Saga: AoM AAR - The Dead Don't Die

I played my first game of Saga: Age of Magic on Saturday. Overall it was enjoyable, but I played against the evil dead—or whatever they're called—and that's one nasty lot of ghouls to have to deal with. I think I officially hate them and I think the rules authors must have been on crack when they designed the faction. Nevertheless, I managed to pull out a tie, so not a complete fiasco.

We made 8-point warbands. I used my lady centaurs that I painted for Dragon Rampant. It turns out that they make a decent warband for Saga: AoM. My Lords of the Wild force was the following:

1 x Warlord, mounted on animal (i.e., centaur)
2 x 3 Creatures, on foot (lady minotaurs)
3 x 4 hearthguard, mounted on animal (centaurs) with composite bow
1 x 4 hearthguard, mounted on animal (centaurs)
1 x Sorcerer (Ursula)

I played Ken Kissling, who ran The Undead Legion, composed as follows:

1 x Warlord, mounted on animal
1 x Lieutenant, mounted on animal
1 x 4 Hearthguard, mounted on animal
1 x 2 Creatures
3 x 8 Warriors
1 x 20 Mindless (20!)
1 x Sorcerer

We played the Clash of Warlords scenario from the main rules. Ken was first player using setup C (L distance from baselines with no units closer than M to another). For terrain, there was a marsh on Ken's right baseline, a steep hill on my left just on my side of the centerline, a wood just over S distance to the right of that, another wood just over M distance towards Ken, and finally my sacred totem (proved to be worthless) just about M distance to the right of the first wood.

Four-hooved ladies of the wild

I wasn't really sure how to proceed against the evil dead. I think I was a bit intimidated by the Mindless. In sheer numbers, they're frightening. The most intimidating—and frustrating—aspect of the Dead Can Dance crowd is the awful way that they can be re-spawned using their Tide of Re-animation and Necromancy Saga abilities. I wish I could un-die my dead like that. Ken used those abilities every turn like the freakin' Night King.

The only way to make headway against the army was to manage to entirely kill a unit in a single turn, which I didn't figure out until too late. Also, the Mindless don't suffer fatigue. You pretty much have to kill them in numbers too big to reanimate.

Bows don't kill enough Mindless to matter

I started out by doing a lot of shooting using my hearthguard with composite bows to sort of spar with his warriors. In a normal Saga game, the results would have been very satisfactory—even against other Age of Magic warbands, they would be good. But the dead don't die. If any part of the warrior or mindless unit remains, some of the dead can be re-animated. I wound up killing some figures many times over.

I had some stand up fighting early on with on of my creature units. I charged them into a unit of Ken's warriors and managed to win, but didn't inflict much hurt. I was unharmed, due to my resilience, but had 3 fatigues. Ken responded in his turn, by attacking with his nasty flying creatures. I managed to win that fight, too, but without inflicting loss other than 3 fatigue, due to his resilience.

Nasty, wighty, flyty ghouly things begone!

I, however, lost a figure because I started the fight with 3 fatigue and took another 2. Ken's creatures went back exhausted, but whole, while I stayed out there exposed exhausted and diminished. At this point, Ken started vexing my creatures with his sorcerer, which made it difficult for me to recover much from my fatigue.

Frustrated by my inability to inflict enough lasting harm by shooting, I decided to start charging in with my hearthguard. As hearthguard go, bow armed horsemen aren't the bee's knees in a mélêe.

This tactic does not appear to be working...

In one regrettable fight, my 4 hearthguard charged 6 of Ken's warriors. I had a small advantage in attack dice (8:6), but wound up rolling very, very poorly. I think I killed 1 of his, but lost 2 of mine—mine being more valuable and less reanimatable. I charged another hearthguard into the Mindless. I won, but it was Pyrrhic. He could easily reanimate the losses he took, while my lost figure was gone for good.

Holding off the ungrateful dead

In the center, my bow-armed hearthguard were doing some damage to the warriors—though always mitigated by a bit of reanimation. By rights, I ought to have shot at least two units to oblivion, and did shoot them to ≤4, but of course they reanimated back to a number that would let them generate a Saga die again.

The evil dead

Ken finally had enough of me and charged me first with his warriors, then with his hearthguard. That unit went poof. However, I managed to kill off his surviving 3 hearthguard with my non-bow hearthguard. We broke even in the fighting, which wiped him out and left me with 1 remaining figure. Ken also charged some warriors against my other bow-armed hearthguard, which had already been reduced to half strength in my own foolish charge, and wiped it out. My left was looking seriously diminished.

Ken's hearthguard: Bones to be chewed

Ken and I both had a sorcerer in our ranks. I'm kind of so-so on the value of magic. I had one nice spell in Spear of Light, which can cause a lot of damage if done right—although that's the maximum effect and comes with a warning label. I used max effect with it twice, the first time to no harmful effect, the second caused me to forget the spell, but that was turn 6, so it didn't matter. My other spells were kind of meh. One protected my sorcerer (which I never remembered to use) and one might cause a charge to fail. I typically used a Saga die to generate extra magic dice, but never used magic to its full potential.

