En Garde!: Witchfinder 3, Sir Oliver Crumbles

The plotters behind the Witchfinder's presence in the North have been revealed. Sir Oliver Crumble, Squire of Shiney Row, Sheriff of North Durham and his boon companion Master Stanley Lorrel, of no fixed abode are ardent Parliamentarians and disestablishmentarianists.  Both have been heard to shout "Down with the King!"  The whole plot is treasonous.

Sir Oliver and his men adopting the "mince," a fencing stance reliant on the hand on hip pose...

Sir Oliver served as one of the Duke of Buckingham's men before being caught up in the terrible events of the Calais expedition.  He had a shouting row with the Duke as well as the King, before retiring back to his estate in Durham swearing that Parliament should hold the power in the land.

He was appointed (purchased the office of) Sheriff of North Durham, and has begun recruiting and training soldiers, ostensibly against incursions by the Scots, but in reality to challenge the power of the King.

Sir Oliver is behind the plot to bring Witchfinder Price to Durham in an effort to discredit the King, and it's been working.  The problem is that the customers of the Queen's Head Inn have been instrumental in destroying the Witchfinder's warband.

Lee and his men enter the Courtyard

With the discovery of the plot point at the ruined abbey the Bishop's Guard have finally been alerted.  Captain Lee and his men have joined the survivors of the Queen's Head and are set to raid Sir Oliver's Manor House at Shiney, armed with a writ for the Witchfinder's arrest.

Because Sir Oliver will have  trained soldiers at the manor, his "New Model Company," Lee must be careful... He has no idea how many men will defend Witchfinder Price...

Occupy 
In this scenario, warbands battle to occupy a building or feature in the centre of the board.

Inside the manor, the Witchfinder..

SET-UP

• Forces: Equal points value

• Terrain: Only one piece of terrain on the board, placed right in the centre of the playing area.

• Weather: Rain is falling.

• Time of Day: Dawn

• Deployment: opposite sides.  Only the Witch Finder and Sir Oliver are in the Manor. 

Master Tybalt keeps watch from the Manor balcony, Blunderbuss in hand.

VICTORY

When the game ends, each side gets Victory Points equal to the Rank of all of its models that have their bases inside the manor. The winner is the side with the highest number of Victory Points. If there is a draw, then use the number of wounds on still living models in the drawn warbands as a tie-breaker.

Sir Oliver's men are lead by Master Stanley Lorrel, but except for the evil John Stearne, they are not loyal to the Witch Finder and will automatically waver if Stearne or Sir Oliver are Greviously wounded or killed.  Their Minor objective is to kill 75% of Lee's men.  Lee must take a prisoner for the Bishop's court.

GAME LENGTH

I will fight this game until one sides morale causes it to break.

Sir Oliver's men line the edge of the building

The fight develops as both sides advance.  The fat Knight and ancient Pistol are slow, moving at only 4", (one is very old and the other very fat, so a movement penalty is applied.)  Kinsky rushes to engage Stearne and Lee takes on Sir Oliver declaring a duel.  

Kinsky attacks with his sword rolling 11, plus his Fight factor of 3.  A Mighty 14.  Stearne rolls 5+1, 6 and adds his fight score of 4.  A 10.  Stearne suffers a grievous wound.  

In the second round Stearne fails to hit, and Kinsky follows through with his dagger to give Stearne a light wound.  Stearne drops, unconscious.

Lee wins initiative and uses a mighty blow ploy. (a few of my combat pool markers have "MB" and must be used for this if drawn.  Remember I draw them blind, so I don`t know how a fight will go.  He discards the two, giving him 5+5 plus his fight score of 4.  A strong 14.  

Sir Oliver uses a defence Combat at pool counter to parry 3+1 plus his combat score of 4, 8.  With a difference of 6  Sir Oliver is killed.  The Parliamentarians must roll morale at the end of this turn

With their leadership fallen the Parliamentarians fail their morale.  They are wavering.  

