Workbench: Let Loose The Cards Of War!

Not too much has been happening around here lately but I was able to get some work done on cards for Sharp Practice.  In the game, cards are used to determine player order in the turn and also give you various bonuses throughout the game.  Sky Captain had thrown together some on his own but most of them were for the original Napoleonic setting so I decided to whip some together for our Colonial game.

To make these I used the Magic Set Editor program and just went with the MtG 8th edition format to keep things easy.  They are still lacking artwork but for now the rules are the most important part for now.  Now I just need to get a new color cartridge so I can print up the rest!  Until next time...

Sharp Practice Battle Report: The Boxers Are Rebeling!

Last Saturday we gathered our Colonial troops at the table and launched ourselves into our new campaign setting of Turkistan!  With the political maps drawn up and brief write ups for all the powers involved it was time to get down to the business at hand!  In this case, troops led by myself and Sky Captain were moving in from the southern end of the board to relieve American troops in the north that were cut off by Chinese and German troops.  Meanwhile, the White Russian forces of the exile Tzar held position on the east side of the board with their guns (and cannons... can't forget the cannons...) at the ready.

The game is afoot!  (aka deployment is complete)

 For the first turn the card was flipped and my British troops sprang into action!  Well actually they more orderly marched into action but you get the idea.  In this case, my troops consisted of two sections of Kings Rifles led by my Captain on east side of the road and two supporting sections of Indian Sepoys on the far side of the road.

Right after my Big Man's card the card for the infernal devices was flipped and we got to see the iron behemoths grind into motion.  In addition to my light tank, we also had a Rolls Royce with a turret and a half track mounting with two turrets supporting the British troops.

Meanwhile, on the northern end of the board the German infernal drove up next to the American position and opened fire with its turret cannon and two side mounted machine guns! (This is part of the reason for my earlier post about my tank needing more guns.  Guess you could say I had a little machine gun envy going on.)

Thankfully the cover served them well and they were able to withstand the fusillade of fire with little ill effect.

Next in the flip was the Warlord Terrence with his motley mix of regular troops and Boxer rebels.  The Boxers charged the American position but managed to fall just short of their mark.

This left them in the perfect position for the Americans but there was little he could do to protect them at this point.  Meanwhile his two sections of regular troops moved over onto the hill overlooking the road to get themselves into a better position.

As luck would have it the Americans were next!  Captain Aaron was quick to have his troops open fire on the Boxers in front of him and was able to land an couple of devastating volleys though the Boxers remained unbroken.

The other American Marines tried to do anything to damage the German armored truck nearby but none of their weapons were able to put a dent in the steel monstrosity.

With this, the second tiffin was drown with ended the turn.  At this point any troops that had not activated yet had the option of firing.  This only left Comrade Alex with his sleeping bear to the east and Sky Captain with the remainder of the the Indian Sepoys but they were both content to see how things continued to develop.

Turn two opened with the infernal devices activating first so our little armored column continued its way down the road toward the Americans.  I was not liking the look of all the Russian forces overlooking our progress so I did the only logical thing; I jabbed the sleeping bear with a stick!

My Gauntlet tractor opened fire but due to cover I was barely able to have any effect on the two cannons on the roof beyond pissing them off royally (afterward we realized that this shouldn't have been the case but more on that later...).  Meanwhile the Rolls leading the charge took a cannon blast that sheared off the turret and the gunner's head with one shot!

The Americans then followed things up by loosing a withering volley against the Chinese forces.

One group of Boxers was broken and driven back while the other group and the regular troops were both badly shaken by the onslaught.

Next the Indian Sepoy under the command of Sky Captain were finally able to move and move they did!

Charging up the western side of the board, they quickly headed toward our actual objective of relieving the besiege American troops.  You know, the troops that were in the process of routing one of the attacking forces?  The poor Yanks definitely needed saving, let me tell you!

In another first for the game, Dastardly Dan finally got to activate his German minions!

They quickly moved along the eastern side of the road into cover and positioned themselves to bolster the crumbling Chinese front.

Next the mighty bear stirred in the east.  Quickly turning both of the cannons in my direction, the Russians let loose a volley that utterly decimated my tank!

The Indian Sepoy sections on the western side of the board moved next, continuing their rapid advance toward the American position and managed to set themselves up in an ideal position to deal with the remnants of one of the sections of Chinese rabble.

After this the second tiffin was drawn bringing turn two to a close.  With only the disorganized Chinese forces and my own British troops who were without a target, there was little that could be done as far as shooting so all we could do was brace ourselves for the next turn.

Turn three opened with the Russians activating first and who should arrive but the Russian cavalry!

