Antiquity Campaign- Round 5

Hail Caesar! play continued early this month with our ongoing Antiquity Campaign.
5 of 8 Rounds are complete a couple of good games, has my Sparta dominating.

Again the participants are :

Rome (Rome) Yellow
Syracuse- Orange
Sparta- Red
Macedonia - Green
Persians- Achaemenid - Blue
Rome (Byzantium)- Purple

  My Spartans defeated Rome in somewhat close battle, that was somewhat misrepresent in the lopsided score Rome small but difficult units were giving me fits until things broke my way late games. My Victory allowed me secure all border territories ,I had been squabbling with take a  Macedonian territory and finally after 3 rounds remove the remaining Syracuse Troops from Sparta   In the East Byzantium and Syracuse had a close match with Syracuse prevailing.  The Persians ambushed Macedonia with a huge win. Round 6 is this Tuesday.

Antiquity Campaign- Round 4

Hail Caesar! play continued early this month with our ongoing Antiquity Campaign.

Again the participants are :

Rome (Rome) Yellow
Syracuse- Orange
Sparta- Red
Macedonia - Green
Persians- Achaemenid - Blue
Rome (Byzantium)- Purple


Here is our map after 4 rounds. My Spartans triumphantly defeated Macedonia in a very hard fought battle. My Victory allowed me secure all border territories I had been squabbling with and partially remove Syracuse Troops from Sparta -but stragglers still remain.Rome continued battling Syracuse, with Rome giving up some territory in this week.  In the East Byzantium laid a crushing defeat on the Persians causing them to cede territory. Round 5 happens this coming Tuesday.

Antiquity Campaign- Round 3

Hail Caesar! play continued pre-holidays with our ongoing Antiquity Campaign.

Again the participants are :

Rome (Rome) Yellow
Syracuse- Orange
Sparta- Red
Macedonia - Green
Persians- Achaemenid - Blue
Rome (Byzantium)- Purple


Here is our map after 3 rounds in our  Both my Spartans and Syracuse where the big losers this week, Syracuse soundly driven back by Rome and Spartan getting mauled in "300" fashion by the Persian Hordes. I need a win this week or I fear Sparta will go the way of Sparta just years earlier under my command. I'm up against either Rome or Macedonia this week...either one is going to be tough.
Round 4 happens this coming Tuesday.

Antiquity Campaign- Round 2

The Campaign Map after 2 rounds

Hail Caesar play continues with our ongoing Antiquity Campaign.

Again the participants are :

Rome (Rome)
Syracuse
Sparta
Macedonia
Persians- Achaemenid
Rome (Byzantium)


My Sparta played Jeff's Romans this week. and it typical Spartan fashion we won the battle but lost the war. In this case I broke his 50% threshold first so the game ended and I won the game however the points tallied up for the campaign scoring in terms of unit losses and objective points Jeff came out on top. Thats what happens when you have a few of expensive units and alot of cheap ones and lose the expensive ones.  Final Score 25 Byzantium, 23 Sparta.  Syracuse, in a or macro campaign, in which moves are based on your game scores- not whom you physically played that week. Took the Spartan Capital, so I had move it. I did take 4 other territories...we will how it goes in Round 3!

Antiquity Campaign Round 1

The Campaign Map after one round of play. Stars are number of Armies in individual territories.

We started our antiquity campaign using Warlord Games. Hail Caesar rule set a few weeks ago, a sick day today gave me the time to get this map posted.

Again the participants are :

Rome (Rome)
Syracuse
Sparta
Macedonia

Persians
Rome (Byzantium)

Totally quasi historical based on time frame around the Peloponnesian Wars. Syracuse and Macedonia were the big winners on Tuesday scoring close to 30 points a piece while the rest of us scored less than 10 points. My Spartans looks to Syracuse in a game that seem close until it broke open huge for Rich around round 4. it was all downhill from there.

