Game Three at Recruits started at 1pm on Saturday afternoon.
You can review the scenario here, the AAR of Game One here and Game Two here.
The Indians run and the Rangers give chase. . .
A tied Initiative roll brings on The Preacher (see Game Two AAR for the explanation).
The Indians make it into the woods "en masse" with the Rangers in hot pursuit.
The Rangers follow into the woods where the lessened visibility and the higher cover modifiers to shooting make it more difficult for both sides to hit their targets.
And the Indians scramble their way to a 2-point win!
We had a lot of fire combat in the woods this game and a frustrated Ranger player wondered why his activated Fire combat was at a -3 Marksmanship roll because of the Medium Woods modifier and the enemy's Opportunity Fire was a -2, so the Opportunity Fire actually had a better chance to hit. I didn't have a good answer for him during the game but after some thought the rule makes complete sense to me. Here goes. . .
Opportunity Fire is permitted against a unit that moves 1/2 of its normal movement rate or more, at -2 if the firing unit has not activated this turn or -3 if it has, ignoring all cover modifiers. So why doesn't the woods always confer at least the -3 cover modifier? Opportunity Fire always ignores all cover modifiers. The target gets the full cover of the woods when stationary or moving slowly enough to be partially hiding behind the cover, but when moving more quickly is "less covered up" by the cover. So it makes sense to me.
Game Four started at 5pm that same afternoon and turned into another very close game with even more fighting in the woods!
The Rangers win by 2 points!
I am very impressed with how well This Very Ground handled this straight-up skirmish game.
Another Recruits is in the books. See ya next year!
Game Two started at 9am Saturday morning and deployments were similar to the previous game, including one unit of Indians that started in the farmhouse. We had one Indian player that had played the night before and his advice to his team mates was to start as close to the southern edge of the farmstead as possible. The player that deployed in the house ignored that advice. . . begin foreshadowing music. . .
You can review the scenario here and the AAR of Game One here.
And so the running firefight begins. . .
. . . and the Indians finally leave the house hoping to get away before the Rangers can cut them off.
Then a tied Initiative roll triggered a Special Event; the re-roll going to the Rangers. The Ranger unit closest to an Indian unit is suddenly joined by "The Peacher," toting both a bible and a musket, adding an able body and commander-worthy Courage rating - to reflect the power of The Good Book - to a seriously depleted and grateful unit.
A second tied Initiative Roll went to the Indians triggering another Special Event. The Indian unit closest to a Ranger unit was suddenly seen to be leading a captive! Appropriately enough, this turned out to be the Indians that had been deployed in the farmhouse. . . and now we all knew what the delay had been about!
The Captive was worth 3 victory points to the side that had possession of her at game's end. The Indian owner immediately asked if he could "tomahawk her," in true stereotypical roleplay fashion, to deny the Rangers the potential points. I replied, "Of course," but he decided to wait.
A threatened charge by the Indians sent The Preacher and his Rangers over the wall but Ranger support provided covering fire that disrupted the Indians. While disrupted the Indians couldn't do any tomahawking. . .
And there was a chance that The Captive could be hit if the unit was fired on. . .
The game wrapped up when the last Indian holding The Captive was killed, after which the Rangers "rescued" her, while the remaining warriors left the field.
When we counted up the points we got a dead even tie! "Arrgghhh! I should'a tomahawked her!" Indeed, those three points denied the Rangers would have given the Indians the victory!
Sidebar. . .
On the table next door The Baron was running a game using wooden miniatures! Same era and figure scale as Hunting Grounds but with a very different aesthetic. Check it out here.
Next post: Game Three. Oh, and this is my 100th post to the Cluck Amok blog!
See ya!
After a 6-hour drive from the Twin Cities to Lee's Summit, Missouri, and 2 hours of setting up, we launched into the first of 4 games of Hunting Grounds, a scenario taken directly from the This Very Ground rulebook. The background is provided above; the scenario is basically a running firefight from the farmstead, into the woods and off the far edge of the table, the winning side determined by "points." The Indians began the game within the stone walls of the farmstead, with the Rangers arriving on the first turn at the far north edge or up to 12" from the north edge onto the west and east edges. The Indians earned one point for each warrior they exited from the far wooded table edge, one point for each Ranger killed and 3 points for exiting their Warchief. The Rangers earned one point for each Indian warrior killed, and 3 points if the Provincial Officer survived the game.
The lay of the land. . . from the Northwest:
. . . the Northeast:
. . . the Southeast:
. . . and the Southwest:
The Indians started with a Warchief and 4 5-man units; the Rangers with 3 units of 5 men each. Each unit had a leader, and many of them did not survive the games! In all 4 games we had enough players to assign one 5-man unit to each player. It was fun to watch the players trying to manage their very finite resources while trying to accomplish their missions.
I had not played a battle using This Very Ground with just skirmishers - and small units - and was very curious to see what kind of "feel" the Volume of Fire rules would give to the game. They worked like a charm, providing a real "running firefight" feel. One spectator, who claimed to have re-enacted the period "in his younger days," claimed it was actually quite possible to reload while on the move with some practice, so the rules "got it right."
We played the rules straight up, the only changes being a handful of "special events" that were possible depending on specific Initiative Rolls at the beginning of each turn. Most of the events were minor "role-playing" twists that would add some flavor with minimal impact. One would have a larger effect, so that one would require two sets of back-to-back duplicate Initiative rolls to occur, which I thought would never happen. . . but of course happened on the first turn of the very first game! It did alter the course of the game. . .
All of the games were very close-run and all were variations on a single theme: the Rangers entering on both edges to form "flanking parties" with the Indians running toward the woods. With the help of some players who played more than one game, by the fourth game the Indians figured out that it was way more about running and way less about fighting! The Rangers won two games, the Indians one and one game was a tie. Two of the wins were by only two points!
The first turn of the game was deployment. . .
And then came the first Initiative Roll. A tie! And the second roll. . . a tie. . . triggering the special event: Blood Feud! The Warchief and the Provincial Officer when next in sight of each other, each recognize the other as their mortal enemy, responsible for the deaths of beloved members of their respective families. And of course they were already in sight of each other. . .
They now had to move toward each other each turn with the goal of engaging in melee, with the winner getting 5 points. Oh, and they could not tell the other players what they were doing . . . but it sure was fun to watch them slowly figure it out!
Some of the Indians made it into the woods, but the Blood Feud delayed the Warchief and his retinue in the farmstead and allowed two flanking parties of Rangers to trap them within the walls.
The Warchief was finally able to maneuver into a position facing the Officer. . .
. . . and was dispatched by a single blow!
Game One to the Rangers by 10 points, thanks at least in part to the Blood Feud. I can't believe we never named these guys!
Next post: Game Two.
See ya!
Just home from Recruits. . . Over the last 3 days I've driven 12 hours, loaded and unloaded the truck, set up and dismantled the game partly shown above, run said game 4 times, visited with friends and family and eaten more junk food than I should have. After I've caught up on work and sleep I'll share some notes and pics of the games.
See ya!
