Just ghoulish!

I started the above in lockdown. I think it was nostalgia for fantasy played when younger - understandable emotion since I was in my late 40's at the time - and the strong AOS community I appeared to be witnessing through such things as AOS Coach and 2+ Tough. 

In any case ... I purchased some Flesh Eater Courts models. Imaginatively, I'd also defend the purchase by stated my great fascination for the ghoul in weird fiction. The models were fun to paint and assemble (mostly) and they certainly matched my mental image of a ghoul. 

Two years or so on and I've painted all but three models. I used only the ghouls in Mordheim over the past 18 months and had just about assigned them to forgetful storage when I was compelled to try Warcry. In this I used a few more models from my ghoulish collection but nowhere near the full amount. (Side note: my mind is still not made up on Warcry apart from the fact I think Mordheim is better.) 

And then I finally acquired a copy of Saga 2nd edition under the assumption I would never play the rules (or only 1-2 times) as I'm the only person in my wargames club with any Dark Age figures. 

Then in one night ... Saga kicked off. 

There are now four of us with the rules and two of those grabbed Age of Magic as well. 

Thats when my ghouls burst from the crypt and into a new life. My painted FEC courts army (i really had only a fleeting intention of ever played Age of Sigmar - as I knew in my wargaming soul the rules and esp the list as little more than steaming shite) easily gives me 8 points in Saga with a couple of choices too for variety. 

Instead of Flesh Eater Courts, the 'Carrion Realm' will surge from their darkness enshrouded underworld to grasp the throats and savage the entrails of the living. I'm very keen to play a game but must await my much slower (painting and modelling) wargaming companions to amass their forces. 

Out of interest the images show - 5 units of 8 warriors, 1 monster, 1 warlord, another ghoul hero - purpose unclear for Saga, and 2 groups of creatures (one bipedal and the other flying.) This easily gives me a few options to form larger units of warriors or make the creature units larger by adding another model (at the cost of breaking up a warrior unit.) As can be seen, I have the Sigmarite Mausoleum scenery to enable my placement of a sacred ground:crypt as per the Undead Legions rules. 

 

Charging into Saga 2.0

I ordered, after a LONG procrastination period, Saga 2.0 for my Father's Day present. I read it, liked it - as I had done with ALL Studio Tomahawk rules I own (3) - and was keen to play it. 

BUT, I was uncertain that my gaming friends would accept it. We already have so many games in our roster and meet but once a week. 

I introduced the rules to my friends over two weeks. On the third week, we played the pictured game and all have fallen badly for the rules. Two have order the rules plus all the period books they could lay their hands on. Saga 2.0 has taking flight - and I couldn't be more thrilled. 

The images show a 6 point Clash of Warlords, as per the Book of Battles, between Anglo Saxons and the Vikings. The Saxons decided to select 4 points of levy spear, 1 point of levy bow and 1 select fyrd. The Vikings chose 1 levy javelin, 2 hirdmen/huscarls (combined into a single unit) and 2 units of 12 warriors. This somewhat limited Viking Saga dice generation. 

The victory would be decided by survival points giving the Saxons an immediate advantage with their far larger numbers. The battlefield was a marsh. 

The Saxons deployed in a very pretty square. I'm yet to understand why ... but didn't it look impressive. They utilised their movement saga ability to activate units about 12 men. They attempted to flank on their left side but underestimated the short time span. 

The Vikings pushed their javelinmen up followed by the Warlord and hirdmen/huscarls. They invested their Saga dice in special moves rather than movement. For the battle their warrior units struggled to play a role. 

Above and below, the Saxons edge to the left to try and turn the Viking flank. If successful, they would catch the warriors of Ubba Ragnarson between hammer and anvil. 

The Vikings pressed down the centre in depth.

Later in the battle, the Viking huscarl unit was ordered forward to slay as many of the Saxon great fyrd as possible. The Vikings were peppered with arrows and their charged were absorbed by the mass of Saxons. Spears everywhere stabbed back at them and shields were interlocked. 

Casualties began to mount as the Viking elite are called upon to charge, and be charged, again and again. Fatigue mounts. 

Ubba, oh Ubba ... why not order forward more of your bondi?

At the final gasp (the Saxons called to end the game in round 4 - giving the Vikings only one more turn to wrestle victory from defeat), Ubba went forward and finished off one unit of great fyrd before being hacked down by the Saxon select fyrd - bondsmen of the mighty Earl Athelwulf. 

When points were tallied, all gained the bonus for being more than L from their table edge and the numbers of Saxon fyrd did indeed count. It was a victory of 21 points to 25 after survival points were tallied. The Saxons had thrown the invader back! 

And the other result ... players loving Saga! As I've painted around 230+ 28mm Dark Age miniatures, it makes me quite happy. I love the period, the literature and the history of the Dark Ages (or more correctly the early medieval period.) We all can't wait for more Saga and I'll be making another two sets of saga dice this weekend to enable me to use the Welsh, different Viking style armies and others. I may even get a box of Irish gripping beast miniatures - or maybe the Atlantic one with all the doggies. 

