A Good Krumpin' - Heroes of Black Reach AAR

Continuing on from last week, I pulled out my copy of Dropzone #1, a demo version of Heroes of Black Reach (an upcoming game from Devil Pig Games). If it sounds or looks familiar, that's because it's a reskinned and modified Heroes of Normandie, set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe. 

I decided to pick up Dropzone because I've heard HoN praised time and time again, and because I'm on a continuing quest to play 40k without having to actually play 40k. 

Dropzone #1 includes a cut down rulebook, a paper map, and two cardboard counter punchboards. The units included in the demo are unique, meaning it's worth picking up apart from the core set and the army expansion sets. 

The demo game's scenario is fairly simple: to win, one side must occupy more of the four squares at the center of the map than the other side at the end of six game turns. 

The forces were:

Space Marines

Tactical Squad Solinus

--Grenades

--Heavy Weapon (Heavy Bolter)

Malcian

Orks

Mob Boss

--Boss

Choppas

--Grenades

Shootas

--Heavy Weapon (Big Shoota)

--Ammo

The scenarios deploys both sides in opposite corners of the map. The Orks have the numbers, but the Space Marines are better overall in quality.

Both sides advanced in the first turn, taking long range shots while on the move, which failed to cause any hits.

The Ultramarines continued their advance into turn 2, forcing the Orks back and removing a Shoota unit from the table. The Orks caused some damage in return, wounding both Sgt. Solinus and Malcian.

At the end of turn 3, the Space Marines had continues to hold the line, preventing the Orks from moving towards the objective. Another unit of Shootas was removed from the table, as Malcian advanced towards the entrenched Big Shoota, but the Space Marines' Meltagun unit was damaged.

Unfortunately, a burst from the Big Shoota was enough to remove Malcian from the table, and he was quickly followed by the Meltagun. While the Orks continued to take hits, Sam's force was now in danger of being flanked.

Of course, that wasn't going to deter the Ultramarines. The Orks lost enough units in Turn 5 to break both the Shootas and Sluggas, depriving the Orks of two of the four orders they had started with. The Orks, however, failed to cause any damage to the Space Marines. If the Emperor's Finest could contest the objective through the final turn, they'd win on victory points.

Unfortunately, Mork's eye had turned to the battlefield, and the Ork Boss managed to assault and remove Sgt. Solinus, occupying the square in the process. This was enough to secure an Ork victory, despite the massive losses!

Sam and I had fun, and it was nice to get our heads around the rules. I'm going buy the core set when it comes out, as it really does seem to give a good approximation of 40k without needing to play the miniatures game.

Dropzone #1 does come with some extras - the Space Marines can include a Rhino APC in their force, and the Orks can recruit a Killa Kan and a Trukk transport. Both sides can also take another heavy weapon options (Missile launchers).

I also managed to track down a copy of February 2018's White Dwarf, which included a unique punchboard with a unique Space Marine and Ork character.

What I'm especially hopeful for is the release of more factions - Devil Pig Games has already hinted that Eldar and Chaos Marines are expected as expansions.

Charlie Don't Hex - '65 AAR

My experience in the wargaming hobby has, for the most part, only dealt with miniatures. While these games are played on the tabletop with rules for movement dictated by tape measures or other distance measuring devices, some use squares or hexes.

However, there's a whole genre of wargames that, up until know, I've mostly ignored - hex and counter. I've dabbled a bit here and there - I own a copy of OGRE and the 150th anniversary edition of Battle Cry, and have played both. But these kinds of games are mostly unknown to me, and I'm hoping to rectify that in the future.

So when Sam offered up a chance to play '65 from Flying Pig Games, I eagerly accepted.

I'd seen other games from '65 before in the local community, most notably Armageddon War, which plays out a full scaled ground war in the Middle East in the near future.

'65 focuses on squad level combat in Vietnam, with counters representing teams of infantry or single gun teams or vehicles. It's also completely diceless - shooting and assaulting is determined by drawing cards from the deck and hoping to match color designators to the "success" color noted on the original action card.

For our first game, Sam and I play Scenario 1 in the rulebook. An understrength American infantry platoon had to evict a VC force from a nearby village. To win, the Americans had to score six points; +1 point for every building hex controlled at the end of the game, and +1 point for every VC unit destroyed. The VC had to prevent this by scoring -1 for every American unit destroyed. And both sides had a secret objective they had to accomplish.