About mid-game, I started moving units from my right towards my left. Ken had stacked most of his strength against my left, which eventually became critical. On my right was the Mindless, his warlord, and his sorcerer. The Mindless move slowly, so I figured I could just move away without being seriously challenged by them. At one point, Ken brought forward his warlord, but retreated him back after my remaining minotaur ladies came out to play.

Ken about to choose the better part of valor

I think I like the creatures. My minotaurs were bipeds with a 5 aggression for mélêe. A unit of three rolls 15 attack dice. They're pretty much warlord killers, if they get the chance.

With Ken's warlord skedaddling, I moved the cow-ladies against the Mindless. I figured that rolling 15 dice against 4 (or fewer) would reap a reward. It did. It took some follow up, which generated fatigue, and an attack by my warlord, but I managed to kill the whole unit of mindless. I ought to have done this earlier.

Cow-ladies with Mindless on their minds

In his part of turn 6, Ken managed to get a charge against my sorcerer. Having the unused magic die that I might have used to try and protect her, I was a bit chagrined when his warriors charged home. However, resilience saved me. I lost the fight and became exhausted, but I was still alive on my part of turn six. I rested away 1 fatigue and then fired off my Spear of Light to max effect, taking out 4 of Ken's warriors—but sadly not killing the unit.

At the end of turn 5 and more so after Ken's half of turn 6, I thought I might be badly beaten. However, I managed enough killing in turn 6 to make a slight comeback. When we counted points, Ken had 22 and I had 20. Killing all those Mindless accounted for 7 points and made a big difference. Of course, I killed many more warriors than I was credited with. They just kept growing back like lizards' tails and you only count the dead at the end of the game.


Afterthoughts

I like Saga: Age of Magic. It's a nice variant on Saga, but not a radical departure. Taking away the magic spells—and that fearful reanimation groove thing that the undead do—and it plays like any other Saga encounter.

I recently bought a lot more centaurs and friends from Shadowforge/Eureka in Oz. However, I'm not sure how much I need to change my list for now. I'll have to get another few games under my belt, hopefully not against the evil dead again. I could add another sorcerer, but I found the one I had to be sufficient. I need to study the spells a bit more to see what will work. One the whole, however, I think the spells in Dragon Rampant are more effective, and being universal, you don't your options to blame when you use lame magic against powerful.

The great skedaddle: Rebels and Patriots AAR

We played a variation of Scenario F from the Rebels and Patriots rules on Saturday set in the ACW. The scenario called for a force defending a line at one side of the table to skedaddle away to defend another line consisting of a stone wall and sunken road at the other side, all while being chased by a slightly superior attacker (a 5:4 advantage in points).

For a multiplayer game, I expanded the forces to 48 points defending and 60 points attacking. We had six players that made for three on each side. The Hated Yankees™ were the defenders played by Eric Donaldson, Bill Stewart, and John Stafford. The 'Secesh' were the attackers played by Mike Lombardi, Chris Craft, and me.

All the Yankees lined up along a rail fence on the north side of a road that ran the 8' width of the table. Just south of the road, the Rebs were massed in woods that also ran the full width of the table.

Johnnies in the woods!

The object of the game was control of the sunken road on the north side of the table. The choice for the blue-bellies was whether to try to hold the rail fence for a bit or get back ASAP to the hard cover of the stone wall and sunken road.

Jubal Tardee readies the boys for the attack

On the advice of Wm. Tecumseh Stewart, they chose to emulate the militia at Cowpens and Guilford Courthouse and sting the advancing boys in gray and butternut and then retire manfully to the sunken road.

One our right, John was stinging Chris pretty well in the initial turns—ably aided by Chris' wretched dice rolling. John decided to stay and fight it out on the rail fence, which seemed—at the time—to be a winning option.

Holding the line

Chris failed several morale tests and lost his commander, Lt. Beauregard Lemieux. Had he fallen in battle, Lemieux would be feasting in Confederate Valhalla with Stonewall, A.S. Johnston, et al. However, fate had a crueler destiny. In the confusion of battle, the good lieutenant was captured—along with his cat—while hiding in a dung heap wearing women's clothes.

Lt. Lemieux in more heroic times

He could not adequately explain to his captors how he came to be wearing women's clothes in a dung heap. Nevertheless, he was hauled off in ignominy. A prisoner exchange is likely, but his reputation is tarnished forever. Even now around the campfire the men are referring to him as 'Loretta.' Chris also lost a unit of line infantry at this point. The situation was starting to look dire at the start.

The initial sting left me with only one man hors de combat. With the rest, I moved semiboldly towards the rail fence—as much as my poor activation die rolls allowed. I also used my cannon to make noise at the backs of  Bill's fleeing Lincolnites. Apart from the noise, they were not aware of being fired upon.

The center advances

On our left, Mike advanced aggressively against Eric's dismounted cavalry. He kept pushing and trying to get into mêlée, but the mounted skirmishers could skirmish back as fast as Mike could move. Skirmishers, too, are hard to kill. For a while, the best Mike could do was to push Eric back while getting peppered by skirmishing fire. Nevertheless, he was making way.

Mike advances / Eric retreats

With my early flubbed activation rolls, it took me a couple turns to get up to the now-abandoned rail fence. Only my skirmishers got over and beyond. I needed to keep Bill from getting behind the stone wall. I didn't want to be advancing in the open against a lot of blue-bellies in a sunken road.

