Tuesday 15 March 2016

RPG Questing 1

(Something a little different - the saga of an RPG game I played recently with some friends. The first part was all planned out by our friend R, but after that he came up with it spontaneously, reacting to our decisions - and it made for one epic story - certainly worthy of writing up!)
 
This is the tale of our quest. There were three of us journeying together, Myself (Prince Vladimir Kugesdorf) and my companions Dr. Villhelm van Burro and Nicola.
 
(My character and his stats - Strength, speed, dexterity, intelligence, willpower and instinct - along with his representative lego model!) 
 
I was an outlaw from my native state, Streslau, in the province of Estavia, but I should have been its ruler. I was once the crown prince of Streslau, but then, when the day of my coronation came, I was put under a trance. When I awoke it was over, and a changeling sorcerer who had assumed my image had been crowned Prince of Streslau. I tried to force my claim, but I was stopped, declared a pretender and an outlaw and forced into exile. After that I wandered the world. I managed to leave with a sword and armour from the royal armoury, and I had since learned to bend metals with magic. By working for the guild I hoped to one day find a way back to my rightful throne.
 
My companion Dr. Villhelm van Burro, the moustached 16 year old, was an expert in explosives and also possessed some power with fire magic, while Nicola was a mage powerful in art of illusionist shadow magic.
 
Hired from all corners of the world and all walks of life, our band had been despatched by the guild to hunt down an outlaw in the Village of Elbion. On arrival things had quickly got a lot darker. We searched the local archive which led us to a suspicious abandoned farm outside the village. While there we found a diary by an occupant named Harrison, who seemed to have had a run in with our original target, a fellow named Aaron, we also found a rather odd crystal. These discoveries led us to another farm which is where Aaron supposedly lived, but on arrival the darkness thickened.
We were immediately attacked by a flock of crows, most of whom we killed but a couple fled, flying for the mountains to the north.
We found a barn filled with mutilated bodies and covered in blood, and on entering the house we found a blood soaked altar in the basement with the words ‘praise Idaion’ scrawled across the walls. We also discovered a wisp floating around the house – proof of the dark goings on.
We decided to head after the crows. This led us into the mountains where we followed a figure into a mountainside tomb. We caught him. He proved to be Harrison, but he was completely out of his mind. We ventured further into the cave and were attacked by a black robed figure, we tried to fight him, but, after taking the crystal from us, he disappeared into thin air.
 
On further questioning it seemed that Harrison had been out of his mind since first finding the crystal, that he, under its influence, must have killed Aaron and his family and scrawled those words in the altar room. We headed back to the house.
We journeyed through the night, but suddenly we found ourselves surrounded by ten wolves. One leapt towards me, but I beat its jaws back with my buckler and took out its stomach with a swipe of my rapier. In the ensuing fight, I slashed my way through five wolves, while Villhelm threw a bomb, killing two, before fleeing up a tree. They snapped at him, but he leapt back down, spade out, killing another. Nicola struck down two others. There was a strange feeling of dark magic about these creatures, but we had killed them all, so we journeyed on through the night.
 
Heading back we felt uneasy, Villhelm began planting a trap bomb in the doorway while Nicola entered the house. On entering she was suddenly bowled over by a great black shadow. Fumbling to finish his bomb, Villhelm suddenly set it off by accident. The explosion hurled him through the air and knocked me off my feet. It had blown a great hole in the side of the building, through which I could see the dark creature reeling from the explosion – I got to my feet and darted after it.
But on my arrival in the hall I could not see it. Suddenly it fell from the ceiling knocking me flat. I managed to throw it off as Nicola staggered back into the hall. I hacked at the creature, but it seemed to do little damage. It leapt at me again, but this time I was ready. I fended it off and lunged again – this time I skewered it. It burst into a cloud of shadow and evaporated.
We left. Villhelm had only just regained consciousness and was terribly burnt with several broken bones, so we carried him back to the town
 
On entering the town there was great commotion. We spotted a strange fellow from Atoria, you don’t see many of them in these parts so he stood out. We approached him and began talking. We revealed what we knew about the crystal, which it turned out this fellow was also searching for – he called it a sky crystal, and told us that the dark creature we had fought in the house was a spirit, in this case the wisp, twisted by dark magic. His name was Avir and he now took us inside the town bar to meet his master. He introduced us to a woman dressed all in white and a short fellow in a conical hat. Both were from Atoria as well. They were called Careko and Rakanas. We talked with them about what we had discovered.
But suddenly the captain of the town guard rushed in. The local town of Marlborough was apparently in flames, the smoke clear from here. We three quickly decided to go with the guards, Avir decided to come along with us. On our way out Villhelm asked Careko to heal him and as she waved her hand we all felt rejuvenated.
 
