Monday 29 July 2019

Saturday 20 July 2019

Four Against Ragnarok - the first run through

Andrew, Joel and Jim were kind enough to help me give Four Against Ragnarok (4AR) a run through for the first time. 4AR is a sister game (more like a half-sister, or a cousin) of my Four Against the Titans, and will sit as a stand-alone game in Ganesha Games' Four Against Darkness series.  

As can probably be guessed from the title, 4AR is a Norse-themed mythological adventure, where the player/s take on the roll of four characters (at a time) trying to make a name for themselves in a North Atlantic world filled with ill-begotten monsters and legendary creatures. The party moves around a map, exploring regions and completing quests.


However, the ultimate aim is to have your characters become famous and powerful, and then die in glorious battle. The key is to die famous in the hope that the character will be taken to Valhalla. Once you have four dead heroes feasting Valhalla, the end game begins and the party of four heroically dead characters then set off to help the gods during Ragnarok.

The first game ended with a total party kill, quite ingloriously, in the party's second engagement. Game two ran better. Over a couple of hours we managed to get our Dvergr up to level 4, the Skald and the Bastard both up to level 3. Our Aelf was lured away by a Selkie off the coast of Alba, the Wyrd drowned on the sea crossing to Danmark, while the final character to join the party was a Warrior who sat around and didn't really do much at all. So far it seems to work very fluidly with only the odd tweak required for game balance.

Summer gaming

A lot, but not all, of our gaming gets fully posted on here. Here are a few additional photos to give a flavour of what we've been up to over the summer so far.

Lee and I had a go with our 1/600 scale ancient war galleys - my assorted vessels (quadreme, trihemiolia, and two hemioliai) were all from Xyston, while his triereme squadron from Skytrex mixed well on the same table. Lee quickly managed to sink my trihemiolia and capture a hemiolia, but then my remaining galleys pulled their proverbial finger out and got to work, sinking all three of his trieremes.

Brett, Lee and I played a three way treasure island game of Galleys & Galleons. Lee was running his own squadron for the first time, so he had a number/points advantage, but he didn't need it. My two Dutch cromsters took the fight to everyone and performed remarkably well, but Lee managed to find the only treasure on the archipelago and, although I had him grappled and on the back foot in a boarding action, managed to cut his way free to victory. Brett struggled with wind issues and poor activations for much of the engagement...

Brett and I got a great game of Dan Mersey's Battle Ravens in, using the Scots warband for the first time. It was a damned near run thing and, as you can see from the second photo, the ravens were glutted that evening. My Saxons broke the ginger hedge Scots ranks in two places, but Brett's Scots broke me in three areas and won the day.

Jim, Joel and Andrew helped me test out half a game of the as yet unnamed but perhaps Shadow of Sherwood pitching three Anglo-Danish outlaw types against four archers, four sergeants, and a mounted knight in an attempt to 'rescue' the maiden. It was only half a game because we ended up talking more about the mechanics and how they might be done differently to simulate different events. What happens, for example, if a villain (an NPC controlled by the AI) is running towards and alarm, but stumbles upon the newly deceased body of a colleague? So, more work to do there... 

Wednesday 17 July 2019

28mm Shadows from Sherwood (part 2)

Continuing on with my new medieval collection for outlaw-ish deeds of daring, here are the rest of my current wolfsheads:

Well-fed friar (AKA Friar Tuck), Trent Miniatures

Alan-a-Dale (note the lute strapped to his back), Midlam Miniatures

Sir Wilfred of Ivanhoe, recently returned from Crusade (or Hereward the Wake, recently returned from Flanders), Gripping Beast Miniatures with a shield swap

Generic Norseman, probably supporting Hereward the Wake...? Wargames Foundry with added bow and scratch-built arrow 

Next...? On with some villains!

Saturday 6 July 2019

28mm Shadows from Sherwood (part 1)

As rule writing gets into full swing for my forthcoming game of stealth and derring-do, the collection of medieval outlaws has likewise begun. The core game mechanics are derived from my pre-historic hunting game, Palaeo Diet: Eat or be Eaten, but there will be more nuance and a significant amount of tweaking to better reflect the area of awareness exerted by non-player villains. The working title is Shadow of Sherwood...

The first of my new medieval collection are below:

Robin Hood, Conquest Games

Little John, Conquest Games

Will Scarlet, Conquest Games

Much the Millar's Son, Conquest Games

Generic noblewoman (AKA Marian), Trent Miniatures