Something old, very old; Some GW Man O War ships

 

Actually, a mix of Man O War and some of the ships from Mighty Empires.

I was inspired to dig these out of storage after watching a game of Galleys & Galleons run by a fellow named Morgan at a recent OMG meeting. The game looked fun enough(more interesting than I thought it would be) and digging these out was no problem. 

The game is by Nic Wright author of many, many games, most notably (to me at least) Fantastic Battles. GG does look to be more versatile than most other naval/fantasy naval games that I have encountered before. Like Fantastic Battles, GG allows you to customize your ships any way you se fit, but it does include sample ships to help you to understand what you are designing. Anyways more talk about the game after I have tried it out. 

The picture above shows nine pirate ships from Mighty Empires and some Empire ships from MoW. I am missing one of the Wolf ship hulls, but I do have the aft deck should it show up.

More Fantastic Battles ruminations

 

So more ideas, not all of them are mine. 

While I have moved away from Warhammer I still have fond memories of some of the quirky rules and effects. So for your consideration here are some quirky ideas mixed in with some ideas that seem somewhat reasonable. 

For the most part they are untested, but we did try the artillery rules, they worked fine. Some like the oblique marching just seem reasonable as do the marching rules (I think maybe Nic talked about that)

Anyways here they are:

New units for Fantastic Battles done (at last)

 

So, two 2 company units of light Dwarf infantry are done. They were actually fun to paint but kept getting shunted aside for other tasks which is why it took so long to complete. In the end I just wanted them off the painting table so flocked them up today.

Again these are going to be fast moving skirmishers.with decent shooting skills. It should make them fairly flexible.

Fantastic Battles spell & relic cards

Here, despite the lack of demand to see them, are my cards for Fantastic Battles. They are in no order and are a mix of spells and relics. 

Disclaimer: I found these images through online searches and was unable to determine if they were copyrighted, hopefully not. At any rate I, perhaps foolishly, thought I would share these, no copyright infringement is intended & if I offend let me know and I shall remove them.

I have found them somewhat useful as all required information is included on the cards. I tried to make the cards visually interesting and the images matching the spell.If you are using character cards you could clip these to those cards to indicate who has what. 

For the spells you would want to record what level any given spell was selected at. I use plastic card sleeves for these cards, so dropping a damage marker into the sleeve is a quick way to record the spell level.  

Anyways, for what it is worth here they are!

 

Fantastic Battles Dwarf vs Goblin April 21 2024

 

Rematch Goblins vs Dwarves

So, with the battlefield still set up, we thought we would have time to play FB and still get in a game of Pulp Ally. However we were delayed in starting the game and just did not have time or the energy for two games. 

This was another stab at a Dwarf army defending against a horde of fast moving Goblins. I acted as ref for the game as neither player was all that familiar with the rules. The armies were 1000 points each and each army had 5 captains, 3 wizards and a Warlord. The dwarven army was made up of my FB purpose based Roman Dwarves (with a couple of WH based hand-gunner units) while the Goblins, for the most part, were on my homemade movement trays.

Fantastic Battles April 04 2024

Deployment after mishap roles. Not much impact on either army, one Dwarf unit suffered -2 Resolve & one wolf rider unit rushed ahead 4BW.

 

Yet another classic match up Dwarf vs Goblin, was played today. This was a game originally planned for last November, but had to be postponed. Thankfully Craig was able to attend this game despite the resurgence of winter! 

War of the Ring latest great game that we have played

 

So, on a dare and a whim we decided to play this game. We probably should not have tried this game without at least one of us having at least glanced at the rules... Well neither of us had played this before nor even opened the rule book so it was a slow slog of a game. First was the challenge of going through the rule book, then quite a lot of prep work to set up the game, then the actual trying to figure out what we should be doing with our faction. It took some time.

There are a lot of options in this game and a lot of variables, enough to wreak havoc on any plans that you might make. The dice determine what actions you can do. Each turn you role a certain amount of dice, the Good side starts with 4 while the Evil side has up to 7 dice but you are allowed to allocate dice towards the hunt (for the one ring) Each dice face has a unique action associated with it but the rub is that you may not always get the results you need right now. The dice actions are resolved one at a time and in alternating order. So even when resolving the dice actions there is a certain amount of strategy as you may want to delay some actions until you see what your opponent has done, but then again hesitate and they may do something that directly impacts on your side. Choices, choices.

