Alliance of Awesomeness Issue #1: What moths wait in the woods?

I'm hoping there will be a lot of these posts this year. One of my goals for 2019 was to play around with the Clobberin' Time rules and come up with some add-ons, and a slightly altered activation system. Well, I have done drafts of both of these things, so now it is time to playtest.

The cover to issue #1

The idea is that every game represents an issue, complete with villain, sub-plot etc. For the first issue of the Alliance of Awesomeness, the scenario proved to be a Megalomaniac attempting a kidnap in the jungle somewhere. The initial roll for sub-plots resulted in 2 characters in the Alliance being affected. Tiger Girl rolled antipathy, which meant a dislike for a random team-mate, who turned out to be Leather Lass. Leather Lass herself rolled a sub-plot, which was unrequited love for a team-mate who was - you guessed it, Tiger Girl. Obviously Tiger Girl is less than enthusiastic about Leather Lass' crush on her. All sub-plots have an effect in game terms, but at the same time they are there to build on the characters and create their story as well.

On with out game. Somewhere in the Central American jungles of Los Nachos, President El Guano is travelling in a motorcade to his capital from an inspection of his poppy farms (ugh, so stereotypical). The villain Mothron, determined to set up a base for world conquest in Los Nachos decides to kidnap the President so that he can brainwash him into accepting his plans. The Alliance of Awesomeness, have been made aware of this by a tracker that they had placed on one of the Mothmen in a previous encounter, and have arrived in Los Nachos to uncover and foil the plot. Now read on...

The ambush is prepared. A fallen tree across the road - an oldie, but a goodie.

First on the scene is Tiger Girl, followed by Aphid and the Converter. A Mothman is dispatched to hold them up, but he misses Tiger Girl and is taken down by Aphid's bio-blast.

Tiger Girl rushes ahead to try to reach the motorcade. On the way she makes short work of a Mothman, sent to stop her.

Anbush sprung! The lead car is taken out and Mothron eyes the Presidential car.

Tiger Girl takes out another Mothman, but Mothron has managed to grab President El Guano. Will he escape?

As Mothron flies off with the President Converter and Aphid both try to take him down with power blasts.

ZAPP!!! Converter is successful. Mothron falls to the ground unconscious. The president is also knocked out.

Things aren't finished yet though. The ambitious Moth-captain makes a grab for the president's unconscious body. He is, however, surrounded. Will he be able to escape?

In the end he is caught by Leather Lass, who puts in a power punch. The president is saved!

A successful mission accomplished by the Alliance of Awesomeness!

Mothron was taken to prison in the US, along with his captured accomplices. But who knows how many other Mothmen there are in his organisation ready to carry on his work? 

President El Guano offered the Alliance a lifetime supply of tacos, which the Converter only too gladly accepted. 

This was a good game. The activation system worked well and the action flowed quite well. I was a bit worried at the beginning as Tiger Girl carved her way through the opposition by herself, but once the President was kidnapped and the action moved, the team came into its own.Lather Lass's sub-plot never came into use, but Tiger Girl's saw her reactivating a couple of times, which added to what she achieved in this game, screaming ahead of her team-mates to try and win the game on her own.

A New Year begins...

With a new project of course!
The first painting of 2019 welcomes the first unit of Roman Legionaries for my Caesarian army:

Painted simply, with washes and a highlight

The decals came with these Warlord Games figures and are quite nice.

No eyes! New Years resolution.

The plan is to build armies for Clash of Empires. I am a Warhammer Ancient Battles fan from way back, and I did think about building armies for those rules. But I picked up their successors, Clash of Empires from Great Escape Games and War and Conquest from Scarab Miniatures to do a comparison. I felt that War and Conquest was just a little too different, despite amazing numbers of army lists and online support. But Clash of Empires did everything I could want. It removed the 'hero-hammer' aspect of WAB so that the focus was more on historical units, and it also changed the order of hitting to: hit roll - armour save - wound; which makes far more sense than Warhammer's sequence. The downside is that although there are a number of army lists for CoE, they are not nearly as comprehensive as WAC. So I have based my two Marian armies on the Early Imperial Legions with some input from the Spartacus era lists. I have two 2500 point armies, one for Caesar and one for Pompey, and Craig has put together a Seleucid army which I will be painting for him so I don't always have to game this period solo.

