Sail the Spooky Seas - Sails of Glory AAR

Last Saturday was supposed to have been one of Bob's big games (Halloween-themed, appropriately), but last minutes problems came up and the event was unfortunately cancelled. Not having anything else to do, (other) Bob suggested we play Sails of Glory. 

The scenario was a simple "line up and fight" game, with my ship-of-the-line Genereux and frigate Unite against Bob's ship-of-the-line Terpsichore and frigate Defence.

The first few turns saw us maneuvering closer together. I was lucky in that I had the wind in my favor, although I made the mistake of assuming that Sails of Glory measures movement from front to front like most other wargames. This turned out not to be the case, and so for the first couple turns I was moving slower than I should have been! This was quickly corrected.

Maneuvering continued. Bob's ships were forced to sail into the wind, slowing their progress. My ships, however, had the wind angled right into their sails, and they plowed through the waves.

When the ships finally closed, their cannons boomed, with wood and men both flying apart, cut into tiny pieces. The Defence, caught between the Genereux and the Unite (which had started the game loaded with double-shot) was quickly shattered and sunk below the waves.

The Terpsichore came to a full stop and began to reverse, as the Genereux and Unite turned. Crews on both sides scrambled to reload their cannons.

Thanks to some poor planning on my part, the Genereux found itself out of the fight, and would spend the rest of the game trying to turn with poor sails and even poorer wind.

Meanwhile, I had sent the Unite after the Terpsichore. I fully expected this to be a suicide run, as even with the damage that had been done to the British ship from the Genereux, I didn't think the Unite's small armament could do much damage. What the frigate could do, however, is do enough damage that the Genereux could come in and finish the fight.

Events turned out a bit different, however. The British ship-of-the-line and the French frigate came close enough that muskets and swords were readied, and the resulting musketry and boarding action left both ships weakened.

As I had expected the Unite to go down after getting into close range, I had ordered for grapeshot to be loaded into the cannons. Now that the two ships were no longer touching, I fired a broadside into the Terpsichore's decks, along with musket fire from what crew remained on the Unite. This last volley was enough to disable enough of the British ship's crew that it could no longer fight. Victory to the French! 

As Bob and I discussed afterwards, Sails of Glory does have its share of problems. Most of that comes from how complicated the game is in some areas (like orders) and how simple it is in other (like movement). It's definitely a game that becomes challenging to run if each player has more than a couple ships under their control. I prefer it the way it was played in my first experience with the game - a large event game with each player controlling their ship. 

But that doesn't mean it can't make for a fun game, and I'm glad Bob decided to bring it out as a replacement. 

As an aside, we also discussed a set of rules Bob is working on to make use of his Dreadfleet models. They sound interesting, using playing cards for movement, activation, and attacking. Hopefully we'll get a chance to play in the future. 

"Friendly" Scrimmage - Guild Ball AAR

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, one of the games that several people are trying to push for in the local scene is Guild Ball. It certainly looks interesting - designed by high-level Warmachine players, and straddling the line between sports game and skirmish game.

Last night, Sean (one of the players in the ill-fated Blood Bowl league I tried running) and I were given a demo by Tom and Keyvn, two of the major backers for the game in the area. 

Since this was a demo game with cut down rules, Sean and I only had three players each

Kevyn brought an absolutely stunning play mat, and was also showing off his resin Alchemist team. 

Since this was a demo game with cut down rules, Sean and I only had three players each with cards that weren't as detailed as the standard versions. I chose the Butchers Guild (with Brisket, Ox, and Boiler), and Sean had the Fishermen Guild (with Siren, Angel, and Shark). 

I tried taking pictures after every turn, but with Sean and I focused on learning the game, and with Tom and Kevyn answering all of our questions and giving advice, the results are a little sparse.

After a dice off, I had won initiative (and would continue to do so for the rest of the game) and elected to receive the ball. I then apparently channeled some kind of inner connection with the Butchers, as I then proceeded to ignore the ball and focus on hitting the Fishermen.

Sean's team proved to be as slippery and quick as advertised, and I was forced to give Broiler the ball, instead of Brisket (who is the Butchers' best ball-handler).

Brisket was engaged by Siren, and Ox charged into Shark, and Broiler was left alone for the moment as Angel had been forced to retreat after taking a severe beating.