They may be wavering but Fenton fires his dry matchlock from the doorway at Perkins.  He rolls 6+4 and adds his shoot score of 1.  (11)  -6 is taken from this to give a final hit score of 5.  Perkins staggers as he is grievously wounded.  In the rain he can`t shoot back

Pistol and the Fat Knight close in on the bodies of Stearne and Sir Oliver, and promptly begin looking for loot.  This sort of thing is always likely with this pair since under my solo rules they follow their character traits just as much as following orders.   (I had to roll a 3-6 to avoid their looting and rolled a 1)

Bardolph and Nym take on Feeble. Bardolph rolls 4+4, and adds his fight score of 2.  Feeble parrys with a 5+5, plus his fight score of 2.  Bardolph's attack fails. 
Feeble rolls his attack, 1+1, the dreaded double.  He fumbles and drops his sword.
Nym rolls his attack, an unpromising 3+4, plus his Fight score of 2 (9)  Feeble has no defence counters left and rolls a single d6 in defence.  A 2.  With a difference over 6 Feeble is killed, more by his own ill luck than by Nym`s swordplay.  

The Fight moves inside the Manor as the wavering Parliamentarians retreat.  Sir Huge and Ancient Pistol continue to loot the fallen...

Non combatants, Lady Crumble and Jim the pot boy, innocently block the way to the Witchfinder.

Tybalt has finally reloaded the Blunderbuss.  He sprays the great hall with half a dozen pistol balls, but fails to hit anyone.  He is clearly drinking sack, and that seems to be affecting his aim...

Kinsky vaults the table (he is an agile character and ignores terrain)  He joins Lee in the Fight against Master Price the Witchfinder.  Lee's mighty blow is 1+5+5 (he discards the one)  Plus his fight score of 4, a 14. 
Price rolls 6+1 as his parry.  The difference is over 6, a kill.  Price falls to the floor with a pithy quote, "Darkness falls across the land. The midnight hour is close at hand... bugger..."

The Parliamentarians are routing.  Only Tybalt still stands.  He has somehow managed to reload the Blunderbuss again... a double 1.  He drops the weapon in a misfire, as Solomon Whitemoore climbs the stairs towards him.  Down in the main hall Master Stanley Lorrel vanishes out of a rear door. 

Tybalt, dead drunk, ignores all morale, but he throws himself on Solomon's mercy, promising to "be his man for life."  Solomon remembers the minor objective, to take a captive, and renames his new servant "Tipple."

Lee takes Lady Crumble... the newly created Widow Crumble, a well propertied and proportioned woman, as his prisoner for the Bishop's court.  It seems that the strange affair of the Witch Finder is done...  All of the plotters have been dealt with except for Master Stanley Lorrel, who has gone missing.  
Little do they realise that Solomon Whitemoore is soon to be appointed Witch Finder to the Bishop's Court.

1917 Algy goes balloon busting

At last year's Border Reiver show in Gateshead I bought in some 1:600 WW1 aircraft from Tumbling Dice.  These fit my ethos about ease of storage really well, but it's taken me 12 months to get them painted... Just in time for the next show!

I "invested" in a spread of 1917/18 planes, intending to form a DH2 squadron, a Camel squadron and a German Circus type Jasta.  Trouble is I didn`t get enough hex bases, so at the moment I have 20 planes for each side but only half a dozen bases apiece...

The rules I'm intending to use are the Toofatlardies "Algernon pull it off," and the fledgling idea behind the game is to follow the fortunes of the 1917 class of sprogs from the University of North Durham.

In a mechanism similar to the role playing game Traveller my recruits must survive Flight Training school tables before being posted to the Squadron.  Several have failed to make it already.

The first 29 Squadron RFC volunteers from the North Durham University Boisterous Student's Society are:

"Jacko" Black  Society President
"The Badger" Brown
Bumfluff Farthingdale
Bertie Farthingdale
Sticky Lyle
Whizzer Wilson
Gubber Gosling
Drippy Dawson Tate

"A" Flight St Mont, France 1917
Lt Black
2nd Lt B. U. Farthingdale
2nd Lt B.T. Farthingdale
2nd Lt Lyle
2nd Lt Gosling
 
DH2 pusher pilot 2nd LT Dawson-Tate


The Camels are Coming; scenario cards (shown on the map)

Plus 6 plot cards
1.  Quiggles and the Kraut Countess
2.  Bertie between the lines
3.  Ginger gets lost
4.  Colonel Raymond's gin supplies
5.  Algy takes it rough
6.  His bottle is gone!

