Showdown at Los Nachos-Game 3

Three weeks ago our club had one of our GamesDays. We decided to put on the 3rd game in our Los Nachos campaign featuring the What a Cowboy ruleset. I really have got behind in posting reports on my blog.

As you know from previous posts, the Los Nachos campaign by Eero Juhula features a generational fight set in the Old West between the Makinens and the Taverniers. The Taverniers were a rich landowning family, while the Makinens were descended from Jake Makinen who had been murdered a generation before. The campaign features the sons of Jake who have returned to seek vengeance for the death of their father and to regain their birthright.

In our campaign the Makinens have done quite well and at turn 5 in Game 3, they have decided to attack the Central Mining Company in the town of Los Nachos. This will be our first game in a populated area and as you can see it features many of PY's beautiful buildings. We used the Highway Robbery scenario from the book. The Makinens (Tuco, Hector and Bubba) had to break in to the mining office, blow the safe and obtain the deeds to the Dusty Hills Mine which was on the former Makinen Farm. Occupying the Mine Office is Director Higgins and 3 Bank Guard Henchmen. It also seems some of the Taverniers have got wind of this and are writing into town to confront the Makinens.

Game Summary

The Taverniers deployed far up the table with half their characters as well as a group of Cowboy Henchmen with Mine Manager Higgins in the Mine Office with the Mine Guards. All the Makinens deployed on their horses but dismounted on their first move. They had one henchmen group and 2 sticks of dynamite. By turn 5, the Makinens had killed 2 of the Taverniers and the Mine Manager as well as taken out a group of henchmen and 1 mine guard. At the end of the turn the Makinens initiated a Ride or Die Test on the Taverniers and they failed it so they rode to the hills. The game ended at that point. All the Makinens survived.

Game Photos

Layout the Makinens attacked from the foreground

The Makinens came from the right

The Mine Office is to the left of the red Saloon

Tuco engaged in quite a few acrobatics

Quite a brief report and hopefully our next game will not be too far in the future.

Dracula's America-Heart of Darkness

 

Last Friday myself and Luis got together for the 6th game in our DA Forbidden Powers campaign. There was a long delay to this game so the rules were pretty rusty for me. Have to "Soldier On" though.

This game takes place back in the swamp among some cyclopean ruins, how is that for Lovecraftian. There wrecked the usual deployment rules, but movement was quite restricted after turn 4 as Foul Morass condition were in play and then in turn 6 the swamp became Flooded. Victory was dependent on how many quadrants of the board you occupied at the end of the game. As usual Luis did a terrific job on the terrain.

Posses

The Game

Well it was an interesting game but a terrible game for me. There is not much question that Luis has a much better grasp of the rules than I, but I have to say that at times, the dice gods were just not smiling on me. I withdrew my forces at the end of turn 6, I had survived a Bottle Check at the end of this turn but I really had no chance of winning. The post game process did not favour me as I gained very little money and my only rifle armed main character, Azrael, died. I did, however, gain 2 veterans but it is going to be difficult to find the money to equip them. It looks like I might be having a sale before our next and final game!

Lutzen-1813 The Battles for Germany

 

We played our second game in the GdA Battles for Germany his past weekend. Helge hosted this game on a 5x7' table. We had 6 players in total. Graham was CiC of the Prussians with David and Rob as his brigadiers, while Helge took the helm for the French with myself and Korrigan as his brigadiers. We had planned a 2 day event and when the players arrived Saturday morning the pregame had been played and the table was set up. 

Historically after the Russian defeat at Weisenfels, Wittgenstein, the overall allied commander, ordered Blucher's Prussians to split the advancing French force in half at Gross Gorschen. The Prussians advancing from the south east and centred their attack on the 4 villages around Gross Gorschen. Holding the area was Marshall Ney's 3rd corps with 5 Infantry Divisions and a Cavalry Brigade. Blucher was in overall command, but our game will be focused on the lead Prussian Division under General Zeithen with his 5 Infantry Brigades and 2 Cavalry Brigades. The French will be under the direct command of General Souham, whose division with 5 Infantry Brigades and 1 Cavalry Brigade who had direct responsibly for the defence of the area.