This gave Broiler the chance to pass to Brisket. Shark, however, dodged away from Ox (who ran after him, but ended up just out of reach) and engaged Brisket as well, tackling her and taking the ball away.

Brisket responded by tackling Shark during her activation, getting the ball back.

During the next turn, I loaded Brisket up with Influence (the resource that models in Guild Ball both generate and use to make actions). She dodged around Shark, activated her Super Shot ability, and scored, earning me 4 Victory Points.

I then learned how insane the Fisherman's passing game can be. Once a team scores, the ball is thrown up to 10" back into the field from the goal zone in a direction of the goal-owning player's choice. Sean had set up his team so that Siren received the ball, passed it to Angel, who then shot and scored a goal! In just a couple activations, it was a tied game. 

In doing so, however, Sean had left Shark in the middle of a Butcher scrum, and the Fishermen Captain was quickly knocked out. That earned me another two Victory Points for a total of six - enough to end the demo game. 

If I'm honest, I was pretty much hooked about a third of the way through the demo. The game is fairly complex, but no more so than what I remember having to deal with when I played the first version of Malifaux years ago. My Influence management was poor until the very end, but it was a learning game, and I did start to get the hang of it. 

Tom gave me some paper cut-outs for the Masons (apparently a very balanced team), and I want to try the full version of the Butchers as well before deciding to put down money for these (relatively expensive) miniatures. 

Painting Update - Dark Ages Terrain, Kings of War

With no games played over the past weekend, I thought I'd show what little hobbying I got done in the meantime. With both a full-time job and graduate school demanding most of my time, I'm finding it difficult to squeeze in moments in which I can paint and build. But I'm getting things done, if slowly. 

I've finished up a unit of Knights and a Standard Bearer for my Kings of War Kingdoms of Men army. I'm using Games Workshop's range of Empire for them, since they offer a decent range and a local shop was having a sale. 

I'm looking to get a unit done a week, which should mean I'll have 1500 points by the new year. The last 500 points will probably come from the Undead or Dwarves in the new starter box, which'll also be a convenient way to get a copy of the rulebook. 

In painting the Knights, however, I did figure out that my usual process of painting multi-based miniatures (which was mostly made up of Flames of War stuff) isn't going to work. Normally I just get everything on the base, slap on some drydex for the basing material, and paint. That isn't going to work with these 28mm models, especially with the infantry. So now I'm in the process of removing the miniatures from the bases as I paint them, then replacing them after I've also completed the base. Hopefully I'll have some examples to show soon. 

I've also removed the Free Company models from the project, and put them on Renedra bases which match the rest of my Frostgrave models. Those miniatures are wasted in a big-battle game, and they provided me with enough models to make up a second Frostgrave warband (sans spellcasters) for demos, or general usage. This means, however, I'll have to replace them with other GW models. 

I also wanted to show the 4Grounds buildings that I used in the last SAGA battle report. These are a combination of the Anglo-Danish and High Medieval kits, which work really well together. It only took me a couple days to finish building them. The toughest part was probably the thatch roofs, which needed a couple coats of a 50/50 mix of water and glue to get the teddy bear fur to stay down.

The interiors are really well decorated, if a bit sparse - although those bits will just get in the way of your minis as they fight.

Although I probably should have been a little more careful while I was building these. Some strange runes have appeared on the floor of one of the buildings!

So, that's it for this week. I do know that Bob Fanelli's hosting another Halloween game, and if it's anything like last year's, then it's going to be tons of fun!

The Battle of Stompfordshire - SAGA AAR

I finally got the change to play SAGA again with Tom, one of the guys who frequents Stomping Grounds. It was a demo game, with Tom playing the Vikings against my Anglo-Danes. 

We played the Clash of Warlord scenario for a simple objective - either kill the enemy warlord or score the most victory points by the end of six turns. 

Tom had the first turn, and so advanced his warriors on the left and shot with his Levy on the right, causing two casualties in my 10-strong Warrior unit. We both advanced our Hearthguard and Warlords into the town, although I had my Warlord hang back a bit. 

