The root of all evil

When I start new project, I usually go for the evil army (the one that will be played by game mechanic) first. After that, I am still in the mood to paint some good guys to. I do not know if I would be willing to continue with the project other way around.

So, when I decided to make 10mm fantasy armies, I started with the evil side first.

And, without further delay, I present to you - THE HUMANS.

There are many fighting happy races in the world, but no one wakes sheer terror in the hearts of other races like Humans.
With their short life span, fast breeding and endless numbers, they are a face of pure evil.
While orcs may attack and rob, they will eventually return to their lands. But not humans. Humans will  not be satisfied until the last former occupant of the land they invaded is dead, and the lands settled by them.
And there is no place safe from them - from the highest mountains to the deepest caves, you will find human colonies.
These are the creatures mother-orcs scare their mischievous children with.

Picture above shows cavalry of the humans of the plains - cavalry general, knights, fighting cavalry and two units of horse skirmishers.

Infantry - foot general, 4 units of spears, one unit of barbarian warband (or eventually blades), 2 units of archers and 2 units of halfling foot skirmishers.

All models are from my favorite supplier of 10mm fantasy -  Copplestone castings.

CRGE Game master emulator from Conjecture Games

Unlike solo wargaming with miniatures, within the last few years solo RPG-ing turned into rather exact science.

The player uses Oracle, different randomizers and maybe some driver engine, and he knows exactly what to do and how to do it.

And as it is the case with every exact science, new works in domain are not breath taking exploits into unknown, but rather small steps that improve and deeper our understanding of the subject.

So, the latest contribution in the field of solo RGD-ing is Conjectural Roleplaying Gamemaster Emulator (CRGE) by Zack Best (Conjecture games).

Lets then explore what is the scientific contribution (or simple said, what is new in this work) of CRGE.

The most innovative part within CRGE is a d100 Oracle, which is called The Loop of Fate. Unlike the oracles we are most used to, it does not take into consideration the probability of the event. Instead, three tables within the oracle are chosen based on the scene set-up: one is for scenes where players are trying to gain knowledge, one is for scenes leading into conflict and one is for scenes that should wrap up the adventure.
Each table has eighth possible outcomes. Besides six commonly known (yes and, yes but, yes, no, no but, no and) The Loop of Fate uses two more - Yes and unexpectedly and No and unexpectedly. The Unexpectedly result is further elaborated in additional d20 table and makes good sense.
Another interesting thing is called the Surge Count. Basically, each time the plain yes and plain no is rolled on the oracle, a counter is increased. This counter value is than added to or subtracted from further rolls on the oracle to drive  the final result towards some twists. This is the good mechanics that can improve quality of one's game.

CGRE also implements a little vague driver that divides game into 3 or 4 small acts: exposition, rising action, climax and (optional) epilogue. 

The rest of the booklet is basically compilation work from lots of different sources. It is done well, and CRGE can be good starting point for beginners, even if the experience players will already be familiar with most of the stuff.

In any way, considering the price (booklet is Pay What you Want on Drive Thru RPG) it is another must have for all solo RPG players.

Tiny Epic Defenders

Another physical kickstarter award arrived.

This time, it is a game called Tiny Epic Defenders, by Gamelyn Games.

Tiny Epic Defenders is a 1+ filler game that can be played in 30 minutes.
While some players judge it as repetitive, after first few games I see a lots of potential here.
The basic mechanic of the game is "counting cards". There is a limited number of same cards appearing every turn. Player's goal is to remember which cards passed this turn, in order to position his hero at the best possible location when the next card is drawn.

The game starts slowly, but quickly turns into a mess with regions being destroyed, and player racing against time trying desperately to achieve victory. With that, game resembles Red November or Pandemic.

So, this is quick game, with enough repleyability to keep me occupied and with small print, it has everything we busy father type gamers need, and I am glad I put my money on it.

Revenge!

After the loss in the last game, I wanted revenge.
So, I prepared a new squad, consisting of Guard cavalry officer, Polish Lancer, Light infantry NCO, 2 Light infantry Voltigeurs and Light infantry Chasseur.

The British squad was the same as in the last game.

I moved first, so I sent one Voltigeur into forest, while another Voltigeur and Chasseur moved to defend a hedge. I positioned Lancer to the right of the hedge, while officer and NCO wisely stayed behind.

In British turn, infantry moved from behind the building and fired, but missed. British officer ordered group move. Royal Blue moved forward, found himself in danger zone from the Voltigeur defending hedge, so charged the group behind the obstacle to avoid being hit. The Chasseur that was first  in the line of charge got afraid, and quit the field. Voltigeur just retreated a little, so that Royal Blue found himself in the contact with Lancer only.
Light dragoon also moved, and found himself in the danger zone from the Voltigeur in the forest, so he charged there.
Hussar wanted to help Royal blue and charge Lancer, but failed morale test and joined combat against Voltigeur in the forest instead.

