Monthly Meeting Saturday 2 November 2002
after action report
We welcomed Ken Chan, back after an absence of some 10 years, together with Robert Li, our ex secretary who was passing through HK on his way to take up a position in Indonesia.
Four players, James, Robert, Chris Lam and Andrzej got together for a game of Clash of Arms' "Chariot Lords", set in the period 1500 and 600 BC, across Asia Minor and the Mediterranean. Each player taking on the role of a Lord and vying to to make the nations under his control, spanning several epochs, garner enough points to assure victory.
The
game is similar in certain respects to "Britannia", each Lord
controlling between 5 and 6 nations, some strong, others weak, each with
varying goals and objectives - indeed some of these countries do not exist
at the same time. Nations quickly become rivals, involving them in
death struggles over expansion. In each turn (90 years) new
countries come to the fore, while established empires struggle to levy
reinforcements and arrange alliances. A fine line is drawn between
conserving one's forces and expanding one's empire. Too much expansion
will see resources spread thin and possibly swept away by a new emerging
empire, but not enough aggression will see an empire fail to garner
sufficient victory points to win. Armies are of a mix of foot and
mounted units (chariots, horse and even camels), along with the occasional
leader of note. It is not enough to conquer - a player must be able
to keep what he has taken.
In
the first turn Egypt (Chris) stormed in to the lead, with the Canaanites
and the Kassites (James) not far behind. The Elam and Hatti
(Andrzej) happy to keep out of harm's way, and the Sumerians and Mitanni
(Robert) eking out an existence on the periphery of the known world.
By turn three, The Hatti had expanded dramatically, placing Andrzej in the
lead, ahead of Robert, Chris and James in that order. It was not
until turn seven that Andrzej lost his lead to Chris, whose Arameans had
managed to grab enough territory to edge 1 point ahead of his closest
rival, Andrzej. However, this marginally lead could not survive the
arrival of Robert's Assyrians the following turn, who stormed through
opposing nations like a scythe through ripe corn. The next turn saw
Andrzej resurgent, due to the timely arrival of his Cimmerians, although
his Nubbians failed to make any headway down the Nile. The score at
this stage stood as 394 Andrzej, 378 Robert, 378 Chris, and 297
James. The last turn saw the spirited expansion of James' Chaldeans,
however, it was a case of too little too late. Chris made sure his
Egyptians, who had beaten off the Nubian incursion, together with Medians
would give him a much deserved victory. Final score 461 Chris, 438
Andrzej, 404 Robert and 374 James. A splendid time was had by all,
even though the game did go on too long - some much for the so called fast
play rules!
For their first game of WH40k at the club in some months, Wayne and Michael decided to try out the Cityfight rules, which are a supplement to the WH40k system. Cityfight requires a lot of urban terrain, so they borrowed John Jenkins' superb ruined buildings. The battle would be between the Speed Freeks (Orks with a need for speed) and the Blood Angels (psychopathic Marines). The Orks were all mounted in ramshackle Wartrukks, and led by Warboss Badgutz. The Marines were mostly infantry, with a powerful HQ unit consisting of a Sanguinary High Priest and his Honour Guard.
A
major feature of Cityfight is the large amount of difficult terrain, which
limits rapid movement. Michael’s
vehicles had to keep to the roads, while the Orks were better off taking
cover in the buildings. The
opposing forces warily approached each other from opposite sides of
the ruined city sector, jockeying for the best launch point for an
assault. Wayne moved up in one
mass then began to fan out to Michael’s left, while Michael sent some
Tankbustas around the left flank with a couple of Trukks in support, while
the rest of my Boyz dismounted and went towards the BA on the right.
Wayne
The Orks counter-attacked into the building, while Orky firepower stunned
the Razorback APC which had taken up position a corner on Michael’s left
flank. The Marines in the
building were destroyed, but the Orks were exposed to attack by the
dreaded High Priest and his Honour Guard, who would be able to hit them if
they were prepared to risk entering the building (they were jump-packers,
and ran a risk of crashing and dying when entering difficult terrain).
Ominously, Warboss Badgutz, who had failed to get into combat with
the Marines, was separated from the other ladz.
