Playtesting chariot rules

I've had some vague ideas for a set of rules rattling around in my head for sometime, but with Cold Wars only about a month away and me signed up to run a game with said "home rules," I decided that I had better actually try putting a few of my notions into practice.

Fortunately Dad was happy to oblige, and since I happened to have both a supply train and an appropriate fortress gate handy, we decided to use the "Convoy" scenario as the testbed for the rules. Based on the forces we had available, I set the Hittites to escorting the supplies to the fort, while various Egyptian units attempted to catch/intercept them. (Since the arrival times and placements for the intercepting player's units are random, there's a lot of variation in how this scenario plays out--sometimes the convoy has to fight its way through; sometimes it just has to outrun the enemy...)

Chariots in the lead, the convoy and escorts head down the road.

The basic mechanic of the game is that each unit has a short list of different actions (moves & attacks) that it can perform. Some of them are free, but some of them deplete its pool of "action points," which also serves as the unit's health or hit points. I was reasonably pleased with how this mechanic played out, though there's a good bit of tweaking to be done when it comes to numbers--move distances, action costs, and the size of the unit's action reserves.

As it happened, most of the Egyptians ended up deployed behind the convoy, and with a somewhat narrow table, there wasn't a great deal of room to maneuver around, so I was able to throw my infantry units out one by one as "speed bumps" while I brought my chariots back from the head of the column to the rear. Fortunately the scenario also includes a cavalry (or in this case, chariotry) relief force to sally out of the fortress once the convoy gets close enough--my infantry's action reserves were small enough that they were breaking pretty quickly, particularly under the superior missile fire of the Egyptians.

Some Egyptian archers turn up on the board edge.

Hmm, now there's a whole bunch of them...

The relief force.

Those Nubian skirmishers won't know what hit 'em...

The convoy is safe.

In the end, I was able to delay long enough that the convoy made it safely to the fortress walls. The game played fairly quickly (we went through about twenty turns in about an hour and a half) and I was mostly satisfied with how the basic rules worked. There were some elements that we didn't get to test (no really wacky melee situations, for example) and of course, the convention game will have a much broader array of unit types floating around. Missile weapons may need to be toned down a notch, and I'm thinking leaders may have an expanded role--at the moment, they just let you rally a unit back above half strength, but it would be nice to give them some sort of combat capability as well. On to Unnamed Rules 2.0!

Hypothetical Hordes: Elfquest

A few months back, I wrote up a post exploring how one might put together some Hordes of the Things armies for Avatar: the Last Airbender. This time, I'll be looking at a different setting--the World of Two Moons, home of the Elfquest comic series.

(For background on Elfquest, here are the Wikipedia page and the TVTropes entry. Or you could read the comics themselves, which are freely (and legally!) available online. For purposes of today's discussion, I'll just be looking at the original series, though some of the later series would provide additional army possibilities. The story centers around the adventures of Cutter, chief of the Wolfriders, a tribe of elves who are forced to leave their forest home, and who encounter quite a number of other elves and other people along the way. Note that the elves of Elfquest differ significantly from the Tolkein-derived elves who inhabit a number of fantasy worlds: they tend to be somewhat slight of stature compared to humans, have pointy ears and four digits per hand, inhabit a wide range of biomes, not just forests. Some individuals exhibit a variety of psychic powers which border on magic, most notably telepathy, healing, occasional shapeshifting, and the ability to mold certain materials such as wood and stone. They are also aliens--their ancestors crashed on the World of Two Moons some millennia ago, where they were set upon by the natives of this world: humans.)

Anyway, on to the armies. Spoilers are entirely possible from here on out; you have been warned!

THE WOLFRIDERS
The protagonists of the story, the Wolfriders have one main problem from a Hordes of the Things standpoint--there aren't very many of them. As in, maybe a couple of dozen, max. So the ranks are going to have to stretch a little thin here. Fortunately, they have all these wolves handy, and despite the name, they're not just for riding, so we have some dismounted options as well. Possible troop types include:

• Heroes. Pretty much a must. Cutter should definitely be deployed as a Hero General, and it might be possible to throw in his buddy Skywise as a second Hero. (Basing them together would be a reasonable option too, if it weren't for the numbers problem.)
• A Cleric--namely Cutter's lifemate Leetah, who's a healer, and provides some magical defense at times. This will be handy from a balance standpoint as well, since Heroes can be kind of vulnerable to Magicians. She's actually from a different tribe, the Sun Folk, but we'll get to that in a minute.
• Shooters--Strongbow and maybe one or two other tribe members who demonstrate some missile capability. Probably no more than one stand of these. Everyone else is:
• Warband/Riders. Depending on whether they're riding their wolves or not. Probably two or three stands worth of these.
• Beasts--additional wolves without riders. Use these to fill out the remainder of the army.
• Lurkers--Having a cleric does cause one slight problem, in that the 3-point cost means you'll need another odd-numbered point cost to make up 24. In this case, I think the best option is some Preservers--tiny butterfly-winged humanoids (elvenoids?) who hang out in wooded areas and enjoy spitting preservative webbing on anything that sits still for too long. (While they can fly, I don't think they really have the endurance or the mass to be real Flyers, and besides, lurking suits their behavior much better anyway...)

