Phil Comes for a Visit - Wargaming in the Holidays

My friend Phil from Charlotte dropped by just after Christmas to drop off a homemade cheesecake (out of this world flavor!) and to do some gaming! This time we did a modest schedule so we wouldn't be exhausted and would have time to complete the games we wanted to play.

As usual, click for larger image and open them in a new tab for the largest version.

Kaiser's High Seas Fleet

Monday morning, we played this game. It was thoroughly enjoyable and moved rather quickly which I thought was great. Game mechanics were fluid and made sense. I played the British (and allies) while Phil was the Germans. It was a British Victory.

BGG Link

Map and counters are gorgeous. Love the 1" counters.

My British fleet was fairly battered after this battle

Germans took some damage too!

Had to sneak a photo of this Italian vs Austro-Hungarian fleet battle! I like how the minor powers are involved in the game

Now to sail on to Spain!

King in the North

Monday Afternoon

I have always wanted to get some miniatures for this period, but just can't justify another collection to paint and acquire. 

BGG Link

I have had this game on the shelf for two years and Phil wanted to give it a go. 

The rules have some translation issues and we made several mistakes in the game play that made the game unsuccessful. We will have to try it again and play the rules correctly. I need to send the feedback to BGG with the rules questions and corrections in the near future.

Once again, this is a different and beautiful game. I played the Carlists and captured a reinforcement location and that effectively knocked out the Isebella forces. 

I really love the graphic quality of this game. Because the forces are intermixed throughout the map you truly don't know what strategy to employ. More experience will help with this. I'll see if my local gamers will play this game with me.

Six Sojourns

Monday Evening

BGG Link - I have the Deluxe Edition from the Kickstarter.

What a very pleasant surprise this game was! We loved it. Even my wife enjoyed this! Beautiful graphics and gameplay sucked us in. Another nice feature is that you can finish a game in less than 90 minutes, so why not play twice! Phil won one game and Paige one the second game. Both were VERY close games.

Sea Serpents Expansion

Phil after winning his game!

We enjoyed this so much we played the next evening!

Vikings vs Saxons (Command and Colors) - Battle of Reading

Tuesday morning\early afternoon

C&C Medieval Scenario Link

I just bought some 18mm WoFun Vikings and Anglo-Saxons and wanted to get them on the table. Phil and I have played a LOT of Command & Colors so we thought we would play this Fan-made scenario. We had a blast with my mighty Vikings eking out a narrow victory 8-6!

Battle Background

On about 4 January 871, Æthelred and Alfred brought up the main West Saxon (Wessex) army and joined Æthelwulf's forces for an attack on the Danes. The West Saxons fought their way to the town, slaughtering all the Danes they found outside, but when they reached the town gate the Vikings burst out and defeated the West Saxons with a successful counter-attack.
Among the dead was Æthelwulf, whose body was secretly carried off to be buried in his native Derby. According to a late source, Æthelred and Alfred only escaped due their better knowledge of the local terrain, which allowed them to lose their pursuers by fording the River Loddon

Map setup

I then used my 4" hex map with my 18mm WoFun minis to recreate the battle. Movement trays are 3D printed to allow for me to add a label to each one. I also use these for my To the Strongest games. I think WoFun figures are really perfect for Ancient and Medieval warfare games due to the linear nature of that warfare. A view from the Anglo-Saxon lines.

Simple, but very effective look. Now from my Viking perspective.

Here are several close ups of the figures, movement sabots, and labels.

Viking medium infantry.

Aethelwulf's command:

King Aethelred's command of warriors and medium infantry

Saxons (men of Wessex) quickly advance and disperse the Viking light infantry in front of the camps (tents). The mass of Vikings is stuck behind the walls.

The Vikings use a quick march (twice) to get their main forces from behind the walls. Red cubes indicate hits.

Hits are piling up. As the Vikings I nearly lost my Jarl twice! I was very aggressive with him.

Vikings final push before victory!

The WoFun figures (18mm) look outstanding to me when used in this way. It was a fantastic battle and a very near run thing as if I didn't seal the last Victory Banner, the Saxon dogs would have surely won.

Six Sojourns Again

Tuesday evening

This game comes with 8 different maps and about 10 expansions, and we tried out two more maps this evening.

I really like this snow map.

Phil liked this game so much he purchased it before he drove back to Charlotte!

Fighters of Europe 

Wednesday morning

BGG Link - Eric's House Rules Link on BGG

I've been working on some house rules to add more non-deterministic outcomes to the Fighters of Europe and Pacific game rules. I asked Phil to run through a playtest with me. I was the American bomber force, while Phil was the Germans. The Americans won this game. No blow-by-blow battle report just some photos of the game. Once again great components. I'm actually getting a larger map with 2" hexes that will better fit the planes that come with the game.

We thoroughly enjoyed the game with my new house rules. I'll play all future game with the house rules.

Bonus Coverage! SYW Game!

Shortly after Phil left I was able to play in a Seven Years War game pitting Prussians vs Austrians. This is Michael's fine collection of 15mm Old Glory figures and his home rules. Austrians were surprised by a Prussian attack on their camp. Still, the Austrians managed to pull out a victory!

I was the Austrians in this battle and struggled to get my cavalry to do anything but rout! Below the  steady Austrian has formed up!

My Hussars plowing into the Prussian Grenadiers. 

