Wiley Wargame Weekeend

 Last weekend was was our annual Wiley Wargame Weekend. We had a about a dozen people and played several games over the course of the day even with a mid afternnon taco/burrito break.

First off was a group favorite: Flower of Chivalry. Although over the last couple of decades I've modified it enough it's kinda it's own game now. Everyone just calls it Battlelust now even though that name is already taken.

This was a 4v4 affair. As usual, it looked pretty one sided until it wasn't. It ended up being a tie.

Moving along chronologically through our games, NotJay ran a game of What a Tanker. Again it started one sided and quickly swung over into an Allied victory. My Stug was the only survivor and quickly beat it.

Our final game was Battelsuit Alpha but with a twist. It was mech vs Bioengineered titans using the old VOR miniatures. Fun game, but I was busy cleaning up and didn't get proper pictures. Joel promised to run it aggain so I can get pics.

Sunday my son came over to video an Airships! battle from our latest rule book Glorious Adventures in the Age of Steam. I'll be posting that next.

Gruntz:Modern Africa

Missed posting last Friday. Most of my post Thursday night game posts were done Friday mornings at work. Insert sad face. Now that I'm up and running at home, here we go.
Our own Propaganda Architect has been converting Gruntz to a more modern setting. So far it works great. Our yet-to-be-named nations's struggles have been fun to game.
This scenario involved our Dictator for Life, fearing for the safety of his ill gotten spoils, is moving them to the safety of a neighboring country. Trucks, loaded down with loot must move across the table to the waiting airplane.

His second objective is to hold the radio station for as long as possible. If the people find out he in moving his stuff, they may rise up in rebellion before he escapes.
Thirdly, those boy soldier are bad press internationally. If they could be taken out quietly during the battle (hand to hand), that's a plus.
We decided the trucks were moving slow due to the weight of all those furs, painting, jewels, imported cars and luxuries. That, and if allowed to double move, the game would be over quick.
The dictator had fewer, but better troops. And did we mention an airforce?

Between the jet and the copter, most of the resistance on the left flank was eliminated.
Meanwhile, the foreign mercenaries holding the radio station were slowly being wiped out by the sheer numbers of the resistance.
Two trucks were shot up and forced to stop. One by a crazy technical that braved a minefield to sprint ahead and block the way.
It was fun. Gruntz is easy to grasp. My only beef is the assault rules. Not because of the rules themselves, but the reality of assault (HTH) in modern rules. Just as in real life, you better suppress those defenders if you want to close with them. Timing is everything.
The table looked great with all the extras. Perhaps a post battle beer outside the warehouse.

Tonight's pairing.

Gruntz: Modern Africa

Thursday we play tested Gruntz for Modern Africa in another attempt to find the just the right balance of playability and time. If you aren't following other Jay's blog, you should. Most of the lovely figs you'll see in the AAR are his.
We've played Gruntz before. It's a near future squad based game. It uses simple mechanics: roll 2d6, add you "shoot" factor trying to meet or beat your target's "Guard" or defense. If you do, roll another 2d6 added to your weapons damage trying to beat your target's "Soak". That easy.
Some thing's we changed were the weapon ranges. We doubled all the ranges. Gruntz has some crazy ranges where you can actually close faster than the gun ranges.
But, on to the game.

Our favorite President-for-Life, Sawasilazi X1 was again having a "secret meeting" with his Secretary, when Rebels attacked. The rebels were to capture the President, blow up the power plant and capture needed ammo from the ammo dump.
Loyal forces were to prevent it.
The rebels had lots of troops but crappy. The loyalist had fewer but elite forces.

The rebels swarmed forward as the Presidential Guard tried to seek out the wayward President. The fight for both the ammo dump and power plant were suitably brutal. The Loyalist's found the boss, but the rebels managed to blow up the President's plane, preventing a quick escape.
Other than tweaking the stats on a few things, (the technicals were too tough) they rules suited us.
Without futuristic armor, troops dropped like flies. It actually seemed more realistic.

Modern Africa

Saturday was a playtest. Greg & Zombie J brought over their troops, and together with the ones I painted 15 years ago, but have never seen battle we tried a stripped down version Tomorrow's War.
Greg and I took the forces of President for Life Mdonga, while J and his precious boy soldiers attacked trying to capture him while he visited his mistress.

By stripped down down version of the rules I mean we took out a lot of the seemingly endless counter TW has. I don't really need to know a guy is lightly wounded, is he combat effective or not? We also used whole stands instead of single minis.

Presidential forces won initiative and I immediately rolled up the only heavy on the board, a Panhard armored vehicle packing a 105. Sounds good, but not as effective as an antipersonnel weapon. I caused a few casualties, but as we soon learned, at the end of the turn you roll of the see if casualties are really casualties. It became really tough to kill. (Rule fix #1, no medic rolls except for Elites).
TW uses an Action/Reaction roll. So, when my militia tried to crest a hill, they were reacted to by J's Regulars and fired upon. Back over the hill boys. They did this twice.
Meanwhile my Elites  (presidential Guard) were able to secure the building across from the President. It was too late, the boys got him. We'd spend the rest of the game in house to house street fighting.

HMG rules the street

The Boys in the Hood

Over all, I like the mechanics and understand why this=this. I seems to give a pretty good representation of modern warfare (not being a soldier of any kind). But, is it right for our big group. Maybe not. The Action/Reaction mechanic might throw some off. And we always have to balance, "can we get this done in 3 hours?"
I may have to start enforcing the "games begin at 6pm" rule again.
We are still going to try a few other sets to find the right fit.