Sword And Spear game played

Played a game at Stephens today and he decided that we try Sword And Spear rules using his Carthaginians against my Punic Romans.
I had a brief dally with these rules when they first came out (now on a 2nd edition) but did not really grasp them finding some the concepts confusing..
However today's game was a real eye-opener to the attraction of the rules with them scoring very highly on playability and flavour.
The use of activation by dice is reminiscent of MEG card system and the combat like LADG (although with somewhat less modifiers and interactions) and once I got my head around the fact that a whole turn is a culmination of the unit Action Phases I really enjoyed their seemingly simplicity and fast play.
No outcomes seemed silly or implausible.
Elephants and Warband types can be very powerful if Combat Dice favour them whilst Legionaries are good tough troops and Cavalry a somewhat brittle but hard hitting type (again along lines of LADG).
As Combats are completed unit by unit rather than by files they are resolved much quicker than in MEG or FOG.
There a lot of decisions to make with Action Dice each phase and lots of angst when rolling useless 1 or 2 and cheering when rolling double 3 or better or a 6 and there is some subtle skill required to best utilise the 'hand they deal you'.
The opposed Combat rolls (best 4 dice with highest causing a Hit or Morale Test) is very easy to use with only a few modifiers (Armour, Fresh, Stationary Spears etc) to add dice or modify rolls.
Initial deployment can be key as units do not maneuver easily as usually you need an Action dice 1 above (2 for Undrilled units) your Discipline level meaning an Average unit with discipline of 4 requires a 5+.
Commanders affect this by improving discipline level by 1 and Veteran troops are level 3 to start with.
Foot skirmishers are weak and require some thought to use well and can be a drain on Action Dice at times.
The Army lists are somewhat generic but work ok as do the points costs (we played 500pts each which is default for 15mm on a 6ft x 4ft table).
No doubt as we play them more we will find fault but we found the rules to be well written and contained answers to most questions we had (there is an FAQ which helps)
All in all an enjoyable set and another (so many choices so little time !!) nice option to have with same toys.

PS - the Romans were stuffed !!

 

General D'Armee game

Game with Stephen using General D'Armee points system although I managed to over price my force by about 500 points !!

However the game was unaffected as it played really well with my newly acquired Russians facing the French.

Only a couple of pics as too wrapped up in proceedings.

Stones River scenario with Regimental Fire & Fury

Game today at Stephens using Regimental Fire & Fury rules.
Stephen had set up a scenario cover action in late 1862 at Stones River.
We rolled for sides and I commanded the attacking Confederate force of some 4 Brigades against a similar number of Union Brigades.
Really enjoyable game with this flavoursome Civil War rule set with lots of action and plausible outcomes to all Combat and Move systems.
Not as quick playing as FOB but to be honest much better than Picketts Charge which after a few games we are finding has just too bloody shooting.
We failed to finish the game completing 6 of the scheduled 12 turns with Rebs having taken the Significant Objective but nearing High Casualty level at twice the rate of Yanks.
Would have been interesting to see if Union could have retaken the objective.
I must acquire these rules..........

Panzer Grenadier: Eastern Front board game

Played a couple of scenarios with my Dad from PZG Eastern Front game which I obtained early last year but have only just got around to trying.

A sort of remake of Panzer Blitz but with Command and Control included.

This along with other rules makes for a better game in some ways than venerable PB but less free flowing.

Still overall a fun experience and worth another outing.

There are 112 (!!!!) scenarios included which is excellent value although one suspects not all are balanced.

Field Of Battle 2 - Katzbach Scenario

Played a game of Field Of Battle 2 today with Stephen using a Gen De Brigade scenario set in 1813 during Katzbach battle.
I had 27 Prussians attacking Stephens 21 French units.
We used full sized (ie 4 base) units but rolled for individual unit quality.
I again beefed up the Morale totals to extend game length.

The game was usual fun FOB style game with a French Cavalry Brigade breaking an opposing Mounted Brigade then sweeping across my rear areas mopping up Routed units and two Batteries of guns !!
Only in FOB can this sort of event occur.

Stephens dice rolling was as ever better than however mine was truly awful !!

The number of 1's rolled on any type of dice was truly astounding.

For example I routed two French Cavalry units which when attempting to Rally were only rolling D4s against my D8 but not only once but twice did Stephen roll 4 whilst I rolled............yes inevitably its true..............two 1's !!! allowing both units to recover a UI and Rally !!

This sort of rolling in just about every key stage saw the Prussian pretty well decimated and able to make only limited headway and they plummeted to zero Army Morale whilst French had suffered far less and soon recouped their Morale losses.

The lack of a predictable turn sequence and changing Initiative makes FOB a game of high drama and tension with a plausible narrative to the tabletop battle.






Prussian left wing

Prussian Landwehr on right wing

French center

The French horse sweeping around my right flank !

Landwehr in difficulties

Prussian reserve Brigade sweep forward past routing Uhlans

French right wing Cavalry about to pounce

Overview of battle

Combat Commander random scenarios played

A foursome of CC games played with my Dad last night using the iPad random scenario generator.

A varied set of games generated with usual excellent game play and for once we had no blazes caused in any game !