Din of Battle 2nd Edition Sent to Printers!

Din of Battle Front Cover:

I'm proud to announce that Din of Battle 2nd edition is making its way to the printers as I write this. It was a long and fruitful journey for me to write and playtest the rules. I started writing DoB2 back in 2007 and have run the Plains War Campaign and the Boxer Rebellion campaing using the rules. I've also fought several additional battles using French Foreign Legion.

I truly believe you will enjoy the rules if you are a Piquet grognard or new to Piquet.

Din of Battle 2nd Edition Goodness

1. Rules weigh in at 96 pages!


2. 4 Quick Reference Sheets (2 for Battalion\Company scale, and two for squad)

3. The game rule section is only 37 of those pages.

4. Rules include three scales: Battalion, Company, and Squad.

5. Squad special rules are only 3 pages.

6. Optional rule section, includes the Rule of 1/3, optional Pursuit rules, etc.

7. Nearly all cards have their definitions directly included in the DoB2 rules so you don't have to switch back and forth between the Master Rules and DoB2.

8. There 13 jammed packed campaign musters with Quick Unit Rating Tables to make setting up the game quicker. This is 44 pages of GOODNESS!

9. All sequence decks for a Campaign Muster are located on the same page so you can quickly create your Sequence Decks.

10. Those familiar with my Campaign Muster style (Archon 2) will see I've done many of the same things; like include a list of all major battles in the war, recommended scale to fight in, suggested TAD decks, and muster special rules just to spice things up!

11. Army Characterization Table has been updated.

12. Stratagems have been updated to be more period specific! Natives have a Stratagem table and so do the Imperialists. New stratagems include: Mass Assault, Deadeye, Last Stand, Fanatic Push, Advance Unnoticed, Careless Ammo Storage, Desertion and many others!

13. Glorious color photos!!! Front and back cover! A color CENTERFOLD page (i.e. - wargamer's porn) along with about 5 or 6 color photos scattered throughout the rules to make sure you are paying attention.


Campaign Musters
Did I mention 13 Campaign Musters?

• 1st and 2nd Sikh Wars (1845 – 1846 & 1848 – 1849) - British vs. Sikhs


• Indian Mutiny (1857 – 1858) - British vs. Indians

• Sioux Wars (1865 – 1890) - Sioux Indians vs. USA

• 2nd Afghan War (1878- 1880) - British vs. Afghans & Pathan Tribesmen

• Zulu War (1879) - British vs. Zulus

• Sudanese Wars (1881 – 1885 & 1896 – 1899) – British & Egyptians vs. Mahdists

• Tonkin Wars (1882 – 1885) - France vs. China & Black Flags

• Italo-Abyssinian Wars (1887-1889 & 1895-1896) - Italians vs. Ethiopians

• Dahomey Wars (1892) - France vs. Dahomey

• Great Boer War (1899 – 1902) - British vs. Boers

• Spanish America War (1898-1899) - US vs. Spain, US vs. Filipinos

• Boxer Rebellion (1900-1901) - International Forces vs. Chinese Imperials and Boxers

• French Foreign Legion (1880-1914) – French Foreign Legion vs. Arabs


Din of Battle Back Cover:


























Can't wait to see this "in the flesh"!
Eric

Epic FOB: Clash on Planet Vornex IV Rages On!

Eldar continue their march against Ultramarine planetary defenses. This time the Ultramarines have some heavy ion cannon bunkers with protective shields. Think Maginot line type canopy gun positions.

Here we see an Eldar Titan shattering another city on Vornex as Falcons Grav Tanks, Guardians, and Jetbike recon lead the way!

View of the left side of the table from the Ultramarine point of view:

View of the right side of the table from the Ultramarine point of view:

 
Game to be played on Wednesday. Titan will not be involved, but eventually I will work out rules for the Titans.
 

Epic FOB: Battle at Shilan on Vornex IV - Part 2

Part 1 can be found here:
http://dinofbattle.blogspot.com/2011/04/epic-pk-battle-at-shilan-on-vornex-iv.html

The battle for Shilan continued to rage even after 4 hours of savage fighting.

Space Marine commanders began requesting fire missions from the Orbiting Weapons Platform, 20 miles above the planet. Will the assistance arrive in time?

The Right Hook

The Eldar won a series of impetus rolls which allowed them to flip really nice and useful cards, while my Marines stagger through their deck. (My first card was Command & Control and like an idiot I forgot to rally my troops!).

Anyway, the armored right flank of the Eldar (Exarches, Falcons, Swooping Hawks, and Guardians) were ready to pounce on my exposed left flank. The Falcons disgorged their Guardian companies and then went on the hunt!

