Bogged Down - Red Book of the Elf King AAR

Sam and I met up this past weekend to play a game of Red Book of the Elf King. It had been a little while since we had last played, so our rules knowledge was a little rusty. But we remembered quickly enough and soon go into the rhythm of the game. 

We decided to try the Ruin of An Rhar scenario, which sees one Circle ambushing another Circle's encampment.

Sam and I randomly chose our Thanes with some under-the-table card shuffling. I drew Meksant Farseer, the most powerful spellcasting Thane of the original six, while Sam drew Lowic Angersand, a combat-orientated Thane only second in physical prowess to Vachel Goldenhand.

Seeking a mystical tome, Meksant had led his Circle deep into Lowic's territory. With the sun setting, the Circle made camp in the ruins of an ancient hall of some forgotten Fae lord. The Circle's Companions took up their watch, while others sat down to rest.

However, the spirits of the old Lord and their Companions were not quiet, and the Circle listened as their unearthly cries echoed through the night air.

It was with a fearsome cry that Lowic and his band of sworn Fae emerged from the twilight gloom, setting upon the intruding Circle. Meksant's Circle was awoken by the sudden flashes of Rhud Magick, some of which struck home and damaged Meksant's forces.

Taken by surprise, Meksant and his Circle were unable to respond in turn as they awoke and scrambled for their gear, although a couple elves were able to fire back and score a hit with their own magic. Meksant gathered his arcane energies to cast Thane's Writ, which would make it more difficult for the opposing Thane to cast their next Glamour.

Undeterred by the restriction of his arcane energies, Lowic dispelled the Writ and instead cast Endless Fen. This turned the entirety of the ruins into a murky, swampy mess that sucked at the boots of Meksant's Circle.

For a moment, the elves of the Pallasades despaired, but their training prevailed and they managed to rally. Lowic and his warriors had the advantage of mobility, where they could charge or cast Rhud Magick with impunity.

Stuck in the mire, Meksant cast Cruel Grasp, which allowed him to gather a burst of energy for some future use. Lowic responded with the dreaded Red Death, but the virulent disease was quickly deterred by the opposing Circle's defense.

Some of Meksant's warriors were able to escape the mire and began maneuvering against the enemy. To aid them, Meksant bent his will to cast Infernal Embrace, which added to the attacks of the Companions.

With Lowic's men pressing the attack, Meksant also cast Deathly Touch, making his warriors' weapons deadlier.

Lowic countered with a fiendish combination with his earlier Endless Fen. By casting Pit of Ultimate Despair on the same area, he forced all of Meksant's Circle that were still in the bog to lose their courage, which meant even the briefest of attacks was another to gain a Penalty Counter during the subsequent Courage test.

Both sides were dealing heavy damage to each other. Enough wounds were building up that Companion units were losing Elves, or being wiped out entirely.

Hoping to buy time, Meksant used Winds of Time to remove action counters from the bag, ending the turn early.

The game ended rather suddenly in a bright explosion of magick. Lowic came out from behind his wall to butcher a unit of Meksant's Companions using his Troll Cleave Glamour. With the enemy Thane finally in the open, Meksant stepped forward and released the energies he had gathered using Cruel Grasp earlier in the battle.

In one massive burst, the Mage-Thane released a Rhud Magic blast that overwhelmed Lowic's defenses and felled the Thane of the Hunt in a single attack. With that, the game ended, with Lowic's Circle retreating. Meksant's Circle, however, was forced to recuperate for some time from their losses.

I enjoyed the game with Sam, which ended with a chancy gamble that would have left Meksant exposed had I not gotten a really hot roll of the dice! We're looking into using the Troll Wars supplement to play the campaign scenarios that the book provides for further games.

Worthy of Mordor - Middle Earth SBG AAR

This past weekend I met up with Francis to play a game of Middle Earth SBG. I'm attending a 500 point tournament at Fall In! next month and I was hoping to at least play one game with the list I'm going to bring. 

Since I started with the Pelennor Fields box, I've collected a decent sized Mordor force. This 500 point list is led by Shagrat with Kardush and a Morannon Captain, with a mix of Morannon Orcs, regular Orcs, Orc Trackers, and a couple Warg Riders. 

Francis brought Rohan, with Theoden as the leader. He and Eowyn were accompanied by a mass of Riders of Rohan, while a Captain of Rohan led a foot force of Rohan Warriors. 

We rolled randomly for the scenario and got Heirloom of Ages Past - probably the most complicated scenario for two relatively new players to try! But we forged anyway. 

The scenario has random deployment which Heroes can affect with Might points. Neither Francis nor I did this, so our warbands deployed at the whim of Fate.

