The Battle of Charleroi - Contemptible Little Armies AAR

This past weekend was the SJGA's monthly meeting, and the featured game was Contemptible Little Armies being run by John. 

The scenario was based on the Battle of Charleroi. After a supposedly "devastating" artillery barrage, the French were to advance in force against a depleted German defensive position. While outnumbered, the Germans were in good cover and started in concealment. The French would have to advance across the open ground before being able to assault the Germans and take hold of the buildings.  

Most of the French force consisted of regular infantry, with a couple units of marines to prop up the assault. Also included in the attackers were a unit of cavalry, an heavy machine gun, and a 75mm field gun.

For the first few turns, the French moved unopposed towards the town.

It wasn't until the French had entered into small arms range that the Germans revealed themselves, firing into the closest opposing infantry squad and causing casualties.

Still, the solid wave of red-pantsed Frenchmen continued onwards.

The rest of the German defenders revealed themselves as the French approached the road. A defending HMG opened fire and another German squad moved forward to the edge of the woods they occupied.

However, the press of Frenchmen was enough to put the Germans on the back foot. The HMG was assaulted and defeated, and the German squad in the woods tried to retreat to a building, only to be left out in the open.

The French continued the assault into the ruined town. The squad of Germans on the right tried to fall back into the building to their rear, but the random roll for movement left them just short of reaching cover. This left they vulnerable to an assault from the French marines. The squad on the right was forced to assault the building that had been taken by the French, and were rebuffed.

However, since the French had finally occupied a building, German reinforcements began to show up. The first units to arrive were two squads of infantry and a small squad of cavalry that assaulted a dawdling French infantry squad.

With most of the German defenders out of the way, the French began to occupy the defenses with the anticipation of having to hold on to the territory they had taken.

The next set of German reinforcements to arrive were two more infantry squads and an HMG, to the unfortunate surprise of the French infantrymen that were holding the walled garden on the edge of town.

With the enemy reinforcements approaching, the French began to move their mauled units back towards their support units, which had been left vulnerable during the attack.

The French commander watched on as his men prepared to defend the town from the encircling German units. 

Unfortunately the game had to end at that point as we had run out of time! But the French would likely have been able to hold the town long enough to ensure a strategic victory had we continued. 

While we got some very important rules wrong (like not needing to roll to activate units, and the choice of either moving or shooting) the group enjoyed the game. John's considering a rematch with the actual rules in use, and I may get a copy of the rules for myself if I can find them at a convention. I've never been a big fan of WW1 rules, but I do find the early part of the war where engagements were more about fire and maneuver to make for great games. 

TeleCom Civil War - Battletech AAR

This past weekend I drove up to Barnegat to meet up with the South Jersey Battletech Hegemony for some mech bashing action. Apparently the group's been steadily growing in size as Battletech players emerge from the woods to roll dice and count hexes. 

The scenario was a straight up brawl between opposing ComStar and Word of Blake forces lengthwise across three battlemaps. Both sides had brought a number of assault and heavy mechs, with some jump-jet equipped mediums to round things out.

Having mostly played in Succession Wars/Introductory Rules games, I got to experience some of the newer Jihad/Clan era tech - iC3 computers, Artemis LRMs, ER and Pulse Lasers, LB-X Autocannons, Guardian ECM systems, MML launchers, and XL Engines!

The Word of Blake forces had managed to sneak an Omega onto the field, somehow disguised as a Locust. I was in command of an Albatross, an Orion, a Shadow Hawk, a Griffin, and a Wolverine.

The ComStar Level IIs opposite us were an equal mix of heavies, assaults and mediums. The scariest part of the opposition were a team consisting of a Marauder and two Marauder IICs!

The first few turns were spent with both sides marching towards each other at full speed, looking to get their LRMs, various kinds of PPCs, and Gauss Rifles into range.

The ComStar force advanced on an even front, hammering the Blakists with hard munitions and bolts of energized light. I moved my half of the Blakist mechs up to engage the oncoming Marauders and the jump Mediums. Pete was using his Seraph as a spotter with its Improved C3 Computer.