Charging at a full gallop, both sections wheeled to the south and smashed right into one of my infantry sections.  Faced by the full brunt of twenty four cavalry men, my troops did the only logical thing; they ran!  As this happened, all of the Russian infantry also advanced and then opened fire on the remaining section up on the hill so they did the only logical thing; followed the first section off the board!

Next the Sepoy on the western side of the board opened fire on the already disorganized Chinese Boxers which broke them and sent them running for the hills.

This was followed by the second unit of Boxers charging toward the American position but once again they managed to have little effect on the entrenched Marines.

The Marines did not take this threat lightly though and responded with force!  The Marines on the roof and by the road drove back the rabble and the regular Chinese troops while the other half of the Marines broke cover and began moving south to meet up with the Sepoys.

This lead to the Chinese forces being devastated once again as the infernal devices activated next and Sky Captain did the only thing he could with the Rolls; plowed right into the Chinese regulars.

The regulars decided at that point that they'd had enough and headed for the hills as well, leaving the Americans with a clear path down the western edge of the board.

There were a few more volleys fired between the Sepoys and the Russians on the southern end of the board but at this point the battle was basically over.  And the victor was...  the American Marines and the British Empire!  Even with all of my British troops routed from the board and the White Russian forces swarming like angry bees we were able to achieve our objective of freeing up the Marines.

Overall, this game went much smoother than our attempt at the Big Hunt.  It really seemed like a lot of the kinks in the rules that were causing problems were hashed out between the two games and it seemed like we all really had a great time.  Heck, halfway through the game my face was hurting from laughing so much!  I am definitely looking forward to the next game which unfortunately isn't scheduled until May but I am hoping to be able to pick up a few smaller games in between now and then.  Until next time...

Sharp Practice Battle Report: Listen To The Drums, My Fellows. The Hunt Has Begun!

For the past few years I've heard about a game called the Big Hunt which is hosted by one of the local gaming groups.  From what I'd heard, this game is usually a bizarre little affair as hunters from various countries try to take down a vast array of big game along with the other hunters and anything else that might happen to wonder through.  One year there were dinosaurs, another predators... you get the idea.  Unfortunately I've never been able to make it to any of the previous games but this year finally proved to be different!  I quickly assembled my troops (quite literally) and downloaded the rules so I'd at least have a vague idea what I was getting into.

The day of the hunt, I arrived at Avatar Games and Comics where my friend Sky Captain was planning on running the game and I managed to catch the tail end of the Battletech game his was playing in.  Oddly enough, the most dramatic kill went not to a battlemech but to a squad of militia aircraft that dropped bombs right on the enemy commander's head.

Go figure, right?  The game ran a little long which gave me a chance to check out the store and found this really sweet statue of Deadpool... on a Vespa... with a cannon.

Once the Battletech game finally broke I helped a few of the other players roll up the Big Men for their forces (though what purpose this serves in the game beyond flavor was not readily apparent) and we gather around the table eager to begin!

About forty five minutes later, my troops had moved a massive 7 inches and were still waiting to activate again in the hopes of being able to get off at least one shot.  Thirty minutes after that... well, they got tired of waiting and headed off to get some tea.

So the question that comes to my mind is what went wrong?  There were a few things that immediately spring to mind.

1) New rules that no one really knew that were also for the wrong era: It seems that there are many different sets of rules out there covering all different time periods and combat styles when it comes to historical games.  The one that we were using, Sharp Practice, was not only new to most of the group members but it is also meant for Napoleonic era combat with muskets and cannons while the Colonial era featured bolt action rifles and carbines which caused much consternation for the resident Sharp expert.  Which leads to point number two...

2) Being an expert on the actual rules doesn't necessarily help with house rules: This is one that is really a double edged sword.  Having someone who is familiar with the ins and outs of the rules can help you adjust things to fit new and unique situations but only if they are open to the idea of modifying the rules as written.  In our case the expert was a little to focused on the actual rules and seemed to have a hard time adjusting which really made things grind along as we tried to figure things out, which leads into point number three...

3) If you are going to house rules things, make sure you playtest before the actual session: While this was on the gaming club calendar as a scheduled event there was little or no work done to see just what needed to be changed to make the game run smoothly which further contributed to the grind.

As for how the game ended I unfortunately have no idea.  After almost an hour and a half with only one turn I decided I should just pack up and head for work.  Sky Captain told me the next day that things did run a little smoother as the session went along but it still leaves me a little leery about the upcoming Colonial games which are supposed to use the same rules.

The whole experience has also left me with a few ideas brewing in my melon that I'm going to have to look into, including doing a post-apocalyptic Big Hunt using the Mutant and Death Ray Guns rules.  In fact I've already got ideas for some of the critters that would be wandering around those desolate wastes.  I've also gotten to thinking about other systems that could be used for the traditional Big Hunt scenario (including other Song of Blades systems of course...) but more on that later.  Until next time...