Peter's flaming pigs!

Yesterday at the club we played "To the strongest" By Simon Miller. A fast play set of "ancients" rules (by "Ancients" I mean Biblical up to late medieval/renaissance!).

WE actually played Romans in Germania. 3 players on each side. The Romans were Graham, bob and Richard, while the German tribesmen were (from left to right) Peter, Tim, and me (on the right wing.) We each had one hidden card which was a special one use tactic! I'll come to tat later.

All terrain and figures were supplied by Graham. Terrain was symmetrical and we had choice of where we positioned the camps. The Roman camp (needless to say) was Fortified while the German camp was not! Oh dear.

Each side had 13 Victory points and it was the first side to take all the Victory points from the other side.

The game looks quits dull and unaspiring but played well.
All Photos taken from my position! (Right wing otf the German Tribes)

Starting positions.
Bob plays his tactic card on me an all my troops
retreat 1 square!

1st turn I manage to get out of the camp
and advance. All the germans likewise advance.
and so do the Romans.

There is a hole in the German line
to which the Roman elite advance
Opps!

First clash is not devastating
The Germans hold all along the line.

We take casualties but still hold firm )
It could be much worse.

While still holding the Fragile Romans
loose heart and with disaterous effects they break at my flank.

I play my tactic card and Flank march my cavalry
Up to this point kept off table and they arrive
behind Richards now faltering line.
The Romans have a praetorian unit on the right wing
but nothing else.
In 1 turn I score 5 Victory points.

Yes my cavalry arrive and while there presence on the boad
 makes the Romans think and ponder
they do not achieve much

The Praetorians were then trapped
with Germans on two flanks.

They kept turning to face the aggressor.
and were played really well.

Over on   the left wing
Peter faced off against Graham a more experienced player.

meanwhile back on the right wing.
I had an aweful run of cards and could not do much.
except threated the camp
but only threaten.

With both Tim and Myself against the Praetorians
Sooner or later we were going to win
Surely we were!
Eventually Tim did!

Peter had a couple of tries to enter the Roman Camp
both tries were unsuccessful
But his troops had for the most part driven the Roman Cavalry off.
It was expensive in troop casualties
but eventually

The last rurns were evenly matched.
Graham played his special card which was an Assassination attempt.
The attempt failed.
But only just.

Time was about up and Peter played his special tactic card.
Flaming warpigs of doom
It was enough to give us the final Victory point and sent a Roman light horse unit running for the hills.

 

Conclusion: I got 5 Victory points all in one turn and the Germans won
quite convincingly in the end. A total of 13 Vp to 6. the rules were good and I can imagine another game in 2 weeks time. But hopefully with some more and better terrain.

Thanks for looking more again soon.

Club game pre-Christmas

I went to the club on Sunday and played a board game. Whilst there I was asked why I had not put the last club game on the blog and was it because I lost. Simply put If I only put games on the blog that I won there would be none on here at all. So here we go!

We played a game of "Longships" By Peter Pig. Graham was kind enough to act as a referee. Tim and I teamed up to play the Vikings. While Matt and Colin played the defending Anglo Saxons. Rather than a Raid we were doing a big battle with the aim being to take the ridge.

Graham supplied all the models, the rules and all the terrain. He did even supply some handy hints to both sides as well. Next time Tim and Myself might listen... live and learn then forget it all when my head touches the pillow!

 The hill counted as steep so we stopped short and chucked a few spears and insults at the Saxons. That had very limited success they were not coming off the hill. They did kindly chuck our spears back though. (Thanks guys)

 Tim was the first to try attacking the hill. He was beaten bounced of the saxon shield wall and was pushed back.

 The tactic was repeated by Tim with similar effects but slightly better each time as we were at least killing a few of them. Problem was they were killing more of us!

 I got a unit to form a boar snout*. We went up the hill pushing and shoving in this wedge formation. Colin rolled the dice and did massive damage to my unit. But the formation meant that I could make him re-roll the dice, or I could. Yeah no way I was going to match his score in a month of Sundays so I made him re-roll. He did and still rolled well but not quite as well as last time. But well enough to force me of the hill. Curses!

 A couple more assaults by both me and Tim. And the saxon unit on our right was getting a licking but still holding, just.

 Tim doggedly continues and finally manages to take one section of the hill. (Just 3 more to go)

 One of Tims Units so battered routes from the table. The bad news is that one of mine followed it as I had a very bad dice roll. Opps.

 Matt decides to come of the hill to finish my remaining unit. While his an Colins other units stay on the hill just to make sure we did not take it! Fat chance of that.

 The battle off of the hill lasted a couple of turns in which time Tim moved further along the hill.