Barely getting started

On our right, Chris' die rolls improved and John was withdrawing to a second rail fence line rather than be outflanked by my advancing center.                                     

The rail fence is ours!

Chris followed up and over the rail fence with his skirmishers who kept engaged with John's troops as they withdrew. The skirmishers also screened Chris' surviving line infantry unit and the light cavalry.

Skirmishers forward

While Mike kept pressing Eric on our left, I was making headway in the center. Bill was making a beeline for the stone wall and sunken road, but stopped occasionally to throw out a few shots to keep me at bay. I was, however, in good shape. Up to this point I had lost only two figures.

Jubal Tardee going right up the center

As I advanced in the center, my right was getting past John's line of bluecoats manning the second line of rail fence in front of Chris.

The Yankee's eye view of the Confederate advance

At this point, I made a fateful decision. John's rightmost unit was just begging to be attacked. I got my activation and sufficient move to contact him. I won the fight and pushed him back. On his turn, John sent in another unit, lead by his officer—a Dan Sickles looking character, but still with two legs—and bounced back. I took some losses and became disordered.

After the fisticuffs

John fared worse. Both his units were now under half strength and therefore permanently disordered. Still, they had to be dealt with and I spent a few more turns exchanging fire before they were eliminated.

Chris was mounting greater pressure against John's other line unit and his light gun. He'd lost one of his skirmisher units and his slow-moving medium gun (also a bit shot-up from earlier) took a while moving up. His remaining skirmisher was still absorbing fire from John's units. Thus screened, Chris moved up his aggressive light cavalry and prepared to charge the gun.

The final skirmisher unit went poof, but Chris managed to charge home with his cavalry. He won the fight and pushed the gun back, but we flubbed the follow up, forgetting that aggressive units could do a follow up move. Following up would have allowed another charge home on the gun. In any case, Chris charged the next turn winning again, but the gun was still hanging on and Chris' cavalry was now disordered.

The Confederate right surges

Meanwhile, in the center, my attack to the right against John's flank, while achieving good results, left Jubal Tardee's heroic advance unsupported. Bill had by now managed to get his gun and two line units over the wall and was well ensconced in hard cover. He'd lost his other line unit—with his officer—to the withering fire of my troops.

Before the glory

My lone skirmisher unit was at the end of its tether. Absorbing Bill's fire for several turns eventually wiped it out. This left me with little choice but to do or die. Exposed to Bill's fire from his gun and a supporting line unit, Jubal Tardee's unit was soon to die if I didn't act quickly. I managed a '12' on my activation roll to charge and went straight in against Bill's gun.

High water for Jubal Tardee

I won the fight, but failed to destroy the gun. However, it was reduced to half strength and broken. I didn't cross the wall. Now I was in a pickle. Bill failed his rally test for the gun, which went away. However, his supporting line unit was now making trouble for me.

Stormed at by a fusillade of minié balls, I took casualties and fell back. Further losses reduced me to below half strength but I hung on. I was helped by having my officer and I got favorable activation bonuses on double 6s that gave me +2 discipline for the game. I failed, but not catastrophically.

Battered but unbowed, Tardee and cat remain in the fight

By this time, John's gun had gone away leaving our right completely unopposed. On our left, too, Mike had finally sent off the last of Eric's dismounted cavalry and we up against the wall ready to cross. The only remaining Lincolnites on the table were Bill's two line units facing me.

At this point, we called it a Confederate win.

Only Bill made a strong effort to get behind the wall. John did a Dan Sickles and kept his force out front for too long, even though Chris had to recover from near disaster in the opening turns. Chris also managed to recover his lost unit on the blessed 6-6-6 activation roll that brought in reinforcements. His only net loss for the game was his two skirmishers, who perished doing yeoman's duty screening his other troops.

Eric skirmished with Mike, which slowed Mike's advance, but didn't really hurt him. Mike had the probably least losses of any of our commands. Eric eventually got shot up and his units dispersed. If he'd manned the stone wall, it might have been bloodier for Mike.

I kept pressing Bill in the center, but that didn't stop him getting to the stone wall with 3/4 of his force intact. That was a formidable obstacle for me, despite successfully charging the gun. If we hadn't called the game, Bill would have shot Jubal's unit to pieces.

It turned out to be a great game. So far, Rebels and Patriots is proving to be a very enjoyable game to play. More thoughts on that in a following post.

Enfilade 2019: Rampant days and Rampant nights

I'm just back from Enfilade! 2019. This is the annual convention of the Northwest Historical Miniature Gaming Society. It's been at the Red Lion Hotel Olympia for 17 years now. Before that, we were in various places starting in 1992 with the Red Lion hotel in beautiful formerly bucolic Lynnwood, WA, just minutes from my house. Now I drive 85 miles to attend it.

We've gone from a two-day event with fewer than 100 attendees, to a three-day event hosting nearly 400. That's nothing by big Eastern conventions like Historical, Fall In, etc. But we're the biggest convention west of the Mississippi that caters exclusively to historical miniature gaming.

This year turned out to be a particularly fine event. It's probably the first time in many, many years that I've been actively involved in every gaming period over the weekend. I ran—alone or with confederates—three games, played in two, and helped staff the bring 'n' buy table. Of course, hanging out with friends over a weekend of gaming was the best of all.