Hammer and tongs! 

I really liked how Michael made casualty stands with a die indicating how many hits the unit has taken and a 10mm casualty figure on it. Clever! I ordered some dice so I can do the same.

Happy New Year!!

Good night from Oak Island, NC!

Eric

Aztec War - Commands & Colors Variant

Hi folks,

I'm about to do some playtesting of my Aztec Wars variant for Commands & Colors.

I'm going to see if I can make this period of warfare work given the great disparity in the unit technology and quality.

I will use 4" hex mat from two different companies. I will be using 13 hex x 11 hex mat and WoFun miniatures. Prior post regarding this project.

I'm sure this will take multiple playtests to get the right feeling. I'm going to use the stats below, and the Commands & Colors Ancients card decks I believe (medieval may be a better choice, but we shall see). Click on photos to enlarge.

My first playtest will be a fairly open field battle, just to see if the mechanics and ratings work. 

Aztec Wars Rules

Here is the list of current rules I'm using for this period.

1. All infantry are 3 stands (this may be too fragile, and will require more playtesting). Part of the reason for three stands is WoFun has 18mm figures and they come with six stands per sprue. I may have to boost the Indians to four stands. Playtesting should see if this is needed. The Cavalry is only 2 stands as they were very small amounts. This looks great on the table to me. 

2. Heavy Spanish troops ignore crossed sword hits in melee. This makes them much tougher to hit on red and leader symbols.

3. Spanish Cavalry gets an automatic "First Strike" whenever they are attacked. They are like having a tank moving around a battlefield of people covered in linen and wicker! This may be too powerful, but we shall see. 

4. Limit Aztec armies to a random 1-3 leaders for the scenarios. I tried 4 in the initial game and having those leaders allowed them to hammer the Spanish.

5. Spanish heavy troops are worth 2 victory banners each. I really like this as it makes the Aztecs want to really attack those Spanish heavies. 

6. Foot can't evade cavalry.

Initial Deployment

This small battle is based on an Aztec force attempting to block the Conquistador (and Tlaxcalan allies) from entering the lake district. There are 16 Aztec units vs 12 Spanish\Tlaxcalan units.

Scenario Parameters

Conquistador Command: 6

Aztec Command: 4 (I think I'll make this 5 for the second playtest)

Conquistador Banners:    8

Aztec Banners:                7

The Battle

I'm going to toss out some photos of the battle here and make a few comments if pertinent. 

Below: Three Spanish Heavy infantry get the blessing from Father Ortega before the battle. Heavy Cavalry behind the line.

Below: Tlaxcala infantry and archers on the Spanish left flank. (view from Aztec line)

Below: Tlaxcala on the Spanish right flank. Lower Class warriors (Aux) and Medium "elite" warriors. Spanish Harquebus unit in the right hand side.

Below: entire Spanish\Tlaxcala army

One of the Conquistador leaders and his armor heavy cavalry.

Below: don't forget the crossbowmen.

Below: Aztec bloody ritual.

Below: some photos of the Aztec forces, with most of the Eagle Knights, Jaguar Knights, and elite units in the middle.

Below: Aztec lower class warriors on the flanks

Below: Elite rear guard!

Below: view of the Aztecs from the Spanish lines.

The armies are ready:

Below: Aztec slingers Move - Fire - Move and do little damage to the Tlaxcala.

Advancing on the Aztec right. Aztecs likely need to hurt the Tlaxcala if they want to keep up in Victory Banners.

Current overview. Slow moving in the beginning. Aztecs got a lot of bizarre text cards. Very few move cards.

Below: if the Aztecs won't come to us! Then we will march on them!

Below: fighting on the Aztec right flank destroys a Tlaxcala unit.

Below: Conquistador Heavy Cavalry and leader cracking heads! Foot units can't evade cavalry in my rules. (at least for now)

Aztecs issue Line Command to move into contact all across their front lines!

The armies collide!

So, I got so caught up in the battle I forgot to take photos. The center of the Aztec line was battered by the Heavy Infantry, but the Aztecs managed to kill two Spanish Heavy Infantry (4 Victory Banners! Aztecs get 2 VB per Heavy unit killed)

Spanish cavalry just massacred everybody!

Aztec center gone, but Conquistadors and allies to heavy casualties too.

Game over! Spanish win 8-5 Victory Banners.

Using "Aztec Gold" for Victory Banners. Here is the eight Spanish banners.

Post Battle Thoughts

First, I had a good time and as the Aztec player I was scared to death of the HEAVY Spanish forces, especially the Cavalry. Having each heavy worth 2 Victory Banners really kept me going after them, even though I just wanted to avoid them. (note, that my Arquebus unit didn't cause a single hit the entire game even throwing 4 dice twice!)

I'm unsure if 3 stands per unit will really work, especially for Indians. I have to playtest some more as the Indians are sooooo fragile when fighting Conquistadors, but that was what it was like in the real wars. Another options is to keep three stands for the looks and mark hits in some other way for four stands. Marking hits rather than removing stands (now units are back to four blocks) also worked better in my second playtest.

As far as changes, put more Aztecs on the table. They should outnumber the Spanish in most cases. Change the Aztec command to 5, rather than 4. This worked better in my second playtest. 

Cheers and thanks for reading this post.

Eric

PS - Third playtest will be against an opponent at the end of the month.