Market Day at the Watchtower Inn (Solo battle report)

It was market day at the Watchtower Inn, in the Darmish borderlands near Wardenskeep.  

 However, unwelcome visitors were about to arrive.  Uccsai of Varkrek was leading a band of foragers far out beyond the fringes of the main Orcish army.  Attracted by the distant sounds of the market, and the smells of good cooking, he led his warriors toward a bridge.

The humans were watchful, though, in this uneasy border region, and from the top an an old tower visible across the river, a horn call sounded.  Not abandoned after all … Uccsai ordered the troop to forget about the bridge; the river looked shallow enough for safe crossing if they were quick about it.  His warriors were not.  Exhausted from the days’ march, they were slow in reaching the ford, and quickly fell in a line, as a few eager yopungsters, anxious to prove themselves, pressed ahead, while the rest lagged.

Meanwhile, at the Inn, the market goers quickly gathered inside the thick stone walls and prepared to defend themselves.  Happily for them a Darmish officer, Lieutenant Zanther, and his bodyguard of four soldiers was present today, looking to buy supplies.  He quickly took charge, sending the lightly equipped men of the local militia out to the hilltop to see what was happening.

One of the local militiamen reached the ford just as the first orc, one of the eager youngsters, was splashing across.

Life is hard in the borderlands, and the local warrior was able to hold his own against the orc.  As more orcs waded the stream, a couple of Zanther’s soldiers arrived.  Two orcs quickly fell, but a shudder of fear ran through the humans, for they could see that a troll was eyeing them from the far bank of the stream.

Hungry and tired, but still possessed of the ferocious tenacity of life that was the mark of their kind, the troll waded across the stream, to be met by three humans.  The troll fought hard, but the combined efforts of the humans were too much for it.  A ragged cheer rose from the human soldiers as they slew the troll.

Uccsai looked across the stream in dismay as the troll fell.  He suspected that the day was lost, but raised his mace of command to urge his straggling warriors to one final effort.  At that moment, a human militiaman took careful aim, and, as though from nowhere, an arrow pierced Uccsai’s throat, and his last command remained unspoken.  The surviving orcs fled the field, seeking only to return to the safety of the main army.

As the soldiers and local militia returned to the Inn, the grateful people came out to greet them with gifts of food and drink.

Gamemaster’s notes: My intention yesterday morning was simply to unload the Portable Fantasy game box, iron the groundcloth, and then pack everything away neatly, since the box was in a bit of disarray after the DBA extravaganza the other week.  However, there have been a couple of threads on various gaming fora this past week about scenery (and whether it should be a collaborative effort between players) and use of scenery in role playing games, so I decided that it wouldn’t take much longer to actually lay out a battlefield before sorting and storing.  With the previous Dragon Rampant game having produced a draw, I am considering this skirmish to be a tie-breaker, indicative of the overall situation in the province during this strategic turn in the campaign. I don’t ordinarily expect that man-to-man skirmishes will be reflected in the strategic map situation, but this one is an exception.

After that, I ended putting out some of the non-combatants for a couple of pictures, and then decided that I might as well use a couple of the prepared war band lists (for A Song of Blades and Heroes) that are in the box to stage a quick solo game.

My general experience with A Song of Blades and Heroes is that the point values given are a bit optimistic for troops with a quality of 4, as most of my orcs were.  I was surprised the last time I played with the rules to see an orc warband win.  This time was less surprising.  The orcs were having trouble activating, and ended up scattered and unsupported, and the humans just mowed right through them.  No human figure was killed during the game.  I haven’t played enough of this in recent years; it’s possible that there are tactics which would compensate, but I haven’t generally found them yet.  As with that game in march, the unpredictable shifts of initiative make this a pretty fair solo game out of the box.

Speaking of boxes, I did get everything cleaned up and neatly packed away in the travel boxes afterwards, so I’m ready with a pick-up game for the next convention or club night where one is needed.  I didn’t get as far as the next project, though, which was to unload the 1/72 group base figures and sort them into a couple of Dragon Rampant warbands, so that I can add one 6-liter box to the stack and be able to do a pick-up Dragon Rampant game as well.  Eventually, I’d like to have a selection of pre-printed and laminated warband sheets in the travel box, for improved readiness.

Solo Games for the New Year

I was a little short on games played last year, and hope to do better in 2015. I particularly hope to bring out and play with some of the projects that have been languishing in storage for an extended period of time. Therefore, I am
determined to play a few more solo games.

My first solo game of the year turned out to be on the 4th of January. William and I played a quick fantasy skirmish using Song of Blades and Heroes on the 3rd, and had intended to play it again. We ran out of time, though, before we needed to go out for the evening, and I needed to take him back to school the next day. I'm an early riser, so I decided I would do a quick reprise of the previous day's game to see if the entourage of the evil wizard could have done any better. As it turned out the second time, the defenders of Willstown managed to lose their leader, and that was enough to allow the entourage the victory. Let that serve as a reminder to use the leader to lead and not to fight...




