Tiny Epic Defender

Club Night - Wednesday 7th September

Last week, Pete D, Tony G and I played Tiny Epic Defender; a co-op fantasy themed game, in the Tiny Epic Family.  But before playing Tiny Epic Defender, Tony and I had the honour of being the first every players of the Quakers Top Trumps Pete had created. Expecting cards for 'Quakers Oats So Simple Maples Syrup' I found Richard Nixon, Ruth Cadbury and Judi Dench!! So the religion not the oats.  The long hours of play testing paid off as the game was close till the end, when I one by 1 card.

X-Wing Campaign

We

Wednesday 7th December Club Night - Scimitar Games Group (Coventry)

https://www.facebook.com/ScimitarWargames/

https://sites.google.com/site/scimitarcovclub/home

 X-Wing Campaign Mission

 We are on our 3rd gaming session of the co-op x-wing campaign 'Heroes of the Aturi Cluster'.

This week’s mission was 'Secure Holonet Receiver', we had to disable all 9 satellite relays and identify satellite relay '12' for the slicer techs to secure a new Holonet channel, for a rebel spy.

Our Squadron for this mission was;

Squadron Leader James 'Barefoot' (X-Wing)

Kev ‘Ripper’(Y-Wing)

Neil 'X-Ray Zulu' (X-Wing)

Pete 'Deuce' (X-Wing)

John 'Moose' (X-Wing)

Andy 'Vertigo' (Y-Wing)

The setup 

The objective satellite relays are in the centre of the board, Two flights of TIEs one each in opposite corners (diagonally) and our squadron in the corner between the two TIE groups.  We have to disable 9 satellite relays, without destroying them and we also have to secure relay '12'.  We have a HWK-290 with Slicer techs on board to secure the holonet, which has to survive. 

The Plan

 In the Y-Wings, Vertigo and I (Ripper) will focus on the satellites and escorting the Slicers Techs, while the X-Wings try to clear the TIE's.  Deuce and Barefoot paired up on the right flank, with X-Ray Zulu and Moose paired up on the left.

The Action

 

Summary

Another great game in our X-Wing campaign; again this mission went down to the wire.  All members of the squad added to the success of the mission.

 

Vertigo was making short work of the satellite relays, taking out at least 6 of the 9 relays and finding the all important relay '12'!

 

Moose and X-Ray Zulu combined very well in taking out 6 of the 8 TIE's in they sector; with Moose softening up the TIE's for X-Ray Zulu to finish them off!!

 

Deuce and Barefoot failed to take out as many TIEs, but did manage to occupy 7 TIE's, 2 Interceptors and a Shuttle and survive to tell the tale!!!

 

I managed to keep the Slicer Tech alive and get them to relay '12' to complete the mission. 

 

Until next time;

 

Roll high! unless you need low then roll low!!

 

 

 

Bolt Action - Allied Training

Club Night - Wednesday 31st August

Last week, Neil and I played a small 'training' game of Bolt Action.  I had the Americans and Neil was the British. We both had 500pts forces, which is about half the normal game size and we reduced the table size from a 6 x 4 foot to a 4 x 4 foot.

 

 

British Force

Supporting Neil's 3 sections were; an AT Gun,  a Vickers MMG and a Forward Observer.

 

American Force

While may 2 squads were supported by; a bazooka team and a Sherman.

 

The Mission

I forgot the name of our first mission, but we both had half our force held in reserve and 1 objective to hold and 1 to capture.
 

My general plan was to use the squad with both BARs along with the Sherman as a base of fire; while the manoeuver group closed with the enemy and finish them off in close quarters fighting!
 

Neil placed his units first and set up his Vickers on his command post in the ruins, his 6 pdr in the woods in the centre and a section in the woods on his left.  All three units were hidden and covering the centre and his left flank.

 

 

The Assessment

Now, this being a training mission I made a lot of schoolboy errors.

First was force selection, should of left the bazooka in the barracks and maybe the Sherman too.  That said, I was limited with the models I had and also only having 5 order dice! Each unit needs a order dice, so I could only have 5 units. Next mistake was setup!  I Shouldn't have setup my fire base squad in the woods with my command post, this spot had limited line of sight and being woods reduced my movement which hindered my ability to relocate. My other big mistake was forgeting about Neil's reserves and running my manoeuver group around the flank and getting jumped by one of Neil's sections coming on from reserve.

