A rag-tag of wargaming activities to report on over the last week or so. First up, I was able to get in an Ancients game where I was using a stacked deck of chance cards. The idea behind the stacking of the decks was to try out some options to reflect the differences between the Carthaginian and Roman armies. In the game Carthaginians have more initiative cards and fewer rally cards, and the reverse is applied to the Roman chance cards. This is an attempt the reflect better commanders for the Carthaginians and the resilience of Roman forces with poorer commanders.
A second reason for playing around with chance cards is to try out some ideas for a campaign I am planning. In situations were one side has a larger force, the idea is not to have more units, but have additional rally cards instead. Also, commander quality can be introduced by having more initiative chance cards in a deck, swapping out the no effect cards.
 |
| An Ancients game in progress |
 |
| Cutting up additional cards |
My Ancient ship building activities continue at a steady pace with some 20 plus ships made. At one point I was thinking about adding some masts and sails to add some more colour to the ships, but I decided to avoid this complication as ships of the day generally took down their masts for action. I hope to get some painting done this week.
 |
| A fleet waiting to be painted |
A surprise visit from my Daughter in New Zealand, who took advantage of a travel bubble between Australia and New Zealand, meant I actually got some face-to-face wargaming in with an opponent (rare thing for a solo gamer).
What did we play? Gang warfare in the far flung future using the One-Hour Skirmish Wargames rule set. They are nice simple rules which give a fun and at times an unpredictable game. No game reports as there was too much laughter as poor cards were drawn at the wrong time. In all four games were played and honour was even.
 |
| One-hour skirmish wargaming |
 |
| A return to the WW2 Western Desert campaign |
Good ideas on the chance cards front, which I look forward to hearing which ideas worked or not as the case may be. The ships look great and a lovely surprise for you in having your daughter turn up:)
ReplyDeleteIt was so much fun just hanging out and playing a few games. The chance cards will definitely be continued with the Ancients games and campaign, which will also include some naval actions.
DeleteWe'll have to rematch in July 😋 hopefully next time I can pull better cards, haha!
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to the rematch.
DeleteI do like using card systems to give armies historical characteristics. So ,some card ideas/suggestions?
ReplyDeleteAn alternative for outnumbering in a campaign, rather than making units durable (extra Rally cards), could be to allow units to be regenerated / relieved.
For Roman infantry in particular this could be done by replacing all 'tired' units (or perhaps dice (1 or 2 D6?) for each unit and relieve those who score less than the number of hits they have taken) with a fresh replacement just behind where the 'tired' unit was before relieved (removed). This could be allowed a number of times but it would be nice to allow it twice representing the three line set up of the Republican legion - the second card effectively being the Triarii (last reserves) going in! Woe betide you if they commander panics and deploys his reserves too early (i.e. card comes up too soon when not needed and actually sets you back!).
For sneaky Carthaginians the regeneration card(s) could allow all defeated units to appear out of an ambush position. Again you wouldn't want (the card(s)) to spring the ambush too early before the Romans are fully committed and there aren't many dead to 'resurrect'.
Thanks for writing down some useful ideas. I will have to add them into the mix for the campaign.
Delete