Battles & Brews

 

Last weekend Wiley Games hosted its annual summer Battles & Brews. Four games were played, and for a change I played in all four of them! No games outside this year; it was too damned hot.

 

The first game was "Tiny Triremes." We were play-testing a new fast-play ancient naval game, still in development with prototype models, for a friend of The Baron's. Six players, three per side (red and green), each commanding 4 galleys of 3 different sizes. Red and green dice tracked strength points, white dice tracked hull points and turns were controlled with the wooden "compass." I commanded 4 Red galleys on the right flank.

 

 

The small islands really constricted maneuver so the battle devolved into shooting and boarding actions which reduced crew strengths quickly.

 

On my flank I was finally able to ram and sink an enemy ship, but at the cost of two of my own captured and one sunk. The gods of the boarding action dice did not favor me. One of my captured ships was torched because my opponent didn't have the crew strength to hold on to it. A fun battle but Red lost.

 

Next up was the Battle for Endor using Fistful of Lead: Galactic Heroes. Two teams of two players: two units each of five Rebel scum attempting to infiltrate and blow up an Imperial Bunker defended by two units each of the Emperor's Stormtroopers. I commanded the Imperial Scouts sent into the forest to attempt to "spot" the Rebels, represented by hidden movement markers, some of which were dummies. This mission was critical because the second unit of Stormtoopers, in the bunker, could not deploy until the Rebels were spotted. AND I didn't realize until the battle was fully joined that my Scouts were only wielding pistols, as opposed to the rifles everyone else had. On top of that, I have never rolled so many "out of ammos" in one game!

 

Look! There's Han and Chewie!

 

Sadly, their stories end on Endor. I was able to hold them up long enough - mostly via melee due to being out of ammo so often - for the bigger guns deploying from the bunker to end their rebellious careers. The Scouts lost all but their commander.

 

 

Though I didn't get any photos of the final Rebel rush of the bunker that resulted in the "blood alley" typical of Fistful games, it happened right in front of the bunker with the Rebels all dead and the bunker saved. Long Live the Emperor!

 

The third game featured Mechs. I believe a "MechWars Lite" set of rules was used but not being up on Mech Lore and not intending to play - I was setting up my Red Alert game (you can see it at the top of some of the following photos) while this was going on - I can't say for sure. Maybe someone who knows will see this post and comment.

 

 

But play I did; I took over for another player who got got called home for dinner. I commanded the Red and Black Mechs facing the Green and White. I can tell you the green dice tracked movement and the red dice tracked heat generated by the Mechs' actions.

 

My Big Guy took out a Mech lurking at the edge of the woods and then I lost a Mech to a two-on-one "hand-to-hand" brawl. Our side lost (I believe) three destroyed Mechs to two.

 

Our final game of the day was Red Alert, a space fleet action game using the Commands and Colors system. There are three classes of ships - Fighter, Strike and Capital - and several sub-classes within each class. Each unit has a numerical value towards victory points ranging from one point for a Fighter Unit (Fighter Class) to eight points for a Flagship (Capital Class). Most units consist of three or four ships and each "hit" rolled against it eliminates one ship. I am in the process of converting this to hit points (shields, anyone?) using 1/2500-scale Star Trek models and a D6 die to track hits. I only had enough models completed for one complete side, so in this game you can see the green and red ships as provided in the game on one side and my new models opposite.

 

 

Game play is controlled by hands of cards and the use of Star Tokens. We had two players on each side; so one player acted as the Fleet Admiral and controlled the card play and the units in the center section while the second player controlled those units in the two flank zones. The first side to eliminate twenty-one points worth of units, or eight units regardless of points, would immediately win.

 

 

The Star Trek side won initiative and did some early damage with their Fighters. The Red/Green side (my side) played aggressively but was frustratingly countered at almost every attack by a Combat Card that seemed tailor-made for the situation.

 

On the last turn of the game, the score was closer than it seemed. We were behind on points but had eliminated 7 enemy units, so only needed to destroy one more unit. But the Trekkies only needed one more point, so any kill would win the game. And they got it.

 

Thanks to Wiley Games and the Basement Generals for a fun day of gaming!

 

My next post will be more about the Star Trek models and the Red Alert physical game conversions.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cluck Amok Retired!

