Battle Report - Polish Rebel Alliance vs. Teutonic Knights

Kevin threw together a quick big battle DBA for Dave, Andy, and me yesterday - Poles, Old Prussians, and Latvians facing an attack by the Teutonic Knights and a few non-Teutonic crusaders. No particular battle was represented, just one of any number of possible conflicts during the Prussian Crusade.

Deployment. Poles on the right, Teutonic Order on the left.

Not much of a battle report this time; I was working on very little sleep, so I don't recall much of it. Enjoy the pictures.

Near the end.

Fun, and fast playing. I have to admit, like mold, DBA is growing on me the more I play it.

PDX March Historical Wargames Day - DBA & Saga

This month's historical day went pretty well! We had the regulars plus a few other folks turning up for some Saga action, and I played/demoed De Bellis Antiquitatis a few times - standard Polybian Romans versus a slightly non-standard Seleucid list. (I haven't any scythed chariots, as it's pulled together from some other figures.)

I am still undecided on how much I like DBA. It certainly plays quickly - five games in four hours, and that's allowing for quite a bit of not-playing time where I was chatting, browsing merchandise, or kibbitzing on the Saga games. I also like the smallness of the scale - 12 elements to a side, 24 x 24" board, etc. But it does feel quite swingy - more of a dice game than a strategy game, as it were.

Everyone had fun, as far as I can tell, and we may have hooked another fellow into the Saga pond. Thanks to everyone who attended!

Next month it looks like I'll be demoing Sails of Glory, based on the poll I put up on the Wargames Oregon Facebook page.

Battle Report: Battle of the Brandywine - Howe's Flanking Maneuver

Another Saturday, another historical game. This time it's 1777, and General George Washington has prepared to give battle to General Sir William Howe at the Brandywine Creek in Pennsylvania. But Howe has outmaneuvered the rebels, and sent a column under General Cornwallis on a forced march to crush the Patriot right flank. Washington sends General Sullivan to delay them, and that's where our game begins.

Deployment - from the Birmingham Meetinghouse. Patriots on the left, British in the distance.

Alyssa, Andy, and Jack took the part of the British, while Jeff and I took up the Patriot banner - Dave joined us a bit late, but took the Patriot center when he arrived. On the Patriot side we had Major General John Sullivan in overall command, with William Alexander, Lord Stirling and Adam Stephen under him for the battle. At the game's start, Sullivan's brigade is on the left (except for a single regiment stuck in the far right after fighting a holding action and just now arriving on the field), Stephen has the center and the only artillery, and Stirling is to the right, near the meetinghouse.

The King's forces, commanded by General Sir William Howe, outnumbered the rebels by a fair bit. I'm afraid the only subcommander I can recall is Cornwallis - Wikipedia has the rest, but I don't remember how many of them were represented on the table tonight. They were mostly drawn up on the hill opposite the rebels, with a screen of light infantry and jaegers in front. They also had a single cavalry unit, the 16th Light Dragoons.

To win, the British had to either destroy the Patriots, or cut off their retreat by taking the road that led to the Patriot rear and the rest of Washington's army. They had to do so within nine turns. The Patriots won if they prevented this from happening. Despite their preponderance of force, this was actually an uphill struggle for the British...

The British close in on the Patriots; the Patriots shuffle to the right to form a proper line.

16th Light Dragoons pass the meeting house.

Just before first fire - the Patriots are off the hill and the jaegers have already taken shots.

The British plan was quite simple: move up and push the rebels off the hill while the cavalry rode around and cut off the road behind them. The Patriots, in turn, determined to stand at the base of the hill and hold up in the meeting house. Thus, the Patriots began to move to their right while the British advanced, and the dragoons rode like hell through the woods near the meeting house.

Initial action at the courthouse: The patriots have just seen off British light infantry with a volley of musket fire, while the rest of the line is carefully - mostly - falling back onto the hill.

 Patriots got into the courthouse walls just in time to repel the British light infantry. On the Patriot left, the lines exchanged fire at a distance, to small effect on either side - as can be seen below with the white casualty caps on some stands.