The Scenario was balloon busting.  The RFC would be able to put up 5 Camels and a DH2.  It's Drippy in the DH2 that has the mission to bust the two balloons.   The Germans have four Albatros and two Fokker Triplanes up guarding the balloons.

The Camels.  Cloud is at level 7 so our operational height is level 6 today.

Drippy aims his pusher at the balloons

Leo Pumpernickel and his German American mate from Jasta 7

Albatros from Jasta 3

The forces close in

A melee breaks out

Drippy gets his balloon and turns to run, an Albatros on his tail

Two Albatros are down

Oh that's got to hurt!!!

The Yankee Otto, the German Fokker pilot downs poor Drippy, but our hero walks away from the crash

Bumfluff goes for the second balloon, and drops it, as the Germans bug out

Yankee Otto in his red white and blue triplane shoots Sticky Lyle down, in a fluke long distance burst as he turns for home at Bellevue.  I have a new German anti hero it seems!

The Four remaining camels turn for home.  Poor Sticky will be missed in the mess!

The Roll of Honour:
1917  Cadet Whizzer Wilson.  Crashed a Shorthorn basic training.
1917  2nd Lt  "The Badger" Brown.  Pranged a FB2 in Fighter School.
1917  2nd Lt "Sticky" Lyle.     Shot down whilst balloon busting.

Games planning for Autumn 2018

One of my aims in setting up a blog was to use it to replace my wargames journal.  I've kept a journal of my games for a long time now, but it also records my plans for upcoming games, ideas and any new rules I happen across. 

Since I am back off to Cyprus soon, having spent a couple of months in Durham avoiding temperatures of over 40 degrees, I need to plan some games with the figures I have over there.  In addition I have to decide whether or not to take any figures with me.

The Games

Ancients.  Cohort in 6mm.  The frontier war is just beginning, but Nauseous Sextus will be leading my 6mm 1:1 cohort of 480 men against the revolting Celts. This will be a series of games that really tests my ideas for these rules.
The fight against the Selgovae has been going well.  Let's see how much new Prefect Nauseous Sextus can mess it up.
 

ACW in 28mm.  I have to finish the Peninsular games, with the final showdown at Yorktown, as the Parson leads his flock of the 2nd Massachusetts Infantry against the 7th Virginia Defenders in Sharpe Practice 2.  At this point I`ve lost so many Officers the attack on the Peninsula is beginning to lose momentum.  I`ll need reinforcements for any advance beyond here.

The Men Who Would Be Kings in 15mm.  The 4th Foot are currently still in India but are soon to be posted out, having fought their three games. I have no idea where the posting will be.  I do have some nice African animals and KAR painted however so the dice will probably say New Zealand!

Gladiators in 20mm (1/72)  To save me transporting a dozen 54mm gladiators back and forward I have ordered some 20mm plastics.  Biggus Brutus can work on building up his Ludus in the provinces, just in a smaller scale!

 

WW2 Naval 1:6000.  It's high time I did the Bismark games with these great Hallmark ships.  Quiggles and Bertie in their Swordfish against the mighty Kriegsmarine...
 

Kingmaker Cyprus 3D.  A long term project based on a board using 4 sheets of A3, pastel coloured blue paper for the sea, with the land as a cut out beige on top.  Grids along the sides will hold rules, cards and listings with clips to hold faction cards.  It will be 3D with model mountain ranges, castles and towns. 15mm figures will be used as characters for game pieces, but 6mm armies will be used (perhaps a battle.board as part of the map?)

The Camels are coming.  Algy in 1:600.  The North Durham University class of 1917 have taken their places in the RFC.  Time to have a go at the dirty Fokkers.   I'm not sure whether to use Algy or a broader set of rules.  I'll have up to 12 aircraft a side as the Camel squadron seek to dominate the Western front. 




Other planned gaming ideas (the back burner stuff that will probably go to the front quite quickly)
 
An Imaginations 6mm Ancients and Medievals.  A Hyboria style game.

1940 Chain of Command Desert War.  Following the fortunes of an Italian Infantry platoon during Operation Compass

Building some 6mm galleys for Naumachaie.  Specifically Bronze age ships, the Sea People's against the might of Pharoah.

