As I had a sudden burst of activity in posting on last year's diary towards the end of the year, let's go for this agin. For the umpteenth year - I feel the need to go back and check how long this log has been going on.
2024 ended with a lot of Eisenhower being played, had quite a bit of Legions Imperialis through out, and a fair bit of Warmaster XL at the start.
The first two are likely to keep making appearances.
Midguard will likely get a spin as a fantasy rule set.
I finally gave into the AWI temptation right at the end of 2024 (in the spend £150 to save £1.20 a pack rationale!!!). So that will be a big chunk on painting effort. I have a few bits of armies to finish painting so they should definitely get done (WWI British, Epic Squats, Ogres, Lizardmen). Then there are lots of other armies sitting in pristine metal in drawers that ought to get some paint, but not sure which one. Off the top of my head there are, Ratmen, Orcs (so many Orcs), Barons War, Conquisadors and Meso-Americans, Late Medieval Polish, Landsneckts (who are part done), more Mongols, LoA, Renaissance, extra Afrika Korps infantry (who could actually be useful to get done) more late WWI British and Germans.
Eek!
A bit of looking back indicates that these diaries have been going since 2012. Wow!
I had an enjoyable re-read of 2022s games - and the intro for 2022 mentioned both Orc and Late Roman armies that had been in the stash since 2012 :o And I forgot the Late Romans in my list of armies above. What chance is there of them getting painted this year?
First game of the year (and first for a while with Xmas interrupting gaming) was another game of Eisenhower - the same western desert scenario as about a month ago, but with different players.
(https://i.imgur.com/VSUcOWm.jpg)
The Germans are on the let, British on the right, objectives are the green squiggles. The British commander, has chosen to deploy his Infantry Division in the swamps - even though this isn't terrain that gives Infantry a combat advantage, and he has split his Veteran 7th Armoured division at the far end of the table with its Crusaders in the open desert, and its infantry in the mountains.
Troops are deployed before the objectives are placed (though the broad area for the objectives is known) Attacker places one, then the defender, then the attacker the last one.
(https://i.imgur.com/hMoTtG8.jpeg)
The German attack is making good ground in the centre, and on the far side the Germans out numbering the spread out British infantry 2 : 1 have gained the objective in the hills.
(https://i.imgur.com/k1eEUPh.jpeg)
German attack continues, the British reinforcements (2nd NZ Div) have arrived to shore up the line. In Eisenhower objectives that are taken by the attacker, are then moved 1 box by the defender. Which keeps forcing the attacker forward. Around the central objective 7th Armoured's Crusaders are performing sterling defence vs Ariete.
(https://i.imgur.com/GLzD7Vs.jpeg)
Change of camera angle, I had to take over the British at this point, as the British player had to pop home to deal with a family 'emergency' that turned out to be nothing much.
I was attempting to consolidate my forces in the middle, but the Germans kept throwing in repeated attacks. The attackers get 4 stockpiles in a standard scenario (compared to 2 for the defender) and the best use for these is to be able to recover Exhausted units (yellow tokens) back to Worn. So whilst the British were getting a lot of German units to Exhausted, I didn't have enough troops to attack them again to remove them before they could recover in the night phase. Also as the defender you are trying to maintain the prepared status of units as this means your units fight first in a combat, hopefully downgrading the attackers.
I say hopefully as in one combat I did take all the attackers to exhausted, so they needed 6s to hit, which they then promptly rolled 5 of!
(https://i.imgur.com/0GQg0B0.jpeg)
The end of the game - end of day 5 I think - the Germans finally got ahead on VPs and where then able to call an end to the game (the attacker can choose to end the game after day 4).
A closer game on points than the fighting shows - perhaps as the British took the first turn 3-0 and most others where 2-1 to the Germans so it took them some time to clawback the first turn disadvantage.
Played out very differently to the first play of this scenario - which is no bad thing!
A couple of historical scenarios (Nijmegen and Bastogne) have been posted by Sam Mustafa so they might be up next to give my US Airborne a run out.
