The Grimy Jewel Campaign: Session 1 Report

It's summer in Chicago, which means we're getting our annual fantasy campaign underway once again. A vibrant fantasy campaign has been a hallmark of CSW since its inception back in 2010. As in years past, we're sticking with Song of Blades & Heroes as our primary ruleset, though some games may be played with other rulesets such as Kings of War and Open Combat.

We decided to set this year's campaign in the city of Vildeburg itself. Dubbed "the Grimy Jewel of Qaarra," the medieval city of Vildeburg is home to all manner of warbands, each one plotting and scheming to gain profit and advantage over the others.

Ironically, though, our first session took place, not in Vildeburg, but far afield in the foothills of the Valkenwrath Palisades. See, one of our members has apparently had enough of Chicago's bitter cold and endless snow, so Mattias (of the excellent Amateur Hour blog) will be relocating to sunny Hawaii in a few short weeks. To send him off in style, we quickly threw together a scenario featuring a full-scale incursion of Qaarra by an invading force of pale, dead-eyed warriors from the Wyrdwold.

The Wyrdwold, of course, is Mattias's homebrew setting, into which he has poured voluminous amounts of creativity over the course of many months and years. It was a real treat, then to see him deploy a huge force of diverse miniatures from his Wyrdwold collection onto our battlefield for the scenario.

Arrayed against Mattias's Wyrdwold warrior (roughly 1,000 points in Song of Blades & Heroes parlance) were three allied warbands: Josh's Dark Mariners, Terrence's Nameless Orcs, and Karl's Holy Warriors. Their job was to stymie the advance of the Wyrdwolders, who were pouring out of a spectral, half-glimpsed cleft 'twixt a pair of ethereal hills that served as a portal between the Wyrdwold and Qaarra.

In this pic, the Nameless horde surges over a bridge while the Dark Mariners negotiate a river in the background. Karl's holy warriors are on the far right, also about the cross the stream.

Here's a closer look at the Dark Mariners. These are newly painted, from the DeepWars game line.

Just a mess of tentacles and spearguns, wherever you looked.

In game terms, this was a pretty big game. Karl, Josh and Terrence fielded roughly 1400 points among them, and Mattias's faction received one free random monster at the start of each turn, to represent oddities from the Wyrdwold slipping through the astral portal and wreaking havoc on the opposing warbands.

On the first turn of the game, Josh's siren cast a weather spell, and a fearsome rainstorm began scouring the battlefield. As it happened, a fearsome rainstorm soon swept into Chicago, so we were able to do a little live-action roleplay later in the evenings as everyone ran out to their cars. But in the game, the rainstorm had a few measurable effects: it reduced line of sight and limited all shooting to the shortest range band. This proved important during a few key engagements!

Here's a glimpse of the battlefield as the lines edged closer together. In the mid-ground, the gigantic beast with its fists upraised is a scarp dweller from the Wyrdwold, newly arrived and mad as hell about it.

And in this pic, two mounted warriors crashed into the Dark Mariners' line in a glorious cacophony of clanging metal and slishing tentacles. In the foreground, missile troops pour fire into the periphery of the fight.

Karl's holy warriors got a bit mauled in this game. What do you expect from a group of barefoot peasants led by clerics and paladins! Here they are advancing toward a truly gruesome skirmish line of demons and mutants. That octopus is probably fleeing as fast as his little tentacles can slither.

Here's another look at the battlefield. Individual fights were breaking out all over the map as the warbands tried to flank and out-flank each other.

Oh yeah -- either Mattias or I killed Josh's siren a few turns into the game, so there was no way to turn off the rainstorm spell. It continued to rain uncontrollably for the rest of the game! OK, more pics of the action. I lost track of what was happening at this point. Maybe you can piece together the narrative from these pics.

As you can see from the pics, it was a wonderful way to spend a few hours, and a totally fitting send-off for Mattias. As it turned out, his hollow-faced raiders were driven from the battlefield, back through the thrice-cursed gateway and into the Wyrdwold, where they will presumably lick their wounds and sulk mightily.

This was an odd scenario for our first session. Next game we'll hew a bit more closely to our theme for "The Grimy Jewel." For now, I'll just leave you with one final pic from the game, showing the eventual fate of Karl's bishop guy.

