Legends of the Feudal Times 2 - War in the East

A second game at my local club, this time featuring a Muslim army against my western retinue. Although there are no specific lists in the mods for "eastern" forces we simply changed the names of the French list to more suitable equivalents for this first attempt. The only actual mod we added was that archers could be mounted (by paying the cost of a horse) and that these could move half and fire full or move full and fire half. Very basic mods I agree, but we're after a game and if they work then they'll stay.

So, we set up the board using the "crossroads" scenario and off we went.

The horse archers predictably swept wide round the flank whilst the Westerners moved forward resolutely to square up to their foes, trusting that their heavy armour would protect them. The knight and archers turned to deal with the flanking Turks.

Honours would remain even on at side of the game due to poor dice throwing and forgetting to back off after losing melee. Not a huge error but one which may have opened the chance for archers/horse arches to shoot.

In the center it became a slugging match, with both sides loosing men.

 Eventually a head to the hills check was called and a battle which had already seen lots of ones thrown, was ended by another low score as the depleted Christians did a runner.

Time for a second game.....oh I think so...!

This time we picked "The Abduction" with my crusaders riding to save his son's intended from the hands of the infidels.

This time the horse archers went round each flank. The lord and sgt charged off and swept round the back of the large house only to find the lady in question had been moved.

The knight and footmen moved up and again crossed swords with then enemy.

 

 

 This time however the Christians had the upper hand and held back the Seljuks until such time as the damsel was located by the Lord and throwing her over his saddle he rode like the devil was on his tail for the table's edge and home while his doughty sergeant covered his back.

A lone horse archer sniped at him but to no effect and he reached the edge just as the another abductor met his maker and a head to the hills resulted in the remainder fleeing.

Two great games, much fun had!!

More next week apparently.

Misery gets a Laundry (1)

Following on the the LotOW game a few weeks ago I decided that the town of Misery needed a Laundry, one operated by Madame Lòng and her fearsome Black Dragon Tong!

First up, I took one of the Buildings I already had and decided to make a start with that. The laundry needed a sign and luckily google translate not only gives you the pronounciation but also the Chinese characters. So the double height building from received both and a nice lucky red paint job.

The building originally had a flat roof, but that wouldn't do. Instead of a shingle roof I decided to give it a tin one, just to make it a little different. This was a piece of corrugated card sprayed black and dry brushed up silver, since it's new. A stovepipe (from a soft drink straw) was added for the boiler. 

At the rear I added the drying area. Coffe stirrers were cut up to make the fence which was secured to some spare mdf bases with a PVA / superglue mix. This dries quick and strong but is not brittle like a normal superglue bond. The same spare bases were also used for the stands of drying linen. Cocktail sticks formed the poles with a thread making the line. Over this was draped a piece of masking tape (trickiest bit this!) to make the washing.

The next step is to do the internals. The room will be papered with a suitable design and separated with a Chinese style room dividing screed. I'll also be adding a suitably large barrel as the boiler. After that comes the Tong themselves and then the next part of their operation - the opium den.

Legends of Feudal Times

After being recommended the amendments to LotOW which were published in Vae Victus and further discussed on the excellent and inspirational Lead Adventure Forum we decided to give them a go.

At OWG, we were lucky to have plenty of figures from our Battle of Bara game and so I rebased one of my units as single figures, added some old GW plastic bowmen and hey presto a lord and his retinue were ready to take the field. Facing these were a selection of the superb E-Bob "Revenge" range which we had on loan.

We decided that to identical retinues would be used in this first test and used the village skirmish scenario from the rules. 

My retinue were placed in the center of the village while my opponent placed his on the eastern edge. I moved off to meet him, thinking he would advance directly in, but instead he moved round the perimeter and entered round the side of the church in the north side, facing me to turn my men.

My bowmen moved stealthily forward to take pot shots at the approaching foe, but no hits were scored. My opponent entered the village with his foot leading the way, while his mounted contingent swept round the flank. 

Again my bow fire failed to score hits as his mounted sergeant jumped the dike round the field in which one of my archer was positioned and struck him down with his axe.

The two forces were now in a general melee. My foot moving up to engage my opponent while my mounted men waited to take advantage.

The mods stay true and close to the original rules. Both my opponent and myself liked the fact that shields and armour do not, unlike most rules, simply give a saving throw. Instead the shield works as "cover" providing an "in the way" check whilst armour adds to the "toughness" of a figure making it more difficult to wound. This is quite a realistic way of dealing with these aspects of  the game.