Each player also draws 2 event cards each turn. These cards can trigger events, or allow you to recruit more forces or effect the game in some way. They also can be used in combat, the bottom part of the card grants a bonus to your forces when engaged with the enemy. So do you use the card for a special event or save it for battle? Between the cards and the dice we were presented with a wide array of options every turn. 

So it was a slow game as we carefully negotiated our way through the rules and tried to figure out a game plan. We set a time limit for the game (thankfully) as the time just rapidly ticked away. (We also interrupted play for dinner) In the end we called it a game around 12:30 AM. At that point we had a pretty good grasp of the rules and what we wanted to accomplish. 

So, I have said that it was a slow slog but, it was a fun slog too! This game has a very high replay factor going for it. It was always interesting always challenging and always fun!

Check out THIS review by Shut Up & Sit Down for more details, and opinions that I agree with, I think they covered it very well!

Fantastic Battles AAR for Thursday Jan 26th game

 

 Two 1000 point armies, Dwarf vs Orc.

 

Dwarf defenders

Orc attackers

 

Fantastic Battles AAR July 29th game

 

So, a bigger battle this time, Dwarfs (1,500 points) vs a combined army of Orcs (750 points) and Undead (750 points). I must say I much prefer bigger armies, more scope for variety of units. I felt very restricted trying to come up with the small 50 point armies. I had to make far more compromises than I would have liked. 

We tried to try out some experimental rules*, succeeded with some of them, forgot to use others...oh well. We did use the following:

1. March column
   
2. Artillery variables rules
3. Orc Animosity
4. Undead [Racial] Only remembered part of these new rules

 * These experimental rules can be found at the end of this AAR.

The Battlefield

 

Fantastic Battles AAR June 26th 2022 game

 

 

Great gaming weekend!

So two days of gaming this past weekend was a good start. On Saturday I was involved in two board games, The classic Aliens game by Leading Edge and Sentinels of the Multiverse. Both are easy go to, comfort games that have been played a lot and therefore I have a vague recollection of the rules.

In the Aliens game, despite my best effort all my marines, actually made it off the board, although two of them, Hicks and Dietrich, were both wounded. In fact all the marines were able to escape, something that does not happen all that often.

The Sentinels of the Multiverse game saw Sky-Scraper team up with the Sentinels to combat Friction and Ermine. It was a long challenging game that at times looked like we were going to quickly go down in ignominious defeat and then we would suddenly get a reprieve where we were able to recuperate and then reenter the fray. Sky-Scraper found it very difficult to deploy her arsenal of equipment as Friction and ermine were able to destroy any such items almost as quickly as they were deployed. I could never get ahead!

On Sunday we played Fantastic Battles, a game that none of the players had played before. While the original plan was for a very big game the plan was changed to a standard 750 point conflict we me acting as GM.(I had more familiarity with the rules) The game lasted just under 4 hours and unlike many other fantasy games that we have played we were able to finish the game with a decisive winner.

It was great to get the boys back together to roll some dice and swap some tales, overall a good time had by all!

Fantastic Battles a rambling review part 1

 

So, I recently joined the Facebook page for the game Fantastic Battles. You may have noticed that I had posted a brief synopsis of the game, really just my first impressions of it back in February 2021. I liked what I read, but I confess at the time I had some reservations. Well I have recently decided that I would like to start gaming again and that some of that gaming will involve fantasy armies fighting it out. So I pulled out a number of different fantasy games and this one made it to the top of the pile.

Now it may be the lack of gaming in my life, I may not be completely myself, or it may just be that they are not that bad a set of rules but I am interested in them! Your troops are assigned traits, traits that define what they can and cannot do. What traits you select are entirely up to you. There are no preset lists of troops, not preset army lists build what you want to do emulate the type of troops you want to field. There are 50 different traits to use, some are mutually exclusive (for good reason after all you cannot be both fast and slow) but most can just be blended together as you see fit. You can select up to four traits for any given troop, one being used as a racial trait (mindless for undead for example) while the other three slots further define your troops. The racial trait is a nice touch to add some thematic cohesion to your forces. If selected at least 50% of your forces must have that trait/be of that race..

This of course can be both bad and good. Sometimes when confronted with too many choices you can wind up in analysis paralysis. With only being able to choose three there is a certain amount of trade off required you need to select the best traits to represent your vision. But the fact that you are not constrained by someone else's interpretation of how best to define something is a good thing.