Interesting AAR.
A closer game on points than the fighting shows - perhaps as the British took the first turn 3-0 and most others where 2-1 to the Germans so it took them some time to clawback the first turn disadvantage.
This we find a major problem with this ruleset; the attacker seldom makes effective progress for the first few days and that gives a huge disadvantage for the rest of the game. We have concluded that the objectives and victory system needs a major overhaul but have yet to resolve what that should be.
Interesting- this is probably the first time we've spotted this. And I only spotted it when writing up.
The momentum does go to the attacker over turns as they can replenish more units.
I do wonder if not scoring on turn 1 might be sensible - but this is a game where the setup means you are right into the combat straight away.
Been away with work in Vietnam for 10 days or so - which whilst great, does interrupt gaming!
But a Pendraken parcel was waiting for me on my return - it was very compact, but very heavy! Mainly AWI figures bought at the end of December before the price increase. More on these later!
This week we played Irregular Wars - always a favourite and also handy as it is very quick to setup, which is useful after a busy week.
I went with a Japanese themed table and offered my opponent two options, early vs Mongols, or later vs Portuguese. He chose early and took the Japanese.
The army selection in IW is based on picks, 2 compulsory and 5 optional. The optional ones may come with a variable number of units, most of the Japanese picks were in the range of 1 to 3 units, he also had drawn a special card, that allowed 2 re-rolls on these, which allowed him to get 2 mounted Samurai. Overall the army looked fairly balanced, with good Samurai units both foot and mounted and some bulk of Ashigaru.
It's a while since I'd played the Mongols in IW. I started with drawing two terrible cards and a bad one for my 3. The terrible ones, made my leader poor (rather than +2 in melee and resolve he was -1!) and made him rash - so likely to die on a 1 or 2 if his unit suffered damage in melee. Not that this army was very melee heavy, but this made it even less likely! The third card was Rain which disrupts shooting - not something I'm likely to want to happen...
For army selection the Mongol list has multiple Horse Archer picks - along with 3 compulsory horse archer units. I had 1d6 for my first pick, and rolled 6, then 1d4 for my next, and rolled 4 - at this point I'd actually run out of horse archer bases, and could only field 12 in total - on no! I then added a rocket, a second medium cavalry unit, and 1d3 foot archers - of whom I only got 1.
The Japenese were the attacker in this scenario, so I deployed in 3 blobs around the village nearest the camera.
(https://i.imgur.com/E0uMy1s.jpeg)
The Japanese pretty much mirrored this with their deployment.
IW then has the ace Disease and Sickness phase - where you roll 2d6 per unit, 7+ they are fine, the lower you roll the worse it is. Both sides had a few units suffering 1 resolve loss from sickness, and a couple of units late, the only one of significance was 1 unit of Ashigaru who are barely on the table in the top left.
The Japenese leader, was keen and pushed forward with his unit of Samurai cavalry - but not too far. So fairly average disruption from this phase.
The Japanese advance slowly, the Mongols centre blob spread to thicken the side units. The Japenese had advanced into bow range - oops! On the left, 7 units fired at the leader, on a base 5+ to hit, with a +1 for a mounted target
(https://i.imgur.com/X7AbgZG.jpeg)
7 hits out of 7 shots. One dead Samurai cavalry unit, with the leader. This is bad. Very bad in IW, as this causes resolve loss to any friendly unit who sees the loss of the leader, and puts the whole army out of command for this turn and the next. As this had happened in the shooting phase which is before the movement phase, it meant the Japenese were going to be out of command for two movement phases.
On the right I split my fire between the two horse archer Samurai and they both wavered (only having 1 resolve left).
(https://i.imgur.com/fpykNpp.jpeg)
The Japenese then had to roll a dice for each unit to see what they do when out of command - do nothing is the most likely action. The above is the aftermath of this. The wavering horse archers having taken Bushido to heart have decided to charge towards the Mongols!!