Turns in '65 are done in impulses, depending on who has the initiative (by playing a card with a higher value at the beginning of the turns). Players play a card to use one of two actions on a card, which allow a unit or a stack of units to move, shoot, rally, fire artillery, etc. Some cards allow reactions, like retreating from an assault, or decreasing the amount of firepower or wounds a unit takes.

By the end of the game (7 turns), the VC had been reduced to a single wounded RPD unit, surrounded by Americans. Tallying up the points, however, revealed that the American had failed to meet their objective, only scoring 2 out of the required six.

It was a fun game, and I'm hoping to play some more in the future. There are plenty more scenarios, and I'd like to revisit this a couple more times - once as the Americans, and another as the VC, when Sam and I have a better handle on the rules.

Go for the Gold - ADLG AAR

Since moving away from the main group of players, I haven't had a chance to get ADLG out on the table. 

Recently, while rearranging my hobby room, I realized that a 15mm DBx-based army I bought last year off of eBay could potentially be large enough to form a ADLG force. Flipping through the book, I decided to try the game's Swiss Army knife faction - the Condottieri. 

Sure enough, my purchased miniatures could be used with the Florentine variation. I sent an email to Sam asking if he'd like to try out the game. 

Sam accepted, and took up the role as the commander for my Free Company. So, our two mercenary forces would go at each other somewhere in the plains of western Europe.

Sam won initiative and chose to defend.

Unfortunately, my terrain collection is really only meant for Triumph! and DBA - I'm going to need to fix that with some felt cloth - so the pieces were somewhat smaller than they should have been. Three fields, a village, a water feature, a gully, and a gentle hill covered the battlefield.

Our forces consisted of:

Condottieri (Florentine)
Initiative: 2

1st Command, C-in-C, Competant
-4 Heavy Knights Impact
-1 Medium Cavalry Crossbow
-2 Light Horse Bow

2nd Command, Competant
-2 Foot Knight
-2 Mixed Unit Heavy Spearmen/Crossbows
-1 Levy
-2 Medium Cavalry Crossbow

3rd Command, Ordinary
-2 Mediocre Pikemen
-2 Elite Longbowmen
-2 Light Infantry Crossbow
-1 Heavy Artillery

Free Company
Initiative: 1

1st Command, C-in-C, Brilliant
-5 Heavy Knights Impetuous
-2 Light Infantry Javelin

2nd Command, Ordinary
-2 Elite Foot Knights
-2 Foot Knights
-2 Heavy Swordsmen 2HW
-2 Light Infantry Crossbow

3rd Command, Ordinary
-4 Elite Longbowmen with Stakes

Both sides advanced towards each other for the first couple turns. I realized my mistake in deploying my heavy artillery on the flank. I wanted my pikes and longbows to be just outside the fields, but doing so meant blocking my artillery's line of sight.

In the center, our two lines of knights ended up facing each other when Sam charged my light horse, causing them to flee behind my own knights.

The battle looked something akin to a giant wheel, with the two armies taking mirrored actions - advancing on one flank, holding on the other, and fighting a brutal melee in the center.

Sam's impetuous knights surged forward and hit my own knights. While the combat ended up with more of his units taking cohesion hits, two of my four knights lost two cohesion each in the attack.

On the right flank, Sam's archers had managed to rout one of my mixed units, but the rest of the command charged into combat.

While I technically had the better force for close combat, the Elite status of the longbowmen managed to save them in a few key combats, although one unit was routed by my knights.

In the center, Sam had lost most of his knights, but my remaining units all had become disordered.

Sam's command of foot infantry had finally gotten close to spitting range, but my longbowmen and artillery weren't doing much to help the situation.

Seeing an opportunity, Sam decided to risk fighting in the fields against my longbowmen and Mediocre pikes. And it paid off! At the end of his turn, both armies had reached their breakpoints (19 for the Free Company, and 21 for the Condottieri). However, since the Condottieri had gone over their breakpoint (22 points), we decided that the game was a minor victory for the Free Company.

This was a good chance to relearn ADLG's rules, although I'm certain there were plenty of instances where I got it wrong. I'm hoping to introduce the rules to more people in the area and get some interest going.