IABSM 10mm Cassino, the 4th Indian Division's attack.

In Her Majesties Name, Pulp 1898.  The Red Headed League, the Royal Archeological Society, the Mummy of Prince Imhotep, and the Her Majesties British Airship Service fight over the Chaos in Cairo.  A 15mm game, using much of the terrain and many of the figures from Men Who Would Be Kings.

Lastly I painted up some Italian WW2 aircraft during the Spring, so I will be using them in a Coastal Forces game with S-boats and MTBs during operations in the Western Mediterranean in 1942.

Nauseous Sextus joins the Roman Army

The first cohort of the Batavians have a problem.  The problem`s name is Nauseous Sextus, a youthful ode writing poet from Pompeii, who has secured the appointment as the new Prefectus.  The First Spear, a grim and dour fellow named Caius (but the troops call him Infelix - Unhappy) summed up the new prefect as "bloody useless."

As luck would have it the cohort has been sent out to quell the latest trouble across the frontier, where the blue skins have once again been killing tax collectors.  The angry chief of the Otadini, an unpleasant individual named Bellicos, is revolting.  Enough said really.

My Roman figures are Zvezda Roman Auxilia in 1/72.  They are really well detailed, light and store well.  Those shields make them look like a professional unit, without the need for transfers and the MDF bases give them a feeling of substance. 

The Celts are Italeri Gauls.  Nice figures that I have based on double depth bases.  The cost of all of these figures was under £10.  The same set up, even using plastics would probably be over £100.  For me that's a no brainer really, even before the storage advantages.



Cohort
Being a set of back of a postcard Ancients rule by Uriah the Hittite, based on his experiences as Uriah the Police Sergeant during Riot training.

D6 Pip Roman

(Simulating a shouty Centurion)

Ready spears     1 Pip 

Throw spears    1 Pip (3BW range)

Brace                1 Pip (+1 recieving charge, entire formation)

Lock shields     1 Pip (+1 recieving charge, entire formation)

Push                  1 Pip (+1 in 2nd and subsequent combat rounds, push forward 1/2 BW if element wins combat round)

Swords             1 Pip (+1 to simulate the Roman buzzsaw)

Advance           1 Pip (per 1BW movement for formation or element, max 3 times or 120mm)

Rally/Reform the line.  1 Pip (straightens the line. Elements advance or fall back into line within 1BW rear elements may replace front rankers)

D6 Pip Celtic

(Simulating a shouty rioter)

Taunt                   1 Pip, Call the enemy horrid names!  +1 in 1st round of Combat

Boast                   1 Pip, tell the enemy of your heroic heritage  +1 in 1st round of Combat

Throw javelins    1 Pip (3BW range)

Forward              1 Pip (per 1BW movement for formation or element, max 3 times or 120mm)

Wild charge        2 Pip (the screaming Celtic battle charge lead by the War chief.  +2 Combat 1st Round)

To me!                1 Pip (elements may advance or fall back into line with the War chief 1BW)

Move                  1 Pip (per 1BW movement for formation or element, max 3 times or 3BW.)

Formations.

Roman units may form a line or column formation of up to five elements wide.  The Cohort may operate a formation of two lines, 1 BW apart, moving as a single formation.

Celtic units operate as a mob.  To move as a "formation" on one PIP it must include the War chief in the front line of its ranks.

Movement

1 BW per PIP up to a max of 3 for a formation or single element

Difficult terrain +1 Pip, except for skirmishers.

Celtis Warbands must attempt to charge into contact if within 4BW of enemy.

Shooting

D6 per shooter.  6 + hit.  3BW Range.

Saving roll 5-6, Fall back 1BW 3-4, Miss 1-2

Fighting

D6 per front rank combatant, 1 D6 between 2 second rank.

5-6 Hit

Saving 5-6, Fall back 1BW, 3-4, 1-2 Dead.

Morale

Below 50% and you're off!

The Test Game

We begin near the ancient British settlement of Cockium Inconnoviae, where lived the inventor of the device that has brought to generations of beautiful girls the healthy exercise known as "having to walk home."

