Mars Attacks, 20mm SciFi

In August, we deviated from our usual Historical Miniatures games to play a SciFi game with my friend Bob's collection of Reviresco "War of the Worlds" Martians vs the British. We have played this before and it is a blast. 

Bob has his own home rules for this game, and it includes Martian ray, plasma, and poison gas weapons, while the British get Lee-Enfield .303 bolt action rifles and 18 pounder quick firing guns. There are limitations on how much & often plasma & poison gas can be used, but ray weapons can be used every turn. Hits are taken by all units. The tripods can take 24 hits each. British infantry & artillery can each take about 5.

 Quiet, sleepy Huddersfield. British infantry and the Royal Artillery advance towards the town to defend it from the Martian invaders.

 An arial view from a Sopwith Pup observation aircraft.

 The invaders have arrived, ready to wreak havoc & destruction. 

 Note the dismounted Martians at the base of each tripod, who act as tripod maintenance troops in the game. They can "repair" hits on the tripods, which is about all they are good for.

 A Martian plasma weapon incinerates two buildings and their contents.

 Close-up view of the Martians, who can repair damage to the tripods. 

 Another view of the Martians, who look somewhat like a gob of phlegm.

 The Martians release a poison gas cloud, which moves in a fluctuating manner with the wind.

 The town is burning and gassed. The British are staying out of the town, but in line of fire of the Martians.

 Another view of the town.

 The gas is lingering in the same spot. Gas, like plasma, auto kills anything in or under it.

 The Brits have killed a tripod. Dismounted Martians are moving to the center tripod, as it's dismounts have been killed by artillery and bullets.

 The Brits moving around the smoldering ruins of a couple buildings. The Brits were able to keep up a constant barrage against the Martians and eventually destroyed two tripods and 3 dismounted Martians.

A Martian survivor.

New Kingdom Egyptians vs Hittites Battle in 25mm

My friend Al recently finished painting armies of New Kingdom Egyptians and Hittites in 25mm. The figures were obtained years ago and are mostly from the Ral Partha ancients range, with a few newer Warlord figures added. In July, 5 of us gathered at Al's house to try them out in a game.

The figures are all mounted on individual bases, so our game needed to adapt to that reality. We settled on using a home-made set of rules that we use for re-fighting Hastings. The rules involve individual figures fighting each other with each figure throwing a set of 2 different colored dice, one an attack die, the other a defender die. The side whose turn it is rolls both die for each attacking figure, adding modifiers to the attack die. The defender rolls both die and adds modifiers to the defender die. The difference in scores is the result: equal scores no effect, +1 better than the enemy means the enemy retreats or falls back. +2 or more than the enemy and they are killed. If there is no result (tie), the defender then uses their attack die roll result, adding modifiers, to counter attack the enemy figure, which uses it's defender die roll result. Missile fire involves individual shooters rolling for kills.

Below is our game with Al's beautiful figures. Click on a photo to enlarge.

 Hittite forces deployed.

 A view of the far end of our gaming table (which measured about 5' x 3.5').

 Pharaoh's chariot (upper left in photo) and 4 war chariots & runners.

 Not wasting any time, the Hittites launch an attack against the center of the Egyptian line.

 Pharaoh leads the way against the Hittites.

 The formidable Hittite heavy chariots.

 Egyptian allied troops receiving the Hittite charge.

 Chariot vs chariot combat.

 Hittite spearmen holding the hilltop.

 Overview of the battle.

 Hittite chariots fighting Egyptian heavy infantry.

 A Hittite chariot being hit in the front & flank.

 Pharaoh leads a counter attack.

Chariots from both sides passing one another.

There wasn't a clear winner in our game, both sides suffered a lot of casualties. The rules worked OK, as we were already familiar with how they work. We could try other rules. Playing DBA would require sabot bases. There is another set of rules we could try that uses individual bases by Phil Barker called DBV (De Bellis Velitum), available at this link. 