That wasn't going to end well, as the Mongols had initiative they were going second to take advantage of the chaos of out of command movement. So swarmed the two horse archers - most of the Mongol army is rubbish in melee. But in IW if you flank an enemy unit you inflict an automatic resolve loss. So I only need to charge 2 units onto each horse archer, and given the proximity and speed of my units this was easy to achieve.
(https://i.imgur.com/DuffKAF.jpeg)
Mongols flow to the right flank.
To be continued!
Oops another 6 week gap in posting. Real life has been a bit too real recently.
But games have been happening - so perhaps more photos and less words to catchup!
Dead Man's Hand - Tong vs Desperados
This was our first game of DMH - was great fun - in reading the rules afterwards we got the playing of cards at the start of the turn totally wrong!!
(https://i.imgur.com/jQ6MykJ.jpg)
The card deck has custom 'picture' cards for each faction - and I was able to make great use of the Tong's special rules. Master Wu Jen and his sword were deadly!
Live Free or Die AWI
Another first run out of rules - and figures!
All Pendraken figures in this game, and most freshly painted too. We didn't have enough figures for one of the official scenarios so played a smaller fan scenario - The Battle of Hubbardton. The British are advancing through the woods to take a small redoubt on the central hill.
The terrain is generally quite hilly, but this doesn't show too well on the photos.
(https://i.imgur.com/TrnVTEQ.jpeg)
The British get their skirmishers forward but their main troops are held up crossing the stream - this will be a theme of the game.
(https://i.imgur.com/JovGzQ8.jpeg)
The initial British attack has rather stalled, and their Hessain reinforcements start to arrive.
(https://i.imgur.com/HBxGfIE.jpeg)
The British skirmishers get round the back of the redoubt and to the bottom of the table - but can't push the Americans off the hill
(https://i.imgur.com/FUGzvch.jpeg)
Overall a good game, but under the time limits of the scenario a tough ask for the British. Their big units were slowed down a lot crossing the stream. We think that putting a bridge there would help the game flow more (or make it a couple of turns longer)
Great looking game
You will find most scenarios tough for the British...
Legions Imperialis - 4 player
Continuing to catch up on games from earlier in the year. This was a large (6500 pts a side) game with 2 players on each side, with double Imperial Fists (bright yellow) vs Mechanicum (spider robots on red bases) and Space Marines.
(https://i.imgur.com/mDO5h4f.jpeg)
(https://i.imgur.com/qgRCvXa.jpeg)
(https://i.imgur.com/uLQsZd8.jpeg)
(https://i.imgur.com/tlG2KUE.jpeg)
(https://i.imgur.com/IQA866X.jpeg)
AWI Americans
(https://i.imgur.com/HufIaAA.jpeg)
Another 13 bases of American infantry, mainly in hunting shirts.
Along with a few command figures for rules like Sharpe Practice, and some casualty markers.
Very impressive Forbes
Thanks!
I'm not sure about the photo - might try to take some in natural light with the other painted bases.
ITLSU 1916 near Verdun
We were able to get in the luxury of an afternoon game earlier this week, and choose to revisit WWI with Glyn's freshly painted mid/late war French.
The scenario was 'historically plausible' based on the Northern flank of the Verdun salient, with a counter attack by the French 92nd Infantry Regiment of the 26th Infantry Division, commanded by Lt Col Macker. They were attacking from Le Mort Homme hill to retake Le Bois de Corbeux and village of Cumieres, defended by German troops of the 43. Infanterie-Brigade from the 22nd Reserve Infantry Division.
(https://i.imgur.com/xXvs7VB.jpeg)
The red box outlines the battlefield with the French attacking from the West to East (left to right). The terrain is very hilly.
(https://i.imgur.com/xJvUGDq.jpeg)
I had a big rummage for enough bits of high density and expanded styrofoam to build the hills - which where a fair approximation
(https://i.imgur.com/A5lYnHk.jpeg)
Looking W now, with the terrain in place over the hills. The key areas are labelled, the view is from the German commander's view point. Just about visible are the transparent ovals representing the blinds that units will deploy from.