We rushed out and down the road, together with the town militia. More wolves appeared on our path, but we charged them, quickly brushing them out of our way.
On entering the town we found the whole place in flames, bodies littering the streets. But seemingly no one about. However as we walked closer the bodies began moving, re-animating. Soon we were faced with a town’s worth of zombies! I rushed forwards with the town militia, while Avir stood sword drawn in the middle of the court. Villhelm and Nicola rushed over towards a house on the right. I led the militia in our fight, hacking through corpses, severing spines and splitting bones. Meanwhile Villhelm had started setting up a bomb, ready to detonate. He and Nicola lured the zombies towards it, before diving inside the house behind them, two zombies followed them in as the fuse burned and several other clawed towards the house. The bomb detonated. All the zombies around it were blown apart, while the blast caused the roof and front of the house to collapse. Nicola and Villhelm rose from the rubble, very battered, but with all the zombies around them destroyed.
The militia cut down the last zombie, and we looked about us. All but two of the militiamen had been killed in the fight. We headed for the mysterious feeling chapel. We entered. There were three of the strange dark spirit creatures climbing around the rafters so we advanced cautiously, the militia with their spears upraised. As the creature climbed down to face us Villhelm chucked another bomb. It exploded, blowing apart the back end of the chapel, and seemingly killing the three beasts under a pile of falling rubble. We approached. Suddenly a new creature burst from the rubble. The three had melded into one! We rushed for it!
In the ensuing fight another of Villhelm’s bombs blew it into two creatures one of which I killed, though only after it had struck down the other two militia men, while Nicola took down the other.
With nothing else to see we returned to the town with our news.
 
(Our representative models (Wilhelm is the Tuscan-clown...) fighting the beasts in the blown out chapel)
 
On our return Careko invited us to join her party on this quest and, after sending word to the guild of our findings, we agreed. We journeyed with the three of them, heading north to a ruin they thought may prove a lead. We had to traverse a graveyard on our way. Zombies attack us there, clear sign that we were on the right track, and we saw the fighting prowess of our companions.
We at last reached the ruin. The entrance was sealed with magic, but Careko quickly taught Villhelm a spell to break seals and so Villhelm, Careko and Rakanas held open the entrance, while myself, Nicola and Avir rushed through with our weapons. Coming into a great hall, we were approached by two figure, a male warrior and female spellcaster. I questioned them, they were from the Nightingale guild, but they would not tell me their business, so I threatened them. Having no luck that way, I rushed to the attack. Roots suddenly grabbed me, and a third figure appeared behind us, attacking Nicola with two knives. A fought the warrior, while I fought the roots.
A was struck down and Nicola was having a hard time. I at last broke free from one of the roots, only to be faced with a wolf summoned by the spellcaster. Things looked bad, but at last we got the upper hand, and after another while of bitter fighting, I managed to kill both the warrior and spellcaster, while Nicola struck down the other, and we killed the wolf twice, as the spellcaster, clearly a necromancer, had raised it up again.
By the time the other three had destroyed the seals and come through we had cleared the room. But as we ventured further we saw the caped figure, who had stolen the crystal from us, again! He was standing over a kneeling figure and holding the crystal.
Suddenly the person changed into someone else and he started questioning them. We watched in a state of shock. But then I ran forward, sword raised. He produced a scroll from his robes and disappeared in the blink of an eye and the kneeling figure, now completely transformed turned to fight us.
We tried to kill it, but whatever damage we did just reformed. At last our companions undid the magic, and the original figure dropped to the floor dead. There was no sign of the dark figure. But from their conversation we now had some idea what was going on.
 