Until next time!

-- Patrick, Chicago Skirmish Wargames club member

The Dogs & The Dust: Dead Man Walking

Last week we gathered at Games Plus for our regular game night. Due to the availability of tables, our merry band was a bit scattered, and tucked away in the back corner were Josh and I, setting up for a game of The Dogs & The Dust, the sci-fi ruleset from the paint-addled mind of fellow club member Mattias.

We've played it a few times now, each time exploring a bit more of the game's design space. With this game, though, we decided to try a scenario. It occurred to me that the default mode of play for TD&TD (scavengers looting a battlefield) is a perfect way to game STALKER (that peculiar, post-apocalyptic video game that is just ripe with tabletop possibilities). Here's the setup for our scenario:

Dead Man Walking

Derzhensko Exclusion Zone

Area: Akulinin Industrial Sector

Once again, the lure of loot and artifacts in the Derzhensko Exclusion Zone has proven too strong. Two teams, outfitted and equipped to scavenge and survive in the harsh conditions of the area, crept into the ruins of the Akulinin industrial plant. A fortune in decrepit loot was scattered around the facility -- if the two crews could survive long enough to turn a profit.

I schlepped a plastic tub full of terrain (plus my gorgeous Zuzzy mat) up to Games Plus and set up a compact little 3x3 foot tabletop battlefield. In the center was a sprawling industrial complex (terrain created by fellow club member Karl) around which were strewn six objective markers. Our task was to explore and secure these objective markers -- but a random encounter table meant that each objective could hold both plunder and terror in (un)equal parts. Here are a couple:

Josh and I deployed on opposite table edges. He fielded his Wreck-Age Reclaimers, and I was trying out my newly painted Russian scavengers from Lead Adventure Miniatures.

Each figure in my crew has his own name -- written in Russian, of course. Here are Igor and Pavel gearing up to explore the zone.

As the game began, Josh advanced his Reclaimers and seized the first objective. One lousy encounter roll later, he found himself surrounding by fleshy, wet, glistening mutants, the result of some experiment gone terribly awry.

Not to be outdone, Volodya the Russian scavenger poked around a heap of abandoned equipment and drew the ire of a pack of mutants as well, eager to devour his flesh.

At this point, we realized that the scenario could really benefit from a gamemaster. Combat in TD&TD consists of a series of opposed rolls, so it was really a lot of extra work to basically insert a third faction (the  mutants) into the gameplay without a third player to roll the dice and move the mans. I would finish my turn, then play the zombies while they attacked Josh, then he would play the other zombies while they attacked me, etc. Just a lot of dice rolling. Not a shortcoming of the game, more like an oversight in the scenario.

Anyway, back to the action. Seeing that Volodya was in trouble, Zhenya unlimbered his double-barreled shotgun and waded into the fray, peppering the mutants with buckshot.

While I occupied myself fighting off the mutant incursion, Josh was busy securing objectives. We rolled randomly to see how loot and mutants each objective would contain, and the dice were definitely in his favor. Here is an objective that spat out one measly mutant while accounting for a huge chunk of victory points.

Meanwhile, my guys were having trouble securing even one objective.

Eventually we got close enough to begin exchanging fire with each other (in spite of the mutants). The end came when the Reclaimers caught Igor, the leader of my crew, all alone out in the open. He was trying to jimmy the lock on these computer cores and didn't even see the Reclaimers coming. Oh well!

But it was all in good fun, since Josh and I had a fun game of The Dogs & The Dust. This was something of a milestone for me, as it was my first regular game night since becoming a father three months ago. It was great to get back in the saddle! You'll see more of me on the blog, too.

-- Patrick, Chicago Skirmish Wargames club member

Necromunda Campaign: Lower Wacker Hive, Session #2

The second round of our Necromunda campaign took place a couple weeks ago. Here's the account of the two encounters between the Panther Moderns and Fjord's Folly. 

Van Saar leader Fjord is not known for his success or his common sense, so it was no surprise that when his gang Fjord's Folly encountered the Delaque-affiliated Panther Moderns, they immediately instigated a showdown (we played the Shoot-Out Scenario). The Panther Moderns were outnumbered and drew first.

