Sleepwalking through MeG & ADLG

This is just a very quick post, more of a 'diary entry', on a weekend spent trying out new rules, namely Mortem et Gloriam (MeG[1]) and Art de la Guerre (ADLG).  I also intended to try out another homebrew set but more on that later.

After a largely sleepless night on Thursday, it was down to Martin's in Brighton for a Friday evening in the pub together with Steve who'd also driven over for a gaming weekend.  A different pub this time, but still Harveys Sussex Best and beautifully kept into the bargain - went down a treat.

Probably not the best start, as I never sleep well after a beer session or in a strange bed.  The result, another largely sleepless night.

So, the Saturday dawned and Martin's friend John arrived with his delightful Italian Wars collection and his experience playing MeG to help us through a bath-tubbed refight of the Battle of Pavia, 1525.

Mortem et Gloriam

I took the Imperialist left wing with some Jinetes and Landsknechts (two pike blocks with attached light guns and two units of skirmishers).

Facing off against me was Martin with some Swiss (eek!), Genitors and cannon.

While outnumbered, Martin had the possibility of another Swiss pike block arriving later in the game - spoiler alert, they didn't.

My men took one look at the opposition ...

... and promptly stepped out towards them to try and finish them off before any more arrived.  Meanwhile, our respective cavalry units crashed commenced what was to be a long-drawn out mêlée.  Martin's cavalry, with their spears had an edge to start with but things evened up after the initial impact - luckily, they were not as fearsome as the Ottoman Dellis who were standing in for them.

A few turns later the first of my Landsknecht blocks finally got stuck in, the other was lagging behind, delayed by the Swiss cannon fire.

The cavalry mêlée rumbled on, but only Genitors were taking losses ...

... as my second Landsknecht unit came up and ...

... joined in the Swiss-bashing session.

And then suddenly it was all over; first my Jinetes, still at full strength, routed what was left of their opponents ...

... then, as they came up alongside my Landsknechts the Swiss were gone[2] ...

...and all that was left was for Martin to ride over and surrender.

While all this had been going there had been plenty of frenetic cavalry action taking place to my right.

But I had taken little of this in so, just a couple of photos will have to suffice.  Firstly, the swirling cavalry fight which went to the French ...

... and finally, the arrival of the Spanish infantry whose firepower finally decided the battle.

Art de la Guerre

I was already starting to fade as John packed his Italian Wars armies and departed.  Then Martin readied his 15mm armies on table for a game based on the Battle of Kleidion, 1014, between the Byzantine Basil II the 'Bulgar Slayer' and the Bulgarian Tsar Samuel.  We went for a fairly basic set up as time was short and as ADLG 'newbies'[3] we wanted to keep it simple.

This was played as a 'chit game'[4] so we had each picked a personal identity from among the commanders in the field and during the game took it in turns to pull out a name of a commander to play during each game turn.

I only took a few photos during this game as:

1. I wasn't enjoying it, this is not an indictment of ADLG, as I often dislike rule sets on my encounter with them; and,

2. I just couldn't stay awake and had to sack it early.

So, just a couple of choice pictures of Martin's nicely painted troops.

The Cancelled Game

The following day I was to run a game with my home-brewed rules for 6mm Napoleonics, albeit heavily based on a set of Napoleonic Rules for Large Scale Wargaming.

Unfortunately, worrying over whether the rules were really ready for a play-test kept me awake most of the night.  Now seriously sleep-deprived I had to apologise to my friends, take some Nurofen and go and lie down in a dark room.  

While I 'wimped out', Steve and Martin, like true gamers, broke out a Thirty Years War game using Liber Militum Tercios[5], with the French taking on the Spanish.  As I didn't play in this game, I won't attempt to describe how it played out and will just post a few photos I took later in the day when after I was feeling better.

The French infantry dares to take on the Spanish Tercios, and wins!

The Musketeers run away!

And finally, Martin's desperate attempt to get two '6's on just three dice to stop the Cardinal's Guard from breaking and fleeing the field.  He threw '6's on all three dice!  A 1-in-216 chance!!!

Post Mortem?

