Yep when I heard about this I also was thinking about what happens in one of those sleezy establishments……………………………………. called wargaming clubs!!!
Yeah right!!!
Seriously, we can now say we have made it as hobbyists because April 29th really is OUR international day.
Hope you had a great one.
Honorary P.I.G. Blake and I sure did fighting from early morning to late evening over the dust of Uruzgan province (more of this in another blog).
See also: http://geekandsundry.com/table-top-day/
With a weekend of modern wargaming looming I was lucky to get some figure painting time to get through some small projects that I wanted to use over the weekend.
In the January 16 2017 blog I showed off some civilian bases that I had created for groups of civilians for modern gaming in Afghanistan.
Now for the figures to go on the bases. The first group was some “Saga” figures that I had obtained, but decided to “modernize by the addition of the odd AK47:
Next was a platoon of ANA that is surprisingly well equipped!!!
Well there you have it some more painting projects done and dusted.
Cor blimey she be my turn to organise a fracas to “blow the man down”.
So you “jack tars” and “lubbers” get ready to “hoist the mainsail” and “splice the main brace” because there is no need to “hang the jib” as she’ll be better than “cracking Jenny’s tea cup” (well maybe not!!).
Be here or be “measured for your chains”. Suitable eye patch and hat required.
After a very “ship” week I wanted something for our Wednesday gaming that was very, very simple and easy to play.
The rules we used were Pirates of the Spanish Main a “constructible” “whizkids” strategy game. The original game was sold in packs (like football cards) that included a ship and maybe an island, crew or something else and included standard and “special” packs.
We each took a random pre-determined 30 point fleet each.
David K had the Spanish fleet of four small but very fast ships with an explorer.
Andrew W drew the British fleet with 3 very well armed ships.
And David S was the “pirate” with a fleet of three Buccaneers and a Captain crew card. Yes, that was with a “B”.
The game was the standard treasure game where each player had to explore uninhabited islands for treasure and get it safely back to your home Island.
The standard set-up procedure starts with each player placing islands in turn and then choosing the home island for the player to your left. Three randomly placed treasure tokens (value 1 to 4) were allocated to each uninhabited island.
The games started off very tamely with each player exploring different islands and happily collecting treasure unmolested. Finally enough was enough with David S being the true pirate he was, starting attacking first the British where his ship the Cassandra limped away after receiving a broadside, and boarding from the British and then a ramming from the Spanish.
Revenge, however, was swift as the Sea Nymph who had a Captain token (can move and shoot) quickly dealt with two of the puny Spanish ships.
Meanwhile the British and Pirates were accumulating treasure at will. The pirates were able to ferry their ill-gotten gains back to their home island without any trouble but the British had to sail through seas channels patrolled by both the remaining Spanish and pirate ships.
Little did we know at the time but the British were carrying 17 tokens worth of treasure and the pirates already had 18 back at home. When first one and then the second treasure laden British ship joined Davey Jones the game was over.
We later learned that the treasure is not lost to the depth of the sea but shared equally between the “sinker” and the “sinkee”
This meant that the Spanish received five of the British haul, the Pirates four and the British eight. The final totals being Spanish 6, British 8 and the Pirates 22.
A nice quick fun game. A real pity it is now out of print.
I have to say at the outset that although I play to win on the table top I am a strong advocate for anti-competitive and anti-competition styles of gaming (see the other blogs). So it was with somewhat jaundiced eyes that I played my first game of ADLG last night and it bought back all of the good and bad memories of the DBX sets of rules.
The recently produced English version (2015?) is actually version three of the rules and has most of the bugs ironed out. We found the rules are very tightly written and with the reasonable index we were able to answer most rules queries reasonably quickly.
They are a set of rules that are ideal for competitions and the more competitive style of gamer as evidenced by the “explosion” of national and international rankings and competitions in only a few short years. It is also interesting to note that the good players from DBM days are at the top of the rankings again, which says more about the style of game than the players.
Despite this the gaming groups I have attended over the years have all played DBX for years in a non-competitive and friendly manner and were able to divorce this normal style of play and put on our “competition face” when in that environment. If you can say using Eskimos as a Forest Indian army competitive!!!
The pre-game set up is very similar to DBM, and is open to all of the vagaries of that system. My bias is that I prefer pre-set realistic tables rather than a random generated, player tweeked, competition style set-up process. So there – I said it!!
