Thursday 29 September 2011

Musket and Mohawks 2 Field Battle



 Was able to test the largest encounter in Muskets and Mohawks 2 today, The Field Battle. In this encounter your company takes its place in the line of battle during a field engagement. The game is still played at 1 figure equals 1 man scale and the game shows only that part of the battlefield directly to the front of your company. 

A full game company consists of 1 Captain, 2 Lieutenants, 2 Ensigns, a Sergeant Major, 4 sergeants, 8 Corporals and 40 other ranks. That's all four sections of your company plus the command element.

Now as it happens I do not have nearly enough period figures for this large a game and so substituted Napoleonic troops for this game. My company would be French line while the opposition were Prussians. Also while I say "my" company, my character was in fact the Lieutenant of second platoon. The Captain was non-player character as were all of the Prussians.

The battle featured a French attack so the Prussian company deployed on table and my company entered from the opposite long edge. 

Due to some random events my company received an order to halt our advance while still out of musket range of the enemy. While waiting for our advance to resume I lost two men to cannon fire, another random event.
 We were finally able to resume the advance! Unfortunately the Prussians were able to get in the first volley and dropped several of my men.
 The senior section of my company was obscured by a small cluster of trees on our right, which offered them cover but also prevented them from bringing all of their firelocks into play. 

One aspect of this game that I am very proud of is the way it presents you with the problems of the black powder battlefield. In larger scale games columns just move faster than lines. At this level you see the terrain that causes lines to break up and move more slowly than columns. As it is a company would always form line unless navigating tight terrain, and here rather than disrupt my formation I decided to just keep the senior section out of action for a bit.
 We began a brisk exchange of fire with the Prussians. Slowly we began to achieve the upper hand, inflicting more casualties to the Prussian leadership than we received in return. This was all down to the luck of the dice.

Another aspect I am pleased with is the frequency of misfired. Initial vollies are very powerful and then fire sort of goes in spurts as casualties and misfires contribute to a decline in the volume of fire. Eventually misfires are diagnosed and repaired and some of the casualties return to the firing line, and volume of fire picks up for a while until the inevitable misfires and casualties reduce it and so on.
 Eventually one of the Prussion platoons had suffered too much and withdrew behind the firing line.
 The company sergeant lost not time in attempting to rally them. Here then was my chance! Our company commander ordered the charge. However he had considerable difficulty bringing the men under control and they continued to stand and fire.

Once troops begin to fire it is sometimes difficult to bring them back under orders. In this case I had considerable difficulty bringing them to heel.
 Fortune smiled as a half section of light infantry was sent to our aid. They took up position in the wood in front of the senior section and opened an accurate fire on the Prussian left.
 At about the same time the Prussians suffered a couple of round shot from our artillery. Random events can cut both ways. 

To their credit the section that had retired returned to the line for more punishment.
 Still unable to get our men to move  I was bit disconcerted by the arrival of a Prussain gun behind their lines. Clearly the higher command could sense the weakening of Prussia resolve and sent the gun to stiffen the line.

Reinforcements can be granted via random dice rolls. Like random events they cut both way too.

 It was a race against time now. Our fire had significantly weakened the Prussian company and individuals were starting to slip away from the firing line. .
Their sergeants managed to whip most of them back into line but in ones and twos some headed for the rear
 The Prussian deployed the gun behind their line. Presumably they would retire behind the gun once it was loaded.
...And still our Captain could not bring the men under control. Our fire was to good effect but if that gun started hitting us with canister we would be in a bad way.

 Finally our men were brought under control. Our firing line went silent as the officers and sergeants dressed the ranks. 

Only the sniping of the light troops continued and the Prussian fire grew increasingly ragged.

 At last we began to advance. Avant!
 When charging the attacker moves to only 6" from the enemy. Opposed dice rolls are then made to see if the attacker baulks, takes fire at close range, or the defender stands for melee (rarely) or legs it.
 The Prussian line evaporated before our advance!
 The day was ours.
Final losses were 11 French other ranks. The Prussians lost more than twice that many and the gun.

Post battle rolls should see my character gain some recognition. Had we lost he might have had to fight a duel if brother officers were to cast aspersions on his conduct. However as one of the victors he may be bale to grab some of the glory.