As above

A vicious firefight over the meeting house wall routs both the patriots holding it and the British attacking.

 After repelling the light infantry at the meeting house, the Patriots held their fire as a unit of regulars advanced into the woods and formed firing line, then exchanged a volley of fire with them - to such effect that both units lost more than half their men and broke into a rout!

Meanwhile - and sadly not captured in the photos - the dragoons had cleared the woods but, being out of command, failed to do anything useful for a turn or two.

Patriots continue a slow withdrawal. British move up to the meeting house. On the left, the patriot line is pretty well broken, but the British cannot break through with their disordered troops.

 On the Patriot left, the line had fallen back, but the British were unable to capitalize on this due to disorder and slow movement rates.

British moving past the meeting house and around the left of the hill in the background. Patriots still withdrawing in mostly good order.

 Back on the right, the dragoons faced off against a unit of rebel foot - and, in a massive stroke of luck for the rebels, were all but destroyed by a volley. Still, they didn't break, and the one remaining stand attempted to charge the next turn... to no effect. At the same time, the Patriot reinforcements had just arrived on the table and were marching toward the withdrawing lines.

End game. The patriots have successfully held off the British flanking maneuver until nightfall.

 In the end, the Americans withdrew successfully as night fell, while Howe had to be content with merely forcing a retreat instead of rolling up Washington's army.

At the beginning, this felt like a bad position for us Patriots, what with being outnumbered and having the cavalry handily outflanking us. But as the game developed, the British were simply unable to move quickly enough to force the victory conditions. A fun scenario. Thanks to Victor for putting it on!

Battle Report: Warmachine Tournament, March 5, 2016

I finally attended a Warmachine even this year - it's been hectic - and had a good bit of fun. It was run by Asher, one of our local Press Gangers, at Red Castle Games, and had a turnout of twenty. Quite a lot of Legion of Everblight and Protectorate of Menoth...

Lists

I brought a Morghoul 1/Hexeris 2 pairing, though as things turned out I only ran the Morghoul 1 list.

Master Tormentor Morghoul

- Aptimus Marketh
- Aradus Sentinel
- Aradus Sentinel
- Aradus Soldier
Agonizer
Mortitheurge Willbreaker
Mortitheurge Willbreaker
Extoller Soulward
Tyrant Zaadesh
- Cyclops Raider
- Cyclops Brute
- Basilisk Krea
Paingiver Beast Handlers (min)
Paingiver Beast Handlers (min)
(Vanguard) Molik Karn
(Vanguard) Titan Gladiator)
(Vanguard) Swamp Gobbers Bellows Crew

Lord Arbiter Hexeris

- Aradus Sentinel

- Aradus Sentinel

- Cyclops Raider

- Cyclops Shaman

Mortitheurge Willbreaker

Mortitheurge Willbreaker

Extoller Soulward

Paingiver Beast Handlers (max)

Cataphract Incindiarii (min)

Cataphract Incindiarii (min)

Venator Slingers (max)

(Vanguard) Titan Gladiator

(Vanguard) Orin Midwinter, Rogue Inquisitor

(Vanguard) Extoller Soulward

(Vanguard) Agonizer

(Vanguard) Cataphract Arcuarii (min)

Round One

Paired off against Josh's Protectorate of Menoth - Anson Durst and Harbinger of Menoth. I went for Morghoul, he dropped Durst and won the roll. He chose to go first, so I picked the side with the wall and the trench.

Anson Durst, Rock of the Faith
- Hierophant
- Reckoner
- Reckoner
- Fires of Salvation
Vassal of Menoth
Vassal of Menoth
Wrack x3
Pyrrhus, Flameguard Hero (not that Pyrrhus)
Exemplar Vengers (max)
Temple Flameguard + Officer & Standard Bearer
Choir of Menoth (min)

Deployment

He moved in and took my objective pretty early. I screwed up and failed to contest his zone on my second turn, so gave him basically a free point. Aside from that - and playing too slowly, because new units and new list - I thought I played fairly well.

