What Ruleset Did You Use In Your Last Game 2016

[Zippee]

1) What ruleset do you use in your last game? Star Wars: Edge of Empire + Age of Rebellion

2) What armies were confronted? Err none really,  so lets just say Good v Bad

3) Did you feel comfortable with the ruleset? Fairly, though the dice pool reading still feels a little like taking the auguries

4) and... was the first time do you use the ruleset? No. Although it had been a while and this is the third session with a first time GM (of anything)

5) How many players were in the game? 5

Scene Five:
It's pitch black in the Biscuit Barren - all that can be seen is the steady white gleam of a pair of dots at the entrance door (CH-01's visual input sensors - some would say eyes, but that's just so anthropomorphic). CH-01 can see a widening circle of emptiness in the centre of the restaurant, with a human crawling around trying to hold his guts in, the captain blindly groping for his blaster on the floor, the trandoshan scooping 'free burgers' off the floor and tables. The bothan is standing to one side, the rodians and aqaulish also are standing still, blasters drawn. All around is bedlam as panicked customers try and make it to the (sealed) exits. On the far side, CH-01 can see the outline of a door - the only apparent way out. Clicking his com link, CH-01 instructs the crew to come to him, "follow the white dots gentlemen, please"; eventually they assemble, despite wild shots from the rodians and in a comical conga line CH-01 leads them to the other door. Behind them there is pounding and then the sound of someone cutting through the main door and security shutters.

The crew make it to the door, it's one of those swing-both-ways restaurant doors and it leads into a kitchen, it's dark, behind them the injured human crawls in as well - CH-01 drags a large desk unit across the doorway. The bothan tries to bring up schematics on his data pad, we find a cold store and finally in the far wall a maintenance hatch. The sound of cutting and screaming behind gets louder, someone starts shoving at the blocked doorway. Jovan opens the hatch and peers in - a dark space, possibly a chute – never mind, we shove the injured guy down it and then jump, in a moment of clarity, the captain flips the catch as he goes through shutting it behind us.

There's a long, long, slippery slide into darkness, followed by a painful landing.

Scene Six:
Apparently the smell is awful - the injured guy is dead, broke his neck on impact. Too bad, no answers from him then. We seem to have come down a garbage chute and landed on a conveyor belt collecting trash. The good news is that it's dimly lit by occasional bulkhead lights. Moving through the area small scavenger creatures (uggnaughts), they immediately strip the body and then try and 'buy' the bothan's datapad with the orange jacket it was wearing.

After some discussion and the donation of a handful of credits we find that this leads nowhere except, ultimately an incinerator. There are down chutes for every building on the ring, neatly labelled but only very occasional maintenance access ways. The crew chooses to head for the nearest hatchway, climbing the disgusting, slimy, chutes doesn't look like a good idea.

Eventually we find a ladder in the gloom and climb up – a moment of luck as we find that the entrance actually is also a sanitisation shower, so we emerge a bit damp but reasonably clean and not too smelly.

Scene Seven:
We find ourselves in the kitchen area of what seems to be a nightclub, the staff studiously ignore us, despite some surprised glances, they say nothing. Peering into the main auditorium there is something big going down, a major sabaque  tournament apparently – this is The Nova Room, broadcast on pay-to-view all over the galaxy. There's a human and wookie sat under the spotlight in the centre and music starts up, the PA blares out "...And in the Blue Corner we have Lando Carilisian" – someone enters the far side, to huge cheers and stamping of feet – we hear the start of a chant "Hello, what do. .." and then the crowd choruses with "..we have here!"

During all this we avoid the attention of helpful staff asking to seat us if we could just show them our ticket and make our excuses and leave – the bouncers are highly suspicious but we make it out without incident. In the background we here the ringmaster introducing the current champion Han Solo. We're back onto Shoola's Ring.

Scene Eight:
Trying to get our bearings we locate the closest docking gate – Gate 10, quarter of the way round the Ring. There is the usual hubbub going on and billboards flashing news and adverts – something catches CH-01's attention, images too fast for normal viewing. Lists of wanted criminals with details subliminally flicker through the adverts, for girls and bars – the Burpee Harpy features prominently. The captain, the trandoshan and droid all feature – wanted for questioning about a breach of the peace at the Biscuit Barren – the human, aqualish and rodians don't feature. Great we're now wanted criminal's on a Hutt space station. Checking the clock, we have eight hours left until our ride leaves.