Falcons move and deploy their forces turning the Ultramarine flank

Falcon Grav Tank company and 4 companies of Swooping Hawks (hiding on the other side of the ridge) prepare to attack the city

On the Space Marine's right flank the Eldar commit another Warhost of Guardians to take out the Ultramarines!

  

The Falcons with Guardian support attacked and drive back the  Land Raiders.

2UI and Suppressed!

The Kill!

City Fight
Three companies of Swooping Hawks moved into assault the city section held by a company of Ultramarine Devastators.

One Swooping Hawk company was smashed by the Storm Bolters of the 3rd Terminator company in an adjacent city section, leaving only 2 companies for the assault.

Three rounds of melee were fought and the Ultramarines were pushed back with heavy loses!

The 3rd Terminators launched a counter assault against the Swooping Hawks, but was quickly (and shamefully) repulsed by the Hawks!

The Swooping Hawk assault was supported by Falcons and Guardians, which forced my Predator company to retreat, forced my Assault troops to flee to the protective cover of the city, and the 95th Whirlwinds had to relocate or be brewed up! (Not a shining moment in Ultramarine History).


The Eldar attack

Pretty cool view from ground level. See the heavy loses my Predator MBT company has taken!

The Eldar Exarches really had trouble getting back into the fight. Their first battle in the woods versus the Assault Marines cost them about 5 UI, plus a couple suppressions. Their commander couldn't shake off the loses (rolled a 1 on rally twice, before finally getting some success late in turn two). The Exarches are the best soldiers the Eldar have, yet they couldn't rally enough to attack the city.

Exarches (orange units in the back near the trees) attempting to regroup to fight again

The Fight in the Center and Right Flank

As the fight for the city raged, the center and right flank of the Ultramarines so heavy fighting.

Guardian and Jetbikes attack the Ultramarine tactical company holding the center woods, driving them back

Mike sends in a company of Striking Scorpions to finish the Marines off!

The Guardian attack on the Ultramarines on the far right flank is shattered

Meanwhile the Land Raider (MBT) assigned to the Tactical Marine command destroys another Guardian infantry unit in a close quarters firefight.

Then turns on the advancing Striking Scorpions

Vortex Missile Strike
The Vortex Missile came screeching through the sky and landed right on the Swooping Hawk's position in the city! Two companies of Swooping Hawks were sucked into the void! The Void remained on the table chewing up the city section. Since this vortex could either disappate, remain in place, or move my Marines were extremely nervous about the situation (Next time I'm not going to bring down a Vortex missile that close to my own objectives and troops).

In addition timely artillery strike by the Marines hit more Eldar units

Conclusion
Field of Battle: WW2 does work with Sci-Fi miniatures with minor tweaking! I'm soooo glad to finally have my Epic 40K figures back on the gaming table with a ruleset I enjoy!

We all learned some valuable lessons in the playtest. The Eldar needed to push harder in some sections and reduce the action in others where they just needed to pin down some Ultramarines rather than run right into them. The Space Marines were ok, but I was so outnumbered I was thankful for every Eldar unit I could nibble out here and there to reduce their Morale Points to zero. When the fight got heavy (when I was outnumbered) it was hard for me to hold my position. Eldar needed to drop more off-board artillery on me to soften me up or at least make me freak out. The end of turn 2 had about 4 indirect barrages arrive for the Eldar, but it was too late.

We will likely play another battle next week, and I hope to have some Eldar Tempast Super Heavy Grav Tanks ready to rumble by then.

Epic FOB - Off Board Assets

Due to the huge amount of leathal off board fire-power I have had tried to expand how FoB:WW2 uses off-board assets.

Epic 1st edition had some pretty cool missile types and I wanted to start thinking of different ways to put them into Epic Field of Battle (EFOB). This is just an open flow of ideas. Nothing in stone. Suggestions welcome.

Missile Types


Each missile will have an area of effect template. The old ones from GW were smaller circles. I'm not sure those are big enough for EFOB. I may put them on my scanner and enlarge them.
Haywire
A missile that will destroy electronics on vehicles, and targeting systems.
D12 vs DD versus vehicles. Vehicle circuits destroyed if Haywire wins. No effect on infantry?

Plasma
D12 vs D6 for target.

Stasis
Power statis field immobilizes all units underneath the template.
No firing in or out of the statis field. No moving in our out of it either.

Vortex
D12 vs DD
Win and target sucked into the void. No chance for survival.
Lose and unit is suppressed and moved to the edge of the vortex template.