The OB for our Battle

The Initial Deployments at game start, each side kept a unit as an off table Reserve. Victory Conditions for the Prussians was to capture 3 of the 4 villages and the High Ground in the Northwest

The Prussians open their attack on Gross Gorschen with their other 2 brigades attacking the villages on each flank. They quickly followed with an attempt to outflank the French right flank with their cavalry reserve, The French responded by placing their infantry reserve on that flank.

This map shows the initial deployment areas for all 13 brigades at the start of turn 6. 

Photos

Initial Deployments, French in the foreground

The Prussian Attackers on the left

Not sure why the Prussians are in road column, but this was fixed. These troops were sent in to take Gross Gorschen

The French Defenders at Klein Gorschen

Getting in position at Rahna for the Prussian attack

The Prussians advance on their right

Turn 6, the Prussian have reached Gross Gorschen, it took multiple attacks to drive the French out at great cost

Yellow markers denote worn units, Pirch has expended many men in this attack but does eventually take the village

The French pull back, but Chemineau has done his job

The Prussians move in on Rahna

Brayer moves in to support Chasseraux

Turn 12, the Prussians left flank attack has crumbled.

Veran is holding Klein Gorschen at Turn 15, the Prussians have committed all their brigades but 2 French brigades are still essentially fresh..........the Prussians withdraw.

Summary

This game went quite well and we able to get in 15 turns in around 8 hours, by then it was obvious that the Prussians would not be able to capture 3 of the designated area in the next 5 turns. Their force had multiple worn units and their remaining units were too far from the last 3 objectives to reach them in 5 turns. At the end of turn 15, they only held Gross Gorschen and were still fighting to gain Klein Gorschen.  The Prussians had 8 points lost from Falters and Dispersals and 3 points for a total of 11 demoralisations while the French had 9 points. Not a Glorious Victory, but a Victory for the French. If I remember correctly this was the historical outcome. 

Next up is the French attack on the Russians in the Battle of Bautzen. This is tentatively scheduled in a little less than a month.

SAGA Night-Age of Chivalry

Ten days ago I had my first game of the new SAGA Universe; Age of Chivalry. Korrigan kindly lent me his French army and I took on Luis's Free Companies. We played a scenario derived from the Book of Battles, Chaos.

Free Companies with a cannon.

The French with Jean D'arc

More French beautifully painted by Korrigan

A lot of back and forth.

Warlord on Warlord, nothing like having bodyguards. A French Victory!

I had a lot of fun with this game and the battle boards are quite interesting. All I have to decide now which Army I will pick, there are quite a few......but more about that later.

Midgard-First Game

We had our first game of Midgard a couple of weeks at PY's. PY played the Romans while I played the Britons (actually Saxons). We used the first scenario from the book and decided to play on a fairly open table thus not having to utilise the terrain rules.

My troops are in the foreground, I had more warriors but no cavalry and fewer missile troops. 

The battle was quickly engaged.

A melee

Looks like my slingers are done for

Dastardly Romans

Well my reputation dropped to zero after the massive all sides melee in shown in the 2nd photo above, a nice victory for PY's Romans.

This is quite a nice ruleset and we finished our first game in a couple of hours with clear conclusion. The mechanisms were quite simple and both the rulebook and the QRS are well written. I am sure we missed things, I noticed after that I really did not use any of my army traits. We are hoping to have another game next week.

 

Kato Kiyomasa

 

1562-1611

My primary hero for my Midgard warband will be Kato Kiyomasa. If interested click on the link which will bring you to his Wikipedia entry. 

I googled his name looking for painted images of him and for an unclear reasons in at least 2 of the images he has an orange cloak. Even though a little bright, I decided to go with this colour. The rest of the colours picked are conjectural.

He is carrying a Katakana Yari.

The standard mon for Kiyomasa was an open circle, I have seen them in both blue and black. The parallel bars as seen above is a mon used by unit in Kiyomasa's army. I got bored of the open circle.

Uma-Jirushi of Kiyomasa

I will generate his specific stats when I have a better sense of the ruleset. He certainly had some interesting attributes from what history tells us.