Cold Wars 2014

It's been a busy few months for things not gaming-related, but I am still alive. (And in fact, I have managed to get a certain amount of painting done--I hope to get a post on that done sometime before the end of the month...)

Anyway, Cold Wars report time! On account of my brother's class schedule, he and I did not make it up to the convention until Saturday morning, by which time it appears that the parking situation is pretty dire. We do find a spot eventually, and head over to registration, where I am thankful that I have a game to run, as the line for gamemasters is basically nonexistent, whereas the line for general admission is a figurative mile long.

My game is not until 2:00, so I have a couple of hours to spare--not enough time to play much of anything, but plenty of time for Dad and I to look through the flea market and dealer's area. The only thing that grabs my attention is a set of something called "CastleBlocks," pretty much like the one shown here. Dad notices it as well, and after a little discussion we decide that we can probably find something to do with it, especially for just $10. (More on my plans for this later.)

Over in dealer's hall, I pick up a box of Orion Cossacks, as I'd been thinking of restarting my "With Fire and Sword" project. Unfortunately, when I open them up later, I find that there has apparently been an error--despite the box art, it actually contains Orion Basmachi, and a number of the horse legs are broken. Fortunately, I was able to get back down to the dealer's hall and get a refund before it closed for the day. So it appears the Cossacks will have to wait for another day.

Anyway, I head back up to our club's room and set up my game--a Bronze Age battle, using my N.U.R.D. rules, basically a repeat of the one I ran at Historicon. A few people wander by and comment on the figures, which generally make a pretty favorable impression. I'm still not sure why I don't see more 20mm plastic stuff being played at conventions. By 2:00 I have my six players all lined up, and we get started.

Everyone seems to catch on to the rules pretty quickly, and by the time the game ends the players seem to be handling most of it themselves, which I usually take to be a good sign. Now that I've run this a few times, I'm starting to contemplate a minor overhaul of the rules, but that's a topic for another time.

As far as the battle itself, it ends up being a very tight Egyptian victory. The Hittite allied light chariots over on their right started by charging straight at the Sea Peoples mercenaries on the Egyptian left, who I think may have been a tougher target than they expected. The maryannu chariots did a fair amount of damage, especially to some of the lighter units on that side, but were unable to crack the elite Sea Peoples. (Presaging the historical end of the Bronze Age, perhaps...)

In the center, the Hittites fared somewhat better--the Hittite commander there managed to keep periodically pulling back and rallying his units, which left him with a fairly intact force by the late game, and probably helped him grind down the Egyptian chariots opposing him.

The Egyptian chariots fared much better on their right against the Hittite left--the Egyptian commander there kept his chariots together and used them to punch through several units of Hittite foot, while his own infantry did a somewhat better job of keeping the Hittite chariots tied up.

Table set up pre-battle

The Hittite players confer.

The young Pharaoh is advised by his commanders.

View from the Egyptian side.

Chariots advance.

View from the Hittite right.

After putting everything away, I had some time to stroll around and watch other games, and to find some dinner. (This was also about when I discovered the issue with the not-Cossacks.) William and I had signed up for a naval game in the evening, so we headed over there. We found the table all set up, but the allotted time came and went and there was no sign of the gamemaster or any other players. At last we decided to go see if any of the H.A.W.Ks needed spare players, and so it was that we found ourselves in the seedy 25th-century space bar aboard the Space Station Accipitor, the site of many a dastardly plot against Buck Rogers and innocent bystanders.

As the villainous Killer Kane, I had demanded a ransom for the release of Buck's lady-friend Wilma Deering--except that Wilma had actually been kidnapped by my somewhat unstable compatriot Princess Ardalla. (Who had plans for winning Buck Rogers' heart by bisecting the helpless Wilma with a ray-saw.) Anyway, for once everything went off without a hitch--the gullible good guys came right up and handed me the ransom money, then dashed off to rescue Wilma while I slipped away up the elevator. Even my Tigerman minions managed to escape unscathed--a vanishingly rare occurrence  in a game of Blood & Swash.

Princess Ardalla and her trussed-up captive.

Blue and Green Tieko-men don't much care for each other...

Wilma narrowly avoids the ray-saw.

A Depth-man who tries to stop me gets zapped into smoky fish-sticks.

