Victory Points

Well, this blog has proven to have at least one use – a local AT-43 player I’d not yet met found me through it. We had a fun game today – which I really needed. I’ve been having bad back problems and have been cooped up for days. Thankfully today I felt well enough in the afternoon to get out.

He brought UNA and I brought my Therians along with my brand new Baal! I quickly rushed together a company just prior to the game. I had the Baal as my follow on choice. The rest was infantry and 1 Heckat. My thought was I would be able to capture some of the control points and have enough RP to bring that bad boy on. Well, It was a nice thought.

The Skirmish mission is very tough. There are 8 deployment zones and minor cover on a 60cm x 120cm map. Basically the game involves on turn 1 units appearing in the deployment zones, receiving overwatch fire if they move and shooting. Since the range is quite close this is a very deadly game indeed. In fact for us it lasted 2 turns. I lost horribly. My able opponent captured the two control points and had enough RP (reserve points) to call in his full reserve on the next turn. My reserve consisted of my Baal which was 1/3rd of my points! ouch! So it never left the lift platform to come and fight.

I was a bit rusty on the rules but I recently did a re-organization. I put all my cards into trading card sleeve protector sheets and put those in a three ring binder. This handy binder also had room for a dry erase marker and protective sleeves for my striders, a regular pen, a collimated laser (produces a line not a dot!), the rule book, the Damoclese campaign book, 4 codexes and finally the cheat sheet with whose help I still managed to muck things up with. I am blaming the medicine I am on!

I spent a few hours this week repairing things that were broke. The most interesting and sadly necessary repair concerned rifles missing from my Karman’s after they were dropped en masse. My substitute? Tau Pulse Carbines! Painted up they work just right!

Tiamat lost one of her arms… again for the millionth time. I put on stickier glue this time. Super glue just wasn’t cutting it.

I fixed over a dozen Karmen’s who lost things like neck rings, arms, pauldrons, guns and one which basically broke into all of it’s component pieces!

I should also mention I got a ton of stuff during the FFG 67% off sale. I got a ton of Red Block stuff (Nakos with gauss and mortar to give me two units of 3 each!) I got RPG Kollosus, the Therian Baal (type V strider of doom) and the two campaigns. Frostbite did not seem worth the $60 retail but at $20 it was a steal. My price threshold on that one was around $30. I’ve gotten tons of AT-43 at around 50% off so that is why. My latest purchases put about $300 worth of stuff in my hands for $100. I am letting family use these purchases as gifts to me! I’ve found this works out best around Christmas. Leave it up to them and I’ll end up with 1/32 scale German WWII tanks. (This has already happened!)

Anyway, it was nice to get out and game again. My next game hopefully will be playtesting the finalized first mission of MAW (see my previous blog post)

Historcion has come and gone. It was a great show this year. While attendence seemed to be down from my perspective the true numbers will come out later. My travels to and from the convention were among the worst in my entire life for any trip. Flights delayed a total of 12 hours, missed car rides, expensive car rental and hotel arrangements and to top it all off my rental vehicle was damaged and now I’m dealing with insurance. All in all it will probably cost me $500 to $2000 more than I planned (insurance via Visa might not cover pickup trucks it appears.)

Want to know a secret though? It was my friends who pulled me through. Sean drove out of his way to get me. Pete and Martin brought my spirits up from the gutter, Dave and Tim made me laugh, Bob and Ronnie and the folks from both Casemate and Osprey entertained my quirky sense of humor, random games I ended up playing in were just fantastic with friendly gamers and skilled GMs. I don’t think I was in one dud game. I had horrible luck in some and fantastic luck in others. The dealer hall had some incredible new stuff. The “lobby pig” was succulent and delicious (apologies to my vegan friends but like Vinny Vega says, Pig is Good!)

In all the Historicon staff pulled off a fantastic time! So of the new products I saw the most exciting to me was a non-historical one. Battlestar Galactica resin cast ships and pewter fighters. Fantastic stuff. Very crisp and highly detailed. They had all the ships from both series plus lots of extra ships including other types of Battlestar and Basestar.

There were so many miniatures and games to see. I don’t even know where to begin. I didn’t pick up any rules. I’ve been on a rules buying spree this year and I need to start consolidating on a few projects I will actually complete. There was a lot of very inspired terrain there to look at however. It was ver moving.

If you like the photos here I have many more high resolution photos on my web album. Just start up the slide show below to see them in the cronological order they were taken!

I was going through an old hard drive tonight looking for a scenario I had written up for WWII and came across an old After Action Report I did on a run of Japanese Art of War 2nd Edition rules. I searched my own blog and did not see it written here. I remember running the game, probably 2 or 3 years ago. Maybe more? Anyway, I am reporducing the AAR as I think it is actually quite interesting. Please enjoy!