As this encounter is very large and fairly static it will not be required that players use it but it will be in there just in case you ever wondered how a field battle would have looked at this small a scale.

Hope you enjoyed the report and thanks for stopping by!

Thursday 22 September 2011

Shots Fired - News Team 3's Ashlynn Cooper Reporting

Last night Mack and I played the first Encounter for his first character a Mercenary.  Didn't get any pics from the game but here's a re-cap.
Mack and his boys went looking for a job and found one working for a local Trophy Wife. Seems she "lost" some jewelry and wanted Mack to do a deal for her. Meet the guy that had contacted her about recovering it, check the price, and then make the switch.

Mack met the guy, a Muggi Zhuh-Zhuh (think monkey in a boiler suit) and settled on a price. The deal was set to go down but either Monkey Boy wanted more cash or was trying to play Mack for a chump. Anyway, gunfight broke out and Boss Monkey and two others were seriously wounded. One Zhuh-Zhuh got away and Boss Monkey swears he has the stuff.
When last seen he was a prisoner of Mack and his boys.
More to come.









Wednesday 21 September 2011

5150: New Beginnings. It's all about the story.


In New Beginnings we've provided you with all the tools to create any type of game. The storyline is up to you. With a variety of character classes, over 50 professions to choose from, Alien races, and some pretty easy to use mechanics that allow your games  to go in any direction you want them to, the only thing limiting your game is your imagination.
Here's a simple Encounter I played out. I took a LWC - Law Abiding Working Class - into a uh, questionable part of New Hope City, to see what kind of good time he would have. 

Objective - Chillin' Encounter LWC is trying to find a "friend" to have a drink with. The friend will be the Target. When a PEF is resolved that has the same class as the target (Criminal Element) then LWC has found his Target,
Pre-Encounter Intel - None to speak of as this wasn't a Black Job.
Area - Outside the Space Port
Day Part - Late (after 3AM)
Terrain - Public Street with access to an alley
Law Level 2
Weather - Drizzly
PEFs 2
Characters - LWC Rep 3 Delivery Driver Fitness 3 People 2 Savvy 1 Science 0 Pistol
Rolled at random on the LWC Generator

Target - Escort
Deployment - LWC starts outside the club and ran into the first PEF. Lucky for him he ran into a Criminal Element resolution on the first contact. More lucky for him as his Target was in the CE class he was guaranteed to get the Escort and not a Ganger of Mugger which it  could otherwise have been. 
Let's pick it up from there.
Escort Rep 3 Fitness 2 People 3 Savvy 1 Science 0









Friday 16 September 2011

28mm Buildings for New Beginnings and ATZ

Buildings are MicroTactix from RPGNow mounted on box wall frames from Target, 3 for $15.











Wednesday 14 September 2011

Razors Hit the Street

Here's a couple of pics of the Razors, Grath and Hishen from Acheson Creations. Nice figures in the flesh?

Sometimes it's not the figure but the picture!




Monday 12 September 2011

RALLY ROUND THE KING: ITALIAN WARS - 1494 - Part One

A historical campaign using Rally Round the King.


Rally Round the King is the fantasy mass battle rules set from Two Hour Wargames. Set up to work with any figures that are already based, units are stands of 1 to 4 figures. Although designed for fantasy battles, Rally Round the King can trace its roots back to the original Warrior Kings released in 1998. Warrior Kings was a historical set of mass battle rules and inspired the spin off Warrior Heroes in 2002 and is now RRtK.

