Relief of Rashur

After the last battle, Saladin has trapped some Crusaders in the town of Rashur. King Guy rides to the rescue.

The Opposing Forces

• Crusader vanguard - Crossbows, 2 spears, 2 knights
• Saladin's pickets - 3 horse archers, bows, spears

Note: I did not have the army lists handy so I just rolled randomly to determine the forces. The Crusaders have a slight advantage (12 points vs 11).

The Battle

King Guy's vanguard approaches the town and runs into Saladin's troops on picket duty. The spears advance. The horse archers on the right unwisely charge and get cut down.

The horse archers in the center are smarter. Their volleys rout the Crusader spears.

But then the knights charge from the reserve and scatter the horse archers.

Horse archers on the left rout the crossbowmen.

The knights do more damage.

Then flank and destroy the bows.

The remaining horse archers fall back on Saladin's camp. Saladin must abandon the siege of Rashur and prepare to meet the Crusader army. Meanwhile, Guy brings up the rest of his force. A climatic battle is in the offing.

GAME NOTES

This was a surprisingly LOOOOOONG game. You may have noticed that there is only 1 defeated unit in each picture. That's because in each turn there was at least one sector where no one hit. And I didn't take pictures of the many turns where no one hit at all! I didn't count but there must have been at least 10 turns in this game. Contrast this with my silly Thanksgiving game, which ended after a mere 2 turns.

Ser Killian On Hiatus

After last week's musings about my dungeon crawl rules, I decided to put Kilian's story on hiatus.

Killian (left) with Haiden his squire, Nashad the man-at-arms, and Martin his priest.
I imagine Haiden as a bit older, but otherwise Chat GPT did a good job.

.

Killian's Story

Killian's story ended nicely when I completed the Dragon of Icespire Keep module. He defeated the titular dragon, built a church in Phandelin, and brought peace to the region.

I enjoyed the climax so much I decided to continue with the sequel module, Storm Lord's Wrath (SLW). I played the first adventure then stopped.

A New Strategy

I have some ideas for tweaks to my Micro Dungeon rules. I think it will be best to test them with new characters. But first, I wanted to finish SLW.

Problems Arise

Last weekend, I pulled up SLW and began prepping the remaining adventures. This involves translating D&D encounters into my rules. Sometimes, I need to add encounters because the published adventures are pretty slim and also include social encounters, which I drop.

As I worked through the module, I encountered some problems.

• Multiple main quests - in SLW, you face the minions of TWO evil priests. Couldn't they just focus on one? I considered dropping one main quest and just completing the other. That would give me some closure.
• Stupid side quests - there are some side quests that have no bearing whatsoever on the main story. I want to finish Killian's story quickly, therefore I won't bother with these.
• The Big Bosses aren't here - this is the big issue. The confrontations with the evil priests aren't in this module. There are two more modules! I did not realize this when I bought SLW. I thought it would be like Dragon of Icespire Keep, in which the main quest is completely in the module. But no, they want to string me along. I am not buying another modern D&D module.

Because of these problems, especially the last one, I'm done with SLW.

What Next for Killian?

I'm leaving Killian at the start of a story. I feel like I need closure. Perhaps I will create my own story where he fights one of the evil priests.

BUT, that is a bit of work. I think I will put Killian on hiatus and start new characters.

Protecting Pearl

A few years ago, I did a mini Pearl Harbor campaign using my Micro Battle air combat rules. It's on my old blog so I decided to start fresh, with a slightly different scenario,

The Dogfight

It is the morning of December 7th, 1941. Lt. William Crow and Lt. Rex Raven, based at Hickam Field, get the alarm. Enemy forces inbound! They scramble for their P-40s and take off.

They engage 3 Val dive bombers (gray) escorted by a Zero (red)

The Zero gets on Crowe's (Green 1) tail. He takes damage. Meanwhile, Raven gets behind the Vals (left).