Dark Ages Campaign Concludes

Round 8 of our Dark Age Campaign came to an end last week. With a three way on territories going into the last round it was really anyone's prize to seize in Round 8. Rich and I had fantastic game it was very close with me probably slightly ahead going into the last couple turns. I made a gamble move I didn't need to go for some big points and it backfired, leading me to a bad luck serious of event that took me for slightly winning to a major loss. If I had just played conservative the last few turns a close score between Rich and I really would have changed the map dynamic above to where (given Chris's  score)  the winner would have been decided by a few territories or a tie breaker of total armies raised. In the end the big Victory for Rich . Gave the Caliphate of Cordoda the clear Campaign Win. Conquering nearly half of the known world (even back in Ireland, again after I kicked him out once, argh!)  Chris wrapped up in second with a good score and wisely invading all the remaining neutrals territories he could last round..Chris picked a I think 6 territories the last turn. The Saxons got a serious push back but maintained a decent sized empire all the way across the North. The poor Normans survive barely, with a few territories even reverting to Neutral Baronys.


I am pretty happy with the way this Campaign system worked out..there were a few tweaks along the way. But I'm confident good system with some unique mechanics if you want to play a map based campaign with  moves against multiple opponents in a single round and want to resolve them with just one game. Best part about the system is that it can be used for any size army game..its totally neutral to what you use it for, you could use it for a board or card game if you wanted to...you give even play your favorite themed campaign and resolve all the games playing chess. You'll be reading about the first two of my own projects. a Skirmish Fantasy Ruleset and The Campaign Systems throughout the year here.  You'll also get to see the campaign playtested again this year as we gear up for another Ancients Campaign, (Antiquity this time, probably 300BC ish) later in the Summer.

I'll leave with a pair of Battle narratives written by both Rich and Chris describing their victories
in the final round!  Hail Caesar for the Win!.

Round 8 - Arabs vs Saxons on the river board
Mission: Take the High Ground (objectives)

John set up broadly, with each division equally in one third of the table. I set up the Damascus division in the center in 2 ranks; Berbers in a line to the right and split the Ghulams with the 2 heavy between the infantry divisions & the light units skirmishing on the left flank.

The center hill was the key component of the battle. John moved Huscarls & a large Coerls unit onto the hill which were charged by the heavy Ghulams. While able to chase off the Huscarls, the Royal Ghulams were flanked by archers (and despite counter charging with my own archers) and were broken. (In the final round, John managed to roll 3 6's out of 4 dice for hits!) The second Ghulam unit was shaken and chased off. And to top it off, the C-in-C was lost fighting the Huscarls.

The Damascus unit dithered about in the center for a number of turns, either being disordered by skirmishers or slacking about with critical lack of leadership.

The Berbers on the right flank fended off all attempts to cross the river & spent most of the game shooting up a cavalry unit & some Coerls. I believe John failed to move the final 3 rounds of the game & I had no reason to leave my objective unguarded.

Shooting on the left flank started well with John's heavy cav being blown off the board by a pair of 1s on a shooting break check. Slowly, the rest of the division crossed the river & chased my shooters back into the center of the board. The standard unit of Turkomen were broken by the Vikings, but it set up a flank charge by the Damascus archers which pushed John's units off the board.

Top of the eighth. Its looking bleak for team Arab. Surrounded by Saxons and down on points. The Viking/Coerl group needed 3 moves to charge into the Damascus Archers - and they succeed. Luckily, the Archers are only pushed back by the combat & the Vikings are shaken to prevent any pursuit. Huscarls with C-in-C charge into the foot Ghulams + City Spearmen. Being fully rested from doing nothing this game, Team Arab breaks the Huscarls & kills the C-in-C. Moving up, the units are ready for a final charge against the large Coerls guarding John's objective.

Bottom of the eighth. The Volunteers - a unit which last took an aggressive action some time in early January, pass their leadership with double 1s & rear charge the Viking/Coerls. With a flurry of righteous blows, the Vikings are dispatched to Valhalla. Game ends with the Ghulam/City Spear team breaking the Coerls and claiming the objective. Adds up to 30 victory points being scored in the eighth.

Final: John 12 Rich 37


Round 8 -Normandy vs Byzantium
Pitched Battle

The board had a small town on one side, hill in the center, and forest on the other. Both players deployed, avoiding the town on one flank, between mid-field and the board edge with the forest, loading all the cavalry on the forest side.

