Foes East and West - To the Strongest! AAR

After a two hour trek from the barren, pine-filled lands of South Jersey, I arrived at the Valley Forge Casino result for my first in-person convention in almost two years: Fall In Historicon!

I unfortunately missed my chance to head down to Barrage in Maryland this year, so I made sure I had plenty of time (and money) to spend at Historicon. I had originally planned to play in nine games over four days, but I ended up cutting my attendance a little short and played seven games over three days. Not bad!

My first game was early on Thursday, and featured eight-players sitting around a massive table. 

I was one of four Egyptian commanders, tasked with winning glory for the young Ramses II. Arrayed against us on either side of the Nile were armies of Libyans and Canaanites. 

Both sides had armies of mostly the same troops - light chariots, medium infantry, and skirmishers. The Egyptians had more formed infantry compared to the Libyans and Canaanites. 

The game was using To the Strongest! for its rules, which is why I had decided to sign up. I haven't had a bad game of To the Strongest yet, and this was a chance to try a different flavor of Ancients. 

The other two Egyptian commanders had their hands full dealing with plenty of Libyans. The game broke down into two separate engagements as the Egyptians had lots of targets on either side of the Nile. 

My poor performance as a cavalry command in To the Strongest (and by extension, For King & Parliament) seemed to continue through this game, with my chariots clashing with their Canaanite opposites and losing. 

As the chariots fought on the flanks, the Egyptians and Canaanite lines clashed together. 

And without much of a fuss, my chariots were routed, giving free the Canaanite free rein over the Egyptian rear. 

The Canaanite commander was in a prime spot to hit the Egyptian camp, which would further deplete our quickly diminishing supply of Victory Medals. 

The lone unit of Egyptian Archers were able to keep the chariots off the camp for a turn. 

However, that didn't matter when a unit of Egyptian infantry was harried into a rout by Canaanite skirmishers, which placed us over the medal limit and sent the whole Egyptian force into retreat!

I didn't stick around to see how the other side was doing, but I couldn't imagine that having their backs exposed to the Canaanites while also trying to deal with the Libyans was going to end well. Looks like Ramses II was going to need to find a different target to demonstrate his military prowess. 

This was a great first game and really got me excited for the rest of the convention. And as ever, To the Strongest remains my preferred set of generic Ancients & Medieval rules.

Painting Update - Warmaster

I'll be heading out to Historicon tomorrow, so here's a quick look at the last two parts of my Daemons of Chaos army for the Warmaster tournament. 

The second cavalry brigade for the Deamons is a mix between Chariots and Cavalry. While I could have taken Daemon Hounds to support the last couple Chariot units, I decided to use Cavalry instead, since they get 4 base attacks and a 5+ save in combat. 

And to round out the army, here's another brigade of three required Daemon Hordes and another Daemon Swarm to take any incoming ranged attacks.

So that's it! 18 units, with a Breakpoint of 9. We'll see how the Daemonic Instability rules and the Summon Daemons spell work against each other. 

Get ready for plenty of Historicon posts over the next weeks!

Fording Onward - General d'Armee AAR

With Historicon coming up in a couple weekends, Ted invited us over to help refresh his General d'Armee knowledge with his go-to convention scenario, the Battle of Gilly. 

You may recall that this isn't the first time I've refought this battle; Ted ran this game at a previous SJGA meeting.

The original battle took place in June 1815, at the start of Napoleon's Waterloo campaign, with a Prussian rearguard force hoping to delay the advancing French. The bridge at Gilly offered one of the only clear methods of crossing the Sambre River.

Chip, one of the Prussian commanders, was allocated two swamps to place alongside the river that cut the battlefield in half. These swamps were impassible for infantry, cavalry, and artillery, while skirmishers could cut through. 

As a French commander, I was given a ford to make crossing easier (as the only way the cavalry could cross the river at all, apart from the bridge in the town, was over the ford). I placed it on the opposite side of the town to the two swamps. 

Chip and Steve elected to put one of their infantry brigades in the town to defend it.

Steve commanded a brigade of Landwehr reservists and cavalry on one flank. 

And Chip took command of the other two infantry brigades (including the one that was guarding Gilly. 

Ted had control of an infantry brigade and a cavalry brigade.

And I commanded the other two French infantry brigades. 

The scenario's goals for the French were to cause two Sauve Qui Peut results on the Brigade Command table, or three Retreats on the same table. The Prussians had to hold out for 10 turns. However, if the French managed to land a Sauve Qui Peut result, the game's turn limit would be increased!

The game started rather inauspiciously for the French when a Prussian artillery salvo sent two regiments of the far-left infantry brigade retreating back to safety. 

Everywhere else, the French advanced in their classic attack columns. 

As soon as I could, I launched an assault on the town. After the first round of combat resulted in a draw (despite 2:1 odds against the Prussians!) I gambled on three units being able to displace the defenders. The bet paid off and the French controlled Gilly for the rest of the game. 

On the other side of the town, Ted was launching his first assault across the river, in the face of multiple Prussian regiments and artillery. 

With the Prussians temporarily pushed back from the outskirts of Gilly, I was able to move an infantry regiment out into the open. 

I could tell you that this was a masterfully planned move to bait Steve's cavalry into charging the infantry and end up in range of my artillery units, but that would be a lie. 

I also messed up and moved my infantry into lines far too early, before they had even crossed the river. The meant I had to spend several turns slogging across the river, instead of moving at a brisker pace in column formation. 

