Did a fair amount of war gaming this weekend.
Started off on Saturday with a skirmish game set in Scotland during the 16th Century. The local tenants weren't coming across with their protection money having switched to a rival family so we rolled into town to show them the error of their ways.
The rules were based off of Spear Song, a set designed for Medieval warfare and adapted for the crude firearms available. I took two squads of four men each, most armed with muskets, but the leaders hefting melee weapons. The defenders were scattered between the two villages but we were allowed to enter along any edge, so we positioned ourselves to fall on one hamlet while our cavalry set up just in charge range of the enemy.
It was a fairly lopsided affair. We outnumbered the defenders and once our cavalry got stuck in, there was no help from that quarter. I spent most of my time holding the line and firing (somewhat ineffectively) at the enemy. Eventually, he rushed me with a couple of his men, but my line held (mostly) firm and I brought down his close combat troopers. After that, the ending was a given. All told it took about two hours to play.
The umpire was fairly upfront that this was a test of the rules and a new scenario so he solicited a fair amount of advice. Clearly the defenders needed more troops or the attackers needed a time limit or tougher victory conditions. The rules were pretty simple and didn't take much to pick up. I was amused to note that while our muskets took a full round to reload, the enemy trooper with the crossbow (normally a slow reloading weapon) could fire each and every turn.
So it was a bit of a cakewalk, but I did have fun (well, of course I did, I was on the overbearing side wasn't I?). Afterwords I helped a gentleman and his wife make their way from the hobby shop to the nearby model railroad store. Apparently he lives in Western MA and had made the trip special to find stuff to expand his WWII model railroad layout. The hobby store had a bunch, but he was also looking for DCC equipment and that he was only going to find at the model railroad shop. So I had him follow me over in his car (I was going over to torture myself with G-scale trains anyway).
I like being helpful. Rarely do I do something helpful for an older man and get a huge hug for my efforts. I fear I've rather enabled his addiction, but I'm sure he'll enjoy having DCC on his layout.
Anyway, today I played some Warmachine. I'm picking up a few models for this because there's a bunch of people playing it on a semi-regular basis. Since I haven't finished painting up the small force I've got, I played with the Khador "loaner" set they've got. For those in the know, it's Sacha and her Heavy Jacks. For everyone else, it's a Russian Commissar and her stompy iron men of the revolution. I went up against a nice young woman playing the necrotic forces of evil. She gave her minis names, it was awesome.
In the first game, I managed to tie up her heavy warjack with my melee jack. I got in some good early punches but failed to account for my opponent's Crushing Claw. Khador mechs are noted for their heavy armor but the claw just opened me up like a tin foil can. Luckily, on my right flack, my other heavy jack and Sacha closed in on the enemy warcaster and in a hail of mortar fire and bullets managed to put her down.
We were supposed to switch off with the other two people playing, but their fight got a lot more protracted. We hung out for awhile and then decided to play a quick second round with just a caster and two heavy jacks apiece. In this second round, I decided to ignore the advice of the rulebook and took a defensive stand. As one of her jacks moved through the trees, I blasted them with more firepower until it was scrap. Then I moved up to fall upon the last jack, but it rushed me instead. Luckily, I took the hit and both my heavy jacks ganged up on it and chopped it down pretty quick. A second win to me.
So I won both games, but I mostly got lucky. Her warcaster was really set up to mow down hordes of troopers and I mostly had robots. Still, we went out to eat afterwords so no hard feelings I guess.
I'm going to be pretty rigorous on this game. I've got just enough stuff to play a basic game and I might eventually decide to graduate from a 15 to a 25 point army, but just from watching the other game I can see that it's a game I don't want a super deep investment in. It's enough to be able to have something around to play on a semi-regular basis.
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