Opening Moves - SAGA AAR

I chose SAGA as one of the games for this years 6x6 challenge, as I have enough miniatures for a few warbands but never get the chance to get them on the table. Thankfully, Kevyn agreed to run an Age of the Wolf campaign with me, which conveniently takes six "seasons" to complete. 

Kevyn choose the Vikings as his faction, while I went with the Normans. Kevyn's Viking warlord is Floki the Carver, with the King's Domain motivation, the Far Traveller and Resolute traits, and The Penny as his special rule. My Norman warlord is Louis Restout, with the Skald's Song motivation, the Quarrelsome and War-toothed traits, and the Hero of the Viking Age special rule. 

We decided to set up a scenic table of a little hamlet on the edge of a forest. Please ignore the gothic wild west town just to the right. It's a bad neighborhood and we don't like to talk about it.

Instead of rolling for a scenario, Kevyn and I settled on Clash of the Warlords to start the campaign for simplicity's sake. Our warbands were similar, with two units of Hearthguard and two units of Warriors. Kevyn decided against taking Berserkers, while three of my units were mounted, and the remaining Warriors unit was equipped with Crossbows.

Both sides moved up in the first turn, with the Normans somewhat slowed by the Viking Warlord's special ability to reduce SAGA dice to 1/3 the amount in the first turn, and 1/2 in the second.

Turn two saw more movement on both sides, with a wall of cavalry slowed by the terrain. The crossbowmen tried to get a shot off at the advancing Viking hearthguard unit, but the Vikings' battleboard ability turned that into a movement, stopping the attack.

Kevyn brought up a unit of Warriors to screen his Hearthguard from the Norman knights. Meanwhile, his Hearthguard in the hamlet ducked behind a building to avoid another round of crossbow shooting.

To finally get some blood on the ground, I had one of my Hearthguard units charge into Kevyn's Warriors. While one of my Knights was killed, I managed to wipe half the Warriors from the board. I then spent another Saga die to pull the Hearthguard back. They were fatigued, but not in danger of being attacked.

Kevyn decided to counter attack, with his Warriors and Hearthguard facing off against their Norman counterparts. The Warriors fared poorly and were wiped out by the mounted unit, but I needed to use a battleboard ability that placed another point of fatigue on the unit to do so. The Hearthguards bounced off each other with a single casualty each.

My turn was fairly boring, with each of the fatigued units resting, and the crossbowmen moving up.

Kevyn's Hearthguard moved in again against my own Hearthguard. While another of my knight was taken down, two more of the Viking hirdmen fell. I felt confident enough to charge my mounted Warriors into the lone Viking, and they removed the unit from the table while only losing a single Warrior in return.

However, that allowed Kevyn to double move his Warriors into the Norman unit, using a Viking ability to get rid of the fatigue from the second movement. Kevyn's dice rolled hot, removing four of the warriors while taking no casualties in return. The horsemen retreated. I had my Crossbowmen attack in return, removing a single Warrior.

Since neither of the Warlords had been killed, the game was decided by victory points, which gave the Normans the win, which increased the Norman Warlord's Reputation by 1.

For the campaign season, both sides replenished their Hearthguard casualties. Kevyn's Warlord went exploring, and managed to increase his Land, Wealth, and Reputation by one each! My Warlord rolled and managed to received 6 Hearthguard as reinforcements, which should be helpful in the next battle.

Painting Update - Wrath of Kings, Blood Bowl, WWII

Let's see what's passed through the painting queue this time.

I completed another unit for my Shael Han force in Wrath of Kings. There's a dozen Lotus Warriors, who are essentially glass cannons with a 2" melee zone (which is fairly powerful in a game where most combat has to take place in base-to-base contact). Their Leaders are Black Lotuses, who can buff the offensive capabilities of the Lotus Warriors at the risk of killing them. And the Character Leader is Madam Mui, who can attack up to six times in an activation - potentially deadly if she's up against soft targets or gets extremely lucky.

Also finished are the Rank 2 Specialists available to Shael Han. The big dragon is a Fulung Devourer, painted blue to stand out among the green and red theme of the force. The three smaller models are the Character Specialists for the faction - Red Willow, Hong Yai, and Deathbloom.

This means I've completed everything available to Shael Han from the first book! After a congratulatory pat on the back, I suppose I need to get working on Book 2 units.

As the Stomping Ground Blood Bowl League continues, I've gotten to the point where I needed to add a little muscle to the Baltimork Corviks. So I grabbed a Reaper Bones Ice Troll and painted it up in the team colors.

Here's something that hasn't shown up on my blog in a while. These are a pair of Humber scout cars for my British. I'm hoping to use them either with Iron Cross or Combat HQ (or even Flames of War, depending on the release of Version 4 of the rules).

2017 6x6 Challenge - March

Games Played in March

Vavoom City Tarts vs Baltimork Corviks, Playoff Game - Blood Bowl AAR

Bull$%^&! - Arena Rex AAR

Irregularities - Muskets & Tomahawks AAR

With both the British and French forces painted for Muskets & Tomahawks, Carl and I finally got together for a game. We were using two forces at a little over 200 points each, which were fairly equal in abilities. 

