ADLG Gauls against Pyrrhus

 

The following post details two games of ADLG. 

The first was my Pyrrhic army against Ian's Gauls. His choice was quite surprising as he'd long talked about Gauls but for 2 or more years had only ever taken an all elite German army. 

His Gallic army had 6 bases of cavalry and 2 of light horse giving him a strong mounted arm. Otherwise he took the maximum amount of light infantry (slingers and javelins) then the remainder in heavy sword impetuous ord. 

My army consisted of 8 pike - 4 ord + 4 mediocre - and this was the backbone of my force. I had never used mediocre pike and wanted to try this out. Elsewhere my cavalry and light infantry forces were outnumbered but my elite xystophoroi had the edge on his cav. 

Ian oddly deployed his cavalry in a terrain restricted area in three lines. This completely reduced their effect for the game. My lower numbers of cavalry could fend them off in limited space. 

Meanwhile on the open flank, a largely unsupported block of Gallic sword were monstered by a wall of pikes who bore the initial charge then began to grind them to pieces. No Gauls would escape annihilation on this flank. 

My ace was my third command containing light horse, light foot and Samnite medium sword. The light cav with javelin drove away his light troops then the 3 bases of Samnites drove straight up the middle with only 1 peeling off the support my cavalry. 

Three bases of Gallic MC were kept completely at bay by a single base of xystophoroi blocking a gap. 

My cavalry would hold the line (my elite heavy spear died in two rounds to cavalry in a show of lucky dice rolling) allowing the Samnites and pikes to do their job. The cavalry would strike back after early losses to take a Gallic general and a couple of HC bases. Ian never managed to untangle the long conga line of forces he has wedged between marsh and two woods.

And what was the Samnite job? They run up the guts, killed all the light foot, flanked some Gallic heavy sword then sacked the camp. Game over ... Pyrrhus wins. 

The second game saw my flowering of my new love affair with mediocre pike. I played Ptolemaic against the Gauls once more. This time I had 6 bases of mediocre pike and 2 ords. My cavalry was about the same but I employed a death star of an elephant and thracians. 

Tonight was also a game of bluff. My use of terrain and medium troops had led my opponent to believe he knew my army composition. Ian had learnt than medium foot are just wonderful so employed a command of mediums. I just stacked heavy foot, decent cavalry, some 2 bases of light cav + 2 LI then a death star and a single base of peltast medium spear (to engage in light terrain or stab cavalry.) We then fought on a plain with limited terrain giving my heavies decent operating space. 

My far right command looked like it had bitten off more Gallic medium sword bases than it could handle but I managed to move some of my CinC's command over to threaten. The elite impact HC were imposing enough to convince both the light foot and medium sword than emerging from the rough ground to support the combats was a bad idea. 

With my 8 strong pike command spread across open ground - against a smaller group of elite heavy sword - I had some imitation legionary foot left often and a base of medium spear peltasts. These gladly advanced onto the medium cav ord in the centre. 

Note, this could never had happened if the Gauls had not chosen to retreat their cavalry when confronted with an earlier Ptolemaic charge. The extra turn allowed me to funnel solid heavy infantry into the fray with cavalry and to bolster my smaller elephant command with flanking cavalry support. 

My pike block took a beating in the initial phases of combat - Ian's dice always run hot, its not speculation just fact - before my overlaps began to count and 2 timely rallies held the line. From this point, despite losing 2 bases of pike, I ground through the Gallic line. 

One base of pike ordinary even broke away slamming into the heavy cavalry. This did not end well for the Gallic nobility. 

Threatened by xystophoroi in the open, the medium Gallic foot did not emerge together rather were slowly fed into the death star. I've never really seen elephants do anything good but tonight my jumbo stomped two Gallic bases into powder. Again, early hot rolls by the Gauls were eventually counteracted by overlaps and positioning of the general. 

The game was really over with the Gauls faced with a continuous line of strong melee troops. My light cav with javelins had again done a sterling job of driving away light troops, the pike had simply worn down then crushed their opponents over time and a smattering of other infantry had started to kill Gallic cavalry. 

With the elephant stomping on heads and thracians cutting into medium Gauls the damage was done. Keeping Gallic troops at bay with unfavourable match ups and draining their command points with 'hail Mary' rally rolls put the nail in the coffin. 

This time ... big Ptolemaic win. 

The Battle of Dunstan Abbey - A Saga 2nd Battle

After a long repose, a single post has emerged from the mist. A game of Saga finally caught in the sails of my imagination. This week Saga 2nd Edition and "The Siege of Dunstan Abbey." 

6 Points of Vikings attacked - 1 bow levy, 1 huscarl, 4 warriors (8 figs each.) 

AND one skald. 

4 Points of Scots defended - 1 eilte units with mounts (and the option to dismount), 3 units of warriors (again 8 figs each.) 

AND 1 small base of monks + 1 Abbot Dunstan. 

(Above shows Abbot Dunstan before his monastic hovel on the sea blasted coast of Scotland.)

The scenario was hand sculpted. A double 6 roll for either side could cause special effects:

For the Scots ... the Abbot would call upon the Christ god to rouse the waves to fury or revive the deceased. 