Francis' Rohirrim came on fairly close together, while Kardush was seperated from Shagrat and the Morannon captain. This meant that for most of the game, Kardush's warband was harried by the foot warriors of Rohan, while Shagrat and the Captain faced off against Theoden and Eowyn.

I found the Heirloom on a lucky roll early in the game, which meant that Francis had to go on the offensive to get it back.

The forces of Mordor were slowly whittled down from arrows and throwing spears, until Francis felt confident enough to charge in. Shagrat didn't do much killing, and actually was forced to retreat from an unsuccessful attempt to fell Eowyn before Theoden could reach her.

Unfortunately, due to a misreading of the Courage rules by me (models in combat don't take Courage tests!), the game ended earlier then it should have. I still had the Heirloom in my possession, so it was technically a 6-3 win for Mordor, but had Francis been given another turn or two, he might have been able to shake it loose for a win.

All-in-all, it was a fun game and I'm a little more confident in my knowledge of the rules (if not in my ability to win games!).

Painting Update - Sea People, Middle Earth SBG

Since getting back from Barrage I've been working away on more projects, mostly fantasy focused. 

I got through a box of Mordor Orcs to supplement the horde of Morannon Orcs that came in the Pelennor Fields starter set.

Mordor Orcs aren't as strong or as heavily armored as their Morannon counterparts, but they are cheaper in points. And the Mordor faction bonus gives a Courage and Wound bonus if they've got more bodies on the table.

I also added a couple Warg Riders, along with Wild Warg/dismounts to match. I'll be using them in an upcoming tournament to add some speed to the list. 

And to round off the army, I finished painting Kardush the Firecaller, a named Orc Shaman, and a generic Ringwraith both on foot and mounted.

And that's Mordor completed! There's some other models I may want to add, but I've got a good mix of models to play with. I may get some some Morgul Knights and Black Numenoreans, but another option would be to expand the army out into Angmar, or Barad-Dur.

On a whim I picked up some of the Sea People packs from Lucid Eye Miniatures (the studio behind Red Book of the Elf King). They're from the Ziggurat line which looks to be mostly a fantasized version of various bronze age factions. I liked the style of the Sea Peoples, especially the massive Gulial the Nephilim. There's a King model that I'd like to get, but this makes for a good skirmish force for games like Open Combat or Fistful of Lead. 

Battle of Lessie’s Moor - For King and Parliament! AAR

My final game of the day at Barrage 2019 was another of Ted's For King and Parliament scenarios that I'm very much a fan of. The game's card mechanics makes for some exciting, tense moments. 

The scenario is available from BigRedBat's shop, which is set in fictitious Borsetshire. It's a fairly standard English Civil War battle, with plenty of raw and untested troops facing off.

Both armies consist of a center core of infantry, with cavalry on the flanks. The Parliamentarians (which I was helping to command) had Dutch-style cavalry, artillery and Forlorn Hope Skirmishers. The Royalists had Dutch- and Swedish-style cavalry, several larger foot battalions, two commanded shot regiments, and a small unit of cuirassiers.

The Royalist cavalry started the attack, sweeping up the flank faster than the slower Dutch-style cavalry units could react to.

The Royalists also went on the attack in the center and on their left flank, with cavalry impacting on each other, infantry firing at close range, and the artillery causing chaos in the one Royalist infantry battalia that had stalled.

In For King and Parliament, Dutch-style cavalry doesn't have much of an impact when attacking, but are somewhat steadier when taking hits. Their style at time was to approach enemy units, halt, fire their guns, and then attack.

One of the Parliamentarian squadrons broke, with the Royalists cavalrymen charging off towards the baggage train away from the actual fight.

The situation for the Royalist center was desperate, however. They had lost two infantry battalia, and the Parliamentarians were pushing hard against the last opposing enemy unit.

Events were going rather nicely for the Royalists in the fight on their left flank (Parliament's right). The swifter, harder-hitting Swedish-style cavalry were cutting their Dutch-style counterparts to shreds.

It was going somewhat better for the Parliamentarian infantry. With the Royalist center no longer a threat, they could turn to face the oncoming cavalry.

However, the Royalist losses in the center and their own right flank meant that they eventually ran out of victory medals to hand over. Victory went to Parliament, and the remaining Royalists forces quit the field.

While it took a little time to remember the rules (and Ted was very helpful as always with guiding the players), they did eventually come back to me. The target numbers are pretty simple to remember (hit on 8+, save on 7+, add/subtract modifiers). The hardest part is probably calculating what number a player needs to draw equal to or higher than to activate a unit, but even this is pretty easy to figure out with the QRS.