ACW Battle Using "Firepower" Rules

This post is a further update on what we've been doing the past few months. Back in June, Bob & I played a small 28mm ACW scenario using the Perry's rules called "Firepower." The latest version of the rules are currently available only if you buy the Perry's "Battle in a Box" ACW plastic figures set. If you want a review of the current rules, go to this link. For this game we used a previous version of the rules.

Bob's 28mm ACW collection are Dixon figures, with individually mounted figures on movement trays. The scenario we were using was an attack scenario for the Union, who outnumbered the Confederates 8 units (5 infantry, 3 artillery) to 6 (4 infantry, 2 artillery in redoubts), and had to get across the stream in force

 Above is the set up for the game. 

 View of the Confederate side. The infantry regiment near the stone bridge was behind earthworks.

 Overview of the Union force.

 Another overview of the Union force.

 Closeup of a Confederate infantry regiment.

  Closeup of a Union infantry regiment.

Action on turn 2. The Union artillery pounded the Confederate infantry regiment across the river, which suffered casualties (far left in photo). The Union are now mostly advancing with the far left regiment (lower right in photo) suffering almost 50% casualties.

 Close-up of the Union left flank units.

 A view from looking over the Confederate right flank. A Union infantry regiment has advanced across the field to take cover behind a building (mid-right in photo).

 A close-up view of the Union infantry in cover and the Union units across the road (above).

 Later in the game, a Confederate infantry regiment has taken casualties and falls back from the stream. The artillery in the redoubt has lost all of it's gunners.

 Confederates on the far side of the stone bridge have taken severe casualties. The remnants of an infantry regiment are seen in the foreground. The gun in the redoubt has fallen back (left).

 The Union firing line. Note the nearest regiment has suffered over 50% casualties. Union strategy was to advance their units into range, stop and engage with clear field of fire for all units, hoping their superior numbers would take effect (which it did).

The right flank Union infantry regiment advancing towards the stream.

The "Firepower" rules are simple, deadly, and effective. After a few turns, the Confederates conceded defeat. The Union strategy of advancing only into range and engaging with superior numbers seemed to work this time, in spite of a few of the Confederate units in cover.

Crassus Lives! Marian Romans vs Parthians, DBA 3.0 Part 2

What follows is part 2 of our Marian Roman vs Parthian battles using DBA 3.0. In the second battle, Bob & I switched sides so we could experience commanding each army. Hopefully, lessons from our first game will carry over to the second.

The Romans are deployed. The Roman cavalry is on their right, light horse (LH), fast auxilia, & psiloi on their left.

 The Parthians deploy in 3 groups, with cataphracts in the center. Note: we used a less restrictive deployment for both games and the battlefield was deeper than the standard. We also mount 3 cataphract figures instead of 4 to an element, as 4 will not fit in 28mm scale to a 60mm frontage base.

 The Parthians advance their right flank LH to counter the Romans near the small woods.

 On the left flank, the Parthian advanced to engage the Roman right and apply pressure on both flanks, something not done in the previous game.

 There was a lot of maneuvering on the Parthian left, neither side able to get an advantage. The Roman legionaries are massed in the center.

 On the Parthian right, 3 elements of LH and 1 of fast bows are facing 2 Roman Asiatic LH, a Thracian fast auxilia, and a psiloi.

 An overview of the battle so far. Both flanks are heavily engaged.

 The Parthians have lost 2 elements on their right flank, while the left flank is still indecisive.

 A Parthian fast bow advances on to assist the left flank.

 Both sides have now lost 3 elements each. On the Parthian left, both sides have lost an element as the Parthian fast bow has made it's presence felt. On the Parthian right, both sides have now lost 2 elements each. The battle is set to go either way. 

On the Parthian left, the battle is lost as the Romans manage to kill another Parthian LH before they are killed. Final score: 3-4 Roman win.

Neither side were able to bring their center groups into contact. This was probably due to the extra distance between the two armies, with the pips being needed on the flanks once both sides were engaged there. Crassus survived both encounters.