10mm Biblical game

Wow, two posts in one night. We did a day game today as one of our previous regular gamers was able to make it today. Five us were there but one was the referee so it was 2 vs 2. The battle was between the Egyptians and the Mitanni/Assyrian alliance. I was on the alliance side and had command of the right flank. The battle was a meeting engagement but pretty much turned into an alliance attack. The Egyptians pretty much stayed put and made us come to them.

The rules are called Smite Them and are loosely based on the Warmaster rules system. I do like the Warmaster system. Fast and easy as well as bloody. I showed up about an hour after the game started but really only some minor action had taken place. My co-commander did manage to rout 2 Egyptian bow units which in the end was a rather critical for the Egyptians.

As the alliance, we pressed the attack pretty hard and heavy. I had 9 chariots and some rather good infantry named The Luuka. I also had a formed bow unit and 2 skirmish bow units. The chariots were able to fire as well which essentially gave me 9 more units of bow. I took advantage of this as I wasn't facing any chariots and the Egyptians down a couple bow units. I should add that I had some slingers as well as javelins.

Moving up, I created some space to my right to allow the chariots through. I also kept my skirmish bow as well as my formed bow in front of my melee troops. They made a nice screen which kept my melee lads intact. As I moved up, my opponent put some skirmishers in the village to my right. I dispatched some troops to occupy my opponent and as it turned out, his skirmishers really didn't play much of a factor while I moved up. Plus he had some bad die rolls which allowed me to do alot of things.

With my bow troops lined up, I mass fired them on his remaining bow units. This allowed me to destroy his bow and with the luck of the dice, I was able to preserve my bow to focus on his melee troops. With the Egyptians holding their positions, I stayed just at the right range for firing; Out of his charge range! I began to pick off his men at will once his bow were destroyed or routed off. He still had some javelin troops, but I managed to charge them with the chariots and destroy a couple of skirmish units. With his units holding fast, it was a turkey shoot. I managed to destroy one unit with arrow alone. When the Egyptians finally decided to attack instead of being shot up, they had some poor rolls and weren't able to charge like he had planned.

I proceeded to roll up on his left flank after a couple melee's with my chariots. From that point on, it was pretty clear that we as the alliance were going to win.

On my left flank, my co-commander pressed as well. He did manage to lose his Assyrian heavy chariots as well as his Sumarian cavalry. Bad die rolling was prevelant throughout the game. However, when it really mattered the most, he came through and routed a couple of Egyptian units, plus he destroyed another which gave us the victory based upon points for destroyed units.

The game has had different results as well. My friend ran this system at Rock Con and the Egyptians pulled out a victory. A bonus of the system in my opinion. Not too mention how critical dice rolling can be. Luck can change many things.

I would like to say Happy Thanksgiving! I hope this is getting read somewhere:) If anyone has any comments, I would appreciate if they would take the time to add them. It would help me out greatly in knowing that someone is actually taking the time to read my postings.

Chariot Lords Part 3

A few weeks ago, 4 of us made for our regular Saturday gaming night. One of the guys hadn't played Chariot Lords so we opted to have another go at it. I again played the Assyrians with a better result this time around. I changed my strategy from the previous game. This time I chose to be more aggressive and it paid off. Of course, the addition of a new player helped out.

At the cost of losing some troops early, I made bold moves by attacking whenever I could and looking at my victory conditions more closely. Also, the other results from the other players created more opportunities for me. I made sure to grab land as well as territory within my victory conditions. I was able to accomplish more this time around and piled up the points.

When we decided to stop, I had a substantial point lead and we were about half way through the game. We all decided to end the game and I, as the Assyrians, was declared the winner. If I remember correctly, I had an 87 pt. lead over the 2nd place player. Not only would he have to close the gap, but the added pressure of trying to gain while I also added more victory points, would have been too much.

It was a good game and I do like the game very much. Both times we have played we reached a different result. In my opinion, this makes a good game because everyone has a chance to win if they play to there strengths. Good die rolling helps too!

Hello Again!

Well I am back! I see I hadn't posted since September so I thought I had better get everyone up to speed.

Since my last posting regarding our group's ACW campaign, we have not done another battle. It appears that the campaign has tapered off into history like so many others our group has done over the years. It lasted for several years which is a fine accomplishment in itself! We had some good times, but now my figs will sit until we decide to just game individual battles. This will allow me to try out some various deviations with my rules. I want to include skirmishers and I have a fairly good idea how I want to handle them. I have also re-organized my ACW units into divisions and corp units. As I have it now, I have 2 corp for each side broken into 2 divisions each. Some of the divisions have more brigades but fewer stands per brigade. I have 4 brigades of horse for the Confederates and 6 brigades for the Union. I am also trying to paint up more artillery to give each side a reserve corp of artillery to assign as they see fit, or as how the design of the game will dictate their use. I went on a painting binge for a short time to add plenty of generals to aid in the upcoming games.

Im went to an ACW re-enactment that was held locally. I have some pictures and once I sort through them, I will post a few here for all to see. I have a friend who is a re-enactor which is somewhat related to how I got into ACW period gaming.

The latest painting project I am working on is for 10mm WW2. I may have mentioned this in earlier blogs but I have finally got at the project with full force. Many of the German vehicles are painted up and my buddy has been purchasing a few odds and ends to add for them. I think the hardest part about the vehicles was the assembly. To me, no logic exists as to why companies do this. Some are only a couple pieces to glue together, some are multiple pieces that can create confusion and frustration. I am about 1/3 done with painting the infantry. Considering I have only attempted to paint 10mm figs once, I am doing rather well at it. I use toothpicks for the majority which works very well. Plus Germans are rather easy to paint. Most of the Russian units are painted and mounted, but my buddy had a head start as they were used for a different period of WW2 and only had to be re-mounted. No rules have been decided on, but we are still looking for that right set...if one even exists. I am sure we will be modifying our own based upon many different sets. I don't foresee a play test anytime soon, but when it does come about, a full briefing will blogged.

The majority of our group made it to the Rock Con convention in Rockford Illinois this year. (Fri/Sat/Sun Nov 2,3,4) I had a good time, getting in on a game for all 3 sessions on Saturday. We only gamed the one day with my friend putting on a game with his ancients. The first game was a dogfight in Vietnam. The game was modeled after Operation Bolo. This was the battle led by Col Robin Olds and his plan to imitate Thud bombers with his F-4 Phantoms. The plan was to draw the North Vietnamese out into an ambush to try and shoot down as many Migs as possible. The real dogfight knocked out 7 Migs with no Phantom losses. In our game, we managed to knock down 3 Migs with 1 Phantom loss. The game was challenging in the sense that we as the Phantom drivers had no guns at this time, only missile's.

The 2nd game was a Barbary Coast pirates game in 15mm scale. The pirates had captured an American merchantman and were to try and get her into port. As the American player, we were to stop it. The merchant was crewed by pirates, so it was a 3 vs 3 ship fight. As the Americans, we succeeded in stopping the merchant by sinking her. A fun game!

The 3rd session was a Napoleonic battle. French vs Austrians 15mm. I played an Austrian and managed to achieve my assigned victory condition. I captured a town, killed a French commander and took control of a sunken road. The French at my end were paralyzed without a commander. The rules were a homemade set and rather fast. Again, another fun game. A good time was had by all.

Well enough for now and I hope to keep up better. I am pleased that I have managed to make it almost a year posting!