So it seemed that the shadowy figure was using the crystal to resurrect people in his search to bring back the great necromancer Idaion who had, several centuries ago, brought the entire world close to destruction with his undead army.
 
We travelled on with them. On our journey they taught Nicola, and Villhelm spells, while I sparred with their finest swordsman Avir. Rakanas also gave Villhelm some of his transporting knives.
Hearing of increasing rising tensions between the people of Tanlore and Caledor, Careko headed to the peace conference as an intermediary between the two sides. I went with her as her secretary, since I had been trained in the art of state craft in preparation for taking the throne that was rightfully mine. Our other companions accompanied us.  
On arrival we gathered that Tanlore was accusing Caledor of harbouring dark guilds and demanding that they hand over the town of Shala where the guild was supposedly hiding. Caledor accused Tanlore of warmongering and demanded the return of several border towns they had occupied.
I proposed an idea to B of how we might help to resolve this. We three would travel to Shala and search for these dark guilds. If we found anything we would destroy it and if we didn’t then so much the better, either way we would report back that there were no dark guilds in Caledor, and so solve the dispute. Careko thought it a good idea and so we set off.
On our arrival the presence of darkness was obvious. The town was abandoned and still burning in parts we went to the mayors’ office and found his papers. They showed that he had indeed been helping the nightingale guild. I copied down the most important bits in a code of my own invention and then destroyed the originals.
We headed across the town to the chapel. There we found those words – praise Idaion – scrawled across a wall in blood. We decided to rub out all trace of them. But while we were doing this we felt a strong magical force growing closer, but it was not necessarily dark.
We peeped out of the chapel doors as it arrived in the town. A blast of lighting tore the doors off and revealed us. A bright figure stood in the square. He began questioning us.
He turned out to be Caspian, living saint of Caledor, one of the nine living saints, the most powerful light wizards, of which Careko was also one. He was here for a similar reason to us, to find any trace of dark guilds, and he was most displeased to find that we had destroyed all trace of them. Though he was a bit more pleased when I showed him my notes, and even complimented me on my code.
We all four searched the chapel again, and this time we found some papers from the Nightingale guild telling of how they had bewitched the town’s mayor. These could avert war! I thus pocketed them.
 
Caspian said the Caledonian legion was on its way to the border, where it may start hostilities with Tanlore, he thus persuaded us to head for the legion with our evidence. I persuaded him not to show the general our evidence and instead just to try and persuade him as a living saint to put off the general from hostilities.
As we travelled Caspian told us of Idaion and Telimir the two cousins who had reduced the world with their necromancy, and of Paladin, the warrior who had killed them and then disappeared, thus saving the world.
I also asked him of the living saints of Estavia, for I wondered whether these powerful beings might be able to help me defeat the changeling who had stolen my throne. He said there were two, an Ice Wizard named Illara and Sebastian the illusionist. I asked him whether they could divine truth and he said Sebastian probably could, but he was a bad tempered eccentric who had not been seen for many years.
We at last arrived at the camp. The general of the legion was suspicious and argued with us, but was willing to believe Caspian. However we were sent to high command with our evidence. I however, though I would show them my evidence, refused to entrust them with it. After much debate we were sent back to the legion and they promised not to attack Tanlore.
We headed off for the conference with our evidence. I had also thought of a great idea to solve the dispute between Tanlore and Caledor forever! But then a rider appeared on the track, much distressed. He said there was a dark wizard on the track up ahead. We rushed off with Caspian to deal with it, I told the messenger to tell the general of the legion not to advance, for we had this dealt with. He told us he would take his orders from the general.
 
