Rats on a Sinking Ship - Man O' War AAR

While we haven't been able to play Man O' War in a little while, here's a battle report from a game in August. 

For this game, John set me up with a Skaven fleet, to once again face off against the Orcs & Goblins. 

The Skaven have a ton of special rules. The Doombringer, the rat-race's Man O' War, only carries a Great Bell, but it's a very scary ship. The Great Bell starts by rolling 2d6, and then adding a volume counter every turn the bell rings (or removing one when the bell stops tolling for a turn). Each volume counter adds an additional d6 to the Doombringer's attack, which range is equal to the total pips of the dice rolled. Any doubles rolled is a result on a chart, which can range from the Great Bell destroying itself, or every enemy ship in range taking one automatic critical hit!

The other Skaven ships are almost as wacky. Deathburners have a massive burning Incense Burner which smashes enemy ships like a plague-infused mace. And Warp-Raiders belch out columns of warpfire, setting enemy ships aflame. 

John (not the host) and I would control the Skaven, while John (the host) and Steve would control the Orcs & Goblins.

The mission was a smash-and-grab, with the central fort holding five treasure tokens. Ships could dock with the fort and roll to find the treasure.

Also in the game were Chaos Terrain that could damage ships or harm their crews, and a couple random monsters. Out of the deep came the mighty Kraken and the sinuous Gargantuan!

The 3d6 movement speed of the Orc Drillakillas meant they were able to quickly land on the island, get into the fort, and grab the treasure. In short order, the Greenskins were in possession of four of the five tokens, with the Skaven only able to grab one.

The fighting then came down to a close quarters battle. The Doombringer's Great Bell managed to get some hits against the Orc fleet, but broke before it could do any real damage. The MVP of the game was the Kraken. John and I diced for control of the Kraken, and I managed to keep control of it for most of the game.

Its long tentacles swept the decks of the Greenskins ships clean of their crews, which meant John had to move his other ships' crew over to keep the Skaven from claiming the treasure.

(Skaven) John lead his Deathburners in a frontal charge against the Orc Hulk, and between the nasty plague incense and good dice on a boarding action, the Hulk was quickly de-crewed.

In fact, the Orc fleet was looking dangerously low on crew members. Still in possession of four of the treasures, (Orc) John and Steven began backing the Drillakillas out of the danger zone and back towards their board edge.

Three of the Drillakillas were close to escaping, but the Deathburners were in hot pursit.

Fortunately for the Greenskins, two of the Drillakillas managed to escape off the table with their treasure, while the rest of the ships in the fleet were either burning or lacked crew.

The game ended with the Skaven eventually securing three tokens on their ships. However, had we put a time limit on the game, it would have taken far too long for the Skaven to move their tokens off the ship, so the game was decided as a victory for the Orcs!

This scenario inspired John's next game, which which see two fleets attempting to navigate some nasty terrain to get treasure, instead of just rolling up to the fort.

We also decided to allow the Orc Bigchukkas to move and shoot, instead of the move or shoot that the rules allow. This gives the Orcs a little more dependability with a somewhat lackluster overall roster. Although one suggestion from the Man O' War Facebook group was to treat the Bigchukka like the Empire Hellhammer, which can move and fire but has to spend a turn reloading.

Overall, another fun game of Man O' War. Still missing from the game are Flyers and Magic, which John may add in soon.

Salty Squigs a'Sailing - Man O' War AAR

At what may become a regular session on Thursday, John hosted another game of Man O' War, with myself commanding the opposing fleet and Sam watching over the game.

John decided to stick with his previous Greenskin flotilla, with a Hulk surrounded by two squadrons of Drillakillas and two squadrons of Bigchukkas.

Since we were adding wind rules to this game, I commanded an small Empire fleet, with a Greatship supported by a squadron of Wolfships and a squadron of smaller Wargalleys.

Like last time, John's Drillakillas surged forward in front of his fleet, hoping to use their massive drills to sink my ships before the rest of the Orc fleet chugged into position. The Imperial fleet shifted to the right, readying their cannons.

And of course, because it's an Orcs & Goblins force, pure luck came into play against John. One Drillakilla was immobilized by a cannon from a Wargalley. Another managed to hit a Wargalley but sunk in exchange for a bit of damage. And the last Drillakilla hit the Greatship but only sunk itself!