End of 2019 gaming

Dan came over from Australia at Xmas, as noted in the previous post, and we played some games.
First up was and American Civil War Black Powder game:

Initial deployment had one brigade each on the table.

The combat for the bridge which was worth a victory point

Trouble at t'mill

Preparing to retake the bridge

Sorry these aren't full battle reports. It was a couple of weeks ago...

We then played Muskets and Tomahawks for the first time, and really enjoyed the game. No photos because the figures weren't painted, only undercoated in white, and looked like a bunch of ghosts chasing each other around the forest.

A couple of days later Dan rejoined us at the beach and we played a few more games. A game of The Great War (from PSC) which was really good. I'm planning on playing a lot more Commands and Colors games this year.

Then we broke out the Ancient Fantasy, complemented by Lego terrain:

Soldiers of the Eagle vs Crazy Celts. The Chieftain is already charging off by himself like a maniac!

Shieldwall!

The rest of the Celtic army is moping around down the back.

Really proud of my lego temple in the background there...

We played four games with various forces. Dan got the hang of it quickly and in the last game used the gladiator force against the Greeks. I think I killed a gladiator while he wiped me off the board...

2018 Wrap-up

Doing a tally of my painting from last year I've arrived at the following totals:
28mm = 278 infantry, 27 cavalry, 3 artillery, 11 vehicles (all Star Wars Legion)
15mm = 431 infantry, 69 cavalry, 14 artillery and 45 vehicles (mostly Team Yankee)
Other = 10 x 54mm infantry, 1 x 1/2400 ship, 5 x 1/300 ironclads

A good deal of the painting for myself was DBA, Team Yankee or American Civil War 15mm, although towards the end of the year I was starting to get through some of the 28mm Marlburians. For others, I painted the most for Craig - Team Yankee Soviets, Star Wars Legion - and some odds and sods for Geoff.
In terms of my goals for 2018, these were kept quite simple - a Russian 7 Years War army, the 1914 Austrian and Russian armies and the American Civil War. Well, I achieved the last one, but the Seven Years War collection made way for the chance to concentrate on Team Yankee, and the 1914 project is shelved (in fact boxed and in the attic).

I had 37 blog posts last year, my worst tally yet, but it has often been a trade off between actually doing the hobby and blogging about it as other aspects of life have become intrusive of hobby time (I'm looking at you Ministry of Education). It has also limited the amount of comments that I have made on blogs, as I tend to visit, skim and move on. Rest assured that if you're in my blogroll, I am  visiting your blog regularly, even if I'm not always commenting. Blogger needs a 'like' function...

2019 Plans

Looking ahead, what are my goals for this year? Again, I'll keep it simple and restricted to 2 large, 2 medium, and 2 mini projects.
1. 28mm Roman Civil War using the Clash of Empires rules.
2. 28mm War of Spanish Succession using Black Powder.
3. 28mm Vikings and Anglo-Danes for SAGA
4. 28mm Greeks for Mortal Gods
5. 28mm Chaos Marines for 40K Killteam
6. 28mm Napoleonics for Song of Drums and Shakos (skirmish)

Yes, all 28mm, and I'll be needing to get some terrain sorted for the Dark Ages in particular. Added to this is some 15mm Samurai for Samurai Battles, the Commands and Colors game set in the Sengoku Jidai.
In order to keep myself on track, Dan and I have come up with a challenge. Each week we'll set ourselves a painting goal, and if we achieve it, that will be one point. There's no specific amount that has to be painted, it could be a whole unit or it could be one figure - we'll judge by how busy we are and make it realistic. The idea is just to maintain some painting momentum, even when things get crazy.