If Fjord's men thought the quick draw was a sign of weakness, they were in for a rude awakening, as the Moderns quickly outgunned them and took Van Saar ganger Iver captive. This was, of course, cause for the Folly to attempt a rescue mission scenario as our second game of the night. 

Things went smoothly at first. Fjord's Folly carefully advanced on the Moderns hideout where Iver was being displayed on a second story balcony.

However, the Folly were too quick to reveal themselves and began taking fire almost immediately.

Fjord himself went down, but quickly recovered. Soon thereafter, the Panther reinforcements began arriving. 

Concentrated fire drove off the first reinforcements, but it wasn't long before jammed weapons and casualties blunted Fjord's advance. Panther Antonio with his heavy stubber was particularly fearsome perched on atop the gang headquarters.

When the balcony guard was taken down and a weapons malfunction took Antonio's big gun out of commission, the Folly made one more attempt to take the balcony -- only to find another ganger holding the line with his shotgun and steely gaze.

Thus beaten back, the Folly bottled out. 

After the battles, the Panthers took pity on their captive Van Saar gangers and sold them back the Folly. However, Fjord's relief was short-lived, as ganger Erikki died that night from wounds sustained in the battle. 

The campaign is going well so far. The Panther Moderns are the clear frontrunners, but no gang seems to have sustained massive losses, and all continue to accrue experience and advances. I'm especially impressed with the scenarios. The original authors clearly put a lot of thought into them, and the author/editors of the Necromunda Community Edition seem to have made some nice subtle tweaks to balance them a bit. 

Despite a 1-2 record with my gang Fjord's Folly, I'm having a ton of fun and am looking forward to the next round of Necromunda. Here are a few shots of the layout and game that was going on next door to us. Mattias' "Madame Two Swords' Gang of Horrors" Eschers await the arrival of Jon's "Red Scare" Redemptionists at an abandoned transit node. 

You can see Jon expressing disbelief at the surprising ineffectiveness of his Redemptionist's many flame weapons. 

Until next time!

-- Karl, Chicago Skirmish Wargames club member

Game Report: LOTR Strategy Battle Game

Last week the club gave Games Workshop's "Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game" (LoTR SBG) a try. It's a game I've been obsessing over for some time, so it was nice to finally give it a go. Of course, being CSW, we weren't about to go out and buy a bunch of $80 rulebooks. Luckily, the "Return of the King" (ROTK) rulebook is commonly available online for $4-$9 shipped! To entice participation, I purchased a copy of the rulebook for every member of the club. (Editor's note: Wow!)

The ROTK rules are the third update to the game. Starting in 2001 there was a rulebook released for each film, followed by a fourth large hardcover version -- sometimes known as the "One Rulebook" -- and finally the current fifth edition, which was released for Hobbit films.

From what I've been able to deduce, the ROTK core rules are nearly identical to the 4th edition, which were themselves mostly unchanged in 5th edition. The book has a wide range of unit profiles and over a dozen scenarios, as well as rules for all manner of infantry, cavalry, weapons, heroes and more. It seems to be lacking rules for war engines and other specialized units that were released in various supplements before being collected in the fourth edition "One Rulebook."

I think ROTK is an excellent way to try the basic game rules at minimal cost. You can always decide later whether to buy a more current rulebook. Alternatively, a group could just stick with the ROTK rules, since the game doesn't have a massive player base anymore since Games Workshop doubled the cost of most miniatures, allowed many essential army books to go out of print, and generally neglected development of the game. Lastly, anyone interested in fantasy wargaming should consider ROTK as an affordable chance to read over a lovely (like all GW publications) rulebook containing a nicely developed ruleset by two of wargaming's best known authors, Rick Priestley and Alessio Cavatore.

The Scenario
We played the "Long Night" scenario from the ROTK book. It's basically a holdout scenario where a group of good guys attempts to fend off repeated attacks from an enemy who begins the game with less forces, but whose dead soldiers will automatically re-enter the game edge on the next turn.

