Nocan Season 5

Nocan is now a veteran of the arena. Let's see how he does in his fifth season.

Preliminaries

• Prelim 1 - vs. an experienced wizard. The wizard gets in 2 hits. Nocan? Nothing, all misses. He loses 2-0.
• Prelim 2
• Nocan knocks down a novice elf archer in the first pass. That sets the tone for the rest of the bout. Nocan wins 7-0.
• Another 7-0 demolition, this time of a novice dwarf axeman.
• On to the semi-finals! Nocan faces an experienced barbarian
• Nocan hits on the first pass. He leads 1-0
• The barbarian hits. Nocan uses his skill to avoid a head shot (reroll!). Tied 1-1.
• Both knock down their opponent! Still tied, now 4-4.
• Nocan hits in the final pass, but the barbarian knocks him down! Nocan loses 7-5.
• Prelim 3 - Nocan leads a veteran dwarf 4-3 going into the final pass. But the dwarf knocks him down. Nocan loses 6-4.
• Prelim 4 - Nocan fights an experienced goblin and loses 2-1.

Regional

Nocan reached the semis of one tournament, so he gets an invitation to the regional championship.

• He faces an experienced knight.
• The knight barely misses a knock down but still gets a head shot. Another reroll reduces the damage. 2-0 lead for the knight.
• Both miss.
• Nocan knocks down his opponent but the knight scores a hit. 3-3 tie.
• The knight gets in a head shot. Nocan loses 5-3.

Not quite as good a season as the last one, so Nocan is a bit disappointed.

He does not level up. All the fighting is catching up to him; the aches and bruises of the arena keep him up at nights. Can he do this much longer?

I think Nocan needs to win a regional at least to advance to level 4.

Nine Month Check In

Normally I wait until the end of the year to discuss my annual prognostications (which are usually wrong). 

Trying to predict my gaming for the year

Something struck me recently so I wanted to make a few comments.

On Pace for a Record Number of Posts

By the end of August I had 90 posts; 98 by the end of September. That is more than 10 of my last 12 years of blogging. My average over those last 12 years has been 84 posts in a year. I am on a pace for 130; my best was 126!

The Dominion Series Has Revolutionized My Gaming

The Dominion series by Steve Parker of Ork Publishing is largely responsible for that. With such quick games, I find myself pulling out my counters and dice far more frequently. And of course, I like to record the results; I use this blog as a wargame diary. Naturally, this has increased my blog post count.

The next question - will it continue? I suspect it will.

GADD is Good

I joke about having GADD - gamer's attention deficit disorder. By this, I mean that I can't focus on one thing but instead jump around between games and eras a lot.

I mention this because I took a look back at my predictions for the year. I predicted GADD (when isn't that true for me?) but I also focused on my Micro Dungeon rules. I have barely touched those since January. What happened? GADD of course. Once I discovered the Dominion games, I went off in a whole new direction. But that's OK. As I mentioned above, Dominion revolutionized my gaming, resulting in far more games completed! So GADD was a good thing.

Planning is Bad

A corollary of this is that, for me, making plans and setting priorities for gaming is bad. Many years ago, I stopped doing new year gaming resolutions. I feel like it was a good decision because it allows me to go with the flow and experience new things I did not plan. Like Dominion. If I had locked myself into strict plans, I may not have tried it. I'm glad I did.

End of the Russo-Turkish War

The finale of my fictional Russo-Turkish War of 1866.

Background

Th Russians invaded Ottoman possessions in Europe but were repelled. They made a stand in Romania and beat back the Turks. The Russians resume their advance.

Battle of Colina Hill

The Turks take up position holding a little hill called Colina.

The Russians send in their elite line infantry. They take out the Turkish infantry but are too badly shot up to continue. The Russian general tries to rally them to no avail.

The Russians send in their heavy cavalry, which overruns some Turkish infantry. At Colina Hill, the Turkish skirmishers drive off Russian infantry.

Disaster for the Russians. The Turkish reserve infantry destroys the Russian cavalry while the Turkish skirmishers on the hill take out more Russians.

The Russians are totally defeated and must retreat.

In light of the disaster, the Czar calls off the offensive.

What Next?

With the Russians out of the picture in southeastern Europe, will the Austrians get embroiled in this powder keg?

More Nocan

Played a couple more seasons with Nocan.

