Beer, Dice, and Friends

Brooks came out, and for that it was an occasion for challenge. it came in three parts, two parts I will recount here, the third I'll do as the next portion.  

Round 1: Dux Bellorum.  Late Romans vs. Sub-Roman British

Late Romans were straight forward an effort to charge through the enemy in a very rough proxy of knights, something they’ve so far been unsuccessful in achieving in their outings (spoiler alert....er, too late). They were a full half Riders with Continental Horses, vs the mere ponies they faced, supported by a line of scrubs posing as a Shieldwall, and a single stand of bow armed light horse (for ease I will refer to as Huns), in Brook's capable hands, on a quest of collection.  Tax Collection that is.  Empires don’t come cheap. 

Facing them were the legion of delinquent taxpayers. The Sub-Romans were built on a core of Shieldwall, half ordinary, half noble, supported by a small contingent of riders, as well as two bands of bow armed skirmishers and a contingent of massed bowmen.  Little bit of everything, and they would need it. 

Clearly the bard broke into the celebratory mead before the battle as early photos were blurry.  By the time he came to there were some photos, but too little too late for the initial setup.  As remembered the invaders occupied the north, Riders to the east, Shieldwall to the west, and Huns in the center, with a clearing between two copses of trees.  Facing them, the shieldwall held the southern center with skirmishers to the west and bows then cavalry to the west with a hill to his rear.  

In the end it was a swirling affair-the Sub-Roman Shieldwall split, half to face the cavalry, half to face the oncoming weak sheildwal while flanked in the woods by skirmishers.  The Roman Cavalry charged forward, losing their Huns to concentrated bowfire.  The Sub Roman Companions and other riders tried to hold the hill against the onslaught, but a poor command roll left the rest of the riders on the hill to be slaughtered. 

Why rolling 11s is bad. Ordinary Riders vs. Imposing Noble Riders and Companions-it lasted about as long as you might imagine. 

Roman Shieldwall marches to face the British Shieldwall, while British Skirmishers maneuver through the forest to make things difficult for them. 

Mid Game, Roman Shieldwall encircled to the left with British Companions desperately trying to hold the hill to the right. 

It ended up a race, but the Roman Shieldwall in the north crumpled before the Brits did in the east.  Somehow the British companions held the hill, off an on, throughout the battle.

Endstate

I’ve played a few games of this now, but this was the first Shieldwall vs. Shieldwall grind out.  I do like the system, but there's quirks and it's not perfect.  It wasn't wargaming Yatzee, but central to winning this as shieldwalls are all about rolling sixes when you get to it, and the dice were with me.  We went with the option to limit wound reduction to one leadership per turn, thank god, otherwise we might still be playing.  

I don’t think Brooks was sold, flank hits on the shield walls weren’t telling, and oddly bowfire, thanks to leadership, was.  

Round 2: Maurice, Blue vs Red 75pts/Side

No pictures of the second game-it's tokens not miniatures, so really not a lot to see.  

It was a quick, which tends to happen when you attempt double cavalry envelopments while on the defense.  I tend to be aggressive on defense, but a 3'x6' table there was little time before impact.  Stupid tactics is its own reward. 

Being aggressive from round one, it meant that I never built a reserve of cards and played most of the game with a single card in my had.  Not complaining, it's how the system works.  We played fast, never getting into the combat modifications, and I think we had one combat that wasn't flanking.

Maurice is a good one.  Needs a big enough playing space which will be a challenge for the future.  

Chance Encounter-Solo Playtest-Samurai Robots Battle Royale

So I have been trying to balance real life and being on the list of playtesters for Samurai Robot Battle Royale soon to be forthcoming from Ganesha Games.   To be fair the real life stuff has been modestly impressive, but causing unacceptable delays.  I finally was able to get a game in with the only person whose schedule I could coordinate with lately, me, and a solo round SRBR commenced.

If you're familiar with the Ganesha suite of games, the theory is the same.  It keeps the quality mechanic where if you are more ambitious you can act more, but there's a greater chance of losing control of initiative.  Unlike most of their other games, where individuals have a single stat line (Quality, Combat, and Special Abilities) each location has this stat line.  If you've familiar with the Mighty Monsters from Ganesha, it's the same theory, in fact they'll integrate to allow for Pacific Rim style action.