The sweet thing about RRtK is that the armies are based on historical counterparts and if you remove the magical elements of the rules you have a solid historical game.
I decided to pull put my 15mm Italian Wars figures and put together a solo campaign that I could play at my leisure. Using the Capalan League Army List from the book, which is based on the Italian Condotta army, I pulled a map off the internet and recruited the six city states for the campaign. In the original Warrior Kings all of the diplomacy was handled by the game mechanics and the same holds true for RRtK. Basically, players are the generals with all declarations of war and enforced peace treaties being handled by rolling dice modified by the results of each battle that is fought. Win battles and your Major Morale goes up, lose and it goes down. This simple mechanic relieves the player of major book keeping so playing multiple nations is a breeze.
Deployment, army composition, generating terrain, and battle tactics for each army is handled by the rules. Here's an example of what happened to start off the campaign.
·         Spring 1494 - Each nation starts with a basic army and a number of Recruiting Rolls. The rolls will tell you what addiotnal army units you receive at the start of the year.
·         Generals were rolled for and named.
·         The each nation rolled to go to war.
·         The results were that Naples would go to war and as the only country it bordered were the Papal States that was with who they would go to war.
·         As Naples is the aggressor the battle would be fought in Papal territory. Exactly where isn’t important and could go back and forth based on who lost the battle.
·         Terrain was roiled up for the battle.
·         Battle tactics rolled up, based on the army type, in this case "C", and each side was deployed according to the result.
·         The battle starts and the battle tactics dictate how the armies move at the start.
One of my favorite things about RRtK is that you are commanding armies. All you can affect, as the general, is deployment, overall battle tactics, when to commit reserves and if and when you enter the combat itself. This means that the actual number of decisions you make for each side is small but each is very important!
Here's the basic Italian Condotta Army List. I will be writing the battle reports in two styles. Normal text will describe how the battle plays out in "real life" while the italicized text sheds a little light on the game mechanics.

The Players

Each army is commanded by a Duke. For ease of play each Duke will be named with the same first letter as the City State he commands.
·         Duke Fiori - Florence
·         Duke Michael - Milan
·         Duke Minoro - Minor States
·         Duke Nicolas - Naples
·         Duke Paolo - Papal States
·         Duke Vincente - Venice

Spring 1494

War!  It's tradition that when the winter snows melt in spring the petty princes of Italy go to war. Throughout the land word comes of the first act of aggression. Naples, to the south, has invaded the Papal States. The Pope, taking the moral high ground, sends emissaries for aid while denouncing the uncalled for aggression of Naples. As expected, no aid is sent, no denouncements are made as each City State plots their next move. 



Army Name
Major Morale
Battle Tactics
War Rating
Recruiting Rolls
Naples 1494
2
C
4
10
#
Unit Type
Class
REP
AC
SP
Figs
Cost
Recruiting Rolls
Total
2
Knights –Shock
Mtd Melee
5
6
2
3
39
4
39
4
City Knights – Shock
Mtd Melee
4
6
2
3
36
2, 3, 8, 12
72
0
Guards
Foot Melee
5
4
0
4
36
NA
0
5
City Spearmen  
Foot Melee
3
2
0
4
20
7, 10
40
2
City Crossbowmen
Foot Missile
3
2
-1
3
12
6
12
2
Contadini Infantry
Foot Melee
3
2
0
4
20
5
20
4
Contadini Archers
Foot Skirmish
3
2
-2
2
6
9, 11
12
19








195


Army Name
Major Morale
Battle Tactics
War Rating
Recruiting Rolls
Papal States 1494
2
C
3
10
#
Unit Type
Class
REP
AC
SP
Figs
Cost
Recruiting Rolls
Total
1
Knights –Shock
Mtd Melee
5
6
2
3
39
4
39
5
City Knights – Shock
Mtd Melee
4
6
2
3
36
2, 3, 8, 12
72
0
Guards
Foot Melee
5
4
0
4
36
NA
0
2
City Spearmen  
Foot Melee
3
2
0
4
20
7, 10
40
4
City Crossbowmen
Foot Missile
3
2
-1
3
12
6
12
4
Contadini Infantry
Foot Melee
3
2
0
4
20
5
20
3
Contadini Archers
Foot Skirmish
3
2
-2
2
6
9, 11
12
19








195


 
After much maneuvering and refusing of battle on the part of the Neapolitan Army, by the end of spring the two armies faced off across the shores of a large lake. The Papal Army deployed on high ground on one side of the lake with the majority of its force, mostly the knights in the center. Their idea is to absorb the initial Neapolitan attack then counter attack.
The Neapolitan commander, Duke Nicolas, was forced to make do with the terrain as spring was coming to a close. Not to have fought a battle after declaring war would have sent the wrong message home and it was more a matter of bad luck than apprehension that had caused the delay. Duke Nicholas held the Papal Commander, Duke Paolo, in such disdain that he had decided on a frontal assault in hopes of penetrating the center, killing his counterpart, and bringing the war to a quick end.
The forces were deployed and the battle followed quickly after.

 

Part Two