So, what did I learn from the weekend?  First and foremost, a need to manage my sleep better.  But with regard to the rules, both MeG and ADLG are similar to the DBx series of games but have tried to steer them in different ways: MeG with multiple elements/bases formed as units and a more sophisticated approach to unit activation, actions and costs; and, ADLG with the slow attrition of unit strength ('cohesion') in place of just recoiling or killing units.  From my limited sampling of these, I don't feel either adds much to a game, yet both, for me, seemed to increase complexity.  

In particular I felt that the way MeG breaks down the fighting to individual bases negated any benefit from multi-element units.  Also, the rigidity of the battlelines in ADLG, due to units not moving while in combat as they grind each other down, felt (for me) too mechanical.  That said I enjoyed the MeG game and will have to try ADLG again as my first impressions are often short-lived.

Notes:

[1.]  To be honest I had tried a small game of MeG before, as you might've spotted in a previous post (link), really hadn't got much of a feel for it,but I was a complete virgin when it came to ADLG - is there such a thing as an incomplete virgin?

[2.]  Actually, there are still a couple of Swiss in the top right of the frame.  These are marking where their reinforcements were due to arrive, only fate determined otherwise.

[3.]  Martin had played a small club game of ADLG once before and had a copy of the rules, Steve and I had never even read them, let alone played them.

[4.]  A previous post (link) describes the 'chit game' concept developed as a way to cope with uneven numbers of players and/or players arriving late or leaving early. 

[5.]  We're all familiar with these rules having played them often e.g. (link).

When it's Too Hot to Paint

Courtesy of the recent heatwave (well it's a heatwave by UK standards) which makes the fumes more noxious, the paint dry too fast, and the temper too short, I've stopped painting for a bit.  Having, like most gamers, a mass of stuff needing doing I thought I'd use the time to finish of some other jobs i.e, my 15mm Ludus Gladiatorius set up and replacement Platoon Boards for my 20mm Chain of Command collection

Ludus Gladiatorius

The arena for my 15mm gladiatorial gaming has already featured in a previous post covering how it was converted from a chocolate box.  But at the time I hadn't completed all the cards and tokens I intended to use. These have now been made and packed away in the arena-box.

The cards describe the characteristics of the different gladiator types for the players, along with tokens used to indicate choice of any special action played or where a thrown net, or spear, has landed.  All in all, with the rules, special action reminder sheets and dice it's quite a pile of paraphernalia to accompany the figures.

The cardboard frame inside the arena-box not only provides compartments to keep these elements in place but for gaming is placed in the lid.  This not only allows cards and tokens not in use (not figures) to placed out of the way in it ... 

... but also lifts up the playing area (base of the box) when placed inside the up-turned lid to give a raised, and (IMO) pleasing, appearance to the arena in play.

This long drawn-out project is thus now officially done and dusted.

Chain of Command v2

Many of my recent posts have covered changes in these rules with the new edition, including a recent post on the replacement Force Morale and CoC Dice trackers I made as the changes had rendered my previous ones defunct.  

As well as rule changes, the organisation of the various platoons has also been changed to better reflect those actually used by the combatants.  So, with foam-board plus my trusty Stanley-knife and steel rule I've made replacement boards for my British and German infantry platoons.

After my opening paragraph about painting in hot weather, I should perhaps own up and admit some paint was involved in this process to colour the sides of the foam-boards in the 'pits' that hold the figures.  The shapes depicted in the pits match the base sizes I use for my figures which are on a mix of single and double figure bases.  Also, I use different base shapes to distinguish junior and senior leaders.

As my German infantry have recently been posing a lot as panzergrenadiers I also made up a specific panzergrenadier platoon board.  Likewise, I made one for my planned British airborne platoon, most of the figures for which were delivered while I was typing this post.

What Next?

So now I have to decide what to start prepping for the painting table once this heat breaks in a day or two.  Aaaargh!  The agony of choice! 

A Cornucopia of Away Games and Mistakes

The cabin and painting desk have been deserted lately as I went to my friend Martin's place for a couple of day's gaming.  Well, perhaps 'mainly gaming' is a better description, as on the Tuesday evening we just went down the pub for a few pints of Harvey's Sussex Best.  Much like most of the later games I was too absorbed to take photos so this stock photo from the Interweb will have to suffice.

The following morning, when we got our act together, we had a game of 'Mortem et Gloriam', aka MeG, not something I had played before but I was keen to try it and Martin had played it several times as it's a popular rule-set at his local club and he wanted to get some more practise.