You can see the layout above. For the purposes of the report, the fence with the gateway will be referred to as the "north", with the other fence sections being "east", "south" and "west" respectively. Since our table is narrower than the recommended 4 feet, two of the four enemy deployment zones were at the corners rather than the edges. As this was our first try of the rules, to simplify play, each of four players were given between 150 and 200 points to spend, but not allowed any heroes or mounted units. Mike and Terrence players played the Uruk Hai, represented by Celtos orc miniatures based in grey.

Tim and I played the Men of Rohan defenders, represented by Celt miniatures with tan basing. The minis were played WYSIWYG except that Celts with slings were counted as having bows.

Special thanks to Tim for providing both forces, giving us far more representative Middle-Earth-style figures than would have been the case if I'd provided proxies.

The Battle
The first turn was uneventful, with the Uruk Hai advancing on the village. On the west and south sides they split into two groups.

And on the other end of the village they advanced en-masse towards the east wall.

Meanwhile the Men of Rohan scarcely moved and only managed to send off a few ineffective arrows in the Uruks' direction.

In the second turn, the forces came to blows.

A couple of Uruks were slain and the Rohan line held with no casualties.

In the third turn, the first Rohan fighter fell, and a couple of Uruks managed to make it over the walls before being cut down.

Through all this, the Uruks had still not attempted to take the north wall, which was the only section with an open portal and the longest and likely hardest to defend portion of the defenses.

In the fifth turn, the Uruks began to realize that the defenders would not be defeated so easily, and they began to employ a bit more strategy.

Despite the chance of hitting their own men, their archers began firing into the melee, creating openings to be exploited by the following troops.

Though not crippled, the Rohan force was beginning to show some signs of weariness as the defenders began to dwindle and more and more Uruks assaulted the wall.

As reinforcements arrived, the Uruks began to send troops towards the north wall, though most of the battle remained at the other three corners until the sixth turn.

In the sixth turn, the Uruks made a strong push for the north wall and finally managed to establish a strong foothold inside the Rohan defenses.

We played one additional turn, but at this point it became fairly obvious that the Men of Rohan would not be able to hold out for what the scenario rules suggest would be 20 turns. Time was growing late, so we called the game.

Thoughts on the Rules 
The players' responses to the game were mixed. I really enjoyed it, Tim was not impressed at all and Terrence and Mike were not convinced either way, but said they'd be willing to try the game with the inclusion of Heroes (the game's designation for all units that can make use of the additional characteristics of "Might, Will and Fate").

LOTR is an interesting approach for a fantasy game. I'm not sure I know of any other game that attempts to put a platoon or more (20 to 50 figures) in the hands of each player and ask them to control each one miniature individually.

To make such a game function, the combat is extremely streamlined. There is an opposed roll to see who wins and a roll to see if one is wounded. Neither of these rolls seems to ever be modified, and there are no saving throws. This is a stark contrast to nearly every other GW game I've played, but it definitely fits the aim of the rules. The rules emphasize clever use of maneuver and terrain to allow your soldiers to most advantageously engage the enemy.

Though we didn't get too deep into them, the rules for weapons also add to the gameplay without adding complexity. Shields, spears and bows (among others) all have unique effects on combat, which is something lacking in games such as Song of Blades & Heroes.

Without Heroes, however, the game does feel a bit samey and dry. I suspect that they are the necessary flavor to make this a game worth revisiting. A couple heroes with relatively high point values would also help keep the game board from being completely crowded with low-point-value line troops. The recommended points values for this game were 200-250 per player, but line troops range from 6-10 points each. Without Heroes, that's a lot of individual minis for each player to command.

To sum up, I'm looking forward to playing this game again. Reading through the rulebook, it's packed with interesting scenarios that beg to be played. But because it's fairly rooted in the Middle-Earth world, this rulebook might not have what it takes to become a mainstay of the club. It has potential, and this first game has made me want to see more of it. So much so that between the game and the writing of this report I've built and painted 20 sections of fieldstone walls (post coming soon...) since the game seems to require a decent amount of barrier-type terrain.

If you have any advice regarding getting started with LOTR rules, notable experiences with them, or opinions on the current status of the game, I'd love to hear them.

-- Karl, Chicago Skirmish Wargames club member