Battle Report - Saga Crusades - Old Fued

Hello Folks,

Time for another Wednesday wargaming battle Report! This week more Saga is on the docket, playing Crusades as it is the period du jour.

I took the Teutonic Knights again as I have been having fun with them. Tried to take more foot knights this time around. 

Serge took Crusaders as that is the only option he has. Again more tending to foot, possibly due to the terrain?

Scenario wise its another one from the book of battles. Old Fued, in this battle each player has to choose a challenger to add from their list. There are a bunch of options, soldier, councilor, princess ect.. each with different abilities and effects. Goal is to keep yours alive and kill theirs. Else if both die it goes to massacre points.

I took the councilor as she has a saga dice and we obey, the Crusaders took a mystic who can add dice as well, also fit in well using a bishop.

Here we are after my turn 1. No shooting charging or saga abilities allowed, so I shifted a bit and set defences.

Crusaders got in position with their moutned of the left flanking.

Turn 2 for me I used Nach Osten to shift everything and fired some bows. Managed to kill a knight and couple of footmen, so not bad.

Crusaders charged in hard killing a fair amount of the bows. I used an ability for defensive fire and got 1 kill at least.

On my turn I saw opportunity. The Crusaders had left the mystic behind un-guarded. So my knights went on a very long charge! Annoyingly it took 2 combats to finish him so they were left exhausted.

The Crusaders hit back crazy hard. Killing the knights, most of my warriors, and a unit of four knights. Ya not a great turn!

Desperate to keep the councilor alive who was getting surrounded. So my archers shot down the mounted knights, and warlord killed the foot knights. Then tried to find a safe spot for her.

Crusaders gave it a mighty try but failed to kill her. I used my few dice to try and fatigue the enemy warlord, but no luck. Looking back probably should have shot the last hearth guard or warriors.

Bug pressure now for the Crusaders to kill the councilor. Their warlord give it a mighty effort but she just barely survived, having my last warrior take a hit as body guard. Annoyingly the warriors had three dice to move. They charged the bows and shifted them enough to charge the lady, she just barely died from that.

With both dead it now went to massacre points which the Crusaders were obviously up on so I skipped the mathematics phase.

Was a very fun game thou and quite close. Another good scenario to try out! Get my seal of approval.

Thanks;

Mike

Battle Report - Crusades Saga - 3 player

Hello Folks,

This past weekend I got the chance to do another Saga Crusades game. This time it was Duncan with Saracens, Stan with Crusaders, and me with Teutonic Knights.

We played the three player scenario where turns are mixed up. Winner is decided by survival points, plus a bonus each time you charge.

Things can get chaotic with three players but I'll do much best.

Heres the deployment, you alternate putting units and they can go anywhere, so you can split up attack everyone whatever you want. I decided to get in Duncans face s bit and ended up pretty surrounded.

No charging or shooting turn 1, but Duncan found a loop hole to kill an archer.

Stan gets really close and I just shift a bit

Duncan gets the first active turn, and murders a group of hearth guard. Then picks Stan next who kills allot of bowman. Hard times to be Teutonic! But the bowman killed a few warriors so not bad.

My turn I killed all but 1 of Stans Warriors, and my warlord killed a bunch of Duncans warriors, but was left exhausted.

Stan went next and used some crossbow guys to clean up my bowmen.

My turn again, time for an abysmal charge. My mounted knights charged those crossbows and only 1 survived. Then my warlord rode over and order the other bows to shoot.

Duncan then cleand up the rest of the biw, and my warlord!

I was left with a single knight on my turn. But he rolled allot of great saga dice and made a decent charge against the Saracens. Sadly they made all their saves and the knights were done.

 
The remaining armies face off across z field of corpses...

Stan chops up a few more riders, and Duncan launches a few hit and run attacks. But hold off from committing to an assault.

In the end both armies are in pretty good shape, and have very similar survival points. Duncan end's up just ahead due to doing more charges. Ah the benefits of z maneuverable army. Although also risky with so many archers around!

Was a fun game, thou bit of a disaster for me!

Thanks;
Mike

Painting Update - Batman

Hello Folks,

Time for the first painting post of the year! Mostly the last bits of Batman stuff I painted on vacation, but also some modern terrain.

