Monday, May 18, 2015

Solo practice with Die Fighting 2

Set up a practice game for Die Fighting 2 as Stephen due to play a face to face game and needed to get gist of rules back into my head.
Used my Napoleonic Prussians and French.

Several queries answered by author Bob Jones on forum main one being my misunderstanding of the number of Commanders used.

In original set it was 1 commander per 4-5 units but now its 7-12 units per commander as the focus has changed a bit from units to leadership.

Will give further comment after live game.












Tuesday, May 12, 2015

Field Of Glory Ancients - Turgesh versus T'Ang Chinese

Game of FOGA at Stephens using a Central Asian Turk (Khazar) force against his T'Ang Chinese.
A very tense game with lots of maneuver including a successful flank march by two Turk Cavalry units.
Only downside being they arrived on turn two sort of giving the game away a tad.
We both put down a lot of terrain as both armies fielded almost half foot units.
This made for a cagey affair especially with my flank attack.
T'Ang have a lot of bow armed types whereas I mostly had Lances or other melee weapons.
Stephens foot had some tremendous rolls when charged by a couple of my mounted units saving him from several Cohesion tests and Death rolls.
Having an inspired General is a big bonus to Cohesion.

We failed to finish game as a lot Salute stories and acquisitions inspected.
But when we concluded my army was suffering a lot of Disruptions and several Fragmented/Routed troops so things were certainly looking favourable for the T'Ang.

Nice rules that suit a minimum preparation type game (one just points up an army and brings it).

Phone pics so bit fuzzy


Turk foot (Slavs and Bowmen) occupy a field with mounted on flanks





T'Ang foot arrayed (Crossbowmen and mixed Javelin/Bow)






Turk Horse Archers try to pin down T'Ang on my right prior to flank march





Flank march arrives a tad early







T'Ang withdraw in face of superior numbers







Turks trying to turn the flank







Clash of foot and Turk Cavalry in centre







Further action on right flank









And in the centre






Turk cavalry fail to break through and now Slav foot on left are threatened




Monday, May 11, 2015

Commands and Colors Ancients played


Played this at my Dads managing to play the first three scenarios.
Cannot recall first two scenario names but both set during 1st Punic war in Sicily with a Roman units standing for Syracuseans.
Third scenario was proper Roman versus Carthage bash Bagradas.
Three great games with plenty of blood letting and we fairly flew throw the scenarios.
Only mistake I think we made was with Elephants with my misreading of QRS.
I made them re roll any 'Sword' hits not realising it was an actual hit and a further roll for possible extra hits.
Elephants great fun as tough in attack but prone to rampaging during retreat with any and all adjacent friends or foes liable to suffer 'stomping' (hits).

Very playable system with card activations and actions with unique Hit dice (various symbols generating hits based on defender type). 
Another game with fairly simple mechanics but great gameplay and subtle depths and a Nice change of pace from our usual WW2 fayre.






















Sunday, May 10, 2015

Sword and Spear solo pics

Trying Sword and Spear rules on solo basis using Sassanid versus Byzantines to learn rules.

Stephen and I arranging a game and playing Ancients so hoping to persuade him to try these (if not we will use Field Of Glory).




















Saturday, May 09, 2015

Field of Battle 2 - Seven Years War with 'Duc De Gobin'




















Played Field of Battle against new opponent 'Duc De Gobin' (aka Darren) who has an excellent blog at http://warfareintheageofcynicsandamateurs.blogspot.co.uk/
He made contact after seeing my last post and we arranged a game at chez Steiner.
Darren has just received FOB and its WW2 version (for which he has interesting plans for using Bastogne booklet from Command Decision).
So I set up a FOB game with my SYW armies allowing Darren to choose sides (he picked the Russians) and we rolled for table edge.
I used the Scenario Generator from the rules which saw my Prussians deploying on their baseline. The Russians had use of two adjacent forward deployment zones but had one Brigade (an Infantry Brigade) delayed off table (for a mere 2 Move cards).
I fielded 24 Prussian units with 25 Army Morale and several below average Infantry units but good Cavalry and a Skilled sequence deck.
Darren had use of 28 units with an Average deck and 32 Army Morale.
Both CiCs turned out to be decent D12 chaps with most Brigadiers being D10s.

The game turned out to be a very fun fast and furious affair as Darren advised me he was the cautious type and then proceeded to hurl his mounted troops against mine post haste !
These mounted clashes saw several extremes of dice rolling with both sides losing units destroyed on the spot (which requires at least a difference of 6 on opossing dice rolls and winner rolling even).
We both had Brigadiers who refused to move their troops which exposed an advancing Prussian foot Brigade to being faced by two enemy Brigades and suffering badly as a result.
The short duration of the delay to the off-table Russian Brigade turned out to be a bonus as Darren was able to bring them on to support his struggling left flank Cavalry.
The Prussian morale deck was decimated and it was not long before I was out of Morale Chips.
Of course I then managed to turn two Army Morale cards in quick succession, surviving the first Army Collapse test but failing the second to end the game.
A decisive game that took us less than 4 hours to complete and with Darren being new to rules (so easy to teach with card/action system).
He seemed to enjoy the game (winning always helps) and rules and has plans afoot to use them for AWI etc.

Great stuff with a great set of rules and a great new opponent (if he does not run away screaming ?).


Russian left flank



 Prussian left with mounted about to clash beyond the town




Overall view of initial moves (note Prussian Brigade advancing to eagerly)



 And getting into trouble against two Russian Brigades




 Aftermath first encounter on my left with both sides reduced to half number of units




 Prussian centre really up against it




 Cavalry set to each other on Prussian right





 Overview mid game



 Russian view of the bloodbath on their left






 And the centre







 Prussian support arrives for beleaguered Brigade but too late





 Prussian horse gaining ascendancy over the Russian right






 Prussian Brigade that refused to move !!




 Russian 'reserve' arrives in timely fashion on their left




Prussian collapse in centre






 Undecided clash of horse on Russian left