They Don't Like It

I roped Stephen into playing a game with me at the club.  Brendan joined in to.  Using the ever adaptable Song of Blades and Heroes, eh, Songs of Drums and Shakos, I came up with some very simple profiles for the few figures I have in my Sudan collection, including my just completed Beja warriors.

In order to encourage Stephen to get on with his Dad's Army figures, I made this game about Corporal Jones having to take his newly arrived boys out on a patrol.  Brendan added that one of them, Rifleman Pike, had lost his hat and that was what the patrol was about.  Made sense to me.

Corporal Jones, in his sun faded uniform,

addresses his boys in their bright new green threads

"Now lads, we have to find Pike's helmet

They form up ready to scour the sands of Sudan for poor Pike's helmet

The newly arrived indigenous inhabitants

 do not take kindly to these strangely garbed and coiffured intruders.

A shot rings out from a rusty musket creating much smoke, but little damage.

However some followers of the Mahdi rush the patrol.

Pike makes it to the rocks and finds his helmet.

but his comrades might be in a spot of bother.

The peaceful inhabitants rush to join in, 

concerned that they might be missing out on the fighting,

Corporal Jones' last words are "Don't panic!"

Enter Lieutenant Napier and the rest of the platoon,

coming to the rescue, if a tad late for some of Jones' boys.

Pike, without his corporal to tell him to put his helmet on his head, 

places it at his feet and wonders what all the fuss is about.

"I don't see anything."

He is quickly proved wrong.

Lieutenant Napier now has to contend with the Fuzzy-Wuzzy tribesmen!

He skillfully starts to retreat after ordering covering fire,

but then standing in the way of said covering fire.

Oh dear.

Pike has perished.

Who will tell his mum?

One shot wonder!

Unlike the Mahdists who rarely failed activation rolls 

my guys generally and repeatedly failed to budge.

Still, they looked good.

I did make a few changes on the fly.  Main one was using only half the Sudanese.  Corporal Jones had a sword, not a rifle and the bugle was given a rifle rather than nothing.  Shooting result that was greater than but not double produced a knock down or rather a duck for cover.  Knocked down figures lost their abilities.  Not sure I had the mechanics for the Lieutenant's group activations worked out properly, but regardless, we had fun. 

Skirmish at the Old Ruins

Was going to call this "Skirmish at the Haunted House", but Mark B and I were playing Songs of Drums and Shakos, not Songs of Blades and Heroes, so I had to keep it real.

Some brave French lads advance to check out the ruined house.

Some Prussian infantry have the same idea.

Some furious aimed volleys ensue between the opposing sides.

After a poor start, the Prussians have been able to assemble 

and have started giving the French a hard time.

"Sauve qui peut !"

It had been a while since we had last played and I kept things as simple as possible.  The Officers were Q3 C2 and all the infantry Q4 C2.  Not sure we doing the reloading (the white cotton wool denoted that the figures had fired) and firing in the one turn correctly, but at least we were consistent.

Great system using the choice of up to three dice to provide actions.

A Walk in the Dead Woods again.

This was basically a repeat of the previous game, details of which can be found here.  Stephen took on the role of the denizens of the Dead Woods, while I thought I could do better as the goblins.  I had a cunning plan.

The aim is for the goblins to scout the wood, visiting each of the six patches of trees, while pretending to take their dog for a walk. If the dog wanders into a patch of trees it will dig up bones which can turn into skellies who will attack the goblins.  If the dog gets straight 1s for its activation, the dryad will appear randomly in a patch of trees.

 Things were going well until the dog fouled the environment, 

awakening the dryad, protector of the forest.  

However her charms failed to stir the goblins and she was not bothered again.

 The dog ran hither and thither and failed to dig up any bones.

So I thought that it would be okay to have the goblins activate skellies 

when they reached a patch of trees.

 Just one skellie appeared and it was easily dispatched.

 Next patch of trees revealed two skellies.

My plan was to keep the goblins together, 

so two are rushing forward to help.

 Goblin down!

His mates failed to get to him in time.

 Vengeance!

 But then the dog goes and digs up four skellies.

 The goblin reaction is slow and they are feeling a bit overwhelmed.

 Another goblin falls in combat.

 More skellies appear and another goblin dies.

 The remaining goblins flees.

 More skellies appear, intent on blocking the goblins' escape.

The goblins fail again in their attempt to scout the Dead Woods.

Having the goblins activate skellies was a bad move, but the dog wasn't doing much to start with and I was feeling sorry for my opponent who consequently had nothing to do.  The dog was moving very erratically as it was changing direction with each success, having just a single direction and then making a number of moves based on the number of successes is a better way to produce results (i.e. random generation of skellies).

