2018 6x6 Challenge - Retrospective

I hope everyone's been enjoying the holidays!

Since I did one of these last year, I though I'd follow up with another look at how how my 2018 6x6 Challenge went.

While Alan over at the Stronghold Rebuilt didn't run the event, I still liked the idea of picking six games to try and focus on over the course of the year.

So, the games for 2018 were:

1. Arena Rex - 1
2. DBA - Completed
3. Muskets & Tomahawks - 1
4. Test of Honour - Completed
5. Warmaster Revolution - 3
6. WWII - 5

Like last year, I'm not wholly satisfied with the results, but not entirely unhappy with them either. While I only completed two of the six games (where, last year, I managed to complete three), I played each of the games at least once. 

So, let's break it down, game by game.

Arena Rex

Yet again, I'm disappointed by my ability to get Arena Rex out on the table. It's a fun, fast game with a ruleset that's easy to learn but has some surprising depth. To be fair, I'm the only one with models to it and it's an extremely boutique game with expensive, fragile models. 

Maybe I can work on getting another faction for the game in the next year. The Helleniki look pretty cool...

DBA

This year was a my big foray into DBA, and I don't regret it. They make for quick, vicious games in a small area that can look pretty good with the right terrain. I'm looking forward to playing more if I can, and I've got a couple Dark Ages armies that need to be worked on.

Muskets & Tomahawks

Another game that I only played once, and because I signed up for a game at Fall In! 2018. I've got forces for the game (although I need to finish the British Regulars I've got sitting in a foam tray), and the necessary terrain for it. But other games took precedence over the past year. 

Test of Honour

Test of Honour started off as fairly popular at the beginning of the year, which is why I was able to rack up so many games and complete this part of the challenge. However, with Half Day Studio closing, interest in the game quickly fell off. I've also cooled on the rules. They're alright, but very shallow. And because it's a pool-success based game, players can go for activation after activation with nothing happening. 

Maybe in 2019 I can explore different rulesets to use these miniatures with. 

Warmaster Revolution

Let's be honest here - I only managed to sneak any games of this in because of the tournament at Fall In! 2018. However, they still count!

I enjoyed learning the Warmaster rules, and my outing with the Ogre Kingdoms was fun. There was a decent amount of interest at the convention, with attendees stopping by and happily recognizing the rules and minis (apart from my Ogres). It looks like there's going to be another tournament at Cold Wars 2019, and I've got a Dogs of War army that I'm planning to use.

WWII

So, this category was supposed to be an attempt to find a new ruleset to use my 15mm miniatures with, since interest in Flames of War is basically at an all time low. What it (mostly) ended up being was a bunch of Konflikt 47, with a single game of What a Tanker! thrown in for good measure.

That's alright, but it meant that I ended up buying a bunch of miniatures for another of Warlord's rulesets. They're fun and I mostly enjoy them, but I think I burned out playing against Keith's British over and over again. Maybe I'll get it to the table in 2019, maybe not. 

So that's the 2018 Challenge, but there's not going to be a 2019 follow up. Instead, I'm taking a different approach, with a post that will be coming out in the new year.

By the way, this blog's birthday just passed. It's now six years old! 

A World of Tanks - What a Tanker! AAR

This past weekend was the monthly meeting of the South Jersey Gamers Assocation. Unfortunately, a scheduling conflict meant that the planned game of Dracula's America wasn't going to happen, and a call went out for a replacement game. 

While Ted had his French and Indian War game of Share Practice planned, I took the oppurtunity to pick up a digital copy of What a Tanker!, the WWII tank skirmish game also from TooFatLardies. I'd been meaning to get the rules at some point, since I've been searching for a ruleset that will get my 15mm collection back out on the table. 

The scenario was pretty simple - a head-to-head clash of armor. Red Team had Panzer Mk IVs, while Blue Team had a combination of Shermans M4s and Cromwell Mk IVs. While the Germans had better firepower, Blue Team had the advantage of the Cromwell's higher armor and Fast attribute which would allow them to stay on the move even with a bad roll of the dice.

With two players on either side, I cut number of tanks to four on each team.

The first turn basically saw both sides getting to grips with the command dice rolls, and moving into position.

The table was laid out to have two major play areas. The teams could go into the hills, which blocked line of sight and were impassible. This was better for fast maneuvering, where spotting a tank would be easy, but getting shot back at in return was a risk. The other option was to go through the hedgerows, which were minor obstacles. It would take more effort to move through and spot the enemy, but it also made for a better defensive position.

The first casualty of the game was one of Blue Team's Shermans, who took a side shot from a Panzer hugging the side of the table.

