1. Tin Soldiers in Action
2. 1870s British v. German
3. Yes, I have played these a number of times now
5. 2
6. As the Germans I won, holding on to all three objectives and virtually wiping out the British Guards. ahe game moved along very smartly
7. Nothina

1) What ruleset do you use in your last game? - Iacta alea est!
2) What armies were confronted? - Roman Rebublican vs Seleucid
3) Did you feel comfortable with the ruleset? - Yes
4) and... was this the first time you used this ruleset? - No
5) How many players were in the game? - 2 players
6) What went well? - The whole game - hard-fought, with some desperate defences on both sides holding out against all odds; legionaries really can be a very tough nut indeed.
7) Is it true what they say about you Africans? - Yes, actually.
7) What could have been improved? - Desperately poor performance by the agema cavalry; held up most of the game by a handful of velites.

1) What ruleset do you use in your last game? - Mortiem te Gloriam
2) What armies were confronted? - Mid Republican Roman vs Selucids, Alexandrian Expeditionary Force, Parthians and Warly I perail Romans
3) Did you feel comfortable with the ruleset? - absolutely definitely
4) and... was this the first time you used this ruleset? -no
5) How many players were in the game? - 14 playing over the weekend
6) What went well? Taking apart Selucids, holding off against the Parthains until they made a mistake and smashing them
7) What could have been improved? My mood when playing a cheesy list full of charging knights and light infantry in skirmish that I couldn't catch!
Event was held at 'The Dice Saloon' in Brighton, cracking shop, with cafe, licence, and loads of playing spaces. It was busy from the moment we got there until long after we left, but not just grumpy-middle-aged-white-men. All ages, races, sexes, mostly playing card and board games, some Xwing and D&D, friendly, helpful staff and great food.
Best bit of all, I won 'Best Sportsman'

This caught me completely by surprise.

Quote from: mad lemmey on 28 January 2018, 11:08:38 PM
...
7) What could have been improved? My mood when playing a cheesy list full of charging knights and light infantry in skirmish that I couldn't catch!
...
Best bit of all, I won 'Best Sportsman'
...
This caught me completely by surprise.

Perhaps your mood wasn't as obvious as you thought, or more likely the cheese was so smelly that the game didn't count

1) What ruleset do you use in your last game? - Poseidon's Warriors
2) What armies fleetswere confronted? - Rome vs Carthage, 1st Punic War
3) Did you feel comfortable with the ruleset? - Actually, yes
4) and... was this the first time you used this ruleset? - Actually. Yes!
5) How many players were in the game? - 2
6) What went well? Everything, my two fleets looked awesome on a friend's sea mat. Roman shipboard artillery was effective in breaking up Carthaginian formations, Carthaginians smashed into Romans, their rams sending many warriors to meet Neptune. However, if the sturdy Roman Quinqueremes survived the ram, the Roman Corvii grappled the Carthaginians, and because the Romans had more marines, the Carthaginians lost a lot of ships to boarding actions!
At the point where we had both lost 12 ships each, and needed to roll 4+ to stay fighting. (Fleets being under 1/4 and 1/2 strength causes morale tests, as does the loss of an Admiral) the Romans passed, and the Carthaginians didn't... They turned tail to limp off and lick their wounds.
7) What could have been improved? Really, not much. It was great!
It's a good game. Simple, fast (unless you're a Roman galley with a Corvus fitted) lethal and great fun. Combats are deadly. Rules are simple, but well thought out. They work well and give a good effect.
Next game booked for a month!


Full report on the blog tomorrow.

That sea looks rather good.

Were the Romans actually using naval artillery yet?

Who knows! It's allowed in the lists...

Stop laying out temptation like this!  I don't need another genre to game (at the moment).

Looks good ML!

Must get my Roman fleet painted so I have some opposition for my Carthaginians.

Too busy painting my homo heidelbergensis tribe for Tribal at the moment. so many projects, so little time! 

Quote from: sunjester on 02 February 2018, 08:15:22 AM
Stop laying out temptation like this!  I don't need another genre to game (at the moment).

We could start small - You buy one fleet I will get the other.

Nice one gents

1) What ruleset do you use in your last game? - Bloody Big Battles, twice over
2) What armies were confronted? -  Crimean War - Russians on one side, French/British/Turks on the other
3) Did you feel comfortable with the ruleset? - Myself, yes. The two new/ish players pretty much, definitely so by the end of the second game
4) and... was this the first time you used this ruleset? - Not at all, and not even for the two scenarios played!
5) How many players were in the game? - Three in the first, two in the second
6) What went well? - Rules/metagame wise, everything. The rules are simple and play easily, and are understandable very quickly. In game... my coordination as the Allies was pretty poor and I was rather overconfident.
7) What could have been improved? - First game the Russians needed to push harder, earlier. Second game I really needed to not get tricked by their feint!

