Next!

Having read and enjoyed Martin Rapier's recent post (see here) where he played Mark Cordone's Hoplite! game, I thought I'd have a go too. Not having a sufficient number of Ancient Greek types to play the Peloponesian Wars, I thought I'd create a couple of ImagiNations and play a Campaign (slightly adjusted for context) with them.

Campaign Setting

A few centuries after the expansion of the Vard Republic (see here) absorbed its nearest neighbours (barbarians all), the old elected Tyrants have been replaced by a tyrannical Emperor and the border of the Empire has reached the Northern most extent of the Salarin Caliphate. 

Campaign Rules

This is the first draft of my version of Mark C's original which can be found somewhere on the Facebook PW page. Battles will be fought using the 3x3 Portable Wargame variant. 3x3 grids will be diced for using a d20 and the following (top left is 1 read left to right, brown square is a hill, green a forest and grey a settlement)

First Campaign Move and battle

Starting position of the Armies

The Vard won the initiative roll and Legion I attacked Marhacan. Legion III moved into Salanthi province.

The Vardian Empire's first moves

First battle of Marhacan (apologies for the poor lighting)

Salarin cavalry attack the Vard left flank

The Salarin in full attack! The Vard begin to take hits

Mid point of the battle - the Salarin's 3rd rush at the hill

The Vard's reserves are all now committed 

The Salarin begin to falter

The remnants of the two armies fight to the finish

The first victory goes to the Vardian Empire

The first battle demonstrated that the Vard have found a worthy foe in the Salarin. The next battle will feature the response of the Salarin Caliphate to the Vardian invasion. 

Massacre!

 

Play testing the 3x3 PW game in a Wee Matchbox  produced a surprising result, so that ticks a box (pun unintended).

Before reporting the game I want to point you in the direction of Roger's Matchbox game which is a really very brilliant Cowboy shoot-out, featuring thematic dice!! Please visit here.

The Game (see the last blog post for the rules)

The grid squares were shuffled (blank side up) and 9 picked and placed between the Reserve Areas

The two sides diced for ends. Red scored highest and chose North.

Army Red looked smugly at a very defend-able town between two woods (the Lake is impassable too).

Initial positions - Red had 4 Infantry and 1 Artillery, Blue 3 Infantry, 1 Cavalry and 1 Artillery (positioned on the hill to get a bonus).

Simultaneous Artillery fire saw red lose an infantry unit on the first throw!

Army Blue attacked the town and moved up a unit from the Reserve Area. Army Red replaced his lost Infantry unit with a reserve.

Turn 2 saw another Red Infantry unit destroyed by Artillery fire!

Blue's attack on the town continued without success. Red brought his final reserves into action (not illustrated)

Blue's Artillery fumbled on Turn 3 allowing Red to rush out of the woods and attack them. The attack on the town saw a Blue success with a natural 6 rolled - Red were now down to two units!

Blue moved up more forces on Turn 4. Red was now attacking both the town and the hill, desperate to damage Blue somewhere!

Disaster for Red! Turn 5 saw the Red Army reduced to one unit which was looking likely to get surrounded!

The horror show was completed on Turn 7 - a complete massacre of Red's Army and a resounding success for Blue. Not at all as I expected things, mainly due to the powerful (rather too powerful) artillery that wiped out two units of Infantry at the beginning of the battle blunting Red's defence.

The playing pieces, in case anyone wants to have a go...

Distracted

 December is always a bit of strange month at work, completing projects that "have to be done before Christmas", and finishing processes that work on a Calendar Month rotation. As a creative distraction yesterday I invested an hour making a 3x3 Portable game that would fit in a Wee Matchbox. Apart from the challenge of fitting a complete game in a matchbox, I also decided it had to be made from things I already had, or had free access to and should provide a game which required no record keeping. The latter meant a game that saw units that were"hit" being destroyed / removed at once. In terms of game period, I chose a Roman Civil War theme as I'm really enjoying Archduke Piccolo's latest campaign.

Here then is Civil War! in a Wee Matchbox.

Art credit: www.symbolikon.com

The Matchbox - the grid on the cutting mat is 1cm

The Rules (unfolded and legible with good eyesight)

12 grid square options and 2 Reserve Areas - printer friendly card used 

Unit tokens - 4 Infantry, 2 Cavalry, 1 Artillery
Art Credit: www.juniorgeneral.org

The Wee Matchbox packed - with room for an Expansion Pack

Digital Play Test in MS Excel

Downloadable version of the Rules

In the next post I hope to demonstrate that one could actually play the game using the components created... (I hope).

Retreat

 The subject of this post is a follow on to the Battle of Tressle, fought earlier this year. 

Sir Philip (mounted) at the Battle of Tressle

At Tressle, Sir Philip of Whare had been defeated by an Army of Chaos, led by the sinister Moonlit Knight. Retreating, with the Chaos Army at his heals, Sir Philip and the survivors of Tressle were met by some knights of the Order of St. Bernard. Having entered the waste know as Lessys Moor, the battered Army turned and prepared a desperate stand. 

The Battle of Lessys Moor (also known as The Two Tors)

Army of Law

Army of Chaos

Sir Philip's Army occupies the two Tors (hills) as Chaos approach

Cavalry clash

Sir Philip's force is put under pressure by the ferocious enemy

A lull in the fighting before Chaos rush in once again

Sir Philip is driven from the Right hand hill by the onslaught

Chaos has captured one hill and threaten to take the narrow defile 
 

With both sides exhausted, Sir Philip and a handful of warriors escape

The forces of Chaos have won another battle and appear to have the upper hand. Will help arrive from another quarter, or will the Northlands be left to burn? 

Orctoberfest

 It's Orctoberfest in November! Late as usual, I intended to post some Orcs during Orctober, as many Fantasy Bloggers do, but better late etc.

So here's the start to my collection of 10mm figures from Mark Copplestone (click here).

The Witch King of Angmar arrives on a Pale Horse

I've always been interested in the Northern bit of Christopher Tolkien's Map of Middle Earth which alludes to the deep history of his Father's creation.

CT's map (see here)

Wargaming the war between Angmar and Arnor seems like a nice little project for the Winter!

Skulls are a popular motif this Orctober

Realty

 A quick post to share a couple of recent purchases from Warbases. (Just to clarify, I don't work for them, I'm just a satisfied customer!). I have bought bases from them for quite a few years now, and last visit I thought I'd try some of their other items.

On seeing them, I took an immediate fancy to the MDF 10mm size buildings. These come in kit form as illustrated in the following picture. I purchased a couple of the smaller ones to try as I'm not gifted when it comes to model making. 

The main parts are laser cut MDF; the "half-timbering" is laser cut card, and the roof is also a piece of scored card. How simply, and neatly, the parts fit together is demonstrated by the fact that I made (including painting) one of them this morning.

The house by the lake (with 10mm Norman)

This is the "Cavendish Cottage" with Stone Foundation option. I simply painted the walls off white and coloured the half-timbering with a trusty Sharpie (other fibre tipped pens are available). The roof is a bit plain so I think I'm going to tile it.

The Lake in the above picture was also from Warbases (see here). The set of MDF Ponds or Lakes, depending on the size of your figures, is illustrated below.

As they arrive (scale in cm)

Ready for play (scale in inches)

Every time I look at the Warbases site they seem to have added new bits and pieces that I probably "must" have, so there may be similar posts in the future!