All converted from the DBA armies. The basing has been altered since and represents the number of dice rolled and the movement abilities of the various troop types.

Finally, should I get any exttra time (which I'm sure I won't), there is this little project in the wings as well:

Viva la revolucion!

I also aim to get in some Bolt Action gaming with my Kiwis and Fallschirmjager, and some games of Commands and Colors in its various forms. I haven't played Bolt Action 2 yet, so it will be interesting to see how the game works.

Another plan for this year is to work on the Clobberin' Time rules. I've jotted down some ideas for a scenario generator and a side plot selector, and I've been giving more thought to the card activation and teams vs one powerful villain scenarios. I've got an idea in mind that just needs a playtest.

I would like to get closer to my previous 50-60 posts for this year, but it depends on how busy things get again. I've put in place an ambitious hobby programme for one year, and the blog will always be sacrificed for actual painting or gaming.

Nate

Christmas loot

So sitting here on Boxing Day I thought I'd share my wargaming haul. This has been courtesy of friends and family.

Dan came over from Oz and brought all of his first edition SAGA books to use. John and Mike both still have the first edition rules, so we'll stick with that. But alongside it he also brought two Norman starter armies that he picked up on sale, the Maximilian rules and 4 cars to go with them, and the Great War boardgame that uses the Commands and Colors system, which he figured he'd never get around to playing. I'm pretty blown away, I'd been planning on getting the Great War game at some stage, but then it went OOP waiting for the centenary edition (which is now out). Now I just need the tank and French expansions - expect to see them turn up here this year!

 From Craig I got two British snipers in ghillie suits for Bolt Action (on the left) and Glenn sent me Chancellor Palpatine and 2 Droids on STAPs for my Star Wars collection. All very much appreciated.

From the family I received Black Powder II, and after much thought this is going to be my main Marlburian ruleset. Something that others at the club have played and are familiar with. I also got some wargaming classics - Advanced Wargames and Solo Wargaming from Donald Featherstone, Charles GRant's the Wargame and a reprint made by Athena Books of Peter Young's Charge!. So a real mix of Old School and new school games.

Black Powder II is very pretty

I only have the PDF of Black Powder I, so a new hardback was well justified.

Dan stayed for a couple of days and we got some games played, (more on that later) but Christmas has had a bit of a shadow hanging over it because my octogenarian Dad had a fall and has been in hospital since the 22nd with brain bleeds. He seems to be pretty good, but has to be under observation. This has meant a rush trip to Auckland, and probably more coming up. So apologies to Glenn for not being in touch over the arrival of the figures, I'll be in touch in the New Year.

Otherwise I hope everyone else is having an enjoyable festive season and eating and drinking to their hearts content, with a few little goodies to add to the lead/plastic pile.

Nate

Finally getting back to it

The last few weeks I've been doing a bit of extra contract work, so had to hang up my paintbrushes. I managed to get them out again at the beginning of this week and paint some figures for Craig so that I could get them to him before Xmas.

These are the Warlord Games Last Levy

Really characterful figures

Which I enjoyed painting a lot.

And some additional elements for the DBA Carthaginians so that he has some options.

I'm using more washes in my painting of 28s, and I've finally given up on eyes. I've started my Marlburian collection with eyes, so I'm not sure if I'll continue with them, but my ancients project next year is starting from scratch and will be effectively blind. I'm not too sure if my brushes are just not good enough or if my hand-eye co-ordination is going, but my last few attempts at painting eyes have given the goggle-eyed terrors to my troops.

Nate

Secure the Bridge

I managed to get in a small game with all of my painted Spanish Succession units today. Just two infantry and two cavalry units a side, I figured a race to secure a bridge might be a good scenario to play out.