Raven damages a Val. It breaks off its attack. 

Crowe manages to slip the Zero. He and Raven get behind two Vals. Rat-tat-tat. BOOM!

Both Vals go up in flames.

The Zero stays in the fight, targeting Crowe. Evasive maneuvers! The Zero misses.

Raven comes to the rescue and damages the Zero.

There is more circling and missed shots. Finally, the Zero, running out of fuel, abandons the fight.

Crowe and Val have saved Hickam Field!

What's Next?

I have one more scenario - protect the battleships! I haven't played it but will post it when I do.

In future years, I don't want to keep repeating Pearl Harbor scenarios. Maybe I'll designate December 7th as Air War in the Pacific day and do further battles (Coral Sea, Midway, etc.). Crowe and Raven will be the stars; I guess they'll transfer to the Navy.

Saladin Sallies

I decided to start a Crusader-themed campaign for Dominion of.

Saladin sallies across the border into the Crusader States. His army (blue) consists of 2 units of Mameluks (elite horse archers), a unit of Turkoman horse archers, foot archers, and spears.

The Crusaders defend with crossbows (in the town), 2 units of knights, and 3 spears.

In the initial attack (not pictured because for some reason blogger is not uploading it), the Crusaders lose some knights and spears. Knights and spears fill in the gaps.

The reserve knights charge the Turkoman horse archers. A rain of arrows wipes them out.

Some of the Mameluks recklessly charge the town. The crossbowmen shoot them down. But Saladin's archers take out the spears on the right.

This opens up the Crusader flank. The archers hit the center spears.

The Crusader crossbowmen are bottled up in the town. Game over, Saladin has won. But for the sake of narrartive.

Saladin's forces prepare to storm the town.

What happens next? Stay tuned!

Shipbuilding

With time on my hands over the extended weekend, I found my thoughts turning to gaming. But not in any systematic way - just a bunch of random thoughts.

This random thought came courtesy of Bob Cordery, Arthur Harman, and Mark Cordone. Recently, Mr. Cordery and Mr. Harman edited and released the latest compendium for the Portable Wargame.

In it, Mr, Cordone provides an ancient naval variant of the Dominion of series. I decided to give it another run (this variant was initially posted on the Portable Wargame Facebook page. I previously posted about it).

I played a game of it, liked it, but did not like my current counters.

He is a picture from my August battle.

I don't know why I don't like the squares. They just seem bulkier.

Anyway, I decided to rectify the situation. I created two new types of counters: line abreast and line ahead.

I plan to use the line abreast for ancient warfare and line ahead for age of sail to modern. I have two fleets of each (red and green).

As you'll notice, I have 3 types of counters. Dominion of the Oar and Spear has 4 types of naval squadrons, plus a bonus for large ships. I may need some additional markers to indicate the types. I will likely designate the small ships as ambushers. I need to think about the rest of the markers.

Getting Tripped Up

I'm typing this on the Friday after Thanksgiving. I have nothing to do and nowhere to go (no Black Friday sales for me). I should be playing a game, but I feel like I'm getting tripped up.

Image created by ChatGPT

After months away from it, I suddenly have an urge to dungeon crawl. Yet I am reluctant to pull out my dungeon crawl rules.

What's wrong?

The Basic Concept?

No, I think my basic concept is sound. With my Micro Dungeon rules, the chance to hit is based on the relative combat skill, not what armor the target wears.

Think about this scenario. A level 1 fighter in plate armor vs an unarmored level 10 fighter. According to the BECMI attack tables, the level 1 fighter as a 55% chance of hitting the level 10, and the level 10 has the same odds of hitting the level 1.

At a glance, this is counterintuitive. The level 10 should be more capable of hitting the level 1. I am reminded of this scene.

I know there are other factors at work - getting through the armor and the level 10's higher hp. Still ...