My Lord and Knight attacked and after a few rounds of melee managed to say the impudent sergeant who had cut down my archer. Meanwhile the rest of the foot slugged it out with my opponents men.

In the end the dice were slightly kinder to me and casualties began to tell. Although my opponent passed his "Head to the Hills" check on receiving his 6th casualty, he decided that distress ion was indeed the better part of valour and retreated, leaving me in possession of the village!

We both liked the rules and for a first game felt they worked well and will add them to the Old west and Pirate games we currently enjoy. 

North East Scotland was home to many feuding families like the Forbeses, Leslies, Hays, Crichtons and Comyns, some of whom we already have represented in miniature. My favourite is the "wicked Laird of Balquhain", "Red" Andrew Leslie, about whom I read years ago in a wonderful little book belonging to my father called "Legends of North East Scotland" by Fenton Wyness. Red Andrew will shortly be out again raiding and feuding with his neighbours the Forbeses!

Midst Battles Din

Ok we tried the Skirmish rules,  "Midst Battles Din" tonight playtest fashion. (http://www.wargamevault.com/product/137450/Midst-Battles-Din?manufacturers_id=6623). This means very simple scenery and small number of figures just to get the feel of the mechanisms. I had read through the rules, my opponent had not.

We set up on a small table about 3ft square , a narrow defile in the hills, with some pine copses and scrub offering cover. Two forces, 8 Texian infantry lead by Hugh Samston and Capt Gonzales 6 Mexican Regulars and 4 praesidial cavalry, faced off each other at opposite ends of the defile.

 The Mexicans move rounds the flanks

 

Gonzales began first and together with 3 men ran to the high ground whilst the remaining 3 sought cover behind a stand of pines. The cavalry trotted forward.

Samston sent a lone skirmisher ahead to fire from behind a large bush while splitting the remaining force into two groups, on to the hills to the left, the other, led by himself to the right. So far so good. No problems with activation and movement.

The next turn brought us into range and the firing rules worked fine. The mechanism of using the difference between the two dice thrown to hit to determine if a wound is caused is a neat one and saves throwing another die. The differences between cover and shooting ability also worked out fine.

Samston and Gonzales men traded fire for a while until the first panic markers were taken.

Gonzales fires on the Texians

Here it began to unravel.  We couldn't get our heads round the table for morale and activating a unit or fig with panic markers. The Texian behind the scrub was hit but not wounded twice - thus gaining two panics. I tried to activate him and due to my die throw he charged. Odd we thought, but being behind cover he never actually made it out due to rolling a 2 for his move.

The Mexicans came on and the Texians fired back picking them off slowly.

Taking cover, the Texians return fire and then advance

We played a few more turns . The cavalry charged but didn't have legs to contact so the Texians survived another round this time and got stuck in the following turn. Result - melee simple and straight forwards. Two praesidials killed.

What works - the difference die mechanism for firing mean you only throw one dice for hitting and wounding.

What doesn't work - the panic/morale test seems odd.

With such a similarity between LotOW and the stats for these rules, I'm not sure what extra they bring to the table except a neat mechanism for only rolling once to hit and wound. Still, trying them out was good fun and my figs got to see the light of day for the first time in years. So not all bad!!

Rules, Rules, Rules, Rules!

So, I got the periods I'm into sorted, sticking to 28mm figs, what about rules?

I think I know enough about the periods I am into and the armies with which I play by dint of the reading and research I've done. Weapons, equipment, tactics, leaders, campaigns are covered and I have an idea in my head of how those fit together and should be modeled. 

I hunt about, read reviews, buy some rules, ditch them and search again, and again. Basing and rebasing my figs to match.

Sound familiar?

I think that I like a framework ruleset that can have period specific bolt-ons added to give the flavour. 

Warhammer is a popular example for instance. 

With the Neil Thomas rules I use for Horse and Musket and have used as the basis for an Ancient set I get that framework of mechanisms. This means I don't have to remember an relearn turn sequence, morale, melee factors , saving roles, initiative, effects, etc.

Now I'm looking for a skirmish set that covers ancient to prewar, bronze age warfare to the machine gun. This should let me fight skirmishes between roman patrols and celtic war parties, robber knights and their retinues, riflemen, chasseurs and jägers.

I'm trying out a set at the moment and hope to publish an AAR and then repeat the game using another set or two then go with what feels best.

Watch this space!