The Goblin Cave

My Keep on the Borderlands Campaign

The continuing adventures of Aldric the fighter, Corvin the mystic, Rook the rogue, and Lothariel the elven pathfinder

After their previous victory, our heroes return to the Caves of Chaos. This time, they explore the goblin cave.

Encounters:

• Giant rats - L bit. A hits. R takes out 2. bandage L but she is weakened.
• Rock trap - A and L hit. Use 2 more bandages.
• Goblin urchins - A hit. Rest wipe them out.
• Goblin guards - A and R hit. L hits then gets hit. A hits. C casts Fear; 1 runs. R hits then takes out last one. L recovers.
• Goblin king and guards - L hit. A hit. C hits. A and R hit. King flees!

Once again, a successful excursion!

Note:

• There was a chance to meet an ogre, but the encounter did not come up. Whew! But they will need to fight the ogre at some point.

Round and Round

I recently saw a post on Lead Adventure Forum for a 3rd edition of Two Hour Wargames' Long Rifle.

This sparked an interest in my sidelined Revolutionary War skirmish project.

A Library Hunt

Back then, I perused Long Rifle 2nd edition. I decided to take another look at it. But I could not find it in my Wargames Vault library! I could have sworn that I purchased it. Oh well, guess I'll buy it now. But it is a bit more than I like to spend. I ended up buying Black Powder Battles and Muskets and Mohawks, two predecessors to Long Rifle.

Then I remembered where I read LR; it's on Kindle Unlimited!

Should I Get 3e?

I am tempted to order 3e, which is probably not a good idea considering my history with Two Hour Wargames. Here is my typical process:

1. That looks interesting. I'm going to buy it.
2. Ugh. I really don't like the TWH combat system. Oh well, I can use the campaign system.
3. Hmm, the campaign is a bit more complicated than I like. I'll streamline it a bit.
4. Put the rules aside and wait several months
5. Get interested in the topic again.
6. Pull out the rules.
7. Return to step 2.

Star Cup 4

I previously mentioned resurrecting my Star League sci-fi grav ball league.

I did a little digging on my old blog and found some of the results. I was able to reconstruct the division winners and most of the Star Cup winners.

I could not find the results from Star Cup 4. So I decided to replay it with my new rules.

Setting Up

I don't have the ratings from that season, so I just generated them randomly.

• The Blitz have an average offense and strong defense and goalie. (1-2-2 rating)
• The Fury have a strong offense and goalie but average defense (2-1-2 rating)

Star Cup is a 3-game series. With the better season record, the Blitz are home for games 1 and 3.

 Game 1

The Fury score early then dominate possession. The Blitz make a run late in the 1st half but cannot get off a shot.

The 2nd half sees more Fury dominance. Midway, they score another goal. The Blitz score late but their comeback runs out of time.

Fury 2 - Blitz 1

Game 2

More Fury dominance, but they cannot get the ball past the Blitz keeper. The Blitz get a late run, but no luck.

The game goes into overtime. In Star League, overtime is sudden death. First goal wins. The Blitz make a run, but their shot goes wide. Then the Fury get a shot. Rebound. The next shot misses. Another rebound. Then goal!

Fury 1 - Blitz 0

Box Scores

Roaring 20's Baseball - Part 3

Encouraged by my experiments with grav ball, I started prepping a new league. Then I stopped and told myself to finish baseball first!

So here are the games for the final week.

Highlights:

• The Philadelphia A's meet the New York Yankees with the American League title on the line. The Yanks need 1 win while Philly have to sweep to force a playoff game.
• In the first game, the A's leap out to a 4-0 lead. Babe Ruth hits a homer to cut the lead by 2 runs. Bing Miller adds to the A's lead and then Rube Walberg closes the door. The A's win 5-2.
• In the second game, the A's have a 3-2 lead. Then Babe Ruth hits a 3-run homer. The A's get another run but it's not enough. The Yankees win the game (5-4) and the pennant.
• Similarly, the Pittsburgh Pirates have a 2-game lead over the New York Giants. The Giants need to sweep to force a playoff.
• In the first game, the teams are tied 3-3. In the bottom of the 9th, Pittsburgh's Pie Traynor comes to the plate with men on base. He knocks in the winning run. The Pirates clinch the National League pennant.

Final Standings:

The Yankees and Pirates win their leagues and will meet in the Championship Series.

Battle of Fort Charlotte

Time for this year's Independence Day battle.

Background

Stymied at Fort New Richmond (Baton Rouge, LA), Bernardo de Galvez decides to cut off the supply lines to the British garrison.

He sails his force to Fort Charlotte (Mobile, AL)

 

Opposing Forces

• Spanish - Galvez (white) - 3 Spanish line infantry, 2 batteries of artillery, 1 unit of unreliable militia
• British - Capt. Elias Durnford (red) - 2 line infantry, 2 militia (1 mounted), 1 artillery

The Battle

Galvez begins the battle with a bombardment in the center. It is ineffectual. The British mounted militia drive off the Spanish militia (left).

The bombardment continues in the center. Meanwhile, a British sortie wipes out some artillery (left).

The bombardment succeeds!

Militia takes up the defense in the center.

Oops, I should have removed the wall.

Spanish infantry drives off the mounted militia (left).

But the British militia and line crush the Spanish center and right.

Fort Charlotte remains in British hands. 😡

But Wait

We have received word from Galvez. He made a second attempt that succeeded!

Here is his map of the siege. Numbers indicate turns.

I actually played this scenario twice. The first time was actually on my PowerPoint battle board. Galvez actually won this one. But I wanted to play the scenario using physical counters, so I did it again. That's the initial report in this post.

Happy Birthday America!

GOOOOOOOAAAL!

Watching the World Cup has got me interested in some soccer action.

This happened before in 2014. Someone posted a free, quick-play soccer game on TMP. I tweaked it to fit my needs then went on a binge. I eventually changed the game to grav ball. 

I formed a league and played several seasons. Alas, the rules and season results are mostly lost. Perhaps I can reboot.

Rules

One night, I jotted down some simple rules. I play 5 possessions per half.

For each possession, I take these steps:

• Determine who gains possession
• Determine if attacker can get a shot
• Determine if the shot scores

If the attacker can't get a shot or doesn't score, then the possession ends and I start the process over. I determine results using opposed dice rolls. I rate each team for offense, defense, and goalie; ratings modify the dice rolls.

That's the basics so far.

Test Game

I played a couple of test games, using Excel to keep track of results.

Here is the tracker for one game.

In the other game, team B won 3-1.