In Micro Dungeon, I switched things around. The chance to hit depends on relative skill. The level 10 is far more likely to hit. I changed armor so it reduces damage rather than affecting the chance to hit. In general, I think it works.

But

So what went wrong? I'm not sure, it's been so long since I played Micro Dungeon. I think I may have had an issue that plagues D&D - power creep. My characters, now at 6th level, have enough hp that it takes a while to whittle them down, and that also applies to their enemies. Perhaps hp should not increase.

What Else?

I'd like Micro Dungeon to be easier to pick up and play. To do that, though, I need a complete list of monsters. I'd like to create an easy conversion from D&D to MD but I never got around to it.

So What Now?

Well, instead of playing games, I am revisiting my Micro Dungeon rules and pondering changes to make the game easier. Stay tuned for my thoughts.

The Turkey Fights Back

Well, I never got around to printing the counters for my silly Thanksgiving project. I decided to play the game anyway using generic counters and a little imagination.

Background

The native Wampanoag peoples warn the Pilgrims that there are dark things in the forest. Inhuman things. Dangerous things.

The Pilgrims (bottom) send out an expedition. It consists of 2 cavalry, skirmishers, and line infantry.

Suddenly, out of the forest, a frightening army emerges. It consists of potato people infantry, corn shooters, dire turkeys (represented by a cavalry counter), and pumpkin chuckers (green counter).

The chuckers lob their pumpkins at the right flank cavalry, spooking it (downgraded to unreliable status).

The dire turkeys (center) charge. The skirmishers unleash a ragged volley then flee. The left flank cavalry charges the corn shooters, who shoot them down.

The potato infantry attacks the Pilgrim's spooked cavalry. The cavalry flees. Meanwhile, the Pilgrim reserve infantry advances. In the center, the Pilgrims slay the dire turkeys. But they take grievous casualties and can no longer fight.

This leaves one unit of Pilgrim infantry. They wisely retreat from the battlefield.

NOTES

• I probably should have used the Pike & Shot rules, but I used my generic horse & musket rules instead. Still a fun game.

Happy Thanksgiving

On this day, we pause to give thanks to the Lord for his blessings.

I am especially thankful for the miracle he performed for our cat Fuzz. Earlier this year, she was desperately ill in Intensive Care. The vet did not think she would make it.

Driving home, this song came on the radio - Desperate by Jamie Macdonald. 

The lyrics perfectly expressed what I was feeling. “Oh God, I'm desperate. Down on my knees, Send help from heaven, 'Cause that's what I need.” I sang along, desperately praying to the Lord to save Fuzz.

The next song was Don’t Stop Praying by Matthew West.

One line really struck me. “Don't stop believing, 'Cause mountains move with just a little faith.”

A few days later, Fuzz was home and on the road to recovery.

By the way, this is a little meme we created starring Fuzz.

(In reality, the pictures were taken when we first adopted this hungry street cat and then several months later).

Nocan Season 6

Season 5 ended in a disappointing fashion - a first round loss in the regional tournament.

Let's see how season 6 goes.

Preliminaries

• Preliminary 1
• vs. a novice knight. Tied 2-2 after the first round but then Nocan pulls away to win 5-2.
• vs. a novice hyenid. Again tied after the first round (1-1) but Nocan pulls away for a 7-3 victory.
• vs. a novice goblin archer. Tied 2-2 after 1 (I sense a pattern here) but Nocan wins 6-3.
• vs. an experienced orc. Nocan fails to score and loses 5-0.
• Preliminary 2
• vs. a novice goblin. Nocan knocks the goblin down in the first round then cruises to a 7-1 victory.
• vs. an experienced spearman. Nocan gets 2 knockdowns and wins 6-1.
• vs. an experienced elf archer. The archer's aim is off - no hits. Nocan scores in two rounds and wins 3-0.
• vs. a novice dwarf axeman. I previously gave a preview of this bout. After two rounds, Nocan leads 4-3.