This time the dryad had the Transfix ability, that if successful would have lured the poor goblin to its potential doom.

Having the skellies Q3 while the goblins are Q4 is probably not the best.  Perhaps if they had a leader?  But would anyone want the job?

Maybe...

Songs of Drums and Pith Helmets

Regardless of how this game played I knew it was going to be a success as it meant that I finally got to use my new terrain mat, plus the some of the Mahdists that I had recently finished as well as some British opponents for them that had come into my possession.

I thought Songs of Drums and Shakos would be easy to adapt and it was except I couldn't find a point system.

There were two squads of British each of one officer and five infantrymen.  The officer was Q3 C2 Leader armed with pistol and sword.  The infantrymen were Q4 C2 armed with rifles.  The leader gave a plus one to Q if they were with one long.  The infantry didn't have to reload.

There were four mobs of Mahdists, each with a flag bearer, drummer and three to four swordsmen.  The flag bearer was Q3 C2 with the ability fervor (which allows a warrior to reroll one fail if they are in range).  The drummer was Q3 C1 and acted to extend the range to one long.  The swordsmen were Q3 C2 and armed with a sword which gave them a bonus in combat (+1 for better weapon).  All the Madists move fast (one long).

 The Madhists were positioned randomly based on a dice rolls (using the benefit of the 12x8 grid).

The British squads entered from each end and had the objective of meeting up in the middle.

 The Mahdists were quickly able to attack Mark B's squad.

 As controller of the Mahdists I kept them hidden as best I could by the terrain.

 Mark B's squad is being overwhelmed.

The red dots represent deaths.

 Simon's squad also came under fierce attack.

 After a gruesome death, the remnants of Mark B's squad flee.

Simon's squad fight valiantly on, but the Mahdists are relentless.

I had only given the force composition limited thought, but was basically happy with it.  Perhaps I had too much terrain that limited the British superiority in long range fire.  Often they were attacked before they could get a shot in, so maybe an overwatch action is required.

Regardless, it was great to get the figures and terrain into action.

A Chance Meeting

What happens when five foraging Frenchmen meet five foraging Prussians?  Let's see...

 We divided the table into six sectors and then diced for each figure placement.

Mark B went French and his officer popped up in sector 1, he then had one man in each of sectors 4 and 6 and 2 in sector 5.  The Prussians, who were identical in factors to the French, appeared as two in each of Sectors 1 and 6 with their officer in sector 4.  Clearly the officers had gone off to investigate while their mean looked for chickens.

 It looked bad for the French officer, especially after he threw a very bad activation roll.

The Prussians then reloaded, which was a mistake, they should have gone in with the bayonet.

 The French started shooting.

 And congregating.  

The Prussian officer had made an epic run for his life earlier and was trying to get his mean together.

 The French officer had escaped and was getting his men into action.

 At this stage the Prussians are two men down, but now have their act together.

 The French are maintaining the pressure.

 But the Prussians are able to even the score.

But it was not to be.

With another casualty it was time to run away.

Blue on Blue on Sacré Bleu

I was just going to run the Waterloo friendly fire scenario again for a quick game of Songs of Drums and Shakos, or SoDS as I now like to think of it, but then I felt like playing as well - bad move.

The Dutch Belgian defenders see the French attackers appear up the rise.

The Prussians can see the French advancing through the trees.

The Prussians deploy while their officer orders up the flag.

Bird's eye view

The Dutch Belgians let off a few shots, felling one of the supposedly French attackers.

The real French react to the gun fire and advance.

One volley should put paid to the enemy...

Eh, no...

One of the Dutch Belgians staggers back in surprise at being fired at.

The Dutch Belgians see that the troops they thought were French are actually Prussian.

The rule I hastily made up was they needed to dice each turn, needing a six, but adding one for each turn so that they would realise their error in a reasonable short time.  Stephen N, the Dutch Belgian commander, promptly threw a six first time.   Luckily for the French, he failed his activation roll after that.

The Prussians turn towards the French.

They had the same rule as the Dutch Belgians and their commander, Mark B, also threw a six on his first attempt.

The Dutch Belgians have a half hearted shot at the French.

The French reload and fire back.

The Prussians rush forward.

Scale a small hill and open fire.

Two Frenchmen fall, but against my better judgement I'm persuaded to charge.

Oh dear...

Three more dead Frenchmen.

Time to run away.

Simple rules they maybe, but heaps of fun and they tell a great story.  Perfect for a club night.