Let our saga begin! 

 

Splintered Fang Painting

With the help of Mr Pertwee (in glass form), I decided to take a couple of snaps of my latest painting project - the Splintered Fang. 

I very much like the "bespoke" (whatever the hell that means) warcry warbands much more so than AOS ones. The bespoke warbands give me a sense of small scale skirmish combat that better suits the theme of the warcry game. I find it a little incongruous that players are allowed to take extremely rare and exulted members of factions in such a small game. Why would a incredibly powerful and divinely blessed authority figure choose to wonder the woods with 3-4 common soldiers? 

I would imagine such individuals might have armies to lead or grand strategies to prosecute ... 

In any case, I decided on Splintered Fang for two reasons. I love the concept of a small cult of snake worshippers. I don't necessarily see them as chaos related (I only VERY loosely ascribe to any of the GW fiction - I reject the concept of such third rate fiction being consider 'lore.') I envisage the group much more akin to a mystery cult of the ancient world ... which brings me to the other reason for choosing the group - their Hellenistic theme. 

I found them a joy to paint. Say what you will about GW but those boys know how to make miniatures. They were easy to assemble, all parts fitting extremely well, and the pronounced details on the miniatures make painting very rewarding. 

I'm very pleased with my painting. I think the overall colour scheme is effective and my painting (uncultured as it is) created a good appearance. I have two boxes of these figures (which I also found quite well priced for the high quality product) and intend to paint most of them - all except the leader. 

I'm very keen to play these in warcry but foresee their use in a range of games. I'd use these in Mordheim or even In Her Majesties Name. An ancient snake cult would be a worthy addition to some VSF fictional tales. 

Mind you ... I think they will be belted with mercy by most of the AOS type warbands in Warcry. Their stats seem far from competitive. I just don't see how they can do any more than act as a speed bump against a 36 wound Ork or other somesuch killing machine. 

For me, Mordheim is much better thematically (and in a few other ways eg: morale) than warcry in creating a setting where desperate combat erupts between lowly warriors and their modest leaders. With any figure almost capable of humbling any other, it creates far more tension and visceral action rather than the direction warcry has turned with monsters and 36+ wound models running about (who can barely be killed within the 4 turn limit and thus face no real threat.) In a wargame there is supposed to be war, not just positioning models near a non-descript area of grass for the win. 

Mind you, I'm really keen to play more warcry, shape it to my will and imagination, using narrative play. 

 

Wacrcry ... have I gone a bit too far?

I think it was the community that sucked me in ... that and a healthy dose of nostalgia for games in the past (I am almost 50.) I have been painting fantasy miniatures since lockdown and have really enjoyed painting a smaller amount of figures rather than a whole army. The variation is also enjoyable. 

I LOVED Mordheim, but club enthusiasm has fallen for this game. I looked for another fantasy skirmish campaign game. Rangers of Shadowdeep and Morkborg's wargame variant have been tried. I thought long and hard about Frostgrave but the guys in the club are prone to liking GW. (Something I swore off over 16 years ago and haven't looked back.) 

Warcry seemed to offer a narrative gaming experience in a fantasy setting (which is mildly imaginative but far from well conceived or written) and a small figure count. I must say I was very hopeful and enthusiastic. In any case I played two games. 

Not really sure I got my head around what I was doing. I played my Flesh Eater Courts - I love the concept of ghouls in any fictional setting - and I did enjoy that. I very much like the miniatures. 

The game was ... fine ... nice??? I liked the basic idea of things ... then there is hammer/shield/dagger and variable victory conditions ... and warband abilities ... and reactions ... and universal reactions and universal abilities ... and lots of scenarios ... and twists ... and ... I'm sure I'm forgetting some bloody thing. 

I am left with one question (the same after I played 4 games of the new Killteam recently) ... does complication - achieved through masses of special rules - really make a good game? I'm deeply concerned that where you move is less in important than how you've made you list and what special moves you decided to do (and the fact you chose an army with the currently dominant special rules in the first place - before FAQ's and other 'nerfs.') 

(By Apollo, I can't believe I typed that last sentence ... I'm playing a game whose troops types can drastically change to sell some models - would NEVER happen in Napoleonics or Ancients - can anyone imagine Sam Mustafa trying to increase French Old Guard sales by releasing an update to their stats! As a historical player I'm just not used to massive list tooling - not since my FOW days!) 

I know ... I'm new ... give it a chance. Don't worry, I'm committed to doing so. But this nagging feeling will take a long time to shift. I'm thinking about games such as Lasalle 2 or Blucher or Maurice or Saga ... do they achieve their tactical focus but just layering rule upon rule? Are player decisions made more impactful, interesting or intelligent just because there's 50 to make rather than 10? 

I have no idea how to lay out terrain as yet. My friend Nick has suggested more raised areas and overhead platforms. I'll try this next. How to best use chaff models is also a little beyond me right now. The tiny playing space is also something limiting for me. 

Perhaps I'm just a grognard ... but I will say this. If Warcry doesn't work out for me ... it will be another 16 years before I touch ANY GW product again (except Mordheim as that's fucking gold!) 

