More 20mm fun

Our 20mm correspondent has been experimenting with Renaissance

"I recently rediscovered George Gush’s Renaissance Rules and tried them out with my 20mm Muscovites and Arabs.

 

Actually played quite well just so much detail and seemed to be a recreation of a historical battle rather than a game. Most modern systems seem pretty abstract, loads of dice, fixed frontages etc.

 

Quite a revelation"

"Some more pictures this time of Muscovites streletsy. Zvezda 20mm plastics"

Smoke and Mirrors

The Smoke & Mirrors scenarios has a has a nice bluff element. Each player has five objective markers worth 2,1,1,0,0 victory points which are deployed face-down in the enemies half. Both players reveal one per turn that the enemy placed. So room for bluff and psychology.

I placed my 2 and a 1 fairly wide on my left with the other 1 on my right, all fairly, far back. I placed two 0's in the centre looking to bait the enemy and exploit my faster units. It later emerged that the Undead stacked the middle with their 1's but placed the 2 on my right.

The Undead army saw a very nasty centre of Vampire and Mummies with various skeleton units filling up the space on the flanks.

I deployed my resilient Paladins in the centre whilst stacking my attacking units (Knights and Ogres) on left left where they could hopefully grab 3 VPs before turning to the centre.  

We both pushed forward on our lefts looking to grab VPs and turn the enemy flank.

I attacked first charging all the Ogres and Knights on turn 2 - all the assaults were nicely lined-up with a juicy double from the Knights on some Zombie Trolls and my Ogres getting stuck into the Skeletons and Wights. My devastating attack wilted under a barrage of bad dice meaning the whole lot bounced off.  

The Knights were both deleted in the enemies turn 2 leaving the Ogres to spend a further 3 turns cutting through to secure 3 VPs on the left.  This was not helped by the Devastated Zombie Trolls hanging on for an additional turn after a double 1 for the nerve check to rout them.

Centrally the Undead's scary centre clashed with my Paladins and began to wear them down as I had expected. The slow progress of my flank attack meant by the end of turn 5 the Undead also had 3 VPs. One of mine was out of range so it all came down to a 1 VP objective on the Undead's currently unattended in the centre.    

I was able to grab the objective but moving second the Undead were able to propel their Mummies into range using magical Surging of the shambling bodies and so grab a 4-3 win.  The abject failure of my attack on the left doomed me from early on, as they would never be able to contest the central objectives. So a 4-3 loss with even amounts of  dead was a decent result.

The last move with the unclaimed objective at the top  

This secured a third territory fpor the Undead and opens up optins for the next game.

Roman battle test

Our Roman front correspondent (Nigel) sent a new dispatch from the front recently

Having painted the 20mm Late Romans I decided to play a solo game to test their mettle. The opposition comprised of Arabs; 5 units of mixed spear and bow, 2 units of heavy cavalry 1 of light horse archers and 1 unit of light infantry javelinman. Having seen ‘Battleground’ with Edward Woodward on Youtube  I thought it to be in order to return to the heady days of the 70’s and use WRG 4th edition.

 

Needless to say the Arabs infantry were run over by the Romans infantry who the rules armed with long thrusting spears and darts. The cavalry fight was a lot more evenly matched but they also were sent packing for the desert.

 

All very nostalgic.

Ronin

As a break from Kings of War we've played a quick intro game of Ronin - Osprey's samurai skirmish game which has now been adapted for Three Musketeers too.

The core mechanic is a Combat Pool of attack or defence counters that boost that aspect of combat. You can choose the mix and when to play them in the turn. Each round of combat last a series of turns until neither side has any attack counters left. In many vs one combats the pool is err pooled for the larger side but you are limited how many you can spend on each combatant. 

So you could Bansi with lots of attack counters and hope to blitz the enemy before he responds or block with all defence counters.  Combat pools are 3 for samurai with lords about 5 and peasants at 1 or 2. So some subtle variations possible in bigger combats. 

   

We played some short combats to demo the rules as the lords watched on....

Takeda clan in their famous red armour

Honda clan

A quick 1 vs 1 that lasted a couple of rounds and took about 5 mins to resolve.

A slightly larger combat with a mix of weapons and troops. Weapons like spears crease your initiative and so chances of going first in melee. Big swords do more damage. The best is the Naginata (Glaive) which increases both.    

 

20mm Romans revisted

Nigel has been busy with his Romans - he reports

 I have taken the opportunity to replace a 20mm Late Roman Army  that I sold several years ago before Hat Industrie brought out the full range.

 

Pictures attached.

 

3 Units of legionaries (40 figures)

5 Auxilia  (60 figures)

12 skirmishers.

 

24 heavy cavalry

24 light cavalry

 

Thirty six pounds!

Push on through

My latest game is once again King of War and its one of my favourite scenarios - Push. Each side has 3 loot tokens and there is a central one. You score 2 point for each you hold in the enemy half and one for each in your half. So lots of options for strategies.

My orignal plan was to contest the central token with my most powerful units (Knights and Ogres) whilst forming a bubble with the Paladins who would try to get the unit carrying all three tokens up the table. The Undead spread theirs across the line.   

Sisterhood scouts hold the woods

The Undead army featured a large unit (horde) of elite revenant heavy cavalry. This is unwieldy but very hard to stop. Luckily it was only carrying one loot token. Deploying last I spotted one flank was largely open and so placed by loot token carrier there where it could move up unmolested. The Paladins would instead try to delay the enemy horsemen.    

Undead cavalry enmass

The action in the heavily contested centre was fast and bloody. My cavalry were able to get several flank charges and clear the left of the board where my loot carrier was advancing. Centrally though I was subjected to several waves of attacks that killed my Ogres.

Mhorgoth-the-unspellable in his first outing

About 4 turns in I was holding up the Undead in the centre and had been able to slowdown the cavalry advance on my right. At this point my loot carrier arrived in a safe spot on the enemies side giving me 6 points. A couple of dreaded double-1s cost the Undead horse a couple of moves as my Sisterhood Scouts clung-on in the woods longer than they should have.

6-points TVM !

By the end of the game losses were heavier for me than the Undead but I was 8-5 ahead. This was a scenario where the plan really matters and in hindsight the Undead should have placed all the loot with the large cavalry unit to score 6 points and contest the centre with their other units.

Hammer house of horrors

Something about the current lock-in has got me painting Undead at a decent rate. Over the last couple of weeks I've completed some Revenant cavalry, Zombies, Vampire infantry and a further unit of Mummies.

The ranks of the Undead are growing rapidly as the loo roll supplies diminish.

The Zombies are based as Troops so could double as Ghouls - fast moving units that screen the slower moving heavy hitters.

The chap at the front is a Vampire halfling - an ankle biter indeed.