Someone calls out to Tray'esseck, it's the arms dealer from earlier. Seems there was more to the deal than we realised, and he has purchased some special trandoshan bladed weapon – a 'slaver blade'. Great so we're that easy to spot!

A commotion ahead and a bunch of red robed 'Church of the Force' spritualists come down the Ring, begging for credits as they continue their pilgrimage. In a moment of inspiration, to provide a disguise, the crew purchases two of the robes (big boxy headed things) for a substantial contribution to the cause and Tray'essek and the captain don them. Thus clad we make our way back toward Gate 22 – surely Captain Oglerk has finished lunch by now!

After some fraught discussion with the Gate 22 guards they point is to the Burpee Harpy, which is where the crew usually hang out.

Scene Nine:
The Burpee Harpy – we enter a throbbing, loud and packed cantina come night club, we start pushing our way though looking for the Captain. An angry, one-eyed wookie, very drunk and with a bad attitude spots Tray'essek (we're not wearing the robes inside. . . seemed sensible) and grabs him, the trandoshan shoves back, the wookie stumbles into a table, drinks are spilled, someone takes a swing and then. . . all hell breaks loose, full on bar room brawl.

In the midst of which we find Captain Oglerk and her First Mate Kog. In a difficult negotiation, conducted whilst avoiding flying bottles and stools we agree to meet at Cargo Bay 99.

Scene Ten
Cargo Bay 99 is probably the quietest place we've been. A cargo tug and five large container pods sit waiting as do Captain Oglerk and Kog. We're invited to check two of the pods at random – we do and find that each contains 10,000 neatly stacked droids. The tug is hyperspace capable, so we negotiate for its inclusion, Oglerk seems uninterested in it, just wants shot of the whole lot. So we cut a deal at 5 million credits, the bothan opens the briefcase and transfers the fee (cue momentary shock from the rest of the crew that this bit could be so easy and the money was actually available).
Success we have a tug and 50,000 droids . Now we just need to get them to the Shadow Raptor - only we don't know the route.

Scene Eleven
Back on the Spinsters Loom in discussion with LELU-979, who also doesn't know the route, there's just an implant programme that allows the Spinsters Loom to make the jump. It's hardwired into the droid – how do we get two ships to use the same programme? Cue some fancy-dancy slicing by the bothan and we manage to duplicate the programme with a one use kill switch so that it will self-delete. LELU-979 satisfies herself of these precautions and we're good to go.

Scene Twelve
We pack into the Cargo Tug – no name yet but hey we have a ship again, the captain straps in and asks for clearance to leave. Within minutes we're off, the bothan runs his programme and the whole ship vibrates and hums as we enter hyperspace

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Awesome

[Steve J]

1) What ruleset do you use in your last game? - KR-16
2) What armies were confronted? Crimson Allaince vs RDF
3) Did you feel comfortable with the ruleset? very, although a tad rusty as it's been some time since I played.
4) and... was the first time do you use the ruleset? No.
5) How many players were in the game? First off solo then two two player games as I demoing the rules at Blast-Tastic.

[Nosher]

1) What ruleset do you use in your last game? - Bolt Action 2
2) What armies were confronted? Late war Germans v US
3) Did you feel comfortable with the ruleset? Yes
4) and... was the first time do you use the ruleset? Yes for Bolt Action 2 but played many games of the original set
5) How many players were in the game? Solo

I like the new rules amendments. they add a bit more depth and address most of the issues of the original set.

At our Group we've got a multiplayer huge game using BA2 this coming Saturday, so this was very much a trial run.

[paulr]

1) What ruleset do you use in your last game? – De Bellis Antiquitatis (DBA) 3.0
2) What armies were confronted? IV/1a Komnenan Byzantine 1071-1142AD v IV/6a Syrian 1092-1286AD
3) Did you feel comfortable with the ruleset? Yes
4) and... was the first time you used the ruleset? Yes for DBA 3.0 but played several games of earlier versions of DBA and also DBMM
5) How many players were in the game? Solo

The Byzantines rolled lower than the Syrians and so defended. They selected the two compulsory areas of plough, a gentle hill and two rough areas of scrub. They ended up as shown and the Syrians chose to attack from the right as the one rough area that fitted on the table gave their hordes somewhere to hide.

