Black Seas: first try out

 I had a long overdue game with my friend Andrew last week and we decided to dig out my Napoleonic ships.  A while ago... actually nearly 4 years ago!!  I painted and rigged some of the Warlord Games ships that they produced for Black Seas.  These were mainly the freebie Frigates and Brigs that came with Wargames Illustrated but I'd added a few 3rd rate ships to bolster my fleet

Their last outing was about 3 years ago (I'm always amazed how time flies by... I'd assumed it was much more recent) when we tried out Post Captain.  These are a very detailed set of rules from ODGW who produce General Quarters.  I liked the rules but they are very detailed and not to everyone's taste.  A while ago I managed to pick up a very cheap starter set of Black Seas but hadn't had a chance to try them out.  So, it was time to hoist the sails, splice the mainbrace and swab a deck or 2.

I think naval rules are difficult to get right... either you go for a very detailed, granular approach like Post Captain, or a simplified but playable approach (and risk oversimplifying things and losing the flavour of the period).  A simpler approach is very much what Black Seas does.  It's very like the WW2 game Cruel Seas with ships making 1, 2 or 3 moves depending on their speed with simple turning and tacking rules.  Speed  is dependent on your angle to the wind and is indicated by a wake marker that sits under the model in a simple but effective way.

We went for an easy starter game with a Frigate and a Brig each and didn't add in the range of optional rules which are included... apart from fire, because setting a ship on fire is always fun!

In the first couple of turns I was able to concentrate both my ships fire on Andrew's unlucky Brig which took a battering and quickly struck its colours.  We made a mistake about when to test for morale here so it surrendered more quickly than it should have but we kept this consistent for the rest of the game so it didn't make a huge difference.

Damage in Black.Seas is handled very simply... heavy and light guns cause a fixed amount of damage while carronades cause a bit more but only at shorter ranges.  There are rules for different types of shot etc.  There's always the chance of a critical as well.  Despite losing his Brig, Andrew had been slowly causing hits on my Frigate, managing to cross my T at one point and inflicting extra raking damage.  In exchange I'd managed to cause a fire on his ship but annoyingly he quickly doused this.

Perfect raking fire

A lucky shot starts a fire on the French ship

Both of us were becoming increasingly damaged and some poor steering on my part led to a collision, and both ships struck their colours leaving my Brig to claim the honours.

Crunch!

A good game and I was very impressed with the rules... I think the strike a good balance between detail and playability

Mythic Commander

A friend recently posted on FB about a new set of rules from Modiphius Games which looked very tempting... so much so that I immediately ordered a set.  Unusual for me as I'm usually way behind the curve on new things.

Mythic Commander is a new set of grid based fantasy combat rules... very much a sandbox style of rules that can be tailored to all sorts of settings. 

The game comes in a slim (44 pages) rulebook with all the cards, tokens and counters you'll need, including  top down counters for units including infantry, cavalry, chariots, siege weapons, commanders and (because this is a fantasy game) wizards and monsters.  It also includes a double sided playmat.   When I bought the game I was also sent the pdfs for all the components so it would be easy to replace anything or add to your armies.

The game owes a lot to Modiphius' Airfix Battles which is no bad thing.  Players hold a hand of cards to boost tactics attacks, movement  etc as well as spells if you have fielded Magicians.  There are several schools of magic to choose from so you can suit the theme of your army (eg fire, nature,  death, etc)

The grid based movement and combat is simple but very effective and both of us quickly picked up the game without too many mistakes.  

What I really liked was the huge range of perks, special abilities, weapons etc that you can vary the basic units with. As this was our first game we kept it very vanilla, and it would be easy to overload  a game with too many optional extras.  But, it does mean that with a little work you can field armies that reflect your favourite fantasy setting... it would be very easy to adapt the starting troops to a Lord of the Rings theme for example.  And of course, if you drop the magical elements then historical armies would work really well.  The game themes its armies into 7 cultures eg Skillful, Barbaric, etc.   The versions we fielded felt very like Romans vs Britons with some magic thrown in.

My only criticism would be that some of the components such as the card decks are pretty flimsy.  On the plus side though there are a good assortment of counters to mark damage and to remind you who needs to take a morale test each turn.

Definitely recommended... it has a lot of potential as a toolbox and would make a great travel game: everything fits into a plastic wallet and is very portable 

Colours 2023

Off to Colours on Saturday... one of the hottest days of the year, so a long-ish, hot drive complete with queues on the motorway.  Newbury is a bit of a nightmare with side roads closed near the race course.  I spent a lot of time going round in circles trying to find a route to the correct car park and was hot and stressed by the time I arrived.  So much so that when I walked into the busy main hall I had to immediately turn round and go and sit outside for 10 minutes while the mild panic attack subsided (not just brought on by the event... there are some work and family things which are adding to the stress).  

One of the Newbury club members said they'd had a lot of complaints about the lack of clear directions on their website... to be fair the roadworks aren't their fault but a heads up would have been handy 

I usually think the stereotype of sweaty wargamer smell is a bit of a myth but it certainly wasn't on Saturday!  Given the heat and humidity and the crowds it was a bit inevitable I guess...

The show itself was ok... I think a combination of the heat and my mood meant I was a bit underwhelmed.  I only took a couple of photos even though there were some good-looking games there (including a particularly nice Vietnam game which I failed to photograph), so here are my very limited snaps...

Great looking 2mm Strength and Honour game

Nagashino 1575 by the Newbury club

I had a nice chat with Mark Backhouse, author of the Strength & Honour rules and picked up some painting tips for tiny figures.  My haul from the show was also fairly modest...

I got this for a fiver in the bring & buy... I'm a big fan of the Steve Jackson Games metagame series.

2mm Roman troops... this is a bit of an experiment but I think the effect looks great in games like Strength and Honour

Teenie-weenie legions

I've heard lots of good things about these so another set of rules added to the collection

A decent discount on some paints