Dicing with Death!

This was a playtest session of some Gladiator rules provided by Graham Evans. John ran it remotely using his shiny new web camera. It was a chance for John to try running remote games, and he;d come up with a rather ingenious webcam mount which gave us a panoramic view of the table.

In common with most gladiator games, it used a representative 'arena' and we each had individual characters.

The game board was divided into lettered the columns (not being certain that the Romans had rows) and numbered the squares. Figures were labelled with coloured tags (see the orange sample at the top of column “H”) bearing the player’s initials.

Johns webcam was fixed in a static location above the arena, and we all called out our instructions while his disembodied hand moved the figures. There was an initiative system which set the playing order at the start of the game. I was players six, so I got to go after everyone else. I've no idea if this was a  good thing or not. 

We all had similar gladiators who were reasonably experienced (so they didn't just take one hit and die!). We all shuffled around the arena looking for an advantage. Movement was 1D6 spaces, adjusted depending how heavily armoured you were.

Combat was rather novel, it use poker dice. Highest set won. More experienced fighters could make a certain number of re-rolls depending on their skill, aiming to get  a better 'hand' but nether player knew what the other had until the final scores were revealed. This worked very well, and led to a degree of thought and cunning, and (possibly) represented fighters putting sequences of moves together.

There was an early kill. We discovered early on that being knocked over onto the ground when there were still other players able to move was very, very bad. (Being knocked down if you still had a turn to take wasn't so bad) - so the sequence of activation was actually very important.

The rest of us hacked away at each other for some time, inflicting the odd hit. Poor Simon was stunned and spent the rest of the game being belted by other players. His excellent parrying saved him from damage, but the constant attacks meant he never got a chance to recover.

We called it a night after a while and set up for another go the next day.

We all had a bit more idea what we were doing this time, in particular that trying to use armour was a two edged sword (it could result in you being stunned or knocked over), but mainly that as yuo accumulated damage, you had an ever increasing chance of asking for mercy and it being granted. So if you weren't going to win, the best thing to do was get stuck, take some hits then try to live to fight another day. This was really rather clever as it kept the crowd happy, and meant the more experienced fighters (who could take more damage) actually stood a chance of surviving.

I own;t bore you with another blow-by-blow account but here the melee is well underway and someone has already bowed out (took hits and was granted mercy).

The figure in IV is me. I'd been getting stuck in, inflicted lots of hits, taken lots of hits and was planning on going for mercy on my last hit box. Sadly it turned out I'd miscalculated, and my last hit box was literally my last hit box, and I died. Oops. Oh well, seems fate catches up with even the most experienced fighters.

That was a good playtest session and we gave lots of feedback to the designer. Really a very clever design with a lot going on beneath the surface. It would work particularly well in a campaign setting. Recommended. It is due for publication  fairly soon and Graham has reported briefly on the game on his blog http://wargaming4grownups.blogspot.com/2020/05/next-project-nearing-finish-line.html

Pig Sticking

John had been doing some research recently and discovered that Baden-Powell of Scouting for Boys fame, was a strong advocate of the sport of pig-sticking as an aid to cavalry training and wrote one of the definitive guides to the sport (still available on Amazon).

Further research followed and a game was duly produced, including various specific figures courtesy of the vast range of figures from Irregular. John and I had already tried this out and made a few adjustments, but this was its first outing at the club.

The Knustonpore Tent Club was represented by myself, Tim G, Tim C and Jerry, while John adjudicated.

The country. Over to the left (off table) is a load of jungle and six foot high grass being swept by beaters to drive out the deadly wild pigs. Our bit is a grassy plain cut up with a few clumps of bad going.

The Knustonpore Tent Club lined up for a heat.  A couple of Irregular hogs for size (a large male and a juvenile). Each rider is colour coded by uniform and assigned a pair of individual dice. A variety of spear styles was in evidence, mostly underarm but my chap in blue is overarm. Lunging is discouraged, throwing spears strongly frowned on and emptying ones Webley into an angry hog is an expulsion offence.

This was on occasion for our very grandest hats, a couple of pith helmets, Tims very grand Indochina vintage cork hat and Jerrys even more magnificent Nawob hat.

After a number of sows emerged (very unsporting to hunt the sows) the first proper hog appeared and off we went. Cards determined our activation order and I was lucky enough to be first out of the gate. Move distances are semi randomised, and it is adviseable to gallop at top speed all the time as it makes you a harder target for the pig. There is of course a chance you'll fall off at very high speeds.

My chap made contact ahead of the rest, sadly my spear failed to damage the pigs heavily boned head, so I didn't even get first blood.  Note the distance between the pursuers, it is very bad form to cut up another rider or pass too close to their right side.  Crashing into another rider is unforgiveable.

Along with random move distances, turns are moderated by the widget (maximum of 45 degrees per turn, separated by at least 4" move). This makes turning inside a jinking pig very hard, and increases the chance of colliding with another rider.

I did manage to catch the pig again at one point, but once again failed to do any damage despite a good hit. In turn the pig mortally slashed my horse and I had to leave to field while it bled to death. Dear me. This particular porker was despatched cleanly by one of the others, and the second one to appear was also dealt with rapidly.

The third pig proved to be a tough old beast, taking multiple wounds and even unhorsing Tim C. We ended up in a complete scrum around it, and the Nawob (Jerry) stretched the definition of 'honourable' riding to the limit as he blocked other riders and cut them up.

