Battle Report: Patton's Desert War...

Peter, Jared, and I decided we'd take a crack at Blitzkrieg Commander II, as an alternative to Flames of War. I refereed, since I have the most (two games) experience with the system, and set up a North African table for Jared's Red Army tanks to assault Peter's 101st Airborne. (I dunno, Alien Space Bats must have done something...)

This was quite a small game, actually, but it still took almost three hours before we called it - all that fumbling with new rules.

The US defended a hill with a half-company of Airborne backed up by a 57mm anti-tank gun, a pair of MGs, some off-board artillery, and a single 81mm mortar. The Russians came in through a village just north of the hill with five T-34/85s, an ISU-122, and some tank riders; unfortunately, they'd placed their single mortar too far away to effectively receive orders...

At first we thought the Americans would simply be steamrolled by the Russian tanks, but they proved to be surprisingly durable. BKC II's command system provided significantly more randomness than we're used to with FoW, especially since the Americans only had one commander; when he failed his command roll, that was it for the turn!

Second-to-last turn

One question we had was the command penalty for multiple orders to a unit. We're not sure if it applies to the entire formation that contains the unit, or only to that unit itself. Still, overall it was a good game. Next time we'll have to bump it up to around 3,000 points to a side...

Battle Report: His Majesty's Army vs. Some Damned Rebellious Colonials

I recently had a chance to participate in a game of Field of Battle 2 run by Victor at Guardian Games. (Also in attendance: Kevin, Andy, Dave, and Peter.) This was my second experience with a Piquet-based game, my first being at Enfilade 2014.

Victor presented us with a pretty straightforward scenario: The Continental army (under Andy & Dave) had seized a ridgeline overlooking a road. Our British army, commanded by an aristocratic poltroon (and under myself and Kevin), had chosen to press on without waiting for reinforcements to oust the rebel from this advantageous position.

The British mustered three command groups, each comprised of four regiments, with a small artillery battery. The Americans were likewise. However, the British were blessed with more consistently trained and disciplined troops, while having to deal with the aforementioned poltroon as their commander in chief; the Americans appeared to have the reverse situation.

As the battle played out, the guns on either side did little work; the British marched up, clashed with the rebels; and in the end, American morale broke first, and the British took the ridge.

Preparing for the game

British left and center, deployed, with the guns safely nestled in the woods.

American right, with a regiment held back in reserve.

The American center, anchored by a pair of guns.

British right at deployment.

The British left forming up neatly at the base of the ridge prior to the charge.

The British right slowly advances toward the American positions.

Results of the first clash on the British left; two regiments in rout, more entering the fray.

Action on the hill.

British left flank, Americans moving in to push them back.

Rather blurry photo of the British right flank.

Hessians fire at point blank range at the Americans, supported by the 64th foot (soon to be outflanked by rebels).

Overview of the British left flank late in the day. Three British regiments are in rout and one is out of command, but an American Regiment has been destroyed and two others are in rout.

British assault forces the rebels back, for the moment.

British assault forces the rebels back, for the moment.

British 64th Foot, outflanked by American rebels.

British guns firing from a forest.

On the whole, a very enjoyable game. Thanks to Victor for putting this on! Piquet played more smoothly than I expected, and I'll probably pick up a copy...

Battle Report: Warmachine 50-point Fully Painted Tournament

So I did (rather poorly at) a local tournament yesterday. This was the capstone event to our summer paint challenge, so naturally I forgot to take any pictures.

Here's what I brought:

Makeda and the Exalted Court
* Molik Karn
* Bronzeback Titan
* Titan Gladiator
* Basilisk Krea
Cataphract Incindiarii (max)
Paingiver Beast Handlers (max)
Extoller Soulward
Agonizer
Mortitheurge Willbreaker
Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew

Supreme Aptimus Zaal (Tier 4 Theme list)
Kovaas
* Titan Cannonneer
* Cyclops Raider
Immortals (Max)
Immortals (Max)
Aptimus Marketh
Hakaar the Destroyer
Ancestral Guardian
Ancestral Guardian
Ancestral Guardian
Ancestral Guardian
Extoller Soulward
Extoller Soulward
Extoller Soulward