However, the battle started to go against the Word of Blake around Turns 4 and 5. The Seraph was taken out with a head shot, which meant Pete had to then shift his mechs over to help my faltering lines. My mediums were getting hammered now that the Marauders had gotten close enough to start adding their weight of fire.

Suddenly my Albatross and Orion were being fired on from two sides, and the Griffin was stuck as well. Two of the Comstar mechs were in pursuit of my fleeing Shadow Hawk, but that let Pete hammer the chasing Phoenix Hawk until its engine was wrecked.

But the focused fire from the ComStar mechs was too much. My mechs were being knocked down from the constant attacks, and then taken out as they tried to get back up. The Griffin was the victim of another head shot, while the Albatross had its LRM 15 ammo take a hit, which then went straight into its XL Engine. The mechwarrior piloting the heavy managed to eject just before the entire mech went up in flames.

At that point, we decided to put a halt to the game, and the group would convene in a few weeks to keep fighting it. The Word of Blake might be able to turn the tide against their enemy, but the ComStar Mechs were in a good position to regroup and try to take out a few more Blakist mechs before having to deal with the Omega.

All in all it was a fun game! It was good to meet the SJBH guys and hopefully I can make the trip a regular outing to play more Battletech.

Painting Update - FIW

I haven't been doing much hobbywise for the past month or so thanks to vacation and work, but I did manage to finish more units for my French and Indian War project. 

These miniatures are from AW Miniatures that I got in as a kickstarter reward. They work perfectly for British and French Regulars. Each nation has an officer and two units of eight regulars each.

There's a decent amount of detail on the figures and they painted up fairly quickly.

I've got some Compagnies Franches de la Marine to add to the French, but I'll work on them at some later date.

Lights Out! - Battletech AAR

I was back up in the old neighborhood this past weekend, and was looking to game with the guys. Battletech has been generating some interest lately, with the new starter sets and the explosively popular Clan Invasion kickstarter (which I'm a backer of at the Star Captain level - I've got my eyes on a pretty nasty Trinary to bring some pain to the Inner Sphere), and all the guys have played some amount of Battletech in the past. 

So we decided to set up a fight between a couple of Light Lances to get a feeling for the rules without potentially bogging down with Heavy or Assault class mechs. Gary and Russ teamed up to form a Lance, while I had Chris for an ally. 

The battlefield was a sparsely wooded area of flat land on the left side and a mountainous region with a river running through it on the right. 

For our Lance, I was fielding a Wasp (WSP-1A) and a Stinger (STG-3R), while Chris had a Commando (CMD-2D) and a Locust (LCT-1V). 

Gary and Russ decided to double up on the same mechs. Gary was running a pair of Locusts (LCT-1E and -1V) while Russ was going Commando (CMD-2D for both). 

Gary was my main opponent for the start of the fight, and both of his Locusts came screaming across the battlefield. My own mechs walked forward into the nearby patch of woods to get cover. With the various to-hit modifiers, most of the laser, MG, and SRM fire missed, but Gary managed to score several hits on my Stinger.

On the other side of the field, Chris and Russ were more cautious in their approach.

Gary and I continued to mix it up in the woods. I was able to use my mechs' jump jets (and the initiative) to maneuver behind Gary's machine, but the dice weren't on my side and I couldn't deal much damage.

Unfortunately, Russ scored an lucky hit again Chris' Commando, which took several SRM rounds to the face. This killed the Mechwarrior and toppled the machine. Chris' remaining mech kicked up a cloud of dust as it sped away, with Russ following.

The fighting moved over to my corner of the table, with Russ' mechs following Chris into the ongoing skirmish. The mechs ended up in a line that curved around the terrain. My Stinger took more of a beating, but Chris and I weren't able to do much in return.

In a desperate act of bravado (or stupidity), I launched my Stinger towards Gary's Locust with a Death from Above attack, only needing to roll an 8 on 2d6 - pretty good odds for such a risk!

So of course I ended up rolling snake eyes, and the stinger landed on its back in front of the enemy mech.

Chris' Locust sped away from the scrum, with its counterpart under Gary's command in hot pursuit.

The Stinger was quickly turned into scrap metal, armor slagging off and melting onto the ground. Then my Wasp was knocked over and beaten up like a school yard nerd, while Russ moved a Commando to support Gary's chase.