 

The Return of Saga ... but Saga 2nd Ed

For father's day this year I finally took the plunge and ordered Saga 2 - complete with Viking Age and Book of Battles. I had prevaricated about this for over 12 months as I'm the only one in the club with Dark Age miniatures. In addition, we already have lots of games in our mix and players are flagging in enthusiasm ... but I'm not. I always thought Saga was great and I just thought ... why not. 

The only problem are my figures are not based individually any more - there are FAR too many for that (around 200+ 28mm Vikings, Saxons and Britons.) But, there must be a solution there. 

My friend Nick kindly came over for a game and we both enjoyed the rules. We played a game with just four points and only using saga dice for activations and bonus combat dice then played a six point game with the full board. This slow intro worked very well and Nick picked up the Anglo Saxons and their abilities without any problem. 

I played the Vikings - which I usually don't - as I love the idea of classic Viking Saxon match ups. In the 6 point game the large 12 man Anglo Saxon units really had the edge in combat against the smaller 8 man Viking units. The addition of a 12 man levy unit with bows also gave the Vikings considerable pause. The Viking decided to loop around a forest to try and shield them from the shooting. 

This left the action happening on the far side of the board. We played the standard scenario from the main book. Victory was determined by 'carnage' points (I've got that wrong ... the one where you gets points for killing stuff - 1 for a hearthguard, 1/2 for a warrior and 1/3 for a levy.) 

The Viking threw their warrior units forward in an attempt to whittle down the larger Anglo Saxon units. I did note how much better levy seemed in this version of the rules. After taking many losses it was down to the Viking huscarls and warlord to face down the Saxon commander. 

The Vikings had one more hearthguard unit than the Saxon and these held stoically. A final Viking unit double moved, shook off its fatigue and hacked into a Saxon unit in the final turn. 

These actions saw the Vikings sneak ahead on points for a narrow or minor victory. The raven and the wolf were pleased and the saga of Guthrum grew. Ruin has come to the shores of Angleland but its brave defenders were not cowled by fear and will gather their strength to oppose the foe soon. 

Ah ... I do like the Dark Ages ... all you need to do is listen to one Saga Thing episode or read so Beowulf and whoosh ... off you go into thrilling adventure. Time to do some homework with the Book of Battles for a Saga campaign and try to snag some enthusiasm for this rich period. 

The final thing worth saying is about Saga itself. Dark Age gaming, especially when using commercially successful Ancient and Medieval rules, is a very static and grinding game with little to make it exciting. The Saga rules and battle board does that - even though most walk away feeling it wasn't quite historical as the saga moves feel a bit 'exaggerated.' BUT ... it does give the impression of playing a Dark Age battle and this is important - emersion (but not complete.) 

 

Lassale 2 wargame

This week we played a 300 point game with a central objective. It was Austrians vs the French. The French deployed centrally to try and confuse their opponent as to the direction of their attack. 

One brigade fanned out ... 

While another flanked to the right. 

The Austrians had not won initiative and so waited for the French to pass. 

After a bombard order it was time for the Austrians. 

The white menace surged forward with their best troops - a grenadier brigade - in the second line. These were not able to get into the fray all game. 

They moved up to take the high ground with their avante garde. 

While on the other, their cuirassiers looked to flank the French. 

The French waited, launching cannonballs with each round. 

The Austrians came on past the central objective ... looks like they were coming in for the kill. 

One smaller brigade held the French right. These formed a tightly packed mass with batteries on each side. 

The French pushed up one brigade to pressure the Austrian left. 

Now the French right arrived. Five battalions snapped into attack column and began making their way through the trees. The Austrian left was being trapped between hammer and anvil. 

The Austrians came on on the other side trying to press home an advantage. 

But the French left was far from weak. Protected by a marsh, the tightly packed columns held their ground. From the rear the French released their Chasseurs. In retrospect this was probably in the wrong spot and created a real crush for space. 

The Austrian line had become disjointed as is pass by the central village. 

The Austrian batteries on the hill poured fire into the French. Looking back, the French chasseurs should have made their way to attack that location. Disrupting on a 5+ makes most cavalry that bit more resistant to fire than infantry. 

The Austrian cuirassiers came on, but the French commander had used his additional formation change order to prepare for this strike. Despite this one French battalion fell to their assault. However, the Austrian infantry had lost two battalions as the French pushed forward in the centre. Some wonderful Austrian rally rolls - and terrible French rolls - kept this fight going slightly longer than expected. 

By this time, the French right hook had emerged from the woods. It stormed through in attack columns neglecting to volley as they preferred the bayonet. Another battalion was lost to Austrian hussars but the damage had been done. 

The Austrians now teetered on defeat and the final unit fell on the hill. Their avante garde had been mauled with three battalions and a battery lost in this area. 

Bloody minded pursuit of victory - at the point of the sabre and bayonet - had left three battalions on the field but the Austrians had suffered defeat. The game had lasted just over two hours. Another excellent game produced by the Lassale rule set.