Period 1, Friday afternoon: Weitzel's Mill, Rebels and Patriots

I pre-registered online for two games. The first was a Rebels and Patriots game of the 1781 Battle of Weitzel's Mill hosted by Peter Fry. I ran Banastre Tarleton's command of three light cavalry units and two jaeger companies.

Bloody Ban's bad boys

I was on the right flank with the mission to get at least one unit of my cavalry across the ford next to the mill, then along the road over to the opposite corner and off the table. For us to win, we needed to get at least one unit of infantry across as well.

Lee's Legion and Continental Light Dragoons come out to play

After a bit of sparring with some skirmishers immediately to our front, I headed towards the ford only to get shot at by Lee's Legion light infantry fortified in the mill. It took a while, but using my jaegers as both a screen to protect my cavalry and as long-range snipers, I cleared a path and managed to take out Lee's Legion cavalry and one dragoon unit, plus the light infantry in the mill.

A hard-pressed American line faces the British onslaught

On our left and center, the other British players were steadily pushing back the American units. The American right utterly collapsed with every unit being lost. There was nothing the Americans could do to stop the British achieving victory.

Peter said we'd performed better than the British players had in any of the pre-convention playtests. When the game was played on Saturday, the British lost.


Period 2, Friday evening: The skulking way of war, Song of Drums and Tomahawks

Kevin Smyth and I ran a game of Hurons vs. Iroquois and Dutch ca. 1630s on the Nieuw Nederland frontier. The forces were three bands of 8 Hurons defending their village against a force of two bands of 8 Iroquois and a detachment of 8 Dutch militia with muskets.

Bold Iroquois warriors

The Hurons decided to go out to meet the enemy across the river rather than fight on their own doorstep. Initially, this looked like a good idea. The Dutch musketeers took an awful beating and lost half their number early on, but then stablized and started giving back as good as they got, killing the leader of the warband facing them.

Hurons defending hearth and home

On the other side of the table, the Hurons were in trouble after just a few turns. They lost their hero and then their leader. Things went really downhill from there.

Iroquois crossing the river into Huron country

As the battle see-sawed elsewhere, the Iroquois broke through the flank and streamed into the village, winning the game.

From the wigwam Hiawatha
Bore the wealth of Megissogwon,
All his wealth of skins and wampum...

Song of Drums and Tomahawks is a game that grows on me every time I play it. I have a lot more Native Americans to paint, Hurons and Iroquois. The era of early European contact and settlement is fascinating and there is a lot to work with for creating scenarios for this game. I'd like to do some King Philip's War gaming with it. I have several Brigade Games settlers already, just waiting for me to get painting—when I can fit them into the rest of the painting backlog.



Period 3, Saturday morning: Beware a risen people, The Pikeman's Lament

After all the work I did for my Ford of the Biscuits game at last year's Enfilade, I determined to run another game with my Elizabethan English and Irish. I had several unpainted cavalry from last year, which I meant to add to this year's game, but...

I came up with the idea of a more stand up fight, but one that still had an element of mission. The scenario was an English force returning from a raid into the wild Irish countryside being attacked by an Irish force intent on recovering the loot stolen from Irish farms (or stealing it for themselves). The main goal was for the English to get a wagon train over the ford behind them before the Irish could get to it.

The English force was all veteran versus an Irish force that was all raw. I didn't figure out points, but there was a bit of imbalance in that the Irish were still more numerous and had more firepower than the English, which made it a tough go for them.

English quality proved redoubtable at first, but eventually Irish numbers started telling. On the English left,


Period 4, Saturday afternoon: Kicking a hornets' nest, Rebels and Patriots

The event that got the most planning and preparation beforehand was our Rebels and Patriots game of the retreat from Concord in April, 1775. This game was Kevin Smyth's idea. We'd initially discussed doing the Battle of Blackstock's because we both have an interest in modeling the Southern campaigns of the AWI. The war in the South was more interesting and—speaking only for myself—doesn't require painting the elaborate 1763 regulation uniforms for the British. From 1777 onward, British dress became more suited to the environment. In the South, that pretty much meant 'roundabouts' and floppy hats. No lace, no facings for the most part. That kind of figure will paint quickly.

But no. We did the retreat from Concord instead, which not only features British in spiffy regulation uniforms, but all grenadiers and light infantry who have more lacey bits on their uniforms than the center companies.

Acquiring my British to paint is a tale best told in a later post, but the upshot is that I ordered figures in January and wound up rapidly painting all my grenadiers and light infantry—and getting a lot more than I'd intended—in the few weeks before the convention. In fact, all of Kevin's and my painting was complete by the weekend before when we did our dress rehearsal playtest.

We spent a lot of intellectual effort, aided by Dave Schueler, into how to play this as a satisfying game. We even debated victory points up to a few days before the date. We seem to have succeeded. One player expressed his dire disapprobation of the British victory conditions initially, but enthused after the game at how well it went.

We planned for 6 players: 2 British and 4 American, but a late minute addition of Dave Creager to command the grenadiers separately brought it up to 3 Brits and 4 Americans. Dave is one of our inner circle of gamers and was an inspired addition. He played the grenadiers aggressively, which certainly helped the British win.




