wargamesdiary   A diary of war games and board games

After a long hiatus I have actually painted and based my lord of the rings casualty markers plus my Saxon baggage – weapons and shields plus sacks of flour

Have also under coated my jomsvikings .

Photos to follow .

I have set this up for To the Strongest hoping to refight it soon in 28mm!

Michael, Mike, Phil and Alex went to Bruce’s to play F and G followed by X COM-two co-operative games.

Fortune and Glory

The Nazi’s had a good start and were rapidly moving up the VP chart.  Michael’s Lord and Alex’s driver started an adventure in W Europe and were soon joined by Phil’s Scientist to complete the quest.  Lord Dudley then went shopping in Paris.  Meanwhile Mike got beaten up in a bar in S Africa whilst the Nazi’s escaped with Thor’s hammer.  Bruce crashed into a mountain just outside LA.

Next Bruce and Mike tried to complete the quest outside LA but were pipped at the post by the same female villain evil Nazi after being chased by a Jeti.  Phil and Alex travelled to America too and spent a long long time negotiating a temple complex until the Zeppelin brought even more evil Nazi’s to once again thwart them and steal the artefact from under the noses whilst they were distracted by the Crimson Guard (who knocked Alex’s driver out whilst Phil escaped only to fall off a cliff).  Meanwhile Lord Dudley grabbed the Blue shield from the British Isles and sold it at auction in Moscow to great success.  Then Bruce and Mike’s stange author got delayed and badly chewed by sharks in Eastern Europe.

Nothing seemed to stop the Nazi’s who began occupying Venice and dropping solders off all over the World whilst the players struggled to make progress except Lord Dudley of course.  Finally the Nazi’s won. Well done Game.

X-COM

We played X com next.  The tutorial was challenge enough for us.  Mike’s good money management supported Bruce’s excellent squad leader tactics.  This allowed the team to survive with just South America in Panic as they took on the final challenge.  Boosted by Alex’s clever tech the final four soldiers alive took on and defeated the Final Mission assisted by Phil’s satellite support tech again from Alex.

Pandemic and watching the football.  Mike Bruce and Phil took on an even harder version of Pandemic.  The virulent strain was extra tough.  Red was virulent.  They managed to cure blue and keep yellow under control.  Black was difficult but they just turned that around when the fourth epidemic struck.  It was virulent and added to the single reds they thought had been safe.  All reds on board and players lost.  
The football was fun to watch with Germany beating Italy on penalties. The funniest moment being when the player brought on by Italy to take the penalty moments before did a little dance and then missed horribly.  Never has Gemany missed so many penalties but they still won!  

Mike, Phil and Alex played further in their campaign against Darryl’s evil empire.  This time it was the incredibly difficult scenario with the dreaded terminals in the general’s secret base.  Mike and Phils as Jedi and smuggler headed north to the first room.  Luke skywalker headed east towards the other room supported by Alex as the sniper.  Each team destroyed the Probe droid in the way.  However the Nexu then came north up the western corridor towards the sniper.

In the northern room Mike opened the door and Phil entered heading towards the terminal guarded by a Nexu.  Meanwhile Luke raced back to take on the Nexu but missed completely !  The Nexu would take some killing but at least it missed skywalker on its turn whilst the sniper took shots at it as it retreated back down the corridor.  Eventually it was slain but it took a lot of valuable time and stress n the Sniper.

Back in the northern room Phil and Mike dealt with the Nexu.  Phil then attempted to decipher the terminal.  With two dice on eye attribute tests he thought he would do better than no successes at all!  Mike therefore had to deal with it wasting more precious time.  Phil then opened a crate and claimed a Bactra infusion he would later use to heal Mike’s Jedi.  The pair then headed towards the eastern room and tminal picking up another crate and a medikit en route.

Now heading towards the Southern door Luke was taking a lot of damage whilst The sniper kept in  cover behind.  They partially damaged a probe droid which  then healed itself but they did take out the e web engineer who simply respawned in the eastern route to bother Mike and Phil.  Luke opened the door quickly with his light sabre and Alex raced his sniper towards the terminal!  With three dice in his spanner attribute this should not be too hard he thought.  Six dice rolled later and only one success things were looking bad. Luke had to sacrifice himself to finish it off.  Luke was then defeated by the probe droid but at last there was only one terminal left.

The general in his walker had by now appeared in the central area cutting off the two groups from each other.  More probe droids, imperial storm troopers and Nexu were apppearing all over the place and harrying our heroes.  The jedi was sorely wounded but there was just ni time to heal her and so they staggered towards the final door.  Armed with only a blaster Phil’s smuggler found the door tough to open but eventually blasted an opening for Mike to head towards the red strength terminal.  Phil’s worst attribute with just one die so Darryl concentrated his fire on the Jedi.  Mike became wounded.  Disaster this reduced her strength attribute!  However using his Jedi forseight and defensive stance she became focused!

So ignoring all their foes Phil tried his luck on the final turn against the terminal.  No succcesses on either of his rolls.  It was all down now to the Jedi.  As Phil despaired Mike rolled trusting to the Force.  Two successes and the heroes had won with seconds to go.  Well done players.  Evil Darryl though gained influence as the players took so long to achieve their goals.