 The Battle off the hill was quite evenly matched but for once the dice favoured me. (Fighting on the hill did seem to Give the defenders a big advantage, although I am sure they did not thing the advantage to great).

 Eventually I did manage to beat Matts unit. It had started the game as armoured elite, but Tim had weakened it with hit attacks so was now comparable with my own. Yeah me I won a fight! As Matts unit thought better of it and quit the battlefield.

Tim moves his unit even further along the hill and threatens Colins weakened unit. Too little too late as Colin and Matt were able to bring on tier reserves. We had reached the countdown and decided to go for just one more turn. (In these rules there is a trade off you can extend the game if you want but doing so takes victory points from you).

Matt and Colin were able to retake most of the now empty hill. Curses!

We all packed away as Graham worked out the victory points. the result was a major Viking Defeat. Well done Colin and well done Matt.

Tim summed the game up with the following quote " Lady luck raised her skirts for us and then called us perverts!"

Yeah that's about what happened!

Another Roman Victory!

There was a gathering in the "Shed of war" on Saturday the culprits from left to right were Big Lee Alternative report click here. , Surgit, Ian, Postie and David or Izzy as he is sometimes called. We all randomly selected our place in the game and I was the Roman Legate, Izzy was my Tribune. The other three were some Pictish barbarian rabble unfit to wash a Romans feet! Ok Big Lee was supposedly incharge of them, and it was his "Daughter" we had captured.... only in the game.... but he did say she was rubbish around the house so I don't think we would have much use for her in reality, maybe some amusement for the lions in the arena.

The situation was that Tribune David Had to escort the prisoner and the loot erhm I mean Taxes back to the fort which was mine to command. The Three oiks you can see on the left where given 2 objectives, to rescue the hostage and to capture the fort. And this is what Happened.

 Thousands of 'em... No but about 300 in all

 The Thin Red Line. Izzy's column of about 50 men.

The Mile Fort I was in command of. Which the Picts were to attack as well as rescue the hostages. 

 The Original Roman Plan was to leave 1 Unit to slow the pict advance. But we soon realised that these Picts could move fast and one unit would be little more than a speed bump!

Adapting the plan  We sent the Prisoners on alone with 4 guards and Tribune Izzy would use all 3 units to attack the Picts.

So Izzy left the road and took the battle to the barbarian horde.

 I lit the distress beacons to notify the nearby forts that we were being attacked. I set the 6 cavalry figures and the Fort standard bearer to assist.

 Chieftain Big Lee Started to move his troops up allowing Ian and Surgit to Battle away at Tribune Izzy's PBI.

 Cheftain Lee kept his troops out of range of my 3 Scorpions but my Oranger crew had obviously had a heavy night and Missed by about an inch on every single occasion. The Oranger killed only 1 barbarian in all the game. Such a disappointment! 

 Tribune Izzy did a fine job in fighting off the Picts. Such a good job that the one battering ram that the Picts had was diverted from it's job of moving to attack the gate and instead attacked Davids Legionaries.  This was clearly not part of their original plan so they adapted it and instead settled on only rescuing Big Lee's daughter.

The Cavalry I sent out to assist were mown down by arrows and wiped out in 2 turns. And the battering ram moved a further 6 inches away. All the while the hostages and loot were getting closer.

 I receiver 6 more cavalry as reinforcements from the lighting of the beacons. At this stage I wish I had nor sent out the first cavalry unit oh well too late to worry about that.

 The Pict skirmish line captures the wagon of Taxes. And is closing ground on the hostages.

 My pitiful Oranger so little damage, but at least it was deterring the Picts fanatics from getting unhealthily close.

 I sent My last Cavalry out to act as a screen to get the Hostages into the fort.

 They charged, now just down to 3 men. And Died very quickly!

 I Moved my archers onto the walls closer to the gate and fired like Billy-o at the skirmishers.

And Managed to do just enough damage to stop them for a turn

while I got the Prisoners/hostages inside the gate.

And That's where we stopped the game. The Gods favoured the Romans and we shall all say a prayer to "Postius" God of Wargames shed.

Final thoughts: I think the rules really did favour the Romans and make them too hard to kill. When 50 troops can hold off 300 it does seem one sided. Having said that it did come down to a single dice roll in the end when my archers did enough damage to force a morale check on Lees skirmishers. So It really could have gone either way. It was in the end a Roman minor victory mostly thanks to Izzy. But it could have been a Roman disaster if the Picts had got the hostages back (-12 Victory points, or lost the fort -20 Victory points). Which would have made the 2 victory point difference completely insignificant.

And a big thank you to Postie for hosting and Umpiring the game. All the figures and Terrain is his and it really was a joy to be part of it.

Thanks for reading and with luck more again on Wednesday.

All the best Clint