The Honour Guard couldn't resist a chance to kill the Ork Warboss, and
in they came. One duly crashed
and died on the way in, but poor Badgutz was quickly surrounded by the
others. He died
(ignominiously, as usual) to a combination of Boltpistol fire and being
brained over the head by a Meltagun. The
Orks killed a couple of Honour Guard, but were almost completely wiped out
by the High Priest, and fled the building, regrouping in a waiting Trukk.
The surviving Boyz weren't having any of this, and charged back into the
building to try and finish off the hated Honour Guard. Meanwhile, Rokkits
from the Trukks blew the Razorback apart, killing 2 Marines, and the
Tankbustas killed another.
In the final turn, the High Priest saw off the Orks again, losing the
rest of his Honour Guard in the process, while the remaining Tac Marines
tried to charge the Tankbustas and were wiped out by massed Rokkit fire.
At the end of the game the High Priest was left in control of the
much-disputed building, but all his companions were dead, while the Orks
still had all their vehicles and a very trigger-happy Tankbusta mob.
A really enjoyable game, which was fast and furious. Michael
and Wayne hope to stage a bigger game of Cityfight at a later date.
John
staged a splendid period piece, having been recently inspired by 'comrade
Hunt' to bring out of storage in
A
search for information on Armoured Trains had led John to the excellent
Jackson Gamers RCW wargames site. This
is the perfect, most comprehensive site for wargamers interested in this
period. It covers everything
from books, figures, terrain, movies, books, battle reports of club games,
and of course rules.
Paul and John decided to try out the site rules, 'Red and White', and set
up a simple scenario, determined mainly by what figures were available.
Basically the Whites were on the run, and had to consolidate their
forces at a small village situated at one end of the table.
The pursuing Red units would appear randomly at different points,
depending on the roll of dice. After
some determined defence, the overwhelming Red force eventually forced the
Whites to abandon the village.
The rules were a lot of fun, fairly simple, quick, and included several
quirky 'period flavour' rules, including rules for officer character and
development. The White Cossack
officer after losing a melee with the Red cavalry decided he was better
off 'running away and becoming a waiter in Paris
'!
It’s hoped to use these rules for future RCW club games. The rules are
available at the Jackson Gamers web
site.
It seems recent developments in
Jeff
hosted four tables of games using the rules “Crossfire”,
each table saw two players meet in Company clashes, with the Germans in
position and the Americans entering from a long edge opposite.
So as not to complicate things all troops were graded Average.
The Americans had the advantage of a squadron of Sherman Tanks and
the fact that the bulk of the German Horse drawn artillery was on table
and had to be withdrawn to safety before it could be used.
One
player had not played before and, as several had not played for sometime
Peter led the rule reading ceremony whilst Jeff set up the tables. Jeff
sold another two sets of his bulk purchase of the Rules leaving two sets
in hand. The opponents were,
Jeff v Dick, Neil v Peter, Philippe v Dieter and Frank v Ken, the first of
each pair were the Germans. Jeff and Dick got through two games, in the
first Jeff lost two of his three platoons but extricated the artillery
which by chance was on his table and the Zone Commander, before Dick’s
Company were virtually wiped out. Dick
came on again with a fresh company against Jeff’s sole platoon and
Company Heavy weapons but again was nearly destroyed. Jeff for part of the
first game had a German Panzer IV, which he had then moved to Neil.
On
the next table Neil again held Peter’s Americans at bay during two
games. Peter on the second game had a squadron of Shermans at his beck and
call, but decided to prove American Soldiers could do it on their own,
which they couldn’t. One of Capt Hunt’s forbears was the famed General
Stonebrain Hunt of Civil War fame proving the theory on the passage of
genes. On the next table Philippe and Dieter slugged it out with the
Americans under Dieter winning the day. Followed by Frank and Ken,
the latter who was assisted by the squadron of
The
result: the Germans and the Americans held 2 Sectors each with the Germans
losing about two and a half Company’s worth of men to more than four of
Americans.
Crossfire makes for a good club game, which is easily picked up, having sold some 8 sets of the rules more players are becoming aware and hopefully will be tempted to game it more regularly.