A Thrapple of Thracians

A Headless Body Production
Venue: Wyndham Resort, née Lancaster Host
Event: Persian Era and friends, four camel maximum, 3rd and final round!
Players: Phil Gardocki running Achaemenid Persian list 64.
               John Doe running Thracians, Odrysian Kingdom
Game System: L'Art de la Guerre, 25mm, 200 points per side.

The Forces:

The Persians are commanded by Cyrus the Great, a Strategist. His sub commanders, supplied by city states now in ruin and lost to history are anonymously known as Darri, and Darri, Both are considered competent for their time.

2 Persian Guards, Heavy Cavalry, Bow, Elite

4 Mede Cavalry, Medium Cavalry, Bow
2 Bactrians, Light Cavalry, Bow, Elite
4 Immortals, ½ Medium swordsmen ½ Bowmen, Elite
8 Sparabara, ½ Medium swordsmen ½ Bowmen 

1 Light Infantry, Bow

Breakpoint of 21

The Thracians are commanded by Teres the Brilliant, his son Sitalces, the Competent, and a nameless money grubbing mercenary, who is Ordinary, Included and Unreliable.

4 Horsemen, Light Horse, Bow
4 Horsemen, Light Horse, Javelin
9 Warbands, Medium Swordsmen, 2HW
6 Hoplites, Heavy Spear
2 Dysfunctional Family Groups, Levy, Mediocre
5 "Stick Bois", Light Infantry, Javelin, 3 Elite
1 Cretan Archer, Light Infantry, Bow, Elite
Breakpoint of 32

Display Conventions: When you see a word bubble like "Ouch!" or "Ωχ!",  this implies a disorder from missiles. Letters in parenthesis represent some value change for the specific unit. For commanders it is s for strategist, b for Brilliant, c for Competent and o for Ordinary, u for unreliable. For troops it is e for Elite, and m for Mediocre. Other abbreviations, Hvy Heavy, XB Crossbow, LB, Longbow, Jav Javelin, 2HW 2 Handed Weapons, B Bow, Kn Knight, HKn Heavy Knight, HC Heavy Cavalry, Md Medium, Sgt Sergeants, LC Light Cavalry, Chr Chariot, Cat Cataphract, Pa Pavise, LI, Light Infantry, HG Hand Gun, FKn Foot Knight, Hvy Spear, Heavy Spearmen.

Inappropriately capitalized words are used to highlight terms that are specific to the game. For example Brilliant, Competent and Ordinary have specific game values for the commanders.

"XX" implies a unit killed in that location on that turn.

Deployment:

Sitalces, son of Teres, takes his Thracian horse to their right flank.

Teres commands the center with a large number of tribal war bands.

With negotiations for a raise complete, the mercenary hoplites take the left command, their flanks secured by the River Styx

Darri's horse command is opposite Sitalces horse.

The Pesian Baivarabam's take the center and right.

Turn 1:

Thracian horse rush forward for an early exchange of arrows. Their javelin armed horse threaten the flanks of the Bactrians.

The warbands and hoplites advance at a trot.

Their Elite scouts advance to probe the unknowns in the vineyard.

The Bactrians turn the tables on their flankers. The remaining Persian horse advance and loose arrows.

Cyrus will rely on his horse to cover his left, and shifts forward to the right.

For the Vineyard is full of his troops, including a Hazārabam of Immortals.

Turn 2:

Sitalces has a shortage of command points to deal with the multiple threats. He withdraws one block of horse, leaving another to it's fate.

Teres parses off a few warbands to support his son. The rest advance at a run.

The Hoplites, laden with their heavy bronze shields, manage to keep up with the more lightly armored warbands .

Bactrians catch a troop of Thracian horse. The remainder of Darri's horse advance to bow range.

Cyrus's Baivarabams stay put and darken the skies.

Darri orders a couple of Hazārabam from the Vineyard and flank the hoplites.

 Pictures from the convention:

I was told this was the "Bridge to Far" game. This must be where XXX Corps launches from.

And where the 82nd Airborne lands.

And this must be Arnhem. Dutch architecture is vastly different from what I imagine.

Turn 3:

Another poor command point roll for Sitalces. One of his horse tries to escape the Bactrians by running into the Marsh. One horse rallies their horse, but another is disordered.

Tere's Warbands turn the flanks of the Persian horse. The remaining warbands race towards the field.

The bulk of the hoplites bear down on the less armored swordsmen in the gap between the rough areas. Two taxis parsed off to keep the Persians in the Vineyard from interfering.

Bactrians mercilessly rain arrows upon the escaping Thracian horse in the Marsh.

Darri orders a charge of half his horse. Two Thracian horse stand their ground, but are run over. Thracian foot also are heavily disordered by Mede cavalry.

The remaining horse turn to challenge the Thracians threatening their flanks. Cyrus's foot stand their ground against the approaching foot.

The Persian Hazārabam ZOC the hoplites, while another Sparabara turns their flank

Persian archery has proven to be amazingly good. The Thracians are at 18 of their demoralization level of 32. To just one for the Persians.

Turn 4:

Thracian bow armed horse deploy to hold their ground. If they evade, they are at risk of leaving the board.

Teres's warbands have stopped the Mede cavalry charge, but fail to disorder them. In the field, the warbands crush a pair of Hazārabam, including one of Immortals.

Hoplites charge forward as well. But are less successful than the Thracians.

Taking the Persian score to 6 of 21.

To the Thracian score of 22.

Darri's horse keeps up the pressure.