Stronghold: The Holt--a grove of trees which have been shaped into dwelling places and protected by magically-enhanced thorns and such.

THE SUN FOLK

The first new group of elves encountered by the Wolfriders, the Sun Folk are dark-skinned, desert-dwelling farmers who have faced no outside threats in generations. While not really army material (many of them may not know which end of a sword to pick up) they are included here for completeness' sake. A few more adventurous examples may be found in other armies.

• Magicians, Heroes, and Clerics. Savah, the Mother of Memory, certainly has a great deal of power, though it's difficult to imagine her using it for offensive purposes. Like her student Leetah, she might be better classed as a Cleric. Her other student, Rayek, has the temperament to be a Magician, but perhaps not the level of power required--at least when we first encounter him. He might be better off as a Hero.
• Behemoth--the Sun Folk have a few tamed zwoots--big, bad-tempered semi-cameloid things, which sometimes carry a couple of riders. As possible Behemoths go, they're kind of on the small side, though.
• Hordes. As the most ineffectual foot unit, this is probably the best match for the majority of the Sun Folk.
• Wolfrider allies--any of the above listed. After some initial misunderstandings, the Wolfriders end up on pretty good terms with the Sun Folk, and would most likely come to their defense if the need arose.

Stronghold: Village of rounded pastel-colored adobe buildings. Sun Folk architecture seems to have taken the teapot as its model...

THE GLIDERS OF BLUE MOUNTAIN

These enigmatic and vaguely sinister elves live within a mountain--only a few ever venture into the outside world, borne on the backs of giant birds. A number of them can levitate or even fly using their innate powers as well, hence their name. They claim to be the true heirs to the original High Ones (the ancestral elves) and are about as close as Elfquest gets to the Vestigial Empire trope.

• Magician: Probably the Magician as far as Elfquest goes, we have one of the most famous villains of the series: Winnowill, who demonstrates a number of unpleasant uses for elf-magic, including some ranged psychic attacks. Though Lord Voll is nominally the leader in Blue Mountain, it's pretty much inevitable that Winnowill is going to be the general of any Glider army.
• Flyers--Elves mounted on giant birds. Ideally there would be exactly eight of them, as the Chosen Eight are Winnowill's primary minions and the ones with the greatest access to the outside world. (Clearly the success of this army will depend on its ability to roll well for PIPs, what with all the aerials and the magician...)
• Hordes--Human servants drawn from the Hoan G'Tay Sho tribe, who worship the Gliders.

Stronghold: Magically-operated door set into a mountainside.

THE GO-BACKS

The last group encountered by the Wolfriders, the Go-Backs inhabit the far north, where they are locked in an age-long war with Trolls over the Palace of the High Ones (the ship which brought them to this world.) Noted for their low levels of magic capability and higher birthrate. (For elves, anyway.) Troops include:

• Hero General--Kahvi, the chieftess of the Go-Backs.
• Knights/Riders. Mounted on elk or reindeer.
• Warbands. Go-Backs on foot.
• Blades & Wolfrider allies--during the final phase of the Troll War, precipitated by the arrival of the Wolfriders, the two tribes acquire plate armor and improved weaponry, which would justify them being classed as the generally superior Blades.

Stronghold: A sort of lodge, partly underground, partly constructed of wood. 

Besides the elves, there are two other groups to consider:

HUMANS

The setting of the original Elfquest series shows the human inhabitants of the World of Two Moons at a basically Neolithic level of technology. None of the tribes shown seem to have much by way of domestic animals, nor do they exhibit any of the elven magic or psychic abilities. Therefore, human armies would be pretty simple:

• Heroes--particular champions.
• Warbands--the bulk of the human forces.
• Shooters--one or two stands of humans with bows, slings, or javelins.

Stronghold: village of simple huts.

