On Tuesday, I received a package in the mail. The missus aka +Geeky Godmother asked if she could do a special un-boxing post for her blog and here it is: Geeky Godmother
Enjoy!
Thursday, February 21, 2013
Monday, February 18, 2013
Friday DBMM Yuan Chinese and Javanese
This Friday past I was able to escape from a house full of teenage girls and head down to the club for a little 350 point DBMM.
Nicholas had set up the game and provided the Javanese forces while Ben brought his Chinese and Mongols to the table. Thank you to both for bringing some very nicely painted troops for us to play with. With the armies selected, the next step was to assign sides. Given my inability to handle horse, I, Pat, teamed up with Nick on the Javanese side and Patrick went with Ben on team Yuan. (Yes we get confused too.)
Next up was rolling for the battlefield. The terrain picks were a good assortment of woods, hills and marsh. The dice were fickle, and with the exception of one small wooded hill on the Javanese left flank, it all wound up crammed into the right side of the table leaving the centre wide open - perfect for ravaging horse.
We split the Javanese into three commands. A light command of horse and foot was tasked with holding the rough country on the right. Two roughly similar commands of bow and warband covered the centre and left. We set these up one behind the other to give us two lines of bow on the left and two lines of warband in the centre. Nick took the front line and the right and I took the second line.
The Yuan were also laid out in three commands. The Mongol horse on their right, a mixed force of blade, bow and artillery in the centre and a mixed light force on their left opposite the rough terrain. Ben took right and centre while Patrick took left. Both armies were pushed up fairly close to the centre line. I must apologized because being focused on my own troops, I didn't pay much attention to what was going on in the rough terrain.
The game opened fairly conventionally. Nick and I pushed forward across the board as did Ben and Patrick. Ben pushed his horse forward on our left hoping to flank and disrupt the bow line. Nick was able to adjust his line and caught a couple of bases of Mongols in range. One was the general. The option was to take a high probability shot at a base of troopers that would break up the line or take a much riskier shot at the general. Nick went for the general and he went down.
In the centre, we got a couple of moves in with the warband blocks. Then I rolled a 1 for pips and in they went. Nick let his go as well, leaving two lines of heavily caffeinated Javanese charging into artillery, bows and blades. On our right, Nick was able to push his lights almost the whole way through the rough going and he and Patrick began fencing with Lh and Ps.
In the centre, the Chinese man-powered artillery punched holes through the oncoming warband while bows nibbled away at the edges. The blades braced for impact. Ben's leader-less horse were able to harass the edges of the warband block but ultimately pip starvation meant that they fell under Nick's bow and broke.
As I said above, I am not sure what was happening in the rough on the right but Nick retired 4 or 5 dice that night so I suspect it was bloody. The centre saw the warband sweep away the artillery and get stuck into the blades. Going sponno freed up pips to protect the flanks and keep the front rank gaps filled in. A good thing too since the co-mingled warband lines were four deep in some spots. Casualties were heavy, but being only 0.5 ME meant that the warband had considerable staying power. Finally holes were ground through the Yaunline, a second command broke and the Yuan were driven from the field.
A great game with some great gamers.
Nicholas had set up the game and provided the Javanese forces while Ben brought his Chinese and Mongols to the table. Thank you to both for bringing some very nicely painted troops for us to play with. With the armies selected, the next step was to assign sides. Given my inability to handle horse, I, Pat, teamed up with Nick on the Javanese side and Patrick went with Ben on team Yuan. (Yes we get confused too.)
Next up was rolling for the battlefield. The terrain picks were a good assortment of woods, hills and marsh. The dice were fickle, and with the exception of one small wooded hill on the Javanese left flank, it all wound up crammed into the right side of the table leaving the centre wide open - perfect for ravaging horse.
We split the Javanese into three commands. A light command of horse and foot was tasked with holding the rough country on the right. Two roughly similar commands of bow and warband covered the centre and left. We set these up one behind the other to give us two lines of bow on the left and two lines of warband in the centre. Nick took the front line and the right and I took the second line.
The Yuan were also laid out in three commands. The Mongol horse on their right, a mixed force of blade, bow and artillery in the centre and a mixed light force on their left opposite the rough terrain. Ben took right and centre while Patrick took left. Both armies were pushed up fairly close to the centre line. I must apologized because being focused on my own troops, I didn't pay much attention to what was going on in the rough terrain.
The game opened fairly conventionally. Nick and I pushed forward across the board as did Ben and Patrick. Ben pushed his horse forward on our left hoping to flank and disrupt the bow line. Nick was able to adjust his line and caught a couple of bases of Mongols in range. One was the general. The option was to take a high probability shot at a base of troopers that would break up the line or take a much riskier shot at the general. Nick went for the general and he went down.
In the centre, we got a couple of moves in with the warband blocks. Then I rolled a 1 for pips and in they went. Nick let his go as well, leaving two lines of heavily caffeinated Javanese charging into artillery, bows and blades. On our right, Nick was able to push his lights almost the whole way through the rough going and he and Patrick began fencing with Lh and Ps.
In the centre, the Chinese man-powered artillery punched holes through the oncoming warband while bows nibbled away at the edges. The blades braced for impact. Ben's leader-less horse were able to harass the edges of the warband block but ultimately pip starvation meant that they fell under Nick's bow and broke.
As I said above, I am not sure what was happening in the rough on the right but Nick retired 4 or 5 dice that night so I suspect it was bloody. The centre saw the warband sweep away the artillery and get stuck into the blades. Going sponno freed up pips to protect the flanks and keep the front rank gaps filled in. A good thing too since the co-mingled warband lines were four deep in some spots. Casualties were heavy, but being only 0.5 ME meant that the warband had considerable staying power. Finally holes were ground through the Yaunline, a second command broke and the Yuan were driven from the field.
A great game with some great gamers.
Sunday, February 10, 2013
Planning for War!
Given the size of my Space 1889 collection, I decided I better do something with it. So, I put in to run a Soldier's Companion Game at CanGames 2013 in May of this year. This will be the first time I have run a proper convention game. I have been doing a fair bit of painting but nothing really worth putting up yet. Given that the Soldier's Companion rules are a little old school for modern gamers and that I wanted to run an introductory level game, I have been working on a number of play aids.
Below is a draft Unit Card:
Below is a draft Unit Card:
A little plain right now but it captures most of the information the player will need to manoeuvre their unit on the table. Each card will have a picture of the actual miniatures in the unit as well as a national flag to identify what side it is on. The Oenotrian flag above is not canon, just something I threw together in Gimp.
Once I finalize the data I will add some decoration and other fluff. Then they will be printed on heavy card and laminated. The players will be given erasable markers to track casualties, morale levels and other changeable information.
I am also working on quick reference sheets and movement sticks.
More to follow
Thursday, February 7, 2013
I Am A Space Marine!
IP enforcement is one thing, trying to take over a generic term is another. Sadly Games Workshop has gotten just a little too heavy handed.
M.C.A. Hogarth has had her book yanked from Amazon because GW claims they own the term "Space Marine" despite it being used in literature since 1934.
M.C.A. Hogarth has had her book yanked from Amazon because GW claims they own the term "Space Marine" despite it being used in literature since 1934.
I Am A Space Marine!
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