Aaron had the first turn and it was pretty uneventful. His infantry divisions crept forward, and his cavalry division stumbled over it's own hooves (a theme for the next 2 turns). Chris shuffled forward and into shooting range.

The face off between the Cavalry divisions lasted a couple turns. Aaron failed to move his cavalry - he was sweating because he deployed his units sideways on the board so that they would fit - but he did manage to hold off Chris' charge with shooting disruption. Supporting Chris' peltasts took the woods and began a game long poo-flinging contest with Aaron's archers, with no side the victor. Aaron finally engaged the cavalry units, and after a few combats over a couple turns a Pyrric victory resulted; Aaron was left with a shaken heavy cav and Chris, a small light horse archer. These two units were then stuck in a perpetual cycle of shooting wounds and rallies.

Chris' center division mimicked Aaron's cav and stared at the hill for half the game. Eventually, Chris' lancers were able to 'lance' a unit of archers and half a medium unit before becoming shaken, themselves. The rest of the division joined the other infantry.

The infantry divisions of both sides stayed about 15 inches apart until the last few turns. Chris was able to disrupt Aaron's line with shooting for a couple turns. Aaron even managed to disrupt his own line with a blunder. He was able to return fire, but Aaron's archers seemed to do more harm slowing the advance of his heavies than good. Aaron was unluckier than Chris in roughly even combats when the armies finally met, establishing a victory for the Byzantine Empire.

Final: Chris 22 Aaron 10

Dark Age Campaign Round 8

A somewhat belated post as the Campaign concluded this week, but here is the map as of the beginning of the move turn for the last round. Round 7, had the Normans coming back and beating my Saxons in a last ditch effort with a score of 24-12, While The Caliphate again made gains against the Byzantines 22-11. Again both close games for the most part until the tides turned with some key combats. In my case it was the Norman Cavalry again getting the best of me, and the luck I had in our previous meet was none withstanding. While the Normans had their bragging rights with the victory this week, their empire has about crumbled while the other 3 Empires all had 19 territories each, with Rich in the lead for total number of armies. Final moves had as all trying to reinforce hold territory and squeak up what could to win the campaign. I'll be back with final post for last rounds games as soon as we all update our data.

Dark Age Campaign Round 7

Here is our Campaign Map post 6 rounds of play. Moves are pending for round 7 based on the above.
 Scores last rounds where The Saxons over the Byzantines 34 -19 and The Caliphate over the Normans 34-10.

If you've been following this at all you'll see the Caliphate has been slowed slightly the last couple rounds a Saxon victory in Round 5 (barely) and a equal score forcing draws in Round 6 enabled me to consolidate and rebuild. Chris and his Byzantines have likewise held there own, and the loss to Saxons last round only really set the dispute over a neutral territory we where fighting over. What we currently have is 3 way ties with 19 territories a piece...Rich is in the lead with 101 Armies versus 81 for Chris and 80 for myself. Most number of territories at the end of 8 is declared the winner, with number of Armies as the tie breaker. The Norman empire is in its last throes, with 8 Territories and 24 armies he has suffered from a combination of being * man in the middle* and bad luck.. Dismissing his Heavy Cavalry would be foolish however and I since he and I are playing this week
I should probably work to complete absorb him and have him fighting for me in the last round, however a loss in that scenario would probably knock me out of the running so it might be best to skirmish against border territories and try for another smaller expansion protecting my Empires strength. However a strong push from either Rich or Chris with a high score could make that moot as well. Decisions, Decisions.

Dark Age Campaign Round 6

Here we have the Campaign Map, after 5 turns and before our moves for turn 6. Only 3 turns to go. Luckily, The Saxons called in their Pagan favors, (thanks in part to one bulletproof and credibly lucky Medium Cavalry unit) and beat the Arab force by 4 points!...basically nothing, 1 point on kill points and I killed the Caliphate General netting 3 more. It was great game.  I made some big gains early, but started losing it toward turn 6 (of 8) finally coming back with a decent last round to close it, although my super cavalry finally succumbed to shooting the last turn..(losing me 4 points). This close spread of our game while forcing him out my territories barely phased him as he only lost 10 armies the whole round, and when he musters for his turn 6 moves, he'll 82 armies in the field, and still firmly in the lead, The Byzantines come in second with 69 armies ( Besting the Normans 28-10) After this victory, I have regrouped to third place with 60 armies. Normandy cant catch a break rounding out the bottom at 28.