In the final round, Nocan wins the initiative and charges. But the dwarf uses his long axe to his advantage. Swinging it from the end, the dwarf clocks Nocan in the head. Stunned, Nocan misses (and fails his reroll)

The dwarf wins 5-4.

• Preliminary 3 - Nocan loses to a veteran hyenid 5-3.
• Preliminary 4
• vs. a novice goblin. Nocan cruises to a 6-1 victory.
• vs. an experienced dwarf. Tied 2-2 after two rounds. The dwarf gets a head shot but Nocan plows through the pain and gets a knockdown. Nocan wins 5-4
• vs. an experienced spearman. Nocan is off his game (still smarting from the head shot in the last round?). He loses 5-0.

Nocan advanced to one semi-final and two finals, but no tournament victories. Successful but a little disappointing.

The Regional Championship

Nocan earns an invitation to the regional championship due to his final appearances.

1. vs. an experienced orc. Nocan gets a knockdown in the final round to win 4-1.
2. vs. an experienced Kafiran.
1. Nocan gets a head shot and uses his experience (reroll) to avoid a headshot. he leads 2-1.
2. The Kafiran gets a head shot. Nocan misses. The Kafiran leads 3-2,
3. The Kafiran misses and Nocan hits. Tied 3-3. Go to sudden death.
4. The Kafiran misses again. Nocan gets a head shot! Nocan wins 5-3
3. vs. a novice dwarf axeman. This is a grudge match. The dwarf beat him for the championship of the second preliminary. This time, it is a rout. Nocan scores two knockdowns and a head shot for an 8-1 victory.
4. The Final vs. an experienced knight!

Round 1 - Nocan scores a head hit. He leads 2-0.

But the knight retaliates. Score tied 2-2.

Nocan charges. The knight misses but Nocan scores a hit. Nocan wins 3-2.

NOCAN IS THE REGIONAL CHAMPION!

Here is Nocan with his defeated foes.

Championship

On to the grand championship.

1. vs. an experienced elf archer. Tied 1-1 after two rounds. The elf then gets a hit but Nocan knocks him down. Nocan wins 4-1.
2. vs. a veteran orc archer. They trade knockdowns in the first two rounds. The orc misses and Nocan hits for a 4-3 victory.
3. The Semi-final vs a novice goblin archer. A novice? This should be a cake walk.
1. The goblin gets a head hit but Nocan knocks him down. Nocan leads 3-2.
2. Where did he go? Nocan misses and the goblin hits. Tied 3-3.
3. Nocan gets a hit, but the goblin raps him on the head. NOCAN LOSES 5-4!

Well, that was disappointing. At least Nocan comes away with a regional championship. This should elevate him to the senior circuit.

Silly Thanksgiving Project

In the US, the Thanksgiving holiday is about a week away. 

I have some time off from work so I should be able to fit in some games. The question is "what should I play?"

The answer came in a roundabout way.

• I'd like to play some Dominion of.
• I should get Pilgrims involved.
• Pilgrims vs. Indians? Too obvious. Besides, the holiday celebrates an instance of cooperation between the two cultures. Shouldn't they work together?
• WAIT. What if ...? No, that's too crazy.

So I'm going to do it anyway.

Many years ago, my LARP group did a silly Thanksgiving themed scenario - we fought fire-breathing dire turkeys! Let's do the same.

I decided to make some one-off special counters, incorporating a variety of Thanksgiving foods. I grabbed some icons off the web and got creating.

Here's what I have so far - dire turkeys, pumpkin chuckers, and potato heads.

The potato heads are melee infantry, pumpkin chuckers are artillery, and I will likely use the tank stats from Dominion of the Trenches for the dire turkeys. I want some skirmish infantry - thinking cranberry or corn shooters.

Creating the Counters

I'm not sure if I'll keep the counters after the game, so I plan to take a simple approach to making them. Instead of using Litko plastic bases, I will likely just use cardboard. I have a load of Amazon and Chewy boxes lying around to scavenging won't be an issue.

