Campaign for the Kingdom: the Battle of Bottomsly-Uppsdown

Winter had not truly set in. There was time to find forage for the coming cold months. But, unfortunately for Horace, Duke of Dunharrow, his enemies had the same idea.
This was another game in our ongoing very slightly historical Medieval campaign. The current claimant to the throne has had a serious of successes and was poised to win another. However, I brought from our usual set up. Normally everyone gets a core 3 units: 1 Dismounted knight unit, 1 Longbowmen unit and 1 Man-at-arms/billmen unit. And then they take turns picking units, ala dodgeball, until everyone has 6. But, this time, the core remained, but the other 3 units were randomly dealt. I ended up with a very "shooty" heavy team.

 Forces size each other up.

 Duke Horace leads his men forward.

 Sir Lionel admires himself in the reflection from his helmet.

 "LOOSE!"

Another great game. It looked like Roderick's forces were going to completely roll over Horace (thanks in no small part to my shooty units). But, then Horace's boys made a comeback and tied it up. It came down to a difference of one unit, with Roderick's forces just making the Victory Point limit.

Horace meets his end.

A commmision of sorts

A little something different today.
I've been collaborating for a few months with Thomas Foss over at Skull and Crown. I've been designing the flags for his awesome wooden Galley ships. In return I asked him to work on some Imagi-Nation troops for me. Here's his first round of the laser cut troops:

I painted this guy as one of the Duke of Forthweg's Own Loyal Guards. I think he turned out well.
Officers, drummers and Grenadiers are on the way. He was really fun to paint. I'm hoping to have enough painted to run a game at our local convention RECRUITS in the Fall.

UPDATE: Since people have been asking. Here's a shot of how they look on a base. I'll be using the double ranked ones.

Bolt Action Thursday

Last night I got see a great looking game of Bolt Action, but for once didn't have the pressure of hosting. See the whole thing over at John's Curio Clashes.

Alpha Strike: Battle for Meridian Prime Pt 4

With the Rebels stalled last game, they decided to hit another sector. I wanted to scale up and do a larger battle, so I dug out my Battletech stuff and went 6mm.

There were 5 Hold points around the table. Each turn a side held one they got a point. To motivate everyone I did a countdown clock of sorts by rolling a d6 every turn and kept a running total. We it reached "30" the game was over. Most points won.

Alpha strike goes really quick. We had quite a few models on the table.
The Rebels flew across the table and captured 3 objectives right off the bat. It then was up to the Union to push them off.
Losses were high for both sides, but the Rebs pulled out another victory. Now I want to take this fight to space as sympathetic planets try to run the blockade and supply the rebels.

King of Tortuga Kickstarter

I wanted to take a minute to announce a Kickstarter by a buddy of mine: King of Tortuga.
Not only is it a quick, fun card game for the family, but I could see someone using it for a fun way to settle those boring old boarding actions in a miniatures game.
But also because I did the art for the game.

Black Powder ACW in 15mm

As much as I like Fire & Fury (it was one of my first historical rules sets), I like finishing in an evening. So, with new guy Doug (sorry John, I guess you're not new guy anymore) showing up regularly, I decided to run ACW Black Powder. BP is a great game to introduce newbies to. With the right group, it can also be a lot of fun.
We used the scenario right out of the book, but used half ranges for everything. The Rebs were trying to attack a town at first light and capture the foundry, take the town and the Union camp. A tall order for the Confederates, but the Yankees start out unawares, asleep in their beds with only a picket to alert them.

It started out with Rebs unable to get one brigade moving, one engaging the pickets, and one blazing across the table at a terrifying rate right at the camp.
Fortunately the pickets did a decent job of slowing down the middle while a brigade of Yanks came up the road to the sound of gunfire. Meanwhile, the brigade in the camp was slow to wake.
Soon the middle and right flank were engaged, but it looked bad for the campers.

They finally broke camp, but were immediately pounced on by the Rebs. Miraculously, they not only drove off the Rebs, but broke a few regiments!
The Rebel right flank started to collapse, it looked like the game was over.....
But then, the Union regiments that had been engaged in the center and right started to drop. It suddenly was a close game.
In the end, the Union pulled out a close victory. The Rebs retreated over the mountain to lick their wounds.

5 Core: Battle for Meridian Prime, pt. 3

crackle...crackle...."Bravo 2, this Blue Leader, respond."
"Blue Leader, this Bravo 2, over."
"Bravo 2, be advised, the rebels have broken through. They will be approaching your sector very soon. Hold your positions until relieved. I repeat, hold your positions until relieved. The bridges must be held. Sending a squad of Heavies your way. Over."
"We won't need them. Just rebels scum si........", crackle, crackle.
"Bravo 2, please respond! Bravo 2, what's happening?"
"Blue Leader, they have a tank"
This was I third round of games using the Core 5 system. I really like these rules for small unit actions. We've learned a lot along the way. I've been slowly adding things from other supplements and borrowed some ideas from the company level rules for tanks and vehicles. This is still and infantry game at heart, so the vehicles are really a support feature, and not the main part of the game. They proved impressive and fragile at the same time.

The Rebels have won the last two games.  It was time for the Union forces to make a stand. They were given 3 mechs to defend the town. Tough enough to shrug off small arms fire, but not anti-tank or vehicle mounted weapons. They would get reinforcements in the form of some tough-ass, power armored Union Marines if I rolled a "1" on the Event dice.
The Rebels got some troops to bring in later, too. A sniper, and a walking tank.

The first couple of turns were spent getting into position. Several "Scurry" results on the Action dice helped both sides with this. Scurries, are not subject to Reaction fire.
Then, the Union machine gun team opened up from a rooftop. Several Rebels either went down or ran off.
There were short burst of Firefights and some sneaking about, and definitely a lot more death than we have had. Most losses until now have been do to soldiers running off.
At one point, one the mechs got in a beautiful position, and unleashed a flame thrower. Truly a terror weapon. Not only did he cook several rebels, but forced more to run off. But then he got his. The tank used his "laser" to smoke the mech.
Then the tank was in turn, hit by an anti-tank round. BOOM!
I

n the end, the rebels just couldn't push through. A great game, though.
For the Union counter attack, I'm going to scale up battle-wise, and scale down miniature-wise, for a big battle with tanks and air support. Meridian bleeds on...