As we advanced we saw that same cloaked figure with the sky crystal, and another figure kneeling before him, both up on a cliff before us. Suddenly the figure again changed – this time into a warrior, wrapped in lion fur, with lacquered armour, a katana and large chain hanging from his belt. I quickly turned the metal of his blade and chain into shackles to bind his hands, but he seemed not to notice. They began talking.
We decided to shout and throw stones at them to try and keep them from talking, but they ignored us and we soon stopped. From their conversation we realised that this new warrior was Telimir, cousin of Idaion.
Having gathered all the information he needed from Telimir, the shadowy figure again drew out a scroll and disappeared. But then we heard and saw them. A whole battalion of Caledonian cavalrymen coming up the path and charging straight for Telimir. As the approached he snapped my bindings and threw himself into their midst. It was slaughter. Telimir ripped through their ranks. We decided to approach. He had finished tearing apart the battalion as Caspian approached to fight him. The two fought, but Caspian was quickly beaten back. I turned the metal bindings into a snake, which Nicola made fly and Villhelm made breath fire, we tried to distract him with this but it didn’t work. So we rushed in to distract Telimir, but he hurled us back and beat Caspian once more. We decided the best thing to do was run.
We began running, but Telimir used magic to tear great boulders the size of houses from mountains around, hurling them down at us with magic. Caspian caught one with magic, but another was flying fast towards us! It would surely all be over. But suddenly Rakanas appeared beside Villhelm! He had used one of the magic knives which he had given Villhelm to transport himself to us. He grabbed hold of all four of us and we vanished, reappearing in the conference room beside Careko.
 
I presented our evidence to Careko and told the assembled delegates about Telimir, but they would not believe us. The entire Caledonian legion had apparently been destroyed and the Caledonian minister would not believe that it had been destroyed by Telimir, claiming that the Tanlore had attacked. Both sides would not listen to my evidence, and though I pleaded they would not step off the war path. I condemned them to their warmongering and gave up, all thoughts of my idea for eternal peace between them gone. With Tanlore and Caledor now at war there would soon be plenty of dead for Telimir and Idaion to create an army from.
 
We headed off with Careko and Rakanas to join the rest of their party in the great city of Paladin. We had no idea about how we were to stop Telimir or the shadowy figure from bringing Idaion back – the world’s destruction seemed certain.
We arrived in the city and met the rest of their party, including their lightning dragon slayer and the young Sage Tel-Marin. We inhabited the bars mostly, myself telling anyone who would listen that I was the rightful prince of Streslau, I even duelled a man who insulted me over it.
We were at a loss when Villhelm suddenly had an idea! We should summon all the nine living saints to a council and they would bring back Paladin! He alone could save us in this hour! Caspian and Careko thought it a great idea and so they set about summoning the other six living saints whose whereabouts were known.
 
There was only Sebastian the illusionist of Estavia whose whereabouts was unknown, and so we three set off to find him. It was my great wish to find Sebastian and plead with him to help me recover the throne of Streslau from the changeling wizard who had stolen it! Thus I saw in this quest, not only the saving of the world, but also the return of my throne!
We headed to my homeland of Estavia. We went to the last town where Sebastian had been seen and asked the rather old and odd inhabitants, who seemed to think Sebastian was rather odd. We realised he must be very mad, but there was no lead. But then Villhelm had another idea, and so they persuaded me to return to Streslau. I was none too keen on the idea, but I went with them. In Streslau we decided to approach the palace and ask the ‘prince’, what a rascal, if he knew where Sebastian was. I entered the palace with my face covered in a great hood – I was an outlaw here.
We asked the guards to let us in, and they went to ask the prince. While they were gone we decided to go in anyway. We approached the guards, including the first, on the door of the prince’s hall.  Seeing us they demanded we halt, but we began running. They caught myself and Nicola, but Villhelm got through. Running up to the prince, he bowed. The prince demanded why he had been admitted, but Villhelm continued. He asked the prince if he knew where Sabastian the illusionist, the living saint of Estavia, was. The prince paused awkwardly, before repeating what we had already heard, that Sebastian had disappeared. Villhelm was bundled out by the guards, but we knew enough now.
 
We were locked in the prison, but it was easy work to get out as I turned the metal bars to liquid and we stepped out. The two guards outside started in surprise, one falling backwards off his stool. We darted upstairs before they could stop us. We again ran for the Prince’s chamber. This time Villhelm and Nicola were tackled by the guards, but I got through.
I rushed up to the prince and through back my hood. “Yes it is me,” I shouted, “I know who you are, Sebastian!”
He glared at me. “How clever of you!”
I then asked him for his help in saving the world. He asked why he should want to leave this place, where he was very happy living as a prince. I said he could take a bigger kingdom, he said this one was a comfortable size. I said that when Idaion came back he would destroy everything, even tiny Streslau. He sighed and changed into a white haired old man. I had my throne back.
I commanded the guards to let my friends go. I showed them my ring, telling them that this was the symbol of the Prince now. After re-equipping myself from the palace armoury, the three of us left my kingdom with Sebastian, heading back to the living saints.
 