All in all things are playing out great, I play the Byzantines next week and a big loss for either of us will be brutal. The Normans are on the verge of being absorbed, if that does happen, we'll have to Aaron play the campaign out as Vassal of whomever does it. Personally having re tooled his list, I think he's overdue for the big upset.

 In other news I have been gearing for my Spring projects for Adepticon and even made some headway painting my Saxons..more on all that soon.

Dark Age Campaign Round 5

Round 5 of our Quasi Historical Dark Ages Campaign is tonight. Above is the current map of the world before the festivities. As you can see the Green of the Caliphate of Cordoda, led by the Mighty Almanzor is spreading across the known world as quickly as the plague. My Saxons got lucky with a minor victory against the Normans last week but since the results against all opponents are based on Scores in the games you play my winning score of '30" was no match for Rich's "40" so I continue to lose ground to the Caliphate. I face off against the Caliphate tonight and all my Map moves are against Green, with the hope of kicking them out of Ireland and England, and not losing any more territory. A bad round with a low score against Rich in which I face aggressive moves from the Normans could legitmately knock me out maybe not this round by next...with the position Aaron and I are in we not make the 8 rounds of campaign!. and he faces of against Chris and the Byzantines tonight!. So wish the underdogs luck.

Despite my only semi serious gloom and doom above. This campaign and Warlords Hail Caesar rules have been great time. We are going to be hosting Hail Caesar open gaming at Adepticon this year so if your looking for something to do Saturday Night or just want to check it out..please keep it in mind!

Dark Ages Round 4

Here's our map after 3 Rounds, things are start to take shape with Normans and Saxons totally on the defensive. The Caliphate has just been rampaging, Rich is getting very high scores in his games the Caliphate vs Norman Score last week was 40-28, while explaining the scoring isnt pertinent here, the scores are mainly kill points and the relevancy is your score is used to dicate map move against all opponents not just the one you played this week. So with three high scoring games, the Caliphate is on a tear. Chris and his Byzantines had a very close game versus my Saxons (32-24 his favor) where I wiped our his center division turn 2 on charge from my Huscarls that was a result of Blunder, if you can believe that, and shattered his two main infantry units in that division, a follow up charge the same turn from my Coerls broke the division. Just when you thought I had the upper hand, Chris's cavalry came back and had similar revenge...it came down who crack the second division first, I had some chances but the dice said it was not to be and he did it
I have been pretty stagnant for last two rounds, and need to make something happen this week. I am playing the Normans this week, so I'll squeeze some of those French territories where I can but we need slow down the green tide. Aaron and his Normans have their hands full with two armies cut off behind enemy lines in the Pyrenees. Should be an interesting week!.

Dark Ages Campaign Round 3

Here is current map as the move portion of turn 3 is under way and the games that will dictate the results of these moves will take place this coming Tuesday. So far the Campaign using Warlord's Hail Caesar rules has been great. We are playing either Pitched battles or picking from a handful of scenarios. As I mentioned as great many battles are fought each turn and it abstractedly resolved thru the one game week. This campaign system , something I cooked up based on trying to solve numerous things that went wrong with many, many Campaigns I've run over the years. Pairs are simply round robin, the only caveat being that if the majority of your battles are against someone in particular then you play them regardless if its two weeks in row. being our third week that isnt a problem yet, and because I got stomped last week by the Caliphate (more on that in moment) My turn hasnt happened yet, and since the Caliphate has repelled and the Saxon invasion, counter invaded and is now sitting in Ireland ( Arabs in Ireland in 1000 AD, my Ancestors are cursing me)
Rich has decided to put the pressure on his neighbors the Normans. Whether I make minor strikes against my neighboors or go for a viking-esque raid on the Byzantine Empire I don't yet. One the benefits in being the weeks loser (ye with least number of Armies on the board) means you get to last, so you can see what the other players moves are. This mimics the "Risk" type board game mechanic I was going for.