TROLLS

Squat, green-skinned, skilled at metal-working and preferring to live underground, the Trolls of Elfquest are more like orcs and dwarves of other settings than the usual fantasy troll. Along with the Preservers, their ancestors were brought to this world by the High Ones. Troll armies might include:

• Spears--well-trained guards of King Guttlecraw. Could potentially be Warbands or Blades as well, but Spears would offer some variety, and polearms of sorts do seem to be among the common Troll weapons.
• Shooters--Trolls with crossbows.
• Artillery--At one point a crew of trolls is shown operating something like a ballista.
• Sneaker--enslaved rockshaper and Troll handlers.
• Hordes--low-grade cannon-fodder Trolls.

Stronghold: Extensive network of caverns.

With that, I will end another look at "Hordes of the Things armies I will never build." If there are other fantasy settings you might be interested in seeing me cover at some point, let me know in the comments!

Back in Byz-ness

Way back in June I painted up a sample stand of Strelets medieval Russian cavalry as the first of a "Byzantine" army. Since then, Orion has released a couple of sets of Byzantine infantry, and I have bought some of said infantry. And now at last that first stand of Byzantines has some company:

The first new unit I completed was a second stand of the heavy cavalry. As mentioned, these guys are Strelets--specifically the standard-bearers from this set with the flag swapped for a lance made of brass wire, and a couple of archers mixed in. The kite shields on the lancers are another addition, from the Zvezda Russian foot. It's a good thing these guys are up on horses and not standing next to anyone else, because they're definitely typically Strelets, proportions-wise. (Especially compared to the infantry, their heads are massive--it's like a watermelon next to a grapefruit.)

Originals are on the right; new guys on the left.

Another angle.

Next up are some infantry. These guys are from the recently released Orion Byzantine Infantry (10-13th Century) set. (So recently released, in fact, that Plastic Soldier Review still hasn't reviewed them!) As with many Orion sets, these guys had a lot of flash on them. Some parts of the sprue get it worse than others--the archers, which will be showing up later in this post, were on the good end of things, but these spearmen took a fair bit of carving. Still, I think the results were satisfactory. The one odd thing about these guys is their foot gear--they appear to have some sort of lacing that goes up to the knees, which is molded on the figure but very difficult to paint as-is--the detail is just too fine. I ended up painting a sort of simplified pattern over it, but I can't decide whether the end result is more "argyle socks" or "fishnet stockings"...

Front view.

Back view, with another angle on those leggings.

After that, it's back to horsemen--light cavalry this time, armed with javelins or perhaps a sort of light lance. These are intended to be something like trapezitoi, but may be less than perfectly historical, since they're converted out of HaT El Cid Spanish. I did a little carving on these guys--the Spanish have these baggy trousers (or possibly ankle-length tunics) which I cut away in an attempt for a tighter-fitting look. I think I could have cut even a bit more, and I may try that with the next stand when I get around to them. A sort of light padded or leather armor has been painted on over the original tunics as well. Also, by this point you may have noted that I'm trying for a consistent color scheme for this army, and similar shield designs as well...

Finally, the archers--again from the Orion set, and actually much the same as the spearmen, right down to the argyle socks. These guys are still waiting to receive the full basing treatment...

All in all, this puts me almost halfway to a Hordes of the Things or DBA army. I'm currently hoping to have some version of the army ready by February, but we'll see how that goes...

Gloating and plotting--2013

While I don't hold much truck with New Year's resolutions in general, I'm always happy to talk about future projects. (After all, it's way easier to talk about things I'd like to paint than to actually paint all of them.) So in that spirit, I have a list of painting goals for the new year. (Goals might be too strong a word here--"intentions" might be a better choice, though of course the road to a mountain of unpainted miniatures is paved with such...)

But first, the gloating! In this case, just a quick tally of what I got done in 2012:

• In 20mm:
• 15 cavalry (an eclectic lot)
• 165 infantry (mostly orcs & Bronze Age)
• 7 chariots (mostly two-horse Mitanni & Assyrian types)
• 6 other figures (baggage train, odd fantasy creatures, etc.)
• In 40mm:
• 20 cavalry (11 hussars & 9 cuirassiers)
• 1 infantryman (new standard-bearer)

This probably glosses over a few other random bits and pieces of things done here and there, such as touch-up on a couple of NQSYW flags and artillerymen. Onto the plotting! These are things currently on the radar, which I'd like to get done in 2013:

• In 20mm:
• Hordes of the Things/DBA Byzantine army. I painted up a sample stand of lancers back in June, and nothing since then. In the meantime Orion has released two sets of Byzantine infantry, which I suppose goes to show the benefits of procrastination patience when it comes to building obscure armies in plastic. And since I preemptively spent some of my Christmas money on some of these infantry (as well as some Hat El Cid figures intended for light cavalry) this one is on the front burner at the moment.
• Further expansion of the Bronze Age project. I'd like to add to my current small contingent of Habiru, and I have some more "Phoenician" archers, Robin Hood conversions, and chariots in the queue as well. And since I'm currently planning to run a Bronze Age game at Cold Wars in March, hopefully I'll be able to make time for some of that before then.
• "With Fire And Sword"/17th century Poland and friends. I painted up several stands at the beginning of last year before getting distracted, and it's something I'd like to get back to at some point.
• In 40mm:
• Second squadron of Wachovian cuirassiers, plus flag and commander. This will probably wait until after Cold Wars unless we get a warm spell sometime in the next couple of months.
• Begin the Wachovian 2nd Infantry regiment. I have a company of grenadiers earmarked for these guys which has been sitting around for quite a while at this point, but if we get some casting done this summer, some regulars might not be out of the question either.)