Period 5, Saturday evening: Staffing the bring 'n' buy

In a rash moment of feeling dutiful, I volunteered at some point before the convention to help staff the bring 'n' buy tables for the Saturday evening shift from 7:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. I was there with Mark Waddington (who was in charge overall for the whole convention), Norris Hazelton, and Randy Miles.

It was a long, tiresome time with few sales being made. With four of us staffing it, there wasn't much to do. I wandered the vendors' tables in the main room. Bought some stockade sections from Monday Knight Productions. I took my newly acquired swag up to my room and took the opportunity of a bit of a rest until about 10:00, so I could come down and help shut down the section at 11:00.

I had to wrestle with my conscience a bit. Being pretty tired, I really just wanted to go to bed and stay. However, I went back down at 10:00 to sit for a while and close up the bring 'n buy area.

This was my first experience staffing the bring 'n' buy. I've always run a lot of games at the convention, helped plan the convention, and was convention director for a few years running. I have a great appreciation for the people who staff things like the registration desk and bring 'n' buy. While others are enjoying their time, they're spending a period doing less exciting things—but crucial to a successful convention.


Period 6: Sunday morning: Floating filth from the sea, The Pikeman's Lament

My last game was to participate in a game run by Randy Miles, which was a pirate attack on a Spanish port in some undetermined colony in the Caribbean. I was one of the Spanish players defending the town.

The pirates came with two forces from the sea and another emerging from the jungle on our right flank. I was on the far left of our line and managed after much effort—and much help from our center—to wipe out the rightmost of the pirate force. Our center was faring about the same as me. However, on the right, the force defending against the flank attack was soundly thumped.

The pirates land!

With that command gone, our center was getting hit on two sides. The destruction of the pirates' right came too late to save the day. Our force of 15 units was reduced to half strength. In the ensuing morale checks, I lost one unit routed away and our center lost one.

Pirates from the swamp

The unit that broke was my veteran shot, my best rated unit. They had such promise, but consistently underperformed. They failed to activate on several turns and even when activated were unimpressive. A close range shot hitting on 4+ failed to score a single hit. I'm sure the colonial governor will deal with them after the pirate mess is cleared up.

My best unit and least well performing in the game

After playing another turn, our situation was deemed hopeless and a pirate victory was declared.

Randy has a very nice collection of figures for this period. The Pikeman's Lament was a good choice for the rules to use. The units were all 6 figures strong, with five units in each command. The stats for the pirates was a bit better, but all units had a stamina of 3.

It was a fun game and a nice end to the convention.


Buying and selling

I'm trying more and more to keep my gaming possessions to a manageable amount. To that end, I've been selling off some of my past projects in order to fund new ones. This year I sold my Beyond the Gates of Antares Algoryns. This may cause some dismay the next time someone suggests a BTGOA game, but I haven't played a game with them in nearly two years and don't expect the suggestion to arise in the near future.

I also sold my Medieval (El Cid) Spanish, which I painted as a Lion Rampant army and repurposed as a Saga army. I haven't played Lion Rampant for a while (many other Rampant games to play), and have moved to a Welsh warband for Saga. The Spanish in Saga are a bit unsatisfying to play. So, adios viejos amigos. You served me well.

I also sold a couple other bits and pieces, in fact everything I brought to sell, I sold.

My buying was pretty minimal this year. K.R. Rohan was there selling Geo-Hex. I had the bright idea to buy a boxed hill. I normally use a mottled relish green felt mat as a playing surface. For hills, I've used 2" thick pink insulation board cut and beveled that I place under the mat. Around here, it's impossible to buy thinner insulation board and the 2" thickness makes for tall hills. Also, cutting and beveling pink board is a pain. The Geo-Hex is 3/4" thick. A few pieces scattered around underneath make for some nice, not too tall contours for the playing area. I used what I bought for the Song of Drums and Tomahawks and the Pikeman's Lament game.

I picked up a few things from Monday Knight Productions, including the previously mentioned stockade pieces. I can use them for stockaded settlements in Ireland with my Elizabethans and also for stockades in North America with Rebels and Patriots, Song of Drums and Tomahawks, and Muskets & Tomahawks. I also availed myself of their stock of Howard's Hues paints, several of which are staple colors for my painting.

Bob Murch of Pulp Figures was there. I picked up a few more packs of Iroquois from his Flint & Feather range. He didn't have any of the Europeans he's working on; they're not released yet. I think that Flint & Feather is Bob's finest range. I hope to see it expanded, but Bob has a lot of irons in the fire. His current passion is his Black Sun range, but there are other nascent ranges and British Colonial and Zulus to be released in the near future. Bob's a busy man.

My only disappointment was the absence of Wizard Kraft. I love Wizard Kraft's product, but it's a hard company to do business with. I've only ever bought items when he's come to Enfilade. There are too many horror stories of long delayed web orders. The website is closed for maintenance indefinitely. But I must say, that I love the product. It's the best terrain I've ever seen and I feel fortunate that I've been able to collect a large number of pieces. I had intended to spend a good amount of money there acquiring roads and any other clever new things he might have available. I hate to think it's a year at least before I have a chance to get more.


Uninhibited Rampancy

I said in a previous post that 2017 was my Year of Living Rampantly, but that hasn't really stopped. Most of my gaming in 2018 and nearly all of it so far in 2019 has involved the Rampant family of rules by Dan Mersey and Michael Leck.

