Cry Havoc!

Many of us (of a certain age... and I'm guessing most readers of this blog are of a certain age...) will remember Cry Havoc from Standard Games which came out in 1981.

I played quite a bit of this when I was at Uni, avoiding lectures.  It's a great medieval skirmish game... very simple and ideal for creating your own scenarios.  It was followed by Siege, which I never played but always thought sounded intriguing, and then Samurai, Crusader and Viking versions.

Back in April Footsore Miniatures launched a Kickstarter to launch a rebooted version which arrived yesterday.  They very deliberately kept all the components the same, but with reworked artwork (very much in the original style) and with better production values.   Steve Beckett, the graphic designer, has previously worked on the Beano and the Dandy... if only there was a Sir Dan the Desperate character!! 

I imagine it must have been tempting to add in the usual Kickstarter extras, especially for a company that makes miniatures which could have been added in.  I think they made a very conscious decision to stick to the original game and lean heavily into the nostalgia market.  It definitely worked... the project was funded very quickly and, unusually for a KS it was turned round and delivered 2 months from funding!  Of course it would be very easy to use your own figures in place of the counters.  It does also mean that if you own the originals they're all pretty compatible.

It looks great... there are 3 booklets included.  The rulebook and Scenario booklets are only 16 pages long each and there is a 12 page Historical info booklet.  The counters are double sided with live and dead characters ranging from Knights to Peasants and some sundries like carts etc for certain scenarios.  The maps are also simple but very effective.  It comes with the originals plus 2 new maps.

Looking forward to trying this out.  And it'll be interesting to see if they release updated versions of the other games in the original series.  They've hinted this might be on the cards so fingers crossed...

Commands and Colours: Medieval

 

Recently I've played quite a few games using variants of the Commands & Colours rules, and each time we've come away remarking that they pretty much always work really well for different periods, and tick the box of providing a simple but challenging game that reflects the period well.  Crucially there are enough similarities across the games that we can pick them up quickly (even if inevitably we forget a few rules on the night!).  There's nothing worse than spending half the evening explaining rules, clarifying points, forgetting to explain other rules, fumbling through a few turns and then finding the evenings over!  It's also why we often play Hail Caesar/Pike and Shotte/Black Powder as a rules 'family'.

Inspired by the C&C games Anthony and I have been playing recently I'd cast my eye on eBay and BGG and spotted a real bargain available with a set of the Medieval version of C&C plus last year's Crusades expansion at a really cheap price.   In fact the seller had helpfully stickered all the blocks in the main set but it was otherwise unplayed, and the Crusades supplement was brand new!

So last week we tried out one of the scenarios from the base game.  The rules suggest starting with the battle of Thannuris so off we went to the dusty plains of the Sassanian border.  In this battle Belisarius has been sent out to deal with the Sassanians who have disrupted some building work.  2 of the Byzantine commanders have been a bit over-enthusiastic and are positioned ahead of the main army, making them a nice target.  In the actual battle they were overrun and this forced Belisarius to retreat.

The rules are mostly the same as C&C Ancients but cavalry are able to ignore some hits from infantry, and heavy troops from medium/lights, medium from lights etc.  This means cavalry become very powerful... both in terms of heavy hitting Cataphracts, but also speedy Light Cavalry who can evade and fire using the Parthian Shot rule.   Commanders also have a pool of points which can used for some special 'Inspired Actions' some of which are specific to different armies

I was the unnamed Sassanid general and tried to recreate the historical outcome by concentrating on the exposed troops on my right... my left flank barely moved during the game but did take some pot shots at the Byzantines. I succeeded in battering the isolated units but at quite a cost, meaning we were fairly close all the way through the game.  Anthony then cunningly began to hound a couple of my Light Cavalry, forcing them back.  Light Cavalry are very nimble which is great but it also means that when they retreat, they tend to go a looong way back and I kept getting pressed back to the board edge, losing blocks and ultimately enough units to hand a close victory to the Byzantines.

It's an interesting choice of period for the publishers to have gone with... probably not what most people would think of when they think of 'Medieval'... but interesting with the focus on cavalry and the clash of light horse versus heavy knights.  Really enjoyed the games and looking forward to trying more of the scenarios and the Crusaders

It's the Snowpocalypse!!!!

I'm updating my blog from the snowy wastes of Surrey where we're in the grip of 2" of snow and have been largely cut off from the outside world.  The Tesco Express next door has row upon row of empty shelves [not even an horse burger to be seen...] and we may have to eat the dog if they aren't restocked soon [... only kidding... he's too skinny, we'll have to eat my son instead!]

It's the annual weekend of snow that we get here and everything grinds to a halt... this is where I should go into a rant about how it wasn't like this when I was young/ they're all southern softies down here in Surrey/ everyone's hysterical etc, but actually I've been mainly preoccupied by the fact that our heating and hot water packed in and it was bloody freezing!!!  We now have heat but not hot water but at least I can grab a shower at work so it's not too bad.

The snow has meant a quiet weekend though so there was a chance to do some more work on my Saxons [see... I really am trying to stick to my plan!]  I've built 20 of my Gripping Beast plastic Saxons and had part-painted them last year so wanted to try and get them finished.  They're now painted and had an ink wash and just need to bases finished off.  Somewhere I have some shield transfers for these and for my Vikings but I couldn't find them anywhere so have had to give them some rather boring shield patterns.  Hopefully the transfers are in a box in the loft and I'll be able to track them down for the next batch as they really did make a difference to the Viking shields.

Saxon Warlord and Standard bearer

 

 



 



 

 

 

On another note I saw that Warlord Games have reduced the price of some of their rule books in the last week or so.  I decided to order a set of Hail Caesar at the reduced price of £20.  One of my quests has been to try and find a decent set of rules for my Italian Condotta and Swiss armies.  I originally used these with DBM but it's a rule system I struggle to love although I really do like DBA!

 

I've tried FoG which is the Ancient/Medieval rule du jour at the club but again struggled to get along with it.  I quite enjoyed them but never really felt like I knew what was going on [... nothing unusual there!]. 

 

I've also been having a look at some of the Perfect Captain rules  [ http://perfectcaptain.50megs.com/captain.html ], especially Strongbow and A Coat of Steel to see if these could suit the early Renaissance period.  I'm a big fan of Black Powder though so Hail Caesar seemed like a good bet for the Italians and Swiss.  I'll let you know how I get on.