Mid game.

Halfway through the game and I've started the piece trade pretty well - his Flameguard are mostly gone, the bugs and Raider have all but eliminated his cavalry, the Aradus Soldier has destroyed one of the Redeemers, and I'm properly contesting both zones.

End game. Another minute or two on my clock and I'd probably have assassinated Durst.

Sadly, slow play did me in. He managed to clear his friendly zone and score a few more points; I killed his objective and dominated my own zone for a few points. The Soldier, cranked up on Abuse and Enrage, managed to wreck Fires of Salvation on Durst's feat turn. But I ended that turn with only about thirty seconds left on my clock... We ended on my fifth turn, but diced it out. If I'd had time to properly Abuse, Enrage, and throw Puppet Master on the Soldier, he'd almost certainly have killed Durst in that assassination run.

Lessons from this game: A) Play faster! B) Aradii shut down a ranged game hard. With Basilisk Krea support they can go to DEF 15/ARM 25 vs shooting, and very few lists bring the shooting that can deal with that.

Round Two

Against Lucas' Protectorate, a Kreoss 2/Severius pairing. He put down Kreoss and I dropped Morghoul 1 again - a mistake, as it turned out.

Grand Exemplar Kreoss (Crusaders of Sul theme force, tier 4)

- Fires of Salvation

Knights Exemplar Seneschal

Knights Exemplar Seneschal

Exemplar Errant Seneschal

Exemplar Errant Seneschal

High Exemplar Gravus

Knights Exemplar

Knights Exemplar

Knights Exemplar

Knights Exemplar

Daughters of the Flame

Exemplar Errants + Officer & Standard Bearer

Theme Force Benefits: FA U on Knights Exemplar; Knights Exemplar gain Advance Move; free Exemplar Seneschal solo; +2" on your deployment zone.

Deployment. Same as last game.

 After he'd deployed, I realized I dropped the wrong list. Morghoul simply doesn't have the volume of fire to deal with this, while Hexeris 2 does. But there was a chance - assassination. Despite that huge swarm of Exemplars running across the board at me, my Sentinels, with Arcing Fire, could still pop shots at Kreoss. I deployed as I had in the last game, with the bugs up on the AD line and the rest of the army clumped up behind them.

He ran his army across the table pretty damn quick. Between the Advance Move on the Knights and the AD on the Errants, he basically began with everything 15" up the table already - on the edge of the zone, as can be seen above. Here's where he ran into his first problem, though - too many figures on the table, and the Errants began to block his Knights' attack avenues. My Sentinels started off punting shots, and between them and the Raider I was able to remove both Errant Seneschals. To be honest, I'm not sure that was the best choice. I was able to get a single shot onto Kreoss, putting some damage into him; then, dash Morghoul over to the flag on my left to score my only control point of the game. The following turn I had another assassination opportunity, probably around a 60% shot. Kreoss was on a hill, but if I could get the Sentinels out of melee, I'd have two POW 13 fully boosted shots, with Puppet Master rerolls, on him.

First shot was simple. Sentinel was only engaged by one model, and I was able to clear that off quickly. Forfeit movement to aim, and... out of range. By about a millimeter. The scatter doesn't help. Second shot is a lot trickier - the Sentinel is tied up by four models, two of which are Errants. Errants have an ability that allows one model to die in another one's place, which lets them keep critical models alive - like one of the ones engaging the Sentinel. I manage to kill all the engaging models but one, and have to risk a free strike to get the assassination shot. And the Errant makes and rolls hot on the damage, straight up killing the Sentinel.

End game. Kreoss has narrowly avoided assassination and cleared the zone for a scenario victory.

That's pretty much the game right there, as he's already cleared the zone, and scores the last two points he needs to wrap up the game. Lesson learned: Don't drop this list into an infantry swarm. Also, gun bugs are awesome.

Round Three

I drew the bye, so I got to play Watchmachine for a couple hours.