Four of the five games I played in or hosted over the weekend were Rampant: I played in a Rebels and Patriots game on Friday afternoon and hosted one on Saturday afternoon. I hosted a The Pikeman's Lament game on Saturday morning and played in one on Sunday morning.

My rapid-fire dip method of painting and the Rampant rules have really got me gaming. All of the figures for the retreat from Concord game were completed this year (and only a few were started last year). My first ever fantasy army was painted for Dragon Rampant.

The distant second for my affection is Saga 2.0 and what I've painted for Lion Rampant and Dragon Rampant can easily be leveraged to play Saga. While there are other projects in the works, I see myself devoting a lot of my gaming energies towards further Rampancy—along with games I'll run at next year's Enfilade.


Me and my shadow

I haven't played a game with Randy Miles since I can recall. He's from Portlandia, so we have only ever played at Enfilade, and he's been away from the convention for a while. I think last year was his first attendance after several years' hiatus. So it was funny that we wound up being together in every single event and activity this weekend:

• He commanded the British center in the Weitzel's Mill game.
• He commanded the Dutch musketeers in our Song of Drums and Tomahawks game.
• He commanded the English left in my Pikeman's Lament game.
• He commanded the right flank British light infantry in our Retreat from Concord game.
• He was one of the bring 'n' buy staff with me on Saturday night.
• I played in his pirate game on Sunday morning.

The feline home front

With Rhiannon's death last month, I'm down to two cats who don't get along. I used the same cat sitting company as I have for the last several times I've been away. It was all much easier when my three cats were Grendel, Rhiannon, and Maebh. They got along well most of the time. Now, with Maebh and Bogart, a line of demarcation is set in stone.

Maebh is a slippery customer. She's bold and shameless with me, but fearful of strangers. She's always hidden from cat sitters in the past, which makes it hard to find her. When I returned home last year, even I couldn't find her until I contacted the sitter, who told me that she was last known to have hidden herself under the bed covers.

This year, she popped into my open closet—where I'd shoved a pile of clothing that I was planning to sort through and hand off to the Goodwill—just before I left. Ensconced there, she could smile at all her terrors with impunity. Rather than root her out, I left the closet door cracked open. This proved to be a bit of a blunder.

The sitter knew that she needed to keep Maebh and Bogey separate: Bogey out during the day and Maebh shut in the bedroom, Maebh out during the night and Bogey shut in the den. But with Maebh hiding in the closet, she couldn't tell whether she was in or out. We communicated throughout the weekend. When she said that she couldn't find Maebh, I assured her that she was likely in the closet not to be found easily.

It turns out she must have been burrowed under/within my leather recliner Saturday morning, which meant that she and Bogart were un-separated from each other.

I came home and couldn't find Maebh in the bedroom, even after rooting through the mess of the closet. I figured she must have burrowed deep and I figured a few shakes of the Greenies bag would lure her out. It did, but it was from under the recliner that she emerged, with Bogart watching incredulously. I quickly grabbed him before he could pounce and put him up in the den, thus restoring balance to The Force.

On returning to Maebh, I could see a wee scratch on her nose. Otherwise, she was fine. No apparent bites on Bogey—I'll have to keep an eye on abscesses forming—but it was clear that he'd chased her about. Under the desk in my den, there was a lot of Maebh's long wispy fur and things were knocked about. That's not much different than the evidence I'd find of Grendel and Rhiannon clashing while I was away.

Being rescued from Bogart and the fearsome stranger, Maebh was delighted by my return. She's been a constant and affectionate gadfly as I write this blog.

Retreat from Concord: Rebels and Patriots AAR

We did our second playtest of the Retreat from Concord game (using Rebels and Patriots rules) we're hosting at our Enfilade! convention next weekend. I made an ordeal of getting my contribution of figures to the game done in time. The militia was completed several weeks ago, but the British took a bit more doing with a lot of swings and roundabouts—of which I will post later.

We did our first playtest on April 6. At that point, we only had Kevin Smyth's British figures, which is just over half the total. It was a resounding defeat for Fat George's bloodybacks. Without enough light infantry to screen the column, the men marching on the roads were shot to bits.

This game I was able to supply the needed light infantry, plus another two Grenadier units.

The OOB for the scenario is based on the Smith-Pitcairn column, which was all grenadiers and light infantry. We scaled the game to make every company of British troops equal to six figures. The column had 11 companies of grenadiers and 10 companies of light infantry. We organized the 66 grenadiers into 12-figure units with one large unit of 18. The 60 lights we wanted to keep as small units to provide more flexibility and firepower.

Marching into the maelstrom

For the Americans, we had to do something that provides a mostly equal unit count, but ensure that the units aren't so good as to overwhelm the British by firepower. In the first playtest, we made all the American militia good shooters, which was massive overkill. In this game we allowed only one unit in each command to be good shooters. That may still be too much, IMO, but it gives the Americans a chance to do some real harm early on.

We have two British players, each taking half the light infantry and part of the grenadiers on the road. The Americans are four commands, each with four skirmisher units, one of which are minutemen with good shooters ability.

