5 Parsecs - journey into the wilderness

I played the latest two episodes of my ongoing 5 Parsecs From Home as a linked scenario as the two seemed to fit quite nicely together. 

Game 1 (Turn 15) - into the wilderness

New Patron MeetSpace VR had hired the crew to recover some tech from a crashed shuttle. The aim of the first mission was to secure the site, recover the tech and call for extraction. The area was in a deserted zone of the penal moon of Travoris but it was known to be home to a group of Precursor (space elves) Exiles. 

The crash site

The game started with the crew at the crash site and needing to beat-off the Precursors. They are a shooty faction with a good combat skill and lots of ranged weapons, so the crew soon came under heavy fire.  

Precursors (space elves) mover forward

After an extended fire-fight the Precursors had been pushed back but three of the crew were downed - two stunned and one wounded. The stuns are removed after the battle and wound turned-out only to be minor, so quickly fixed in the med bay.         

The crew holds the perimeter

Three down but the site is secured

Game 2 (Turn 16) - Dust Off 

Although the Precursors has been pushed back, the crash-site was too hot for a safe extraction as they would surely be back. So the crew decided to hike a couple of clicks to a safer spot. Little did they know that a group of Void Rippers was in the area - aggressive and territorial, they quickly moved to attack the party. 

Void Rippers on the scent

Fast moving and tough they swarmed towards the crew making good use of the cover. Their tough hides deflected lots of shots so most of the swarm made it into close combat.   

Void Rippers attack 

Luckily the crew are well equipped with good armour and close combat weapons. After a brief struggle the attackers had be temporarily withdraw allowing the extraction to go ahead before they renewed their assault. No wounds but lots of dented armour.    

A desperate struggle

Dust Off

  

Sudan warmup

Our next campaign is going to be some colonial action - the Khartoum relief expedition in 1885. Players will split into two teams each controlling one of the relief columns and the Mahdists opposing the other. We'll be using our preferred set - The Men Who Would Be Kings (TMWWBK) from Osprey. As we've not played for a while we're beginning with a couple of practice games. 

This weeks game was single fairly large with about 50 points a side. The scenario involves the British searching 6 areas on the table while most of the Mahdists start off-table in Ambush.

British Camel Corps advance 

It was a game of two flanks. On the British left they were ambushed on the start line, facing overwhelming attacks and some accurate Mahdist artillery fire. They lost two units of Camel Corps and made limited progress, but did kill lots of the enemy.

Beja in ambush

Camel Corps supported by foot

On the right the British cavalry routed their Beja opponents and managed to seize two of the 6 objectives.  

Beja cavalry

By the close of play it was 10 victory points each with the British doing well on their right but under threat on the left. 

Ansar try to surround the British left 

   

     

Armada - naval fun & games

This weekend I visited South Oxford Wargames Group's annual Armada tournament - three rounds of play and lunch provided for £20. Armada is a based on Warlord Games Black Seas Napoleonic rules, but streamlined and reset into a fantasy world. We played 200 points which gives you 4 - 5 ships and the list had to contain at least 4.

The rules would be easy to convert back as one of the factions is men using the Black Seas models and TBH that's attractive to me as the Armada version plays really quickly with 200 points doable in 90mins and a big focus on scenarios not just forming lines and shooting at long range.

As with last year I used Salamanders, a fiery lizard based faction (yea I know they should be amphibians but its not my IP!). They are focused on shooting and have decently fast ships. I went to one very large (XL) one fully loaded for 50% of my points, 2 quick ones to grab objectives and 2 support vessels. 

My XL pounds a giant narwhale

My opponents were Trident Realm (converted sea creatures), Orcs (waah), and Men (Napoleonic naval).   

Stern raking the whale - its demise followed soon after

I mustered 2 draws and a loss, with the draws being marginal wins for scoring as I sunk more of the enemy than I lost.  

Orcs move forward

My XL moves to attack the enemy

The final game was interesting as we finished in about an hour so I was able top pick my opponents brains about Black Seas as he played that a fair bit. It was that which convinced me that Armada, minus the magic, would be a fun game to try and would work fine with my 1200th Langton stuff.    

 

So I'll be checking what I have and starting to make some lists. 

Games night II - Sun King and Pillage

This week we had a second game of Twilight of the Sun King also we tried some new Dark Ages skirmish rules - Pillage from Victrix. I also ended-up playing Pillage the next day with some players who'd done Sun King the evening before, so we had two bites at that. 

Twilight of the Sun King

Different forces this week with the Russians fighting the Swedes. The forces were also more balanced being taken from the rules army list generator.

20mm Russian Dragoons 

Russian infantry and guns

I was nt playing this game but it looked like the more numerous Russians were mostly attacking.   

 

Russian infantry attacks

Swedish horse gain and edge of their left flank

The cavalry did kill a few of each other with the Swedes having a slight advantage. The centre was a stalemate although lots of units had damage so a few more turns and it could have looked different.  

