Now I'm Thinking RPG

Distractions

Before I get into today's topic, let me just give a quick update. I have not been doing much gaming because my other hobby, LARP, is keeping me busy. My group got a bunch of new recruits lately and I have been prepping games for them. I am even running a small event today.

Skirmish Thoughts

In my last post, I mentioned that I lack tokens to use for skirmish gaming. I dabbled with creating some generic counters but got no further than this.

Generic skirmish counters

I'm also looking for rules to use to run a campaign. This has given me some reading material, but I'm not sold enough on any to try them out. Anyway, this has led me to ponder RPGs.

My Stalled RPG Campaign

For some time I've been running a solo RPG using my Micro rules and the Dragons of Icespire Peak  campaign. Ser Killian and his companions have completed several adventures (detailed on my old blog), but I have not run a session for him since March. 

So what happened? A couple of factors have stymied me.

• The latest adventure is just kind of boring. There isn't much variety in antagonists, which does not transfer well to my solo-style adventures.
• I ran into a problem with the rules. My level 4 characters were fighting level 1 orcs. Should be a pushover, right? Nope - the orcs were trashing them. The problem came with my armor rules. The orcs had medium armor, which deducts from the damage rolls. Combined with my bad dice rolls, my characters just could not damage them. I realized that this is a serious flaw with my rules.

As a result, I just have not played any RPG sessions.

Solutions

As I was pondering skirmish gaming lately, my mind turned to RPGs. I then had a couple of ideas.

• Fix the adventure - perhaps I'll change it from a haunted house to a haunted grove. Some of the encounters will make more sense.
• Add damage bonuses - Right now, I give an attack bonus for being a higher level than the enemy, I think I also should give some kind of damage bonus.

I hope to try out my solutions soon.

Skirmish Musings

My Current State of Gaming

Currently, I am well situated for land battle games.

My generic counters can handle pretty much any conflict from ancients to late 19th century.

Top: heavy and light infantry
Bottom: artillery and cavalry

I love the flexibility of my counters. I can use them to play any period that suddenly sparks my interest. I don't have to wait until I paint up a bunch of appropriate figures. Case in point - last month I got bitten by the Pyrrhic Wars bug. I posted about the project on September 4th and posted about a game on September 7th. I couldn't really do that with miniatures.

I also have generic modern counters that cover mechanized warfare.

This takes my gaming from the 20th century to the future!

What's Missing?

Recently I've been kicking around the idea of skirmish gaming. There have been a couple of inspirations.

• Shaun's Wargaming has a entertaining post with five skirmishes using Five Core Pulp.
• I've seen some posts (which I can't find now) about One-hour Ancient and Medieval Skirmish Wargames

These posts have stirred an interest in an occasional skirmish. My lack of individually based infantry counters kind of puts a damper on it though.

I could do squad based skirmishes. However, my generic counters are a bit bigger than a squad - the heavy infantry has 96 dots aka soldiers!

Thoughts about Counters

I've been toying with making some counters with individuals specifically for skirmish gaming. The question becomes: how should I go about it?

Meeples

I have meeples and used them before for RPG actions. I find them a bit gamey looking.

Standees

I also had an idea of creating standees using paper miniatures from Junior General or Wargame Vault. 

Junior General Romans

There are a couple of problems with this approach.

• How do I mount them? I'm thinking of wood blocks like Command & Colors. But I want them to be small (maybe 6-10mm in height) and finding blocks that size is problematic.
• They are not generic. I then get into the issue of having to make different blocks for each era and faction. Too much!

Top Down

I'm leaning toward top down counters, like these.

Some top downs from Two Hour Wargames's 5150

The biggest issue here is finding or creating counters that are generic enough but not so generic that they just look like dots. Dots are OK for mass formations but not skirmish.

Anyway, I need to play around with making counters. However, work and LARP have kept me very busy lately so I haven't had a chance.

Battle of Tarentum

We return to Magna Graecia and follow the exploits of King Pyrrhus.

The Campaign So Far

In his first encounter with the Romans, Pyrrhus did not fare well. His elephants failed him and his cavalry scattered. He was forced to retreat to Tarentum.

The Romans pursued, determined to oust this intruder from the peninsula.

The Forces

I used the same armies as last time.