The Opposition

I will use my generic counters, specifically the black faction, for the Pilgrims. I may give them some Indian allies using brown.

The Scenario

Who knows? I'll whip something up.

Nocan Season 6 Underway

Gaming proceeds slowly.

After the Dominion fantasy battle, I've been focusing on Nocan and his arena adventures. I have begun season 6. It's taking me a while to finish because Nocan is doing well. Shocking!

I'm going to save the detailed results for a later time so I can have all the matches in one post. But I'll leave you with a preview.

Nocan (right) finds himself pitted against a novice dwarf axeman. As a veteran, Nocan has a sizable advantage (no pun intended).

The first pass. Nocan charges. The dwarf's axe hits Nocan and forces him to stumble. But Nocan relies on his experience-honed reflexes to get in a head hit.

Score 2-1 Nocan.

Nocan uses a reroll to increase his damage.

Second pass. Again Nocan grabs the initiative. This time, both get in head strikes.

Score 4-3 Nocan.

Nocan chooses not to use his last reroll, saving it for the last round.

What happens in the final pass? I'll save that for the full season results.

Thank You Veterans

God bless our veterans!

Hold the Line!

The Hyenid War - Part 3

Returning to my LARP's fantasy world.

Background

After the disaster in the desert, the Empire scrambles to defend the heartland of Palmyra. It scrapes together some auxiliary cohorts supplemented by one legionary cohort.

The hyenids pursue into Palmyra.

Battle of the Little River

The Imperials set up defenses at a small tributary of the mighty Kemi River.

The Empire (red, bottom) sets some archers and the auxiliaries behind the river. The legionaries guard the right flank.

The hyenids include some archers (left), and beasts of war (right) along with regular warriors.

The archers (left) take each other out. On the other flank, the legionaries halt the beasts but are too decimated to continue the fight.

The hyenid warriors rush across the river and slaughter the auxiliaries.

The Empire is defeated!

What Next?

Technically, the hyenids win the campaign. However, I'm thinking they should try to sack the capital of southern Palmyra. Stay tuned!

Still Messing with LARP

I'm still busy with LARP so no new games.

I added an update on my LARP armor experiments.

LARP Project

Rather than playing any games last week, I've been piddling around with a LARP project.

If you are interested, read more here.

Maybe I Spoke Too Soon

Last week, I went on about my increased output of posts, largely due to the Dominion of series.

Well, I may have spoke a little too soon. My production has dropped off considerably. Throughout most of this year, I have had a backlog of posts, which I space out through the month. Right now, I have nothing in the tank.

What factors are causing this drop-off?

1. LARP

LARP season has returned and I find myself dedicating more free time to LARP preparations.

For example, I worked on the helmet and shield (not pictured) for my death knight NPC.

I also spent time working on scenarios for this season and prepping other NPC costume bits.

2. Crash and Burn

Starting in July I got caught up in a Voidfighter bug. I played some aerial games in anticipation and then planned a project after the rules came out.

But it was all short-lived. The rules failed to hold my attention and the project slipped into oblivion.

3. What Next?

Similarly, my engagement with Dominion of has faded. Don't get me wrong, I still love the rules. I just don't know what I next want to do with them.

• Previously, I went all-in with ancient battles, playing all 36 of the scenarios in the expansion.
• I also did Lexington-Concord and Bunker Hill.
• I played a few 19th century campaigns (Austro-Prussian, Austro-Italian, and Russo-Turkish) using Spear and Bayonet. I could upgrade to Bismarck, but I'm a little variant'ed out.
• I have one campaign, set in my LARP's fantasy world, but it's not gripping me.

I just don't know what era or campaign I should game next. Nothing is grabbing me at the moment.

Going Forward?

I'm using Nocan as filler, but that is not enough. From my experience, however, these doldrums don't last forever. I just need to ride it out.

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.