Mr Tar II: REBELLION!!!!

 Hello you wonderful peeps!. You may recall that a month or two ago i had a bash at the great rules Mr Tar came up with for grid based gaming on his blog (you can find the rules here and my game using them over here). I enjoyed using the grid for gaming and the rules were very simple but very satisfying to use so i decided to have another go. I also wanted to revisit the forces of the last game to continue the story and examine what happened after Lord Tristan took over old Lord Holesters lands. This game jumps forward a few months from the end of the last.....

  'T'was a time of great up'eval in Fools Corse. Old Lord Holister t'was all dead n' that, in his place Lord Tristan the Boulde had taken 'is seat and pillaged 'is lands. Across the villages fear ruled as Lord Tristans men did as they would, taking from the poor and burnin 'ovels an such like. But some of Lord Holisters men survived the massacre at the dam and they were sure as shite not gonna lays down an' let is memory be dragged through the mud by the evil new lord. They hid in the forests around Fools Corse, living as outlaws and raiding the new Lords stores and killin' 'is men an stuff. As each day.....' ERE DAVE, DAVE.....DAVE!!!....WHY YOU TALKING LIKE THAT DAVE???!!!'.
Mouldy Dave came to with a start, 'Wassat... whereisitnow... whattayawant!!' he turned and came face to face with the boil covered mud splattered face of Riddled Larry, he was grinning in a kind of 'im not sure whats happening but if i smile hard enough i may just get away with whatever i just did wrong, in this case interrupted a weird moment where my only friend (with any legs of course, Drag along Stus' a right laugh) has been in a kind of trance monologuing away like a good 'en' type grin and holding a half chewed turnip. 'Why you talkin like that Dave?' asked Larry. 'I was doin' exposition Larry' Dave answered in a haughty know it all fashion. 'EH???' replied Larry, he said EH?? a lot to express a whole raft of deep and meaningful emotions, in this case confusion. He took a bite of turnip to help him think. 'Exposition Larry, its the job of explainin' important plot points through the act of speech, its a story tellin' mechanic used by writers too crap or lazy to properly expand on what has gone before, instead they just get a character the reader is already familiar with to dump a whole load of infomation for no real reason. Its normally shoe horned  into some situation of no real consequence to the overriding story arc'. 'EH??!!' replied Larry, his brain aching. 'Put simply Larry', started Dave 'That bell end at the keyboard that writes this crap cant be bothered to explain weeks of made up history so has dragged us one dimensional single note jokes out of the further reaches of his battered and abused mind to do it for him!'. 'Ooooooh', replied Larry. 'Fancy'..........................Larry and Dave stood for a moment looking awkward before Larry said 'Don't mind me, carry on'. 'You know what Larry, i don't feel like it, he can do his own bloody story telling......lazy bastard, who does he think he is, bet he i'nt even a proper writer, just some tool that plays with toy solders. And he cant even flesh out a character or explain a setting, for all the reader knows we're stood in a blank void, he has yet to give any thought to where we are supposed to be at this moment or to relay that info to the reader!, and anoth......'

Right thats quite enough of that, i'm not having that kind of unruly made up behavior on this blog thank you very much!. As Dave was saying, The survivors of the battle of the dam were living in the forests (setting, see forest...setting, stick that somewhere painful Dave!!) and raiding lord Tristans wagons, stores and patrols and generally trying to fan the flames of rebellion to bring about bloody revolution in the land. Having had enough of that, Tristan has sent a force into the forest to put a painful and very bloody end to this type of thing!. However the outlaws have caught wind of his plan and await the coming force........... in ambush!!!!!( cue dramatic music!).

.....So onto the game......

  The game is played between two forces. One represents the force sent by Lord Tristan to beat the bejezus out of anyone outlaw lookin' in the general forest area and one is the outlaws waiting to ambush them out of their clunky metal boots. The Outlaws begin in any hex within 2 hex's of any board edge and the ...em....lets call them ...i dont know....bastards set up within 3 hex's of the center of the board.

The forces are:
Outlaws: 1 unit of 4 Knights, 4 units of 5 serfs and 3 units of 3 serf archers. All the outlaw forces are on white bases with yellow trim.

Bastards: 2 units of 3 Knights, 3 units of 5 serfs and 2 units of 3 serf archers. These troops are all on blue bases with yellow trim.

The only addition i have made to the rules are to give Knights +1 to their saves, because they are each wearing more metalwork than all the serfs combined!.

