Battle Ravens

 

This week Anthony offered me a game of Battle Ravens which I've played once or twice before, but not for years (it came out in 2019 so probably around then).  The game, by Dan Mersey, is a clever take on Shieldwall battles which involves no movement with forces lined up toe to toe.

Each player has a pool of 20 tokens which are allocated to 6 squares, each containing a number of stands of figures.  These can be used to either attack, defend, or move a stand to a neighbouring square.  Each player also has 4 Thralls, who can be used to allow a re-roll, and a hand of 5 cards which allow some special tactics.  And that's pretty much it!  It sounds very simple but requires a lot of thought in deciding where to assign the tokens and how to use them.

The Vikings and Saxons... nose to nose

The other challenge is that if you manage to defeat all the stands in an opposing square then your opponent loses 3 of their precious tokens and a Thrall and this quickly makes things increasingly tough.  Interestingly the units that win and break through are also then out of the game... I guess they're assumed to be busy pillaging and slaughtering!  

The lack of manoeuvrability and control feels very Dark Ages and there's a lot of thought required about where the tokens go and how to use them.

For our game we didn't use the card stands which are supplied. But Anthony's lovely 54mm Vikings and Saxons which looked really impressive.

Dont call me Scarface!

 Last week our regular gaming evening g was down to 3 players so we were treated to a game of Scarface 1920, which was produced in 2023 by Redzen Games.

I've played this once before but this was at least a year ago so I was very hazy on the rules.  Luckily YouTube is a handy resource for playthroughs and I'd partially got up to speed before we played.  It's a worker placement style game with rival families vying for control of (I assume) Chicago which is divided up into districts.  Each district can host a number of businesses (casinos, brothels, speakeasies and nightclubs) and can switch hands or be raided by the police.

As usual with these games, the components are lovely with a range of Thugs and Boss miniatures for each family, as well as high quality cards etc.

It's a fun game which, despite having lots of options and ways to play, is actually quite intuitive once you get going.  The only real goal is to have the most money, but of course there are numerous ways to achieve this, and building the right 'engine' is key.   To be fair my opponents were taking it pretty easy with me and didn't ruthlessly wipe me out straight away!  As expected I came last despite controlling a couple of districts... there were definitely opportunities raise my income that I'd missed .   Definitely one to play again.

Abaddon hope all ye who enter here...

Apologies... that's a terrible pun...

A different game this week courtesy of my friend Anthony and one of never heard of before...Abaddon by Richard Borg.

Borg, of course, needs no introduction... Battle Cry, Memoir 44, Battle of Britain, Commands & Colours, Battlelore and many more classics all came from him (incidentally I recently discovered my 1st ed. set of Battlelore in the loft... I was sure I'd sold it years ago!!)  Boardgamegeek lists 136 games and expansions (including the classic Bob the Builder Build it and Win It card game!!) that he's had a hand in.  Anthony and I were both of the view that the format of most of Memoir44/C&C etc is an ideal structure, especially for quick evening games that are tactically reasonably challenging, but which are simple enough to pick up.

This weeks game, Abaddon is a kind of grimdark/battletechy version of Memoir 44... sort of.  I'd never heard of it, and it certainly doesn't seem to have taken off in the way that some of the other Borg games have.  Each player has a force of Mechs, ranging from lighter Recon mechs, to big stompy ones, as well as some infantry.  The models are fine and the bases conveniently have stats printed on the for movement, dice type and armour as well as slots which hold damage counters.

Like Memoir 44 etc, the game uses special dice with symbols on them... unlike the other Borg games however, these aren't used for damage but are rolled to see who activates each turn.  There are also cards but, again, their role is slightly different to the usual order cards.  These are Weapon System cards which are needed to attack/defend or to give special attacks etc.  These need to be carefully managed though as they aren't automatically replenished.  You can opt not to use them but and just rely on armour instead.

We played the easiest intro scenario and straight away I took a gamble on using one of my precious cards... in this case a rather deadly Doomsday Bolt which, while it requires a 'Command' result to come up on the dice and then only has a 1 in 6 chance of success, immediately destroyed one of Anthony's mechs!!  We then had a couple of turns of manoeuvre before I was able to combine fire onto another enemy mech (I think they are referred to as Links in the game) and destroyed it.  To be fair my card hand was pretty good and definitely gave me more options than Anthony's

It's a nice game and its curious that it didn't take off.  We're planning to try one of the more advanced scenarios at some point so it'll be interesting to see what that adds to the game.

Everything in Moderation

At the weekend I put up a post about Salute which was mainly about how I found the day plus photos etc.  I mentioned how nice it was to see how diverse the audience is compared with a few years ago including more younger people, women, and I also happened to mention that there were more people who appeared to be non-binary or trans.

Clearly for a handful of people this was like a red rag to a bigot bull.  I've had daily anonymous posts arguing that trans women  aren't women etc and celebrating the controversial Supreme Court ruling in the UK. These weren't reasoned debates but ranty, 'ooh everything's gone woke' strops.  And then followed up with posts getting upset when I deleted the comments claiming there was 1984 style censorship going on.

So, sadly, for the 1st time in over 10 years, I've had to turn on Moderation for comments.  It's sad that the anti-trans sentiment seemed to be the main takeaway for some people from a  lengthy post about the biggest wargames show in the UK. 

Just to be clear, I accept people have wide ranging views on this subject and that it can sometimes be tricky to have a nuanced discussion, but I'm certainly not providing a platform for bigots to spout their reactionary views.  So for now I'm afraid there will be a bit of moderating going on until they get bored and go and shout at someone else.

