Battle of Hoth

The new Richard Borg game has recently landed and it seems all the cool kids have a copy (or at least 2 of my friends have and I'm counting them as the cool kids).  Using the very familiar Memoir 44/Command and Colours model this is the Battle of Hoth game, complete with snowtroopers, Speeders, and of course, AT-ATs.

I guess of all the Star Wars settings this is probably the most iconic for a large battle rather than skirmishes, and the game mechanics common to Richard Borg's games are ideal.  I'm guessing just about everyone has played one of the Borg games with cards activating squads or vehicles in the Left, Centre or Right section of the board, and special dice determining casualties or causing units to retreat.  It's one of my favourite game systems and perfect for snowy battles on Hoth.

The game is very quick to pick up and games last about 30 minutes... we managed to squeeze in 3 games comfortably in an evening, in amongst chatting.

Out initial game was the 1st scenario pitting 2 infantry patrols against each other (with a couple of probe droids on the Empire side for good measure).  We then followed this up with a Snowspeeder scenario, where the Empire come tooled up with an AT-AT  as well as infantry squads.  In all the games the Stormtroopers behaved exactly like you'd expect, repeatedly failing to hit anything thanks to some very unlucky dice rolling by Darth Andrew.  

The Snowspeeders proved really effective, zipping around and wiping out multiple Imperial squads.  The AT-AT is a tough beast, slow but powerful and very hard to damage, so I decided to ignore it completely and concentrate on the Stormtroopers.  The final game (a repeat of the Snowspeeder scenario) was very close with the Imperials almost claiming the win, but let down again by some unlucky dice... clearly I was using the Force to influence the dice rolls!

Great fun and I can see this having lots of  replayability.

1 Hour Skirmish Wargames

 

I've played a couple of games of James Lambshead's skirmish rules recently... one set in the Russian Civil War, and the other using the Ancients/Medieval version.  They're a card based system with no dice at all.  Each player has a deck including a Joker. Cards are drawn to determine initiative, to activate figures with a number of points (from 1 for an Ace to 13 for a King) and to resolve shooting, melee and morale.  Drawing a Joker ends the turn and players go through their card decks pretty quickly.  But this does mean turn length is unpredictable and figures may activate multiple times or not at all in each turn

 I failed to take any photos of the RCW game (always a sign of a good game!) but remembered when we played a 2nd game last night.  The original book goes from the 17thC onwards, including rules for Pulp and SciFi games.  The 2nd book takes it back to Ancients through to Medieval times.

In the 1st game my Bolsheviks attempted to overrun some dug-in British Interventionist troops.  The turn limit meant I really needed to press home the attack.  Hand to Hand combat gives an advantage to the attacker, but instead I got drawn into a long range firefight which got me nowhere and gave the British the victory.

The Ancients/Medieval version is very similar but with enough differences to cause us some initial confusion.  In this version there's an extra step where your opponents  armour makes it easier to hit them but they're more likely to shrug off the attack.  Cavalry also have some advantages in combat and can also break off freely from a melee with infantry, ready to charge again.

As you'd expect from Skirmish rules the scenarios are quite themed and detailed... no simple encounters here.  They range from battles among rocks to a Robin Hood tax collector raid.

In the original Napoleonic scenario the French and British are squabbling over an abandoned cannon.  We shifted the action slightly... a Saxon raiding party have stolen Arthur's  cows and Aelswine the prize pig.  These have stubbornly ground to a halt  in the middle of the table, allowing Arthur and his troops to catch up.  We stuck with the victory conditions from the original scenario in which the Saxons have to end the game with at least 1 figure within 6" of the animals, while the Britons have to drive them off.  In hindsight this was never going to work... it really needed the firepower the Napoleonic setting would have brought, or for us to start much closer (games are usually 3'x3' or 4'x4').  My fault for not thinking the scenario through.

The Saxons sensibly drew back, maximising the distance and, although Arthur and his knights charged home they weren't able to make much headway.  The scenarios have a tight turn limit (5 turns in this case) and it didn't help that my 1st card was a Joker, meaning turn #1 was over before we'd moved!  Despite this I enjoyed the game.  

The rules work well.  The armour rules mean that light troops are still effective... often in games like this they are spear-fodder but their nimbleness means they are actually very effective, although if they fail to dodge then it's game over.  Cavalry feel right... charging, pulling back and charging home again.  So with a better chosen scenario these are definitely on the regular gaming list.  Next might be something a bit more modern....

Therapy stickers

 I've been very demotivated with painting  and organising figures recently... I go through phases of this from time to time but lately it's been a real issue.  I've got some figures out to paint and then they sit looking sadly at me and making me feel guilty for not picking up the brush. It'll be back in the box for a while for them I think.

In an attempt to make a little progress I decided to have a go at sorting out the wooden tiles used in Commands & Colours: Medieval.  When I bought a second hand copy recently I also got the Crusades expansion.  The previous owner had kindly put the stickers on all the core game tiles but hadn't played the game, and hadn't touched the Crusades set... maybe the hours of stickering and organising had left them with no enthusiasm for the game.  So last night I stuck on some music...Public Service Broadcasting since you asked...

...and began sorting out the different tiles by size and colour, and then the long job of applying the stickers.  And it was just what I needed!  Turns out it's a very mindful, relaxing activity... sort the cubes apply the sticker... make sure it's straight (my ASD tendencies meant that was really important!)...occasionally stroke a dog and ask him if he thinks the stickers look straight...

Yay... more stickering tonight!