And if there's one thing I'm certain of, it's that at some point I'll end up painting something not on this list. In fact, just the other day, I was considering how I might put together an Amazon army for 20mm Hordes of the Things...

Wrapping up the year

Despite the demands of holiday travel, I managed to cram a couple more games into 2012. Last Friday, a number of HAWKs gathered at one of members' abode for a traditional post-Christmas pre-New Year's game. This year it was Germans vs. British using Battles by G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T, a favorite set of Victorian Science Fiction rules, featuring a plethora of ponderous and less-than-reliable steam-powered vehicles. (Given that the year was 1910, I suppose it should technically be more like Edwardian Science Fiction, but for some reason that has less of a ring to it...)

German lancers, supported by the ill-fated Panzerkreuzschlüsselspaziergänger

British troops advance on the town.

Dreibeinigenkaffeedose overruns British field gun.

My poor spider-walker inched its way into position only to be blown up by a single shot from a massive British steam tank. When I brought my artillery up to retaliate, I thought I had exacted my revenge when the tank rolled a '20' on its save (a critical failure in G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T). Unfortunately, a roll on the results table determined that I merely set off the tank's main gun--not at all the intended effect! Despite the poor showing on my part the game ended as a draw, as the British only managed to capture one of their two objectives.

The second game of the Holiday Interstitial Period took place on Sunday, when four of my college friends came down for a game day. In between some bouts of Settlers of Catan and Cosmic Encounter, we set up a four-player Hordes of the Things game using some of my 20mm armies, with myself serving as gamemaster/mostly-impartial referee. (At least two of my players had some prior HotT experience, so I put them on opposite sides. Strangely, it was my "experienced" players who seemed to rack up the bulk of the casualties...)

One side took the Antediluvians and their usual foes the Dinotopians; the other side took the Mongols and a "Last Alliance of Elves & Men" mix of medievals with a small contingent of elvish archers. The Antediluvians and the Dinotopians were on the defense, and managed to hold off their opponents--though the Dinotopians had somewhat mixed luck against the medievals, the Antediluvian pikes proved more than a match for the Mongols' yakatheriums, as an attempted outflanking maneuver by the Mongols foundered for lack of command points.

Commanders consider their initial deployment.

Some early maneuvering.

 The knights pursued the retreating spinosaur... and were promptly destroyed.

The December dispatch

December has been a pretty busy month, what with one thing and another--bad for blogging, but not for painting. Last night, I put the finishing touches on the last of my squadron of Wachovian cuirassiers, which I have been working on diligently all month. Heavy cavalry has been a long-standing weakness of Wachovia, so hopefully these guys will help to close that gap.

The whole squadron

From the other side

A couple of views of the officer

I did manage to find time for one other little NQSYW project: updating the regimental flag for the 1st infantry regiment. Having recently settled on a Wachovian national flag, I decided that the regimental flags should share a unified motif, and besides which, the old one was not quite up to my current standards. (No pun intended there.) I stopped short of repainting the figure himself, though he's seen better days as well.

The new flag is stage one (or perhaps two or three, depending on how one is counting them) of my rather grandiose plans for Wachovian military expansion, the extent of which is hinted at by this sketch from a couple of weeks back:

As of now, only three of those seven units have any basis in reality, and the Cuirassier Guards are still too few in number to warrant a flag. However, this does provide a potential roadmap for a couple of years' worth of work, should I choose to follow through on it. The addition of at least a second infantry regiment has been part of my ambition for a while now, and having done one squadron of cuirassiers, I intend to expand them to a full regiment. Beyond that, we shall see. If I were to maintain my current painting speed of about one figure every two days, then this would keep me going until mid-2014...

(My other big project this December has been Christmas cookie-baking, which has also proceeded apace:

The color similarity between the Empire Biscuits and the cuirassiers' uniforms is totally a coincidence, I swear!)

Sneak preview

First of the Wachovian cuirassier regiment!

Now, to paint eight more of them...

(Well, seven plus an officer.)