As he worked at his square wheels, this simple Briton, Hengist Pod, would listen to his wife telling him what he should do with them...

Into this peaceful world marched the Cohort of Nauseous Sextus, demanding the taxes, and also the return of their tax Collectors...

Nauseous forms the line.  This is apparently an evening battle, since my camera recorded it in dark tones.  He can see that the Celts up ahead are unhappy with Roman rule, and that its probably not going to go well.  What have the Roman's ever done for them?  He rolls 3 Pip on a D6.  The Cohort deploys into a double line and advances 3 BW.

Bellicos, the Celtic War chief deploys into a 5 element wide mob.  He rolls 4.  He spends a PIP taunting the Romans, giving the Formation he is with a +1 to their aggression that he will be able to use in combat. He moves forward 3 BW.

The Cohort roll 5 Pip on a D6.  The Formation advances 3BW, and readies spears for throwing.

Bellicos rolls 1.  He uses it to Boast to the Romans about his ancestors.  His men`s aggression goes to +2, and they can use this in the first round of a combat.  He cannot now move having exhausted his Pip.

The Cohort rolls 3.  The wise old First Spear sees that if the Romans close the distance towards the Celts they will be within charge range and deny him a volley of spears.  He holds the formation. He could lock shields against a Celtic missile round, but he wants to throw his own spears before the Celts contact.

Bellicos rolls 5.  He moves forward 3 BW and is now within 3 BW of the Romans.   The Celts ready javelins and throw. 

The Cohort rolls 3.  The First Spear orders throw spears.  The front of the Roman formation looses a volley.  He then orders lock shields +1 and brace +1.  The Romans cannot move until they recieve a charge or change these orders.

Within 4BW the Celts must charge.  Bellicos rolls 2, and orders the "Wild charge." (+2) He is putting all of his hopes on that first round of combat.

The Romans have a +2, against the Celts +4.  In the combat the Romans have five elements or 15 men.  The Celts have five elements, with 20 men, but only 15 of these can fight (the looser mob has two "lines" on the deeper bases.)  3 Romans are killed as are two Celts, but the line straggles as individual Roman elements are pushed back.

The Romans roll 5.  The Primus Pilus Centurion orders "Swords," (+1) and reforms the line.  He then orders "Push."  The Cohort could have braced and locked shields again but didn`t have the Pip to do that.

In the combat the Roman kill seven Celts, and lose no men.  Only Bellicos own element stands its ground as the "Push" shoves the Celts backwards.

Bellicos rolls 3 Pip.  He orders "To Me!"  His own element falls back in line with the rest of the formation.  He taunts the enemy again to give his men +1 in the coming combat.

The four Roman elements still in combat are still "Pushing."  They kill four Celts for one Roman.  The Celts have lost two complete elements, and it is the Roman's turn.

The Cohort rolls 4, the First Spear orders "reform the line" to bring the formation back under control.  Now he orders "advance," and the line moves 1BW forward into contact with the weakened Celts, who now have gaps in their line. The Celts lose another element

Bellicos Rolls 5, and brings his second line up to replace his losses.  He has enough to order a "wild charge" for one of these elements. It's not enough.  The Celts fall below 50% of their original elements.  With Bellicos and his men routing, the Romans can turn their attention  to the British settlement and gather those taxes... or just capture everyone they can and sell the lot to a slave trader.
Nauseous will probably write an ode about this...

"There was a young lady called Venus,
  Who ... oh never mind..."

Things to work on in my rules.
Morale, 50% losses seems over generous.
Skirmishers
Horse
Chariots
Casualties.  I tried to monitor individual element casualties, but realised that this is a "unit," and that the Centurions would be shouting for them to close up.  For each 3 casualties along the line the Romans can lose a base etc...  Far easier to track
Shooting.  The Romans had to Ready Spears, before throwing.  The Celts just chucked javelins and bricks.  The Romans should probably get a +1 for that preparation Pip.
Tighten up the orders, and generally do more playtesting.
The Roman Commander should be able to spend Pip to enable his Centurions to fight in the front ranks for a +1, similarly the Celts can have named heroes inspired to fight by Pip, but there must be a morale risk for losing them.

Nauseous will be in command for a little while longer it seems.