Rather fantastic battles

   I managed to get the opportunity this morning to test out Fantastic Battles by Nic Wright. 

They are currently available to buy Here.

The rules are designed to be scale and setting agnostic and use multi-based units with no casualty removal. Which sounds right up my street quite frankly. They include some sample army lists for fantasy and ancient forces but encourage you to come up with your own giving full rules for unit generation. 

The rules are really simple and clean mechanically with an easy to follow turn structure. It uses a base of troops as the basic unit that can be formed into groups if you wish. Command sections are separate and key to keeping your army in the fight but they can join units if desired.

 The rules work on a random activation basis with troops outside the influence of the forces commanders often doing exactly what you don't want them to!.

  There are also rules for random objectives, flank marches and pre battle misfortune that can befall your units (which I forgot to use this time like a massive tool).

First impressions are very positive, I might have to put together a few small forces to explore further. I used my 15mm dark age forces  for this game, 4foot troops/ 2 cavalry to a unit. 

 The battlefield ready for battle. Norman' attackers at the top of the picture, Saxons at the bottom.

 

The Norman's center made up of Norman infantry and their  Saxon subjects.

Archers protect their left flank.

  The other flank was held by the flower of the Norman nobility.

  

  For their part the Saxons deployed foresters and spearmen on their right.

  Their center was held by more spears and a unit of mercenary Viking axemen.

The hill on the left was guarded by the Saxon archers who intended to fill the opposing horse with arrows.

An archery duel broke out on the Norman left while the Saxon spears prepared to take the hill.

  The Norman center advances.

Likewise the cavalry who take exception to the rain of pointy sticks coming from the hill.

   Things begin to get bloody  as the Vikings slam into the Norman subjects.

  The Norman spears crest the hill.

   With their commanders out of range the archers take matters into their own hands and charge off the hill to attack the Norman horse!.

  On the central hill opposing shield walls face off.

   During which opposing champions prepare to have at it!.

   

    Which goes better for the Saxon half!.

  Over on the left the archers feel the sharp end of the Norman's swords as Saxon spearmen rush to reinforce them.

   And get there just in time to get charged themselves.

  During the fight the forces general s meet.

   While to hill in the centre turned into a massive scrum.

  The Norman leader is downed by his opposite number, ending the battle in the favour of the Saxon defenders.

  As I said, decent rules that I'm looking forward to using again. Definitely worth a look...

...'till next time...

More late medieval tomfoolery

  I had a few pre-easter days off so managed to paint another Swiss pike block (and almost finished a second) in between watching far too much Trailer Park Boys, I even got another test game of this in:

 I decided to roughly link it to my last game, the plan being to play a very loose narrative campaign as I paint more units. In the last game the Swiss frankly mullered the Burgundians so this time I decided to put some slightly larger forces on the table to play a game where a hastily deployed Burgundian force have been tasked with slowing the Swiss advance to allow the main army to properly prepare to meet them. To that end a battlefield was prepared:

A field of battle, somewhere over the Burgundian border.  

 The basic idea was for the Burgundians to deploy on/ near the hill in the top of the picture, the Swiss would deploy opposite and must have more units over half strength than the opposition on the hill by the end of turn 5.

  Burgundians prepare to receive the Swiss (all minis are 10mm Pendraken).

Swiss pike form a strong center ( in the rules Swiss pike can 'double up' to create massive units).

Crossbows deployed on the hill on the Swiss left.

The final unit of pike march along the road on the right.

The battle begins with the Swiss advancing under heavy missile and artillery fire.

The Burgundians prepare to unleash another volley...

...Badly as it turned out!.

The Artillery take a heavy toll on the opposition as the Swiss close.

On the road the forces finally clash.

Which goes badly for the Burgundians.

In the centre the Swiss steamroller the Burgundian pike at the foot of the hill.

On the road the Swiss brush the opposing enemy aside and continue on.

The view from the Burgundian lines.

The final assault on the hill begins.

With just the archers left the Swiss move to the foot of the hill but it's too late!. The game ends with one unit each on the hill so a (very) narrow victory for the Burgundians!. They have done what they were ordered to do and slowed the Swiss enough to allow for a proper defence to be organised... although they would not live to see it.

The final positions at the end of the game.

Hopefully I will have some more painted units to show off soon meaning I will have an excuse for another game!. Yay!....

...'till next time...

A small piece of Swiss 'diplomacy'

   I managed to grab a few hours to myself this morning to get a quick game in so decided it would be a good idea to test one of the rule sets I am planning to use for my Swiss Burgundian wars project. The rules in question being:

Ancient and medieval wargaming by Neil Thomas.

 Having played and enjoyed his One hour Wargame rules i decided to pick up a copy.  The rules seem pretty simple (not One hour simple but still) which suits me as one thing that I find puts me off games these days is needlessly complex systems. They also seem to be very customizable with each unit only needing a few pieces of information to make them work ( their type, armour and morale level) along with a few simple special rules go give them flavour. So I decided to get the table set up and chuck some units together to give the rules a try.

  In the rules forces are made up of 8 units chosen from a set list, I had enough painted units for four a side. Also in the rules you win by reducing the enemy to two units, I decided that I would play until one side was completely wiped out.

A valley on the Swiss border about to get far less peaceful.

Swiss pike march onto the valley.

Swiss crossbow swing around the left to support the pike.

  A bevy of Burgundians stand in their way.

The Burgundians push their archers forward and form up the pike.

The Swiss advance. One of the Swiss special rules is that they have to advance at full speed and always engage the enemy if able.

The Swiss van take heavy damage from the Burgundian longbows and artillery.

Speaking of artillery, in the rules they roll 1d6 attacks each time they fire. However if they roll a 1 they explode and are destroyed. Guess what happened...

The Swiss crash into contact.

Crossbow continue to pour shots into the Burgundian line.

With the archers minced the pike clash.

Which goes the way you would expect!. 

Before long the writing is on the wall for anyone present that happens to not be Swiss!.

The rules play really nicely. I have to admit the Burgundians had little chance once the cannon blew up as it had caused plenty of damage before that and the rest of the force was heavily outmatched. I think once I have painted up their Gendarmes they may stand more of a chance. Combat was nice and 'crunchy', units would stand long enough for it to feel right without dragging on. Artillery is fairly random in effect having a random number of shots which feels right to me for the period as it was pretty new at the time. All in all a nice simple set with plenty of period flavour. It does exactly what a lot of bigger pricier rule systems do with a fraction of the faff. 

...'till next time...