For the Vikings ... any group of warriors could knock down a section of wall. 

Two of the Viking units began in boats - rowed at speed M - while the rest started in the swallows of the sea slowing their first movement to S. 

The Scottish monks were setting to work defiling and blessing a nearby pagan burial mound and needed to be rescued at the beginning of the game. 

On Turns One and Two, the Viking used all their saga dice on movement surging from the foam. The Scots used a few of theirs to ride quickly from the defences to encourage the monks to cease their duties and return to the safety of the abbey. The Jarl bawled at the thralls to send a volley of arrows into the horsemen ... but these thudded into stout war boards for no effect. Meanwhile, the horsemen threw the monks bodily over the mounts and returned. The Vikings attempt to slow their effort by burning fatigue to slow movement by to little effect. 

Meanwhile, two units of Northmen warriors and the skald (see the prow of the lead boat on the right) applied themselves to the oars and approached the sea ward side of the palisade. 

There was a turn or two of delay while the Vikings implored Njord for the power to knock down the walls and aid their attacks on the soft Christians. Wading ashore, and letting their boats drift, the Viking to pound at the walls. 

The Abbot implored Christ to swamp these invaders. The sea responded by pulling three Vikings to an ignoble death. 

By Turn 4 the Vikings had moved into position but had not breached the walls. In this time, the Scots - even with less Saga dice - were stacking their board for the eventual assault. The Vikings were forced to repeated use all for theirs for movement. This would later play out into the Scots favour. 

And then the walls crashed down! 

Turn 6 saw two Viking warrior units face a single Scot defender at the wall. The Viking surged over and forced the Scots back after one victory in melee. Over the next few turns, several melees ensued but each coasting the Vikings more and more warriors. It was not a fair trade with the Scots. 

The next image shows the situation at the sea wall later in the game. All units were fatigued and gutted. The skald had many verses of heroic struggle, sacrifice, divine intervention and defeat. These tales would hopefully inspire more invaders from Denmark to attack the shores in coming battles. 

On the other side, the Vikings smashed down the wall in Turn 5 or 6 then struggled to get sufficient men through to attack the defenders. From here continual defeat was the lot of the Vikings. Urged by the vehement cries of Abbot Dunstan the defended stood staunchly. The invaders did not win a single combat as their entreaties to both Njord and Odin were swallowed by a uncaring sky. 

The huscarls hurled themselves forward and fresh warriors were bought up in between hails of arrows but only 5 or 6 Scots defenders fell. With losses mounting, Saga dice supply dwindled to a trickle and the Jarl sounded the horn of retreat. He was fuming at the inability of his men to land blows upon the Scots and knew them was something stronger than stout oak and iron guarding the lives of the defenders. 

It would seem their was more to this womanly Christ god than met the eye ... The Abbot was a powerful foe and must fall if the immortals of Asgard were to be appeased. 

It was time for the skald to weave his honeyed words, espouse the glories of those who perished and went to Valhalla ... and inspire new boatloads of strong oarsmen for the task at hand. 

Warcry in an Overgrown Castle

 

Gosh, a long time without a post. There has been games though. 

This week was some Warcry. I do like several aspects of the rules - not the balance of the lists - but otherwise the dice combo's to activate moves and alternate activations are good. 

Above and below are my ancient Snake cult ... the Splintered Fang. I like the concept of the cult searching the world for the enormous serpent concept. 

In any case, I've won 3 games out of 20 odd warcry games. We find the scenario's are quite lop sided with one side recognising they've been 'warcryed' by Turn 2. Then you just do a whole heap of damage or try your best to hide out till its over. 

I was excited this week to introduce my chaos spawn ... the many armed snake lady from the Reaper range.

The other reason I looked forward to this game was to use my eight new castle ruins terrain pieces. These took around 6 weeks to build during a heavy work time of year. There were also some design problems to solve such as the wooded platforms. 

We played ... umm ... The Bastion in game 1 I think. 

Coffee stirrer walkways linked the castle sections precariously and were about 4 inches from the table top. A long way to fall ... evening though falling damage is very 'pussy willow' in Warcry. 

The Dwarfs got 'warcryed' as I just chose a bastion in my part of the table and they struggled to move their slower units into postion. In fact 1/4 of their army would need 4 whole turns of walking to reach the bastion ... and they arrived in Turn 2 so 4 turns of moving was out. 

Despite this, furious combat occured around and in the bastion. It was finally nice to see snake cultists doing damage. We killed 4-5 dwarves and took no casualties ourselves. I do love the Splintered Fang concept and sculpts but are they outmatched by any other non-bespoke warbands we've tried ... YES! 

Salty Sea is just floating the idea of competitive bespokes to keep GW onside. 

(Can anyone tell me why every triple and quad in Splintered Fang is much worse than their poison weapon double? And snakes ... why the fuck would you snake at all??? What's the point of being a snake cult when the snakes are 90 points of garbage that can be easily shot off the table?) 

Anyway ... I do love the snake cult ... Ah, chthonic Python, I yearn for your encoiling embrace - cursed is Apollo's name! 