The Mountain Pass - Red Book of the Elf King AAR

Red Book of the Elf King is a new game produced by Lucid Eye Publications and written by Rick Priestly, to accompany Lucid Eye's line of miniatures. 

The game is set during the Fae Revanche - the great civil war between various Circles of the elves, after the Elf King left his throne for the Outworlds. 

Players chose a Thane and a number of Companions (units of three Elves each), along with their Glamours (powerful spells that only the Thane can cast) and then attempt to assert their supremacy and claim the vacant throne!

This was our first game, using the special introductory scenario in the rulebook. Two Thanes and their Companions find themselves at an impasse - while traveling through a mountain pass, both sides block the way, and neither Thane will back down and allow the other to continue on.

We used Vachel Goldenhand and Saylian Trollblood for this game, with Sam taking Vachel and the set of Glamours with lower casting value, while I played with Saylian and the Glamour set with higher casting values.

The objective was simple - either kill the opposing Thane or cause the most wounds before the end of four turns.

The Thanes and their Companions deployed on opposite sides of the pass, taking cover in the shade of old ruins.

Both sides spent the first turn advancing, out of range for either charges or Rhud magic (shooting attacks, which all elves can cast).

The second turn saw all the action. Combats between Companions sprang up across the ruins, with Vachel's warriors of the Throne of Towers easily thrashing Saylians supporter from the Sarlant March. It didn't help that Vachel's Companions were immune to Courage tests from Shooting attacks, which Saylian's Companions favored.

In the midst of battle, Vachel was able to charge Saylian, and caused three wounds - leaving Saylian with only a single wound left! Saylian's attacks were unable to pierce his opponent's defense.

A unit of Saylian's Companions, seeing their Thane in mortal peril, managed to charge and force Vachel to retreat. However, this left Saylian open to a charge from one of Vachel's Companion units. While Saylian's blades did their work - leaving only a single, wounded Companion left - one elf's spear managed to find its mark, striking Saylian down.

The Lord of the Sarlent March's beaten and bloodied body was pulled from the field by his Companions, while Vachel led his victorious warband through the mountain pass.

This was a fun, if quick, intro scenario. I'm looking forward to playing more and larger games, where both sides have a Thane, six units of Companions, and seven Glamour spells to cast. The rules are fairly simple, with a unique activation mechanics (both sides roll a d6 to determine how many activation tokens are placed in a bag, along with an amount equal to a neutral d6).

The Glamours are interesting, and can be fairly powerful, if they go off right. For example, I used Red Death during the game, which causes a chain reaction of Defense rolls with a penalty. Any model that fails a Defense roll has takes a wound, and the spell jumps to the next elf in the unit. If a unit all fails their Defense roll, the spell then jumps to the next closest unit. With enough poor rolls, an entire warband can be affected.

Of course, Sam managed to save on the first warrior, and my spell sputtered out.

I'm looking forward to playing more games of RBotEK, and to seeing what releases lie in the future. Lucid Eye has already released Trolls and Humans (with only the Trolls having rules in the game thanks to a scenario in the back), and there are rumors of Goblins and Dwarves.

Painting Update - Gangs of Rome, Konflikt 47

We're back again with a look at what I've finished painting recently.

Gangs of Rome is a new skirmish game that's both easy to pick up and fun to play. There are a couple aspects that are a little gimmicky - your gang members are randomly generated and you get a card in each fighter pack you buy, along with four randomly distributed equipment coins and their associated cards - that gave me pause before picking the game up.

But the game has been enjoyable to play, the fighter cards aren't overpowered by themselves, and there's a decent balance between a fighter having better overall states (which increases their point cost) and having less points to spend on equipment to use in the game.

There are also some non-random miniatures used in the game. The two on the left are Agente and Gladiator, which are equipment that become models at the start of the game. The center model is a dominus, who acts as a representation of the player and objective in certain scenarios. And the two models on the right are Barca and Tisiphone, named characters with non-random skills and attributes that players can include in their gangs.

I can also put a check mark next to my Konflikt 47 Germans, since I've got enough to field a 1250 list with some options. There's 20 zombies, a sniper team, a mortar team, and a kubelwagen.