Blind
Small ECM particals are dispersed in the air which disrupt targeting. Similar to 20th century smoke.

Gas
Some type of sarin gas attack or nerve agent.
D12+1 vs DD
Persistant cloud. Area denial.

Proximity Mines (air delivered)
Anti-Personel: D10 vs Inf, D4 vs Armor
Anti-Tank: D10 vs Armor, D6 vs Infantry

Off board Artillery
Heavy (Divisional Batteries) D12
Medium (Divisional Batteries) D10
Orbital Weapons Platforms (D12+1 or D12 or D10)
I'm thinking of creating an Asset deck. Players will draw from a deck of available assets, then add cards that are duds (Asset Request Failed). This will be the game's asset deck. When the Command & Control card comes up the player will spend asset points to draw from the Asset deck. Sometimes they will get an asset, sometimes they won't. They won't even know what asset will be available to then until they draw it from the deck.

Anyway, thos are some thoughts on the subject.
Eric

Epic FOB: Battle at Shilan on Vornex IV - Part 1

The Eldar warhosts launched attack after attack across Vornex IV overrunning most of the Imperial Guard and Space Marine defenders. General Tarnak of the Ultramarines setup a defensive perimeter around the city of Shilan. Several towns and cities to the south lay in ruins, but the Eldar would be coming from that direction. Can General Tarnak's reinforced combat brigade put a dent in the Eldar assault so that more Ultramarines can be redeploy to face this threat?

Battle Report featuring my Epic scale Space Marines and Eldar using modified Field of Battle by Brent Oman. This is part 1 of the report. Game to be completed next Wednesday.

Initial Deployment

Per previous blog posts with the OOB, the Eldar nearly have a 2 to 1 force ratio. Brian and Mike were the Eldar players while I was the Space Marine commander.
The Eldar have 4 turns to capture the city of Shilan. It is an 8 section city with large skyscrapers.

Overall Space Marine setup

Mike took the "foot sloggers" of the Eldar army: 2 Guardian regiments (6 companies, plus recon, plus AT guns), Fire Dragon Regiment (2 companies), and Striking Scorpion Regiment (4 companies). He deployed this to the center and right flank of the Space Marines.

Mike's force, Marine right flank

View of the Eldar central position deployment

Brian deployed his Guardian regiment in Falcon Grav Tanks, along with the Exarches and Swooping Hawks on the Space Marine left flank.

Falcon Grav Tanks with Exarches backing them up.

The Space Marines deployed in their first line of defenses in the small hills and woods before Shilan, the Assault Regiment (3 companies) on the left flank facing the Exarches, and the Tactical Regiment (3 companies + Land Raider company) on the right flank. They left the center week, but completely covered by the Devastator and Terminator companies deployed in Shilan.

Space Marine left flank, with Ultramarine Assault troops near the woods (red jump packs)

City of Shilan, with Ultramarine Terminators and Devastators waiting for the Eldar

The remainder of the Space Marine Land Raiders, Predators MBT, and Whirlwind Missile Launchers, were in a mobile reserve location.

Opening Moves

Turn 1 (4 hours in real time) saw the Eldar press forward in an attempt to the clear the woods and ridges of the first line of Space Marine defenders.

Eldar off-board artillery fell quickly on a Terminator company hunkered down in Shilan, but had no visible affect.

On the Space Marine right flank the Eldar moved their Fire Dragons forward supported by a regiment of Guardians. In the center the Striking Scorpions quickly moved (triple move) to attack the lone Tactical Marine company holding the center woods. On the Marine left flank the Exarches jumped all over the Marine Assault companies located in the woods (Class II).

Guardians advance in their Falcon Grav Tanks, but wait for Exarches to clear the woods of Space Marine Assault companies.

Space Marine right flank seas the Eldar Jet bikes doing recon against 2 Tactical Marine companies in the woods.

With a triple move, the Striking Scorpions launch an assault against the lone Tactical marine company in the center woods.

The Tactical Marines in the center repulse the Striking Scorpions! Litko smoke marker indicates suppression, while the mini-blast markers indicate Unit Integrety hits. The command stand has one to indicate a need for survival check

The Space Marines, through in a company of Land Raiders to defend the right flank and it blew the Eldar recon to peices.

Next, the Marines focused on the Eldar Fire Dragons on the right flank and forced them to retreat.

Overall view of the Eldar attack

The Exarch Assault! The Space Marine Assault companies repulse 2 of the 3 Exach attacks, but the last assault at the bottom of the photo completely eliminated the Space Marine Assault company.