The Panzer running up the side of the table managed to sneak in another kill, knocking out the Blue Team's second Sherman.

Sam, in the mean time, had used his Cromwell's superior speed to rush across the board and get behind the Red Team's line.

Sam used the oppurtunity to get a couple hits in the rear of one of the Panzers, who needed to use its command dice to swing its turret around to get a shot - which missed.

As Blue Team was getting hit pretty hard, I decided to bring the last Sherman in as a reinforcement. The eager tank crew came in along the road, fired one shot that missed, and were subsequently blown up by the waiting Panzer.

So far, the Shermans had failed to impress against the Panzers.

Now Blue Team had their backs against the wall, with four Panzers chasing after the two shermans.

However, Sam managed to get a well-aimed shot through the rear armor of a wounded Panzer, which resulted in the tank's destruction.

The rest of the battle took place in the village, with the teams jockeying for advantage. Sam took a risky maneuver that placed him in the rear of each of the Red Teams' Panzers.

The risk paid off when Sam was able to destroy another German tank - but then his Cromwell blew up in return when another of Red Teams' tanks spun around and put a round into his side armor.

With only a single damaged tank left, Blue Team decided to run up the white flag.

The game was pretty well recieved, although there was some hesitation about the command dice. It can be somewhat frustrating when you can't seem to roll what you need, leaving your tank stranded in the open or unable to fire at a target right in front of you. I'll chalk that up to it being a Lardies ruleset - they seem to be rules that players either love or hate.

That said, I had fun running and playing the game, so I'm looking forward to playing it again. Maybe in 28mm?

PAX Liberty Bowl 2019 - Blood Bowl AAR

November 30th through December 2nd saw thousands of geeks descending on Philadelphia to take part in the second PAX Unplugged - a convention celebrating everything tabletop gaming. Hundreds of board games, role playing games, and miniature games were played, attendees flooded the expo hall to fill their bags with loot, and local eateries were overwhelmed with increased demand. 

I did my part by putting together a Blood Bowl tournament on Friday. It was a pretty straitforward affair, since I didn't want to mess around too much with a well established formula on my first go - 1.1 millions teams, standard inducements, and 3 tiers of teams. Swiss scoring was in effect, with bonus points for casulaties and touchdowns.

We had a pretty good spread of teams, with Orcs being the most popular at 3 teams. The other teams included Amazons, Halflings, Goblins, Pro Elves, Humans, Chaos Dwarves, Undead, Khemri, and Slann. 

My original expectation for the event was 16 players, and the actual number ended up being 13, so I had to jump in as a ringer. 

There was plenty of interest from passerbys, and I had to unfortunately turn a couple away from the event since I couldn't fit them in after we had finished the first round.

From what the players told me after the event, everyone had a great time, and I was glad to hear it. It was a bit of a risk putting the event on a Friday, but doing to with PAX meant that the players had Saturday and Sunday to get their fill of the rest of the convention.

I ended up bringing my Slann/Kislev team with a pretty simple gameplan - use Leap as much as possible.

My first opponent was Shawn (the same guy whose High Elves I played against in the Warmaster tournament at Fall In!), who had brought his Orcs.

The game went pretty much as expected. The Orcs were having a great time beating up my Fantasy Russian Acrobats, but my non-brand-name Elves were able to use their higher agility, movement, and Leap skill to score a couple of touchdowns for the win.

My second opponent was Andrew and his Khemri team. I had flashbacks to one of my first games in the old Stomping Grounds league, when a pair of Mighty Blow Tomb Guardians wiped out my Orc team.

However, the dice were in my favor for this game, with Andrew losing a Tomb Guardian to an unlucky casualty roll. In fact, the Slann managed to cause three casulaties against Andrews team!

Once again, the higher speed and agility of my team meant I was able to quickly score, and Leaping Blitzers with Wrestle were able to keep the ball out of the Khemri team's hands for another win.

My last opponent was Kevin, who was coaching Amazons.

This was my toughest match, and a risky moved worked against me when a lone ball-carrying Catcher deep in Andrews backfield was knocked down. Andrew was able to make use of his pair of Guard Blitzers to form a cage that even my Leaping Blitzers couldn't break open, and the game ended up as a loss.

That put me in 6th out of 14 - not great, but certainly better than I expected for a team that I had never played before apart from a couple games in the computer version of Blood Bowl.

As I said, I enjoyed running a tournament, and I'm already considering how I can make next year's event a little more unique - maybe some Philly star players?