 

That said, even considering all of the above; I pulled of a shock win!!!! Despite my manoeuver group getting caught in the open by the Vickers MMG, a full British section and even some friendly fire from my Sherman. I got very lucky, as Neil lost a section to a artillery miscalculation!; Then he rolled poorly when what was left of my manoeuver group assaulted his full section and wiped them out!!!
 

We didn't finish the next game which was a attacker / defender game, again with reserves. I was the attacker. It didn't start well, as again I forgot about reverse and once again marched my manoeuver group into a British section deploying from off table. This time Neil took no chances and deployed a second section to wipe them out.

With time running out, Neil had one last shot at my Sherman with his AT Gun................ BOING failed to penetrate again. Over the two games Neil failed to damage the Sherman in about 6 attempts!!!

Cheers

Kev

Preview - UK Games Expo 2016

UK Games Expo

"The UK Games Expo, (UKGE), is the UK's largest hobby games convention which takes place over three days during the Summer Half term. It is open to all members of the public to come and ,try,play and buy hobby games from around the world. It is suitable for all ages with a large Family Zone that caters especially for our younger audience. With special celebrity guests, demonstartions, competitions, tournamnets and even an huge board games library you can borrow from, you won't have time to do everything." 

(www.ukgamesexpo.co.uk/visitor.php)

The UKGE is on Friday 3rd until Sunday 5th June, at the NEC in Birmingham.

Scimitar Games Group at UK Games

(https://sites.google.com/site/scimitarcovclub/home)

For the last few years John has ran a huge Memoir 44 D-Day Landings game as a participation event at the UKGE. The game will be in NEC Hall One at location E46.  We are bottom right on the plan at the link below - opposite the UKGE Press Facility

http://www.ukgamesexpo.co.uk/downloads/UKGEHallOneWeb.pdf

A few weeks ago John tested part of the game at the club.

Really looking forward to the UKGE, as I will be helping out the Sunday.

Hammin' Iron Battle Report

Wednesday 11th May Club Night - Scimitar Games Group (Coventry) https://sites.google.com/site/scimitarcovclub/home

Battle Report

Neil and I played Hammerin' Irons, an American Civil War Naval Wargame from Peter Pig

http://www.peterpig.co.uk/acwnaval.html

All the Hammerin' Irons models are Neil's.

Neil was the Confederates

Neil had the CSS Tennasse, CSS Lady Davis plus a huge fort and the chance of 3 late arrivals.

and I played the Union fleet.

The Union fleet had USS New Ironsides,  USS Signal and USS Teaser to start and 3 late arrivals including my favourite ship USS Commodore Morris.

Following a semi random setup Neil was defending; the 2 objectives of 4 buildings and 4 cargo ships (which ended up in the same spot).

First Exchange

As I attempted to line up a broadside from USS New Ironsides, the Tennasse rammed the New Ironsides, but failed to sink her and was eventually sunk by the Union Ironclad; but not before sinking the USS Commodore Morris.

With the Tennasse threat removed, I was free to focus on the objective and CSS Lady Davis.

Due to some very canny play from Neil, I was unable to bring my superior numbers to bear; resulting in each ship attacking the sole remaining Confederate ship alone.

The star of the battle was the CSS Lady Davis, with a little help from the fort, she successful defended the 2 objectives from 3 Union ships; only losing 1 building, before pulling out to avoid being sunk.

Result

Neil won the scenario 33 to 30 points! But really deserved a high win margin as he held off my 5 ships with 1 ironclad, a tug plus the fort that couldn't always fire.

Always have a fun game with Hammerin Irons. I am planning to review this great game soon.

BONUS

Plus, bonus pics of another club game, Lion Rampant with Bob's very nice War of the Roses figures.

1st & 2nd Game of Lion Rampant

Lion Rampant

Lion Rampant is the medieval skirmish game, that Dragon Rampant is based on.  As the fantasy version is so much fun we decided to try the original.

Wednesday 27th April Club Night - Scimitar Games Group (Coventry) https://sites.google.com/site/scimitarcovclub/home

Pete D and I tried Lion Rampant, for the first time on Wednesday.  We used Pete's very nice Vikings and Scots.  The Vikings Retinue was a small elite force of 3 units of foot men-at-arms and a unit of archers. Whilst, the Scots had a fast skirmishing force of 2 units of mounted Yeomen with javelins and 5 units of Bidowers.

The first scenario we played was ' The Fugitive',  A Scots noble had escaped from the Vikings and was hiding in some woods, the Scots (Pete) had to find, then escort the noble off the table and the Vikings (Me) had to stop them!  The Scots were lead by a 'Strong' leader who 'Boasted' that "Half of the enemy shall fall to my sword." and the Vikings 'Rash' leader 'Boasted'  "I shall slay your Leader."