The game pitched my Normans as Sicilian Normans, with additional 'Sicilian' types being provided by Martin ... 

... against his Nikephorian Byzantines.

With a newbie (me), guided by an inexperienced player, unfamiliarity with rules saw this game run through to the early afternoon when, as the inevitability of a Norman win became apparent, we called the game.  The rules worked well in terms of outcomes and command structure, with commanders forced to prioritise their actions, but I didn't feel they offered anything new compared to existing rule-sets.  In particular I felt the focus on the files within units felt like a half-way house that was neither unit nor element focused and the separate charge and mêlée phases seemed to slow the game down.  However, these are just first impressions and I need to try them again sometime as I've often disliked rule-sets on first encountering them only to appreciate their virtues with more games.

The next game was a Thirty Years War clash using the 'Liber Militum Tercios' Rules, our favourite for this particular conflict.

These rules use order cards that are placed face down next to each unit with players alternately activating units to perform the order given them.

Looking to play something a little different we opted for an entirely mounted French force seeking to destroy a Spanish infantry force (plus one unit of horse); all troops being provided by Martin.

This proved a really interesting tactical conundrum with the more agile French horse looking for an opening that wouldn't involve frontally charging pike and the Spanish trying to deny them that opportunity.  In the end the French managed to charge a couple of the Spanish tercios in the flank (sorry, this is the only photo I have) ...

... but in both cases the Spanish, while taking many hits just survived being broken and with some French units refusing to charge managed to rally.  The French losses from these combats and Spanish musketry and cannon fire eventually saw several units break and the French conceded the field.  While a fun game with rules we've often played, we still made a number of mistakes that probably drove the outcome.  We also discovered we had always interpreted one rule incorrectly, luckily that error had no real impact on the game.  

So, onto a third game in the evening using Maurice; no picture of the rules so another image grabbed from the ubiquitous web-thingy.

This game used my 1745 armies (15mm Essex Miniatures) and some modifications to the rules to try and bring out a bit more conflict specific flavour.

No rule cock-ups this time, but I still haven't quite got the balance right between the two armies, and the Highlanders rolled over the Hanoverians without loss!

The following morning, we set up a DBM fight between the Rus (me) and the Bulgars (Martin), albeit the armies had to take some liberties with the Army Lists as we didn't have everything needed.

This game, like the earlier Tercios game, saw the Rus desperately trying to stop the Bulgar cavalry getting round their flanks, as they were fairly impervious to cavalry charging them frontally.  The Rus axemen ('Blades' in DBM-speak) were the least effective against cavalry so were held back as a reserve to plug any gaps that appeared as in the photo below - and contributed to the Rus' success in defeating the Bulgars.

The figures in this game were all Martin's beautifully painted 15mm Minifigs, so nice in fact that for once I took some decent photos, this time of his Byzantine Varangians being used to represent Rus Axemen.

Again we made a mistake!  This time over the PIP cost of moving irregulars but luckily corrected in Turn 2, so it had minimal impact on the game.  When this game ended it was lunchtime, after which I wended my way back home.  

So, four games in a day and half, lots of fun but lots of mistakes.  I'm not sure what the lesson here is, but I suspect I need to play more games with fewer rule-sets as it seems that, like so much in life, practise makes perfect, or at least less imperfect.

Belgian Chocolates & Ludus Gladiatorius

I do like Belgian chocolates, but some years ago when offered some, I was taken with the box as much as the contents.

The contents were scoffed pretty quick and I claimed the box and have been holding on to it ever since to be refashioned into an arena for my 15mm gladiators.  However, like so many planned projects, nothing happened for years but recently when clearing out a cupboard I came across it again and decided it was time to do something about it.

So, here it is.

The images, including the Ludus Gladiatorius board were all found on the net and printed out on A4 label paper, cut out and stuck onto the box.  The playing area has a layer of ferro-sheet underneath and all the figures (and pillars) are based on magnetic tiles.  There are a couple of layers of foamboard in the box lid such that the inner sits up higher to create that nice amphitheatre look.

The figures, IIRC, are 15mm Chariot Miniatures that have been painted and waiting years for somewhere to play.

I am making record sheets for players and cards for use as a QPS, the latter can also be used for dealing out gladiator characters.  The card designs, see examples below, will be printed out on label sheets cut out and stuck on playing cards.

Well?