At that point we decided to call the game. With a 4-1 advantage, Chris' Locust wasn't going to last much longer.

Gary, Chris and Russ are all longtime fans of Battletech, with on-again, off-again relationships with the game. Chris even had old folders from high school! I ended up getting the new 8 mech starter box to paint up and hopefully get some games in back down in Cape May.

Wood Nymphs Don't Surf - Warlord of Erehwon AAR

I had my first chance to play Warlords of Erehwon last weekend. Erewhon (and I need to check my spelling every time I write that) is one of of Warlord Games' newest rulesets, taking their sci-fi Antares rules and molding them into a fantasy skirmish game. 

With limited data, I'd say they were fairly successful. 

We were playtesting a scenario for this month's SJGA meeting.

The scenario saw a force of invading Olympians entering the forest from the top left road. On the opposite side of the board was a giant mushroom - the Olympian's goal. They had to move across the table and cut down the mushroom.

Meanwhile, a smaller force of Wood Nymphs (dressed up Elves) awaited the Olympians. Each terrain feature was assigned a number and, as the Wood Nymph commander, I had to choose which units occupied those terrain pieces before the game began.

In the first turn, Sam would bring on his units at his choosing, and then I could react with my hidden ambushing units. From the second turn on, we'd used Warlord's patented "draw Order Dice from a bag" mechanics.

The Olympians came on by the main road. With the infantry clogging the way, the cavalry was forced into the light woods on either side, lowing them down. A unit of Wood Nymph Archers appeared and fired at the Olympian Centaurs, but scored no wounds.

More Olympians poured onto the table, with their commanders calling out for order. Meanwhile, a Wood Nymph Champion and a unit of Guardians appeared in the woods closest to the enemy, where they had been waiting for the Olympians to exhaust their turn's actions. The attack was rebuffed, however, with the sylvan Nymphs taking the worst of it. The Champion, not realizing how tough the Cyclops was, was quickly overwhelmed and pushed back.

The Olympians continued to struggle to move through the terrain, and the appearance of enemies on their flanks meant their slow march screeched to a halt. The Wood Nymphs in range felt the full brunt of the Olympians' frustration. Their Champions slew his Wood Nymph opposite, and the Guardians continued to be whittled down by ranged fire. The Wood Nymphs did manage to slay the last of the centaurs, but could only watch from the safety of the woods as their sisters were slaughtered.

In the third and last turn (the game progressed somewhat slowly since we were busy reviewing the rules as we played), much blood was shed upon the forest floor. Sam's unit of hoplites had swung up in a shieldwall to chase the Archers out of the woods. The Olympians were taken by surprise when what they had assumed where trees turned out be be Dryads, allied to the Wood Nymphs' defense of the woods.

The tree spirits launched an assault into the hoplites, and after a couple rounds of combats, broke the enemy unit. However, the Dryads were in turn wrecked by the Cyclops's hurled rock. The same monster then chucked another rock into the Wood Nymph Archers, who had just knocked most of the Olympian Harpies out of the sky. The celebrating forest spirits were crushed under the improvised artillery. Then a few more arrows from a unit of Amazon Archers caused more casualties. The Wood Nymphs were barely able to hold on, though their Haughty Disdain meant they ignored the result of their first failed Break Test.

We called the game there. Both sides had been bloodied, and it wasn't clear who the winner might have been if we continued. The Olympians definitely had more units on the board, but they still had to move all the way to the opposite edge of the table while being harassed by the Wood Nymphs. But the Wood Nymphs only had a couple units left that could threaten the Olympians.

Sam decided he would adjust his list to reflect something more focused towards raiding enemy territory (more light troops and cavalry, most likely). John agreed that a hard time limit (6-7 turns) would both put impetus on the attackers to get a move on and not get stuck in combat and give the defenders a chance to win if they managed to delay the attackers for long enough.

It's a shame I won't be able to make it to this month's meeting to see how the game goes, but I'm sure Sam and John will post about in on the forum.

As for Erehwon, I found it to be a decent attempt at adapting the Antares rules to a fantasy warband skirmish game. The game moves along quick enough once you get a feel for the rules. It doesn't do anything to really invoke a fantasy flavor, apart from the spells, but it's fun to play.