(https://i.imgur.com/fFjbZuW.jpeg)
Most troops deployed fairly closely to their initial blinds positions. The two German battalions in defence, with the plain brown bases, the French attackers in the distance with some greenery on their bases.
The French with a surfeit of elan decided to charge the Germans. Perhaps their commander had missed the prior two years of the war!
(https://i.imgur.com/G3OPkBE.jpeg)
Looking North again, along the German defensive line - quite a few MGs situated here. With the village of Cumieres in the background, with the Brigade HQ and a couple of artillery batteries situated here.
(https://i.imgur.com/t3vuF6b.jpeg)
Close-up of the French charging out of their position on top of Le Mort Homme across the shell pocked ground
(https://i.imgur.com/icz5jqG.jpeg)
Looking East from the German lines - a target rich environment!
(https://i.imgur.com/MNEtVxu.jpeg)
The defenders on the slopes of the Bois des Corbeux - they were deployed in line of companies, here they are moving forward a little to get a 2 up 1 back formation.
(https://i.imgur.com/IZuJdXI.jpeg)
Looking west, the French attack continues, on the left a battalion of Moroccans advance to get in position to lay down fire on the German defenders. In the centre the 1eme battalion's charge stall's in the face of heavy fire power (at the top of the hill is their first company, having retreated through excess shock).
On the right the 2nd battalion is using two of their companies to fire on the defenders whilst the other 2 close - this was more successful as it put a reasonable amount of suppression on the Germans.
(https://i.imgur.com/NqzgBnb.jpeg)
Looking east in the bright sunshine, the attack on the Bois des Corbeaux - the foremost French company is shattered, down to 1 stand carrying 28 shock (this would cause them to retreat 18" on their next activation) - they had got to within a few inches of the defenders whose shooting is then at double effect in the 'Dead Close' range band.
(https://i.imgur.com/Do9udrK.jpeg)
The German defenders on the left starting to take some shock - but still causing devastation to the French 1eme battalion attempting to cross the open ground. On the right one French company did get into charge range - but despite just edging the number of hand to hand combat dice, they rolled worse and where thrown back.
(https://i.imgur.com/3fmyJGF.jpeg)
Looking north, German reinforcements make their way forward (these troops really weren't needed - I'd got the force ratios a bit off).
In the centre are the tatters of the French 1eme battalion, and just behind them can be seen the 4eme French battalion making its way forward.
(https://i.imgur.com/VmrMyCy.jpeg)
The end. The German reinforcements positioned to drive off the Moroccans, whilst over on the far side the 4eme battalion gets into shooting range, supported by an artillery battery on Hill 265 this shooting was starting to drive back the defenders.
Conclusions & Thoughts
It was good to get back to WWI and with a new army on the table as well - the rather splendid looking French. Both sides figures are Pendraken 10mm.
The French plan was massively optimistic- not sure why they didn't spend some time shooting up the defenders before charging.
The force ratios where off - we've not played ITLSU for some time, and the French battalions seemed big compared to the German ones. But defence is easy in WWI, each German formation could easily have been 2 companies rather than 3.
Battalion size - we felt the battalions where quite large at around 16-20 stands each, I think we will try 12 stand ones for the next game - feels more appropriate for mid war onwards.
ITSLU always gives a good game, and works well for the Western front rather than its native North Africa - the Storm of Dice notes in one of the Lardie supplements adds some Western front specifics, including some new cards, which worked well.
We enjoyed the game, that we are playing again, this time with a German attack, just to the south of this battlefield.
Excellent looking game and report. Nice one Forbes. 8)
Impressive table and figures. Great report.
Thanks both!