In turn 2, Polish NCO fired at British officer but missed.
Then, I decided to risk again and send my officer into action (after all, he is guard cavalry and a CC killing machine!). He charged Hussar, and made him fall. Then, Voltigeur from the forest also attacked Hussar and sent him Out of action.
Lancer attacked Royal blue and send him Out of action too. He had another action so he moved in contact with British officer who passed morale test and stayed in CC.

British line veteran reloaded and fired at Polish officer, who recoiled. Rifleman reloaded. Light Dragoon attacked Voltigeur and send him to the ground.
British officer tried to attack Lancer, but stood no chance and fell down.
In next turn, Lancer took the advantage over the fallen enemy officer, and scored instant kill.
That was enough for the remaining British soldiers, who decided to run off the table.

Sweet revenge :)

The game was once again decided by successful morale test. When fear causing Lancer approached British officer, he made a morale test on 3 dice at 4+ and rolled 5, 6, 6 staying this way in CC that would become his doom. If he would failed at least one die, he would move away from danger to support his infantry, in which case the game would certainly last few turns longer.

Short affair

It has been a while since I played a game of Song of Drums and Shakos. And to be honest, I kinda started to miss the rules, so I decided to come back to them.

Therefore, here is my first report from a game played with 6mm figures, on 30x30cm board, and using sticks of 60, 40 and 25mm.

As usually, I am running French/Polish side, while British forces are under command of my own Lone Shako solo SDS engine.

My forces consisted of Light cavalry officer, Polish guard lancer, Light infantry NCO and 3 elite voltigeurs. After that I had just enough points to add a National guard model, and that gave me idea for scenario. National guard model represents a young sibling of famous Spanish noble who is supporting French cause. If I manage to lead him out of the field through the enemy board edge, I will win. If he gets killed or if he runs away, NPC British side will claim the victory.

British side fielded Light cavalry officer, Light dragoon, Hussar and Royal Blue, Line infantry NCO, Line infantry veteran and one member of the rifles. British side was rolled randomly on the British list in the book.

It all started good for me, with British side rolling two early turnovers, and that allowed me to move my light troops into forest.
Then, British cavalry separated, with Royal Blue and Hussar going to the left of the lake, and Light dragoon to the right.

I used occasion to charge Light dragoon with my fear causing guard Lancer, but Dragoon stood his ground. So, I sent my officer to support his Polish countrymen.

Unfortunately, Royal Blue grabbed the possibility, joined combat and managed to double my officer and send him Out of fight. Leader lost morale test immediately pushed my precious Spanish noble off the table, so it was Game Over, with victory going to British side.


I think that last game of SDS I played some 6 months ago, so I totally forgot that in this game one should not put their officers where they do not belong (read in close combat!).
But the possibility to charge lone Dragoon with Lancer was so sweet that I just could not resist it. And when this charge failed, I could not let my harder hitter face his fate alone, so one thing let to another....

The real hero of this game was British Light Dragoon who passed the 3 dice morale check on 5+. If he had failed at least one die, everything will be different.

Now I am eager for revenge!

Broken attack

It is final time to put down to writing second part of my Muskets and Shakos attack game. First part can be found here.

After I deployed reinforcements - second infantry brigade, the things looked better for me.
But than British light infantry rooted my hussars, and precise rifle fire sent my light infantry running.
Encouraged by their success, rifles turned on my lancers, and rooted them too.

At this point I realized that I have only one infantry brigade on the table, while British side (calculating PEFs on average) have or can deploy two brigades (mix of foot and cavalry), some independent skirmishers, and with my luck probably section of guns too.

For smart man that is enough, so I decided to withdraw.

So, I lost. But Muskets and Shakos is not an easy game, and I also lost first scouting ancounter, untill I learned what I should do to counter enemy actions.
As I already mentioned earlier, I made a lot of mistakes in this game, and they say that practice makes things perfect, but unfortunately, I will not have time for that.
This game lasted almost 4 hours of real time, and this is too much for me at the moment. I'm looking for a games that can be over within one hour, and in Muskets and Shakos that can be done only with scouting scenario.

As option, I am planing to activate scenarios from One Hour Wargames book, using this (and also many other) rules, and with one brigade per side it should fit within desired time.

Also, 2 Hour Wargames are preparing new army scale napoleonic game, and that should also be interesting.

Hot new purchases

Two items arrived today.

With my gaming community reviving DBA, and lots of people moving from 28mm to 15 or 10mm models, I just could not afford not to buy original Hordes of the Things 2.1. book.

So, here it is:

Another very important purchase for me are 3 additional sets consisting of 3 Rory Story Cubes each, and they are themed on sports, SF and medicine.

There will be more randomizing fun in my next solo RPG exploit :)