The scenario was “Terrible Reprisals at Sanjo Palace” and takes place in the year 1056. Overall the game went very smoothly. The scenario was this:

During this time period the court was dominated by 4 clans. The Fujiwara, the Soga, the Taira and the Minemoto all were vying for supremacy in the court. The top clan used to be the Fujiwaras, who had long ago gotten very close the Imperial Family. The Soga used their control of Buddhism to gain power, but it was the Taira who were the most powerful; having both a powerful fighting force of Samurai and deft political skills. The bottom rung of this group were the Minamoto who were seen as wild men from the untamed frontier. While they had a good fighting force, trim from fighting the Emishi and opening up land for the Emperor, they didn’t have capable political skills.

The Fujiwaras were not happy at having to take 2nd place to the Taira. Their clever plan was to unseat the Taira and the best way to do that was by proxy. They met with the Minamoto and convinced them that their problems in the court were directly involved with the Taira and that the time to strike the Taira down was now. They even suggested a plan. The thing the Minamoto needed to do was to capture the child Emperor and the retired Emperor. With them in their possession they could speak for the Emperor and thus have all the power. It was a cunning plan. No, not the kidnapping of the two Emperors but the convincing a third party to take out their enemy! Historically the Minamoto were defeated and treated harshly. The few survivors we exiled to the frontier and no one heard much from them for 20 years.

In the game we forced the Taira to place at least one emperor in Sanjo Palace, which was surrounded by a high wall. The other emperor could be hidden anywhere on the board. There were 5 other buildings and a patch of woods. The Taira were only allowed 2 units on the board with the rest coming in as reinforcements. Each side had 1 hero/leader, 2 samurai units and 2 retainer units. The Taira placement would be hidden. The Minamoto could come on anywhere and the entire force was allowed to place immediately. In my mind I saw one clear path of action, an immediate assault on the Sanjo Palace with a fighting withdrawal as they searched for the 2nd emperor should he not be in the Palace. This did not happen.

The Minamoto were told they could start a fire on any building using 3 action points from one figure. On turn one they immediately moved on 3 of the buildings (but not the palace) and set them on fire! I think the idea was to smoke out the Emperor! This did not seem to work. One of the buildings they set fire to was a Temple. This was considered unkind by two wandering Yamabushi! They immediately went to work on a couple of the Minamoto. They had lots of dice but they only generated defense on 1’s and offense on 6’s. Still, they were considered quite bad and soon one was surrounded by Yari armed Samurai and the other was educated in the art of dodging arrows. While both went down, the delay was costly for the Minamoto and allowed the Taira to organize their defense better.

Soon enough the Minamoto decided that of the remaining 3 buildings it was worth a look into the Palace. A quick hop over the wall with one Samurai revealed 2 Minamoto units and the retired Emperor! The Samurai used his remained action dice to scramble back over the wall!

As the Minamoto started to move in on the palace Taira reinforcements arrived. A command decision was made and the Minamoto decided to deal with them first! A bloody battle ensued and left many Taira dead as well as several Minamoto.

Eventually the Minamoto made their bid for the Palace. There were 20+ samurai fighting it out on the courtyard of Sanjo Palace. The battle would go in favor of one side then the other until finally there were two Minamoto against one Taira.

The Taira had one swordsman left while the Minamoto had a bowman and a spearman. The Taira won initiative and moved their Katana wielding swordsman such that the yari armed Minamoto blocked line of sight to the bowman. The ensuing melee however saw the death of the yari wielding Minamoto Samurai. This lead to some cheers on both sides; for the Taira because an enemy was down but also for the Minamoto because the line of sight was now clear. Yumi versus Katana. Could a more perfect Samurai themed duel be fought? It was almost ripped from the pages of Samurai Legend! It was a consummate moment.

The Minamoto leveled his yumi on his opponent and let fly his arrow. The die roll was excellent and would have felled anyone. But the Kami favored the Taira and he had enough DO generated from Turn Done Dice and from the previous fight that he survived!

The next turn the Katana closed the range and it became Katana vs. Tanto, ending in a draw.

Another turn came and again a draw.

Everyone was on edge, the table was cheering when finally the dice were rolled and the katana cut the Minamoto Samurai in half! The game was over! The Taira started to high-five. But wait, the GM was stern faced. Had they not won a great victory? The GM smiled and declared the winner: The Fujiwara! With the Taira decimated they had won great honor but it would be the Fujiwara who would control the court for decades to come. The Minamoto battleforce had won a pyrrhic victory. Further, the destruction of the Temple meant that gaining support from the Monks in future campaigns was going to be nearly impossible.

It was a great battle and a lot of fun to GM. If we had used the morale rules surely it would not have been a game that ended with man on man but would it have been as exciting? I don’t think so. I look forward to getting the 2nd edition finished and published.

Here is a slide show of a game run by Joe Collins using Spearhead. The game was fun as Joe is an able game master. The rules are similar in scope to Command decision. The game featured an American push to evade German defenses and ambushes and exit out of the Northwest corner of the map. Andy, Gerald and myself played the parts of the American battalion commanders while Glen, Al and Joe played the parts of the Germans.

I am not sure if this game was based upon a real life scenario or was something that Joe cooked up but it was fun.

Enjoy the slideshow! Click here for full screen version!