:-bd =D> :-bd =D>
Good to hear you enjoyed the game :-bd
Definitely plenty of French Elan on display, looking forward to the German attack
AWI Americans
Good painting progress on these over the last few weeks. Got them on bases with sand this morning. Leave them to dry and hopefully get them flocked by the end of the day
(https://i.imgur.com/WHea1LB.jpg)
Nice Forbes
Looking good Fred 8) .
Thanks both
The bases dried quicker than I expected so got them flocked, and photographed while there was a bit of light, on an otherwise cold and dull day.
(https://i.imgur.com/hujkk6N.jpg)
Overhead view, 2 infantry regiments, artillery train, 2 cavalry regiments, tents, commanders and casualties.
(https://i.imgur.com/PLqAxEd.jpeg)
The two Continental regiments, one with red turn backs, an the second with white.
(https://i.imgur.com/8F2k8XP.jpeg)
Limbers, heavy and light guns. A bit of finishing off needed on some of the these still
(https://i.imgur.com/Z3Pbg6a.jpeg)
Left hand cavalry are the 3rd Light Dragoons, Washington's Legion, right is Lee's Legion. Uniforms from http://www.uniformology.com/WORLD-11-ACD.html
Then behind some tents (originally for South Africa a 100 years later...) Officers and casualty markers
This is all the American troops from my 'beat the price rise' order at the end of December.
I'll try to get a group shot together in the next couple of days.
Superb 8)
:-bd =D> :-bd
Very nice, indeed ! :-bd
Thanks all.
I've enjoyed painting these up - although they do have a lot of different bits of equipment that need painting, just when you think you have finished I find another little accoutrement that has been missed!
Rivers
At Phalanx last weekend I picked up some 6mm battlescale houses for AWI and lots of MDF river sections.
The river sections have had a first pass of painting - I have a gone with quite a dark blue, as I like the card river sections from the old GW Battle of the Five Armies box set (one shining in the middle of the photo)
(https://i.imgur.com/1LIGeuq.jpeg)
These are still wet so we will see what they look like in the morning.
Good plan Forbes 8)
Progress has been made on the rivers (but no photos yet)
Instead got a few bases of figures finished off
Warmonger Gendarmes
More historical (and smaller) than GW Empire Knights - painted these up a good while ago, but didn't finish their basing off until recently
(https://i.imgur.com/HHqXzSZ.jpeg)
(https://i.imgur.com/fpvzGQ4.jpeg)
Stripy lances were less hassle than I expected - flag needs finishing - but need some inspiration on the design.
(https://i.imgur.com/RCuYy3T.jpeg)
(https://i.imgur.com/JdkfHHk.jpeg)
Copplestone Dwarves
Got these from a mate, already base coated and dry brushed in gold - so went with that as the starting point of the armour. Pretty simple and quick paint job on these.
(https://i.imgur.com/dGjQgjU.jpeg)
(https://i.imgur.com/H8IoesM.jpeg)
(https://i.imgur.com/RYUgM41.jpeg)
V cool Forbes
Rivers
Spent some time today adding banks to the MDF rivers I picked up at Phalanx
(https://i.imgur.com/65QKi3b.jpeg)
The whole lot - these have had a number of coats of gloss varnish but they don't look that shiny in the photos
(https://i.imgur.com/9tS4IOW.jpeg)
The island
(https://i.imgur.com/9ROhema.jpeg)
Y junction
(https://i.imgur.com/vGC2Kvn.jpeg)
Narrowing section - this has been lightly customised to narrow from the 75mm width down to 30mm
Very nice work Forbes! 8)
:-bd =D> :-bd
:-bd
Thanks chaps
Magnetic Basing
Productive day yesterday - probably due to the not very summery weather.
Got magnetic sheet stuck on the bottom of many bases of Sengoku Jidai era Japenese figures - the figures were painted a while ago - but as they were all out, its an opportunity for a quick photo!
(https://i.imgur.com/slVTX9Z.jpeg)
(https://i.imgur.com/Xazr9g9.jpeg)
Very 😎 cool
Very nice, Forbes ! :-bd
Nice work and I'm in the process of painting up some rivers too, but much narrower ones for me.