British (81 points)

Left command (44 points)
2 x Shock Infantry
1 x Shock Infantry (large unit)
5 x Light Infantry (small unit)

Right command (37 points)
2 x Shock Infantry
5 x Light Infantry (small unit)

American (48 points)

Command 1 (6 points + 6 points)
3 x Skirmishers, green
1 x Skirmishers, green, good shooters

Command 2 (6 points + 6 points)
3 x Skirmishers, green
1 x Skirmishers, green, good shooters

Command 3 (6 points + 6 points)
3 x Skirmishers, green
1 x Skirmishers, green, good shooters

Command 4 (6 points + 6 points)
3 x Skirmishers, green
1 x Skirmishers, green, good shooters

We used standard unit profiles, but we made some scenario rules to keep British units in the fight and allow recycling of American militia.

British rally
To reflect superior discipline and leadership, When British troops perform a successful rally action, they roll a D6 and can recover lost figures as follows: 1=no recovery, 2-4=recover 1 figure, 5-6=recover 2 figures. Units that rally don't have to be in disorder, i.e., a unit may rally just to recover lost figures. However, a units can never recover up to full strength, which particularly affects the light infantry who are small units.

Additionally, British units never rout or get eliminated by firing or fighting.  When the rules call for that result, the unit is reduced to one figure and placed behind the nearest friendly unit where it may work on eventually rallying back to fighting strength.

American recycling
There was very little leadership over the American militia. Men just came from their fields and farms in small groups and took pot-shots at redcoats. The Americans start with only two units per command on the table. The other two units per command come on if they pass an action test.

American militia units that are wiped out can recycle once in the game, which effectively gives them 32 units—just not all at once. Units recycling back on the table come in at one of two spots marked before the game. American players can also choose to simply disperse a unit that is down to 1 or 2 figures remaining and thus allow generating a new fresh unit.

At no point can any militia command have more than 4 units on the table.

Balance
The British troops are much superior pointwise to the Americans, although we didn't go by points. A large force of skirmishers can do a lot of damage. One of the things I've noted in playing Rebels and Patriots is that a 12-figure unit is at a disadvantage against two 6-figure units. It's a matter of dice. The 6-figure units are throwing 12 dice each shot (assuming they're not skirmishing or disordered) for a total of 24. The 12-figure unit is also throwing 12 dice and can only target one unit at a time.

Another factor in balance was that the skirmishers take 3 hits to remove a figure from firing; the King's vaunted grenadiers take only two. Stuck in the open as they must be for the scenario, they wither quickly under the milita's firing. Giving one of the starting militia units in each command the good shooters characteristic made a difference. Hitting on 4+ can be devastating, especially when your targets are grenadiers in the open.

As long as the fight is between militia lining the roads and grenadiers marching on it, the grenadiers are dead meat. The key is to get the light infantry in action against the militia and clear the roadside. In this case, it's basically 50 points of British vs. 48 American. The 31 points of grenadiers are good for the occasional return fire or chasing militia away from a wall, but don't otherwise have much opportunity to get at the militia. They're basically targets.

The game

Bill Stewart and I were the British. I commanded on the left and Bill on the right. Kevin, Dave Schueler, and Eric Donaldson were the Americans. Dave ran two commands opposite me; Kevin and Eric were mostly opposite Bill.

The British grenadiers were deployed on the road in column. The light infantry was divided 5 units to each flank of the column. The scenario rules allow the lights to roam freely, but the grenadiers are restricted to staying between the stone walls that line the road. They can shoot or charge a wall behind which cheeky American farmers are skulking, but mostly their job is to keep moving down the road.

Starting deployments

The American militia can deploy anywhere beyond the head of the British. In this game, there were several units deployed along the stone wall just ahead of the column.

Bill deployed his light infantry well forward with 3 up and 2 behind. I, unwisely, deployed my light infantry higgeldy-piggedly. It took me a few turns to get any kind of effective force going against the militia, which only gave the militia more chances to shoot at my grenadiers.

Opening moves
I started by marching my freshly-painted (you could still smell the dullcote) 18-figure grenadier unit 6" up the road where it could be targeted by multiple militia units. In response, the sides of the road erupted in musket fire, which took a dire toll on my wee men.

And then there were eight.

My 18-figure pride of the British army was reduced in no time to 8 confused and disordered troops wishing they were in Thames up to their neck rather than walking a country road in Massachusetts on a nice April day.

Bill immediately clashed with Kevin's forward troops and they maintained a lively skirmish. Bill got the upper hand eventually, although he took a lot of loss doing so. Even with the British rally rule, there was a goodly number of figures in Bill's dead pile.

Bill's battle against Kevin

The grenadier column pretty much got stuck not far from where it started—and went a bit retrograde at times. To keep marching forward was suicide. My options were to rally and try to recover some of my lost figures or to take offensive actions against my tormentors. At one point I charged the stone wall with my second grenadier unit (not quite as freshly painted as the other, but only by a day or so). That momentarily cleared the wall as the militia evaded away (taking a shot as they did). I also, fired a volley or two from the grenadiers, with just OK results. Skirmishers are hard to kill; harder when you roll as poorly as I did.

