Remote Wars of the Roses Game Report

Yesterday, I had the chance to play a remote Wars of the Roses (WotR) game hosted by Jon of Palouse Wargaming Journal, using his beautifully painted armies. This was the second (or possibly third) WotR game I have played with Jon using his "Blood n Roses" rules.

The scenario, provided by Jon, was based on the Battle of Mortimer’s Cross, fought on 2 or 3 February 1461. As there is limited historical detail available this is Jon's interpretation of the battle.

All the photographs in this post are courtesy of Jon, as I somehow managed to lose all my screenshots taken during the game.

A close-up of the action early in the game, featuring Jon’s beautifully painted armies. It is hard to fully appreciate them when playing remotely. One of the downsides of remote gaming.

For the game, I chose Edward IV and the Yorkist army. There is little difference between the two armies, as both were deployed in the typical three Battles consisting of men-at-arms, billmen, and bowmen. The centre Battle in each army was reinforced with a group of household knights.

The starting positions.

Pre-game activities...

Before the game begins, both players roll to determine their commanders’ attributes and priorities. For my commanders, the dice decided that Edward was inspiring and motivated by rewards for good service, while both Herbert and Devereux were brave and focused on winning the battle. I cannot recall Jon’s commanders’ traits, other then I do remember that Tudor (I think) was intent on simply surviving the battle.

These attributes grant re-rolls during the game, which can be very useful in a close fight and may just tip the balance. The priorities help play a role in determining the overall winner.

At the start of each game turn, each Battle is secretly assigned an order by its player. Once both players have made their choices, dice are rolled to determine whether each order is successfully issued. If not, the Battle retains its previous order. The available orders are:

• Defend – cannot close with the enemy, but may reorganise to remove hits and improve combat effectiveness.
• Manoeuvre – must make a movement and may not close with the enemy.
• Engage – must attempt to close with the enemy for hand-to-hand combat.

Getting your orders right, and successfully changing them when needed, is crucial to success. Poorly timed or failed orders can result in Battles advancing too soon and exposing themselves to a well-timed counterattack, or not being ready to engage the enemy to take advantage of a situation. This is where re-rolls (granted by commander attributes) become very useful, improving your chances of successfully issuing key orders.

Initiative is given to the army with the most Engage orders, allowing them to activate one of their Battles first. If both sides have an equal number of Battles with Engage orders, then a dice roll decides initiative. Once initiative is used, coloured dice are drawn from a tin to decide the activation order of the remaining Battles.

Let battle commence...

Both armies opened the battle with a general advance and closed the distance. The Yorkist army seized some early momentum.

On the Yorkist left, Herbert’s Battle forcing Tudor’s troops to give ground. Despite fierce resistance, Herbert was able to hold his position.

In the centre, Edward led his troops forward. At first, his advance made good ground, pushing the Lancastrian centre back and threatening a breakthrough. But his eagerness to press the advantage proved costly. Over extended, Edward’s Battle was struck hard by a counterattack from Pembroke. The fighting was fierce, Edward’s men-at-arms were cut down, and he was nearly captured or killed. Only by going on the defensive and withdrawing spared his troops and allowed his Battle to regroup and recover.

Meanwhile, on the right, Devereux initially gained ground, pushing Wiltshire back. However, the effort drained his troops. Lacking the strength to consolidate or recover, his exhausted men could not hold. Wiltshire seized the moment driving Devereux’s Battle back.

By mid-battle, the tide had begun to turn, and the early Yorkist success had been lost as both armies struggle for an advantage.

The flow of the battle.

By this stage of the battle, both armies were battered and worn out, each side pausing to take defend orders to regroup and reorganise before engaging in the next wave of attacks.

When the attacks resumed, it was Herbert who struck a decisive blow. His Battle shattered Tudor’s already weakened force, sending the Lancastrian right into disarray. Wasting no time, Herbert wheeled his troops around, threatening the exposed flank of the Lancastrian centre. A dangerous position for the enemy.

On the opposite flank, however, the tide had turned against the Yorkists. Devereux's Battle, worn down and unable to recover from their earlier exertions, finally broke under renewed pressure. The Lancastrian left, now victorious,  pivoted ready to strike the vulnerable flank of Edward's position at the centre.