• Pyrrhus: 1 cavalry, 3 heavy infantry (1 is inferior Italian allies), 1 light infantry, and 1 unit of elephants
• The Romans: 1 cavalry, 4 heavy infantry (1 is inferior Italian allies), and 1 light infantry

The Set Up

The Romans (red, top) advance along the road to Tarentum. Pyrrhus intercepts them at a pass through the hills.

Notes: 

• Green markers indicate the inferior allied infantry
• Pyrrhus is with his cavalry. I used a yellow marker to indicate this but forgot it for this picture.

The Battle

Not content to stay on the defensive, Pyrrhus pushes his army rapidly forward. The Romans drive off Pyrrhus's skirmishers but then he leads his cavalry on a flank charge that decimates the legion.

The Romans attack on Pyrrhus's left. The elephants flee from the Roman light infantry. Fortunately, the phalanx deftly avoid the stampede.

The elephants had to retreat and the phalanx was in the way. I treated the stampede like a successful attack on the infantry. Fortunately, they passed their disorder and retreat saves.

Pyrrhus routs the Roman's allied infantry.

Pyrrhus rushes to his left flank, and finds himself surrounded.

But he breaks out, destroying a legion and routing the Roman lights and cavalry,

Pyrrhus cavalry single-handedly wins the battle! 

They were responsible for all the eliminated Romans.

Aftermath

The Tarentines laud Pyrrhus as a hero and the cities of Magna Graecia flock to his banner. Pyrrhus begins to pursue the retreating Romans.

But Rome's resolve is strong. They call up reserves to reinforce the army.

The stage is set for a climatic battle!

Thoughts

Wow! Pyrrhus's cavalry could do no wrong today! Let's see if they can keep it up in the next battle.

I am going to play one more battle in this campaign. It's win or lose for both sides. We'll see what happens.

Win or lose, I plan to take Pyrrhus to Sicily and face the Carthaginians afterwards.

1:1 Scale Wargaming

If you are familiar with my old blog, you may have read that wargaming is not my favorite hobby. Actually, it is live action roleplaying (LARP) - 1:1 scale wargaming if you will.

My LARP group has been on hiatus for the summer; it is just too hot in Florida to be running around outside for very long. However, today we are starting a new season.

As a preview for this season, here is a picture from last season. I'm in the Roman-looking kit.

Here is the story that accompanies the picture.

Heraclea-ish

Thus begins my Pyrrhus campaign.

The Campaign

I'm just planning to do a 3-game mini campaign based on Pyrrhus's battles in Italy against the Romans. Although I may do a side excursion against the Carthaginians.

I'm calling the battles Heraclea, Asculum, and Beneventum, but the terrain will be random.

The Forces

I based the armies on the DBA v1 lists, dividing the forces in half.

• Pyrrhus: 1 cavalry, 3 heavy infantry (1 is inferior Italian allies), 1 light infantry, and 1 unit of elephants
• The Romans: 1 cavalry, 4 heavy infantry (1 is inferior Italian allies), and 1 light infantry

Set Up

I used my "Big Battles" box, complete with cover.

Big Battles may be a misnomer. My battles occur on a 5 x 7 inch battlefield. I call them big battles because the scenario represents a full-sized battle. Therefore, each base represents thousands of troops.

The omens are not propitious. The dark cat god messes with the tools of fortune.

I'm missing a picture of the initial set up so I will describe it.

• Pyrrhus: Light infantry and elephants on the left. heavy infantry on some hills in the center, and cavalry with Pyrrhus himself on the right.
• Romans: Cavalry on Pyrrhus's left, heavy infantry in the center, and light infantry in a village on the right flank.

The Battle

Pyrrhus plans to wait for the Romans (red) to come to him, but he gets impatient and sends his elephants and cavalry to harass the flanks. The elephants drive off the Roman horse but Pyrrhus's cavalry is disrupted by missile fire from the Roman's light infantry.

The elephants crash into the Roman legionaries. Surprisingly, the legion drives back the elephants with losses.

An unexpected result given that the elephants had an extreme advantage. The cursed dice strike!

Shortly thereafter, the elephants attack the Roman cavalry. This time, the cavalry routs the elephants!

Another extremely unexpected result. Again, the dice gods punish Pyrrhus.