In the upgrade phase the Imperials bought some secret upgrades.  The Jedi bought a meditation skill and the sniper some expertise.  The smuggler saved her xp.  The players pooled their resources and bought the famed vibro axe for the jedi to go with the extended haft plus an imperial blaster rifle for the sniper.  The smuggler got nothing but had gained a better pistol last time round.

Next up the players will attempt the gain resources side mission.

Mike introduced us to Police Precinct.  First time round the players were defeated quickly due to unchecked emergencies getting out of hand whilst they concentrated too much on solving the crime.  Second time round they played much better as a team.      Phil and Bruce concentrated on detective work plus solving any emergencies they came across whilst Darryl and Mike worked hard on keeping the emergencies and hoodlums under control.  Eventually Mike arrested the criminal before he could escape past the road traffic accident.  Well done Police Team.

We then played Sherlock Holmes the card game.  Phil won and Mike got the record high score.

So time for the players to take on the adventure prepared in the posts below.

Bruce and Mike each took a group of dwarves whilst Phil played their opposition; Undead against Mike’s Company of Dwarven explorers (based on the Miner’s list) and Orcs against Bruce’s Dwarven Infantry (based on the Dwarven list).

So with the Treasure and the Crystal safely in the hands of the Dwarven Company and the battle in the caverns below fought unto a stalemate the scenarios were complete and victory points tallied.  The Company of Dwarves scored a Major Victory and the Orcs a Minor.  Not only that the Thief’s daring defeat of the Barrow Wight and his crucial interception of the Undead Veteran will certainly be remembered in the campaign upgrade step.  Also the Heroic Dwarf with the Heavy Hammer who managed to grab the Crystal and get it to safety has managed to find a bottle of the infamous Ghost Ale so will be Drunk with High Quality Spirits for the next scenario.  This can be good or bad but ceratainly good for the Dwarf with a mighty thirst!  Neither side lost any major characters so will be ready to fight in the next battle.

For the Orcs and the forces of Evil they will need to gather their strength for the next scenario before the Dwarves are able to claim control of the Fortress and its caverns on a long term basis.  With the loss of their phylactery though the Undead are unlikely to be ready for battle.  The Lich Lord will send therefore a group of his Goblins led by their Shaman in an attempt to disrupt their plans.

Meanwhile the two Forces of Dwarves have discovered secret passages and wooden walkways linking the two areas.  Though merely distant cousins and distrustful of each others motives they are well aware of the threat posed by the enemy and so have set aside their differences in order to combine their forces against the common foe.  With the Thief off setting a surprise for the enemy the two commanders plan their joint defence against the forthcoming attack.

Using the To the Strongest rules Mike and Phil introduced Darryl to the To the Strongest Rules.  Gondor against Mordor and the Southrons with Phil playing as Gondor.  This was to be the first battle in our Harondor mini-campaign.  Harondor a debatable and desert land.

First of all we set out the terrain using the rules.  We thought we had placed quite a bit but when the cards were drawn almost all the terrain was removed so the armies faced across an open plain as the Sun rose in the harsh arid lands of South Harondor.  The Prince of Ithilien hoped to force the enemy back as they headed up the old Harad Road North to Pelargir.

The battle began with the Gondor army advancing forwards rapidly to take the Middle ground.  The Knights to the left flank, infantry centre and the Prince’s infantry and Guard cavalry to the right.   The right flank infantry failed to advance.  In response the Far Harad infantry advanced towards the Knights and the Trolls (Elephants) down the centre.  The Harad cavalry opposite the Gondor right advanced and harried them with horse archers with little success.

On the Gondor left however events unfolded rapidly badly as the Javelinmen brought down Findegil the Commander and disordered his Knights.  He was led from the field gravely wounded unlikely to ever be able to ride again.  The Knights in disorder and without a commander would find it difficult to make much progress from now on.

In the centre the trolls struck the Large Units hard and heavily disordered them.  They proved impossible to injure and the infantry struggled just to avoid destruction.

Eventually the Gondor Knights were slowly pushed back but continued to hold the left flank.  In the centre one Troll was slain and rampaged towards the Marshall of Umbar with little effect.  The others proved indestructible and the Gondor centre was buckling with a couple of units on 2 disorder.  On the Gondor right flank the Prince had by now advanced his forces and was pushing the Harad cavalry back.  The Serpent Guard lost a unit and the Black Serpent himself had to flee and join the second unit as the infantry pushed forwards.  The Harad counterattack though was deadly and a whole large unit of infantry was destroyed.  The Knights held their own and pushed back the skirmishing cavalry to the baseline but were disordered in the process.

At this point seeing that the day was lost and before his centre collapsed the Prince of Ithilien withdrew his forces and victory was awarded to the forces of Mordor and Harad.  Well done Mike and Darryl.

The Trolls proved especially effective. This was helped when Phil drew an ace when trying to activate his division as they closed thus failing to shoot at a crucial moment.  The deep units with extra bow proved very resistant but the extra bow was not so effective when compared with a separate unit of formed archers of course.  The fact that they could never seem to hit a Troll and then when they did they always saved caused problems for Gondor.  This was compounded by a bad start down the left flank with the early loss of their commander there.