But luck favoured the Yorkist army and Edward at this crucial point in the battle. Orders for Pembroke to engage Edward's Battle failed to be carried out. This delay proved costly. With both Herbert and Edward under Engage orders, the Yorkists seized the initiative for the next turn, ready to act while the Lancastrians faltered.

The flanking Battles pivot to engage the centres.

With the initiative firmly on with the Yorkist side, Herbert pressed his advantage. He led his troops in a charge into the exposed flank of the Lancastrian centre, striking Pembroke’s Battle just as Edward, leading his remaining Household knights, launched a determined frontal assault.

Caught between two forces, Pembroke’s forces fought bravely in a prolonged and savage melee, but the pressure proved too great. Pembroke’s troops began to falter, then flee. The centre Battle collapsed, broken and routed.

With both Tudor’s and now Pembroke’s Battles shattered, the Lancastrian army’s resolve crumbled. What remained of their army began to leave the field of battle. A victory to the Yorkist army.

The attack upon Pembroke.

After game throughs...

This game was a real arm-wrestle between the two armies and could easily have gone either way. In the end, gaining the initiative at the crucial moment was just enough to tip the scales in the Yorkist favour.

A big thank you to Jon for hosting the game and for providing a set of enjoyable rules that created plenty of tense moments. The order system and the careful use of re-rolls in combat added real decisions to the game, allowing a player opportunities to shift momentum in their favour at key points during the battle.

Star Wars Game Report

I have finally got around to writing up a game report on one of my games using my Star Wars Legion miniatures. The game used the Squad Hammer Core rules from Nordic Weasel Games. For the scenario, I used “Destroying a Supply Depot” from Scenarios For All Ages by C.S. Grant and S.A. Asquith, making a few modifications to suit the Sci-Fi setting. It also gave me an opportunity to use some of my newly scratch-built buildings and hills.

Rebel speeder seeks out a target.

Background

Varnis is a semi-arid world located on the edge of the Outer Rim. Most of the time it bakes under the glare of its twin suns. Despite these harsh conditions, pockets of resilient flora and fauna do manage to survive across the landscape. The Empire maintains a strong presence on the planet due to its valuable deposits of Tibanna crystals, which are refined and used to boost the output of energy weapons. The mining operations are typically protected by garrisons of troops.

The Rebel Alliance is supporting a local insurgency aimed at disrupting and hopefully halting the Empire's mining efforts. In this particular raid, the rebels are launching a early dawn assault on a remote storage facility housing Tibanna crystals.

The facility is defended by two squads of troops, a detachment of two speeder bikes, and a heavy blaster emplacement mounted on the garrison building’s roof. A garrison officer (villain) is commanding the site.

The tabletop setup. The garrison building is in the centre and storage facility to its left.

The two troops are on patrol. The officer and speed bikes are at the garrison and the heavy blaster is on the roof.

Under the cover of darkness...

During the first three turns of the game, the Rebels advanced under cover of darkness with all their units except the skimmer which arrives on Turn 3, marking the beginning of the main assault. The Rebel units cannot move within 12 inches of the enemy and, each turn roll a D6 to determine how many units they could activate. 

The Rebel order of battle...

The Rebels have six units:

• Leia Organa with droid carrying explosives
• Han Solo and Chewbacca with droid carrying explosives
• Rebel Troopers with rapid fire weapon
• Rebel Troopers with medium blaster.
• Local Insurgents
• Skimmer with medium blaster and rapid fire weapon

The storage facilities can only be destroyed by a unit carrying explosives.

The Rebel attack begins at dawn.

Han Solo and Chewbacca creep up behind a hill.

The Rebel attack begins...

As dawn broke, blaster fire shattered the morning silence as the Rebel assault erupted without warning. Their first volleys caught the garrison patrol near the storage facility completely off guard. Within moments, the squad was cut down in a hail of red blaster bolts.

But other garrison troops were quick to respond. Speeder bikes roared into action, engines screaming as they weaved their way towards the Rebel positions. The Rebel skimmer surged forward to intercept, its blaster cannon lighting up the gloom, but both units flashed past each other in a blur of motion, neither being able to land a decisive shot.