While you will see from below, I'm using the rules for more of a Battletech feel, they're written clearly in the vein of Anime inspired conflicts.  Don't let that dissuade you however, as they include enough optional rules to bring them from the Age of Steam to Robotech, as well as Mecha vs. Army options.  Like all of Ganesha Game's products, this has a lot of options and easy to customize to the campaign you feel like, or, if you want, just have a pickup game.

The premise was simple. Two Silverbacks (lower right, poorer quality AI controlled Mechs, all activations on a 4) wandered into Captain-Regent territory while a Freelancer in his Ranger (upper left, all activations on 3s) is stretching his mynomer muscles in preparation for an upcoming challenge. All craft were generated quickly before the battle, and the points on the two sides are equal.   You'll notice three dice between each figure-this is their dice for activation and their health-as they get injured they fade to yellow and then red (except I have no yellow dice, so it's White to Red to Black), which allow for interruption by your foe if those dice fail.  The table's only 30" square, with hills and ruins blocking line of sight.  The ruin in the lower left (rotated 180 in all following photos) would serve as the locus of activity for the conflict. Colored sticks are Short/Medium/Long measuring sticks.

One other note-it's roll then declare, not declare and then hope you roll well enough, I was doing some in reverse in the playtest. 

After rolling for initiative, the victorious Freelancer Made a dash for the cover of the ruins, and promptly failed to activate to fire, passing control over to the AI Legion.

Silverback I charged, moving three times directly to the edge of the ruins.  I then checked to see if it would successfully take a shot, and if it would activate more than one time, which would allow it to make more powerful strikes.  It would need it, for though Silverbacks packed linked lasers, they were short range, and as can barely be made out due to my poor photography, they were three range bands bands away, thus -2 on the roll. So before rolling, I opted for a Surgical Strike (+2 to hit, max one damage).

Again, chalk it up to poor photography, but that's three 6s on activation, allowing for a Very Powerful(tm) shot.  Once the combat roll was complete (1d vs 1d + combat values +/- a few quick modifiers) the Silverback had seriously beaten the Ranger.  However, as it was a surgical strike, it only allowed one point of damage and the Freelancer's roll against Knockdown (the random damage effect) was weathered.

Silverback I being done, it immediately passed the dice over to Silverback II, who promptly did nothing (three failures on three dice).

Payback time.  The Ranger carries on it's Torso a L5 Missile (One Shot), which it immediately fired at close range at SB-I.

Above you can see the range band, and the two dice in the center (SBI's Red 1 and Ranger's Black 3) leave for a poor day for the Silverback.  It promptly took two points of damage, rolled for effect, and had its sensors go blind.  Ranger decided to follow up on its success, took a leg action to close the distance, and then rolled for arm activation to give a flying elbow (or, you know, a punch in the rules).

Problem is, the earlier point of damage resulted in a red die (again, yellow die in the rules, but I have no yellow dice).  It failed, allowing the blind SB-I to attempt to interrupt, and it did, lashing out and making a general fool of itself as most blind boxers might. Crisis averted, the Ranger cracked some knuckle actuators on an exhaust manifold, leaving SB-I with all Red.

By the next photo I have of the battle, SB-II has finally entered the fray, after SB-I, on a very lucky Black damage roll (lucky for the pilot of the Ranger at least) shut down. Ranger's taken a couple of pings to the armor and is starting to have some concerns.  Out of Missiles (when you've fired one of one, it's easy to keep track) he's shooting his regular lasers, with medium range, here two bands out to mediocre results.

With only one Mecha on each side, the quality difference proved telling, allowing the Ranger to maneuver out of SB-II's punishing linked short range lasers, up until the end.

The last bit of damage on SB-II is not shown, but by the end it had achieved all black (er...red in the rules) dice and failed its integrity roll...spectacularly.  Worse for wear, the Freelancer piloted his dented Ranger home, to war of the encroaching AI Legion.

Playing both sides, the game took under an hour-in part due to mulling over sections to see if they could be misinterpreted.  It was quick and easy, but the game needs a bigger table and bigger forces than what I was able to muster.  Definitely one I'm looking forward to more of once I get a chance.