But as we rested on our journey, Nicola had a dream in which a voice told her that the plan would not work. Paladin could not be brought back, instead there was an Antirian ruin outside Paladin where we would find the key to defeating Idaion. We decided to follow it.
 
We arrived in Paladin and were directed to the pyramid. It was a dark place. We entered and began crossing a great stone bridge over a chasm. Suddenly there were dark spirit creatures pouring up the sides, we rushed forwards to fight them. We hurled them from the sides of the bridge, and stabbed at them, yet more kept coming. Villhelm decided to blow the bridge. He blew the first part, sending several of the creatures falling, but more kept coming. We ran on. Nicola turned herself into one of the creatures to try and blend in. Villhelm blew another part of the bridge. But there were more approaching from the other end. This looked to be the end, and there was a dark shadowy figure approaching us from along the bridge. However he seemed to be sucking up the dark spirits – absorbing them. The rest fled from him.
The figure declared that he was Legion, the head of the Fallen. He was the voice in Nicola’s head he said, and he would defeat Idaion. He did not feel dark or light, instead a perfect balance of the two.
Legion told us that to defeat Idaion we must help him. We must go to the Vampire isles and recover a young vampire girl there called Reign. She was possessed of great power which, to defeat Idaion, Legion must absorb from her. He said that we need only tell her brother that Legion had sent us and he would send her back with us.
 
(the three of us (and Sebastian on the far left) fight off the spirits. Villhelm has blown the bridge and Nicola (top) is disguised as a creature)
 
So we left. Villhelm and Nicola were terribly suspicious of Legion. They did not believe he was good at all, and so we decided that we would go along with his quest, get Reign, but take her to the living saints, rather than to Legion.
 
We made for the coast, and there we charted one of the few ships to the Vampire isles. It was a pirate vessel captained by an old pirate who had lost both his eyes and legs pirating, so we set sail.
But as we were on the sea a ship approached rapidly. It was a vampire pirate vessel and they attacked us. Nicola tried to fly a barrel of gunpowder over to their ship but dropped it. I tried to rip the metal hull apart, but didn’t manage it. We told them who we had come for as they approached, and they promised not to kill us three, but they would kill all the pirates. They attacked. Their leader, Harlock, charged forward and I rushed to attack him, but he threw me back knocking me unconscious, before slaughtering the rest of the ship’s crew.
 
We woke up in a dungeon. The bars were not metal and there seemed no way out. We asked to speak to Reign and she was sent down. She was a young girl, about 9 years old. We tried to flatter and impress her with great bows and gestures, we made my belt buckle into a flying fire breathing snake, which amused her greatly. I then formed this into a rose shaped bracelet on her wrist, and we asked to speak to her brother Antaris.
He came and we told him Legion had sent us. He sighed, but at last we were let out. He said he would travel with us and rain to Legion. I tried to pretend that Legion had said Rain had to travel alone, but there was no fooling him, he had known this day would come and he knew what to do.
 
As we travelled back towards Legion’s pyramid, there seemed no taking Reign to the living saints with Antaris with us. As we rested we talked about killing Antaris and having Nicola pretend to be him to keep Rain in the dark as we took her to the living saints, but Nicola wouldn’t do it. We decided then to tell Antaris everything.
He then revealed to us that he was one of the fallen, and also that he had no intention of handing his sister over to Legion who he did not trust either. He said there was a plot between him and another member of the fallen to destroy Legion, Rain was to be the bait. There seemed little else but to go along with him. But we wrote to Careko and Caspian of what was going on.
 