Daimyo Playtest Rules
I've now played these rules twice, and have enjoyed both games.
First game was 1v1 with 3 sonae a side. The second was 2v2 players, but still with 3 sonae a side, I 'umpired' the second game.
The rules are very well put together - considering they are a play test version, we had fewer questions than with many published sets of rules. The latest version (3.3) tidies up a number of bits and adds loads of scenarios and siege rules.
The core of the game is the order tokens - these work very well as a mechanism as you start with lots so have lots of flexibility, then as the battle progresses you never have enough to hand to do what you want to do! They also let each sonae do clever things if you want to try to replicate historical tactics.
Some photos - using 10mm Pendraken figures, but with the footprint of 28mm units in the game. Unfortunately only have 1 army's worth of Japanese figures so far.
(https://imgur.com/xYJ6B69.jpeg)
(https://imgur.com/yl1O1d1.jpeg)
Game two
(https://imgur.com/la3trSq.jpeg)
(https://imgur.com/G22NKiG.jpeg)
Order tokens
(https://imgur.com/iH3ZOpO.jpeg)
Harlem Heights - Live Free or Die
We played another AWI game with Live Free or Die rules this week - as a couple of our gaming group wanted to try the rules.
It's been a few months since we last played - so need a quick refresh of the rules ahead of the game. Harlem Heights is a smaller scenario with around 50 bases per side - which nicely fitted with what we have painted.
The game is a 10 turn, escalating meeting engagement, with both sides adding in troops from turns 3 to 6.
(https://imgur.com/TkrLPOb.jpeg)
Starting positions American formed troops to the right (NE) with skirmishers nearest the camera. The British have 2 large regiments of Light troops in skirmish formation between the woods, and a regiment of highlanders way off camera to the left.
(https://imgur.com/LSSHrgY.jpeg)
Turn 3 - on the right the British skirmishers have infiltrated around the woods - but then were rudely met by American reinforcements. In the centre the Americans have advanced against the other Regt of Light troops. The American skirmishers have advanced to the wood to engage the Highlanders. And more American troops come on at the bottom of the picture - this brigade is under Nathaneal Greene.
The Americans had tried to charge the Light Infantry to drive them off - but due to the low quality of Hitchock's RI infantry - they failed in the charge and ended up suffering casualties and retreating!
(https://imgur.com/dUi00m9.jpeg)
Battle lines have formed. The Light infantry using their mobility have pulled back to the second wood, whilst that second Regt has moved into the centre of the table. The Americans were struggling to cause meaningful casualties on the Light troops in skirmish formation [6s where needed to hit them, and due to their mobility and high quality they were able to rally off quite a lot the hits caused] And whilst they weren't putting out that much firepower it kept adding up, and the Americans were less able to rally it off.
(https://imgur.com/pKshz2F/jpeg)
A continuous line of Light Infantry screen the British. As their reinforcements start to arrive both from the left, and Hessian's at the bottom.
(https://imgur.com/VMS6Ts0.jpeg)
Nearest the camera Maj General Greene is getting stuck into the action - but his Regt is facing 3 Britsh ones - the weight of fire tells, they loose 2 stands, and Greene is lightly wounded.
(https://imgur.com/uMXbklb.jpeg)
The Americans continue to suffer casualties - with units retreating and causing further disruption to friendly units.
Overall a decisive British victory as they caused 11 stands loss on the Americans, and only suffered 1. The historical result was about 4 stands each.
The two British Light regiments where a major problem for the Americans - they couldn't cause meaningful casualties to them, and their mobility allowed them to dance around the battlefield, and combined with their quality allowed them to rally off disruptions fairly easily.
The Hessians arriving on the bottom edge of the table was historically plausible - and did perhaps tip things the British way, as the rest of their reinforcements didn't get into the game - mainly as they spent a lot of time traversing terrain rather than marching around it.
