Armada Compeition

This weekend I made my first foray into competitive play with a visit to the The Oxfordshire - Pannithor Boat Race, a 3 round competition using Mantic Games fantasy naval game Armada. I played the Salamanders - fiery lizard folk who tend to have very shooty boats that are decent in combat as well.

Round 1 - Ghost Fleet

As the name suggests these guys are somewhat ethereal, so hard to damage but without a devastating punch. They also heal and some of the ships can phase-out and pass right through you.        

Mt flagship splits the line 

This was a kill scenario so attacking was needed. Casualties were pretty light though, with just one Ghost Fleet ship sunk and so a narrow win for the Salamanders 2-0.

Game 2 - Orcs

With 4 of the 12 fleets played Orcs, it was likely I'd face them and so it was in round 2. Orcs love boarding actions and they are the faction I've fought the most, as my younger brother plays them. 

In this game we had to carry loot tokens across the table and end in a specific zone in the last turn to score. I stacked my tokens on two fast ships and place the dummies on my flag ship, sailing this on  a blocking line at the Orcs. 

The Orcs took the bait and piled lots of units into my flagship. It fought  bravely and sunk two enemy vessels before surrendering. This though enabled my token carriers to make the end zone for a narrow 4-3 win.  

Mt flagship goes down fighting

Round 3 - Abyssal Dwarves

Again not a surprise to face dwarves as there were three Abyssal (evil) fleets. The Dwarves have to sails and so are very manoeuvrable compared to my ships. Like the Salamanders they have some fire-based abilities topped-off with infernal magics. In this scenario you collected randomised loot tokens from  across the seas and tried to hold them until the end of the game.      

The moment my token carrier (background) explodes

I started ok by grabbing 3 of the 6 tokens and sinking an enemy ship in the first 2 turns. Things turned though as one token carrier exploded trying to extinguish a fire and my second token carrier got swamped by Dwarves ironclads. My flagship maked a run for it and I ended-up losing 2 - 4.   

 

The Verdict

I won 2 narrowly and lost a bit more decisively. The competition rules meant that winners got "promoted" to play other winners and so the games get harder as you go along. So by the last game I was playing the person who came second overall. I managed 4th place from 12 with my brother overall winner and the third musketeer (Mick) 6th one point behind me.     

So a fun experience helped by the game being fairly silly and the competitive element very light. I took a few shots of some of the other tables along the way

Kings of Men

Orcs vs Dwarves

Orcs vs Kingdoms of Men

Orcs vs Orcs - one of two Orc-offs I think

Trident Realms vs Dwarves 

   

1815 campaign - practise week 4

This week we had several people returning from flu and so did 3 games based on the famous Sawmill Village scenario featured in Charge! We also used the size of armies intended for the campaign with roughly 2 infantry and 2 cavalry brigades per side plus some independent light infantry. 

British advance

Two of the games were British vs French and the third was Prussian vs Confederation of the Rhine. The British armies are smaller than the the others as they are rated Superior for shooting and don't contain any Inferior troops. 

Prussians defending a village

Long shot for the Prussians vs Confederation of the Rhine 

In all three games there was a single objective in reach players half of the table which could be captured - so basically capture the flag as you sought to hold your own objective and take the enemies. We played a full game so including deployment.

Prussian and German cavalry clash

The British vs French games both ended with a British victory although casualties were heavy on both sides. The Prussian vs Germans was not played to conclusion but the Germans were in the lead at the end. One nice feature was in all the games the casualty removal rules got good use as both sides cavlary attacked, withdrew and attacked again. 

French centre crumbles under British fire

      

1815 - practise week 3

This weeks gaming was badly impacted by flu so only one table and 4 players. It did though give a chance to try and an attack-vs-defence game with the attacker only having a small advantage of one additional infantry brigade.   

The game was inspired by Holding Action from Charles Grant's Wargames Scenarios. Prussians defended while French and Germans attacked.  

The attackers managed to gain the upper hand with the cavalry and then press-on to achieve a victory, all within about 2.5 hours play. 

 

Prussians under pressure from the French

Allied skirmishers bring the Prussians under fire 

So a good run-out for the rules, showing again you can get a result within an evenings play. 

1815 - practise week 2

Our prep for the next campaign continues with some further practise games. This week we introduced objectives, commander ability and out-of-command. Two games again with 8 players.

Rifles face-off against the French

French brigade advances

   

1815 - a new campaign

We're starting a new campaign with the new year, and returning to an old favourite with Napoleonic's using Shadow of the Eagles. We'll be playing three divisional level games each with the setting something 1815'ish. 

We've quite a few players new to the rules, or not very familiar, so this some simple head-to-head games to learn the basics. Next week we'll introduce troop and general quality.

    

The Battle of Olivento, 1041

 For the last game in our current Lion Rampant dark ages series we fought Olivento, 1041. The switching of sides from Roman to Rebel Normans of a Lombard compelled the Romans send a force to crush the rebels alliance.  William Iron Arm commanded the Normans with Harald Hardrada, future king of Norway, leading the Varangian Guards.

Romans - CinC = Blessed

• Left = 2 x heavy Cav, 2 x heavy spears, 1 x light spears, 1 x bows
• Centre = 2 x light cav (bow), 3 x heavy cav, 3 x heavy spear (Vet), 1 x Elite foot
• Right = 2 x heavy Cav, 2 x heavy spears, 1 x light spears, 2 x skirmisher

Normans - CinC = Strongarm

• Left = 3 x heavy spear, 1 x crossbow, 1 x elite foot
• Centre = 5 x elite Cav, 1 x light Cav (jav)
• Right = 2 x heavy spear, 1 x bow, 1 x elite foot

The only special rule was that the Normans had to remain on the defensive for 3 turns, after which they could attack. This was to reflect the Normans approach to the real battle. The stream was purely for visuals with the marshes counting as flat difficult terrain.

The game began with the Romans advancing across the line and pushing their horse archers forward to harass the knights. The activation dice proved fickle and the Romans did only limited damage, whilst their skirmishers were roughly handled by the crossbowmen in the east of the field.

Roman horse attack the knights

Roman left attacks the Norman right

The Normans retried to avoid combat on the flanks as they were out numbered and focused on a central attack with the knights. This crashed through the Roman heavy cavalry and bit deeply into the Varangians forming the third wave of the attack.  

Norman knights counter attack 

In the west the Romans managed to vanquish the Norman and begin to move troops to the centre to support the Varangian Guard. In the east the Romans got drawn away from the centre and suffered loses to the Norman spearmen.

After about 2.5 hours play the game ended with the Romans having lost about 2/3 of their point and with only the left flank (west side) having broken the Normans. So a Norman win.     

Another fun game and the rules held up well with about 75 points a side. The game ran close to history with the Normans largely resisting the Roman attack before before their knights punched a hole in the centre.