A Charming Field for an Encounter - Muskets & Tomahawks AAR

On Saturday of Fall In, I participated in a game of Muskets & Tomahawks, run by Kimber VanRy and Jameson Proctor of the Metropolitan Wargamers group. 

The game was a recreation of the Battle of Fort Necessity, one of the initial skirmishes of the French and Indian War (and of the wider Seven Years War). 

The American and British defenders had to hold the "fort" (really, just a collection of tree trunks jammed into the ground in the form of a rough circle and a shoddy storehouse for supplies), while the French, Canadians, and their Indians allies wanted to capture the "fort" as well as the defenders' commanding officer - a young Lt. Col George Washington. 

The British force (of which I was commanding half) consisted of a mix of Regular and Provincial troops. While James Mackay - the other British commander - was out with the men in the half-made trenches, Washington would be directing the battle from inside the walls of the fort.

The French force consisted of Indian warriors and Canadian provincials, with a single unit of French Regulars to form a stiff backbone for the attackers.

The huddled British troops, soaked in their shallow trenches, couldn't do much more than stand and watch the mass of bodies gathering at the far treeline.

The game began with limited skirmishing, before the Indians and Canadians to the left of the fort charged en mass against the fort's meagre defenses.

To the fort's front, a single unit of Indians moved out of the woods to get into range, the rest of the French forces decided to stay in the woods and engage at range.

The defenders sent out volley after volley of withering fire, which smashed into the approaching attackers with deadly results, forcing several units to flee or rout.

However, the mass of bodies was enough that the attackers could approach while the British were forced to reload their guns.

The French Regulars, seeing that there British counterparts were duly engaged, emerged from the woods in a firing line and because their attack.

The defenders, while able to take cover, were under such heavy fire that the individual losses began to take their toll. The men in the fort waited as a reserve.

The Canadians, using the natives as a shield against the British fire, made it to the trenches and attacked the defenders in close combat.

The British repulsed the attack, but with casualties.

The attackers came again and again, until finally one unit of British Regulars were either killed or unable to continue the fight, and a unit of Marines was past the trenches.

The remaining British in the trenches rallied and sent the Marines off. With so few defenders left, the men in the fort were able to fire on the French.

While the attack on the left had mostly run out of energy and men, the Indians, Provincials and Regulars to the front began their advance on the fort.

Most of the men in the trenches were out of action, and only the Provincials in the fort were left to keep the attacks away.

Unfortunately, the French weight of fire was too much, and even with the protection of the fort, men began to fall. Washington, understanding the futility of his position, decided to surrender.

Kimber and Jameson put on a fantastic game, and it's only encouraged me to get my FIW miniatures on the table for more games of Muskets & Tomahawks.

Fall In 2018, Ogre Kingdoms vs. High Elves - Warmaster Revolution AAR

My final game of the tournament was against Dave, the organizer, and his High Elves. The scenario was Flank Attack, were the attacker had to designate about a third of their force to arrive from one of the battlefield's flank after a random amount of time. Victory was determined by VP from breaking units, or breaking an opponent's army. 

Dave's elves took cover in the fields on his side, while my Ogres once again took their sweet time getting a move on.

As his force largely consisted of archers and spearmen, I knew that my Ogres could rip into Dave's army, if only I could reach them in time.

Dave's army could put out a frightening amount of shots that, because they're High Elves, mostly hit on 3+. With his supporting Reavers, Elven Bolt Throwers, and Wizards, my forces ended up getting hammered on the way in.

Of course, as I was wrangling with my army and trying to get to grips with those pesky long-ears, Dave's flanking force showed up. I had to throw one of my Irongut units over to the right to try and slow down oncoming cavalry.

You also might notice a distinct lack of Giant. That's because he decided to chase a butterfly all the way to the edge of my back table edge, effectively remcoing him from the game.

Now the game was mostly played on the right flank, as my left crumbled. I was trying to deal with elves on three fronts, and it wasn't going well.

For a bright, shining moment, however, it seemed like my Ogres, with their higher Attack and Hit values, would be able to pull out a victory in the scrum, as they tore through one of Dave's battalions.

That dream was shattered when my commander was forced into a unit when retreating from a High Elf unit, and was then charged by chariots in the open. And on a flank.

The Tyrant was killed, and the Ogres broke and fled, leaving the High Elves in command of the field.

All-in-all, I had a great time during the tournament. Dave did a great job of adapting 6th Edition Warhammer Fantasy Battle scenarios to Warmaster, my opponents were fun to play against, and I feel like the three games helped me get a handle on the rules.

As I've said before on plenty of other blog posts, I'm hoping to play more in the future. And I've got another army (Dogs of War) to get painted!