Poor Tims horse lies being gored by the pig while we attempt to finish it off.

We did eventually despatch the monster , and it was time for tiffin and a good sing-song.

That was great fun and we got through three proper hunts in an hour and half. Expect this to appear on the COW session list.

Club Christmas Games Day

Traditionally the Sheffield Wargames Society has an extended meeting over the Christmas period. This year it was on the 27th December. I went along after lunch and found a number of games running.

There was this rather grand 28mm Napoleonic game.

I'm not quite sure who the Lancers are. Spanish maybe?

There was another Napoleonic game, this time at the other end of the scale being a big 6mm bash.

I was intrigued by the basing as it is very similar to Twilight of the Sun King with each unit represented by two bases (allowing Line, Column and Square to be easily represented).

We mainly played Nicks 'Bush Horizon' which is a fictional modernish game covering Warring factions in an unnamed region. The game works as a mini campaign with a series of small battles as part of a larger set of operations. Note the circular table!

Within each campaign segment, players allocated their forces across a range of objectives. If the force ratios looked OK, then the battles were fought on the tabletop. 

In this scenario the baddies are defending an urban area, mainly with infantry.

My chaps tried to envelop the defenders. Light armour and SP guns on the flanks, infantry in the centre.

My armed jeeps sped around this very pretty water tower.

Later on there was a much bigger battle! Masses of infantry, with some armour support.

More armed jeeps speeding the other way.

Nicks vast collection of stuff to make the force selections from.

Although I'd brought some things to play, in the end we just played this for most of the afternoon. A very pleasant way of spending the gap between Christmas and New Year.

Chaeronea 338

Tim has jumped forwards in time a bit now away form the Peleponnesian Wars to the rise of some place called 'Macedonia'. Here King Philip II of Macedon and his son, Alexander the as yet not very well known, face off against the Athens and Thebes. The Macedonian Army was notable for its development of combined arms tactics centered around its pike phalanxes supported by an amazing tactical innovation - proper cavalry.

Philip, Alexander and Parmenion fought the Athenians and Thebans outside Chaeronea in 338, in one of the larger battles of the ancient world.

As ever, we played this using CnC Ancients on Hexon terrain with Tims 25mm toys. Diego and I took the Athenians and Thebans respectively, while John ad Graham took the Macedonians.

View from the Theban right. The chaps closest to the camera are the mighty Theban Sacred Band.

Our centre, with various hoplites and auxiliaries.

The Athenian left advances after a brief exchange of missile fire.

The entire Macedonian phalanx rolls forwards in response with a Line Command card. Oops!

The ensuing melee is really horrible with heavy losses all over the place.

Philip himself plunges into the Greek line with a group of pikemen.

The Athenian hoplites push back, managing to rout some of the Macedonians.

Alexander chose this moment to lead his Companions into the ragged Greek lines, the heavily armoured cavalry crashed into some of the disordered hoplites. Things weren't looking too good.

As the Macedonians overran a number of units, things were looking bad. Luckily, we just managed to hang on, despite heavy losses.

Our final throw of the dice was this desperate attack on some Macedonian light troops. The Macedonians evaded, so we only had one chance.... 

And we got lucky. That one green spot inflicted a hit on them as they pulled back.

And as they were weakened anyway, it was enough to rout them.

In the end the Greks were victorious, but it was a harder fought thing than the banner total indicates as next turn Alexander was poised to obliterate a number of weakened hoplite units.

So, another nail biting game, albeit with an ahistorical result. Well, Philip will just have to think again.

Amphipolis 422BC

As we hadn't had an Ancients outing for a while, Tim revisited the Peleponnesian Wars once more.

This time the Spartan General Brasidas had been ravaging bits of Greece in a somewhat out of control manner and managed to annoy the Athenians so much they sent an Army under Cleon to stop him. Brasidas sat in Amphipolis behind the city wall and after a while Cleon decided to head for home, at which point the Spartans poured out of the city and attacked them in the flank.

John and Tim C took the Athenians while Diego and I took the Spartans.

View from behind the mighty (resin) walls of Amphipolis.

Spartan left.  A whole bunch of Spartan hoplites, plus some auxiliaries and medium cavalry.

And the Spartan right, yet more Spartans, supported by auxiliaris and light cavalry. This lot led by Brasidas himself. The Spartans in red on the right of the line are Tims very first 25mm metal wargames figures, so veterans in every sense of the word.

The Athenian right, more hoplites. Cleon is with the medium cavalry unit.

The  Spartans had a decent mix of command cards. We had an option to engage in skirmishing with our light troops, but given that the Athenians were trying to escape, we opted for an immediate attack on our left.

First blood to us, albeit not without losses.

Over on the right, the Athenians tried to slip off the table (the red blobs are exit hexes), so Brasidas led his wing forward, supported by the cavalry.

It was all very messy and horrible, but after a few turns pushing and shoving, to everyones amazement, the Spartans managed to destroy the required six units for victory. Despite monumental losses on individual units (see above) the Spartans only lost one.

Well, that was probably the fastest CnC Ancients game we've ever played. Not quite sure what happened there, but the Spartans managed to get stuck in very quickly while the Athenians didn't seem sure whether to fight or try to withdraw.  Oh well, home early at any rate.