Early Rebel success as the garrison patrol near the storage facility is eliminated. The speeder bikes and skimmer can be seen kicking up dust in their wake.

The sound of the speeder bikes grew louder as they sped toward the storage facilities kicking up dust in their wake. The garrison officer was also running towards the storage area while shouting orders into his comlink desperately trying to organise his forces.

Meanwhile, a firefight was underway on the far side of the garrison. A second garrison patrol had come under fire from Rebel troopers who had circled around the flank and now held the high ground on a nearby hill. From their elevated position they had pinned down the patrol.

Speeder bikes run the gauntlet of Rebel fire as the heavy blaster on top of the garrison building provides covering fire.

Han Solo and Chewbacca had barely made it to the cover of the storage facility when blaster bolts sizzled overhead. The garrison officer, supported by a pair of speeder bikes, had run the gauntlet of Rebel fire  pinning the heroic duo down.

Han and Chewbacca soon found they were on their own and isolated. The remaining Rebel squads were fully engaged, trading fire with the heavy blaster cannon entrenched atop the garrison roof, and were not in position to lend support. As more blaster bolts flew in their direction, Han muttered through gritted teeth, “Great. Just the two of us again.” Chewbacca growled in agreement and raised his Bowcaster to return fire.

Han and Chewbacca dive for cover.

Han and Chewbacca were forced to delay planting the explosives, pinned down as they engaged in a firefight with the garrison officer and the strafing blasts from the speeder bikes. 

Then the tide began to turn...

One speeder bike spiraled out of control, trailing smoke before crashing in a fiery explosion. Moments later, the second bike cartwheeled out of control as Rebel troopers redirected their fire having destroyed  the heavy blaster cannon on top of the garrison building. Rebel troops now surged forward, racing toward the storage facility.

Surrounded and outgunned, the garrison officer made his final stand, but it ended in a storm of blaster fire. With the immediate threat cleared, Han and Chewbacca started placing the demolition charges “let’s blow this place.”

Rebel forces run towards the storage facility as the garrison officer makes his last stand.

After thoughts…

The Squad Hammer Core rules are continuing to provide the fast-paced games I am looking for. Most games last between 6 to 8 turns and typically take around 30 minutes to play. In an evening, I will often replay a scenario, trying out different tactics or swapping out one unit for another to see how it changes the game.

Combat can be quite decisive at times. This can add a real sense of tension when choosing your unit orders, which all seems to suit skirmish-level games as they are not about grinding the enemy down through attrition.

Here are some of the house rules I use with the rules. Noting the rules do get updated on the Wargames Vault so my version of the rules may well be outdated.

• Vehicles and Individual model units cannot regroup (they cannot remove 2 hits using the Regroup order unlike Troop units).

• Individual heroes/villains and Troop units can use the Defend order, allowing them to take up a defensive position and remove 1 hit.

• Vehicles may only turn up to 90 degrees at the start and/or end of their movement. All movement must be in a straight line.

• Shooting ranges are limited to 12" for pistols and 18" for larger weapons. These ranges are increased by 6" if the unit is on elevated terrain like a hill or building rooftop.

• Speedster units must always move at least half their movement distance. This half-move is free if they’re not given a direct order during the turn.

One rule I occasionally forget is applying is the firefight rule, where units can return fire or fall back after being shot at. As a house rule, I limit a unit's ability to returning fire only once per turn, (the core rules do not seem to specify a limit).

All being well my next post will be another battle report, but instead of Star Wars it will be a the Battle of Mortimer's Cross. A remote Wars of the Roses game hosted by Jon of Palouse Wargaming Journal.

Finishing the Sci-Fi buildings and some foam hills

I have finished making all the terrain I currently need for my Star Wars project, which included one final building and a few hills. For the hills, I decided to try using upholstery foam. It is dense enough to support the weight of the models without any sagging. I have used foam for hills before, but that was for my smaller scale 6mm WWII armies (see here).

A completed foam hill with Rebels taking up position.