I cleared the table, flipped over the ground cloth to the tan side, and dug out several boxes of scenery from my Darkest Africa project. This had most recently been out for Cold Wars in 2011, and I thought that it was high time that I put it on the table. I usually use these The Sword and the Flame, or, to be more accurate, the Sword in Africa variant from the 20th anniversary edition of the rules. I haven't played TSATF in a few years either, so I'm getting a bit rusty.




I wasn't sure if a 3x3 table would give a long enough game. The scenario involved a trading post (at the left) under attack by some Zanzibari Arabs and their native allies. I gave the Zanzibaris 5 bands of 8-9 men each, with one band with rifles posted in the jungle area in the top of the picture, one with muskets in the lower right jungle area, and three bands of natives, each with a mix of spears and muskets facing the path. The British had two bands of 8 plus a few noncombatants in the compund, and a rescue column of one band of askari constabulary and two bands of mixed askaris and bearers.



The Zanzibari musketeers can be seen here, from the direction of the compound.


Seen from this angle, the group to the right of the angle faced the Zanzibari riflemen, and those beyond the building at the left faced the muskets.

The first couple of turns consisted of the rescue force attempting to move up the track toward the compound, led by the native constabulary. Unfortunately, they fared poorly in an attack by one of the native bands, and Lieutenant Harland-White was slain by a native spearman (despite having a character's +2 on the die roll). The remants of the constabulary fled, although they did account for 6 of the 8 natives in the band that attacked them.

That left two bands of askaris and bearers to attempt to force their way up the path against two bands of natives. Outnumbered in fighters by two to one, this was clearly a hopeless task, and the last bearers fled after dropping their loads on turn 6 or 7.




Since I was playing both sides and needed to clean the game up today, I decided that the natives, lent confidence by their easy victory over the rescue force, would attempt to attack the compound. As expected, the die roll modifiers for attacking defended barricades made that quite difficult, and they were repulsed with heavy losses. Their Zanzibari masters were more prudent, and continued to snipe, with limited effect, from covered positions.




Inside the compound, a few casualties had been sustained as a result of the rifle fire, and one askari was slain by a spearman during the assault, but their situation was by no means desperate. So, as evening fell in the Valley of Shadows, the siege continued...

Overall, I'd count this as a marginal Zanzibari victory; defeating the rescue force was an accomplishment, but sniping at the compound was generally to the advantage of the defenders (as expected from the combat charts), and whether it could be overrun on another day was by no means certain.

I now need to go back and read some of the online commentary about the rules; there are a few fine points about the Sword in Africa variant that I'm not sure I played correctly. However, one of the advantages of the solo format is that the opponent seldom disagrees about rules interpretations.

All in all, it was an interesting little game, running about an hour and a half and ten turns. Next time, I'll set the small table up in my den, where it can be left indefinitely.

The Fight at Athelric's Farm

Snorri's crew knew that it wasn't going to be an easy day. Somewhere in eastern Northumbria, they had lost track of the rest of the raiding force, and hadn't found anything worth lifting.
Things started looking up as they found and followed a track, which shortly led to a stream they could probably follow back to the shore. Moreover, ahead they could see the smoke rising from a small cluster of farm buildings...and cooking smoke, not the sort that would suggest that other Vikings had gotten here ahead of them.




Unfortunately, their arrival was heralded by the shouts of a local, who leaped up from a hiding place and dashed across the ford. A local herdsman quickly flung a rock, dropping one of Snorri's two bowmen in the waters of the stream. The other hastily shot the running local, before noting that it was just a boy.




The Saxons rapidly started to round up their flocks, and the men grabbed their weapons with the intention of making a stand, at least for long enough for the women and animals to flee.


As the Vikings crossed the ford, the farmers hastily formed up in the lane, between the hedges, where it would be difficult for the Vikings to get around them. Ragnar Eagle-Eye slew a sling-armed herdsman with an arrowshot. Ahead and off to his left, Snorri could hear a Saxon horn in the near distance. This was going to be tougher than he had hoped; apparently help for the farmers was nearby. The Viking raid must have the whole countryside abuzz.




As the Vikings came around a corner in the lane, they could see a group of frightened farmers trying to make a stand. Ragnar slew one with a hasty shot, and the rest of them fled. Meanwhile, Snorri waved one of his followers toward a slinger hiding behind the hedge to the right, but the man hesitated.



The farmers, except for one who didn't stop at all, did not run far. Thinking of their farms, and hearing the horn of the approching thane and his men, they turned to face the oncoming Vikings again. Pointing at the slinger, Snorri yelled, "Ragnar, slay this troublesome farmer!" Another shaft reached out, and the luckless farmer dropped where he stood.



