving them off.

The celebration was short lived - the last unit of Boar Boyz charged the Skinks,(on their half of turn 15) broke their lines and left the orcs in possession of the hill and the village at the end of game.

Happy New Year to All! (a year-end / upcoming year post will no doubt follow)

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)

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).

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.

OHW Fantasy Modifications

Maudlin Jack expressed an interest in seeing my modifications for One Hour Wargames for use with fantasy armies, and so, with little fanfare, here they are! 

These work for me and I have used them in a number of games with different scenarios from the OHW book. Your mileage may, of course, vary. 

Most of the modifications are not intertwined, so it's possible to use some of them, without all.

A New Mechanic

This is important as it comes up later.

I borrowed the idea of Advantage/Disadvantage from D&D 5e.

• When a unit has Advantage, they roll 2d6 and keep the higher of the two values.
• If a unit has Disadvantage, they roll 2d6 and keep the lower of the two values.
• In no case does a unit roll more than 2d6. 
• A unit that has both Advantage and Disadvantage, for the same roll, rolls 1d6 as normal.

I don't know anything about statistics, but I don't believe it actually increases your likelihood of rolling a 6, for example, but it feels like you have a better chance.

Unit Types

I use all of the unit types from Ancients, Dark Ages, and Medieval and assign them to my figures in a way that I find appropriate.

So, my lizard archers are Ancient archers while my goblin archers are Ancient skirmishers, for example. 

My humans with shields and spears are Dark Ages infantry, while the armored humans are Medieval Men-at-Arms.

But, you can really just mix and match modifiers to make your own :- -2, 0, or +2 when attacking (range or melee can be specified) and whether they take 1/2 damage or not.

So, my human archers are "Rangers" and they get the Medieval archer +2 for range combat but suffer no penalty in close combat, and so more like Ancient archers in that respect.

And of course, you can give more or less strength points - my T-rex has 18 for example.

There are three additional unit types I use - Caster, Hero, and General

Casters

Casters are magic-user types and they have two spell categories - attack and utility. 

In order to successfully cast a spell, they have to roll 1d6 and score 4+ (this is taken from One Page Rules and I rather like it). Then roll for the effect.

For attack, via spell or close combat, I treat them as Medieval archers (+2 for the range, -2 in close combat). You can call the spell fireball, or lightening bolt, or cone of frost, but in the end it's just a ranged attack.

I only have tested a single utility spell - a healing or courage spell that restores 1d3 points to any friendly unit within line of sight and 12".

I play solo, so I try to avoid effects that carry over to the next unit's activation - such as spells which improve or reduce a targeted unit's effectiveness in attacking or moving - as it requires markers (I already use a few) or a good memory. That said, I suspect many have no issue with tracking that kind of thing.

Heroes

This unit represents a hero and their entourage (stolen from Hordes of the Things). 

• Hero attacks have Advantage. 
• Attacks against a hero have Disadvantage. 
• Hero vs Hero, just roll 1d6 as normal.

I let all of my heroes take 1/2 damage, but their attack modifier is determined by the kind of unit they are. So, a Hero Caster would take 1/2 damage, but still do +2 in range damange and -2 in close combat.

Generals

Like heroes they have the basic stats of the kind of unit they are and, like heroes, I allow them all to take 1/2 damage.

In addition to Move or Shoot or Continue Melee, they may, if the General is not in close combat:

• Self-rally 
• OR rally a unit within 12" 
• OR order 1d3 units within 12” to move 1 full move (as long as the unit is not engaged in close combat)

To rally, roll 1d3. Unit recovers that many points.

To order units to move, the chosen unit must pass a morale test (see below).  If it passes, it moves up to 1 full move. Otherwise, it does not advance - possibly because the messenger was killed or there was confusion about the order or something like that.

Orders Available

Unlike the standard rules, each side  rolls to determine how many units they may activate that turn.