It's a good scenario, good write up
We found the light infantry really powerful too. Our losses definitely weren't that one-sided!
I think some dice rolling came into it too. The British seemed to roll generally a bit better and the Americans a bit worse than expected results
:-bd =D> :-bd
Thanks Paul
As my wife was away this weekend (and the weather was not great) I got a few games in!
Next up Devilry Afoot - 28mm skirmish on a small playing area as a change of everything!
It's set in 16-17th Century, but due to figure (and terrain) availability I've moved forward to Victorian times (at least visually, I've not changed any rules at this stage for the move to cartridge weapons over ball and powder ones). I am largely hoping to do this as a game with existing figures - and perhaps as a way of getting some of the lead mountain painted.
The Dance Macabre
I picked this scenario simply as it was the second one in the book, and I didn't think I had the witch figures for the first scenario. In retrospect this wasn't a great first scenario!
I'd drafted up a group of Hunters during the week - as with any new game it took a little while to work through the various options and how they interact. I went with
Corto - A Gentleman
Mr Jones - A Scholar
Preacher Ted - A Religious
The Commander - A Soldier
The scenario was based around a burial ground which the hunters needed to un-curse by quoting scripture in the centre three times. This was complicated by the presence of a Revenant and a Spectre. Which doesn't sound too bad, but each time the Revenant activated it had a 30% chance of triggering another Revenant to appear...
(https://imgur.com/aRciVJp.jpeg)
A couple of turns in - and a second Revenant has been summoned. Mr Jones and the Commander are advancing from the top, whilst Corto, his follower and Preacher Ted are moving in from the centre left. Preacher Ted was effective at Quoting Scripture at the Spectre and causing damage to it. The Revenants tended to move very slowly
(https://imgur.com/D6t6ETc.jpeg)
A couple of turns later, Jones and the Commander are engaged in an ineffectual melee with one Revenant. Corto's nameless follower has been taken out, whilst Corto is now engaged with a second Revenant after getting successful shots off at the first one to take it out.
3 more revenants have been summoned!
And by this stage their were so many that the unpainted ones needed to be used :'(
Preacher Ted has made it to the centre of the burial ground to start Quoting Scripture (he is particularly good at this due is class, his Theology Skill and his Bible) - which is good as QS normally requires an activation test at -4 so a 7 or 8+ on a d10. Ted knocks this down to a -1, and gets to roll twice. So needing a 4+ on 1 of 2 d10 for a succes.
The 5th turn was poor for the Hunters, Corto fled from the spectre's intimidation, Preacher Ted failed to QS (despite his good chances!), the melee continued. More revenants arrived - but at least the existing ones only shuffled forwards
(https://imgur.com/ZmaMkTf.jpeg)
Last turn - Corto and The Commander are both taken out by Revenants - who rolled very high on their wound rolls. Fortunately Preacher Ted cleanses the burial ground before him and Mr Jones are swarmed by the horde of Revenants.
Phew!
There was a lot going on in this game - the number of Revenants rapidly became too many. Not helped by poor melee rolls by the Hunters.
I'd missed that an opportunity attack can be conducted if an attacker fails to hit - which might have helped the Hunters.
And when writing this up I've seen that Revenants cause -1 to activations if within 4" which really wouldn't have helped them.
In the post game rolls - disaster both Corto and the Commander expired from their wounds!
And due to only killing 1 revenant the bounty was quite low (but at least not spread between that many Hunters!)
It was a good game - but with any new game a lot of bits to get my head around, and with playing solo there wasn't anyone to spot and correct some of my mistakes!
Sounds like an equmanical manner!
Great report. 8)
Devilry Afoot game 2 - Lost in the Woods
Preacher Ted and Mr Jones sought out two new Hunters to return their numbers to 4. They were joined by Old Archie, a Goodman, equipped with a blunderbus and holy water, and The Hunter an enigmatic Soldier equipped with a sword and a couple of monster wards (an Elf bolt and a sprig of wolfsbane).