Round Four

Versus Dustin's Legion of Everblight. He'd brought Thagrosh 1 and Lylyth 2 - both strong lists, both with a Blight Bringer. This time Morghoul was the obvious choice. He dropped Lylyth.

Lylyth, Shadow of Everblight

- Ravagore

- Blight Bringer

- Nephilim Bolt Thrower

- Naga Nightlurker

Strider Death Stalker

Strider Death Stalker

The Forsaken

Blighted Nyss Shepherd

Blighted Nyss Shepherd

Croak Raiders (max)

Deployment, and Croak Raiders first move.

I went second so I could take the side with the hill and the trench. Both of us had very simple deployments, as seen above. I was well aware of Lylyth's assassination potential, but was counting on the ability of the bugline to block LOS to Morghoul - who would be sitting at DEF 19/ARM 15 thanks to the Krea animus most of the game, camping at least three transfers.

He moved up fast, as expected, with the Death Stalkers doing the usual flanking maneuver and the Croak Raiders took the center. My first turn went well. I was able to knock out a few of the Croak Raiders, and put some damage on the Ravagore that my opponent hadn't expected. Unfortunately I left a gap in my defensive line between the Krea and the objective, which turned out extremely badly...

He took a heck of a lot of shots on his turn - the Croaks shot out plenty of oil bombs, though through pure luck they missed hitting Morghoul. And then his Ravagor took a shot at one of the Beast Handlers next to Morghoul, missed, and scattered straight onto Morghoul, the Extoller, another Beast Handler... and Tyrant Zaadesh. And then he rolled a hard 15 on the damage.

Midgame. Things have suddenly gone very badly.

Welp. Now I've got three wild warbeasts - my Raider, Brute, and Krea. That's a couple legit combat beasts and two crucial animi off the table for the moment. Also, Morghoul's on fire. I've gone from having a pretty strong position to being in serious trouble, especially since Lylyth hasn't feated yet. He finishes off his turn by dropping the Blight Bringer's monster AOE on the Krea, killing off some more support and putting damage on the Krea.

I start my turn by moving the Soldier up to kill off some Croak Raiders and contest the zone. Then most of the rest of my models take out the Ravagore - takes a bit more work than I'd like, preventing me from hitting any of his other models. Morghoul moves over and pulls the Krea into his battlegroup. I camp four Fury and hope it's enough.

End game. Note Morghoul at the bottom of the photo, knocked down and on fire.

It's not. I get one dose of luck - his Blight Bringer frenzies and does a bit of damage to his objective. With that having taken almost 20% of his army out of the game this turn, he's a bit doubtful, but goes for the assassination. Between the fire damage roll, the attacks from Lylyth, the Nephilim Bolt Thrower, and the Naga Nightlurker, he's able to force all my transfers, knock Morghoul down, and finish things off in fine style.

Lessons learned from that game:
A) Don't leave LOS gaps in your line against Lylyth (or, I suppose, any ranged assassins).
B) Keep Zaadesh super super safe. Further back is better. Maybe pop a Razor Worm into the list for Girded. And maybe put one of those support beasts under Morghoul instead.
C) The Blight Bringer is very, very good.

All told, I had a lot of fun at this event. I'm happy with the Morghoul list. Thanks to Asher for running it, and to all of my opponents for fun games.

Battle Report: Bear Yourselves Valiantly, Some Time in the Middle Ages

This one's a bit late, but on the 27th of February I got together with the gang at Guardian Games to play out a learning/test game of Bear Yourselves Valiantly, the fantasy/ancient/medieval rules set from the Look Sarge, No Charts guys. We weren't recreating any particular battle so much as testing out the rules, but from the disposition of the flags, it appears a Pope had a beef with an Emperor, or possibly the other way 'round.

In any case, we had six players with Alyssa running the game. She'll be using it to run the Battle of Watling Street at Enfilade this year, so this was something of a test run. Victor stood around and provided helpful advice.

Things begin with an advance toward the hill...