Both forces are attempting to wipe out or run off the other, the outlaws move first.

The starting positions. Note to self, TURN THE BLIMMIN CAMERA!!!!.

The battle begins with the Outlaws erupting from the trees to surround the Lords men. Arrows are loosed to little effect as the forces close.

Arrows fly, no one dies!!!.

Before long scuffles break out all around the board!. On the left the Lords men charge the outlaw forces .

On the right the Lords horse engage the outlaws with their only support coming from a unit of archers.

In the middle the Outlaw knights charge into the surfs closest to them!.

back on the left the numbers of the Lords men begins to tell and gaps begin to show in the outlaw lines.

Not going well for the outlaws!

The right was a different story as the archers and then the Lords Knights were overwhelmed by the combined serf units!.

The Outlaw knights were having trouble with a single serf that refused to die, he made his saves for three rounds in a row pinning the knights in combat!........

'Raah i'm frickin' lance proof!!!!!'

........while on the left the outlaws were picked off until only one remained. but not for long!.

'Help i forgot my sword resistant underpants!!!'

On the right the result was reversed as the last of the Knight unit fell, although the outlaws took far heavier losses doing so.

A knight. Fallen.

The Outlaw knights finally managed to kill the near indestructible serf but it was to no avail......

.......as the losses finally told and the outlaw serfs headed for the hills the knights had little choice to do likewise to live to rebel another day. The outlaws were broken and the people of Fools Course face a very uncertain future!.

The brave rebellion is at an end!!.

That was a lot of fun. The rules as ever give a very clean, quick game and work well for a medieval ding dong even though they were written with Victorian scraps in mind. Giving the Knights a little more staying power by upping their saving throws worked out well and made them very good at mowing down serfs for the most part (*coughcrapoutlawscough*). I'm sure i will be using them again as i have some ideas of how to end this story with a final show down, i have a feeling these rules can handle a mass battle and i am keen to try them out for one!......if Dave and Larry play ball that is!...... 

Anyway, lots more to come on this one...'till next time......

Mr Tar, i presume?

A little whilego Maudlin Jack Tar posted his own set of grid based wargame rules on his shiny new blog, and a fine s aet of rules they are. You can see them for yourself  here (you should, you will like them, trust me) and they go by the inspired title of  Mr Featherstone, I presume?. Having read the rules i decided to give them a spin to fight out a medieval skirmish i had half formed in the secluded, nightmarish recesses of my addled mind. Its worth pointing out that this is by no means a review ( for one this idiot blogger is hardly qualified!), and although the rules are written for a grid i stupidly realized that i was gridless when i went to set this game up. I did however have a hex board so i went with that instead (dont tell Jack!)........and the scenario is a blatant rip off of George R R Martins story 'The Sworn Sword' which i had just read, still imitation is said to be at least some kind of flattery so there we go!.

The battle of slanted river ( or ye old dam, bloody nuisance!)

  ' the sound of hoof beats rose as the sun glinted off the polished plate armor of Tarquin the Boulde, lord of Slanted river and keeper of the east bank, his banner fluttered in the afternoon breeze held by his champion Ballac the Bloody, Butcher of wherever he be stood at that moment, actually you can add sitting to that, maybe squatting too if you think about it. His honer guard of house hold knights rode with him as they approached the similar party of knights waiting on the other side of the dry bed of the river. The waiting party also displayed their lords arms, crossed swords on a field of pure white. The lord of this waiting host was well known to lord Tarquin and as he saw his foes face at a distance Tarquin spat, 'Holester' he said with barely hidden contempt.

  As the line of ragged surfs watched their lord ride to parley with the fools of the west bank they gave a lusty cheer. Mouldy Dave elbowed riddled Larry. 'Ere' started Dave as the dust cloud bearing his lord vanished into the distance, 'whatta you thing these lords do at these parleys Larry?, does they just insult each other, you know, call each other names an that, or..'. 'You pig faced goat bearded pile of orse dung' interrupted Larry not looking away from the column of riders in the distance. 'You what?!' asked Dave raising his crude staff, at once confused and offended. 'You pig faced goat bearded pile of orse dung', they might say that. Or 'you seedless wet donkeys bollock's, or 'you stinking great badger arsed lummox' or.....'. 'Yes, yes Larry' butted in Dave regaining his composure 'like that, do they just do that or do you think they trys to.....you know......stop the fight.'. 'No no Dave thats not what a good parleys for, no. you never got married so you dont know what a parleys about do you'. 'Whats that got to do with it?' replied Dave with a hint of irritation in his voice. 'A parley, i mean a good parley, a proper parley'. explained Larry 'is not about who did what and what you ave to do about it oh no. A good parley is about makin sure whatever appens was the other persons fault!'. Having delivered his pearl of wisdom Riddled Larry crossed his arms smugly. 'Oh' exclaimed Mouldy Dave, 'fancy'.  