Roll 1d6:

1 =  up to 3 units may activate

2-5 = up to 4 units may activate

6 = up to 5 units may activate

Units already engaged in close combat activate automatically and do not count towards the limit above. The practical result of this, in this "era" which features close combat, is that very often, by mid-game, one or both sides are always activating all of their units every turn.

Reinforcements that arrive count towards the limit on the turn they arrive and so it is up to the player if they want to hold off bringing on scheduled reinforcements, bring on only a portion of those available that turn , or bring on all of those available that turn.

Movement

I like variable movement - inspired by Contemptible Little Armies.

Roll 1d6 and modify the base movement rate as follows:

1. -1/3 base movement Inches
2. -1/6 base movement Inches
3. No change
4. No change
5. +1/6 base movement Inches
6. +1/3 base movement Inches

I present this as fractions, modify to taste. I play on a table 2/3 standard size and all of my ranges are adjusted accordingly.

Unlike the standard rules, I pretty much allow all units to enter woods - my armored orcs may be Medieval men-at-arms but I am sure I've seen movies where armored orcs advance through woods and even clash with their enemies in them. Or maybe I haven't but it's fanasy, so?

For aforementioned orcs or other "heavy" units, I use a method inspired by a bunch of other people's rules and limit their ability to move around willy-nilly over difficult ground, such as woods.

When said unit reaches an area of rough ground, they must stop, no matter how many inches remain for their move. They may enter on their next activation (with no modification to their movement rate). If they want to exit the rough ground, they must first stop at the edge they wish to exit from, and then exit on their next activation (with no modification to their movement rate).

Morale

At the end of a turn when a unit has surpassed 10 points in damage, and every turn thereafter in which they take damage and have greater than 10 points of damage, roll 1d6. If the value added to the current SP is greater than the unit’s max SP, the unit routs 1 full move towards their base line.

When an enemy unit routs from close combat, Warband and Light Cavalry roll 1d6. If the result plus their current SP  is less than their max SP, they advance 1 full move to follow the routing unit.

When an army loses 1/2 of their units, roll 1d6. If the value is less than the number of units remaining, the army continues to fight otherwise the army concedes/retreats/withdraws. Check each turn thereafter in which that army loses a unit.

Melee Modifiers

• A unit engaged in melee, and in contact with a friendly unit that is NOT in contact with an enemy unit, attacks with Advantage,
• Units that are in contact with two or more enemy units attack with Disadvantage in melee (Unless they are in contact with a friendly unit that isn't in contact with an enemy, then the Advantage and Disadvantage cancel out).

January/February Recap

 Lots of irons in lots of fires, and blogging regularly has received the axe, but I am still out here doing my thing, and I got in a bit of painting and gaming in January and February.

Finally got my Pozzuolo del Friuli scenario on the table using modified One Hour Wargames "Machine Age" rules

Morschauser Shock modified for Fantasy, One Hour Wargames scenario on 2/3 scale table, i.e. 24" square.

Morschauser Shock and Horse & Musket modified for VSF. One Hour Wargames scenario. Full scale, i.e. 6" bases and 36" square.

For reasons, I started painting the Battle of the Alps (Italy and France) in 1/72, with multi-figure basing. this is the first platoon of alpini.

I also painted five additional 28mm lizard warriors - one Reaper Bones and four Dark Heaven - and have gotten the first platoon of 1/72 French started.

Oh, and I played the classic GDW game, Battle for Moscow, several times in a single day, and also a game of Burning Mountains 1916, from Compass Games - with turns spread over three days.

Cheers!

One Hour Wargames Scenario Idea: Pozzuolo del Friuli

I am house/cat/plant sitting this week and I am away from my wargaming paraphernalia - so, I began looking at some of the non-painting/non-playing options I could pursue. 

Of late, I've been inspired by people taking historical battles and making scenarios from them. The problem, for me, is that I only rarely if ever have the necessary kit or space for those kinds of games. However, One Hour Wargames scenarios often approximate a historical situation (beyond the ones that inspired their creation), and those take up very little space and are forces I can muster.

