New Game - New Table

Now that we're all locked down for the foreseeable future it's an opportunity to review my home gaming resources. First up the table.

Since I joined the local wargames club, many years ago (16 maybe?) I've not really had a need for a decent table. That said I've still hung on to my old table which resides in the darker recesses of the garage. This consists of 3 boards, each 4 foot by 2 foot, that can be assembled to give a 4 by 4 or a 6 by 4 foot table. The boards are simply placed atop two old ironing boards which has the added advantage that they allow some height adjustment. One side of the board is painted blue, for naval games, and the other side is flocked. I quite like the flocked side,which is as hard as nails, being sealed with an interior varnish; none of the surface has come off in over 30 years.

So what's the problem? First off they're really too big for the available space. I played last week's What a Tanker game on the 4 by 4 configuration and it all but filled the back room (aka the War Office).

My old 4 by 4 foot table 

Secondly, these boards are heavy; they're made from chipboard and are actually off cuts from when I replaced the garage roof. Dragging them out of the garage is a right old faff and usually ends with me doing my back in.
Thirdly, although I quite like the flocked side, the blue side is not great. It does have the advantage that features such as shoals etc. can simply be chalked onto the surface but it really is a bit basic looking. So much so in fact that, last year, I splashed out on a nice new sea mat. Hence, this side of the board is now redundant.
So what is needed is something more appropriate for the available space, lightweight and easily stored. I do remember that when I was a young lad (yes I can remember that long ago - just) I used to game on my Dad's wallpaper pasting table and wondered if I could use one of these as the basis for my table. Hence, after a trip to the local DIY outlet I purchased a suitable pasting table; which was fortuitous as this turned out to be the day before lockdown.

It must be said that these things are cheap and nasty; the advantage is that they are CHEAP, lightweight and easily stored. In its folded state, the table measures 3 foot by 2 foot.

Folded table

When set up, the full table is 6 foot by 2 foot. Not a particularly useful size but I did have a moment when I realised that two of these would give a standard 6 by 4 foot table. However, sanity prevailed as the only place that I could use a 6 by 4 table would be the lounge and that was never going to happen!

The fully extended table

However, as these things are so simply made, I figured that it shouldn't be too difficult to take it apart and reassemble it  in a more useful configuration. So after a bit of trial and error I reconfigured the table into a more useful 4 foot by 3 foot.

The disassembled table

The only extra bit of work needed was to add a couple of extra legs to make the table stable. The whole thing is a bit flimsy and wobbly but I reckon this is more than adequate for its intended use.

That said, due to lockdown, it has seen more use as an 'office' desk so far - and is proving a godsend in that respect.

My new 'office'

So now equipped with a new games table, this week's lockdown game would see its first use. Once again I put on a game using WhatsApp. This time around it would be a game of our Lion Rampant variant (Rampant Fistful) and involve four players. Each team of two would run one 22 point retinue. Although this would work well with 2 players, I chose teams of two as I believe the social aspect of the whole exercise is important. This time around there would be little fog of war and the whole game would play out on a single WhatsApp group. Each team did have their own group so that they could discuss tactics and the umpire could inform them of the card draw but everything else was open to both sides. This week we also had a guest player based in Cyprus so we were also dealing with different time zones; it all seemed to work well enough although it was to be a late night for our Cypriot player!

Although we're all gearing up for our Crusades campaign I didn't have enough figures for a crusades game. However by re-purposing my crusaders as English I could pit them against my original Scottish retinue. So the table was set up to represent somewhere in the Borders.

The battlefield

I had originally intended to flock the table surface but as it is so thin and flimsy I suspect that it would warp. Hence, I used a green cloth (much greener than the photo would suggest) as the playing surface. Looks like I need to invest in a nice mat for this project. The terrain consisted of bits and pieces from my Dark Age (Dux Brittaniarum) - terrain is going to be something else I need to upgrade!

For the game we would use the 'Hold on Tight' scenario, where both sides fight over a central objective. In this case it was to be the old tumulus known as St. Kevin's Tump; a vital landmark in setting the local land boundaries.

The Scots Retinue

Foot Men at Arms*

2 Foot Sergeants

Archers

Fierce Foot

The English Retinue

Mounted Men at Arms*

Mounted Sergeants

Foot Sergeants

2 Crossbow

The game itself ran smoothly enough after the first few card plays; there was a small learning curve as players became used to the system but by and large were up and running pretty quick. For this game I dealt the cards and informed the two teams of their respective hands via their team WhatsApp groups. When activated, the players rolled their own dice and informed the umpire of the result. I then moved the figures or removed casualties as appropriate. This does require players to be honest with their dice rolls but as we're all gentlemen that was no problem.