Preacher Ted traded in his blunderbus and club for a Dragon heavy pistol with silver shot and a sword. Mr Jones added a sword and several rounds of silver shot for his current pistol.
Hopefully this group would be less fated!
The scenario is Lost in the Woods - 2 innocents are lost in some fairly open woodland, there is an area of rough ground, and an area of Hungry Grass (hungry grass can cause humans to fall asleep and be lost to the fairy realm). There were just two bogeymen as monsters - due to figure availability one was a green zombie-esque figure they other more ghost like. All of these were randomly located, with both bogeymen turning up on the same side of the table.
Finally there was a pact devil in the bottom right corner - who would lure the innocents towards him
(https://imgur.com/DERTwTb.jpeg)
The hunters deployed at the top of the map. The innocents in the centre. The monsters to the right. Despite the sunniness of these photos it should be remembered these games are set at night with fairly limited visibility.
Mr Jones and The Hunter engaged the green bogeyman in melee - and despite suffering -2 on dice rolls due to its malevolence still managed to cause 2 wounds.
Preacher Ted advanced and quoted scripture at the other bogeyman scaring him off.
The innocents headed towards the pact devil.
(https://imgur.com/NpvukZh.jpeg)
Turn 2 - Old Archie throws his holy water on The Hunter to help him resist the bogeyman. The Hunter wounds the bogeyman again (the -2 on dice rolls has kept the BM in the fight). The BM then flees and intimidates the too closest hunters.
The innocents are now close to the other BM and therefore flee from it - this is good news as it takes them away from the monsters. This BM drifts around not doing much (monster activation is by dice rolls on tables - BM have quite an unusual table with quite a few different options possible).
(https://imgur.com/sE0kQhG.jpeg)
Turn 3
Old Archie blasts the central BM with his blunderbus - and misses.
Preacher Ted who is closest to this BM fails to activate due to its malevolent aura
Mr Jones shoots the green BM and kills it - just causing a wound due to his silver shot.
Turn 4
The Hunter advances, Jones and Archie reload. Ted fails to activate (again) the -2 from the BM is significant.
But the BM does little, drifting around and attempting to intimidate, but the hunters resist.
This allows the innocents to escape off the table.
Turn 5
The remaining BM is forced to flee by Preacher Ted quoting scripture.
The Hunter decides to engage with the Pact Devil - gaining +1 to his attack value, but picks up the Drunkard secret.
The Hunters gain 70 shillings bounty.
This was a much more straightforward game than the first one - no respawning revanants to start with!
The bogeymen with their -2 dice modifier were very tough to engage in melee. What I found funny was that the two BM actually played to the style of their figures. With the stumpy green one getting involved in melee straight off. And the ghost like one, drifting around! A strange intersection of figures and dice rolls.
As the hunt was successful and the innocents were saved lots of experience all round. Preacher Ted and Mr Jones both gained enough experience for an upgrade. Mr Jones added to his shooting skill - perhaps having learned from taking out the BM.
Preacher Ted gains the Physician skill - given the problems after the first game with the effects of wounds. Not entirely sure of the narrative here - most of the scholarly skills feel a bit unlikely to be picked up after a game - but perhaps having seen two of his associates pass away he was driven to gain knowledge in this area...
This game was good fun - I was more sure of more of the gameplay so it flowed better. Though I still think I missed a few things - definitely the downside to solo games is remembering all the various modifiers that come into play at a point in time. But I'd rather the game keeps flowing then spending time double checking everything.
Nice report Forbes.
Like the idea of the Preacher taking healing, he's definitely feeling the guilt! :D
Thanks, yes the preacher taking Physician skill feels a fit both from the story and it will be useful from a game play perspective.
The only odd bit is that most of the 'Scholarly' skills feel a bit complex to have learned over a couple of adventures!
Maybe it's a long term, behind the scenes project, and they become 'qualified' between episodes (carrier pigeon carrying diploma arrived).