Pulp Alley-The Tomb of Dagon

A couple of week ago myself and Luis got together to playa game of Pulp Alley. It had been awhile since I had played and I wanted to get in a game. Luis plays a lot and is a great teacher.

I was interested in playing something set in Innsmouth, I am surprised there are so few Lovecraft inspired scenarios for Pulp Alley. I have played Innsmouth Gold several times and there are some Cthulhu characters in the China Station campaign. After consultation on line, I got a couple of suggestions from this campaign booklet and decided to go with Tomb of Dagon, I had already played The Fog.

What I missed initially was that The Tomb was a Solo scenario! I had initially set up the below table trying to mirror the scenario but setting it on a street in Innsmouth.

Entry area in the left upper map with only Plot Point in right upper

I quickly realised though that this had only one Entry Point which was not going to work in a 2 player game. The table was changed around as illustrated below. 

We now have 2 Entry Points in the northeast and northwest areas on the table with the Plot Point (cemetary) in the centre. Essentially each league has to work there way through 3 areas with challenges, until they enter the centre at the bottom of the table and then fight their way back up the central street. 

Well it seemed to work, although 9 turns was not really enough. I would play the scenario again with some minor changes in respect to the challenger areas. The Deep Ones made several appearances and were quite a challenge especially the Elder! A couple of more photos.

Elder Deep One in action against Luis's league

My league also took quite a beating.

Thank you Luis for being a willing participant in this modified scenario.

Medieval Warriors

 

Here are the last 3 units I have painted for Saga, Age of Chivalry. there are 2 units of warriors with bills and one of a unit with spears. They are mostly painted in English livery but they are varied enough so they can be used in any warband.

That will be it for a while. I think I did pretty well for about 10 weeks of painting with the following units:

• Crossbowmen Levy (1 unit of 12)
• Bowmen Warriors (3 units of 8)
• Pikemen Warriors (3 units of 8)
• Foot Knights Hearthguard (3 units of 4)
• Mounted Knights Haerthguard (1 unit of 4)
• Mounted Warlord
• Foot Warlord
• Mercenary Knight

79 figuresin all !

Limes Game 2

Myself and Robbie had our second game in our Limes campaign a couple of weeks ago, it was quite a different game as you will see as the Romans have built up their defences.

The Saxon force was lead by a Warlord with 2 Missile Levy units, 2 Warriors units and 2 Heartguard Units.

The Romans as below with a Warlord and 2 Companions 

Reports

Limes Summing Up Raid 2

Saxons

4 Victory points

Resolve drops to 6

Romans

13 Victory Points

Morale stays at 8

4 Hearthguard and 2 Warriors lost.

This was tough game for the Saxons and they will have to be a little more cunning in our next game!

Game Photos

Initial Set up

The Romans have a new Armoury

The Roman cavalry are a challenge but we were able kill quite a few of them.

Quite a few melees in the game

I misinterpreted one of the advanced BB abilities thinking I could get off the board in a single move, in the raid scenario the Saxons score points by getting off the opposite edge.

I only was able to save my Warlord and a Hearthguard by hiding in the woods.

Ending up being a very solid Roman Victory. I have to remember that the Saxons do not get any points for killing Romans! 

Swiss Pikemen

 

Next up, and I am almost there in describing my Age of Chivalry units, is some Warrior Pikemen. They are for my Swiss warband but certainly can act as foreign mercenaries for other countries. The Swiss Warband is unusual in that they do not have a Warlord. 

I have painted 3 units of 8 but will probably play them as units of 12. Banners represent the cantons of Berne and Uri. There are 4 metal figures mixed withe the Perry Plastics.

Just one more unit type to photograph and that will be it!

Levy Crossbowmen

 

This is the first unit I painted for Age of Chivalry. I still had not really learned how to assemble plastic figures and you can see this with some of the unnatural poses. I decided on a blue and white scheme but I also struggled with that as you can see. But once they came together, I believe they look ok. They were primarily painted for my Swiss Warband, and they are the only warband that are classed as Levy, in most cases they are classed as Warriors. I painted 13 figures as I wanted to add a banner man, and of course from the blue-white scheme they will be recognised as being from Zurich.