A couple of Snorri's men crashed into the line of farmers at the gates in the lane. Two farmers fell and the third fled, but a lucky spearthrust slew a Viking. Ragnar, crossing a field to the right of the rest of the crewmen, saw a herdsman attempting to gather his cows to flee, and shot him before he could get them all moving.




Meanwhile, Godric the thane and his fyrdsman arrived on the scene. Hoping to take the Vikings by surprise, Godric led half of his men toward a low spot in the hedge, hoping to get into the land behind the raiders. He waved the rest of his men toward the gate by the farm's well. However, lacking their leader's drive, those men hesitated to attack the Vikings. Meanwhile, Godric himself was met by a Viking with a two-handed axe as he reached the hedge. While both fighters were hindered by the hedge, the Viking's longer axe gave him the advantage, and Godric fell beneath a mighty stroke.




Up at the gate, Snorri spurred his horse at the hesitant fyrdsmen, brandishing his spear. They promptly fled. Ragnar, finding himself alone in a field of cattle, started rounding them up, along with a woman and child he found at the house.




Snorri sneered at the Saxons, who ceased fleeing, but hesitated to face him. He was joined by two of his companions, as Axe Harald leaped after the followers of the slain thane, who took one look at the dripping axe and the Viking's grim visage and fled back down the lane toward the ford.




Snorri and his men found themselves in a sharp fight at the well. After an inconclusive series of exchanges of blows, Snorri and a follower suddenly cut down two of the six Saxons. The fighting was intense, and when it suddenly ended, all six of the Saxons were down, as was one of Snorri's crewmen, and Snorri himself had been the victim of a lucky Saxon spearthrust.




One farm family and their animals had fled, but Ragnar had rounded up the other. Only one fyrdsman remained, and he did not fancy his chances against four hale Vikings. As the action ended, Ragnar, Axe Harald, and the other two Vikings lifted their leader's limp body onto his horse, uncertain whether he would live or die, and rounded up the cattle and the two new thralls to resume their race to the ships, pausing only to torch the farm buildings in reprisal for the loss of their leader...



Overall, this was an exciting little game. I used Knights and Magick, without the "magick", using some of the optional rules for very small encounters. I had eight Vikings on foot (two with bows) and a mounted leader against about a dozen Saxon farmers and another dozen fyrdsman. In K&M terms, the Viking leader was the only A class warrior, with the thane and the rest of the Vikings as B class, the fyrdsman as C, and the farmers as D. I didn't add up the points but just eyeballed the balance. It ran ten turns and took me about two hours to play, including taking enough notes to do this battle report.

An Interim Report

I dislike it when things get so tight in my schedule that I have no time for relaxation.  I have had the Arden game on the table for three weeks while I was occupied with business, both first and second jobs.   I finally got in the next three turns Sunday night, and took a few pictures with my new camera.  One more session should finish it, and I'll post the final report then.

I was pleased to find that I probably do have enough troops to make a reasonable two player game, and the Prince palatine of Wachovia will be home for the summer at the weekend, so opponents will be easier to come by.

Cry Havoc and Let Slip the Dogs of War

The table after turn 1; Duke Frederick's forces at the top, with Duke Senior's to the right. Infantry is all "in holding", waiting to be properly entered behind the cavalry but dropped on the table for convenience.  The mind's eye is blind to them where the camera is not.

I decided that I would take advantage of the possibilities of leisureliness implied by the solo format and left things set up after three turns this evening.  The basics of the scenario can be seen from the photo above.  A section of river and a bridge have been added to the previous battle's terrain.  Duke Frederick is attempting to get a significant portion of his force across the table to the bridge, and then on to the city of Arden.  Duke Senior is attempting to prevent this.  Unfortunately for him, he was lured out of position by a feint, but some lucky reconnaissance work by his light cavalry has given him a chance to recover.  Both forces are now racing for the bridge.

Rough Wooing includes enough randomness in movement and unit activation to make solo play pretty straightforward.  The first three turns have seen march delays as the two columns receive activations in less than optimal order, and the usurper's cavalry have been slow on the march despite being under the immediate watchful eye of their leader.

At the end of turn three Duke Senior has managed to deploy his gendarmes in a line facing the enemy, with some heavy lancers threatening Duke Frederick's as yet undeployed column, and the light cavalry has clashed indecisively.  His infantry are on the field, which puts him ahead of Frederick, who infantry remain off the table, their column delayed behind the dawdling horse. However, a group of Duke Frederick's heavy cavalry has headed hell-for-leather toward the bridge...

Duke Senior's lead horse prepares a charge on Duke Frederick's gendarmes, possibly nipping this rebellion in the bud.

I have not played an actual solo game since my sons became old enough to be recruited as opponents.  With the younger very busy and headed off to college soon, I'm pleased to find this evening that it is amusing, as it may be a more frequent occurrence in the future.