Height of the battle

 The background to games is always important to me, and I like to have a narrative behind the fighting. In this case the Allies are racing north to secure a bridge over the river. The crossing is guarded by a unit of Dragoons, and the Bourbon forces are a step behind the Allies, who snuck out of camp at night.

Forces:
Bourbon (all Spanish)
Mahoney Dragoons
Granada Nuevo Cavalry
Seville 'Old Purples'
Burgos 'Old Blues'

Allies
Zinzendorf Dragoons (Spanish)
Killigrew's Dragoons (English)
Rivers' Foot (English)
St. Amant (Dutch)

Spanish Mahoney Dragoons deploy next to the bridge, while the Allied Zinzendorf arrive on the left of the picture.

 The Spanish decided to cross the bridge and delay the enemy on the far side of the river. (the option was a 50/50 call on a % dice throw). It proved to be an inspired choice.

The Mahoney Dragoons cross the bridge.

 The Allies got reserves on a roll of 3+ in the first turn. The Spanish on a 6. Every turn the number decreased, but if the road was blocked, then the reserves would have to wait until the following turn. Friction would not be the Allied friend in this game.

The British Dragoons arrive, but at the same time as the Granada Nuevo Regiment, just visible in the top left corner.

As the Mahoney dragoons leave the bridge in march column the Zinzendorf dragoons form up, prepared to charge.

But the Spanish get the first move in the next turn, and the dragoons form up just in time to repulse the Allied charge.

Granada Nuevo start to cross the bridge, with the infantry bringing up the rear.

Rivers' regiment of foot starts coming through the woods as the Granada Nuevo arrive. The Mahoney dragoons reform to lose their disordered status.

The Old Purples are crossing the bridge as the Bourbon horse form up. The Zinzendorf dragoons repulse a charge from the Mahoney Dragoons.

Between them the Spanish cavalry units force back the Allied cavalry - the Zinzendorf dragoons breaking and routing.

But the Allies move forward, Killigrew's Dragoons charging into the Mahoney boys and sending them reeling back. Rivers' regiment gets a volley away into the Granada Horse.

The Old Blues make it over the bridge as the Old Purples let loose a volley at the British infantry. Killigrew keeps the pressure up on his opposites.

And the final charge proves too much. The Mahoney dragoons break.

Meanwhile The Granada horse chances its arm and exposes its rear to the St Amant regiment in preparation to flank Rivers' regiment. It is a gamble that pays off.

The Old Blues deploy as Killigrew reforms to face them. The Old Purples and English infantry exchange volleys.

Forced back, Rivers' Regiment is on the verge of breaking.

The Granada horse have taken some flak from the Dutch but are still strong enough to charge the disordered English infantry and deliver the coup de grace.

At the end of the battle Killigrew was lining up a charge against the rear of the Old Purples, but with 2 units lost to 1, the Allies are broken.

The end of the battle from another angle showing all of the remaining combatants.

The game was turned by the actions of the Mahoney dragoons crossing the bridge and taking the battle to Allied side. The woods created a bottleneck that made it incredibly difficult for the Allies to deploy. The Allies also struggled with some poor early command rolls that meant that they could only move half their units at a time. Although they were the only Spanish unit routed, the dragoons did the business, and on a day when O'Mahony paid a blinder for Ireland against the All-Blacks, it is fitting that his namesake lead the most important of the Spanish units in this victory.

The rules held up surprisingly well, There are a couple of little tweaks I need to add - it wasn't written anywhere that march columns count as in 'disorder' and as 'enfiladed' if charged or shot at, so I'll change that, as it was always the intention. The use of percentage dice mean that very unit has a chance to do the business, as when the Zinzendorf dragoons managed one last rally to beat off their opposites before the inevitable.

Oddly, throughout the battle I suffered from 'Raglan syndrome'. I kept referring in my head to the Bourbon troops as the French! The reason, in my case, is probably because there were Spaniards on both sides, and not flashbacks to a past life when I lost an arm fighting the Frenchies... probably...

Nate