I had to split my fleet in two, with the Wargalleys moving to intercept the second squadron of Drillakillas. These managed to do some actual damage, with one of the Wargalleys losing its oars and begin left out of the fight.

Now the fight was between the Greenskin Hulks and Bigchukkas, and the Imperial Greatship and Wolfships.

I scored a lucky critical hit early in a turn on the Hulk, which resulted in the crew panicking and wounding the admiral. This left the hulk unable to act in the turn, which gave my Wolfships free reign to turn and engage with their bow guns.

Unfortunately for John, he tried to board the Greatship with his Hulk after I rolled extremely lucky against his Smash-hammer attack (which should have done a lot of damage, but I stopped five of the six hits). Between my cannons, crew, and a Man O' War card that gave me an advantage in boarding actions, the Greenskin ship was quickly denuded of its crew.

However, the small crew I assigned to the Hulk was then boarded by the crew of a Bigchukka, who tossed the humans overboard.

That crew was then evicted by a ramming attack against the big hulk! (Although I messed up here - ships can't ram using their sails, only under oar power. Sorry, John! I'll study the rulebook more.)

The concentrated fire of the Bigchukkas was able to sink one of my Wolfships.

With the Hulk uncrewed and the Imperial fleet mostly concentrated in the same area, John decided to concede, since the Bigchukkas were outmatched.

Apart from a few rules hiccups, I enjoyed the game. Like I said, it looks like we'll be making Thursdays our Man O' War night as we add in more rules like Wizards, Magic and Fliers (and make sure to double check old rules!).

On the High Fantasy Seas - Man O' War AAR

Recently, John put out an invite to play Man O' War, the naval combat game set in the Warhammer Fantasy universe that came out in 1993. 

I was two years old at the time. Yeesh. 

Anyway, I volunteered, got shanghaied, and found myself commanding a dwarf fleet facing off against an orc armada.

The objective was simple - sink more of the other side before they managed to sink you.

The dwarves looked like they were steaming out of the late 19th century, with a Dreadnought, an Ironclad, a Nautilus (submarine) and a squadron of Monitors.

The orcs were fielding (sea-ing?) a large flotilla of barely floating ships. The greenskin admiral led from a Hulk, flanked by two squadrons each of Bigchukkas and Drillakillas.

With both sides equipped with either steam- or slave-powered paddles, neither fleets needed to worry about the direct of the wind, and so powered forward.

The Nautilus was the first to fire a shot, diving and launching torpedos at the oncoming Drillakillas. Unfortunately the orc ships were just out of range.

My Monitor squadron was less lucky, as one of John's Drillakillas surged forward, rammed, and sunk a dwarf ship of the line. The Drillakilla sunk as well.

The dwarfs had their hands full dealing with the Drillakillas, while the slower orc ships advanced in a second wave. My Ironclad and Dreadnought were able to handle the orc assault ships, defeating the crew of one in a boarding action and immobilizing the other.

The Monitors continued their run of misfortune, ultimately sinking after being rammed by more Drillakillas.

The Dreadnought and Ironclad readied for contact with the rest of the orc fleet.

I thought the Nautilus would be enough to handle the three Bigchukkas on its own, but a well aimed shot from a catapult smashed through the submarine, sinking the boat and drowning the crew.

Now it was up to the two Man O' Wars in the dwarf fleet. The Ironclad was taking a pounding, losing hull integrity and taking on water. Both it and the Dreadnought fired volley after volley into the advancing orc Hulk, watching as the massive ship and its close-combat weaponry loomed ever larger.

However, the broadsides eventually broke through the Hulk's hull, causing enough critical hits and damage below the waterline to sink the greenskin juggernaught. With only a few Bigchukkas left, the Orc fleet retreated as the dwarfs raced to rescue their waterlogged compatriots.

Well, damn. Here's another fun set of rules that I'm tempted to get into. And it's only for a game that's been out of print for nearly three decades!

Luckily, John has a massive collection of original models that are beautifully painted. I'll have to read more of the rules and learn how to move ships under sail, as well as learn how wizard and aerial units work. While I'm interested in playing as the Empire, I may join John in a campaign, pitting his Bretonnians versus a combined fleet of Dark Elves and Skaven.