The upholstery foam I purchased for $30 was much thicker than needed at 100mm (almost 4 inches). So the first step was to slice it in half, bringing the height down to a more suitable 50mm which will work well with the 35mm Star Wars Legion figures. I did this using a sharp kitchen knife. After the hills were cut out, I then shaped them with scissors. In all I made two smaller hills and one larger one.

After shaping all three hills, they were all given an initial coat of watered-down sand-coloured paint. While the paint was still wet I added a darker sand colour around the sides, followed by a purple-brown wash at the base. Doing this while the paint I still wet allows the colours to be blended. The hills were left to dry in a warm spot for around 24 hours. It takes the foam takes a very long time to dry out thoroughly. Once fully dry, I finished them off by dry-brushing them with a light sand colour.

The 100mm upholstery foam, far too high to be used as a hill for the Star Wars Legion miniatures which stand 35mm high.

The foam is cut to size, then sliced in half using a sharp kitchen knife.

Preparing for shaping the hill.

The hills are shaped with scissors.

The hills are painted a sand colour using watered down paint.

The hill sides are painted with a dark sand colour and the bottom the hill a purple-brown colour. Once dry they are dry-brushed with a light sand colour.

The large hill being defended by Empire forces.

The final building for this project is now made and painted. I generally try to finish all the buildings in one go, or at least over a few painting sessions, as this helps with giving the buildings a consistent look. I have found that coming back later to add more buildings often results in slight variations in style or colour choices as I always seem to forget one step or colour that I originally used.

All the buildings have flat roofs, allowing me to swap in different rooftop features using the scatter terrain made from old down-lights, parts off an old lamp, and leftover piping from our house renovations.

The final building is completed.

All the buildings and scatter terrain.

The flat building roofs allow the features to be swapped and provide a different look.

I found a cheap Empire TIE Fighter online. While it is 1/72 scale, smaller than the Star Wars Legion figures, which are closer to 1/48 scale, that does not really matter. I generally prefer to use slightly scaled-down aircraft, as they look better on the tabletop because they do not overwhelm the other miniatures.

A recent purchase of a Star Wars TIE fighter.

And finally, I am starting to get a few more games played. I have been using and modifying scenarios from the One-Hour Wargames book. 

All this terrain modelling and painting has meant I have not been able to write up a battle report this week as I had hoped.

A game underway.

Star Wars project - the end is in sight

I have been continuing to build a few more terrain features for my Star Wars Legion project while also painting up a few additional miniatures I managed to pick up at some recent clearance sales. These sales seemed to have come about due to a change in the game's ownership, with Atomic Mass Games (AMG) taking over from Fantasy Flight Games (FFG). With the change there are rule changes and the discontinuation of some older figures and units. Since I am using Squad Hammer Core rather than the official Legion rules, the changes will not affected my games and so the sales have been a bonus. At this point, I have managed to collect and paint pretty much most of the units I was after plus one or two extra, so the painting of miniatures is beginning to wind down for now and I can focus to finishing off the terrain.

This past week saw another building and some scatter terrain completed. I am still making the buildings from any wood off-cuts I have lying around in the garage, along with old downlight globes and leftover piping from the house renovations.

I cut out some triangles from 12mm MDF board to add to the building's sides and a couple of pieces of 3mm MDF board is used for the roof. Old piping has been added to the top and is removable so it can be used as scatter terrain.

The old piping being used as scatter terrain.

Here I have switched the piping and used an old used down-light on the roof. 

I came across three old unpainted Games Workshop craters I had stashed away, and these have finally been painted up. They will be very useful, either as rough area terrain or as lava pits to represent river-like obstacles in the One-Hour Wargaming (OHW) scenarios that call for rivers.

Some of the painted up craters.

To create the lava pits, I place red-dyed stones in the crater. The stones, which are porous and from a model shop, were soaked in watered-down red paint and then left to dry. This allows me to repurpose the craters as lave pits when I need them.

Red stones are added to repurpose the craters into lava pits.

The three craters as lava pits being used in the OHW scenario - Double Delaying Action where the original scenario has a river.

It seems like it has been a while since I last wrote a battle report, so I might write up one of my Star Wars games using Squad Hammer Core rules for the next post.

