Pillars of the Community - Gangs of Rome AAR

Last week, Bill and I had a chance to get our first regular game of Gangs of Rome. 

We played the Three Wise Men scenario, where both sides had to reach objectives located in the middle of the three tables edges other than their starting location - a representation of locals who would accept bribes to calm the angry populace of Rome. The first to do so, and not be in close combat with the opposing gang, would win.

We played a 100 points game, with four fighter per side. My fighter were universally lower in cost than Bill's, which meant that while their stats on the cards were objectively worst, I could take more Denarii. 

Bill's fighters managed to reach one objective and pass off their Bribe, preventing from touching it on the first turn.

Both sides managed to reach the other objective, while one of Bill's fighter split off and sprinted down the center of the table to try and reach the third objective.

I had brought Tisiphone (a named character in Gangs of Rome) to lead my gang, and I used her special ability to move off the table edge and re-appear somewhere else next turn. Meanwhile, my gladiator attempted to distract Bill's fighter - rather unsuccessfully, however.

On the other side of the table, just one of Bill's fighters was enough to halt both of my gang members.

The remaining fighter in Bill's ganged continued moving towards the remaining objective. I had to stop him to keep Bill from winning.

With the gladiator dispatched, Bill's fighter could only watch as his doppelganger moved to the far objective. Unfortunately, I had chosen my slowest fighter to use in a desperate attempt to reach the other side of the table.

Tisiphone reappeared, halting the opposing fighter's progress. But even her reputation in Rome's underworld didn't phase Bill's gang member, who gave Tisiphone a bloody wound for her trouble. Bill's two gangers on the right were busy mopping up the remnants of my gang. It was looking rather bad for me.

Bill's fighter managed to strike Tisiphone down, and moved into contact with the last objective. A simple breakaway from another of Bill's gang members meant that he met the conditions for victory, and secured a win. It seems as though it'll be some time before my gang can show their faces in this part of Rome again!

I'm glad I finally got a chance to play a full-sized game of Gangs of Rome. Denarii choice really opens up at this point, and Bill's terrain setup looks great. The only thing missing at the moment are more mobs, since they really seem to bring the table to life.

A River Runs Around It - Konflikt 47 AAR

Recently I've joined a "builder" league at Half Day Studio for Konflikt 47, in the hopes of getting more people interested in the game. This week was the second in the 500 point section, and next week we'll move on to 750, with Armored Cars allowed. 

My last game was against Keith and his British Airborne force, playing the Top Secret mission. Here, a vital piece of intelligence/technology/personnel crash lands in the middle of the table, and both sides need to capture the objective and move it off the table. 

The game begins with no units on the table, apart from units like Keith's artillery observer and my sniper team. Units need to come on via reserve rolls (a 2d6 test against their morale with a -1 modifier).

The first turn was mostly spent with both sides trying to deploy from reserves. Keith had the advantage in both unit number and speed, since his pair of jeeps could cover a lot of ground very quickly.

As Keith's jeeps laid down covering fire, his infantry advanced into the open middle area, hoping to find refuge in the ruins of a strange looking aircraft, which also contained the objective.

My shocktroopers and heavy infantry managed to chase off the jeep defending the bridge, but not before the British artillery officer managed to call in a strike against my troops in the ruins of the farm. While it didn't cause any casualties, it did place multiple pin markers on my sniper team (reduced to a single man from the jeep's MMG) and on my small LMG infantry squad.

Keith did manage to get one of his infantry units into contact with the objective, but that also meant place it directly in front of most of my own units, and the British infantry section was hammered with pin markers and casualties.

While I did manage to rout the first infantry unit holding the objective, Keith was able to get another in base contact. I couldn't do enough damage to keep the British from moving off the objective and handing it off to the artillery officer, who was in a position to quickly move off the table. I conceded the game, acknowledging that there was nothing I could do to stop Keith.

It was a fun game that seemed to hang in the balance until the last couple turns. I'm looking forward to bumping up the points to 750, which will allow for more options.

Painting Update - Shatterlands, Konflikt 47, DBA

Here's a look at what I've finished painting recently. 

Shatterlands was one of the games I demoed at Cold Wars in March. I liked both the background and the actual mechanics of the rules. Additionally, the miniatures were also quite nice.

The six on the left are from the Dumah Starter set (normally five, but I received a free miniature for participating in the game), and the five on the right are from the Rapani starter set.

I also finished a group of Wehrmacht Heavy Infantry for Konflikt 47, complete with two LMGs.

I'm glad to have finished the heavies, since they're extremely versatile on the table. A small squad of five with two LMGs can sit on an objective and hold back waves of infantry, while a full squad armed with assault rifles can march across the table, mostly unhindered by enemy fire.

The only drawback is a lack of anti-armor weaponry, apart from a pair of single-use panzerfausts. There is a separate panzerschreck team, but since K47 hasn't adopted the second edition Bolt Action's shaped charge rules change, it's not worth the points sink. 

My Ancient British needed an appropriate enemy, and my collection of figures was lacking an Early Imperial Roman force, so I finally got around to completing a 15mm DBx army from Rebel Minis (with a couple Nubians from another manufacturing that I can't recall, unfortunately). I also finished the second 15mm camp to match the first for a red vs. blue aesthetic.

Woad to the Vanquished - Triumph! AAR

April 28th was International Tabletop Day, and Half Day Studio was running an all-day event with various games to celebrate. Everyone who came in and played entered for a chance to win a raffle, with the prize being the Roman Invasion of Britain starter set for Hail Caesar, donated by Warlord Games.

