A Beach of a Walk - Big Battle DBA Battle Report

This past weekend, Sam put on a game of BBDBA for the South Jersey Gamers Association. 

The battle was an invasion from the sea by an alliance of Spartans, Thebans and Asiatics. The defenders were Athenians, Thessalians, and Phokians. The invading force needed to capture the acropolis.

The Spartan force took up the center of the invader's battle line, with the Thebans to their left and the Asiatics on the right.

The defenders had the Phokians place their artillery and hoplites in the acropolis. The other Phokian units (mostly psiloi) and the Athenians deployed to the right  of the city, while the Thessalians defended the area to the left, over the river.

For the first few bounds of the game, the two sides marched across the verdent fields, vineyards, and groves to try and get into position.

Both sides were mostly made up of heavy infantry, so progress was slow. But eventually the various armies managed to move into line. The Phokians and Asiatics lined up their psiloi on one flank, while the Thessalians and Thebans moved their heavy infantry into the good going on the the other.

As the commander of the Athenians, I managed to get my hoplites into the open ground in front of the acropolis, forcing the Spartans to fight partially in rough ground.

The Athenians and Phokians managed to get their Light Horse through a gap in the enemies' line, which forced them to divert units away from the main fight to try and keep the horsemen hemmed in.

The Spartans and Athenians were the first to get to grips with each other. I noticed that, with units like Spears, you really need to make sure you've got a solid line. Combat factors bonuses from Flank Support, and being outflanked, can potentially spell disaster. For example, a lone unit of Spears facing off against three units of Spears will have a combat factor of 2, against the attacking units combat factor of 6!

Near the beach, my unit of light horse managed to defeat a Spartan psiloi unit, leaving a small group of Spartan hoplites dangerously exposed.

The Spartans finally began to move out of column and into a wider line of battle, but the Athenians managed to hold them back.

The Theban general, preferring to lead from the front, suddenly found himself alone and in close combat with the Thessalian hoplites, but he managed to survive. The Thessalian horsemen, however, realized that the river was easily forded and moved across, easily passing through the gap in the invaders' line.

The Phokian and Athenian light horse managed to rout the Spartan hoplites as their Asiatic allies looked on with relative nonchalance. While the Asiatic and Spartan rears were safe, the Thebans were wide open, unable to stop the combined cavalry of the defenders.

Both the Spartans and Athenians lost more units in the ongoing scrum, but the Spartans were the first to break and flee the field of battle.

As the Thebans desperately held across the river, the Asiatics and Phokian psiloi began to engage, with little effect.

The Thebans were the next army to break, unable to push through the Thessalian heavy infantry at their front or stop the defenders' cavalry in their rear.

With two of their allies gone, the Asiatics retreated as well, relatively intact for their troubles.

The Athenians, Thessalians and Phokians celebrated their victory with much wine and rejoicing!

Sam put on a fantastic game, providing the terrain and armies. We actually were the first people to play on this terrain since it had been commissioned by Sam almost half a decade ago.

DBA continues to be a fun set of rules for relatively simple Ancients combat (as long as you've gotten past the somewhat difficult language. I'm also wondering if we could replay this game using the Triumph! ruleset. Playing a big Dark Ages game would also be fantastic.

Empire Cup 4 - Blood Bowl AAR

This past Saturday, I drove up to Long Beach Island to attend Empire Cup 4, my first Blood Bowl tournament. 

I decided to take my Chaos Dwarves, since I had used them in the recent league and had a decent grasp on how to run the team. Team had a 1.1 million gold budget to spend on their team, and then additional gold to spend on skills depending on their Tier. Since Chaos Dwarves were Tier 1, I had 60k to spend. I gave one Bull Centaur Break Tackle, and the other Block and Mighty Blow. I also took Zzharg Madeye for more ST and ball handling skills. 

My goal for the tournament was to at least get a touchdown against an experience opponent. Anything else was a bonus!

My Round 1 game was against Cary and his Goblins team. It had the full compliment of Goblin craziness - chainsaw, ball-and-chain, doom diver, 'ooligan, pogoer, and bombardier - along with a couple of Block Trolls.

However, a few lucky dice rolls (and not one, but three interceptions from the Bull Centaurs) meant that I was able to win the game, 3-0.

My Round 2 opponent was Ramsay and his Chaos Dwarves. We both realized that this was going to be a slow, methodical game. Ramsay had decided to drop the Bull Centaurs in favor of taking a Block and Claw skilled Minotaur. While I managed to foul it off the table, it was definitely the focus of my team for the first half.

While both Ramsay and I managed to score, an unfortunate double 1 when trying to Go For It with a Bull Centaur allowed Ramsay to run a hobgoblin in for a Turn 16 touchdown. The game was a loss, 1-2.

My round 3 opponent was Campbell and his Norse team.

Unfortunately, I made a few mistakes during this match - getting greedy with a 1 die block and reroll, for example - and the dice were against me. This was a bad game for the Immortals, with a lot of Dwarf casualties. I also had a Hail Mary pass from Zzhargh scatter off the pitch, when it could have been a tying result for the game. It ended up as a loss, 0-1.

I placed 7th out of 8 players, but was awarded Best Sportmanship. At least I accomplished my goal of getting a touchdown!

It was a fun time, and I enjoyed my first tournament. However, it definitely showed me that I'm not a fan of driving 2.5 to 3 hours each way to get to a day long event. I'm considering the two day event later this year, since that'll at least give me a day to recover.

Down in the Dirt - Fistful of Lead AAR

While there's been some interest in starting up a Dracula's America campaign, I took advantage of some terrain built for that game to play some Fistful of Lead. 

This was a pretty simple shoot 'em up between Bill and I - four gang members on either side, each armed with a pistol. 

Near the train stations, both sides advanced cautiously.

However, in the center of town, our gang members were running wild, their guns firing (and missing).

My one cowpoke attempted to stick his head out for a better shot. Not only did his gun jam, but his was pinned by Bill's return fire.

A Clint Eastwood look-alike used his sixshooter to gun down my moonshine-swilling pistolier.

Bill also attempted to shoot my pinned man, but his own gun jammed. A follow up into close combat then left Bill's gang member pinned!

Bill was having better luck across town, with both of my other gang members shot and killed.

Now it was just my one gang member left, his gun jammed and pinned by the bullets slamming into the dust.

Bill's man in black tried for another round in close combat, but a knife hidden in my cowboy's boot put the opposing gang member down for coffin measurements.

Bill was determined to kill my last gang member, but once again, the close combat went my way, and my dust covered gunslinger was victorious.

By then, Bill had determined that while my last man might have been decent in hand-to-hand, he was still pinned and out of ammo. His two remaining gang members simply stood back and emptied their guns, doing enough wounds to turn my last fighter into a grisly Swiss cheese.

Fistful of Lead continues to be a fun, quick game for fights in the Old West. I'm looking forward to the eventual release of the sci-fi version, which I hope to use for Necromunda.

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.