The Knights glared at each other from the backs of their war horses, the sun gleaming off their plate, the pennets of their lances rippling in the breeze. Between them the dried up river bank formed a natural barrier. Lord Holester the houghty, keeper of the west bank and the fields of fools corse trotted smartly forward twiddling his grey moustache. 'Ah pup' he bellowed 'what the bloody hell do you think you are playing at boy!?'. Lord Tarquin took a step forward 'Lord grey mane, i thought i smelled coco and incontinence'. His knights laughed at the jibe as Lord Holister reddened. 'I may ask you the same thing'. Holister puffed out his chest and replied 'You are charged with theft sir, plain simple theft and it will not stand you wet young babe!' his own knight laughed at their masters reposte, Tarquins smile dropped. 'To what am i ment to have taken old man?' Tarquin enquired amused. 'Why this of course' answered Holister gesturing down at the river bed. 'Your horse sir?, your feet?, the very ground?' replied Tarquin, appealing to his men at arms who were chuckling along with him. 'Dont play dumb with me my lad', shouted an irritated Holister, 'The water, your men have damed the river as you well know and i demand our water back before the day is out, what say you sir?!'. 'Your water, i see no water sir, its all upstream on my land, which makes it my water surly?'. 'Your water. YOUR WATER SIR!'. 'Why yes ' answered Tarquin as if explaining it to a toddler. 'Water that is up stream on my land is my water, all the water in this part of the stream belongs to you, if the water is not flowing for any reason and is on my land its my water, it has yet to move to your land so cant be yours do you see sir?'. Holister led his horse to the edge of the bank and lent towards Tarquin. 'The reason the water is not flowing is because of your damn dam sir, you will remove it or gods be good i will give you a ruddy hiding!'. Tarquin smirked. 'Well if thats the case then the answer is clear, i have raised my surfs and you have raised yours, i always fancied having the lands along the river, how about we march across the river and take them from your cold dead hands, how would that be sir?!'. 'Then it must be battle is that the shape of things sir?' Retorted Holister.' I killed your idiot father boy and by sundown i will do the same to you and any of these fools that get in my way, to arms then...you bring this on yourself!'. Holister turned his mount and galloped towards his men followed by his knights. Lord Tarquin turned his own horse to address his knights. 'I told you men, the dam will be the start of it but by days end all of this will be ours, to arms!'.

The Forces
 I used identical forces of 2x 4 Knights (one per side contains a lord). 3x6 serfs and 2x4 surf archers. Lord Tarquins forces are on blue bases with yellow trim and Lord Holisters troops are on white with yellow trim.

The banks of  Slanted River

Slanted River: The blue section is water and impassable, The rocks represent the dam and the green is the dry bank which is clear (but damp and sludgy) ground.

Sir Holisters forces array for battle.

The army of Sir Tarquin looking mean,

Lord Tarquins forces advance as the arrows fly.

Serfs get their feet dirty!.

Sir Holister leads the counter charge!

See!, and they bring the lance based pain.....

....Badly!!.

On the other flank the surfs clash!

After much back and forth lord Tarquin slays Lord Holister!.....

.....And the remaining surfs run (towards some kind of dark rift or void that no one seemed to noticed at the start!).

The rules pay very quickly and combat has a nice back and forth to it. If i was going to do another game in this period ( historical accuracy is always key here on Wronghammer!), i would give the surfs a lower saving throw to make the knights better then them in the cut and thrust of battle but thats the sort of thing you can do with simple rules without risking wrecking the ballance of the game. These rules were a lot of fun, expect to see them again some time soon!. 

Before i sign off i would like to say a massive HELLOOOO to Mr Gainluca Ghetti and Mr Alan....er Alan, the latest people to step into the void of babble and blurgh that is the lot of the followers of this very blog. Welcome Sirs!. I cant find weather or not you guys have blogs but if you do please feel free to drop the address in the comments section so we can all check them out!. Welcome!.

Anyway (checkoutMrTarsrules) till next time......