And just realised the images are backwards ... frenzied combat rages above ... illustrating Turns 3 and 4. The dwarves were finally outnumbered ... even though their warband is larger than my bespoke band. After battle, several gained wounds including a festering gut wound in their leader. The Exalted Snake champion (the leader guy ... whatever his name is) netted then repeatedly stabbed the dwarf leader without mercy. The underground scoundrel knows something about the Great Serpent and would not reveal it ... so he suffered under questioning then slowly died. 

Here shows the dwarf deployment. They stick out in royal purple while my snake cult in green blends with the edges of the board and are just out of shot. 

This is a pretty shithouse battle report ... I'm not even telling a story ... Above the Snake Caller uses his charm to guide the writing chaos spawn toward the enemy. After encountering this beast deep in the Wildwoods, the cult leadership is convinced it has been touched by the divine serpent and its writhings my be interpreted for information regarding the Great One's resting place. 

Damn the little gold greedy stunted ****'s. Look what their hoarding has enabled them to buy. So far I ignore the bloody thing. It really give the slower dwarves some movement that the cult can't match. With good wounds and melee ability it just swoops down and contests objectives in a way I can't counter. It has cost me many a game ... and it shoots. 

The battlefield as yet unsullied by blood and entrails ... this game used a good complication rule where each wild dice could only be used on a roll of 4+. I found this much more enjoyable than using wild dice normally. 

Please note the spider webs ... cotton wool soaked in PVA/water solution then teased into shape ... on the above image. Look for the castle ruin on the upper left. The web stretches across the window. These were very fiddly but look great. Each ruins has 2-4 webs. I'm uncertain if I'm going to glue some spiders down too? I purchased 50 from Beijing's finest craftsmen for around $4. I have spiders to burn. 

A Saga of Wagons

This week's Saga 2nd edition battle consisted of the 'Prized Possessions' scenario. We'd played the Battle of Heroes quite a few times (12+) and I decided something else was needed. 

The Saxons became the defender (?) escorting the wagons across the table. The Vikings - who I'm trying to work out - were there to stop their progress. 

It was a 7 turn scenario - quite a long one by Saga standards. We used the universal terrain deployment method with the Vikings trying to create corridors of rough terrain that were hard to drag wagons through. This would partly offset the later deployment of half the Saxon army providing an advantage as the defender could see the full troop positions of their enemy. A canny commander - and this Saxon warlord was clever - would place two wagons in the second group being deployed. 

Playing for time the Vikings deployed well back in their deployment zone. Initially, I envisaged a rush at the Saxon left flank to overwhelm one side and fight my way into the wagons. However, this plan was changed after the Saxon warlord moved himself and his mounted hearthguard onto this flank early in the game. The battle would be won in the centre. 

Above are the wagons. The Saxons relied on their defensive power, hoping the Vikings would waste their strength in furious charges against their lines. This waiting game approach would eventually cost them the game. 

The Saxon warlord and his hearthguard were part of this watchful strategy. The warlord threw himself on the Vikings only in the final turn. 

Above the Vikings are shown hedging their bets and trying to block up the passages from the table as best they could. The defender would get a huge boost to victory points (survival in this case) for each wagon leaving the table. 

The Viking thralls whittled down their advancing foe who mostly stood in large 12 warrior blocks. These would block the shooting of the Saxon levy for several turns as combat drew near in Turns 4, 5 and 6. One brave Viking unit stepped out to protect the centre from multiple charges and was hacked apart by Saxons barely placing a wound in reply for their trouble. 

The Vikings fed more and more warriors into the centre of the table as this became the only route applicable for the Saxons. After several turns of inactivity with the wagons, they had no option as moving around the woods would take too long. 

One Saxon unit was reduced to but 4 levy but the Vikings were taking many casualties. Defence rolls were being made far too frequently by the Saxons - their shieldwall could not be broken. 

The Viking warlord and hearthguard stepped in the plug the gap in turn 6 and 7. Clumsy placement of these (by me) enabled some easy charges in Turn 7 of the game allowing the Saxons to kill the warlord reducing the Viking survival point total. I should have been more wary about such desperate lunges for blood once the Saxons realised their wagons would not reach camp in time. 

A couple of Viking units stayed out wide for around 5 game turns to keep the hearthguard and one warrior group occupied. This ultimately prevented the hearthguard from playing any combative role in the battle. 

In the later turns of the game, the Viking stopped attacking and allowed the Saxons to do all the pushing. There was no point to fighting in each turn as their losses were already too high. 

Despite losing almost all of the combats for the evening, the Viking tactics proved to be more effective. They prevented all wagons from leaving the field but when the survival point tally was counted, the Saxons were ahead 17 points to 9 on losses alone. However, they then lost 9 points (3 per wagon) for not achieving their goal leading to the narrowest Viking victory by a single point! It was a good game with both players reserving their strength. This only played into the attackers hands as delay and obfuscation were key. It didn't feel like a win, but I was pleased with my troop position, tactics and terrain placement which were probably the factors leading to victory.