As for my game last time around The Saxons invaded, Northern Spain, Rich and the Caliphate counter invaded Ireland.. I made some  small moves againt Neutral Armies and the Normans. The scenario we play was a "Camp Raid" where each player had camps in opposite corners of the board and deploy toward each other (for the short edge long ways) the kicker is one of your three divisions is in reserve and must roll to come on.I had one of my Divisions stupidly near the enemy reserve deployment, and of course fail orders on my part had them not get out of away before Rich got his reserves on first time and roll right over one divisions flank standing at the edge of my camp. Luckily I had some good performing units although not my Huscarls who for once seemed not at all the indestructable tanks they have been. mainly due to getting engaged with cavalry. My Second Division performed well keeping two division of Arabs at bay outside my camp, until my reserves finally came on (3 turns later) and started toward the Arab camp. The pressure from my reserves made Rich have to split his offense force to have some of it go back and support the camp..
There where a few turns where the battle actually started to drift back to my direction but its was not to be and I suffered enough early losses and didnt get the breaks I needed late to really flip it the other way.
As result, Rich got major victory ( or Conquer III as our scoring metric calls it) It was a fantastic and dramatic game.  I did score enough points in our game  to keep from getting totally creamed in some of my other battles on the map many of those resulted in draws or minor setbacks. I still lost enough amries and territories to be in last place but not by a ton. A good week could flip any of us to the top, but right its clearly the Caliphate of Cordoda expanding across Dark Age Europe. Lets see if anyone can stop him this week!>

Campaigns and Comedy

We kicked our Hail Caesar Campaign Tuesday Evening set in the Dark Ages in roughly 1000AD, The Saxons, Normans, Caliphate of Cordoba and the Byzantine Empire all square off for Control of the known world. While details on its mechanics I am keeping to our forums (feel free to join up if you're interested) . The map portion plays out "like" a game of Risk , where we move our armies during our turn, we play a game on the tabletop, and the results and score of that game are applied against all your moves and battles. Its Macro campaigning at its best ( or worst, depending on how you like it) as your one game dicates results of many battles depending on whom you played, how you scored, and how the other player did (and there scores) even the players you didnt play this week. To top it the are a handful of neutral armies on map throwing a monkey wrench into the scoring matrix should you choose to attack them
  
Round 1 of the Campaign

Game 1- Saxons vs Normans-
I faced off against Aaron, it was very close game, he shattered my center division early with a huge cavalry charge and with a dual sweeping advance rolled up the whole army, I got to close to his cav without proper support, a mistake I wont make again. Fortunately his Cav was so far exposed into my backfield with Sweeping Advance units from my other two divisions scored big rear and flank charges destroying his Elite Cav units as a response.

The game went back and forth like that the whole time. I had my 3rd Division ( my Vikings) the entire division was sitting with 4,5, 6 wounds (so shaken) Two of the units die and the game is over. Aaron pushed heavy with a bunch of units toward my 1st Division whom with failed Orders turn after sat unmolested until the end of the game...my Medium infantry  charged two units of Norman Infanty (mixed Levy, and Med) and terrible dice shattered them. But my Huscarls and there two handed axes crushed the heavy Norman footman and overran into the flank of other two both units destroying them. With two broken divisons, the game ended. A failed Order check on follow me really hurt Aaron because bringing his last Heavy unit into the last melee would have probably turned the tide.

We have a very simple scoring systems of 6 points for a Heavy, 4 for Medium , 2 for Light, 3 for the General and 2 for other commander. lossed on both sides tallied the game at 30 for me to 24 for Aaron. a Standard victory result. the Norman advance into northern Europe was pushed back, enabling the Saxons to gain a good foothold in the North.

Game 2- Caliphate of Cordoba vs Byzantine Empire.-
Rich and Chris played a Storm the Camp style  scenario where armies deployed from the short edge of the table traveling longwise. they also reserve units that had to be ordered on the board. Rich has been gathering Scenarios from various sources for Ancients play. I expect we'll trying a bunch of them as weeks go on. In this game, Chris had some terrible luck and despite some early gains, he failed his order check on his reserve in a "do or die scenario" things went very wrong and Caliphate forces crushed him   Scoring was 24-0 in favor of the Arabs. Mapwise is shows the Caliphate taking Sicily and establishing a strong foothold in Southern Italy.