The lead units in trouble

The game started with just 3 grenadier units on the road, the other two following on after the column got moving. At that point I was rolling for all the grenadiers and failing to get the rear units to come on board. When they eventually did, there was a gap in the column. However, as the fighting at the road angle heated up, the column was effectively stopped. The rear units—now under Bill's command, with better activation rolls—started coming up and getting bunched together with my lead units that had stopped to fight or lick their wounds, mosty to lick their wounds.

My light infantry got stuck in with Dave's militia early on, but just in piecemeal, due to my scatterdash deployment. I discovered early on that shooting at the militia was a bit of a waste. They're hard to kill and they can pretty much ignore you and shoot at grenadiers for more bang for the buck. At this point, I noticed that all my light infantry figures has silver colored thingies at the end of their muskets. Because they're light infantry and not skirmishers, they actually have a pretty good fighting ability, despite being small units. Accordingly, I charged right in as soon as I was close enough.

Getting stuck in with Dave's militia

On the British right, it was the militia that kept charging the light infantry—not from careful consideration, but from rolling double-ones and getting the result that forces you to charge.  Those charges were either disatstrous or merely ineffectual. Most of my charges actually did something; at the very least, they would force the militia to evade and quit their ground.

The terrain, however, did a lot to dictate what I could do. The tavern was right in the middle of my line at the start and there were walls, fences, trees, and bushes all over. On many occasions all I could do was shoot, although I mostly skirmished. Skirmishing was less effective than shooting, but it allowed me to move into better positions to charge from, while still having a potential sting.

Forcing the militia captain back

Dave's minuteman unit, with the mounted militia captain attached, was a constant thorn. I whittled the unit away, but it took many turns to get him. He always managed to evade my charges and had a pretty nasty sting with its 4+ firing until he fell below half strength and was permanently disordered.

Much of the fighting on the flanks involved fence lines that provided a defense bonus and impeded movement. The militia, being skirmishers, were untroubled by difficult terrain, but fences would stop them—as it would stop the light infantry as well. I battled to the first fence line and then on to the next. Taking each fence line was met by another lined with militia.

On to the next fence line

We had to keep the column moving, but every time I advanced down the road beyond the light infantry screen, the head of the column would get shot to bits by multiple units of militia. This caused a lot of bunching up as Bill's rear grenadiers caught up to and passed the leading units. Rather than move, the grenadiers often had no better option than to fire back, with less effect than the fire coming their way.

Grenadier traffic jam

On a few occasions, the intense fire reduced lead grenadier units to just a fraction of their original strength or completely eliminated them, thus invoking the British rally rule that sent them back with 1 figure remaining to spend several turns rallying up beyond half strength.

Whittling down the head of the column

On my flank, I finally got the chance to turn in towards the road and start attacking the militia lining the road. In one particularly fortunate action, I charged a militia unit that failed to evade, and then wiped it out in fighting. The resulting morale checks for the other militia units within 12" resulted in several failures.

Into the backs of 'em

With another unit charging in next turn, I managed to clear a stretch of road that might let us advance the grenadiers a bit farther. Although there seemed to be no end of militia forming up just ahead.

A bit of clear space for now

After a couple hours of play we called it. The grenadier column still had about 6 turns of marching—unimpeded by American bullets—to get off the table. I'm not sure what the loss state of the Americans was. They can only recycle a unit once, so they may have soon been down to fewer than 4 units per command on the table. For the convention, we'll play till the game period ends and determine victory then.

Thoughts and reflections

I thought he game played very well. It's a tough scenario to get a balanced game from. When we first started thinking about it, my fear was that a lot of militia would just overwhelm the British.

The British rally rule worked out how I imagined it would. Historically, the British were hurt very badly, but not wiped out. Had the Smith-Pitcairn column not run into Percy's relief column at Lexington, they may well have started surrendering. Even after the column combined with Percy's force, they had a hard fight ahead before getting back to Boston. The rally rule ensures that no British units are completely lost, which would end the game quickly, but that they have to spend time recovering after being 'eliminated' or to avoid being eliminated.

The Militia recycling rule did a good job representing the historical aspect of groups of militia showing up, taking some shots, and then going away. The Americans have effectively 32 units of militia to employ at some point, but they can never have more than 16 on the table at one time. The militia also starts slowly with just 8 units at start.

We thought about making the grenadiers just act as automatons who march inexorably to their deaths down the road. But that's silly. Without allowing the grenadiers to fight back to some degree by returning fire or charging a wall to chase off their tormentors, the game would be badly imbalanced against the British. Without using the grenadiers to do more than just march, the balance would be 16 militia against 10 light infantry.

The grenadiers, however, are the militia's main target. It's essential that they stop the column and steadily attritt it. For the British, the trick is screening the grenadiers from militia muskets and keeping the roadsides clear.

Figures and terrain
Kevin and I painted all the minis in the game. I did 24 British light infantry, 30 grenadiers, and 36 militia. Kevin did all the rest. Also, Kevin bought Phil Bardsley's AWI figures at the estate sale we had for him last week. He'll remount the militia figures to 3-2-1 basing and get two of Phil's units in the game posthumously.

The buildings are Kevin's, the rest is from the collection of terrain bits that I've finally managed to build up after nearly 30 years. I'm particularly happy that I managed to get so much fencing and stone walls. The walls are made by Armorcast. The fences are Pegasus, with my flocking on the bases.