First game was against Asher, who brought Vlad 3 and Karchev. He chose to drop Vlad (with all the horses):

Vlad 3
* Drago
Khador War Wagon
Uhlans (max)
Uhlans (max) (and painted up in the Black Dragon scheme - very nice!)
Greylord Ternion Cav (max)
Drakhun
Kovnik Markov

This was a rough matchup. The war wagon can drop 4" circles of rough terrain, and my Zaal list has no pathfinder whatsoever. As a result, he was able to come in and use Zaal's feat for an alpha with no fear of retaliation, and managed to knock out about half my list - including Hakaar and Marketh, which really stung. The key spell of the game was probably Vlad's Dash - since he was able to ignore free strikes, my abundance of reach weapons were... not useful.

Still, Zaal's feat turn was pretty productive, and I was able eliminate about half his army, with much of what was left in less-than-ideal positions. Unfortunately, my dice were not kind to me this game, and that stacked with a few poor decisions such that he was able to charge in with an Uhlan. A crit knockdown later, and he shot Zaal off the table with a pair of Razor Wind spells from Vlad.

Of course, my worst mistake of the game was putting the Krea on the table out of sheer habit, despite her not being in the list. Thankfully she had no impact on the game before I realized it, and I lost anyway, but it was still terribly embarrassing.

Second game was against Scott, who was running Severius 1 and Feora 2. He dropped Severius:

Severius 1
* Blessing of Vengeance
* Vanquisher
* Devout (I think. The shield guard one.)
Vessel of Judgement
Zealots with UA
Temple Flameguard with UA
Choir (min)
3 Wracks
Paladin of the Wall
Hierophant
Vassal of Menoth

I might be missing a few models. Not sure.

At any rate, I dropped Zaal again. This was a rough matchup... for Severius. I still managed to lose. The first part of the game I was able to jam up into the zone and set the line of engagement just past the center. He hit my lines and knocked out around a dozen or so Immortals and one AG, and I struck back to wreck his Vanquisher, took out about half the Flameguard, and killed the objective. I did not manage to clear the zone, however. And then I got cocky and decided to take advantage of his slightly-too-bold positioning to try to ranged assassinate Severius, something that really only had around a 50% chance of succeeding. I failed, and left Zaal out in the open with no defenses or transfers, and he promptly ate several Zealot bombs and a couple spells, and exploded.

So... don't get cocky, kid.

After that, I dropped, since I'm pretty sure I was in last place and we had an odd number of players. Congrats to Asher on winning the tournament.

Painting Update: Seleucids

A couple more units join my Seleucid army:

Elephants

Skirmishing archers

Pretty quick to paint up, and elephants on the field are always interesting. All figures by Essex.

Battle Report: Makeda 3 vs. Kreoss 3

Scenario: Rally Point

Player 1: Jesse
Makeda and the Exalted Court
* Molik Karn
* Titan Gladiator
* Bronzeback Titan
* Basilisk Krea
Agonizer
Saxon Orrik
Mortitheurge Willbreaker
Paingiver Taskmaster
Paingiver Beast Handlers (Leader and 3 Grunts)
Gatorman Posse (Leader and 4 Grunts)

Player 2: Danny
Intercessor Kreoss
* Reckoner
* Repenter
Holy Zealots
* Monolith Bearer
Exemplar Vengers (Leader and 4 Grunts)
High Exemplar Gravus
3 Wracks
Saxon Orrik
Gorman di Wulf
Madelyn Corbeau
Choir of Menoth (Leader and
Vassal of Menoth
Lady Aiyanna and Master Holt

Four points short; I'm not sure what I've missed.

Deployment

I won the roll and chose to go first. The board was as pictured above; note that the two green terrain patches are woods, while the brown one represents a hill. I deployed my beasts to my right and the gators to the left in order to prevent him from scoring in the near zone. Makeda and support went in the center and back.