Darri's horse begins to crack the Warbands keeping them at bay.

Between the rough, the battle is inconclusive. Both sides have units about to rout. But the Persians in the Vineyard charge out with a flank charge as well. Fortune favors the Greeks however and both Hazārabam's are disordered in the charge.

Turn 5:

At this time, with his demoralization score of 28 of 32, my opponent conceded. The Persian score was at 9. There was a chance of the Persians scoring as much as 7 points, at the top of the 5th, though 3 was more likely. But a almost certainly 4 points would be gained by the bottom of the turn. The Persians were at 9 at this time. The Thracians could easily have scored just 2 more points, and possibly 4.

With 3 wins it was looking like I might take the tournament. 

And the crowd goes wild!

Cold Wars is apply named this year. The wind chill in the late afternoon is in the single digits.

Castle Defense Fantasy Battle

A Headless Body Production 
Venue: Covenant United Methodist Church
Event: Games Day
Game Master: Bob Darretta
Players on the Side of Goodness and Light (Yeah!!!): Dave Peterson, Russ Orr
Players on the side of villainry and evil (booo!!!):Dave Peterson Phil Gardocki
Game System: Home brew

The Forces 

The forces of villainry and evil (booo!!!) are a mix of goblins, black knights, giants, trolls elephants, spider and squib riders and reanimated things.  Their equipment for a siege is a bit lacking consisting of a single siege tower and a couple of ladder teams. 

The forces of Goodness and Light (Yeah!!!) are a mix of humans and dwarves.  Well equipped with artillery and muskets, 

Display Conventions: When you see a word bubble like "Ouch!" or "bugger!" this implies a disorder from missiles. 

Inappropriately capitalized words are used to highlight terms that are specific to the game. For example Brilliant, Competent and Ordinary have specific game values for the commanders.

"XX" implies a unit killed in that location on that turn.

Any vagueness or inaccuracies in the descriptions is to be considered is to be considered Fog of War, and is to be considered part of the fun.

This was a perfect "con" game.  Why? 

Just one page of rules!  With 1" margins and suitably sized font!

 

The Board:

The sun shines upon the castle of goodness and light.

As part of the castle defenses, the Dwarfs have donated their hybrid steam/mechanical powered mobile mortar machine.

Against it, the villains have camouflaged an elephant to act as a battering ram.

 

"Yeah, you blend."

Running escort for the Elephant are exquisitely well painted Spider Riders, and Goblins on Squigs. 

I don't know what Squigs are, but my son described them as two legged mouths.

For the approach to the castle, there is a wooded, and muddy road.  Ladder-men, described as "Slaves of Darkness", march next to the elephant.

On the left are evil knights.  The Squigs and Spiders are on the right.

Each unit rolls 1 to 3 D6 for movement in inches.

Pikemen defend the barricade.  A unit of dwarfs form up on the woods edge singing a joyful song.

On the other side of the table, a siege tower is pushed forward by a huge troll.

The castle defenders plan to deploy forward against the tower.

Turn 2:

Villainous knights ooze through the woods.

The reason for the dispersed structure are mortars on the castle towers, which have area of effect weaponry.

The elephant slogs through the muddy road.  

The Slaves of Darkness trot at speed with their scaling ladders.

The Squigs keep up their skirmishing formation, or lack thereof.  The Spider riders form up to assault the Dwarf line.

The Dwarf defenders break out in another verse!

After taking a round of mortar fire, the red demons of chaos charge!  But there are two cannons on the machine, with gunners standing by.

The tower stops at the bottom of the bridge.  It's escorts clearing away the blockade.

Things are about to get intense.  Time for a quick bio-break and take pictures of other games.

Battleships laying down heavy fire on Omaha beach.

Americans about to land to assault the bunkers.

Napoleon's Grand Armee attacking the Prussians in the frozen winter. 

Flames of War Shermans trading shots along a hedgerow.

Turn 4:

 

Villainous knights charge around the blockade into the pikemen.

While a Giant emerges from the woods to lift the barricade.

Going largely unnoticed, a Dwarf Berserker is trying to catch up with the main body. The Squib charge the corners of the Dwarf block for a temporary 2-1 advantage.

 

Each unit rolls dice independentatly for movement.  I'm guessing the Berserker has made a number of poor rolls here.

The elephant just plods along.  But at least the crossbowmen in the howdah are now in range.

The Pikemen have stalled the evil knights charge.  What is that?  The portcullis is raised, and an organ gun appears.

The Dwarfs fight back but the squibs seem to have the upper hand.

The Organ Gun captain has to  make a choice.  The Pike seem to be holding well, so he orders it to wheel left to support the Dwarfs.

Which does not go well for the beleaguered axe-men.

The Red Demons have wrecked the Dwarf war machine, and are now looking for fresh meat.

The siege tower realizes it is not going to make it to the wall and divests it's troops.

Turn 5:

The organ gun crew reloads (artillery can only fire every other turn) As black knights are now gaining the upper hand against the pike.

Most of the spider riders are "racing" for the wall, as they can climb it easily.  But one decides to sample dwarf meat.

The Elephant almost clears the muddy road.

Turn 6:

The giant pushes the barricade aside.  The elephant surges on firmer ground.  One knight tramples a pikeman on the way to charging the organ gun.

The castle defenses, almost a dozen men with muskets, is loaded and ready.

The Green Knights charge, their goal to take down the tower.

 

We called the game here.  The objective was to get more evil troops in the castle than good troops.  That ratio currently is standing at 25 - zero.

  

On another table, ruined city landscape.