A test Sci-Fi building and some speedster markers

The past week has been a busy week with non-wargaming commitments, so I have not been able to sit down and write a blog post until now. However, I did manage to make some progress on the Star Wars project and made a test building and some quick-and-easy markers for my speedster units. The test building is made using old bits of wood and dowel I had lying around, and turned out to be a fun bit of recycling.

My first test building for my Star War Legion project.

Terrain always seems to take up so much space, and due to space constraints, I store most of my terrain in large plastic tubs which I can stack. So the buildings I make need to be robust with no fragile details that could easily break off. This has meant I now mostly build everything from wood with minimal detailing. Where details like windows or doors are needed, I will usually paint them on. I also paint in shadows to highlight a building’s features and to added colour. For this particular building, I used a purple wash to emphasise the angles and add some depth to the windows.

My painting style is loose and I do not worry too much about precision. I do use dry brushing to breakup large blocks of colour and I will often suggest details with just a dash of paint. It is a quick approach that works well for the tabletop, just do not look too closely!

Doors and windows are painted on and a purple wash has been used to emphasise features and shadows.

I also painted up an old downlight, which works well as a standalone piece of machinery used as scatter terrain, or can be placed on top of the building to make it look a bit more interesting.

An old downlighting gets recycled as scatter terrain for the tabletop.

Alternatively, the downlight can be placed on top of the building to make it look more industrial.

I also made some markers for my speedster units as reminders. With the rules I am using, speedster units must make a half move each turn, whether they are activated or not during a turn. The markers are placed to show units have made their mandatory half move.

Speedster units marked to show they have made their mandatory half move.

The markers are made from soft toy filler, I picked up a bag of it from a craft store a while back. It has proven to be really useful stuff for creating smoke effects and marking musket fire. For the speedster markers, I dipped the toy filler into watered-down brown paint to add a sand looking colour. It took a few goes of dipping to achieve the right colour depth, which made the process a bit time consuming due to the drying time between dippings.

Another speedster unit move across the tabletop.

While I have been working on all the painting and modelling, I have been planning and sketching out in my head a small six-game skirmish campaign where I can make use of my recently completed Star Wars Legion figures.

Star Wars makes it to the tabletop

A few weeks ago I had a test Star Wars Legion game with my son using the miniatures from the Star Wars Legion Core Box set. Since then, I've been busy collecting and painting additional miniatures, and it was  time to get all these newly painted miniatures on to the tabletop for a solo game. The rules that come with the Box set use a unit activation system that is not ideal for solo play, and I was looking for something fast and simple. So, I decided to try Squad Hammer Core – An Introductory Miniatures Game by Nordic Weasel Games. I've had the PDF for quite some while but have never got around to playing them. Today was the perfect opportunity.

Stormtroopers guarding the deep-space communication array.

For the terrain, I used what I had on hand, as I have yet to make any building that would be suited to a Star Wars setting. The rocky areas were made from leftover cement, which I spread out, let dry, then broke into pieces and painted with a clear sealer. I added some smaller model rocks from the hobby store for extra detail. The towers were once old downlight fittings from before the LED era which I pulled apart, while the smaller conical structures are painted-up old LED lights.

Local Drebacks are used by the Empire.

An Officer makes his rounds.

Scenario Background

In the scenario, the Rebel Alliance are attempting to disrupt a deep space communications array guarded by Galactic Empire forces. To succeed, the Rebels must access at least two of the three communication towers and have the droid R2-D2 deploy a virus into the tower computer systems. The Rebel forces can enter the battlefield from any table edge at the start of turn one.

Tabletop setup.