I decided to run a couple games of Triumph! for the event using my 15mm Ancient British and Early Imperial Roman armies. While these had originally been intended for DBA, they work just as well for Triumph!, which was a system I demoed and played in an event at during Cold Wars. 

Following the army lists on Meshwesh, I came up with the following lists:

Early Imperial Romans 

5 Elite Infantry (General)

4 Raiders

1 Archers

2 Javelin Cavalry

Ancient British

10 Warband (General)

4 Battle Taxis

2 Bad Horse

Basically, the Romans have a smaller but better army, while the British have more troops of lower quality. However, their Warbands can kill the Roman Elite Infantry if they manage to just outscore them in combat, rather than the normal need to double their combat score. 

For the first game, Bill chose to play the Romans. Somehow, the British managed to win the Topography roll, and the Romans chose to fight in an Arable landscape. Having won the Tactical advantage, the Romans then got to chose the terrain. We ended up with a Village, a Gentle Hill, Rough Ground, and a Coast.

The Romans set up their Elite Infantry and Archers in the center of the, with their Javelin Cavalry and Raiders taking up either flank. The British set their long line of Warband across from the Roman infantry, and had their Battle Taxis and Bad Horse on the flanks.

While the Roman Raiders and Javelin Cav advanced, their Elite Foot held back. A poor dice roll for the British meant that only the Battle Taxis could move forward.

The British infantry seemed content to watch as all the action developed on the flanks. A bad combat for Bill saw one of his Javelin Cavalry shattered by the British Bad Horse. On the other side of the battlefield, the Raiders and Battle Taxis edged closer together, hemmed in by the coastline.

The resounding clash between the Raiders and Battle Taxis saw two of the Roman units shatter. Meanwhile, the Roman Javelin Cav and British Bad Horse circled around, keeping each other from exploiting an open flank.

While Bill managed to remove a unit of Bad Horse from the table, the loss of another Raider unit was enough to cause the Romans to break. The British cheered and celebrated their victory!

But it wasn't to last for long...

Since Triumph! plays so quickly, we decided to set back up for a second game, with Bill commanding the Romans again. This time the Romans won both the Topography and Tactical roll. Bill chose a Village, a Steep Hill, a Forest, and a Stream as the terrain.

The British infantry were flanked by their Bad Horse, while the Battle Taxis were set up opposite the Roman camp. The Roman Elite Infantry and Archers set up in the center once again, but were now flanked equally on both sides by Raiders and Javelin Cavalry.

With no terrain in the center of the table to slow anyone down, both sides raced towards the fight.

Bill managed to sneak around the flank of the Battle Taxis with a Javelin Cav, and caused it to shatter. The British were forced to break up their chariot charge to deal with the Roman cavalry.

The British left flank had descended into chaos, with the Battle Taxis and a unit of Bad Horse moving to hem in the Roman Javelin Cavalry. On the Roman left, Bill sent his other Javelin Cav units to intercept the last of the British cavalry.

Undaunted, most of the British infantry continued forward.

Like the last game, the flanks were embroiled in combat while the center refused to commit. Bill's units were much more stubborn this time around, and refused to budge.

Unlike the last game, the Roman legions surged forward into combat. This was a risky gambit - while the Elite Infantry had a superior combat factor, they would be shattered by the British Warband units if beaten in close combat. This was best demonstrated by the Romans losing a unit of Elite Infantry in addition to a unit of Javelin Cav.

What had started as two lines of battle had become a bloody mess. The Roman Legionaries and Auxilia managed to kill two units of British Warband, and the British failed to respond in kind.

The Legionaries had finally gotten to grips with the enemy, and their swords chopped through the British Warbands. Three more units fell, pushing the British over the break limit and securing victory for Rome.

While there were a couple rules I needed to check, Bill and I found Triumph! to be a fun set of fast-play ancient rules, with relatively easy to understand rules and interesting in-game mechanics that rewarded tactical thinking. I'm hoping to play more in the future. 

Cold Wars Theme Event, Game 3 - DBA AAR

The final game of the Themed Event was against Mike D and his loaned Middle Frankish. 

Mike won the roll for attacker, and so I placed two gentle hills, a brush, and a river.

Of course, Mike chose to invade on the opposite side parallel to the river, so I decided to slowly send a psiloi around my force to see what the river was.

With a bit of scouting, the psiloi discovered that the river was paltry and wouldn't offer any protection, so the Avars finally got themselves moving.

Of course, my delaying allowed Mike enough time to prepare his lines. In hindsight, I should have gotten across the river and charged Mike's slower infantry force when his army was still condensed.

This meant that when my Avars went in, it wasn't going to go well for me in terms of match-ups - as it turns out, Cavalry and Auxilia don't do so well against Knights and Spears. In the first round of combat I lost two units.

While I was able to sack Mike's camp (as he was too focused on the battle in the center of the table), my line continued to break up, as I lost another auxilia.

I took out another unit, but Mike had a crushing round of combat, routing multiple units from the battlefield. Victory went to the Franks, 6-2.

And that conclude all the AARs from Cold Wars (about a month and a half after it ended). I really appreciated all these games, which were quite enjoyable, thanks in no small part to my opponents! I'm looking forward to getting more games of DBA on the table, especially since I have a couple of paired sets of armies that should work well against each other.