Devil in the Wilderness-Playtest

Over the last couple of weeks I have been making terrain, reading and re-reading and painting figures for this new game set late in the 17th century in New England. It combines both historical and supernatural elements so I was quite interested. It is card driven which is great and the game appears to be quite nuanced. Essentially, the Puritan Witch-hunters are fighting the Witches.

I had some trouble interpreting the play sequence especially in respect to the utilisation of the cards, of which there are I believe 7 different types for each faction. I asked some questions on the FB page, there are over a 100 members in the FB group but I get a sense most of these are lurkers as only the rules writer responded to my questions. This is quite a new ruleset so I am sure the numbers of players will increase. I believe that some of the difficulties I have are related to the fact that the game is really set up to be played with an online proprietry app and half the rulebook is devoted to discussing how to use the app. Not withstanding though the game comes with a beautiful set of cards, which is certainly my preference. I also realised that if you have a look at the all the cards and read what is on them before you play the game you will get a lot of your questions answered. Anyway, I sorted through things, and was ready to have a go this morning. I am still missing a couple of buildings as well as only partially painted my 6 main figures, but it is always good to bash on. I also had to remove the terrain setup today to set up for a CoC command game I am playing tomorrow night. A little bit of pressure!

The Terrain

Initial Setup

The Antagonists

Card Deck Setup

The Protagonists

The Game

First Hand of Cards for the sides, with the Objectives revealed

Some Witch Hunter friendly militia and witches

John Alden searching for an item, lucky this time

Not so lucky a Dire Wolf appears

On no.... a Werewolf!

Position end of Turn 2

Position end of turn 3

Well, I think I am really going to enjoy this game. It plays very quickly and the action starts almost immediately. There are a lot of options each turn and the movement, shooting and melee mechanisms are quite simple. I still have quite a few questions about the rules but I am sure I can get them sorted. Looking forward to my next game.

Stagecoach!

 

Another game in our campaign this past week, this time we diced up an Escort Scenario. The Attacker (the Sheriff) in this scenario essentially has too move a Stagecoach across the terrain while at the same time preventing the Defenders (the Banditos). 

I believe we now have the core rules down, although we did mess up the Fisticuffs once or twice in our game. When we read through the scenario, quite a few questions came up. I get a sense we are the only play-testers going through the actual campaign so there is a lot of uncharted ground. We decided to press on and just deal with things as they came up. Our posses were as below, my two shootists were now gunslingers and 3 fingered Juilo was now a legend. Grey Beaver had been killed in the last game so we saw a new Greenhorn in the Sheriff's posse. 

Banditos

Tuco-Legend-Red

Julio-Legend-Black

Pablo-Gunslinger-Purple

Rubén-Greenhorn-Light Grey

Jean-Pierre-Gunslinger-Light Brown

Ramone-Greenhorn-Dark Brown

Sheriff's Posse

Clyde Barlow-Legend-Blue

Jacob Cannon-Legend-Orange

Jasper Callahan-Shootist-Yellow

Toothless Howard-Greenhorn-Grey

Three Toed Elten-Shootist-Pink

Jadon Three-Fingers-Greenhorn

It was last week when we played and I forget details pretty quickly. What I do remember is that it took 4 hours to play but we did conclude the game with P-Y's Sheriff's Posse getting the stagecoach off the table thus winning the game. It was quite close though, I think we only had 2 men each left on the table. I was able to kill the Sherriff, so "Big Gun" Barlow is out of the picture. I was also able to kill Jadon Three Fingers. Unfortunately, One Eyed Pablo got killed.

The campaign part of this game needs some work for sure as does this specific scenario. I do like the basic rules. In our next game, we are fielding only 4 characters each, with a limit of 2 Legends and a requirement of at least 1 Greenhorn in the posse. We already have these characters in play but if we were going to start again, I believe there should be a limit of 1 Legend and 1 Gunslinger in the posses with a maximum of 4 characters, but starting with just 3. I believe the progression should be more focused on equipment rather than Bonanza tokens, which are much too easy to earn. The Desperado Card progression works well.

Anyway the usual photos!

Equity in the Stagecoach driver ranks!

Got "Big Gun" right between the eyes!

And off the table he goes!

Général d'Armée: Vitoria

I have been looking forward to obtaining this new set of Napoleonic rules for almost a year. They were written by David Brown, the author of the well regarded General de Brigade ruleset, and they come from TFL's Reisswitz Press. I have never played GdB, so I really had no specific expectation of the ruleset. I have gone through several rulesets, including Le Feu Sacre, Field of Battle, Republic to Empire, Black Powder, Lasalle, Rank & File and none really sat well with me. They were either too complicated or just boring as they really had weak Command and Control. After playing Chain of Command, I have found rulesets with poor or no C&C really just not that interesting. Any one can push figures about and throw dice but I want a game with some high level decision making.