As I already own FK&P as a pdf, I should get those miniatures I got at Fall In! down from the attic and start working on them.

Not Quite The Seven Years War - A Gentleman’s War AAR

The second game I took part in at Barrage 2019 was a Seven Year's War-esque, Imagi-Nations game using A Gentleman's War rules. What caught my attention was the 40mm miniatures and the setting. I've always wanted to do my own Imagi-Nations campaign, and I've never played a game with such large miniatures. 

The setting for the game was the rear of a siege against a city of the Northern Alliance. The Pragmatic Coalition had entrenched itself and its forces were shelling the city. 

Hoping to relieve the besieged city, the Northern Alliance launched an attack on the rear of the Coalition lines, with three objectives. In the center of the battlefield was a foundry where the Coalition was storing supplies. To the Alliance's left were mortar emplacements that were shelling the city.

And to the Alliance's right was a bridge that needed to be held to prevent Coalition reinforcements from approaching.

My command for the Coalitions consisted of three line infantry regiments, two heavy cavalry squadrons, and a field artillery piece.

Bill, the opponent opposite of me, had three line infantry regiments, two light cavalry squadrons, two groups of skirmishers, and a field artillery piece. 

The rest of the Northern Alliance's forces readied themselves for the attack.

Bill's forces came towards me piecemeal. He moved one infantry regiment onto the hill to prevent my cavalry from moving over it, while another regiment moved towards my line with the field gun in support.

Units are activated by flipping cards from a standard deck of playing cards. One side activates on red cards, and the other on black. Up to three units within 3" of each other can activate at one time if there's a commander attached to one of the units, or if a face card is drawn. Activated units get a marker to note that they cannot be activated until all units on a side have gone, at which point all markers are removed. Jokers either remove all activation markers or, when the second Joker is drawn, sees all cards reshuffled into the deck. And previously activated units can activate again with an Ace.

My infantry moved as a group, while one of my cavalry squadrons redeployed behind my lines to support my left flank.

Unfortunately, I hadn't counted on the other Bill, commander of the Alliance's center, to attack my right! Suddenly I was fighting off two opponents, and my heavy cavalry retreated rather than get chewed up.

I should note that all of these models have been cast by, and mostly painted by Robert himself. They're 40mm flats. But compared to modern "heroic" scales, they don't seem all that large. And the flats gave the game a wonderful "toy soldier" feeling. They're colorful and just wide enough to not look odd from even the shallowest of angles.

Unfortunately, Bill's light cavalry launched an utterly devastating assault on my heavy cavalry, hoping to open up my flank, which would have left my artillery and the mortars wide open. With my heavy cavalry gone and my infantry dedicated to the forward assault, the Coalition's entire left flank was suddenly very vulnerable.

Shooting and melee is straightforward, with charts to determine how many dice are thrown and what the target numbers are (for both attacking and saving against hits), as well as morale results. Units can react to charges with certain modifiers.

As my infantry mounted the hill to dislodge Bill's defenders, my remaining cavalry moved away to counter the light cavalry in my rear lines. I had to hope that the Coalition's center command could keep their Alliance counterparts occupied.

However, in a feat of magnificent gunnery my field piece routed the attacking hussars from the field, re-securing my left flank. No longer needed there, my heavy cavalry turned around to move back into the center of the ongoing battle.

It was at this point that the Alliance's commanders decided to call off the attack (although we had also reached the end of the allotted time for the game). I had had a lucky triple activation with my three line infantry regiments, which had allowed me to devastate Bill's attacking forces. While he still had reserves, they likely wouldn't be enough to win through.

The battle's center was essentially in the same position. The Alliance attack had faltered, and were being pressed by the Coalition forces. One pocket of Alliance troops - already worn down by the fighting - was surrounded and close to being completely wiped out.

And the Alliance's left flank was almost completely gone, with the Coalition troops relatively untouched. Given time, they would be able to roll up the Alliance's lines.

Robert Dean ran a fantastic game, which I very much enjoyed. A Gentleman's War is very much on the "game" side of wargaming, but they're fine for beer and pretzel gaming - or as the rules themselves describe, there's "lots of six-sided dice, saving rolls, proper distances in inches,and a general sense that there ought to be salmon-and-cucumber sandwiches and tea, or beer."

It's an intentional call back to when men (and women) would sit on the floor and play out their little wars. And with these rules we don't need to worry about anyone's paint job getting chipped from flying matchsticks.

A Gentleman's War is another set of rules that I'll look to add to my collection, maybe with a 15mm force or two?