Salute loot

So now my feet have just about recovered from a day at Salute (18km according to my Garmin, but that includes some dog walking), what did I come home with?

My main purchase was the new starter set for the Guards of Traitor's Toll.  This is a 'semi-cooperative' game with players controlling city watch officers and tackling different missions... it seems to have a Terry Pratchett Nightwatch feel and comes from the same stable as Test of Honour.  These seemed to be selling like hotcakes, as did the new Baron's War starter set.  More on this once I've had a chance to look through it all.

It's a well packed box!

36 miniatures with a lot of bits to customise them

Inevitably, special dice...

I also decided to nab a 3'x3' mat from Deep.Cut Studios... a lot of the smaller skirmishy games I play use this size playing area so this should be handy 

And a book, but I was picking this up for a friend...

And that was it.  In the Salute bag was the usual freebie figure... in this case a Napoleonic one, a dice, and a free sprue from the Quar range from Wargames Atlantic.  These are alien figures which look like a cross between a mole, an anteater and a Clanger.  I've eyed these up a few times and liked the look of the painted figures on display.  I was gifted someone else's sprue as well as they didn't want theirs so I should be able make about 6 Quar... I have a horrible feeling this is a slippery slope!

These were on the display game at Salute... hopefully mine will look as good

Mythic Commander

Played a game of this last night against my son.  Haven't played for ages but it's quick to pick up and games are easily playable in an hour or 2.

It came out a couple of years ago from Modiphius and is a quick and simple sandbox type fantasy game with top down unit counters on a gridded mat.  If you've played their Airfix Battles game it'll seem quite familiar.

There are 7 themed armies in the rulebook: rather than labelling them by the usual fantasy races, they're described by their characteristics so eg there is a Skilful army list which is clearly meant to be Elvish, or a Stalwart army which sounds a bit Dwarfish, but these could be tweaked to suit other setting.  There are then lots of additional characteristics which make it very adaptable to different fantasy or historical settings.

We pitched my Resilient army (which seemed quite a balanced traditional medieval style army... pretty solid but not too speedy) against my sons Brutal (Orcs/Barbarians... powerful and fast but poor in defence).  Early turns were cagey which let me manoeuvre my solid centre of Warrior units into a good defensive position and to cause some damage with my Archers.  My son did a fair bit damage to my knights but wasn't able to take advantage of his army's speed and paid the price for it.

One thing we found is that the spell choice can be quite significant.  Each player has a hand of tactical Command cards but also has the option of fielding a Mage who can choose from 1 of 6 spell lists.  We allocated these randomly to each side and I ended up with the very helpful Life spells which let me do lots of healing.  My son was lumbered with Divination which is useful in helping you gain initiative or additional Command Cards but lacks the punch of the other schools of magic.

It's a neat little game and I've always been surprised Modiphius have never made more of it.

Salute 2025

 

1st Salute in 6 years!!  Actually, that's not quite true... in 2021 I was at the post-Covid Salute which was an odd affair.  I was also helping with a participation game at that one, so didn't spend much time wandering around the games and stalls, so I don't think that one really counts.  Since then I missed a couple, so this was my first time back at a 'normal' Salute.

The show has certainly changed since my 1st time back in the 80s, or even over the last 10-15 years.  Eric the Shed and I reflected on this over a coffee part-way through the day, trying not to sound like two curmudgeonly old men!  As always there were the visually impressive big games which tended (with some exceptions) to be historical, but it felt like these are increasingly in the minority.  The growing trend has been for a lot more smaller games, often tasters for new games run by companies andnoften, but not always, witha fantasy/SF flavour.  The shift towards smaller, skirmishy-type games quite suits me but I do still hark back to the visually impressive big games (not that size is everything!).  I did feel that some of the big historical games looked a little forlorn amongst the buzz of the smaller games.  Some suffered from the perennial problem of being a bunch of mates putting on a game but not really interacting with the public... there were some good exceptions to this though.

The other change is in the make up of the attendees.  It's been changing over the years but I was really struck this year but just how diverse it was... lots more women, lots more younger people, and a noticeably larger number of non-binary/trans people.  All of which is a great thing.  If you had any doubts about the future of gaming as a hobby, Salute would put your mind at ease.  The games may not always be 'my games' but there's no doubt that the wider hobby is in safe hands.  (and now I do sound like a old man!!)

Any way, as is traditional, here is a dump of photos that I took.  As always I've forgotten who put most of them on so apologies to the clubs who worked so hard and that I haven't credited.  Also as always, when I've looked at other blogs or FB or BlueSky posts etc, I'm struck by how many games I missed completely!!

the queue at around 10.30am... it was moving fast though and we had the 'pleasure' of being serenaded by a bagpiper (the theme of the show was Highlanders)

Playtest of Lust for Glory... 18thC rules from Big Red Bat

I think these were the new Wargames Atlantic 10mm fantasy figures

Based on the 70s film 'Zeppelin' apparently

Omaha Beach in 6mm(?)

Very impressive game using the Wofun flats

Excellent looking 2mm Strength and Honour game

Game of Thrones

Quar

Big (really big!) stompy robot things... I think this is GW based but not entirely sure... looked impressive though

Brandy for the Parson... smuggling game with an overacting judge!

Really nice Bryan Ansell-tribute games of Laserburn

The terrain was all deliberately scratch built from bits and bits in an old-school nod to Laserburn's origins

The hall halfway through the day. It was busier than this suggests but it was nice to have some open spaces around the hall

VBCW with cricket

Bushido

What a Tanker

Trangen 1808.. Swedes on skis...

Big War of the Ring siege

The Baron's War... this seemed to be selling like hot cakes

I'll do a post in a bit on my (relatively modest) Salute haul