Description:

The rules are written at both the tactical and grand tactical command levels. The smallest game would be a Division aside with 5 brigades at the minimum. A large game would be at the Corps level with 2-4 Divisions per side.

Basing: is agnostic, although it is recommended that both sides be based similarly. Infantry, Cavalry and Artillery units are designated as Large, Standard or Small and are graded as Elite, Veteran, Line or Recruit. Command bases with C&C, Brigadiers are recommended as well as some skirmish bases.

Attrition: is measured using a method of accumulated casualties. A unit accumulates casualties by being fired upon, charged or in melee. Units have a graded loss of effectiveness according to their size and type as well as the number of casualties. There is no stand removal, at a certain point the unit is dispersed and is just removed from the game.

Order of Play: is Command, Charge, Movement, Firing and Melee.

C&C: is really the sterling feature of this ruleset. each side has a number of ADC's equal to the number of Brigades (there is some variation on this if needed). The turn begins with a dice roll to see how many of these ADC's are available for this specific phase. ADC's have multiple uses, they can be used as a Brigade Attachment to insure that a specific brigade will obey orders in a turn, they can be used to coordinate a specific attack, they can increase movement or firepower or to incite a commander into a glorious maneuver to name a few. Once these tasking are applied, each player dices for each brigade to see if they will follow orders or become hesitant. Finally both sides dice for initiative to see who goes first.

Movement: is fixed for specific unit types, in most cases you maneuver or move although standard sized elite units as well as Horse Artillery can do both. You can still fire if you have moved but at a reduced fire power. Movement, maneuver and interpenetration are all dealt with quite simply and after a couple of turns you do not even need to refer to the QRS. Movement is alternative and follows the declaration and resolution of charges.

Charges, Firing and Melee: Are also quite simple. The charge is sequential with each side declaring charges followed by each side carrying out the charge. There is an opportunity for a Charge Reaction. Charge resolution is quite simple, both sides throw 2d6, modified by several easily remembered factors. The pips are tallied up and the difference between each side is applied to the Charge Result Table. Either the charge fails, one side retreats or routs or a melee ensues.

Firing is similar but only one side throws 2d6, followed by the other side. The player with the initiative has the advantage because of this. Again there are modifiers and a Firing Resolution Table is utilized.

Melee is the last step in a turn, here each side throws a fixed number of dice which is again modified by a number of factors and the results are applied to a Melee Resolution Table.

Morale: In each turn a brigade starts out as being Steady or Hesitant, Hesitant brigades can not charge or move forward and have limited fire power. As a result of combat, Brigades can also Falter and as they lose units they become Demoralized.

To test the rules, I put together a small scenario based on one part of the Battle of Vitoria, as laid out above. This was a solo venture which is somewhat difficult as you have no-one to bounce questions off. The author though has been readily available on the TFL forum and has been answering questions quite quickly.

As usual blogger screwed up the order of the photos so they are all jumbled but I think they give you some sense of the game.

British starting position in the foreground with the French just this side of the river.

Near the end of the game, the French are using an Infantry Assault Order to pummel  the British Artillery. 

The British Artillery position covering the French advance with the Portuguese holding their left flank.

The French off table reserves were bought on in the centre once the Portuguese  were weakened , they immediately went on a Assault order allowing them to launch a combined assault with supports.

Near the end of the game, the French right flank that was held by 2 cavalry regiments  against an elite  brigade of British Guards as well as a light dragoon brigade. 

The initial British Guard Brigade advance

The 3rd Guards being ridden down by a single Chasseur regiment

The French off table reserve

The French left flank early in the game, they are advancing against a KGL Brigade.

More left flank action

French coordinated assault

Some Portuguese

British Guard Brigade attempting to flank the French Infantry Assault, they bottled it on  their command roll and hesitated allowing the Chasseur unit to charge into their flank.

The British Guards skulking in square.

The starting French position

It is too bad that the photos are all out of order but this was really not meant to be an Action report. By the end of 12 turns the French had clearly won, both side had lost their artillery and half their cavalry but the British were down to 5 battalions while the French still had 10.

Summary:

This is a great ruleset, I found it a lot of fun but also challenging. The rulebook is well written and well laid out. I had no problems figuring where things were. Most importantly the gaming mechanisms are quite simple and easily learned. Mr Brown has scored a winner here. I look forward to many more games.