All in all, a fun convention, and I'm looking forward to doing more miniatures stuff in the near future. Hopefully I'll be posting again soon with a painting rounds up and my plans for those "CastleBlocks"...

Historicon 2013

It was a hot weekend in Fredricksburg, VA, but not hot enough to melt lead. Through a quirk of my schedule, I came up from Norfolk rather than down from Germantown this year, and arrived on Thursday night--too late to register for anything, but with a few hours to wander around, look at some of the games on display, and play a quick pick-up chariot game with Dad to remind myself of how my rules work.

Friday morning was more of the same, along with initial visits to the dealer's hall and the flea market. Aside from some dice, my only significant purchase this time around were some "Arcane Legions" figures that someone was selling in the flea market. I must admit that I'm not at all familiar with the system, but I'd heard about the figures on the blogosphere--they're fantasy & 20mm scale, so I figured they might be able to fit in with our "Myborian" Hordes of the Things armies. I ended up with about a dozen centaurs (the main attraction), some Egyptian beasties, and some disappointing "Mongols", and three green-skinned fellows riding some sort of bear-cats who I may or may not find a use for. The factory paint jobs are nothing to write home about, so it may be a while before any of these reach the table.

Friday afternoon we set up the first of Dad's three Not Quite the Seven Years' War games, featuring one of his favorite scenarios, The Wagon Train. Unfortunately, I did not end up taking any pictures, but hopefully some will appear in his report, as my Wachovian cavalry finally had its day of glory--the hussars held up the enemy column by throwing themselves in front of the cavalry escort, while the cuirassiers arrived just in time to mop up and capture the lead wagons. The wagon train had the misfortune to stop about a foot shy of where they needed to be in order for their relief to arrive from the fort, and by the time the 33rd North Polenburg Dragoons showed up on their fine white horses, the wagons were already burning.

Saturday morning I ran the first of my two chariot games using N.U.R.D., which went pretty well--I had four players plus Dad, who got to command the Egyptian left. The scenario was pretty basic, with a chance encounter between Hittite and Egyptian forces trying to determine the loyalty of the nearby city of Jerboa. (Appearing as my newly painted city wall off on one edge of the board.) It was a close fight, but eventually the Egyptians worked their way around the Hittite left and pretty much destroyed that command. The final score was seven Hittite units destroyed to four Egyptian, though both sides had a few more that were in pretty bad shape by the end.

Board set up--Hittites to the left, Hittite allies in the foreground, Egyptians on the right.

Hittite players consider their deployment.

Egyptian players moving.

Light troops clash with Hittite chariots on the Hittite left wing.

The Hittite ally player arrives, with his four units of light chariots.

Part-way through the game.

The Hittite center gets a respite.

Chariots clash on the Egyptian left.

I was relatively pleased with how the first game went--everyone seemed to be picking up on the rules, the game moved at a decent pace, and the outcome remained in doubt until near the end, when the Hittite casualties started to pile up on the left. My rules adjustments mostly had their desired effect--the battle lines were generally more properly linear than in the Cold Wars game, rallying and moving was no longer the obvious choice, and we had a couple of leaders die. (The Hittite commander, in fact, got potted early when he joined a unit of archers that were a little too close to their breaking point.)

After the first game, I had about an hour to reshuffle the terrain a bit and grab some lunch before the afternoon game. This was to be a reprise of the Cold Wars scenario--the Hittites are attempting to escort a prince and his baggage train off the board, but both sides have some less-than-reliable elements--the allied contingents are more interested in fighting each other, and the Egyptian mercenaries are more interested in looting the baggage train than killing the prince. 

With the success of the morning game, a previously tested scenario, and with several people standing by for an open position, I was feeling pretty good about this, but for some reason it didn't quite seem to come together as well as the first game had. A couple of the players had a bit more difficulty with the rules this time, and despite the differing goals, the game ended up as more of a slugfest back and forth across the river. I may have to take a look back at how I set up the board for Cold Wars to see if differences in terrain might partly account for the later. Anyway, in the end, the Hittite ally player killed his hated rival (the Egyptian allied player) and cleared a path across the river for the baggage train, so it was a Hittite victory to balance out the morning's defeat.

The Egyptians advance.

Hittites move up the road.

Fighting along the river.

One of the players brought along his dice tower, which blended right in...