Order of battle

Empire:

• 2 x Stormtroopers units
• 1 x Evil Empire Officer and drone (treated as a unit)
• 1 x Heavy Blaster
• 1 x Speeder
• 1 x Dewback Rider

Rebels:

• 1 x Luke Skywalker, R2-D2, C-3PO (treated as a unit)
• 1 x Han Solo and Chewbacca (treated as a unit)
• 1 x Swoop Bike unit
• 1 x Tauntaun Rider unit
• 1 x Fleet Trooper unit
• 1 x Rebel Trooper unit

Game Report

Amid the chaos of the opening turns, as speeders zipped across the battlefield, the Rebels exploited a gap in the Empire’s defenses. Luke, accompanied by R2-D2, advanced quickly and reached the first communications tower and begun the virus upload. In the confusion Rebel swoop bikes roared into action, catching a unit of Stormtroopers off guard and wiping them out. As they sped around for another pass, they found a retreating Dewback rider in their gun sights and eliminated that threat as well.

With their forces reeling, the Empire found themselves on the back-foot. Their heavy blaster unit providing some much-needed resistance, scoring critical hits that brought down the Rebel swoop bikes responsible for much of the early damage. But the situation remained dire. Luke and R2-D2 had already reached the second communications tower and were preparing to complete a second virus upload. In a last-ditch effort, the Imperial officer rushed to stop them but was cut down by covering fire from Han Solo and Chewbacca.

With two communication towers successfully infected with the virus, reaching the third would have been a tough challenge. It was well-defended by a heavy blaster team and a unit of Stormtroopers. Weighing the risks, the Rebels chose to withdraw, claiming a marginal victory.

Here are a few photos from the game.

The Rebels arrive quickly and in the confusion get Luke and the R2-D2 unit to the first communication tower.

Rebel swoop bikes swing around to fire upon some unsuspecting Stromtroopers.

The swoop bikes now successfully engage a Dewback.

Luck runs out for the Rebel swoop bikes as they come unstuck from the Heavy Blaster.

Luke and R2-D2 infect the second communication tower.

I really enjoyed playing the game with the Squad Hammer Core rules. They gave a free flowing type of game that I was looking for. For those familiar with them, I made a few modifications: speeders were given a free half-move action at the start or each player’s turn, and if activated during the turn, they could make an additional half move. This kept them moving around the tabletop in a very cinematic way. All heroes and villains were treated as veterans and were particularly resilient when determining hits taken, though they were not allowed to regroup to remove hits like other units. I have now set up the tabletop for second game using these rules with my modifications. This time Darth Vader will be making an entrance.

Making room and measuring sticks

The English Civil War armies returned to the tabletop this past week, along with some newly made measuring sticks. These were needed because I have been messing around with the movement and weapon ranges, reducing them by a third. 

Newly made measuring sticks for the reduced ranges.

The reason for reducing the movement and weapon ranges is to create more deployment space on my 6x4 foot tabletop for placing camps, supply wagons, or holding reserves behind the battle lines. Previously, when deploying armies, most units were typically placed within 12 inches of their own table edge, with dragoons sometimes pushed out slightly further, up to 18 inches from the edge. This ensured that no unit started the game within musket range of the enemy.

A typical setup before reduction in ranges.

As I was playing around with reducing the ranges, I was reminded of the advice in Featherstone’s Complete Wargaming, which notes that “move distances and weapon ranges must be formulated to suit the size of the wargames table, remembering that too-short move distances slow the game up.”

With the range reduction, army deployment zones are shift forward a fraction, but the battle lines are closer together which allows space to be freed up. So now advanced units (eg. dragoons and artillery) start 2 inches closer to the centre, the first battle line now begins 16 inches from their base edge instead of 12 inches, and the second line is 12 inches from the base edge where previously it was 6 inches from its own tabletop edge. These adjustments free up space at the rear for generals, reserves, and supply wagons.

The photos below illustrate how the lines compress and open room at the back.

Setup with the reduction in ranges.

So far, I have only reduced the ranges for my English Civil War games, and it seems to be working ok. The closer deployment areas mean the armies still can quickly engage the opposition, and the compressed deployment lines now make manoeuvring more challenging, which seems to reflect the period well. I still need to play a few more games, but I plan to try the same approach with my Roman and Carthaginian battles soon to see how they will play.

Returning to the measuring sticks, this time, when making one, I added a 90-degree triangle at one end to make it easier to determine whether units are moving or shooting within their 45-degree arc.

A unit makes a forward movement with the new measuring stick.

Infantry are able to open fire on some approaching cavalry within their arc of fire.