We headed into Paladin where we found Caspian and Careko hidden and waiting. We also saw the fallen entering the temple, Antaris and Reign went in, and there to our surprise was Rakanas as well.
We waited outside. Suddenly however there was the noise of fighting from inside. We rushed in.
The ceremony was going on – Legion standing over Reign, but the fallen were rushing to fight. Telimir and the shadowy figure had appeared in their midst and were trying to fight their way through to Reign! Careko and Caspian now appeared. I ran with them to attack Telimir, who was fighting off some of the fallen, while Nicola pulled Reign away from Legion and over to her with her mind. Villhelm followed me as Nicola raced out of the chamber.
Telimir as before fought us all off, throwing us back with his great chain, but then one of the fallen, a very strange creature with green gnarled skin, blasted him with magic, hurling him through the wall. We raced after him. On the otherside of the chamber, Rakanas chased the shadowy figure down a corridor.
 
In the Labyrinths confusion ensued. Myself, Careko, Antaris and Caspian raced one way, while Villhelm, having blown up a wall, raced another, straight into Telimir who was fighting hard. Nicola had in the meantime hidden Reign behind a pillar down a passage and shapeshifted into her.  Legion and Telimir were in the midst of a thunderous magical battle, while Rakanas and the shadowy figure were still fighting somewhere else.
Telimir smashed down several walls of the labyrinth as I found Reign and Nicola turned back. Things were getting very chaotic.
Legion seemed to have multiplied himself and the fallen were now fighting us. The shadowy figure and Rakanas had disappeared while Telimir was still hacking three of Legions bodies.
We fought of two more of Legion’s avatars and his Fallen Allies, Villhelm blowing several up, before killing his last opponent with his spade.
 
At last we seemed to have cornered Telimir. The last body of Legion was fighting, while we began blasting him with magic and trying to unseal him. He seemed impervious to our magic, and before we could make much headway Legion had broken off from the fight and fled into the underground maze, Leaving Telimir with us. Suddenly his flashed, leaving a wall of black flames before us and with that he departed. The labyrinth was at last silent. Reign was safe, and there were just us, Me, Villhelm, Nicola, Careko, Caspian and Antaris standing in the silent ruins. Only Rakanas and the hooded man were unaccounted for.
 
And so the quest continued!
 

Thursday 10 March 2016

Clash in West Africa - our rules

Having tried out Lion Rampant for this era (http://warformiddleearth.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/clash-in-west-africa-lion-rampant.html) we decided to give it a go with our home grown skirmish rules (which we've currently just been using for 28mm Napoleonics) - I had hoped to alter it one day to do boxer rebellion, but we used it this time without any alterations

With the Dakar-Niger railway nearing its completion in Mali, French forces were on particularly vigilant look-out for raiding parties.
A biplane flying high above spies a fast approaching band of tribesmen

We used the entire collection this time, some 60 tirailleurs in 5 sections and 12 spahis against around 140 tribesmen tribesmen in 6 warbands, including nearly 24 armed with rifles.
The forces advanced on one another, across the tracks.

Captain Charles Dubreton took the right wing with a company of tirailleurs, along with the spahis in support. The tribesmen fired on the cavalry but the undergrowth covered them.

To the left and centre Major Louis Dubreton's company fired into the approaching warbands, while Charles' company, and Lieutenant Balliard's section gave flanking fire, Charles' men wiping out half the approaching band, sending them into flight. Meanwhile the spahis retired to the safety of the line.

With his success, Captain Charles pushed on to the tribesmen's left flank. Meanwhile Major Dubreton and Lt Balliard continued their murderous fire, wiping out half of both of the warbands before them, Ballaird sending the closest one into flight. On the left it seemed like a murderous slaughter of the natives, though Balliard's section had taken two casualties from native skirmishers, but they had been sent running too.

However now the last tribesmen on the left charged home, cutting down five of the tirailleurs

It was enough to put the company to flight, and so they sped off, leaving Major Dubreton to leg it for Captain Charles' company, which was forging over the rails. But by now the rest of the warbands had again rallied.

The tirailleurs sent the warband and native rifelmen before them fleeing with a strong volley, though they had lost four men to the native rifles in the advance. The Spahi attempted a charge on the nearest warband, but were surprisingly repulsed with heavy casualties. Clearly charging a block of infantry was not sensible.

One of the rallied native bands suddenly flank charged Charles' company, some of the men curling round to surround the flank, one plucky warrior making it to Major Dubreton. The major swiftly cut him down with his sabre

The tribesmen hacked the Algerians' flank to bits, cutting down five men in all without any casualties!