We were close enough with enough armies of move points to really mix it up beyond or closest opponent but I suspect that will change next week, although the loser suffered setback on the gaming table..they choose wise expansions into neutral territory so it helped minimize the losses.

For the Comedy portion of this post, I scanned this doodle I found on one of the tables Downstairs. Its from a previous Hail Caesar team match where Aaron and I played the English facing off against Musilms and  their allies in an early Crusade skirmish.  While Aarons division kept failing Order checks needing a "8"
I was using the Army General, (we play commander in chief rules) attached to on my division and had that key re-roll with time on his hands , Aaron was begging for the general to come give his troops a visit. Anyway if you played Hail Caesar at all the image below should give you a chuckle.




In other news, I rough finished my new 4 X 8 table, we played on it for the game described above..its still needs flock and prettied up, hopefully this weekend..with photos soon. Also my 600 points of Cirith Ungol is crawling along with the tourney right around the corner, I'll be painting right up until halloween finish all the extra pieces I need for separate Cavalry mounts and riders...leaving me 4 day to try to squeeze out a new piece for the painting contest...photos of this stuff coming next time too.

Dark Ages Campaign

Our Dark Ages Campaign using Warlord Games "Hail Caesar" ruleset, kicks off next week. We are about a month behind getting this going, mainly to do my own workload but getting everyone armies in shape to have least 12 full units is somewhat of a process as well. I built a new 4 x 8 table that's actually 2 4x4's that can be flipped end to end for either a valley or hill with shallow river running thru the center. I have some pics of Tuesday when it I write up the first meet. My army is still bare metal with the exception on 1 unit thats about half done, I've just been too busy to make the time to get into it, but will change soon, as I hate being the guys with the least amount of stuff painted.

The map above plays out pretty much like a game of Risk, its diceless campaign game, that resolves map moves by calculating victory points played on the game table. I did it this way to avoid the time consuming pre game board turns of Campaigns past, this way people can resolve the map online during the downtime between session without have to rely on being face to face. After running gaming campaigns for years, I must say It just works better that way. The Campaign is Quasi Historical taking place pre Hasting at about 1000 AD. Forces are Saxons, (me) Normans (Aaron), Caliphate of Cordoba (Rich) and the Byzantine Empire (Chris) I had to stay a little loose with exact History and the map is just an excuse to give us something to fight for as we play out all these games.

Ancients interest around here has picked up. We have couple a new interested players one with an actual army..if I could find another looks for us to expand this 6 player. Ancients gaming is surely continuing around here all the way thru Adepticon 2012 while the Ancients events there are WAB related Rich is running a big open game with HC rules and there will be HC open gaming. I figure this Campaign with run around 8 rounds so until late Jan /early Feb when we all have to start cracking down for Adepticon.

Boarding Action

A couple of great games of Legends of the High Seas last night, the 2 games were rounds 9 and 10 of the Campaign roughly half the players are fielding crews of 20 and higher and there are some serious tough customers currently sailing the Caribbean in our little world.


Not the prettiest board yet, the lexan is test piece for doing a water surface..once I dry brush it, Ill see I a couple different colors can mask that rigid geometry

We finally got around to playing the boarding action scenario using my WIP Old Glory Brig as the second ship. pretty much complete outside of the paint and rigging..its sporting a custom add on bottom to give it some height as the stock model is waterlined way too high for my tastes (and the other ships) has an added forecastle and entry point.and is sporting 3, Triple sailed masts. General consensus was that this ship was just to small for this scenario and was really just good for a set piece..so the scenario languished un-played through out the campaign. I'm glad some of the guys gave it shot as well a myself, as it was a blast, the swinging climbing and jumping was very pirates of the classic movies. Size constraints and the 1 inch control zone literally meant you had to brawl you way through the mob, both our captains got into some dicey situations as a result..as you can imagine and out of action rolls for your Veteran Heroes and Captain after 10 rounds are not rolls you want to be making Fortunately for the Crew of Delivery we killed most of the pirate crew before the "Red Devil" himself, Guillaume LeClerc got away with a few deck hands.


collecting dust for years..I finally figured out how make this ship work for me aesthetically, hopefully can see the promise here, is should look just as good as "The Griffon" before too long.I plan on two much larger ships for the Boarding Action at Adepticon in 2012, these small ships will be terrain pieces on other boards.