Anyway, at the end of the game a delegation came by to inform me that I had won an HMGS "Pour Encourager Les Autres" award, which was a pleasant surprise. (Though with somewhat sinister connotations, for those familiar with the origin of that phrase...) I also garnered a number of compliments throughout the day on the figures, the buildings, and... the groundcloth. (Not that I can claim much credit for that one--it's just spray-painted felt, and I didn't even do the spray-painting.)

I didn't have much energy left after the second game, so Saturday evening I mostly spent helping clan up the casualties as Dad ran his third NQSYW game. (The second one was running Saturday afternoon opposite my second game, so I have no idea how it went--except that apparently my infantry ended up in the first wave of an attack on some buildings, which presumably didn't go so well.) This one was a repeat of a scenario from last Historicon, with the Pragmatic Coalition trying to capture a hill before a Northern relief force arrived, which they succeeded in doing.

Pragmatic troops formed up before the battle.

My brother's Wiegenburgers

Wachovians storm the hill!

Sunday morning, after one last trawl through the flea market, I sat down for nice quick jalopy race, using the old "Future Race" rules. (I have fond memories of playing in pod racing games with these when I was abut ten years younger.) Alas, somewhere along the way I seem to have lost my knack for it, or maybe it's just that I was bringing a truck to a car race, as I came in dead last. (Though not actually dead, mind you.) After that, it was time for one last lunch with the rest of the H.A.W.Ks and then homeward bound...

Dad plays a naval game. Despite the shirt, this was the Mediterranean, not the Pacific...

My red truck is in the foreground. This was early on, before I fell behind...

All in all, it was a sort of strange convention--unlike Cold Wars, neither my brother nor my miniatures crony Marc made it down, I didn't buy much, I ended up running more games than I played, and I was pretty exhausted by the end. I still don't know if I'm sold on the Fredricksburg location, even after the second year--the main hall is still echoing and cavernous even with the curtain barriers they put up this year, and the dealer's area seemed kind of under-filled as well. Constantly trekking back and forth to the off-site hotel or the nearby Wegman's gave it an odd atmosphere as well, compared to Lancaster where games, lodging, and reasonable food are all found in the same building. Still, it was an opportunity to play games and run games, and I have a new knick-knack for my shelf, so at least it was not all in vain.

An Introduction to N.U.R.D.

I promised in my Cold Wars report that I would discuss my rules system at a later date, and it seemed best to me that I should give that discussion sometime before I completely forgot about the updates I intended to make.

First of all, let me direct you to the previous version of the rules, which may be found here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1uaZiOYUHXxKZWPc4UBbnQNQq38NDxosCrVLMNYZZuqU/edit

The basic idea behind Norman's Universal Rules Design (henceforth N.U.R.D. or NURD) is that each unit has a single fund of "hit points" (which I refer to the rules as the "action reserve") which also encompasses morale, cohesion, ammunition status, enthusiasm, and all-around general fighting capability. Every sort of action which the unit can perform is listed on the unit's card, and each of them costs some number of action points. Damage inflicted on enemies is also counted in action points, and rallying restores action point--up to a certain level. If a unit drops to half strength or below, one of its stands is removed and cannot be regained unless a leader is present.

Some of this may make more sense with a couple of sample unit cards:

The rows of boxes on the right-hand side are the unit's action reserve, with the dashed line marking half-strength. The costs of the various actions are marked with green and yellow circles; the damage done by their different attacks are marked with red boxes. Some of the actions have accompanying text--there are a number of restrictions on the rally action, and the archers' ranged attack notes that it cannot be combined with a move. This brings up another point, in that certain action combinations are allowed--at the cost of double the combined cost of both actions. Thus, for the Subject Infantry to make a 6" move and use their primary attack would cost (0+1) x2 = 2 points, but for them to make a 10" move and perform their stronger attack in the same turn would cost (2+3) x2 = 10 points... a quarter of their starting action reserve. Terrain effects are hinted at by the existence of the "difficult" move, which also covers other hard-to-perform maneuvers.

Now, as for the changes that will probably result from the Cold Wars game:

1. Under 3.0: "A unit may not end its move in contact with the flank or rear of an enemy unit unless it started the turn entirely to that side of the enemy."

