Gilly with Shadows of the Eagles

Another try with Shadow of the Eagles rules today at Stephens and he choose to use the Gilly scenario from GDA (a favourite scenario of ours)

We also tried the newer Skirmishing rules (almost a complete re-write) which does away with skirmisher screens (now just a single dice roll at longer range ala Valour & Fortitude) and amends formation widths and numbers of dice used by Light Infantry in skirmish and in fact we simplified it further.

We tried to accommodate the Grenadier trait from GDA by making Light Infantry Superior/Regular (superior for Training which includes moving and firing but regular for Motivation) but this did not quite work as intended as Superior a rather more powerful effect in SOTE. 

With hindsight we would restrict the Superior status to truly Elite units with Grenadiers/Young Guard as Regular/Superior which would enhance their melee and morale but not training attributes.

Hits in system are very debilitating to units as you cannot rally off last 2 and whilst carry hits (up to being weakened) does not effect firing it has massive effect on melee as you count total losses suffered not just those in the current combat. 

So a unit entering melee with 2 or 3 hits if enemy has none or 1 is pretty crippling as generally they would lose combat and fall back (with a further hit).

Two attack columns managing to contact a line seemed to favour the columns as Line spreads melee hits across two targets but suffers all losses leading to line suffering greater loss overall and Falling Back

This seemed especially tough on cavalry who cannot shoot and rely on melee, but maybe in SOTE we need to better husband mounted arm for later in game ?

Foot in Line seemed in little danger from mounted with no real need for square (unless of course foot are inferior)

Certainly makes things decisive but maybe a bit harsher than we are used to and the rules do play quickly and systems are generally easy to understand.  

Plan is to re-try V&F next

 

Commands & Colours: Ancients more Pbem action

Finished up Ilipa scenario with Mike from our Vassal Campaign with my Romans coming out on top in short order. 

Such a playable system that works well on Vassal in Pbem mode

Mike never really get off the mark and early loss of his Elephants (to my lights shooting) for no gain was painful.

Now onto next (penultimate) scenario entitled Great Plains 203BC

 

Art Exhibition by local wargamer David Pentland

Wee jaunt across Belfast Lough today to attend an exhibition of oil paintings by club member David Pentland at Library in Bangor ('City of ' apparently) Co Down.

Dave P  (https://www.facebook.com/p/David-Pentland-Art-100063262537233/ ) is well known in wargaming circles for his military artwork with several gracing the pages of Battlegroup series of WW2 rules and box art of the associated PSC plastic kits amongst many others.

Great artwork on display including a few I had not seen before (mainly aircraft related)

Not wanting to steal his thunder so no pics of actual paintings as such.

Exhibition in large room in library nicely spaced out

One of a couple of model displays (this one of  Wittman's Tiger at Villers Bocage accompanying Dave's painting of same and a book collection of his Tank art)

Some of Dave's art adorning old Battlefront Combat Mission PC Game manuals

Start up screen from original game

There was a small catalogue of his work (Cranston Fine Arts) and I saw this little ditty re an IRA bomb incident in Belfast back in 1991 at which I was on duty and in attendance and which brought back a few memories (I was behind the Opera House at further end of Glengall Street when device detonated) . 

Had I have known I could have sat for him, clothed or nude at his discretion !!!

Sword and Spear - a solo outing

Decided to have a solo session with Sword And Spear Ancients rules for no other reason than I could.

Been ages since I tried these and recall not liking the disjointed nature of movement but after a quick read through I thought these might suit solo play for that very reason with unpredictability of activation sequence.

I set up a game using my Punic Romans and Gallic forces with 12 units per side using army lists and terrain generation system.

Activations are based on D6, which drawn from a pool of dice (bit like Bolt Action) which you then roll and with units needing to equal their Discipline ratings (3-5) to do simple actions or exceed ratings for more complex options/bonuses.

Group moves are limited to 2-3 adjacent units and simple advances but despite being activated by a single dice you use 1 per unit from available pool (1 per unit in game with 7 drawn per phase and allocated by colour to each side).

Activations are in order of lowest to highest dice with active player going first on tied rolls 

This worked fine for solo as forementioned and indeed I quite enjoyed the game with its simple D6 systems and yet a reasonable level of depth to the troop interactions regarding weapons, armour, impact and suchlike.

As units only get 1 Activation per turn timing is key as you don't want a unit of light foot caught by a later activating unit of heavier types or cavalry.

An 'odd' rule is that units never fully line up (units always offset slightly to allow supports into combat situations).

All in all a interesting game with lots of decision points re dice allocation and use and quick playing. 

Shadow of the Eagles - a proper play with 1813 Prussians vs French

Game today with Stephen and I chose to try Shadow of the Eagles to see how it fared in face to face play.

And lo and behold as expected a much better game when not solo as too much to juggle for older head when trying to manage 2 sides at once.

I set up table using GDB terrain generation system which worked fine and I chose 1813 Prussians and therefore Stephen had French.

Used the nominal army lists we found (18 pts for French and 19 for Prussians) so I had 21 units and French 18 or so, maybe a bit large for a test but worked fine.

No real scenario just a straight up bash to test rules.

No problems encountered bar a couple of minor queries re Evading skirmishers and Rout Tests and think we managed to test most aspect of rules with possible exception of how assaults on BUA are handled.

Stephen had a more up to date set of updates than I have with main difference being Skirmish Screens are reduced from 2 to 1 fighting dice which is better vis a vis Light Infantry with their 2 whilst in skirmish.

All in all an enjoyable game with a playable system that allows a quick style decisive game which is what it is designed for.

For me a bit bland overall compared to FOB or other sets but a nice alternative for a quick game type.

Zorndorf with Battle Command

My lad was home from England for weekend so managed to get a game in with him over a couple of days.

I set up Zorndorf using old Might & Reason scenario and decided to use Battle Command.

Steven has played FOB with me a couple of times so had decent idea of how game plays and differences easy to teach and pick up.

He did say he preferred the extra options available on reduced cards even at ‘cost’ of extra initiative rolls compared with the much larger FOB decks (not sure he is actually my offspring !). 

Steven took charge of Russians leaving me to emulate Frederick and initially game pretty even as Russians managed to hold their own even when shooting.

He was aggressive advancing all along the line and his superior numbers of cavalry where giving mine a hard time on my right.

Prussian superiority of command helped (especially in Bat Cmd) as I had a D12+1 CinC to his D10 plus better Brigadiers overall.

However this soon changed as boy rolled a host of one’s whilst I rolled high (is it not always the way ?) and Russian morale pool (40) quickly dropped to nothing whilst my Prussians retained most of theirs (losing 17 of 35) and a failed roll on first Army Morale test saw Prussian victorious.

Good game and always great to play with the big lad.