I took the right wing of my side, with two battlegroups under my Wing Commander. In BYV, there's a fairly strict chain of command. Your army is composed of warbands, i.e., bases or stands, which form a Battlegroup. These are in turn gathered together into Wings - usually three - which are all under your army commander. This matters for two reasons: Initiative and morale. I rather liked the initiative system - there's a deck of cards containing two sets of 1-6 cards and a joker. Every commander on the table rolls a d6 for their initiative number, then the GM starts drawing cards from the deck. Commanders (and their battlegroups) act on the card corresponding to their number. On a joker draw, the round ends. Thus, a battlegroup might act once, twice, or not at all.

Morale-wise, after this game, I think it's important for the game to have more smaller battlegroups rather than one or two large ones. More on that later.

In any case, the game proceeded mostly as these group games usually do: a series of one-on-one conflicts with a little overlap at the margins of command. On the left, my side did fairly well, pushing the Imperial forces back. In the center, things turned into a vicious slog over a prominent hill. And on the right, things went absolutely to hell pretty quickly.

Enemy forces advance up the hill; my cavalry waits for David's infantry to get into a good charge range.

The view from the Pope's Bastard Son, leading the right wing.

Enemy cavalry takes the hill

The Bastard Son taking a look at his left - he's sent three warbands around the wood to help contest the near hill.

Things are going badly...

 Things were going fairly well until the first clash of arms. Every time a stand takes a hit, if I recall correctly, their battlegroup commander gets a Morale Test token. At the battlegroup's next activation, the commander must take a test for every token on him, needing to roll higher on a d10 than his Morale Value. Should he fail, the entire battlegroup may suffer a result, from OK to a Rout. I managed to suffer a Rout on my first morale test, and suddenly the right half my wing was in mad retreat, as seen above.

The slog in the middle. Note the green initiative dice on the commander stands.

My Routing battlegroup, screened from the enemy by the woods and their more valiant comrades.

 After routing, units will continue to flee - though they needn't head directly for the board edge - until they are either 24" from any enemy units, or they have interposed rough going or friendly units between themselves and any enemy units. As the picture above shows, I was able to swing the wing commander's own battlegroup into position to buy some time. So, now my battlegroup wasn't in Rout; they were Pinned. We all agreed that this was an unfortunate term, as a Pinned battlegroup can still fight and maneuver normally. It only suffers a -2 to any combat rolls (which is quite, quite bad). It can also only activate on a black card, instead of both a black and red card.

Things are going much better on the other end of the field.

Enemy forces send off the screening units, and the pinned battlegroup turns to face. The Bastard Son is about to eat a charge from a covey of knights...

Some point late in the evening, near the end of the game. Now both battlegroups have been Pinned.

We called the game after about four and half hours of playtime. My side, things were mixed - both of my battlegroups were Pinned, and I was pushed very near the board edge. But on the other end of the table, the Bastard Son's hated rival was doing quite well...

As for Bear Yourselves Valiantly - I think I might like it. Like most rules sets, it could be written somewhat more clearly, and we had several questions after the game, mostly about charge reactions and the effect of having one warband directly behind a friendly warband. The authors are quite responsive to questions, though, and responded to Victor quickly. I really like the d10 + special dice mechanic. It's not amazingly granular, but it's very quick and gives pleasing results.

The two things that appear to require special care are army organization and the Morale Values given to troops. As I experienced above, one bad or two bad morale rolls and you can have essentially lost the battle. Having more and smaller battlegroups mitigates this a bit. Morale Values seem to need to be surprisingly low - the lower the better in game terms, and since your battlegroup commanders will be taking quite a few Morale tests, even a 3 is dangerously high. (That's a 30% chance of failure, and on a failure you have something like a 1 in 3 chance of routing or being pinned.) Recovering from Pinned status requires rolling a 6 on your initiative die, so in a game that may only last another three rounds, it's pretty unlikely.

Still, those aren't flaws with the system as such, but things that game referees need to keep in mind. So, I'd give this system a solid B, maybe a B+, and I'd definitely play it again.