2. Under 3.0: "A unit may not move through a gap narrower than the width of a single stand."

3. Under 3.1: "Any move which begins with the unit in contact with the enemy requires the use of a difficult move."

These first three changes are intended to address one issue I noted, which was that battle lines seemed a little too fluid, with units ducking in and out of combat a little too readily. This should hopefully add a basic "zones of control" functionality without getting too clunky.

4. Under 5.0: Add the word melee before "combat" to the line "Units with an attached leader may roll an additional die in combat at no additional cost, regardless of what attack they are using."

As it turned out, having leaders boost the effect of ranged attacks ended up giving some units a bit too much firepower, particularly the chariots--and it makes sense to me that the increase in ability brought on by a leader's intervention should be more noticeable at close combat.

5. Under 5.0: The last two lines will be amended to the following: "If a unit with an attached leader is destroyed, the leader is destroyed along with the unit."

Units in N.U.R.D. actually proved to be relatively durable, and leaders are allowed a free move at the beginning of each turn anyway, so the previous rule was not as important as I though it might be--the only leader who was killed in the Cold Wars game was the Egyptian general, whose command died to the last man. Having leaders destroyed along with units should hopefully provide some tension between the desire to keep them alive and the desire to use their improved rallying abilities on vulnerable units.

Other tweaks will come to the units rather than the rules themselves: chariot units will probably have their action reserves reduced somewhat, and rally actions will be retemplated to have a cost of at least one, making the move/rally combo less universally appealing.

If anyone should desire to play around with these rules, feel free to give them a try--while I used them for a Bronze Age game, there's no reason that unit cards could not be made up for troops of pretty much any period. (The colors and shapes on the card are entirely optional--leave them out, or change them to suit your taste if so desired.) And if anyone does give them a try, let me now--I'd be interested in hearing about the results!

Cold Wars 2013

Another year, another Cold Wars come and gone--this one made a little odd by the absence of my father, who ended up with an inconveniently-scheduled business trip for this past weekend. So it was left to me to collect up my brother William and make the annual pilgrimage to Lancaster, Pennsylvania for the winter HMGS convention. (Not that it felt particularly wintry this weekend, though there was a snowstorm that missed by just a few days.) We were joined Friday night by one of my collegiate comrade-in-arms, Marc, who has actually made it to a fair number of conventions by now.

Having passed through a couple of stretches of slow traffic coming up Friday evening, we got to the hotel just in time to collect our badges, grab a bite of dinner, and take a look at the program. As it happened, one of our club members was in need of a couple of extra players, so William and I found ourselves on opposite sides of a WWII Eastern Front scenario, he as a Russian and I as a German. The Germans had a couple of tank units and some infantry in a mix of trucks and half-tracks, looking to capture a pair of bridges and a nearby air field; the Russian force was hunkered down in concealed positions at the start of the game.

I found myself in command of the German light armor--after some discussion with my co-commanders, it was decided that I should try to drive straight for the airfield. We quickly discovered that the nearest town was chock-full of William's Russian infantry. I attempted to circle around this, hoping that the guy behind me with the infantry would be able to mop it up, but as it turned out, the Russians put up a surprisingly tough fight, and we were unable to drive them out of the town. (One particular Russian mortar squad managed to destroy three German units... in hand-to-hand combat!)

Meanwhile, my tanks rumbled over a wooded ridge to discover... Russian tanks! It took a couple of turns for us to sight each other, as spotting was not automatic in the particular ruleset being used. (The WWII version of the currently-popular "Look, Sarge! No Charts!" for those who are curious.) However, once we did, I managed to take out one of his units that had been caught in the open, while my tanks remained relatively safe in the rough ground.

While I was exchanging ineffectual fire with the remaining Russian tanks, who had found their own woods to hide in, one of the other German players sent his half tracks swooping around to seize the airfield. Unfortunately, our third player was unable to make much progress against the Russians on his side, and could not break through to the bridges. With only one of the three objectives in our hands, the game went to the Russians.

The next morning, after gorging ourselves on the hotel's breakfast buffet, William went off to lead the British revolt against the Romans, while Marc and I wandered around to look at the games and ended up getting drafted into a second WWII game--this time a late-war Western Front skirmish, using 54mm figures. We both ended up on the German side, with a squad of infantry, some support weapons, and a tank in need of repair, holding a couple of buildings against an American scouting force with a pair of armored cars and some infantry in Jeeps.