Tom's Warlord and his 8-strong Hearthguard unit ducked in between two houses, as his Berserkers killed my 4-strong unit of Hearthguard, with a single Berserker surviving! However, thanks to some decent dice and the Anglo-Dane's "The Push" ability, my Warrior unit managed to completely destroy Tom's Levy.

Tom's Viking's emerged from the small village, the Warlord ready to tear into the Danish warriors. 

But his own household warriors were up to the task, dispatching the Danes with only a single loss. 

Now Tom started to bring his Warriors back from the flank, my Levy giving them a hearty wave farewell. Meanwhile my own Warriors and Hearthguard try to reposition themselves.

Tom continued to bring his Warriors into the village, crossing through the small marsh. His Warlord also consolidated with his Hearthguard. That gave me the opportunity to strike against the Viking leader with my Dane-axed equipped Hearthguard. Unfortunately, a combination of Fatigue and Tom's battleboard stopped my attack, and the Viking's slaying of a single Hearthguard forced them to retreat. 

Tom's counter-attack with his own Hearthguard and Warlord decimated my remaining elite warriors. 

This left my Warlord with the last six of his Warriors facing an incoming horde of Vikings. The gods alone knew what the Levy were doing in that field.

Unfortunately, a single accumulated fatigue from trying to get the Warriors into combat brought their charge distance from M to S, bringing them up short.

Since that was the last turn of the game, we tallied our Victory Points, as neither of us managed to killed the opposing side's warlord. Tom scored 17, and I score 10 - a decisive Viking victory.

Despite the defeat, it was fun to get SAGA out on the table again (even if it did cost me a couple broken swords!) and the 4Grounds buildings look fantastic.

Painting Update - Wild West Exodus

Wild West Exodus is a game that I haven't talked about much on my blog. It's certainly an interesting premise - a skirmish game featuring a sci-fi Wild West (with some magical elements) with grav-bikes, robots, laser guns, zombies, and werebeasts. The rules are interesting, although the individuals factions could use some rebalancing, and unfortunately the company is suffering from distributor problems and Kickstarter-itis (i.e., big expansion from Kickstarters and a reliance on them to get out new products).

Since the interest in the game has passed on at the local store, I'm looking to sell my small collection of Warrior Nation models. I thought I should at least post some images up on my blog, as I did manage to get all of them painted. 

This is Sitting Bull, one of the Bosses (leaders) for the Warrior Nation. In the WWX world, all the Native American tribes in the west came together to form one large nation to combat the Union and Dr. Carpathian (one of the most prominent villains). The Native Americans are able to find their spirit animals and transform into a hybrid with them. Sitting Bull's is obviously a wolf.

Another Boss - Chief Irontooth, a cougar hybrid.

Stone Fist and Running Foot, one of the Underbosses for Warrior Nation. Because nothing says "Don't mess with us" then strapping a pair of cannons to your mystical energy infused horse.

And another Underboss, Sky Spirit. I'm guessing he's some kind of eagle hybrid.

Sidekicks are a step below Underbosses, but are still powerful named models. Walks Looking is the daughter of Sitting Bull, and ostracized from the rest of the Nation for not being able to transform. She becomes a Boss in another faction, the Dark Nation (essentially, an Evil Warrior Nation).

Light Support units bring a lot of firepower in WWX - only being outclassed by Heavy Support, which can cause some balance problems - and these Energy Beasts are considered some of the best in the game. They're fast, can move once for free per activation, and their shots are both powerful and can pass through terrain. They're no slouches in close combat, either.

Light Support can also come in the form of infantry models wielding heavy weapons. For the Warrior Nation, that means Gatling guns and crossbows. Other factions have infantry equipped with rocket launchers, sniper rifles, and shotguns. 

The lowest tier of power in the game are Hired Hands, but enough of them can still drag down more powerful models, and you'll want a few if only to avoid being out-activated by your opponent. These Close Combat Braves might only wield pistols, knives, and tomahawks, but they can still take a chunk out of a bigger model with some decent dice rolls.

And if you have Close Combat Braves, you obviously need Long Range Braves. Although I think the usefulness of the guy with the spear is debatable, especially when compared to the rest of the Braves who at least managed to arm themselves with bows and rifles.

So, hopefully passing these miniatures along to someone else will mean I can invest some cash into another game that seems to be building steam in the local scene - Guild Ball!