Saturday, 21 August 2021
Rather fantastic battles
I managed to get the opportunity this morning to test out Fantastic Battles by Nic Wright.
They are currently available to buy Here.
The rules are designed to be scale and setting agnostic and use multi-based units with no casualty removal. Which sounds right up my street quite frankly. They include some sample army lists for fantasy and ancient forces but encourage you to come up with your own giving full rules for unit generation.
The rules are really simple and clean mechanically with an easy to follow turn structure. It uses a base of troops as the basic unit that can be formed into groups if you wish. Command sections are separate and key to keeping your army in the fight but they can join units if desired.
The rules work on a random activation basis with troops outside the influence of the forces commanders often doing exactly what you don't want them to!.
There are also rules for random objectives, flank marches and pre battle misfortune that can befall your units (which I forgot to use this time like a massive tool).
First impressions are very positive, I might have to put together a few small forces to explore further. I used my 15mm dark age forces for this game, 4foot troops/ 2 cavalry to a unit.
Friday, 2 April 2021
More late medieval tomfoolery
I had a few pre-easter days off so managed to paint another Swiss pike block (and almost finished a second) in between watching far too much Trailer Park Boys, I even got another test game of this in:
I decided to roughly link it to my last game, the plan being to play a very loose narrative campaign as I paint more units. In the last game the Swiss frankly mullered the Burgundians so this time I decided to put some slightly larger forces on the table to play a game where a hastily deployed Burgundian force have been tasked with slowing the Swiss advance to allow the main army to properly prepare to meet them. To that end a battlefield was prepared:
A field of battle, somewhere over the Burgundian border.
The basic idea was for the Burgundians to deploy on/ near the hill in the top of the picture, the Swiss would deploy opposite and must have more units over half strength than the opposition on the hill by the end of turn 5.
Burgundians prepare to receive the Swiss (all minis are 10mm Pendraken).
The final unit of pike march along the road on the right.
Which goes badly for the Burgundians.
Tuesday, 23 March 2021
A small piece of Swiss 'diplomacy'
Having played and enjoyed his One hour Wargame rules i decided to pick up a copy. The rules seem pretty simple (not One hour simple but still) which suits me as one thing that I find puts me off games these days is needlessly complex systems. They also seem to be very customizable with each unit only needing a few pieces of information to make them work ( their type, armour and morale level) along with a few simple special rules go give them flavour. So I decided to get the table set up and chuck some units together to give the rules a try.
In the rules forces are made up of 8 units chosen from a set list, I had enough painted units for four a side. Also in the rules you win by reducing the enemy to two units, I decided that I would play until one side was completely wiped out.
A valley on the Swiss border about to get far less peaceful.
A bevy of Burgundians stand in their way.
The Swiss van take heavy damage from the Burgundian longbows and artillery.
Before long the writing is on the wall for anyone present that happens to not be Swiss!.
The rules play really nicely. I have to admit the Burgundians had little chance once the cannon blew up as it had caused plenty of damage before that and the rest of the force was heavily outmatched. I think once I have painted up their Gendarmes they may stand more of a chance. Combat was nice and 'crunchy', units would stand long enough for it to feel right without dragging on. Artillery is fairly random in effect having a random number of shots which feels right to me for the period as it was pretty new at the time. All in all a nice simple set with plenty of period flavour. It does exactly what a lot of bigger pricier rule systems do with a fraction of the faff.
...'till next time...