Recall that season 1 was a mild success but season 2 was a disaster.

Season 3

Nocan remains level 2 as he enters his third season.

• Prelim 1 - a 3-1 loss to a hyenid novice.
• Prelim 2 - started well; He used his superior training to avoid a powerful blow on his way to defeating a novice orc 4-2. But then he lost to an experienced dwarf.
• In the first round, Nocan got knocked down. But I used a reroll to change the result to a 1-point hit.
• Prelim 3 - a 3-2 loss to a novice Aridian
• Prelim 4 - have the tides turned? He defeats a novice Kafiran 3-2 but then a novice orc defeats him 3-1.
• Boy, Nocan just could not succeed with his rerolls!

Season 4

Doubts have crept in. Maybe the elders were right. Maybe Nocan is not warrior material. He is still only level 2.

Preliminaries

• Prelim 1
• Starts off well - a 5-2 defeat of a novice goblin.
• Then a 3-1 victory over a novice hyenid. On to the semi-finals!
• An exciting bout against a veteran Kafiran.
• In the first round, Nocan thinks he scores a knockdown blow, but the Kafiran dodges. Score is 1-1. The Kafiran uses his reroll to reduce the effect of Nocan's hit.
• But then Nocan gets a clean headshot with no response. He leads 3-1.
• The Kafiran hits Nocan in the head but Nocan manages a successful strike. Final score 4-3 for Nocan!
• The finals against an experienced orc.
• Nocan gets a knockdown. 3-0 lead!
• The orc gets a clean headshot. 3-2 score.
• Here is the final pass. The orc misses and Nocan gets a knockdown!

Nocan wins the tournament! He earns a spot in the Regionals.

Here is Nocan (bottom) with his defeated opponents.

Nocan continues in the other preliminaries to earn experience (increase his odds of leveling up)

• Prelim 2 - Nocan faces a novice wizard who bespells him. Nocan loses 3-1.
• Prelim 3 - This time Nocan faces a novice knight. With the score tied 2-3 going into the final pass, Nocan misses while the knight scores a head hit. A 4-2 defeat for Nocan!
• Prelim 4 - Nocan defeats a novice dwarf noble 5-1 but then loses 5-3 to a veteran orc archer.

Regional

Not as much success in the later preliminaries, but Nocan still heads to the Regional tournament!

• Bout 1 - Nocan faces an experienced orc. Nocan gets 2 head hits and cruises to a 5-2 victory.
• Bout 2 - Nocan faces that d**** novice wizard again! 
• They both score head hits in pass 1. Score = 2-2.
• Nocan manages a hit while the wizard misses. 3-2 Nocan.
• The wizard nearly hits but Nocan manages a late dodge (Reroll success!). Nocan wins 3-2!
• Semifinals - Against a veteran elf archer.
• Nocan nearly gets a head hit, but the veteran elf's dodge lessens the blow. The elf also scores a hit. Score = 1-1.
• This time, both score head hits. 3-3,
• Before Nocan can do anything, the elf gets off a shot that knocks Nocan down. 3 points and a 6-3 victory for the elf.

The Regionals are over for Nocan, but they are not a total loss. By making the semis, Nocan gets invited to the Championship tournament!

The Championship

He finally made it. The Championship tournament for the junior circuit, held in the Imperial capital city!

• Bout 1 - Nocan faces a novice from his own tribe. 
• Nocan's first attack misses. He tries to dodge the counterattack, but ends up getting clocked in the head. Nocan is behind 2-0.
• Nocan must be wobbly from the headshot. This time he goes down. It's now 5-0.
• The barbarian scores another hit. Nocan loses 6-0.

A disappointing end to the season, and to a lower level opponent!

On the bright side, this was Nocan's best season so far. And he levels up. He is now a veteran (level 3).

Stay tuned for Season 5.

The 1866 Russo-Turkish War Continues

Part 2 of my fictional Russo-Turkish War set in 1866.

Last time, the Russians attack but the Turks drive them back. Now, the Turks pursue into Romania. The Russians, with Romanian allies, make a stand at the (fictional) city of Aparare.

Order of Battle

• Russians (green, top) - Russian infantry and artillery in the city with skirmisher protecting the flank (left). Romanian and Russian infantry in reserve.
• Turks - Elite cavalry, elite infantry, and infantry in the front line with cavalry and infantry in reserve.