Meanwhile, Pyrrhus pushes forward his heavy infantry, but the Romans drive them back to the hill.

Inflicting severe losses.

The Romans trap and annihilate Pyrrhus's cavalry. Pyrrhus just manages to escape.

I don't have a purple leader counter so I just assumed that Pyrrhus was with the cavalry. When the cavalry died, I used a yellow marker to indicate the infantry unit he joined.

I did not use a Roman leader figure. I assumed that the Roman was an average leader and did not play a significant role.

With pressure from the front and the flanks caving in, Pyrrhus's Italian allies flee.

Realizing the day is lost, Pyrrhus sounds retreat.

A decisive victory for Rome!

Aftermath and Analysis.

This sets up the next battle of the campaign. Because of the decisive nature of Pyrrhus's defeat, I don't think it makes sense for him to advance to Asculum. I think the next battle will be outside Tarentum!

The dice gods really had it out for Pyrrhus. I expected more from the elephants, but they twice lost when they needed a 2+ on a D6 to win the melee. Ouch!

The Pyrrhus Project

Lately, my gaming has focused on naval and air battles. I'm feeling a desire to get back to land. I've been debating a "project" and have decided on the Pyrrhic War.

The Inspiration

It started with Little Wars TV, specifically their replay of Actium. This stirred my interest in ancient battles. I wasn't interested in a Roman civil war, however, so I started looking for another conflict.

Again, Little Wars TV provided the answer. A couple of years ago they did a Pyrrhic War campaign. Greek phalanxes vs. Roman legionaries, what's not to love?!

The Project

"Project" is a bit grandiose for my current wargaming approach. It's not like I have to go research and order figures then paint and base them. My armies are close to being ready to go.

Here are my armies, organized as half-sized DBA forces.

Top (L to R) - Pyrrhus's army: cavalry, 3 heavy infantry, 1 light infantry with Pyrrhus in back

Bottom (L to R) - The Romans: also cavalry, 3 heavy infantry, and 1 light infantry

I need to add a stand of Roman heavy infantry. But something else is missing. What could it be?

Oh yeah, Pyrrhus had elephants. I have to have some, but my generic counters won't do. I'll have to make some special elephant counters. I don't plan to make elephant counters for every army. Instead, I'll just make a few and use them as needed.

The Campaign

I'm going to do a mini-campaign based on Pyrrhus's three major battles against the Romans.

Little Wars TV (again) provides some great resources for a Pyrrhic campaign, including scenarios for the battles. I don't think I'll be using those resources, however. I will create random battlefields and will use the half-size DBA armies I mentioned above.

Next Steps

• Create a red heavy infantry counter. I think I have one printed; I just need to apply it to a base.
• Finish an elephant counter. I only need 1 for Pyrrhus.
• Play the first game.

Aerial Experiments

Here are a couple of games using my MicroBattle air combat rules. I'll post about the rules at a later date

Escort

A fighter escorts a medium bomber on a raid into enemy territory.

The defenders (green) approach in antiquated pursuit planes.

Notes: 

• The attacker is using two mid-century airplanes while the defender has early-century fighters to represent lower quality planes.
• The clouds are just for decoration.

The escort shoots down one fighter but misses two chances to take out the second. The bomber takes some damage but manages to shoot down the last defender. It then drops its bombs on the target.

Success for the attackers!

Battle Over Britain

I decided to do a test run of my air combat rules using a bunch of planes. I set the dogfight during the Battle of Britain.

• The British have 4 Spitfires, one piloted by a novice (represented with the early-century airplane because I ran out of prepared mid-century fighters)
• The Germans have 4 Me 109s and 2 Me 110s (I'm using my gray bomber counters to represent the 110s). One 109 (#4) is a novice.

The Germans (right) approach the coast!

A 110 goes down!

A lot of damage done before the next plane goes down. It's the Spitfire novice.

The 109 novice does down.

At this point, I tested morale of the Germans. They continued to fight, but the handwriting was on the wall. The Spitfires took out the remaining attackers without further loss.

A resounding victory for the British. 

It was also a victory for my approach.

• The rules worked well despite the larger than usual number of planes.
• My generic plane counters worked fine as well. It is nice being able to throw together a scenario on the fly without worrying about having the correct figures.