Triple S - SciFi, Scots and Spies

 A fairly busy week of gaming as we approach the end of June. 

I'm still painting for a new addition to the "5 Parsecs From Home" solo Sci-Fi skirmish  family - "Planet Fall". In this variant of 5FPH you are the commander of an expedition seeking to colonise an alien world. I've been painting both the xenomorphs and the crew.

Crabman xeno

Expedition soldiers

Expedition scientists

I've also been to Fishponds for another game of "Test of Honour". The scenario involved the Samurai trying to smuggle a spy off the table as the Warrior Monks look to block their progress.    

Warrior Monks

Samurai

The spy did nt escape before we completed the game be we called it for the attacking Samurai.    

Action in the centre

Finally we're starting our new campaign looking at the Montrose rebellion in ECW Scotland. We're using "Never Mind the Matchlocks", a new set for us so plenty of learning to do.     

Highlanders

Covenanters

Our learning this week is that the cavalry rules are more complex than the infantry ones. We'll look to reduce the cavalry numbers to speed up the game.     

More games and project completed

A busy week of gaming saw me over in Fishponds at the weekend for another game of Test of Honour with my monks once again facing off against my brothers samurai. The mission was to search a village and identify casualties from a previous battle who could be saved.   

 

Temple guards attacking

The monks proved good in combat but terrible at searching and so the game ended in a draw with both sides nabbing two objectives and the fifth going unclaimed. 

Battle is joined in the centre of the village

The completed project is my Great North War Russians and Swedes, with the final unit some dismounted Dragoons for the Tzar's army. Its been a couple of years work but I now have 24 Russian units and 16 Swedish units done, with a roughly 50/50 cavalry ratio. All are based for Beneath the Lilly Banners.    

Great North War Russian Dragoons - NorthStar figures  

With Nigel's armies we've enough for some large games. We both have Ottomans who could also be fielded.  

Finally some more Blucher during the week. This game pitted an very elite French army (mostly Guard) against a much larger Austrian army in a resetting of the 1814 Battle of Laon. The game was tied but with the Austrians feeling a bit happier as they were holding 2 of the scoring three villages.      

Laon for Blucher

 

Monks of the mountain

Latest units off the painting table are some Sohei (warrior monks) for Test of Honour - a samurai skirmish game I'm playing in Fishponds. The game uses about 10-20 figures per side on 4 foot table somewhat based on WWII skirmish 02 Hundred Hours. The action is driven by a pot of activation chits with players drawing in turn to see if they can activate a hero or normal trooper. 

Starting as a temple defence force they grew steadily and were able to field large armies capable of defeating samurai lords. Also in the force are some Ikko-Ikki religious fanatics. All 28mm Sohei figures from Footsore Miniatures.      

Sohei naginata wielders

Sohei musketeers

Sohei temple guards

Ikko-Ikki

Sohei leaders

As Emperor Shirakawa lamented - there are three things that even I cannot control: the waters of the Kamo river, the roll of the dice, and the monks of the mountains.

Shoguns and Jarls

A busy time this week, with two midweek games in addition to the Sudan campaign on regular club nights.  

Never Mind The Billhooks - Samurai style

A trip over to Fishponds saw us playing NMTB using Samurai forces rather than the Wars of the Roses troops it was originally written for. A version of the oft converted NMTB for Japanese warfare is due out later year, so this was really a chance to try the basic mechanics and use the figures.   

I (literally) blew the dust off my 30 year old Dixon Miniatures to bulk out the forces and provide decent number of units per side. The armies are structured into commands (Wards) which activate in turn as decided by cards. Commanders can order units to act based on their quality but you never have enough  to do all you want, creating some friction.     

Fireforge plastic samurai

Classic Dixon samurai

Its a fairly simple game and our main takeaways from the first go were; big Pike (Yari) units are nasty doing lots of hits, the very limited ammo (6 shots / unit) means you need to not waste shots at long range, and the morale is pretty brutal with dice a big factor as a 4 or less (on 2D6) is always a rout.     

 

I've dug out the ECW version (Never Mind the Matchlocks) as that could work well for larger games.  So one to work on as a background project as I've not found a decent set of ECW rules.  

Pillage

I also managed a game of Pillage dark ages skirmish. In our third game we threw in several new elements; fire, javelins, war horns, banners, war hounds and Irish troops. The Irish are very cheap as they lack armour or the best weapons, so do get about a third more figures then the Anglo Saxons or Vikings.    

Viking leader and his body guards 

Anglo Saxon attackers

We played the St Brice's day massacre scenario with Anglo Saxons and Irish attacking Viking defenders, the aim being to set fire to the church. Sheer numbers gave the attackers an edge as the Vikings could nt plug every hole in the perimeter and so the Irish were able to get troops to the church in round 4. We played the fire starting slightly wrong but I suspect attackers would still have managed to set the fires in turn 5.  

War hounds are a mixed blessing as they can attack your own troops if things go wrong - so hit and miss but potentially quite funny. 

  

Irish war hounds run riot

 

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.    

 

A quick game of Ronin

As we gorged ourselves over the weekend on a WSS all-day game, this weeks club-night was a quick game of Ronin from Osprey's gaming series. The game is based on semi-legendary heroic combat in medieval Japan, with players typically fielding forces of 6-12 figures. The factions available include Samurai, Bandits, Iki-Iki rebels, Koreans, and fighting schools. Games usually last about an hour.

The heart of the system is the combat which features a fun system. Players make opposed attack vs defence die roles with high scores in the attackers favour resulting in wounds. Each figure fighting has a Combat Pool of counters that can be used to enhance attack or defence rolls in that round of combat. Pool sizes vary by quality and you can choose freely between attack and defence counters each round. So the tactical sophistication comes in choosing an appropriate  pool for that round. It gets even more subtle when you have one model against several as the larger side can combine their pools but loose counters if people die. Pretty initiative after a few minutes and the game flows well.

We fought a quick attack verses defence game over about an hour.

Archers defending a gate

The defenders

Half the attackers - my favourite red devils

The other attackers

The town

Defenders move into action

Battle is joined - not going well for the reds

Review of the other attackers

The red devils leader gets stuck in