Chariot Lords

Been a few weeks since I last posted. I haven't gamed the past two weeks, but 3 weeks ago, 4 of us in our group sat down and played a good old fashioned board game! The game was Chariot Lords. I have never played the game before, but one of our members had in the past and recently bought the game. I don't remember all of the nations each player could have, but I did know the Assyrians well, and I was lucky enough to have them in the game. Below is a description of the game I got off the net. I figured it would be better this way, than trying to explain it all. One thing I can explain is that the game has assigned victory conditions for each particular group. The victory conditions are in the way of points for completing assigned tasks/victory conditions. We did not complete the game that night, however, we did write down the locations of each players units and victory points so we can continue playing it at another time. I found it enjoyable and real easy to learn and am looking forward to finishing the game.

Between 1500 and 600 BC, Asia Minor and the Mediterranean witnessed the rise and fall of several mighty empires. Often the birth of one empire precipitated the death of another. How could a small people like the Judeans establish an empire when located between such giants as Egypt and Assyria? Why did some Empires endure for centuries while others lasted only a few generations? Chariot Lords shows you the how and why.
Each Lord controls between 5 and 6 nations, some strong, others weak, each with varying goals and objectives - indeed some of these countries may not even exist at the same time. Players compete against one another to achieve the victory criteria for their empires. Nations quickly become rivals, involving them in death struggles over expansion. Each turn (90 years) will see new countries come to the fore, while established empires struggle to levy reinforcements and arrange alliances. A fine line must be walked between conserving one's forces and expanding one's empire. Too much expansion will see your resources spread thin and possibly swept away by a new emerging empire, but not enough aggression will see your empire fail to garner sufficient victory points to win.
Armies are of a mix of foot and mounted units, along with the occasional leader of note. It is not enough to conquer -- you must be able to keep what you have taken. The winner will be the one who has the most victory points after all the armies have had their moment on the stage. It is up to you to determine whether your empire will be relegated to the dustbin of history, or whether others will hail you as...The Chariot Lord.

French IndoChina Game Report

This is the report from the game we did on May 5th. It was our first battle with these figs and the rules were homemade. The game featured 4 of us versus' the ref. The Vietminh were already in place and all we had to do as the French was make our battle plan and execute it. The report was written by the ref for the game.

The premise was that the French were launching a three pronged search and destroy operation against a VietMinh valley. To do this the French came from three ways: a riverine column with patrol boat leading LTV-4s carrying an infantry company, a road column of trucks, tanks, and two infantry companies and finally a parachute drop of a battalion of Legion paratroops.The decision was made to delay the paratroop drop until Turn 6 to give the road column a better chance of co-ordinating the assault. In retrospect this was a debatable strategy IMHO but it certainly was well timed - they had predicted right where the road column would be. What they lost though was precious time which allowed the Viet Minh leadership to reach their tunnel in the church and sneak out of that place to a bolt hole in the jungle. Though the paratroopers eventually found that tunnel, it was too late by then.The riverine force was quite successful early, with its heavy MG firepower it blasted two sampans to bits and dominated the landing zone by the riverbank. The ANV company (which are Vietnamese troops fighting for the French and not very good troops at that) performed quite well, seizing a hill in the teeth of VietMinh resistance and sweeping the jungle quite successfully. Kudos to Rich who commanded them.The French did find most but not all of the supply caches hidden about the table. Once the paratroops actually landed a company almost right on top of two supply caches but never did find them.Overall the French commanders cooperated well enough and fought well, winning the battle as I expected against out gunned Viet Minh resistance. It wont always be this easy.Victory Point wise the winner of the game was DaveR, who ran the paratroops, with Dave F and the riverine force coming in second.I was satisfied with the rules, of course I will no doubt tinker with them a bit more but they worked fast. We got in a lot of turns. I liked the look of the table, yet I do plan on getting even more trees for my jungle.

My thoughts: The game was fun and played out rather smooth. I (Brumbar) played the paratrooper commander and that was challenging enough. I dropped numbered pieces of paper from a height of 16". Where they landed as the fell was where I started. Very challenging! I tried to drop one company onto a hill and a second company onto another. Out of 12 stands from the 1st company, only 2 hit the hill. The second company, had only 1 stand land on the hill out of 9 stands. I had a mortar stand from the 1st company land smack dab into the middle of a rice paddy. They were quickly eliminated by a Vietminh group who were walking down a road. The other rifle stand that landed with it, managed to run away and join the rest of the company.

The figs used are 12mm. I made a mistake in my previous post that they were 10mm. Again, a very enjoyable game and a neat scenario with all players on the same side.

Gladiators

I know it has been a couple of weeks since I last posted, so I thought I had better get an update out there. As stated in a previous post, with the advent of spring and soon summer, my painting has slowed down. However, I have managed to paint up a General for my ACW collection. I am currently working on another. We haven't done the last two battles as of yet related to the ACW campaign our group has been conducting for the past couple of years. I hope to get them completed soon with complete battle reports.

What we have done though was a game involving 25mm Gladiators. We have a hex board set up for this. Like the arena in Greece. We did this a couple of weeks ago and in the end, I was the overall winner. We used pennies and placed real bets based on the Gladiators outcome.

As per the rules, a list has been made up detailing how a battle is to be fought based on a die roll. All Gladiators are categorized as either light, medium and heavy. This list could have one fighter vs another or multiple fighters in the arena at one time. This did happen! Our group has the home rule of bidding on a particular Gladiator based upon his above mentioned status. We also pay for his armor, helmet and shield if applicable.

The rules are set up that the winner of the scheduled fight is to win X amount of gold from the bank. Players are allowed to make side bets to supplement there existing funds. This was how I was able to win in the end. Supplemental bets are a wonderful thing!

One particular fight had 4 Gladiators fighting at once. I placed a bet that the weakest Gladiator would die first. All he was armed with was a knife! I was one of the Gladiators taking part in this fight. I was "teamed" up with the weakest fighter, so in order to secure my bet, I hunted him down and killed him myself before I died at the hands of the other 2 fighters. It was a glorious death!

We had a few marathon fights as well between some heavy and medium Gladiators. But in the end, it always came down to money and I prevailed. My stable may have been depleted, but with my winnings, I will be able to recoup my losses.

As mentined in the last post, the Vietnam vs the French figs have been completed and the first game is scheduled for tomorrow night. I plan on attending and a report will follow.