We played the "small" Balaclava "training scenario at the club a few Wednesdays ago. Myself as the rather stretched Allies, two clubmates as the hordes of Russians. One had played before (he defended half the Alma line previous scenario!) but isn't massively confidant/assertive (he's a strip of a lad and only done any wargaming at all very recently!) and a new club chap whose rather more outgoing and confident; they were both au fait with the rules within a turn or two, but getting the shambling hordes of Russians to do what you want is hard work (in game terms they're Passive and lack generals - the infantry is very "lurch forwards-stop just when you wanted to carry on-someone else lurches off on their own", and getting the guns up and unlimbered somewhere useful is a nightmare!). Their attacks on the Causeway redoubts went in well enough, and one unit slipped past the embattle Turkish gunners and towards Balaclava proper. That ran into the Turks and the 93rd/RM and got shot up, the supporting cavalry did much the same. I couldn't hold them off the Causeway though, despite a brave sacrifice of both the Heavy and Light Brigade.

I'd tried to envelop the attackers on the middle redoubt with the 93rd and Turks from the south and the cavalry from the north but the sheer mass of Russians just kept forcing me back and my losses told more than theirs - The tiny two base British units suffer - all it takes is a reasonably lucky shot with a decent amount of firepower and they lose a stand and are gone. Their Veteran and Skirmish ratings help keep them up but it's always knife edge once the RUssians get a firing line together. Worse for the cavalry as they can't shoot and have to rely on reckless charges!

However, this bought me time. British reinforcements arrived and started off to clear down the Causeway. I realised at the last minute they wouldn't make it to the end two objectives so diverted north to seize the one on the Fedoukine Heights as it was barely held by the Russians but too late - we had to call time at turn 5 of 6, which had turned a possible allied recovery and win into a definite draw. The guns on the hills and works at Balaclava did heroic service in support of the troops penning the Russians on the Causeway, and when a big Russian brigade slipped through the gaping hole in my lines and headed first for the objective above Kadikoi and then onto Balaclava they shot it up so badly it ground to a halt! Fortunate as that would have given the Russians the game and then some.

If they'd pushed a little more aggressively early on, or been able to muster enough units to support each other on a drive to Kadikoi/Balaclava they'd have had a handy win. The cavalry and the Turks and the 93rd/RM sacrifices were not in vain, but it's a very tight scenario for either side I think.

Second scenario was at the boardgames meet my sister & BiL help run on a weekend in Wolves. This time just me and Harri (younger club mate), again with him taking the Russians and me the Allies but this time at Inkerman in the fog. This did not go well for the Allies. Mind, it wasn't exactly a ringing success for the Russians in terms of losses, either! The scenario has three set objectives for the Russian, and three "possible" objectives of which one (chosen in secret) is real... they also have a choice on reinforcements - the historical attack in the north against the British, or what was Gorkachov's feint in the south against the French being the real attack. I got completely faked out and assumed the "dummy" objective that was real was one of the British positions, then "worked out" it was definitely Sandbag Battery. I'd shifted my meagre reserves north and was moving them east to Sandbag when a shedload of Russians appeared in the south and assaulted the French on Sapoune Ridge!

The fog was brutal to us both. I couldn't use my musketry range advantage, Harri couldn't get his guns into action without being shot to pieces unlimbering at grapeshotte and musket range. When either of us had the fog lift or got in close enough to fire (I think five full turns of seven were at 3" visibility?!) it was brutal. I'd foolishly started to shift the French unit at the Woronzov Redoubt to enfilade and shatter the few initial shambling Russian units there so they could then release someone to go help the British in the north. Thus one of the big French units was caught out of position, and despite a valiant and bloody attempt to fight its way back got surrounded and shot and sabred down. The Russians them steamrollered into the Redoubt before my reinforcements could change direction and occupy it. The Sapoune Redoubt held, but the repeated Russian assaults all over the shop meant I couldn't leave anywhere undefended as it would either concede or open the flanks of the other objectives.