King Shark, Killer Frost, Osito:

First up some bad guy. A big old Shark man cant go wrong right. Teddy Bear is the objective from the Bane box.

Batgirl, and Robin:

Some good guys, Batgirl and Robin. These were really fun to paint. Lots of bright colors, especially for Robin.

SWAT:

Lastly for the models I have a few more SWAT guys. Lots of elite cop options.

New York:

On to some terrain. This is the plastic set for the new marvel game, very cool. Cars dumpsters buildings whole 9 yards. Was pretty easy to paint as well, made good use of colored sprays.

Cars:

Last most of the cars from the mantic terrain set. These are pretty good as well, not as detailed maybe but good variety.

Starting to have a decent set of modern terrain now


So that's all for now. Next big thing is black seas!



Pledge Status, 2020:

Bought: 51
Painted: 22
Total: -29

Thanks;

Mike

Battle Report - Team Yankee

Hello All,

Time for another Wednesday wargaming battle report. This week we are playing the new version of Team Yankee, and its battle 10 of the campaign.

Honestly the changes are pretty small, so not going to change much or anything?

Anyways I decided to do a more Amercian force and keep things simple, so I have 10 Abhrams, 7 AMX-30 and 2 hummers. Scenario roll was Free For All which is by far the worst mission in my opinion but it's not the end of the world.

I did set up lots of terrain, aiming for the start of a mountain and big forest.

Heres the deployment. Free for all means everything starts on the board, so we have a few allied tanks vs 3-4 russian formations.

Turn 1, not to much effect for me but I killed a unit of 4 BMP recon.

Turns out I feared the wrong unit and some man packed missiles tore the French apart. Oh snap.

I move to fight T-64s on the left but not much luck against there armor. On the right I tried to engage the infantry and did kill a stand or 2.

Russians clean up the French and move forward aggressively.

Abrams pull back and fire away. Do well against the T-55s with few numbers, but only like 1 or 2 T-64 dies. Not enough.

Russians press forward, getting on the side with 2 T-64 killing an abrams. Otherwise the T-55s get in striking distance.

Next turn the Russiabs have forced the issue and there is no more space to pull back. So the Abrams advance and try to get all the side shots they can to roll up the T-64s they can. I'm able to get 4 or 5 which is pretty good. The command tanks tuck into a corner and continue lighting up T-55s.

Sadly its not enough, with a bit of good luck the T-64s finish up 1 platoon, and all the rear shots from T-55s kill the other, so pretty clear Russian victory.

It's actually not as bad as it seem, if I hadn't lost the French so early I got have maybe fought to a draw, but it was a tough go. So many tanks for so cheap,  combined with the effective 64s is tough. Also I took allot of Abrams which we know are not at all efficient. But fun game.


Thanks;
Mike

Battle Report - Saga Age of Crusades

Busy week!

This past Sunday I got together with Duncan to play some Saga in the crusading times. I decided to try the Teutonic knights again with lots of levy this time, and would be facing the muslim fanatics. (Real reaction names to hard to spell)

Mission wise I decided it would be good to try out ambush. Basically there are 3 baggage that are neutral moving across the board. You have to murder them to get an objective  then keep it, plus survive.

Also everything starts off board and you only get 5 turns.

Fanatics move on, no saga dice so you just have to maneuver

Knights move in. Every turn you roll to see if the baggage moves, we have camels, horses, and pigs behind the forest.

Some eastern horse men ride in like crazy and kill 75% of a hearth guard unit. Just terrifying! Some spearmen assault a baggage but just bounce off.

Time to strike back. The Teutonic knights have a very helpful ability that let's ever unit move 4" with out counting as an activation, so I use that to get my dirty peasant bowman in range and they hammer the Eastren horsemen. Then the brother knights charge the pigs and take the objective. Showing the fanatics how it's done!

Guess I missed a picture so 2 turns for this one. The fanatics tried to strike back sending some camels into my bowman. But a handy saga abilities let me kill 1 to allow them to shoot in response, this killed half the camels. They also made a very good attempt to kill a baggage getting 7 hits, but crazily I made 6 saves!

On my turn I killed the rest of the camels, and more horsemen with shooting, moved my loot holding guys back and sent the lone knight up to get in the way.