Rohn and I survived Vegas. It was a blast. The city has a lot to offer and if you look hard enough you can find a lot of bargains compared to what you’ll pay on the Las Vegas Strip. Ok on to the convention. There were just over 200 attendees. I’m sure the ConQuest website will get updated after GAMA to reflect the final numbers. RPGs and boardgames were the most well attended games for the most part. There were some miniatures games that went off well. I only got one game off, the others just could not find attendees. There is a group of AT-43 players in Las Vegas but for whatever reasons none of them showed up at ConQuest which is a shame. I had a great mini-campaign laid out and it looked great. (Pictures will be posted later.)

I played a napoleonic game, the first I’ve tried in years and it was fun. The system is called “Grognards and Grenadiers“. We played a slightly modified game where the activation cards were replaced with card draws from a regular deck. Your corps commander (note the spelling!) draws a card and then all sub units try to draw cards that are less. For the French, who had division commanders, it was possible to get lucky and activate the entire division. The other side we were playing (Belgians?) did have those so they had rather spotty activation at times. It was a fun game. I won as the French though I have to say the other side had the more difficult time of it. They had to do a retreat over a river at two points. Very difficult to accomplish when you aren’t getting shot to pieces! The author, Rudi Guedens, states that his system was inspired by Battle Cry and Memoir ’44 and I can see that. The game play is different enough though that this is not a direct translation, but a new game. I suggest people try it out. Lots of fun.

When a game Rohn and i wanted to play did not go off we got roped into a late night Stargate role playing game. We decided to play it in the style of Galaxy Quest. It was run by Bob Johnston who runs or is involved with Polycon out in California. He had an elaborate set up that was quite nice. He has a great story telling style and we actually had a ton of fun. I’ve seen the Stargate movie but haven’t really watched the show at all. Apparently by accident I made an interesting allusion to their once a year spoof episodes when my military commander character had the option of leaving the secure dome and getting involved in a fight or staying and shoring up the defence. I said “I go out and fight. It’s what I do.” Anyway, look up references to “Wormhole X-Treme” to get an idea of what I am talking about.

All and all a fun convention. I could write a lot more about it and will when I finally get the photos off my camera.

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UNA forces detected Therian engineering activity above the treeline on a significant hilltop. The Therians were building something up there. Colonel Stark was handed the job of routing out whatever menace this installation was going to prove to be. Unfortunately, Colonel Stark had been drinking, heavily, the night before. It was evident in the horrible lumbering way he handled Copperhead. More on that later.

Knowing full well that Astis Astarte was in the area Colonel Stark ordered up a Star Team and a Steel Trooper unit, both equipped with triple-lens helmets. He did not want that crazy Therian sneaking up on his units with her grim golems and their active camo. He then requisitioned from M.Ind Copperhead and several firetoads – two with lasers and 1 with grenade launchers. They would come in handy though not in the way that we would have preferred.

Tiamat was leading the local Therian quick reaction team. She but Astis formed the close combat group. Banes and Storm Golems formed the team meant to hold ground. She also had a Poltergeist to fend off massive waves of infantry. Since she did not know where attacks were coming from and because this area of operation contained numerous facilities that needed protection she remained in the valley ready to strike any outpost as needed. Sure enough, the signature of an armor column was hard to miss as it probed the vally opposite an outpost under construction. The fight was on to see if this hill would have a King or a Queen.

Initially the Fire Toads were going to approach the hilltop objective from the left flank and deal with the Banes. The Banes, however, chose to use the cover of the terrain and move without trying to make contact. However the Fire Toads were forced to right face and move on a much more pressing problem. The radio was filled with the anxious shouts of the wing trooper commander. His unit was clearly in a tough situation.

Astis right out of the gate jumped the Wing Troopers. It did not take any time really for her forces to rip through that unit. Realizing the danger Stark ordered the grenade launcher equiped Toad into action. It managed to damage Astis’s unit heavily but not completely. Before they new it she was on the backs of the Steel Troopers. It was not a pretty sight. By the time she was eliminated the Steel Trooper unit was severely damaged.

During all of this Colonel Start was attempting to deal with multiple threats in Copperhead. He did manage to nearly wipe out the Storm Golems with the mortar launcher with one lucky hit but nearly every other shot he fired missed our bounced. The previous evening’s festivities were catching up with him. His missile launcher failed him again and again as he struggled with the controls. Before he knew it Tiamat herself had found his Firetoads and shredded them. Done with that she moved on to the Steel Troopers. There were going to be a lot of letters to be written. Letters about the bravery of his men, with no mention of his absolute stupidity!

The battle was quick and obvious. As soon as he lost control of the battle to Astis Astarte it was over. While he was struggling with disaster Tiamat’s banes were sun bathing on the facility keeping it secure.

Stark withdrew in ignomious defeat.

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Many thanks to Mike Pecollo, Nashcon Director, and Al Gaiser for pushing the Therians. I accept all blame for both the cold dice and the bad tactical decisions for the UNA. The battle was a hideous disaster from the begining. Ah well, unlike in real life, I can dust myself off and try it again!

I used the Gale Force 9 AT-43 specific measuring devices and they are great! Here are the two that I own:

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