The Ultramarine Assault regiment is being overwhelmed. Their commander decides to fall back to the relative safety of the city

Near the end of the first turn the Space Marines deployed a air-delivered anti-personnel mine field on the right flank in front of their position in the woods, and dropped a Medium barrage (off-board support) which just missed a massed Swooping Hawk regiment. (I think my Forward Observer was sniffing glue when he gave the off-board artillery the coordinates, as I rolled my second 1 on a D12 for barrage drift!) So instead of my barrage hitting EVERY Swooping Hawk unit, it only landed on one, then preceded to do NO damage to them.

At this point the Eldar are closer to their assault on Shilan on the Space Marine left flank, but are still trying to clear out the Tactical Marines on the right flank. This was the end of turn 1.

To be continued ...

Epic FOB: The Eldar Army

Finally finished basing, flocking and labelling the Eldar force that will be fighting my Space Marines tonight.

The Eldar Army

Each stand is a company, so this is a very large battle with nearly 30 companies of Eldar troops

Overall photo isn't the best, but the closer ones turned out ok. The playtest was kept infantry heavy the first time around, to keep things simple.

Better view of the army. Falcon Grav Tanks mounted on brass wire. Jetbike companies at the bottome right, and Army commander in the center.

Aspect Warriors! Two warhosts of Fire Dragons (light grey), 3 warhosts of Exaches (orange), 4 warhosts of Swooping Hawks, and 4 warhosts of Striking Scorpions.

Nice shot of the Falcon Grav tanks. The row  that has the Jet bikes, Grav Tanks, and the Dark Reaper warhost will be assigned to one of the seven other command groups, player's choice.

Three regiments of Guards (9 total warhosts).

I'll be  sure to take lots of photos tonight.
Eric

Epic FOB Battle - Scenario, Terrain, OOB, and Setup

Hi,

Here are some photos of the game I plan on playing Wednesday night. Brian and Mike will be helping me out with this first playtest of Field of Battle: Epic.

This is my attempt to put my Epic Space Marines back out on the gaming table after 15 years! I just don't care for the Epic rules and wanted to use some of my favorite rules (Piquet & Field of Battle) to see how they could work in a Sci-Fi game.

Scenario
This scenario will have the Ultramarines defending a city with Eldar forces attempting to capture it. The city is in a strategic location, so the Eldar need to remove the Ultramarines so they can continue with their campaign. I will likely put a turn limit on the game, as the Ultramarines just need to slow down the Eldar long enough, so they can reinforce the sector.

Terrain
The photos show the layout of the terrain, with several large city blocks that the Ultramarines must hold on to. I don't have much in the way of "Alien" or usual terrain, but that will change if this effort works out.

City has just been based, and I haven't had time to detail it yet. Still looks ok.

Order of Battle
For Space Marines I'm going to use the word "cohort" instead of company, and for Eldar I'm going to use "Warhost" rather than company. Just because I like it. :-) Some of my HQ stands have not been flocked or labeled.

Ultramarine OOB
16 total units

255th Combat Brigade
Brigade HQ
8th Tactical Regiment - Mechanized: 3 Tactical Marine cohorts with Rhino APCs and HQ.
44th Devastator Regiment - Mechanized: 3 Devastator Marine cohorts with Rhino APCs and HQ.
15th Assault Regiment - Mechanized: 3 Assault Marine cohorts with Rhino APCs and HQ.

Support
2nd Terminator Regiment - 3 Terminator cohorts and HQ

Armor Regiment
Armor HQ
95th Whirlwind Cohort
5th Predator Cohort
1st Land Raider Cohort
2nd Land Raider Cohort

Eldar OOB
26 total units (Pictures will be taken at game time as I don't have them flocked or labeled yet)

Army HQ

3rd Warclan - 3 Guardian Warhosts and HQ (Falcon Grav Tanks attached)
4th Warclan - 3 Guardian Warhosts and HQ
7th Warclan - 3 Guardian Warhosts and HQ
21st Heavy Armor - 1 Tempast Warhost

Aspect Warriors
Striking Scorpions Warclan - 4 Striking Scorpion Warhosts and HQ
Exarch Warclan - 3 Exarch Warhosts and HQ
Fire Dragon Warclan - 2 Fire Dragon Warhosts and HQ
Swooping Hawk Warclan - 4 Swooping Hawk Warhosts and HQ

Setup

Here you can see the table, it is about a 6' x 5' area. There are two Eldar players and one Space Marine player. Space Marine player deploys first, anywhere to the right of the red line. Eldar deploy second, anywhere to the left of the green line.

Really looking forward to this game!
Eric