Battle of Aparare

The Russian artillery bombards the Turkish infantry. The Turks respond by charging the walls. They clamber over and silence the guns. Meanwhile, the Turkish cavalry routs the Russian skirmishers.

The Russians rush reserves into the city and rout the Turks who seized the guns. On the other flank, a the Romanian infantry greets the victorious Turkish cavalry with a wall of lead. The Turks are about to rout, but their general steadies them.

For the moment. Another volley scatters with cavalry. The Russian infantry clears more Turks from the city.

The Romanians rout the Turkish reserve cavalry.

The Turkish general calls off the attack. It is a Russian (and Romanian) victory.

Into the Void

There has been precious little posted about Voidfighter so I thought I'd give it a test run.

Putting The Game Together

First, things first. I didn't have any components for the game, so I slapped stuff together.

• The battle space - I don't have a 36 by 48 inch space mat, let alone space for one. But I have a black dish drying mat that is 44 by 60 centimeters. I'll scale down from inches to centimeters and the game should work fine.
• Note: My cat has claimed this mat as a bed so it is covered in fur and catnip! I guess that will represent space debris.
• Ships - I still have some wooden ovals that I used for some naval experiments last year. Cut them in half and they work perfectly for ship markers.
• I really like how they came out. They look like something from a computer display
• Dice - Voidfighter uses a variable dice type system, so I need D4s, D6s, D8s, D10s, and D12s. I had to scrounge around.

Test Battle

I decided to do a simple battle with two 15-point snubfighters (silver) vs three 10-pointers (red). The two sides are trying to claim a derelict freighter.

Turn 1 - KABOOM. One of the silver fighters blows up.

I played another turn, then stopped. I found recording damage to be too fiddly. It's not a bad system - on a hit, roll 2D6. Then refer to a table to determine the result, which includes hull hits, crew hits, system hits, etc. You can see the damage table on this online QRS. It provides a lot of flavor.

But, it requires a roster, and I hate maintaining a roster when I play solo. I really prefer something much simpler.

I was also getting annoyed with the combat system.

• I don't like using multiple dice types. Too much groping around.
• I don't like rolling two dice per side for opposed rolls. I like to roll both sides together so one die each works better.

I knew going in that Voidfighter went against my preferences, but I thought I'd just roll with it. It just got too annoying for me to continue.

I was thinking of running this during my LARP group's summer game sessions, but I'm having second thoughts. I may take another look at Starfighters!

Using MicroBattle

Since I had the components out, I decided to play the scenario using my MicroBattle air combat rules.

The Federation (silver) sends two fighters to retrieve a derelict freighter. But the Empire got there first. Our heroes get bounced by two Imperial fighters.

Ace (Federation ship 1) takes a shot at an Imperial trying to hack the freighter's computer system. The shot misses but rattles the Imperials pilot. Deuce (Federation 2) manages to send instructions and turns the freighter's nose around.

One of the Imperials is damaged and flees the battle. Missing a picture of the successful attack

The remaining Imperials damage our heroes.

Deuce takes severe damage. He manages to escape and limp back home.

This was a target destroyed result, but I allow PC's to make a survival roll. Deuce succeeded, and lives another day.

Damaged, Ace makes a break for it.

Not a stellar outing.

Wasted in the Wastes

The Hyenid War - Part 2

After defeating the hyenids at Hecate Hill, an Imperial legion pursues the remaining raiders into the desert.

The hyenids turn at bay.

The legion (red, bottom) boasts 2 auxiliary cohorts, 2 archer cohorts, and a legionary cohort (elite and armored). The hyenids have javelins, fierce warriors, and beasts.

The Battle of the Wastes

As the legion deploys for battle, an unwelcome surprise appears. Reinforcements for the hyenids!

Hyenid fierce warriors and spears join the fight.

OK, I did this for narrative purposes. For each army, I started with the survivors from Hecate Hill, then I added some more. I decided to reveal the new hyenid reserves as surprise reinforcements.

The hyenids charge, sweeping away the Imperial center and right.

Reserve archers pepper the hyenid fierce warriors, wiping them out.

Along with the new arrivals. But the auxiliaries on the left rout in the face of the hyenid javelins.

The javelins flank the archers, putting them to the rout.

The legion is defeated.