To help  you out the author has included sample historical and fantasy army lists as suggestions. Nothing is codified so they really are just suggestions, his idea of how one might build certain units. Technically there is no right or wrong way. So that being said I submit these sketches of what dwarf warriors might look like, some taken from the authors list. I whipped these cards up very quickly more of proof of concept. As such the points may be off but I do think they look nice.

A bit of a blast from the Games Workshop past

 

 This just arrived today. A little bit of extravagance on my part but for some reason I have always wanted this ever since I did not buy it when it first came out ?!? It is kind of idiotic to shell out money for something that I could (and indeed planned out how to) build myself. Nevertheless it is an item that I have casually been looking for on and off, for a few years now. A couple of years back at Hotlead I saw one behind the bring and buy table, but I believe it had been scooped up by one of the volunteers, so close but so far. This one came from a store in the Netherlands, not eBay, not an auction and was at a reasonable price all things considered. It has arrived in good nick, and should paint up nicely.

It will go along well with my collection of crypts and tombs and also adds to my collection of Games Workshop foam scenic bits.

Nostalgia is a terrible thing, makes one long for too many things that one does not really need.

Weekly update 5 basing, basing and more basing

 

So one week later and I have already deviated from the plan. I now find myself not just dealing with my semi painted figures, I have moved on to anything that is in my line of sight! I have searched and searched (and several times searched again) any and all boxes in search of any warhammer stuff. I believe I have now looked into every photocopy paper box that I own, and that is a lot [30+]. Then I sorted through the treasures that I found within dividing the contents by army, Now typically this has in the past become a futile process that ends with the figures placed back into storage. 

NOT THIS TIME!

First up were my pseudo Imperial troops,

Weekly update 4

So, a strange switch of focus,

It started with Snotlings, specifically the 3 pump wagons that have been sitting around for many years. I finally re-primed them, and actually started painting them. This of course led me to look at all the Snotlings that I have, including 5 bases of 'painted' ones. Well those painted ones are now re-primed, and I have started to work on them. But naturally, if one starts looking at Snotlings, one will start looking at Goblins and Orcs too, just to see what is what.  Well, this past week I looked at every WH fantasy army that I have, an assessed what needs to be done and what is likely to get done, and what is just wishful thinking.

Recent arrivals

 

 Fantastic Battles arrived a couple of weeks ago, while Infamy, Infamy just arrived this week. My initial reaction to both rule books is very positive, despite some minor misgivings. Fantastic battles has a couple of items that I would like to tweak, nothing too big, but range and movement kind of bug me. 

For Infamy Infamy it is the fact that it is based on the general Fat Lardies rule system. However, while I have had challenges with it in other games, in Infamy Infamy it feels right to me. I have watched a few videos of the rules being explained, and a sample battle or two, and I must say I like the feel of the game. I particularly like the use of missions to make it more than just a stand up and pound on each other type of game.

 

 

Oathmark overview, my new go to fantasy game...?

Maybe.

There are a lot of reviews of the rules, and the quality of the book, out there on the net. Here is one such excellent review. I am not certain what more I can add to the myriad reviews. What I can offer, for what is worth, is more along the line of my likes and dislikes. This is of course a very bias approach, and my opinions are based on the style of game that I like.

Bombs awaaaayyyy! The siege has begun.

The long delayed siege game was started at last.

We used Tactica siege rules, and translated Orcs and Dwarfs into the system. All the siege towers were scratch built many, many years ago, as was the hoarding, and the mantlets.  Some items weather the ravages of time better than others, but none escaped any damage. The walls are of course the old Warhammer mighty fortress walls. GW also supplied the defenders weapons, most of the attackers and defenders, and the classic cardboard buildings.

Once more unto the breach...

So here is the last(hopefully) set up of the now infamous siege game. The plan remains to use the Tactica Medieval Rulebook, siege rules for the game. It was easy to adapt the fantasy elements of the game to those rules, and the rules look like they should provide a quick game.

More work done towards quick siege game

Background info:
Back in the 80's and 90's I got into Warhammer, played a lot of games, bought a fortress or two, and built a lot of siege equipment, kits and from scratch. It has been three, maybe four moves since I last did any real fantasy gaming. My collection has been packed and unpacked moved and jostled many times, each time causing varying amounts of damage.