Spring Update

 Nothing much to report other than a couple of recent rule-set acquisitions. As Bob Cordery has recently uploaded PDFs to Wargame Vault, I made a couple of purchases there, and my copy of the Portable Wargame Compendium has arrived!

King Elessar (aka Aragorn / Strider) calls the Army of Gondor to arms

The Portable RISK Campaign - Summer 1845 (2)

 A little more action has occurred in the Portable Wargame Campaign being fought with RISK figures (see HERE for the first part of this Season's turn).

Although Rubiria's invasion of Northern Amethysia had got off to a shaky start, the Red General pushed on.

Here's a reminder of the Map for Summer 1845 (note Amberil is allied to Amethysia and mobilized forces in response to the invasion by Rubiria)

I played two short games this morning.

In game 1 the objective for both sides was to take and hold a village.

Early position with Amethysia having possession of the objective

Luck was against the Amethyisian General and by Turn 9 his force was in bits and was forced to withdraw

In game 2 the remnants of the Amethysian Army established a defensive position; their objective being to hold the hills until the end of turn 15.

Start of game 2

 

By the end of turn 10 the Amethysian force had been all but destroyed

At the end of Summer 1845, Rubiria's successful Army 2 has been allowed to withdraw to rest and been replaced with the fresh Army 3. The new force will be straight into action as Autumn starts as Amberil has launched their second Army into the fray in support of their allies. The remains of the Amethysian Army has withdrawn to the Capital.

I'll have two pints of lager and a packet of crisps* please

 (* aka Chips)

"Just stick it on my tab would you Barliman, there's a good fellow"

Apologies for the absence of posts recently. I must confess, since Wanna-Be-Tsar Putin sent the Russian Army to murder, rape and loot (and in many cases die) in Ukraine, I have been somewhat put off my wargaming. Hope to be back again soon with a few ideas for the 3x3 PW. Until then, stay safe and well (you're still better off wearing a mask!)

(In case you're wondering, the Minifigs are (from L to R) SS81, ME4 and ME8).

Sacred Place Scenario Re-Do

Yesterday I re-played the Sacred Place Scenario with a smaller defending army. Here's the Scenario briefing written in the style of Neil Thomas's One Hour Wargames Scenarios.

The smaller Elf Army is at the bottom of the picture (and for those of you watching in Black & White, the Elves are dressed in green).

Once again an Ent was summoned from the forest and the Orc Army queued up at the bridge

The Troll has pushed across the bridge

This time the Orcs have made it onto the hill

Only to be repulsed 

The Elf Army resists the attack once again

Casualties are high on both sides (Exhaustion Point is set at 50% for my Fantasy games) but the Orcs waver and flee the field leaving the Sacred Place undefiled. 

The game was definitely improved for having a smaller defending side and at some stage I intend to try it again with a different configuration for the attackers. Thanks for the interest in the rules; I am doing a bit of a re-work on them at present after receiving despatches from Tradgardland! 

A Sacred Place - Play testing a scenario

 The following is the first play test of a scenario for my Fantasy Variant of The Portable Wargame (Swords, Sorcery and Squares). 

The idea is that one side must defend a location from a numerically larger opposition, who are themselves hampered by having to first take a river crossing.

For speed I used my little 10mm units, Elves defending a Standing Stone from the attacking Orc army.

The Orcs send their Troll to capture the crossing while the Elves move their Archers into position covering the river bank.

The Elf Guards stubbornly hold the bridge for some time while Orc and Elf archers exchange fire across the river.

 

The Elf Magic-User calls an Ent from the nearby forest who is able to wade across the river and attack the Orcs.

The Orcs are forced to draw a Chance Card!

The Troll finally makes it over the bridge but is surrounded and taking hits - orcs are queuing up behind to cross.

The Ent has wandered back into the forest leaving the Elf archers to mop up the remaining Orcs on the river bank.

The Troll's last stand - The Orc General finally makes it onto the bridge in time to reach his Army's Exhaustion Point

The Play Test has shown that the defending side needs to be smaller still and possibly there should be another crossing point! The Orc General is looking for a Giant to join his cause (like Ents, Giants can wade rivers!).

The Portable RISK Campaign - Summer 1845 (1)

 A little action in my Campaign using RISK figures has occurred.

In the Spring of 1845 Rubiria invaded northern Amethysia; Rubiria's 2nd Army marched in with only token resistance. Amethysia's ally Amberil immediately declared war on Rubiria, and both of them mobilized their forces.

Spring 1845

 In the Summer of 1845 Amethysia struck back, moving their First Army against the invaders.

Summer 1845

The first engagement was fought with the objective of both sides being in control of the two villages at the end of the battle. As Rubiria was defending they began the day with control of one village.

The battle was hard and by the time both sides reached exhaustion point they had control of one village each. 

As I was keen to have a decisive game I fought an additional FPPW to decide the winner!

Red is defending so rolled for scenery position. The objective was to have at least one unit on the enemy baseline for 2 turns.

 The Amethysian General was aggressive from the start and despite some tough resistance he won the day.

So the first battle of Summer 1845 goes to Amethysia putting the invaders on the back-foot.

Hopefully there will be more soon...

Fast Play PW Skirmish type game

Mardigan over at Brush & Battle posted a 3 x 3 PW game featuring a skirmish type battle between some Medieval figures which caught my imagination. Another rapid lunchtime game was required (by the way, today's soup was Leek & Potato).

Back of an envelope rules were dreamt up.

Army Red, led by Sir Wilfrid of Bramble consisted of a Leader (Sir Wilfrid), 2 Men at Arms, a Master Archer and a Peasant (pressed into service at sword point).

Army Blue was led by Sir Richard D'Astard-Leigh, who was joined by a Sergant, a Man at Arms, an Archer and a Peasant. 

The objective was to either kill the opponents leader (at which point his force would run away) or have a unit at the enemy's baseline for 2 turns (thus giving any units in the Reserve Area a chance to fight back).

Red's Master Archer lurks in the trees

To explain the combat in the foreground, units have joined in the same square for close combat (see Bob's post of today HERE); Blue has rolled a 4 but gets a +1 for the Sergeant and a +1 for having support ie 6; Red has rolled a 2 and gets +1 for support ie 3. So Red take a hit.

At this point Sir Richard had almost lost the fight

But he fought back, killing the enemy Man at Arms into the bargain

And then slaying Sir Wilfrid! The Master Archer meanwhile had finally woken up and started shooting folk

A fun-packed 30 minutes and thanks to Mardigan for the idea! This could easily be expanded to include mounted figures.

Red's General is a bad loser