My Navy Crew also prevailed in my defense of the a captured Privateer hero put on trial for piracy as his crew desperately tried to free him from the Prison at New Providence. A good week for the Royal Navy going 2-0 after 2 losses last time. One more round to go before we declare the winner of this campaign coming up in a month. 1 more meeting with 2 games to go. As usual scoring updates are on my Legends of the High Seas campaign blog


A Shot from Prison Break, the Abel Seaman held the line here with some support from my Hired Hands (not pictured) Buy My Marines won the day along with my ferocious Lieutenant who missed the first games being immediately put out of action and then captured has come back "Hardened" and is my toughest sailor hands down.

Monthly Pirate Update

When this...

Our 3rd meeting of our Legends of the High Seas Campaign took place on Tuesday evening. 6 crews fighting for domination in our little mock up of the Caribbean circa 1720. My Royal Navy Crew took its lumps losing both games this week, however both losses where totally negligible in the campaign phase where I had only permanent losses of a few able Seamen. I played my own Raise the Flag scenario, which went quite well until a bad round turned things around...I ended up conceding before I took a chance as my very experienced hero's having to roll on that scary injury chart, even with the Surgeon I am wary..in fact my Midshipman took a chest wound and is now Defense 2. Still Adam and I agreed it was one of the better games we both played in the campaign.

The second game was quite similar as we demoed my scenario on my ship wreck board. Joe, my opponent had a larger crew than I did, got to both wrecks first and found all the chests quickly (which have to moved to your D zone to score)bad luck, placement, and poor rolls on shooting to wounds..had me breaking first and things went south quickly again I conceded.I did manage to capture on of Adams heroes.(via "Captured" on the injury chart) so he and I will play prison break first thing next week. 2 rounds, 4 games to go. As usual scoring update, etc are on my Legends of the High Seas campaign blog


Goes to this, you best give up the ship or meet Davey Jones locker.

Just a teaser WIP pic of new lighthouse for the shipwreck board, looks much more appropriate. Top section goes on this weekend. photos soon.

Mighty Empires VI- Round 8

Final Standings, Wood Elves just squeak out the Campaign Win.

13- Wood Elves- Chris
12- Warriors of Chaos- Rich
11- Empire- John
8- Vampire Counts- Bill
7- Warriors of Chaos- Aaron
4- Lizardmen- Nate
4- Orcs and Goblins- Anthony
2-Dwarfs- Billy


Events

Billy- War Tax
Aaron-All or Nothing
Chris- Heroic Battlefield (Acropolis)
Nate- Raid
Bill- No Guts, No Glory
John- Headhunter
Rich- Diplomacy @ Wood Elves
Anthony- n/a (forfeit)

Challenges

Dwarfs VS Lizardmen
Massacre Lizardmen - Concession

Warriors of Chaos (Black) VS Empire
Massacre Warriors of Chaos (Black)- 5EP

Wood Elves Vs Vampire Counts
Solid Victory Wood Elves- 4EP

Warriors of Chaos(Brown) VS Orcs and Goblins
Massacre Warriors- 5EP (forfeit)


Final thoughts- Another campaign comes to an end, this one dragged on a bit long due to weather and absenteeism that forced extensions of the campaign sessions. We were rock solid up to round 5, and in retrospect and by the core rules we could have ended it there, with the Orcs and Goblins winning with 10 Empire points..we had a predetermined goal of 8 rounds so we soldiered on, unfortunately our O&G player never made it to another session and gave up three forfeits that really reset the map. Empire, WoC (Black) and the Vampire Counts battled for dominance. As of round 5 The Wood Elves are at the bottom of the standings but used the forfeits against the Orcs to put him out of the running and get back in the race.Wood Elves then snuck in the back door with Chris wisely taking Heroic Battlefield as his strategic event because by winning he could get himself an extra Empire point by capturing the strategic map objective. Taking on Bill's Vampire Counts in the last round The Wood Elves did prevail and Chris's map tactical thinking won him the Campaign! Rich and I had the throw down we had been waiting for, unfortunately for whatever reason, I made some critical mental errors and my dice paid me back for it, no excuses..I got pounded and grabbed defeat from the jaws of victory! a finely played game by Rich, as another campaign comes to an end..we are going to reconvene in April for some open gaming and what's motivating us for our next event.