 

Tussle in the centre

Pillage

The rules are quite simple and old fashioned in many ways - no command friction, WYSIWYG on figures armament and no troop quality just weapon type vs armour for most things. So they are quick to pick-up and you can mostly play from the QRS with limited reference to the book. Our second game was largish (600 points) but that was only 24 models a side and so not a big model count either.    

The simplicity does mean that armies are pretty similar to each other with currently only the Vikings (Berserker) and Saxons (Huscarl) having any special troops to add flavour. I imagine they will build on this though with supplements. There are also army lists for various British western European factions - interestingly the points cost is partly about effectiveness and partly about rarity in the army. For example Javelins are free in the Irish list but armour is very costly whereases horses are cheaper for the Normans than the Saxons.     

 

There are rules covering shield walls and spearman supporting others so that adds some tactical options. One thing from both games though is that shooting if pretty deadly, especially at targets in the open. They suggest a 25% cap on missile armed troops but even at lower levels they tended to dominate tactics in our two games

Finally there are lots of rules to support scenario generation with loot, fire, civilians, buildings and boats all covered. Straight fights could be pretty short / simple but scenarios are where the fun is to be had.  

So definitely worth a look and a nice simple set supporting scenarios. My only quibble would be the price at £35. The rules are compact so it could easily have been a £10 Osprey book but they have added a generic history section, some "how to wargame" bits and sections on painting / terrain making. Is that a well meaning attempt to help the beginner or padding....you decide!  

Twilight of the Sun King

Before we start our next campaign we're playing a few weeks of new rules to try them out. The first was Twilight of the Sun King (ToSK) that depicts the battles of the late 17th and early 18th century, so overlapping with the early era depicted in the Beneath the Lilly Banners rules. 

ToSK is very different though being aimed at fighting very large games at a smaller scale, with 6mm, 15mm and 20mm all being suitable scales. The key "USP" of these rules is that shooting, combat, and morale are all bundled together into a single mechanic. Attacking the enemy causes them to take a morale test which can result in lose of strength or complete routing.

Supporting lines are crucial giving both morale advantage and also limiting how far units may be pushed back. Artillery provides long range bombardments that can disrupt enemy movement but cause little damage.   

For the first practice game we played a Great North War scenario pitting Swedes against Saxons. The smaller Saxon force was outclassed by the better Swedish troops. 

Swedish foot

Swedish horse

The other key mechanic is that units may move straight ahead but any other manoeuvre needs a action test based the units quality, including wheeling in a charge. So better units can move fairly freely but poorer ones need to stick to simple plans.   

Saxon defenders

After a few turns two things became obvious; cavalry need to attack in deep formations and angles really matter as its fairly easy to get charged in the flanks. As charged cavalry must conform to their attackers you can manipulate your opponents and open up flanks for follow-up units.   

 We're still learning the game but its clear its a quick game with fairly small unit footprints, so meeting its aim of large scale battles. 

5 Parsecs - recovering the shard

The Hermes crew's adventures continued over the Christmas break with two more missions on the prison moon of Tybos. As well as picking up ad hoc work there are two stories running alongside; the ongoing pursuit of an old smuggler buddy (Q'narr) for his sneaky ambush and the current Quest to recover a data shard that the Ossian Veil assassins are seeking to weaponize. Games 13 and 14 are one of each.

Game 13 - Disrupting the plans

A source tipped the crew that Q'narr was using the prison as a transhipping location and had a fortified warehouse with numerous goons on guard. So a plan was hatched to storm the place and seek to disrupt this operation. 

Q'narr's compound

The mission aim was to penetrate the compound and secure data from a terminal that would allow the shipments to be intercepted. Feeling confident in their gear and training, a frontal assault was settled on. 

Waiting goons

Assault team ready

Bursting in the enemy turned-out to be more numerous that expected and the crew had to handle some heavy fire. The armour did its job though and and they were able to clear the compound. Captain Strake was wounded but it turned out to be only minor, so only 1 turn missed.   

 

Terminal secured

Game 14 - Recover the shard finale

On the last phase of the Quest the crew recovered a tracking programme that allowed them to locate the data shard containing Captain Strakes digital twin. To prevent its weaponization they planned to infiltrate the Ossian Veils secret lab that was located right against the outside of the main prison wall. The lab was staffed by financial followers of the Veil so resistance would be fierce.

Ossian Veil lab nestles against the prison wall 

In this game the enemy had hidden deployment so would appear in groups, every 2 turns, at random locations. They were also Elite so had higher combat skill. Needing to clear the area quickly before reinforcements could arrive the crew split into two teams. More enemy would arrive from turn 7 onwards.  

Melee is joined

Things were tough from the start with a group appearing in charge distance of Team 2 and quickly charged them. After a tussle the attackers fell back. Meanwhile Team1 were lining-up to enter the lab when they found themselves under flank attack.    

 

Flanked

After a firefight around the lab entrance Team 1 were able to storm inside and grab the data shard on turn 6.  As Team2  moved to join them they were ambushed again with trusty Bot PDP-11 being damaged. With the shard secured the crew quickly withdrew having succeeded in their Quest, after a nice tough fight.    

Sneaky ambush