I made it. I'm retired. I'm three weeks into official retirement. Not much fanfare. . . I just stopped going to work. Still have some work to do on our little project ranch house and yard but now the plan is to get the "gaming life" back on track, too.

The first game I got to play. . . in retirement. . . was a little "Grim Dark" Sc-Fi skirmish action a la Galactic Heroes (Fistful of Lead) from Wiley Games. 

The Baron invited me over; his friend Jay was putting on a game featuring Crimson Fist Marines against Planetary Defense Forces (PDF) in a "defend the refinery" scenario. The Marines were superhuman in every way and the PDFs were Grunts that were able to respawn after being killed until the Marines destroy the Spawn Points. 

 

I led a unit of 3 teams of 3 PDF Grunts. 

 Here we are bunched up behind cover awaiting the Marine onslaught.

 

"Bunching up" turned out to be bad tactics. The Marines had grenades (who knew) and numbers weren't much help in melee, either. After dying, we "re-spawned" in a more spread out formation.

 

Spreading out was a better tactic to be sure, but in the end we gave up the refinery. Those Marines are superhumans!

French & Indian War at March To Victory

  

March To Victory was a month ago; I ran a 54mm-scale game of Fistful of Lead: Bigger Battles. In fact, I ran it three times! I decided to run a slightly smaller game than I usually do. . . easier and faster to set up and more amenable to finishing a complete game in a reasonable amount of time. The table was 5 feet x 6 feet and there were 6 units per side; the French Colonials and their Native allies on one side and the British and their colonial subjects on the other. The scenario came directly from the Big Battles rule book: "Scenario 4 - Hold for Reinforcements." The hill (high ground) was the objective for both forces. The Defender begins in possession of the hill with half their forces and are permitted to place their "hasty" fortifications where they want. The Attackers enter the table on their first turn on the edge closest to the fortifications. The remainder of the Defender's forces come onto the further edge on their first turn. Whoever holds the hill at the end of the game (nightfall) wins.

I did make one major change to the Big Battles rules. Extensive reading around the F&IW era has led me to the conclusion that though bayonet charges happened, melee as a result was very rare. Sometimes attackers could not be convinced to charge, and more often the targets of charges fled rather than face "cold steel." In my opinion, melee should be a rare event in this period. So, I added a test for charging into contact based on the Charge Table from my other go-to rules for the F&IW, Muskets and Mohawks written by Two Hour Wargames. We had 7 charges test over the 3 games and none of them ended in melee; in one the attacker failed to charge and in the others the defender fled before contact. Felt about right to me!

I changed my approach to unit traits, too. I used the Line Regular troops as the performance "baseline" and then added positive or negative traits to other units in comparison. I further added a Unit Leader trait to each unit rather than giving a straight-up morale/rally boost to try to give different units more "personality." For instance, Regulars have no traits of their own, but their Unit Leader trait is "Steady," giving them a shooting bonus as long as their leader is alive. Grenadiers, Highlanders, Light Infantry and Natives have additional/unique positive traits and Provincials and Militias have negative traits by comparison.

If you are interested inseeing these rule amendments, Wiley Games has a free PDF download here. Make sure you receive the PDF marked "Cluck Amok version 3/20/25." Give Wiley Games a shout if not and they will update the link.

Following is a brief description of each game with some photos. Enjoy!

Game One had the British defending. The hasty defenses were placed on the hill and manned by "green" Provincials. The British commander could have placed more troops behind the cover but chose not to, and being green (and rolling a 2 on the Charge Test!) were chased out of the defenses by a successful French charge. The British were never able to recover; French win.

 

Game Two had the British defending again. The same commander from the last game decided to place the defenses at the crossroad, manned by Light Infantry, and to try to hold the hill with his Regulars. The French Regulars assaulting the hill delivered more destructive volleys than their British counterparts and again, though the defenses were never taken, the hill was. French win.

We flipped the script for Game Three with some repeat players. The French defended, placed the defenses on the hill and packed it with Regulars. The British marched right into the teeth of the French Regulars behind the works and were mauled before they could mount a real assault on the hill. French win, as the defenders this time.

 
Everyone seemed to have fun. In fact we had some players come back for a second or third try! It was great to have the toys out again.

See ya!