Mighty Empires VI- Round 7

Standing at End of Round 7

13- Empire- John
11- Warriors of Chaos- Rich
10- Vampire Counts- Bill
10-Wood Elves- Chris
7- Orcs and Goblins- Anthony
4- Lizardmen- Nate
4- Warriors of Chaos- Aaron
2-Dwarfs- Billy


Events

Billy- War Tax
Aaron- Raid-Empire +50
Chris- All or Nothing
Nate- Scouts
Bill- No Guts, No Glory
John- Heroic Battlefield (Holy Relic)
Rich- Disaster @ Empire..No Losses
Anthony- All or Nothing (forfeit)

Challenges

Dwarfs VS Vampire Counts
Massacre Vampire Counts- 5EP

Warriors of Chaos (Black) VS Warriors of Chaos(Brown)
Massacre Warriors of Chaos (Black)- 5EP

Lizardmen VS Empire
Massacre Empire- 5EP

Wood Elves Vs Orcs and Goblins
Massacre Wood Elves- 5EP (forfeit)

Mighty Empires VI- Round 6

10- Warriors of Chaos- Rich
10- Empire- John
8- Orcs and Goblins- Anthony
8- Vampire Counts- Bill
8-Wood Elves- Chris
6- Lizardmen- Nate
5- Warriors of Chaos- Aaron
3-Dwarfs- Billy


Events

Billy- War Tax
Aaron- Headhunter
Chris- All or Nothing
Nate- Raid (Orcs)
Bill- No Guts
John- Building Boom
Rich- Heroic Battlefield (Landmark)
Anthony- n/a (forfiet)

Challenges

Dwarfs VS Vampire Counts
Massacre Vampire Counts- 5EP

Warriors of Chaos (Black) VS Lizardmen
Massacre Warriors of Chaos- 5EP

Warriors of Chaos(Brown) VS Empire
Massacre Empire- 5EP

Wood Elves Vs Orcs and Goblins
Massacre Wood Elves- 5EP (forfeit)



Notes:

No longer the campaign of "draws"Tough round of scheduling and the campaigns first forfeit led to 4 Massacres and mixed the map up quite a bit. Rich's Warriors and My Empire take tie for the lead, and a costly forfeit for the Orcs has them losing there capital to the Wood Elves. The Top 5 slots all have chance to win the campaign with only 2 rounds to go!, next meet Tuesday March 2nd.

Mighty Empires VI- Round 5- Warbands

Player	Army	Wins	Losses	Draw	Battle	Comp	Sports	Total	EP
Rich	Warriors	3	0	1	55	20	12	87	6
John	Empire	2	1	1	45	18	14	77	5
Anthony	O&G	3	1		50	17	9	76	4
Bill	Vampires	1	2	1	35	20	16	71	5
Billy	Dwarfs	2	1	1	45	16	0	61	5
Nate	Lizardmen	1	2	1	35	20	3	58	3
Aaron	Warriors		3	1	25	20	8	53	3
Chris	Wood Elves	1	3		30	16	4	50	3

Scores after Round 5

10- Orcs and Goblins- Anthony
8- Warriors of Chaos- Rich
7- Empire- John
7- Vampire Counts- Bill
6- Lizardmen- Nate
5- Wood Elves- Chris
5- Warriors of Chaos- Aaron
3-Dwarfs- Billy


Warbands was good time, we had no problems with time limits and everyone took to the spirit of the event. In the end it shook the map up a little, nice change of pace to get in four games instead of one, in an evening. In fact the suggestion was made we try a whole campaign with lower point games in order to get a couple games in an evening...not a bad idea. Anyway great primer for those of us playing in Warbands at Adepticon, we did my own awards for Sportsman, based of Favorite Game votes (congrats Bills) and Favorite Theme /Comp'd list (congrats Aaron) but otherwise its identical to upcoming event. Ill post a brief write up on my own list and 4 games, with some in game photos next.