The fanatics kill that knight pretty easily, then kill a baggage with their warlord.

Final turn for me I try to collect the last baggage. A charge with knights get 3 fatigues on it, then my warlord finished it off. Finally kill the last horseman with archers.

In the end I had 2 of the objectives vs 1 for the fanatics, and a bit of a lead in survival points so it was a win for the Teutons.

I wasnt to keen on this board previously, but with the 2 units of bow it actually feels great to play! Crusades are a good time.

I also liked the mission, although it wasnt a great one for the fanatics it was pretty interesting.

Thanks;
Mike

Battle Report - By Fire and Sword -Samurai

Hello All,

This past Friday we had our club day. The main game was English Civil War which I'm not that interested in, so I decided to try and set up a side  game. Settled in trying a Samurai game with By Fire and a Sword rules.

Note that my stuff is based on 100mm widecstands not 40mm, so we just counted each stand as 2, no big deal. Also made up some quick stats:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1H4saDZ0tdUbyi1ihaGGSzUA8rFxoEZiCRsqIV6vKcHA/htmlview

So I had 2 armies 1 if warrior monks and some Ikko-Ikki and one with Samurai. Monks had a few more units and more guns, Samurai had mounted so Korean maneuverability. I took the monks and gave Steve the Samurai.

Never did points so no idea if that was fair, also skipped recon and other pregame bits. Basically we were playing fast and loose with the rules.

Game 1: Forage

Since I dont really know who the stronger player is I picked 3 scenarios that 8 hadcterra8n fir and let Steve choose, forage was the winner.

Here is the set up, using 2 villages as forage tokens, which is not allowed but like I said, treating the rules as more of a guideline!

First turn the Samurai deploy into a line for a full frontal attack, no time to waste. I fire a few shots but it's long range so mostly scattered. But the mounted Samurai are disrupted.

Turn 2 they recover and charge, but some Warrior monks send them back. On the left I have few peasants trying to flank while the monks hang out by the village. In the center the bow Samurai are going tow to tiw with the monks.

Next round sees the big unit of mounted Samurai broken. On the  right they get in range of the town.

Big action ln the next go. Both units charge on the right, but Steve rolls really crap and my unit mostly holds, while the Samurai break! Peasants and Ashigaru charge each other on the left but draw. In the center thr slog continues. The bow had gotten out of easy to order range.

Next turn is a bit if recovery getting ready for the last push. I tried to flank with my Warriors on the right but never quite made it.

In the final turn the Samurai are able to recover and charge my exposed unit, really curshing them. Points wise we were about even on murder, but no loot for the Samurai so a win for the monks. Hopefully Steve's dice improve fir round two!

Game 2: Patrol

Since we are professionals we got done long before the other game so decided on another game. This time patrol. Peter joined in commanding my right flank.

All my foot press forward slowly, while the mounted Samurai rocket up to look around. The 3 recon objectives are the w rice paddies and grove

Next turn more moving up and a little shooting. The Samurai have all 3 recon so we are under stress to get the last.

Next turn the peasants try to charge, I was assuming the Ashigaru would as well ti try and block us. Instead they shot so my charge failed and many farmers died... But they past morale so I could check out the field, worth it! On the right the lines ready for battle.

My monja charge through the grove and break the Samurai! The peasants route, butvtheur job is done. In the right the final arrangements are made.

Next turn I turn my unit 90 degrees to flank the ashigaru Teppo-Tai squad, which turns out awkward with these units. On the right everyone charges, but still no luck for the Samurai so they loose. The mounted Samurai do really thou which may be bad.

Final turn, Steve takes the initiative and goes out big. All the units of mounted Samurai converge on my unit milling about in the center and crush it totally. In the right Peter's monks really send the foot Samurai a lesson, breaking them.

This time pints wise we both got the scenario, sonit was d8wn to murder! We took about 30% casualties and the Samurai were just over 50%, so tactical victory for the monks!

Maybe now the pesky Samurai will leave us alone!

Finally heres a shot of England. Lots of great units, bit of a flat land thou.

I thought the Samurai version went very well and was allot of fun. Will have to do more for sure, tempted to get some Koreans! Seems like the lads had fun with the ECW as well so looks like this isza pretty easily adaptable rule set.




Thanks;
Mike