Inevitably the Dubretons and the remaining section of men fled! The tribesmen pursued, catching the Spahis on their left and almost wiping them out.

The tribesmen caught up with the fleeing company. Catching them from two sides and surrounding them. Many of the men, including Major Dubreton were cut down and the section continued its flight, Charles Dubreton cutting down his man and chasing after them

Falling back on the now rallied company, a new firing line drew up and volleyed, cutting down many of the pursuing raiders, stopping them in their tracks!

Balliard's remaining 6 were also holding on the left, sending another warband into flight, while the company's continued firepower drove off the remaining raiders facing them.

A lone tribesmen, running up on the right hand section and spearing a tirailleur, caused Captain Dubreton and his section to flee the field!

As another warband surprised Balliard's men, killing half of them and sending them into retreat, the tirailleurs prepared for a classic colonial last stand.

But the tirailleurs quickly buckled as tribesmen, led by the camel mounted commanders, charged into the formation. With the entire French force in flight, their commanders killed, fled and fleeing, their colours fallen, the battle was declared a victory for the West African tribesmen.

Victory to the Tribesmen!
 
It had been a fantastically close battle, the line advancing, the tribesmen kept at bay by initial volleys, only to at last break through, throwing the left and then the right back, only to have the French rally to take a line in a stand, only to have the line crumble turning into a classic tribesmen vs western troops last stand. It felt as though it could have gone either way, right till the end! It remained fun and tense for both of us, and felt exactly what a wargame (and especially one of this era)
We were both very pleased with how these rules had worked out, and vowed to use them again for this period!
 
When I get my Boxer rebels and Italian sailors finished off we will be able to expand to China as well as West/East Africa, while M is also looking to get some Afgan/Sudan British when Perry's release their plastics, enabling us to do Mahdist war and other Sudanese conflicts, as well as some from a fictional Anglo-French war in the 1880s-1914
 
By B

Clash in West Africa - Lion Rampant

My 19th century colonial collection has not seen battle for quite a while, so we decided to get them out and have a game. We decided to trial a game using Lion rampant.
The French colonial force which I took control of was formed of 4 units of tirailleurs (foot sergeants with bows), 2 units of Spahis (mounted sergeants) and 1 unit of allied tribesmen (warband). The West African raiders had 7 raiding parties (warbands) and 4 skirmishers (bidowers)

It is the early 1900s, work on the railway from Senegal to Mali is ongoing, but constantly hampered by raids from local tribes who oppose the foreigner's infringement into their ancestral lands. A company of Algerian Tirailleurs, supported by a detachment of Spahis, are patrolling in the local area, on the look out to defend the local railway workers against such raiders.

With scouts having spied the approaching raiders the French advance to protect the railway and the workers against the tribesmen's attack.

A long range volley from a section of tirailleurs cuts into a unit of skirmishers, sending them running.

Both sides advance on the railway track

The allied tribesmen rush forwards, towards the lead skrimishers

The skirmishers open fire, but the tribesmen hold.

Both sides continue the advance, the skirmishers holding up the allied tribesmen's advance in the centre, while the tirailleurs pin down the native Africans on the right.

The French advance rapidly on the rails, the skirmishers at last swept from the nearest bushes by the allied tribesmen, with some difficulty. The line opens up long range fire on the raiders.

At  last some raiders push close to the tirailleurs on the right, but a volley seems sure to scatter them.


However the Algerians fail their volley and the West Africans charge in, however the tough tirailleurs put up a fight and (surprisingly) send the raiders packing.

In the centre the allied tribesmen at last break and flee as nearby skirmishers open fire on them.

The tirailleurs on the right charge their fleeing foe, chasing them further on.

The French, with many of the raiders beaten back by firing, cross the railway line, the Spahis coming out from behind the line on the left.

Captain Charles Dubreton leads his men on as the spahis trot forwards

Despite receiving a charge from the nearest warband, which cut down a quarter of their number, another charge from the Spahis cuts through two warbands, causing the raiders' commander to flee the field.

A French Victory... but...
 