So, taking my interest in the Battle of Pozzuolo del Friuli (October 1917, part of what is commonly called 'Caporetto', and which features Lancieri), I applied the OHW approach. 

None of this has been play tested yet and I probably won't until I get home. 

Rules will be some version of my modified One Hour Wargames Machine Age rules (here and here and here).

The Map:

Click to enlarge

The result is a sparse looking map admittedly - just like those in OHW. 

In this case, the land around Pozzuolo del Friuli is pretty flat and is mostly farmland, at least in modern photos. Scattered trees won't look out of place (but provide no cover bonus), but there are no forests or woods playing role in the battle according to my one and only source (see link below). 

Situation:

Battle of Pozzuolo - Wikipedia

Army Sizes:

Austria-Hungary 60th Infantry Division:  8 units

• Two Heavy Infantry
• Four Infantry
• Two Assault Infantry

Options: 

• May swap up to one Assault Infantry for Forward Observation Officer
• May swap up to two Assault Infantry for Infantry
• May swap up to two Heavy Infantry for infantry

Italian Force: 6 Units

• One Heavy Infantry of the Bergamo Brigade
• One Infantry of the Bergamo Brigade
• Four Lancieri of the Lancieri di Novara Regiment

Options

• May swap up to one Lancieri for one Infantry
• May swap up to one Heavy infantry for one Infantry

In the historical event, the Austro-Hungarians had a division vs an under-strength infantry battalion and an under-strength cavalry regiment. To reflect this, rather than doing a 6 vs 4 game which Neil Thomas does, I went with 8 vs 6. I get to use more of my toys this way.

A variant to consider is to allow eliminated Austro-Hungarian stands to enter via the road north of the village on subsequent turns to better reflect their numerical superiority.

While I came up with representative forces, I thought it might be fun to have some "legal" tradeoffs, for replay value. Note, my tradeoffs are limited by my collection, not by anything remotely historically influenced. I left out arditi as a swap for the Italians, as they were not present, but I suppose if you want to go down the "what if?", why not?

One reason I wanted to formalize my scenario idea is to lend some direction to my figure painting queue - having a defined scenario I know I need to focus on making two more cavalry stands, so 4 more figures.

Deployment:

My layout is inspired by the Flank Attack (1) scenario but adjusted to reflect the historical situation. The deployment zones I've specified allow for some options while keeping the general idea intact.

1. The Austro-Hungarian 60th infantry division approaches Pozzuolo del Friuli from the Northern table edge.
2. The two Bergamo infantry units are deployed in the village of Pozzuolo del Friuli.
3. The Lancieri di Novara deploy to the east of the village.

The downside for the Austro-Hungarians is that they may not all make it onto the table on turn one, depending on base depth (which might be a thing that becomes official later, now that I think about it).

 

Game Length and Turn Order:

The game lasts 15 turns. Austria-Hungary goes first each turn.

Victory Conditions:

        Austria-Hungary:

• For minor victory, must occupy the village by the end of turn 15.
• For victory, must occupy the village by the end of turn 15, uncontested (no Italian unit within range to attack)
• For major victory, eliminate all Italian units and occupy the village before 15.

Italy:

• The Italians win a major victory if they still hold the village with at least one unit at the end of turn 15.

I decided to give the Austro-Hungarian force the opportunity to achieve varying levels of victory, while the Italians have only one objective - hold out until turn 15. It might more in keeping with the historical event to have to move units off the map for the Italians, but they are a delaying force, and I felt that it can be presumed that when a unit is removed, it reflects that in addition to wounds, men retreating due to failed morale.

Plus, with so few units, I really hate moving them off the table.

Once I get a chance to play this a few times, there will likely be some changes, but I figured I'd share what I have so far just in case it's of use to anyone else.

Friday Grab Bag

Yesterday, after viewing some images over on Little Wars Revisited, I was inspired to throw some 54s on the table (as is right and proper). 