From the outset, the English appeared to have the better plan (or a plan). Essentially the mounted and crossbows would cover the flanks whilst, in the centre, the Foot Sergeants headed for the Tump.

For their part the Scots were intimidated by the crossbow (I believe the comment was 'Two lots of crossbows? WTF?!!')

The English Plan

Both sides advance cautiously; the English to maintain a battleline, the Scots to stay in cover. In the end the English advanced to the tump and kept possession of it until the end. The Scots, for their part, seemed to have forgotten their mission and only contested possession of the tump in the last move. That said, their fear of the crossbows proved well founded as these wreaked havoc whenever they shot.

English Advance

Scots Advance

Scots seek cover 

Battle lines

English seize tump

Endgame

In normal circumstances, we usually play until 'pub o'clock' and then assess victory points. In this case we played until bedtime (or well past in Cyprus). In the end it was a decisive victory for the English with 5 Glory points versus the Scots 2 Glory points.

English Casualties

Scots Casualties

A Rampant Fistful

Well it seems I haven't blogged in awhile but with the unexpected and enforced time at home I thought I'd catch up with what we have been doing; this was meant to be a sort of wargames diary after all.
The big discovery of the year has undoubtedly been the introduction of the Fistful of Lead rules to the club repertoire (thanks Nellkyn).

A big problem we have at the club is that although there are many fine rule sets out there, for all sorts of eras and / or genres, not many cater for a large number of players. Many rules can be tweaked and house ruled enough to make them work for multiple players but not many are designed this way from the ground up. FFoL does exactly that; it will easily handle up to 8 players each with their own force. Now this is a skirmish game with each player controlling about five figures but this is perfect for a club environment where the entry level for each player is very low. It also allows us to try out all sorts of genres with minimum expenditure.
Our first game was over the Christmas period where one of our members introduced us to the rules with his rather nice collection of Border Reivers.

Clan Quilp go a-reiving

After one game I immediately took to the rules and bought a copy at once. With a bit of experimentation I also discovered that they work quite well solo as well. Looking around for suitable figures I grabbed a bunch of pirates from my son's old toy box and set to and had a blast.

After that, I thought I'd go to the opposite extreme and try something a bit more serious. I laid down a couple of my WW1 western front terrain boards and in no time at all I was carrying out a trench raid with 28mm figures.

A  Fistful of Mud

Once again the rules worked fine and I had a great time. So having tried the extremes of eight players and one player, I next went for a standard two player game; digging out a handful of figures from my 20mm VBCW collection.

Peaky Durham Blinders

Another hit and another great game.

After the Christmas break it was back to the club and a test game for this years summer campaign - the Crusades. Having put on a multi-player medieval campaign before I suggested that we use Lion Rampant as our base rule set. In a complete coincidence, it also appears that a crusading supplement for Lion Rampant was in the works and was said to be due out for Salute.

Everything seemed perfect then for the choice of Lion Rampant as our campaign rule set and we set to giving it a run out. We hit one snag though; not everyone liked it! Those players that had played before had a great time but the new players ranged from lukewarm to hating it.

Spot the veterans

The main problem was the activation system, which is probably the most contentious part of the Lion Rampant rules. With this system if you fail a unit activation then its also the end of your turn. For a multiplayer environment that can mean you can wait along time for your turn only to fail it on the first dice roll. Our veterans were fine with this but it was clear that this wasn't going to cut it with everyone. Then came the Eureka moment. A Lion Rampant retinue is in the region of 5 units per player and we have eight players. A Fistful of Lead handles up to eight players with about five figures each. If we consider each figure, in FFoL, to be a separate unit then the two games are identical in scope. Why not then use the FFoL activation system with the Lion Rampant game mechanics? After a quick solo test I believed I was on to something.

Half scale Lion Rampant play test

The system I came up with was to use the FFoL card system to determine when a unit is activated. Once activated then the Lion Rampant play sequence is followed for that unit. The unit still has to roll to move, shoot or charge but a fail only ends the turn for that unit not the whole retinue.

With some trepidation, I introduced the idea to our veteran Lion Rampant players and it was an immediate hit and , in our opinion, actually improves upon the base game to  some extent.

Having shown proof of principle, we then offered it to our would be crusaders. Once again, it was a great hit and it appeared that we had our crusades rule set.

Crusades play test

So it was game on and most of us have been frantically buying and painting figures for the Great Crusade. Although it has to be said not everyone is taking it seriously......

So everything was fine and dandy..........until the zombie apocalypse hit and the world changed. We're still forging ahead with preparations for the crusade though, it just might be postponed a bit. At least we all have painting time now.