French Wilderness Force (Carl)

Canadian Officer

Canadian Militia x8

Canadian Militia x8

-Coureur de Bois

French-allied Indians x6

British Wilderness Force (Brian)

Colonial Officer

-Ranger

Rangers x8

-Marksmen

Rangers x8

British-allied Indians x6

We rolled for the buildings, with one going in the center and Carl placing another nearby (it does look like I placed the "center" building a little too close to one side of the table). The rest of the table was covered with scattered woods for dense terrain. For simplicity's sake, we both went for the Engagement objective (so we would need to kill sixteen models from the other side to win), with no events or side plots.

With each unit having the Scout rules, the game began with hidden deployment markers on the table, with both sides having two dummy markers as well.

One of my ranger units was the first to be revealed, hoping that the enemy wouldn't reveal themselves too soon.

That bet didn't pay off, with Carl revealing his militia in the dense cover with a volley of musket fire. Three of my rangers fell, and the unit recoiled.

The French woodsmen moved into one of the abandoned cabins, spotting and revealing my second ranger unit.

The rangers advanced, with one unit approaching the cabin for a point blank shot.

Carl's Indian allies managed to get close enough to spot the British-allied Indians. Another Indian card allowed them to shoot, killing two and recoiling the unit.

Luckily, my rangers were up next, and the one unit fired a point-blank shot into the Coureur de Bois in the cabin, killing three and recoiling the unit.

Both sides were in the fight, with only the Canadian officer still hidden.

My rangers fired a volley at the French Indians, forcing them back with a single casualty.

The Canadian miltia shifted to their left and fired with two cards, sending my rangers into flight.

The rangers managed to rally, turning and firing at the Coureur de Bois who were trying to sneak up the side of the cabins.

At this point, it looked grim for the Canadians. They had one unit of militia still intact, but their Indians had almost fled off the table and the Coureur de Bois were down to two men.

Suddenly, the tables turned on the British. Their Indian allies were routed from the table, and the Canadian militia wheel and turned to face the suddenly outflanked rangers.

Well, things had turned very bloody very quickly. The Canadian militia killed two of the rangers, and further shots from the Coureur de Bois and Indians sent the unit fleeing across the table. Meanwhile, the other rangers managed to land a devastating volley on the Canadian Militia, wiping out half the unit with a little assistance from the ranger officer. A return shot sent the rangers fleeing, however.

At this point, the British had reached their break point, and the morale card was added to the deck.

The two sides managed to rally again, approaching for another round of combat.

More rangers and militia fell on both sides, putting the French and British over the goal for the scenario in the same turn. Counting up casualties, Carl had managed to score eighteen to my sixteen, giving the French a very bloody victory.

We enjoyed the game, and I'm hoping to get it to the table a little more often, hopefully with more of the period-flavor aspects, like canoes, events and side plots.

Wood and Iron - Warmaster Revolution AAR

Although I had only played a single game of Warmaster last year, I've had a lot of interest in getting the game to the table again (with the arguably better version that is Warmaster Revolution). So, when I found out that Shawn, who had taken part in the local Blood Bowl League, also had some High Elves in 10mm, we set up a time for a game. 

The tabled featured some woods, hills, broken ground, and impassible terrain.

We played a 1000 point game with the following lists:

High Elves
General
-Giant Eagle
-Sword of Cleaving
Hero
-Sword of Might
Wizard
-Wand of Power
Spearmen x3
Archers x2
Silver Helms
Chariots
Elven Bolt Thrower

Empire
General
Hero
-Sword of Might
Wizard
Halberdiers x4
Crossbowmen x2
Skirmishers x2
Knights x2
Pistoliers
Cannons

Shawn had his fantastically painted GW miniatures, while I was using tokens from A League of Ordinary Gamers.

Shawn won initiative. The first turns were spent by both sides trying to push their brigades forward.

Shawn continued to push his units forward. A single round of shooting from a unit of Elven archers and the bolt thrower was enough to push my Pistoliers off the table, and they fled. That'll teach me to run my units too close to the table edge.

I moved the brigade of two Halberdier units with attached skirmishers into the woods, with the the knights to their left.

Our two cavalry wings were the first to reach each other. Shawn took the risk and sent in his chariots, impacting against one of my Knight units. After a back and forth, both sides were reduced to a single stand.

The accuracy of the Elven archers was enough to disrupt the combined Crossbowman/Halberdier brigade. However, I managed to counter with a charge from the remaining Knight stand, killing his last Chariot.

Now the infantry were getting into the fight, as Shawn launched his Spearmen brigade into the woods, devastating one of the Halberdier units.

He brought in his knights in an attempt to remove one of my Knight units. But a lucky roll saw a tie in the combat, and my knights retreated out of the danger.

Continuing with his infantry attack, Shawn removed the unit of Halberdiers from the forest, and his bolt throwers slaughtered my cannons.

With the High Elf army at two units lost, and the Empire army at three units lost, both sides were only two unit away from breaking. However, poor dice on the part of the High Elves, and some very hot dice from the Empire, saw the combat in the woods break for the humans. With an additional unit lost from a Halberdier charge into a weakened archer unit, the game ended with an Empire victory.

It was a fun game, and really came down to a single turn. If I hadn't had some pretty lucky dice rolls, Shawn's elves would have rolled right through my lines. Hopefully we'll get more Warmaster on the table in the future, and this does lend some motivation for me to work on my Dogs of War.