Elements of an Allied Venusian Expeditionary Force patrol are in retreat from the lizard folk. The AVEF units plan to consolidate their position on the hill beyond the river. (One Hour Wargames Scenario 20)

Crossing the river.

Rifle and bow exchange fire.

The AVEF about to be overrun.

I played this scenario with One Page Rules Age of Fantasy : Regiments, but instead, treating each element as a unit of 10 figures (and tracking with d10s). Rolling 10d6 for an attack was more fun than I anticipated. But I'm not sure the special abilities/troop differences that AoF brings to the table were any better than when I play using One Hour Wargames (Ancients+Dark Ages for the lizards, Rifle & Sabre for the FFL/Highlanders, with  my fantasy rules for heroes, casters, and beasts bolted on), just different.

Speaking of OPR...

Last year, on his birthday, my son received the Space Marines paint set (6 paints, and 3 Infernus). The intent of the kit is to paint them as Ultramarines. Unlike the regular box of Space Marines, the starter kit comes with the Ultramarine and Unit symbols molded into the pauldrons so they seem pretty much destined for that chapter.

My son had assembled and primed one, but lost interest quickly thereafter.

With his permission, I asked if I could paint it up as a Blood Raven (his preferred chapter) - if I could manage to scrape the Ultramarine symbol off the figure. Thumbs up received, a fresh #11 blade was applied and, while I feared the plastic was too thick to remove easily, off it came easy peasy. 

So, he'll now have three Blood Raven Infernus (he may assemble and paint the other two himself - seeing that it could be done seems to have changed his attitude towards the figures)

"Now it's time to get funky"

"To the right now,"

"to the left ...Take it back now ya'll"

Speaking of my son, ever since I introduced him to the Ken & Robin Talk About Stuff podcast, he has wanted to try The Fall of Delta Green. However, as it's set in the 60s, I felt like it wasn't a good fit even if I made it kid friendly, since he didn't know anything about the 60s (which reminds me of one of my favorite exchanges on the Gumball cartoon. Someone says a decade like "the 60s" and Darwin asks "You mean the future?" "No, the 1960s", "There was a 19?").

He was maybe 8 or 9 at the time.

This past year, in 7th grade social studies, they covered the Vietnam War (in a superficial way, but none the less), but he is more than informed about it after watching numerous history videos on YouTube and discussing the war with me. In fact, in our Family & Friends gaming group, he probably knows more than most of the adults about it (I'll pat myself on the back for that).

He also gets a big kick out of the Fortunate Son/Huey gunship meme.

With my only interest in 5e D&D being to participate as a player, I have had nothing to bring to the group during breaks in our current Ravenloft-based campaign to give the other GM a chance to play. I don't want to run more D&D (b/x of course), as I have the campaign with my son - we did try to bring in the Friends & Family group into that, but since we play so often, it's almost impossible for them to have any sense of the various threads that have emerged.

So, all this is to say, I decided it is time:

It's a hefty tome. For me at least.

I've long since given up reading large rule books (I have the 5e Player's Handbook, but I have only read maybe 20 or so pages that I needed to create the two characters I've run -a gnome monk and a human thief) but I'll make an exception here as much of it is background and GM advice (horror seems to require a modicum of seriousness, which I tend to lack, so this may or may not work!) and intriguing.

The Fall of Delta Green uses the Gumshoe system, which is new to me, and to the entire group. 

That adds some additional lifting for me. 

As I will be running one-shots or maybe an episodic campaign for the group, a group that won't invest in player books to learn a system, I'll have to teach it. At it's base it's not difficult, it's when all the little extras creep in that I can easily lose my footing. I'm considering some of the various Cthulhu Dark variants (Cthulhu Deep Green seems a likely candidate) as they are rules-light and easy to teach. 

We'll see though.

I have a lot of experience playing RPGs solo - using a variety of methods including Mythic: Game Master Emulator, so I will go through the character generation process a few times, and run some sample mini adventures for myself to get a grasp of the mechanics to see if they are as involved as they seemed on my first pass.