With the Prussians moving forward to bottleneck the town, I started to swing my infantry regiments around the outskirts. I figured it would be faster to move through the Sambre than it would be to try and force the Prussians back with sporadic fire from the town's defenders. 

Meanwhile, Chip had set up a well-defended position to contest Ted's river crossings. As the cavalry could only cross at the ford, a traffic jam was quickly forming. It didn't help that any cavalry unit that tried to move across the ford ended up being fired upon by multiple infantry regiments and supporting cannons.

As my infantry brigade slowly made its way across the Sambre, I had to fend off repeated cavalry attacks from the Prussians. The charges themselves didn't hurt much, but they forced my infantry regiments to form square which made them perfect targets for Prussian return fire.

Ted had again mustered his troops for an advance across the river. In an astonishing example of how fickle the dice can be, one of his cavalry charges against a line of Prussian infantry - having failed to get into square before the cavalry were upon them - was rebuffed! The French cavalry were forced back once again as the infantry soldiered on. 

By this point, it wasn't looking good for the French. Bottlenecked in Gilly and stymied on both sides of the river, it didn't seem like they would have enough time to cause the needed numbers of Sauve Qui Peut or Retreat results before the end of the game. 

And then, a lucky break (or unlucky, depending on which side of the table you were on)! In the previous turn, a French artillery barrage had sent one of Steve's cavalry regiments fleeing, which meant he had to roll again on the Brigade Command table. He rolled a Retreat and decided to use an attached ADC to try and get his soldiers back in order. 

And then - sacre bleu! - a dreaded Sauve Qui Peut was the result instead!

While we didn't get a chance to finished the game, the extra time allotted to the French gave Ted and I the chance to get into a more advantageous position. It was unlikely that Steve's Landwehr were going to last long in the face of a full French infantry brigade, and Chip was too busy fighting off Ted's troops to assist. 

We decided to call it after around three-and-a-half hours of game time with an expected French victory. 

Painting Update - Warmaster

 My work on various projects continues!

The Daemons of Chaos army for Warmaster continues. Above are the various commanders for the tournament at Historicon this year; a General (who can also be upgraded to a Wizard), two Heroes, and two Wizards. I'm sure you can hazard a guess at which Chaos God each character is aligned with.

With no options for ranged units like archers or artillery units like rock throwers, the main goal with the Daemons will be to get into close combat as quickly as possible. Thankfully, Daemons not only get Cavalry, but the potentially much more dangerous Chariot (3 units per 1,000 points). Here's a brigade of them, ready to charge blindly into any enemy formation. 

Long-based flyers may not be as good as short-based flyers (who get the same frontage as cavalry units), but if you've got them in Warmaster, there's little reason to not take them. As such, I've painted the two units that I can in a 2,000 point force, hopefully as a means to counter enemy artillery or flank enemy brigades. 

War in the Air - Wings of War AAR

Wanting something lighter to put together for this past weekend's game night, Ted brought out his sizable Wings of War collection for some lightning-fast engagements. 

And it has been a while since I've seen a "Wings of" game! The last time I can recalling playing was way back in 2014!

Our first game saw Steve and I piloting a pair of Fokker Dr.1s while Chip and Ted flew in a pair of Sopwith Camels.

To start, we only played with the Jamming rules in the damage decks, to get a feel for how the maneuver decks worked.

Unfortunately, Steve's conspicuous red plane ended up being the main target of the British pilots and was shot down first.

Steve ended up flying off the table by accident, so Ted and I ended up dueling to see who would control the skies. Luckily, that ended up being me!

For the second game, we played using most of the damage deck conditions (jammed steering rudders, fire, smoke, etc). 

With a better handle on the maneuver decks, both sides were learning how to keep themselves alive for longer. 

Immelmann turns were a favorite, since the slower-yet-nimble biplanes could spin around and fire at an enemy plane that was closing in from behind. 

Like last game, Steve and Chip had the bad luck of being shot down first, which gave Ted the opportunity to take his revenge and shoot down my plane. 

For our third game, we switched up the planes. Steve and I moved over to a pair of Fokker D.VIIIs while Ted and Chip piloted a RAF S.E.5a and a Sopwith Snipe.

Ted's S.E.5a was lightning fast compared to the rest of the planes, while the D.VIIIs and Snipe had some absolutely mind-boggling maneuver cards (like the D.VIII's ability to use two stall cards in a row, or being able to use stalling turns for quick turnarounds). 

While I chased Ted for a few turns, Steve and Chip went at it like a pair of bare-knuckle boxers.

Which, despite the more 'robust' builds of these later-war planes, ended in somewhat predictable results. 

And then led to what Steve called the "Ted and Brian Show." While my Fokker was less damage, I had suffered a broken steering rudder and could no longer turn left. Ted's S.E.5a had a bunch of damage cards. It came down to who could get the right angle, and that ended up being me (thanks again to the Fokker's tiny turn radius). 

Three games in as many hours! Wings of War makes for a fast-past but still complex game. The pre-programming of the planes actions makes for some fun guessing games and brilliant moments of tactical foresight (or coincidence, depending on who's firing at who!). 

It's a shame I wasn't around for WoW back in it's glory days. I believe that Wings of Glory is almost completely compatible, but the game doesn't seem as popular as it did a few years back (after Fantasy Flight Games dropped it).