As it was, those Jeeps ended up being the Americans' downfall--they were a little too overconfident in sending them forward, and our single infantry squad turned out to be packing a ridiculous amount of firepower, enough to put two or three of their Jeeps out of action as they tried to traverse an area of woods and shell holes. One Jeep did make it up to the building, only for the three guys to be taken out by a single grenade tossed out the window. Our total losses consisted of a single light wound, and the commander of Marc's light machine gun, who suffered a panic attack and fled off the board.

That game wrapped up early enough that we had a chance to make it to the Saturday morning flea market, where I made a serious tactical error--as I walked in, I noticed a guy with a large pile of promising-looking boxes of 20mm plastic miniatures, but rather than cutting straight across, I figured I'd take the long way around, as I wasn't in a particular hurry. Naturally, I arrived at the table just in time to find someone else scooping up not just the bulk of the figures, but even the plastic tub they'd been sitting in! Still, there were a few worthwhile sets left in the remainder--some Barbarian Warriors and Macedonian Cavalry for William, some Persian Infantry picked up on Dad's behalf, and four boxes of MiniArt's Germanic Warriors, which I obtained for myself at a very advantageous price, which will probably get subsumed into my 20mm fantasy armies.

Saturday afternoon was the long-awaited convention debut of the Bronze Age project, which longtime readers of this blog may be familiar with. The rules used were a somewhat revised version of those I had come up with for last month's playtest, which seemed to be well-received by the players. I will save an in-depth discussion for some other time and merely provide a link to the version I used. (Which will be up for some revisions based on observations from this game, but again I will save that discussion for later.) The Hittites had to escort Prince Zannanza and his baggage train across the board; the Egyptian players were generally attempting to kill the prince and capture the baggage, though priorities varied among players.

The Egyptian players

The Hittite players

The board had a river running down the center; the Hittites had to exit the board on the far side of the river. The river was fordable with a difficult move all along its length, but two distinct fords marked clear paths across. A number of hills, scrubby rough ground, and dry stream beds broke up the board further. The Hittite players decided to push their main force across at the northern ford, while their ally moved down to the southern ford. The advance across the northern ford was met by the Egyptian chariot force, while the Egyptian allies awaited their rivals to the south.

Hittites going for the ford.

Hittite infantry with the baggage.

Egyptians advance.

Hittite allied chariots.

The fight for the north ford became a real meatgrinder, as the Hittites committed more and more troops. The Egyptian chariots put up a stiff resistance, but were unable to find room to fall back and regroup, and eventually were destroyed. The Egyptian mercenaries left their employers to their fate, intent on the baggage train on the other side of the river. Meanwhile, the confrontation between the allied contingents edged towards stalemate, as the two sides exchanged missile fire across the river.

More Hittites cross the river.

Egyptian mercenaries sneaking through the rough ground.

Standoff at the south ford.

The final destruction of the Egyptian northern wing marked the beginning of the end, as the Hittites were able to get their baggage train headed for the now-open crossing--narrowly escaping their mercenary pursuers who had crossed the river and looped around. With the baggage safe and the prince's route to Egypt open, it was a pretty clear Hittite victory. Everyone seemed to grasp the rules and remain engaged and entertained throughout, so I will count this one as a victory for me as well!

After packing up the chariots and grabbing some dinner, we headed off to our evening games--William to some brawl between Alexander's Successors, and Marc and I to a Spanish Civil War game. Unfortunately, even the People's Tractor could not keep my POUM rabble from running off the table at the sight of Italians on motorcycles, and Marc's Stalinist sympathizers and their armored car ended up on the wrong end of some mortar fire for an early end to the evening.

Sunday morning we packed up our bags, provisioned ourselves, took a last look through the flea market and the dealer's hall (I found some Airfix Robin Hood figures and a plastic wolf) and headed south again, with another convention behind us.

A few more pictures taken throughout the convention:

Friday evening: a Victorian science fiction game set on Mars, featuring a rock formation that may or may not have been a toilet.

Friday evening: a different Mars game, with airboats.

Saturday morning: Duncan Adams running a War of 1812 game.

Saturday morning: William faces off against the Romans.

Saturday evening: someone's Haitian Revolt game.

Saturday evening: William at the Battle of Magnesia.

Saturday evening: Battlestar Galactica game centered around a gas giant--plastic dome filled with cotton batting and blue and green lights.