Dresden 1813 The Battles for Germany

 

A couple of weeks ago we all went to Chez Helge for the 4th game in our Battles for Germany campaign. In this game the French were again the attackers in the 2nd day of the Battle of Dresden. The scenario focussed on the Allied right flank with Ney's attack against a combined Russian/Prussian force.

Set Up

Final OB with Brigadier Quality

GdB Starting Positions

French Plan

Helge and myself had a pretty clear plan for this game. We have understood that Artillery is not effective at long range and needs to start limbered so it can rapidly advance to Effective Range before deploying. With this in mine we deployed 3 Brigades with attached artillery. Our Veterans and our Légére were deployed in Skirmish order as they are also effective at a longer range. We focussed on our left flank with the plan to batter the Russian guns with both Artillery and Skirmish foree, thus weakening them before we did a rapid infantry attack. 

Allied Plan

The Allied plan was to hold the centre and left, and possibly flank the French left. What we did not comprehend was our abysmal ADC rolling!

Game Photos

The Allied right

The allied left

Graham's movement trays again worked brilliantly.

The French centre ready for action. The légére made one move and went into skirmish order.

The Game

The Allied Commanders

The Allied Troops deployed up to their maximum zone.

Russian Battery

All Batteries within effective range of each other, there was quite a bit of counter battery in the first few turns. It did go back and forth ....... 

........but a cavalry battle on the French left seemed to sort things..........

....................with the Russians losing their cannon on the centre high ground and their second battery between the high ground and Seidnitz collapsing with the 3 French Batteries larger intact. The Allies had now lost some of their Cavalry as well as Infantry.....the outcome was clear and on Turn 9 they decided to withdraw.

Summing Up

I felt our pre-game plan of attack really was quite effective and this was an easy victory and a very quick game. It will be interesting to see how we do as the defenders in the next battle, The Battle of Mockern.

Many Rivers to Cross- Turn 3-The Village

Ten days ago myself and Graham played our 3rd game in the Many Rivers campaign. This was the Germans third go at taking table 2 and really they had to take this time. The campaign is designed so that the Attackers have increasing support for each go at a table. Also as this is the third turn, the Germans can now have heavier weapons including manhandled infantry guns as well as antitank guns. I had a very good roll and ended up getting 18 supports, which I felt would be enough to turn the tide. This was 3 times the support that the Brits would have. 

 Forces

Guards Platoon 1, FM 11 (missing 2 soldiers)

FR 0, 5CD, Regulars

Supports (6)

Entrenchments

2" Mortar

A9 CS Tank

Schützen Platoon 3 FM 8 (fresh)

FR +1, 5CD, Regulars

Supports (18)

Engineer Team

Shabby Nazi Trick (fifth columnist)

Red Dice

MG34 Tripod Mount

Pregame Bombardment

Extra Schützen Squad

IG18 IG

Patrol Phase

I was happy with the results of the PP

The Game

This game was much different than the previous 2, and the German firepower with the increased support made a big difference. Graham also had very poor dice, where mine were quite good. The game was short taking well less than a couple of hours. Graham populated the 2 buildings in the centre with a section each but with the IG18 firing with 2 squads, as well as the 50mm Mortar team and the MMG team at close range all firing, it was not long before the section in the bunker started to crumble. Both the SL and the section JL were hit with the Bren team being wiped out. This cumulation of FM tests brought the British FM down quickly and Graham decided to withdraw. Finally the British were pushed out of The Village.

Summing Up

German Platoon #3 

Platoon Leader Outlook: Content

Men’s opinion: -3 (FM roll -1)

CO’s opinion: -1

German Platoon 3 Intact

German 1st Platoon has lost 5 dead 

German 2nd Platoon has lost 8 dead

British Platoon #1 

Platoon Leader Outlook: Affable (FM roll +1)

Men’s opinion: -1

CO’s opinion:  -1

5 dead, 2 missing next game

Well that was a very plucky defence by the British holding The Village for 2 turns with a single platoon. The Germans have now seen 3 of their platoons in action. Fortunately, Platoon 3 survived this combat with no losses, the CO has ordered them to Blitzkrieg the next table. This will see platoon 3, with the exact same supports, advance without delay to the Farm and the Forest.