Renaissance Thursday (Rules test #2)

I dug out my, until now much underused Italian Wars miniatures again. This fight we used Warmaster Ancients rules with the modifiers and lists described in "Renaissance Commander".

Gotta say, I think Warmaster gets a bad rap. With the right group, its fun to play. The Command and Control rules were better than the "line 'em up and let 'em go" rules of TACTICA. Having to roll to move your troops frustrated some (Scott), but I really liked them. You'll notice in the pictures not only did I have to repurpose my WotR commanders again, but I mounted everything on shadow bases. This is because Warmaster, like  a lot of games, requires common size frontage. I didn't feel like rebasing 500 minis for a playtest, so there ya go.

Some of the Renaissance mods change how Warmaster is played and make it more like Blitzkrieg Commander. For instance, there is no seperate Shooting phase. All fire must either be "Ordered" or done as part of the "Initiative" phase. 

Overall, it felt like right. I said that abot TACTICA, but more so here. It had more of a gradual wear down to the fight. You really had to grind at a unit to bring it down, with the occasional blow out. I didn't pull stands when they were eliminated, but this proved a problem later on when supporting stands became an issue. Skirmishers acted more like skirmishers and boy do early Spanish pike suck.

So far, it's beating TACTICA, but the next game will be Renaissance Principles of War. I ordered it last week, but it might take awhile to show up from the UK.

the Cardinal's Guard

More minis for Gloire! This time some baddies.

Renaissance Wednesday

Oh Happy Day! I've had a large Italian Wars collection collecting dust for almost 10 years. I've got pike blocks of Landsckencts where every single figure is unique (pose, dress, paint job), horribly expensive Foundry Gendarmes, endless numbers of crossbows. They've never seen battle, till Wednesday night.

As large as my collection is, it's not entirely complete, so I had some stand ins from my other giant collection of War of the Roses figs.
I'm trying an experiment. I'm doing the same battle three times, using three rule sets. Last night was Tactica Medieval using the Renaissance add ons created by some of the guys over at the Yahoo group.
I've always liked Tactica for its simplicity. The rules are very "Old School" using single figure removal, or blocks with some kind of marker. Movement is limited, and skirmishers are dispersed if touched by a formed unit.

Over all, it felt right. The battle seemed to play out like what I've studied. The skirmishers harassed the slower pike blocks and shielded them from other fire. They were eventually dispersed and it came down to the dueling pike blocks. But, that simplicity also had drawbacks. Command and control is a little too easy. As long as your commanders (which essentially just act as markers) are within command range, your troops move, albeit slowly, just fine. Very "wind them up and let them go".
Single figure removal can be a bit fiddly and I could see several chances to be "gamey".
Next, we're going to try Historiccal WarMaster with , again, the Renaissance modifiers/troop types. I can see where this would work as Renaissance commanders were studying tactics of Roman and Greek armies, even referring to their troops as the "new Legions".
After that, maybe Command and Colors. I've heard good things about Renaissance Principles of War, but I don't know about yet another ruleset.

Some WotR commanders stand in for the French Generals

Some mounted crossbows sweep around the flank.

As in all Renaissance games, it comes to the push of pike.

These crossbowmen get hit by two pike blocks. They held for a turn, then dissolved.

En Garde!

I needed a diversion, so I picked up Ratrap Game's "Gloire!" and some Musketeer Miniatures. The rules are perfect for small skirmishes, and the figs from Brigade Games were a blast to paint. So much so, that I ordered more.

Battlelore Wednesday

As I mentioned before, I played a great game of Command and Colors at RECRUITS last month with 15mm ancients (I can still taste my son's delicious tears). So why not try it with Battlelore, C&C's fantasy step-brother? I know there's a lot of haters out there of Battlelore, but any game my 9-year-old can figure out and still be fun for me tactically is a winner in my book.
We cobbled together two armies from Ken (Lead Addict's) massive collection of 15mm Demonworld fantasy figs. (He has everything they made. Get the name Lead Addict now?). This was a playtest, so no finished bases, and in this case, no hexes. No one seems to make a 6' x 8' five inch hex mat. So we used the C&C hexless rules, They worked fine. We had three kids and three adults playing and it worked great. A marginal victory by the orcs over the elves. We will definitely be playing again.

40! Followers

Thanks to everyone who's following along. Always more to come!

Super Hero Wednesday!

The Crystal Skull of Ozmodeus has disappeared! The magical artifact holds untold power, and the members of C.R.I.M.E. think it's somewhere in Capital City. They'll tear the city apart looking for it, too!
But fear not citizen, the Guardians are on the way!

The villains include the muscle-bound Behemoth, Razorwing, knife of the skies, the dead-eye Killshot, ninja Shadow Master, mental monarch Queen Cobra and Red Raven. Thy are equipped with a device to track the magical energies given off by the Crystal Skull.

Opposing this foul cadre is the manic Manticore, pro wrestler turned hero Mr. Wonderful, Herakles hero of legend, flying government weapon A.J.A.X., the speedy Flea, and the enigmatic Crimson Cowl.

The battle opens with Flea leaping and bouncing forward to attack Killshot. He deliverers a flurry of blows and retreats. Razorwing takes to the air to track the Skull's energy, but is attacked by A.J.A.X.

Behemoth super-leaps to bash Manticore from his perch atop a building, then jumps the Crimson Cowl. The masked mentalist dodges the blows.

After a combined attack with Manticore, the Crimson Cowl finishes Behemoth with a mental attack against the stupid brute. In fact across the city, things are going well for our heroes. Flea bashed Killshot to the ground. Herakles made short work of Red Raven, but took a little longer with Shadow Master. After a dazzling mental attack by Queen Cobra, Mr. Wonderful knocked her through a building.

Soon only Queen Cobra remained. She decided to live to fight another day and made her escape. Little did anyone know, the Crystal Skull was being used as a paper weight at the local comic book shop.

RECRUITS pictures

I forgot my camera, but thanks to fellow Basement General Greg (owner of wargamedownloads.com) for taking some shots.
Here's some shots from the Fistful of Lead game:

The streets of Lesterville

The action unfolds

A different view of the action

The giant hand of Death

Blood in the streets

Here's some shots form the GASLIGHT game

THe BRute class Land Ironclad chugs forward