It felt far too easy! The Raiders didn't stand a chance, swept away by the advancing French line. All the raiders' units were either fleeing or fled by the end, while the French still had every unit they had started with on the board. The problem seemed to be not so much the power of the shooting, but the combination of fighters (sergeants) with range. Even when the raiders made contact they were repulsed! The raiders also suffered from bad rolling to move and to charge, which only put them more at the tirailleurs' mercy, while they didn't have any quality ranged troops of their own.
 
We concluded that perhaps Lion Rampant did not suite this period as well as it might have appeared...

Monday 7 March 2016

Border Raid

This was a one off game we did just to take a break from the campaign and enjoy some warhammer. It was an empire vs empire battle, with B taking his Kasotians as a mercenary band led by a Border prince, having a raid on the Empire via Black fire pass. The men of the Empire were led by Ferdinand Leitdorf. This was probably a pre Averland war of succession battle where Ferdinand gained some of his military knowledge.           



The army of prince Borja
-  Prince Borja - general on Pegasus
- Sigwalda the fiery (fire wizard)
- 16 Kasotian mercenary halbediers with 2 detachments of 7 Kasotian mercenary handgunners
- 16 Kasotian mercenary halbediers with 2 detachments of 7 Kasotian mercenary handgunners
- Kasotian mercenary great cannon

Army of Averland, defenders of Black fire pass.
-Ferdinand Leitdorf-grand master, sword of strife (I think)
-The black fire pass hermit-wizard-Lv 2 lore of life
-Defender's of the Pass-50 halberds-full command
-Knight's of the blazing sun-5 knights-champion
-The Chuffnought-Steam tank!


The battle started with the Kasotian battle line advancing up to the hedge line and preparing to hold. Sigwalda however pointing her hand to the sky and called out fell words of magic. The clouds rumbled and a great cascade of fire fell from the heavens and immersed the steam tank in fire. She then fell back, a spent force, unable to remember a single spell. The Kasotians however were watching as the steam tank rolled out of the fire whole and barely blacked. (not taking a single wound from the spell!)       
The iron machine rolled forward  then turned on its wheels and fired a shot though the lines of mercenarys by the hedge, killing several of of them and sending one of the handgunner units running.   
The hermit wizard finding himself the unchallenged spell caster took the opportunity to call a dweller from below to burst from the ground and rip to shreds the main unit of spear men on the right. Only five men were left alive to flee the table! Meanwhile the knights had sized their chance and charged the handgunners, and sent them running.  

The Kasotian spears on the left then charged home into the knights with Borja thundering in on his flying steed.

The knights held out and killed a couple more spear men. But as the knightly combat continued a high whistle could be heard in a double note of warning. The steam tank built up steam and with a tremendous screech charged forward, ramming though the trees of the small wood, tearing the trees to pieces and crashing into the mounted lord! rolled over him, crushing his mount under its huge bulk! and with a quick wheel skid came to a halt. As the steam cleared and a few feathers floated down the engineer climbed out and remarked to his crew "I zink ve it someting".          

The main force of halberds had been held up in the wood picking mushrooms and messing about. but Ferdinand not stopping to even sniff one of the fungi, told his men "to stop shilly shallying, and get a move on!" Then charged off though the wood to meet Sigwalda. She rose on a pillar of fire, but with an up sweep of his sword Ferdinand cut her staff in two and with a one slash brought her down. The wizard encouraged by this, summoned a dweller from below on one of the units of handgunners, with a malevolent chuckle.          

The knights were at last put to flight by the spearmen's trumpet and retied before them. But the Wizard by now getting quite free with his spell casting summoned, a rather irritated dweller again. Who killed all but two of the spear men. 
The pictures got rather scarce now, but the steam tank was hit by a cannon and did't move, and the wizard was hit by another cannon ball. The tank shot half the cannons crew to pieces. While Ferdinand killed a unit of gunners before capturing the fleeing banner.     

The knights had a horse and rider blasted down by the last gun crew but charged home and ended the battle. 


A Great Victory For Averland!

The raiding force was sent back in tatters and Ferdinand proved himself to be a great general.   
The game had been quite quick, with things going down hill for the kasotians early on with their wizard blowing all her spells out of her head, and letting the Hermit do what he wanted in the way of summoning dwellers. The Averland halberds were unengaged the whole battle and spent two turns in a wood eating mushrooms!   



by M