WHAT'S ON MY WORKBENCH THIS WEEK?

In an effort to help me focus on, and complete, projects, I have decided to post regularly what is on my workbench. The theory being that, once in the public domain, I will have an incentive to complete them.

First up are the two projects for the next week or so are to paint three more SWAT team members for my A Fistful of Kung Fu cops. I also intend to paint a Crooked Dice Tiny Templeton figure for use as a supernatural investigator protagonist for my Cops.

Late Macedonian DBA army and reinforcements for my Cops. 

Secondly, I intend to do a bit of retouching of the paint job and flocking of bases on a DBA Late Macedonian army. This has been put together from a batch of assorted DBA figures that I bought at Carronade, from the flea market. There are enough figures to make up three  Late Macedonian DBA armies, so I will be able to cover all the variations.  There are also a large number of \Thracian figures for future projects.

Look out for an update.

THE GREAT WAR: LOOS 1915 HOHENZOLLERN REDOUBT.

Last Thursday, Rick and myself played a scenario from The Great War. This is the WW 1 version of  Commands & Colors/Memoir 44. This was the second time that we had played the scenario. I had played as the British and had almost won the scenario. Rick played the British this time. He was fortunate with the pre game bombardment and his initial hand, which allowed him to advance on a broad front.

The scene just after the No Man's Land Bombardment, just prior to the first move.

View from the German trenches.

 The British advanced en masse. the German bomber unit took out two British units in close combat, but was unable to stem the tide.

British advance in progress. The temporary victory medal shows the extent of the British gains. 

As the British advanced, the Germans concentrated their forces. to protect the high ground. Rick managed his hand well and managed to play three out of the four 'butts and bayonets' cards following close combat attacks by the Germans. This cost casualties that I couldn't afford.

The German forces concentrate to hold back the tide. A solitary bomber unit is left in no man's land after taking out two British units.

The British get a third temporary medal by taking all three trenches. 

The Germans were overwhelmed, but still had a good chance of winning, with the score at 5 medals each. Rick managed to take ot two depleted units to win the game.

End state.

The combination of Action cards and Combat cards is great. It gives lots of potential combinations which keep you on your toes and adds to the fog of war. This is another good game from the C&C stable.

A FEW FRIENDLY GAMES.

Neil was back from UAE for a couple of weeks. We were able to squeeze in a few games over a few  days.

 On the Saturday, as we only had a short time, I introduced Neil to the basics of Heroes of Normandie. We played the first scenario, which involved recovering documents from a dead spy. This ended as an entertaining draw, as neither side was able to get the documents off the table.

 On the Monday morning, we played the first scenario in the Commands & Colors Samurai Battles, which is a straight up battle. I won  a close fought battle. http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/122913/samurai-battles

In the Afternoon, after a bit of a false start due to a misreading of a crucial rule, we played Conflict of Heroes. The scenario was a recreation of the engagement between Polish Cavalry and German infantry which was halted, historically, by the apperance of German armoured cars. This engagement is the source of the myth of Polish cavalry charging tanks. The back and forth nature of activation in the game system kept it interesting. The Polish Cavalry wiped out the German forces: victory to Neil.  http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgameexpansion/45132/conflict-heroes-price-honour-poland-1939

 On Wednesday, we had a larger game of Heroes of Normandie. This was a cut down version of one of the scenarios in the book. It was a race to have an infantry unit take the objective by being in one of the adjacent squares by the supply phase of turn 6.

Once again, a close run thing, but a draw. The US forces tried an all out attack, but lost their M5 at the last gasp.

An intense but enjoyable few days of gaming. Hopefully it won't be too long before we can do it again.

THURSDAY NIGHT: SAMURAI BATTLES.

 

I decided to try out Samurai Battles, which I acquired at the tail end of last year.

The game, from Zvezda, comes in two versions. One with rules similar to Art of Tactic, the other Commands and Colors rules , by Richard Borg.

 

I gave away the Zvezda rules and plastic 20mm figures and used 15mm figures. These were based for DBR, for those interested, but had no effect for game purposes.

 

I decided to play the first, introductory, scenario. This had equal forces.

A shot of the set up from my perspective.

 Each side had ten units: 1 x Cavalry; 2 x Samurai; 2x Ashigaru Bows; 1 x Ashigaru Arquebus and 3 x Ashigaru spearmen, as this side on view of the set shows. Each side also had one mounted and two foot generals.

 The game will be familiar to players of Richard Borg's games. It is probably closer to Battle Cry, but also uses rules from C&C. There are two main changes. As well as the usual play deck, there is a second deck of Dragon Cards. They can effect both your and the enemy's units and are paid for by the second new innovation: Honor & Fortune tokens. Each Dragon card costs H&F tokens to play.

The scenario determines how many H&F tokens each side starts with (5 for this one). They can also be obtained by not drawing a Dragon card and during close combat, when an H&F symbol is rolled. However, when a unit suffers a retreat result, it costs H&F tokens for each hex retreated. This element of resource management adds a new level of complexity to the game and gives a bit of period flavour as it forces players to keep on attacking or lose honour.

The game itself was quite tense as Rick and I got our head around the rules and the new mechanics. It was the first to five banners and I won 5-3. The last pic shows the end state of the game.

COMMANDS & COLORS ANCIENTS: PARA BELLUM.

We have not played Commands and Colors for a while. We put that right a few weeks ago with a Para Bellum series of linked battles.

Rick used his Selucids (top of photos) to fight my Gauls. The first battle was the first to four banners, which Rick reached before me.  All losses were diced for between games to see if lost units rallied.

The second battle was the first to five banners. This was closer, but Rick won again.

The final game was first to seven banners. Once again, Rick won for an overall aggragate of 16-9.

This was an enjoyable way to spend an evening. We managed all three games in just over three hours.

COMMANDS & COLORS CAMPAIGN GAME PART 2.

The second game of our continuing Commands & Colors campaign involved a Roman force, reorganising in Gaul, following their failure to land in Britannia. They are attacked by a force of opportunistic force of Belgae.

 The initial dispositions. The Romans have a part their force encamped behind ramparts.

 The Roman cavalry are driven from the flank by the Belgae light horse, effectively taking them out of the game.

The early moves, as the Romans try to shorten their front in the face of the Belgae attack.

The Belgae light troops try to pin down the Romans to allow the main body of warbands to get into position to attack.

The Romans leave the camp and advance to contact. They drive back the light troops and contact some of the warband in the centre.

On the Roman right flank, a unit under attack by two warbands destroys one by using first strike. Then in their own turn, they use clash of shields, which gives two extra attack dice, to destroy the other warband and save the flank.

The clash begins in the centre. Warband exchanges casualties with legion.

The fighting intensifies in the centre with the Romans fighting their way forward.

 

The Begae chariots make a hole in the Roman line.

The battle in the forrest intensifies. Both sides lose units. The Belgae have reached 6 banners. The Romans have a chance to tie if they can destroy two units in their last turn.

Despite a brave effort by a unit of bows, destroying a weakened warband, the Romans lost by 6 banners to 5.

This loss means that the Romans have been recalled to deal with a rebellion in central Gaul. Only once they have beaten the rebels can they return to the coast to try to get to Britannia.

 

It was good to be able to get two games in in an evening. Playing linked battles is preferrable to random games. You get the feeling of something at stake if you lose. Ultimate victory will be determined by the Romans taking all the areas of Britannia. If they are pushed back to Rome, then civilisation never happens!