Map drawing is again introduced which seems irrelevant seeing that you are required to have at least one command in each sector and very little advantage can be gained because of this. Deployment in depth has to be done within a command and not by having a reserve command behind another. The result is that a number of legitimate tactics like fighting on a narrower front to utilise interior lines and hit a hinge point are denied.
With years of DBM experience I was able to pick up most of the concepts very quickly.
Some observations:
I had a thorough look at the army lists for those armies that I use all the time and also those that I have a strong historical knowledge of.
Most were handled well but there is still the perpetuation of the LMI myth.
I found the limits on some troop types restrictive but workable, especially seeing you are trying to represent an army with 20 to 30 elements.
The Peltast style units seems to be done well treating them as javelin men or light infantry javelin men.
It is still a game of millimetres and while the ability to “slide” overcomes many DBX issues lining up for combat is still an issue. I have to say the Dan Mersey systems handle this in a far superior manner.
The pre-game set-up is arbitrary, open to competition rorting and a waste of time – almost a game within a game.
I still had the capacity to “react” to enemy plans too easily and the dreaded 6 – 1 dice roll is still there.
For a more comprehensive review see:
http://www.madaxeman.com/L_Art_de_la_Guerre_page.ph
Andrew and David S played the game with a Ghaznavid and Early Archaemenid Persian army respectively. The Persian wings consisted of Persian cavalry and Skythian light cavalry on the right, Iranian infantry and Immortals in the centre, and a Greek hoplite ally on the left. The “Ghazis” had a cavalry right, an infantry and elephant centre, and a spear armed infantry left.
The armies were causing gradual attrition on each other until one devastating turn in which the Persians destroyed a number of units. The end game had that particular DBX feel where you were trying to pick off vulnerable elements to achieve victory.
Will I use them again, probably as other group members like them and it will give me a chance to dust off armies I haven’t used for a while. Will they become my major rule set for ancient war gaming? Definitely not.
Well it was time for another of those damned patrols in the green zone. Insurgent forces were known to have infiltrated as far as the major irrigation canal through the normal patrol zone and were causing problems for the locals.
Both Dave’s were up for another game of modern Fubar this time using the optional morale and ISAF casualty rules they had just discovered.
Dave K had his usual insurgents with 2 only 6 man green units with RPG and a veteran unit also with RPG. These were lead by a veteran tribal leader.
Dave S had a British force led by Sergeant Aitkin a veteran of twenty years and two squads of 4 veterans armed with a variety of weapons.
As normal the patrol began with Dave K’s insurgents charging forward and the British of David S advancing cautiously trying to position one section on a hill that would provide flanking fire. Suddenly as they rounded a bend in the irrigation ditch both forces ran into each other. With the Desert Hawk airborne providing positive identification (PID), Sergeant Aitkin quickly seized the initiative and the insurgents were quickly in trouble as Alpha squad rained a torrent of fire down on them.
When the dust settled no insurgents were left standing.
Alpha squad moved in position to direct suppressing fire on the insurgent veterans on the hill while Bravo squad failed to activate for the third turn in a row. Massed fire from two insurgent squads caused a hit on one of Alpha squad which Aitkin diagnosed as a T2 (rolled a 3 with a plus one for diagnosis in the field without a medic) requiring medical evacuation (Medevac) as soon as possible.
Aitkin held their current position while Alpha squad escorted their wounded comrade back to the Medevac area (rear centre of the table).
Bravo squad finally earned their pay with devastating fire on the insurgents on the rocky outcrop leaving only a single survivor.
With Alpha squad temporarily out of action and Sergeant Aitkin out on a limb the situation was in the balance. David K, seeing his chance, charged Aitkin with his leader and Veteran squad.
Whilst crossing the open ground Bravo Squad was able to bring down the insurgent leader.
Despite this the veterans continued the charge and leapt into the irrigation canal.
Bravo squad moved to reinforce Aitkin, who brought two insurgents down before they reached him, and another in close combat before he fell.
Bravo squad could finally draw a line of fire on the insurgents who were about to dispatch Aitkin. The Bravo squad marksman (DMR) fired two shots and Aitkin was safe.
This was enough to break the morale of the two surviving insurgents who ran to fight another day.
When the Bravo squad finally reached Aitkin they found him dazed, but otherwise AOK (rolled a one on the casualty table!).
With his head aching from the graze on his forehead Aitkin lead Bravo squad back to the Medevac area where they were informed that their colleague had been wrongly diagnosed as a T2 and would be back to the unit in a couple of days (rolled a three with a medic present = “return to combat”).
Although the patrol was a complete success the result was so close to being FUBAR!!!