The Vikings plan was simple rush to the woods in the middle and then try to hold them (hoping the Scots didn't get lucky and find the Fugitive in the first two woods); whilst the Leader would challenge the Scots Leader to a duel, in order to achieve my "I shall slay your Leader" 'Boast'.

Living up to his name 'Ragnar the Rash', the Viking leader raced ahead to face off against the Scots leader, leaving his Retinue trailing behind; with the challenge issued, 'Duncan the Strong' considered refusing the duel, before boldly accepting and striding out to face the 'Sword Dane!'.  After a brief exchange of blows 'Ragnar the Fool' was on his way to Valhalla!  The Viking's courage was tested with the loss of they leader, but none faltered.

Having failed to kill the Scots leader, the Vikings only chance of stopping the faster and more nimble Scots, was to get to the unsearched woods first. 

Almost there!, as a unit of Viking warriors slowly entered the woods, a unit of Scots Bidowers dashed into the woods and found the hidden 'Fugitive'.  With the Viking warriors crashing through the trees, they charge fell short as the Bidowers peppered them with Javelins as they 'Evaded' with 'The Fugitive'.

Exhausted by the constant shower of javelins and chasing an allusive enemy, the remaining Vikings dragged the body of they fallen leader back to the great hall!

A nice quick eventful game, although I lost by 8 Glory points (5 points for winning the scenario, 2 points for the successful boast for Pete and a total of -1 points for me due to my failed boast!) I think its was a really close game; If Pete had failed his 'Evade' order just after finding 'The Fugitive' I had a good chance of destroying the unit and reclaiming 'The Fugitive'.

After a quick look in the other room; where John was running through the huge D-Day Memoir '44 game, in preparation for running it as a participation game at the UK Games Expo. 

We set up a second game, this time we played 'Meeting the Neighbours' Scenario.  Both forces were returning home after patrolling the borderland and needed to fight through the other force to escape off the far corner.  This time the Scots were lead by 'Malcolm the Braveheart' (me) and 'Sigardson the Strong' (Pete) with the excitement we both forgot to make boasts.

With the objective being to leave the table via the far corner; I decided my best chance was to try the fighting buffalo horn tactic used by the Zulu's. That being, drawing the Vikings into my centre and then slipping around the flanks and attacking from the rear. I was mindful that the 'Evade' order used so well by Pete in the first game would drive me away from the far corner and victory.  Pete's battle plan was to keep his men-at-arms behind the archers, until my force was softened up and then finish me off with the men-at-arms.

'Sigardson' successfully blocked my left flank move with careful positioning of two men-at-arms units.  Whilst his archers attacked my right flank, 'Malcolm' had a tough choice! Change the plan and take out the archers or push on and get round the back with the cavalry.  Sticking to the plan the cavalry pushed on past the archers, alas 'Sigardson' had seen the danger and pulled a unit of men-at-arms back to shut the door! 

The deadly game of Cat and mouse, edged closer to the decisive moment.  The Scots were strongest on they right flank, with two units verse 1 and the Vikings had equal numbers, but better quality on they right! The Viking's archers were too far from either flank to help, so the cunning 'Sigardson' committed his weakened men-at-arms unit on his left in the hope of driving a unit of Scots cavalry into range of the archers.  With the Viking warriors charging, the Scots skirmishing cavalry choose to evade and hoped the javelins would weaken the Vikings enough, to force them to flee.  The Vikings shields proved too strong for the javelins and the evade move left the cavalry in effective range of the archers. Who skillfully dispatched the cavalry and effectively won the game.

Really enjoyed both games, the rules offer a good balance between simplicity and historical flavor with enough chaos to keep it interesting.

New style of Blog posts

The futures bright, the futures more words!!

I have not been blogging as much as I would like, so I am going to try a different style of battle report; going for less pictures and a more narrative style. 

Not only does taking good photos slow the games, I have found it both hard and time consuming to edit photos, which has reduced my blogging output.  So hopefully, I will be able to blog more and add just a few photos when I get better!!

I also plan to do more posts about painting, terrain making and army selections.  Like many if not all wargamers I have a project list as long as my arm and I plan to share my projects on this blog and hopefully look back and see which ones saw the gaming table and which one's didn't.

Hope you enjoy the blog and please comment if you like this blog or not and why. 

Cheers Kev