Charge of the light brigade, ups...

Real life got in the way one again, and for more than a month I was unable to play any game. What little spare time I had I spent painting a miniature or two, so one thing led to another and finally I have enough models to try slightly bigger Napoleonic event…
The game was played using slightly modified Musket & Mohawks rules by 2HW.Year is 1809. French light battalion (considering of one unit of Chasseurs, Voltigeurs and Carabiniers) led by Rep 6 mounted CinC is attacking a small village in Spain. Unit of British Foot Guards took a position behind the barricade, as the first line of defense. Rifles unit selected shooting position in nearby forest, while local Spanish militia located behind the small hill prepared to help from reserve.
I moved Voltigeurs to the left, to engage rifles, while Carabiniers and Chasseurs connected and marched forward towards guard unit.
In next turn my main body charged at the barricades. Spanish militia tried to join the fight, but passed 0d6 and failed to move, condemning Foot guards to be wiped out.
At this moment I was ready to proclaim my victory and march into unguarded village, but Rifles company had something else in mind. They fired at the flank of my main body, scoring enough hits even with Fire at Will routine to wipe out my Chasseurs, and make Carabiniers run away! Only my CinC left at the center at the field, and this was miracle of the good rolls!
Concluding that things are lost, CinC took fast move towards my table edge. To cover his retreat, Voltigeurs exchanged fire with Rifles, in which officers of both companies got killed.
Rifles stood their ground, while Voltiguers decided that they had have enough.
Clear victory for NPC side.
This time, I definitely learned that firing at the unit flank can be really devastating. Mistake I will not repeat at the next charge :)

Band of Dwarfs

Even if there are plenty of great solo games for fantasy, like Chronicles of Blood, WHAA or new solo rules for Song of Blades ad Heroes, I started to move away from "period" for a simple reason that I do not have enough painted figures for different races.
Therefore, I decided to make as many painted small warbands as possible so that I could enjoy all the diversity of fantasy gaming.
I started with the band of dwarfs from old GW set Battle for Skull Pass.
They are not painted to the extremely high standard, but this is more then enough to become one of the future enemy groups my heroes will have to face...So, let me introduce to you one dwarf hero, one berserk, two warriors, two miners, two hand gunners and even one prisoner of war for the warband to try to rescue every now and then....

Some fun on the convention

Jatacenje 2012 convention

Sixth annual convention Jatacenje 2012 starts tomorrow, and will go through the weekend.
As always, Warhammer FB will be the central event, but we will be playing some RPG, Card and Bord games as well...

I will post some photos from the event at the beginning of the next week...

Andrzej Niegolewski: just a day in a life of an officer

This time, I took some miniatures with me on a business trip in order to play my first game of Long Rifle.
In the terms of this game, my hero captain Andrzej Niegolewski is a Rep 5 Star scout/soldier. As Polish officer of the guard he is charismatic but he is also a runt (all the wounds he received so far left him weak in hand to hand combat).
For my first game, I sent good captain into scouting mission through Spanish hills, in the company of veteran voltigeur (rep 5) his little bit greener (rep 4) colleague and inexperienced (rep 3) light infantry chasseur.

I played this game in a hotel, so I used what I have to make terrain - two books under blanket are hills, yellow paper strip is a road, and green area with "trees" is, of course, forest....
My troupes scouted areas 8 and 9, then moved towards forest, staying on the road. First PEF did not move. Second one hurried through the forest rushing to meet my party. It turned out to be a group of 4 Irish deserters from British army (neutrals, soldiers). The guys just wanted to leave the Spain and go home, so Niegolewski used his charisma, exchanged few words with them and let them pass.
Third PEF also stayed where it was.Niegolewski met second PEF inside the forest, but it was just a trail running away from the main road, looking rather fresh, as if someone has recently passed there.
Polish officer sent one voltigeur and chasseur down the trail to investigate, and they have come into line of sight of third and final PEF, who turned out to be another, smaller group of British deserters. As earlier, this encounter passed peacefully.
Scouts moved through the rest of the area, and finding nothing, returned to their camp to have some deserved lunch....

Well, this was rather uneventful game, no combat whatsoever. For Andrzej it was just the ordinary day of service, one he quickly forgot. A walk through the forest, so to say.

So, many aspects of the Long Rifle game I'm yet to test. Hope that in the next go I will run into some enemies to try the combat mechanics...

The only reason I noticed this game is because it is my first go on these rules, it is played away from home and all my terrain and miniatures, and because, after all, this is the return of Andrzej Niegolewski to my playing board after rather long absence...

Christmas presents

In Serbia, where I live, people still use old Julian calendar to mark church holidays. Therefore, Christmas in Serbia comes on January 7.

And I must have been a very good boy last year, since under my Christmas tree I have found tons of solo gaming goodies.

Field Commander Napoleon is there, then Elder Signs, Destiny Quest game book...
With Muskets and Mohawks/Long Rifle out at the more-less same time, I will now have many things to play...Maybe even too many, since the logical question opens itself: what to tackle first... :)

Fabled

Inspired by recent post by The Trollish Delver I decided to try Fabled Lands gamebooks for myself.
And I have to say I am not disappointed, even if I have not reached very far into the game....

My character was troubadour who managed to set free a wizard trapped in the bottle, steal treasure from a strange beaked and backward walking monster, fail to free the village from fake ghosts, purchase a treasure map and get kissed by the mermaid before he was killed by 3 underwater monsters....

And I have just scratched the surface of the first book!

The game is great because, unlike other similar books, it is open ended and features a wast world that asks to be explored...

I think I will be coming back to this one!