Double Action - This Very Ground and Warhammer 40,000 AAR

So I'm going to try to aim for mid-week as an update time, every week. Missed last week because, you know, holidays and all that. That being said, while my painting hasn't been getting done (still working on C's Fallschirmjager), C and I did manage to get in a couple of demo games.

Thou are not yet dead, my Father

The above was the last thing the Senecan Half-king Tanaghrisson said to French Commander Joseph Coulon de Jumonville - technically 'Tu n'es pas encore mort, mon père' - before driving his hatchet into the man's head and using his brains as a hand wash. This was after one of the first major skirmishes of the French and Indian War, which has been a period that I've slowly began to find more and more interest in. I can probably blame one of my college teachers whose class covered the history of the British army.

I've decided to being wargaming the period with 15mm figures from Old Glory's Blue Moon line and Iron Ivan Games' 'This Very Ground' ruleset. You can find a review of the rules over at Anatoli's Game Room, which has sadly gone on hiatus at the moment. Well, what do you know, he's back (and playing another FIW GAME AAAAAARGH). In fact, it was Anatoli's review that really made me want to get a copy of the rules.

This Christmas, my wish came true, and I found not only the rules but enough figures under the tree to try out the first scenario in the game. The scenario featured an Indian attack party attempting to set fire to a stockbuilding, and the local militia's attempt to stop them. Curt gladly took the role as the marauding savages, and I took command of the outnumbered militia.

The above picture shows the game a couple of moves in - the Indians had two warbands (one with the torches needed to burn down the building in the top left of the defensive area) come from his side, while another warband approached from the far left.

The game is an altogether bloody affair - while it can be difficult to hit at times when shooting at someone in cover, or when fighting in close combat, weapons are generally deadly enough that once someone is hit, they're generally going down. This is doubly-so for melee, when both sides fight to the last man. This was demonstrated when the 3 militia in the top left were charged by the 7 Indians near them - while they managed to drag two Indians down with them, the Militia were quickly cut down (and, I'd imagine, scalped).

In the end, the Militia managed to squeak out a win, with only 7 of the original 16 men surviving the fight - their officer managed to get himself killed while trying to hunt down the Indian Sachem. The Indians lost about half their own number (originally 31), but most of those casualties came from the group carrying the torches.

'This Very Ground' turned out to be a fun set of rules, and I'm hoping that Curt will not mind if we break them out a few more times. The American militia are next up on the painting table, followed by the Indians, and then from Canadian Militia.

Warhammer 40k: 6th Edition
Curt received a copy of the 6th edition rules for Christmas and wanted to get a demo game in, to which I agreed. He brought over 500 points worth of Orks (Boyz and Truckz) and Imperial Guard (Veteran Squads and Chimeras).

The game type featured 6 objective markers of various worth (1 worth 4 points, 2 worth 3 points, 2 worth 2 points, and 1 worth 1 point). These were placed by Curt and I, taking turns, and it went that essentially 3 were on my side, and 3 on his.

When they were turned over, to Curt's horror (and my glee!) we found that the 4 and 3 point objectives were on my side, and the 2 and 1 point objectives were on his. All I had to do was lame it out until the end of turn 5 and hope that my fail-dice wouldn't... fail me.

And they didn't! Despite losing one mob of Boyz to Curt's aggressive push on my left, and losing my Warboss to a game of Flashlight tag with a squad of Veterans, I managed to win 7-3. I also received points for blowing up the Imperial Guard Fast Attack choice (a lone Chicken-walker thing whose name escapes me at the moment (edit: Sentinel. Thanks to Curt for pointing that out)) and for getting First Blood (again, Chicken-walker). C received an additional point for killing my Warboss.

Initial thoughts on the limited experience of 6th is that it's... well, it's 40k. The new war-leader-quality roll-off in the beginning didn't have much of a difference on the game. While I like the new 'snapshot' abilities that allow heavy weapons to fire on the move, and the defensive-fire mechanic in melee, I still don't get the 2d6 roll for melee charge (and the first person to utter the word 'cinematic' is getting a Chaos-dreadnought-in-a-sock to the back of the head). While I won't be rushing out to any of the nearby FLGS's to get new 40k stuff, I won't object to when Curt wants to bring his stuff over for a game.

Edit: Curt reminded me of the new vehicle rules. Love 'em. Vehicle HP is easy to follow with the right markers, and the fact that you can't stuck-lock vehicles, while still making them kill-able to glancing hits, means that they can still make a difference around the table.

And that's that! Hopefully I'll be back next week with a new batrep and some actual painting updates.