Danny deployed his Vengers on his right to counter my gators; put his Zealots in the middle; and spaced his battlegroup with the Reckoner in the center and a Repenter on either side, among the Zealots. Aiyanna and Holt were deployed on the far left, to counter my battlegroup.

Skorne Turn 1

 I just ran everyone up the board. No special tricks or anything, but I was a mite more cautious than I should have been. I also found that my friendly objective was blocking my movement; this became a bigger problem on turn 2.

Protectorate Turn 1

 Danny did likewise.

Skorne Turn 2

 I ran the gators into the zone on my left, in an attempt to block most of his guys out of it; at the very least, I would be able to prevent his Vengers from charging most of the gators and the Bronzeback without eating a free strike. Bronzeback shifted over to toe into the left-hand zone. Karn had to do a bit of tricky movement just to get around the objective and set up for next turn. Gladiator just shuffled forward. Makeda and her unit shifted hard to the right; I sent one of the Court up the middle in hopes of picking up Battle Driven; she also served to Shield Guard Karn if necessary. The other ran through the forest to contest the right-hand zone. Agonizer also ran over to the right; I intended him to be ready to contest that zone if necessary, and be ready to zip in and deny focus allocation.

This turn was where my hesitation on Turn 1 bit me. If Molik Karn had been half an inch, maybe an inch further forward, I could have popped feat and probably eliminated a third of his army, or at the very least thrown his tempo off. As it was, I had to wait.

Protectorate Turn 2

Zealots charge in with mini feat up. They do some damage, but not as much as could be expected. Vengers move in and kill one gator, but fail to really make a dent on my left flank. He manages - after far too much work and some awful dice - to clear out the Court member standing in front of Karn, then charges a Repenter in to beat on Karn a bit. Karn remains fully functional.

Skorne Turn 3

 At this point, I feel like I've pretty much lost the time management game, since I spent an awful lot of time last turn on my clock. I decide to make this feat turn and see how much work I can get done around the Zealot mini-feat. Unfortunately, the answer is "not much." Gators munch on the Vengers a bit, but that side remains in contention. Karn moves in under feat and does a little work, but the mini-feat prevents him from really going to town; in the end I move him up to tie up Kreoss. I screwed up hard with Makeda, though, trying to keep beasts in my feat/control area; as you can see above, she's right near the edge of the right-hand zone and far, far too close to Kreoss and/or other assassination vectors. Should have moved her to the right-most side of that zone and kept Karn back as a threat that he had to deal with...

Protectorate Turn 3

So it turns out I forgot about the Madelyn move. Danny shifts Kreoss to one side for a clear charge lane at Makeda; charges and takes no damage from Karn's free strike; and ends the game with an assassination.

Mistakes were made, mostly by me. I should have been more aggressive to start with, and positioned my early game pieces (Karn and Makeda) to move around the objective. On the other hand, I should have been more cautious later, and kept Makeda out of assassination range. I also found that I jammed myself in a bit in regards to the Bronzeback and the Gladiator. Both can do a lot of work in the late game, but they need to be up near the center line by turn two in order to do that, thanks to that SPD 4 stat. So the lesson is: Practice deployment and first turn movement.

List-wise, I'm pretty happy with it. I'm still shaking the wrinkles out here, but I do find myself missing an Extoller Soulward for the Eyeless Sight on a stick. Being able to draw line of sight through forests is extremely useful.

Painting Update: Seleucids

Joining the forces of the sons of Seleucus are a proper phalanx (minus some shield decals, still in the mail):

And some cataphracts:

All Essex miniatures.

Painting Update: Hordes Skorne & Minions

I finished up a fair number of figures these past few days. These pictures aren't so good - I'm working with a poor set up and a camera phone I haven't figured out yet - so things look kind of dark. On the other hand, the figures actually are pretty dark, especially the Gladiator, Tiberion, and Despoiler. I hadn't used the dip in a while, and I think I put it on a bit too heavily. Still, they're ready to hit the table.

The Despoiler

Tiberion

Titan Gladiator

Reptile Hounds

Paingiver Bloodruner Master Tormentor

Tyrant Zaadesh

Basilisk Drake

Gatorman Posse

Gatorman Witch Doctor