You win some, you lose some

I managed a couple games over the weekend -  a second go at Blood and Plunder and a siege in the ongoing Kings of War campaign.

Blood and Plunder

Saturday was Fishponds for some Pirate adventures with me at the helm of the English (a shooty force) against the Spanish (more fighty).   

The English prepare for battle

The Spanish 

I adopted a good early position enabling me to hold 2 of the 3 objectives and lay heavy fire on any Spanish approaching me. In order to avoid losing the game in turn 2 the Spanish were forced to feed units one at a time into my fire zone to contest the central objective.  

Up to turn 6 it looked like the English would win but a last gasp charge by a unit of spear armed Lanceros secured the central objective. Depsite a turns shooting I was not able to break then and the two remaining survivors secured and unlikely Spanish win by 1 point.  

 

In hindsight I made a couple of key errors - I charged once when I should have shot and allowed myself to be charged whilst Disordered.

The fall of Mhgoroth

Sundays game saw my Basileans in action against the evil necromancer Mhogorth. I was laying siege to his castle in an attempt to destroy his stronghold on the boarders of Basilean territory.

For the game I fielded a full complement of siege equipment - a siege tower, a battering ram, and 3 heavy catapults to bombard the walls. The Ogre Palace Guards were designated to lead the assault on the walls and gate.

The Undead hung back seeking to bait me into charge range. I was able to catch the Faceless One in combat with a lying hero. I stalled him for a turn but was mashed by some skeletons for my trouble. Meanwhile the catapults had two excellent turns of shooting that toppled the walls guarded by the bulk of the Undead.    

Turns 5 and 6 saw heavy fighting along walls and through the gate. The Ogres burst into the castle in turn 6, wining the game.

And as for the Faceless One - well he escaped the carnage and will no doubt return once his forces are rebuilt. The funny thing about necromancers is win or lose, you always end-up with a bigger army. 

Forces of Basilea completed!

After a burst of painting over the Christmas break I've completed another project and placed it on the shelf. The Basileans are a human faction in Kings of War that are an amalgam of the Crusaders and Byzantines. I've mostly gone with a Crusader aesthetic so the units can be fielded as 1st Crusade for historical games.

The Infantry

The core of the battle line are the Paladin Footguards - these are resilient units who can benefit from Elite for greater combat power, but without 12 attacks their role really to hold the line and grind. Supported by healing they are tough to wear down

The Ogre Palace Guards are a unit imported from Vanguard. With Crushing Strength (2) and Defence 5+ they can both give and take punishment. These provide the primary infantry hammer units in the army and always to be found in the heart of the action.  

The cavalry and chaff

KOW V3 has reduced the power of heavy Calvary but the army still benefits from the mobility of two Paladin Knights regiments, here supported by General Gnaeus Sallustis - a Knight regiments worth of pain in a hero sized unit. One unit is painted a Brotherhood unit incorporated into the Basilean army but can also be used on the Green Lady's list.

Gnaeus ready to go

The battle-nuns forming the Sisterhood have lost much of their useful having been somewhat nerfed. The Scouts though provide reliable shooting and cab act as chaff/anti-chaff, albeit costly ones. I can field 3 troops of these.

The speedsters

I planned the army in V2 and so included 2 hordes of Elohi flying knights. They have been heavily downgraded and so no longer provider the primary hammers in then army. They remain useful though for flanks, threat projection, and for grabbing objectives. Due to their cost they now often feature in regiments rather than hordes.

The third unit to cross over from Vanguard are the Gur Panthers. In troops they are fast and manoeuvrable units that can attack as chaff or threaten a flank. At speed 10 they are quicker than other equipment units.      

The Backline

War machines are more reliable in V3 and do provide a way to attack large, high-defence, units before they stomp you. These have been supplied by the Elves as military aid and repurposed.

Heroes, priests, and wizards provide essential support to the battle line, and I've plenty of figures. I'm usually fielding Priests (inspire, heal, and banechant) and Chaplins as heroic chaff. The Priests are especially useful in keeping the core units in the fight.

The flying heroes provide punch as either Ur Elohi or named characters. Samacris provides mobile healing, inspiring and some ranged attacks with her fireballs.

Samacris - mother of phoenixes

All-up its probably about 4,000 points so plenty of options available. I can also add-in units from my Crusader forces to give Men-at-Arms and Crossbowmen when needed.

   

Musquets and Tomahawks

Our next campaign is going to be French & Indian Wars in mid -1700's North America. This week we had a quick practice game to remind ourselves of the game. The game is card-based but with variable numbers of cards per unit. For example light infantry (the most flexible troops) each have 3 cards allowing a single action, where as regular infantry only have 2 cards but each allows 2 actions.

For this game we played French vs British. The more elite French fielded a unit of Marines, a unit of militia, a unit of Indians and a unit of regulars. The British had regulars, lights, militia and 2 units of provincial troops.

The battle centred around attempts to capture a remote farm occupied by and America colonial (lets call her Meg) and her family who were seeking a quiet life.

American Provincials and Militia

British regulars

British Lights

French Marines

French Grenadiers

Meg looking vexed

The Provincials again

British Lights

The progressed well with the French perhaps ahead on casualties inflicted  

   

What a tanker

We often try out new games between longer campaigns and so this week we tried-put What A Tanker from Two Fat Lardies. Its a tanks-only skirmish game for 15 - 28mm played with a few vehicles aside.  We went with a Marder II, Hetzer, and Panzer IV vs two Shermans and an M18.

The rules use an activation system similar to Chain of command - you roll 6 dice and these give actions. 1's = a move, 2's  = acquire targets, 3's = aim, 4's = shoot, 5's = reload and 6's = wildcards that can be used as another number. So what you can do each turn varies with the dice but some tanks can influence this e.g. tank destroyers can turn any dice into an aim.

Oddballs Sherman

Shooting is done by throwing D6 based on your Strike value and then saved rolling D6 based on your armour. 3 unsaved hits in a turn kills you outright with lesser numbers of unsaved hits damaging you instead. Take the Sherman; its Strike 7 hitting on 5,6 from the front and armour 6 saving on 5,6. Side or rear hits are easier but you can see that head-on outright kills are fairly unlikely so its more a battle of attrition.  

The games plays smoothly enough and we got the hang of things pretty quickly. We'll play agaon I'm sure. Its highly stylised for example there is no reserved fire to make you attack and there are no soft skin or wheeled vehicles.  

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