The Byzantines scored a 1 on their first PIP roll so the areas of plough counted as rough due to heavy rains rather than good going much to the annoyance of two mainly cavalry armies.

After the first three or four bounds both sides had squared off in the centre with the Syrian Cavalry nervously watching the Byzantine Bow and Spear on the hill and the Byzantine Knights worried about facing Bedouin Light Horse in the centre. The Byzantine Light Horse had pushed hard on the right flank to threaten the Syrian camp.



After a few more bounds the Syrian Psiloi had dealt with one of the marauding Light Horse (6-1). The Byzantine Knights had destroyed the two Bedouin Light Horse. The Syrian Cavalry had been repulsed by the Bow and Spear on the hill but another Cavalry element and two Light Horse had managed to get out of the rough plough.



In the centre the Byzantines turned the Syrian Cavalry's flank, but the Byzantine Knight General had pursued and was isolated, he rolled just enough to avoid destruction.



On the hill the Syrian Cavalry and Light horse had managed to turn the flank of one of the Bow and destroy them. They then followed up in their next bound turning the flank of the Spear and destroying them to win the game 4-3.



Overall a very enjoyable play test of the new rules which seem to have improved significantly from DBA 2.2. The added rules, e.g. flank support, seem to add to the game without adding to much complexity.

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Nice report

[toxicpixie]

Looking good, Paul!

You'd rate DBA 3 better than DBA 2 then? I'm half tempted to run something campaign wise at the club if I can drum up support. Am currently torn between using Impetus/Basic Impetus or DBA, or  Impetus Fantasy/Hordes of the Things...

[Techno]

Good stuff, Paul !

Cheers - Phil.

[paulr]

Looking good, Paul!

You'd rate DBA 3 better than DBA 2 then? I'm half tempted to run something campaign wise at the club if I can drum up support. Am currently torn between using Impetus/Basic Impetus or DBA, or  Impetus Fantasy/Hordes of the Things...

From my reading of the rules and several reviews and one play test there are a number of improvements

• improved Knight Bow interaction
• Flank support factors further encouraging battlelines
• removal of some of the geometric cheese
• diagrams
• indexes

It is a shame it is still in Barkerese

There are a set of DBA Campaign rules dated 2010 available here, http://www.wrg.me.uk/SUE/DBACampaigns.pdf I am yet to use them and they are also in Barkerese

[toxicpixie]

Cheers!

I never found DBA had a great difficulty with the geometric cheese that DBM generated - I guess quicker games with less elements made it less of an issue? Or maybe we just played to the spirit and not the angles with the smaller games I rated DBA well over DBM tbh, the essence was lost in translation IMO.

Flank support sounded an excellent addition. And diagrams?! Superb.

I was just going to use the "geometric" campaign from the DBA rule book. It just works

[paulr]

I presented with a couple of interesting geometric situations at the 2011 Worlds, all done in the best possible taste

16 pages of diagrams

I must see if I can find my old copy of DBA, if I remember correctly the old campaign system was much simpler

[Leman]

I concur with Toxic's assessment. Don't know about DBA3. I now use DBA 2,2+ using the version put out by WADBAG. It's big but it is also in understandable English, with  sufficient explanatory diagrams and a superb QRS. The only thing it doesn't have (for legal reasons) is the army lists, but these can be found elsewhere, and there are some decent Italian Wars ones on the web these days.

[toxicpixie]

Cheers Andy - that's a great group, I'm currently reading the excellently explained and written rules working hard at my day job.

Paul, the original campaign was node based and everyone had two nodes, connected to a neighbour either side and a third "safe" connected only to their own two border nodes. THere's an extra node in the middle initially controlled by the target, sorry, number 1 nation in the campaign, and you move your army to adjacent nodes and fight the owners army, with the intent of securing their capital and forcing them to be a subject/client kingdom. Campaign was finished when someone either rules the world or a set number of turns or similar, and tot up battles won, enemies subjugated etc for the overall winner.

Produces a very easy, virtually no booking, guaranteed battles game with an easy structure.

[paulr]

Thanks TP, I dug out my copy of the original DBA and had a read last night

My goodness, how DBA has grown over the years

Now I just need to find a suitable First Crusade map to add some background colour

I also need to work out what to do with 6 armies and 5 players

[Ithoriel]

I also need to work out what to do with 6 armies and 5 players

Co-opt a sixth or have a neutral  power to allow for play by visiting firemen?