At this point the RUssians looked to be on course for a draw as Lancaster and Home Batteries were holding well enough, and it looked like a swift envelopment of the Russians there would free up more troops for the south. As I ordered the men forwards the fog lifted. The Russian guns emerged, their riflemen found the range, and almost all the small British units got shot up and lost a base, removing them! Those two base units are very fragile :S This left just an artillery battery holding Home, and with their first good set of coordinated movement rolls the Russians swept it aside and occupied it in force! With my reinforcements having had to go south and the troops on Gordons and Lancaster fully engaged (against to be fair dwindling and badly mauled Russians who'd suffered hideously!), there was literally no way I could retake it.

Guaranteed Russian draw, and a victory for them hinged around the Woronzov Redoubt. The gallant Franco-British reinforcements kicked them out once, then were ground back again as the Russians seized it en masse, and the rest of their troops staggered and shambled up the steep slopes to protect it. Even fairly fresh and vastly better quality the Allies troops just couldn't get back through the mass of Russians swarming across it, and as the fog lifted fully were forced to retire back towards the now rather truncated and perilously exposed siege lines.

The Russians had bought Sevastopol another few months of resistance, although at the cost of thousands of lives. Actual Allied casualties weren't too bad, but whilst Harri's determination to stick to the plan and spend lives to keep me pinned and confused had paid off in the strategic terms it had gutted the regiments involved, costing them thousands of casualties and no few guns. Still, come the Chernaya they would be in good stead and the survivors buoyed up by victory!

What ruleset do you use in your last game? -A Hundred Circling Camps
2) What armies were confronted? - Geenyuine Sutth'n Genn'lm'n and Dam' Yankees
3) Did you feel comfortable with ths ruleset? - Sho' 'nuff.
4) and... was this the first time you used this ruleset? - No
5) How many players were in the game? - Two
6) What went well? - Finally got the timing right in launching my cavalry charges (admittedly, once was blind luck. I broke a Yankee flank just by getting the jump in movement order; had they got the jump on me, my horse would have been the victims. But I was risking a dime to win a dollar). The pursuit of the beaten Northerners after the battle was deadly.
7) What could have been improved? - Could have had Halle Berry as one of the players. That aside, got my Virginia foot blown to bits by Yankee artillery, which took some of the pleasure out of cutting down the Iron Brigade and the Arizona Zouaves.

Quote from: toxicpixie on 05 February 2018, 12:40:34 PM
6) What went well? - Rules/metagame wise, nothing.

I hope you meant that as the answer to "What could have been improved"! 

Many thanks for terrific reports of what sound like exciting seesaw battles. Hopefully young Harri is gaining in confidence as he gains experience, as well as having a good time along the way.

Cheers!
Chris

Bloody Big BATTLES!
https://uk.groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/BBB_wargames/info
http://bloodybigbattles.blogspot.co.uk/

Duuuuurp, yes, that was the "what could have been improved" question

Yeah, not a lot of improvement needed if any there, Chris.

On my proof reading/reading the question skills however...

Yes, pretty seesaw/knife-edge for both. The Russians are a very tough army to fight with, they're like a massive sledgehammer except it's made of flesh and very soggy and when your brain tells your arm to do something the nerves don't always fire The Allies quality (and indeed quantity in most of the Crimea battles) is easily a match for them but then the Russians don't need much to claim at least a morale victory, so you have to really perform commanding the Franco-Brits!

Quote from: toxicpixie on 05 February 2018, 12:40:34 PM
1) What ruleset do you use in your last game? - Bloody Big Battles, twice over
2) What armies were confronted? -  Crimean War - Russians on one side, French/British/Turks on the other
3) Did you feel comfortable with the ruleset? - Myself, yes. The two new/ish players pretty much, definitely so by the end of the second game

Good write up - any pictures?

Sadly not, I get far too into the game! On top of that we're using my 2mm Irregular blocks on a pvc printed battlemap - much as I like them and love the cost and ease of use they're not amazing visually!

layPed Ronin again. WiWhat went wroed out again. ng, everything. What went wel. absolutely naf all!Cl early this computer works rather like the game did!

I'm not sure if you're drunk or the computer is

1) What ruleset do you use in your last game? -  Age of Sigmar starter set

2) What armies were confronted? -  Chaos vs Sigmar's eternal bois

3) Did you feel comfortable with the ruleset? - Nope

4) and... was this the first time you used this ruleset? - Yes

5) How many players were in the game? - 3

The new:
6) What went well?  We got to play something new for everyone, some of us have played WHFB years ago.

7) What could have been improved?  A lot as to be expected in a starter set, these weren't the real AoS rules.   Its very streamlined, but its bland.   I miss running Brettonians or Dwarves in WHFB