Open Combat on the table

My search for THE skirmish level set of rules has taken me to a lot of corners of our hobby. The latest find was the new Open Combat from Second Thunder. I am not really sure what drew me to this set of rules besides the fact that I am searching for something that can offeset the stalemate situations that I have experienced so often with Songs of Blade and Heroes. 

And while I love the engine in SoBH a lot of the games ended in a group in the middle with the winner often being the one that could pile the most miniatures into the fray.  This is not entirely the rules fault as many of the situations might have been avoided or dimmed down had the scenarios helped out. Alas... I am still looking for a set of rules that in it self doesn't get bogged down in the meele part and I decided to test out Open Combat. It only about 2 months old at the time of this posting so there aren't that much information to be found around the net yet as to how the game actually plays. Carl, the author posted up a 7 minute video today that explains how it works. Something I didn't have at the time of purchase.

See the video here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53W14yxgqQA&feature=youtu.be

The rules are very nicely presented with excellent pictures, easy readable rules and the system is quite simple to learn. I won't go into details about how the rules work here, but rather describe what happened during our test game this saturday.

I had prepared my warband from home, but my friend borrowed the rule book and statted up his warband just before the game started. Neither of us looked towards balance and even while some of his stats were way above my own, the system evened it out so that it was still playable. Good thing!!

We had two major fights and where as most AAR shots from SoBH games would show the same picture turn after turn, we had a lot of movement here. It was obvious that Tiny and Reiner were a force to be reckoned with in the center as they kept pushing me back. Some of it came from Reiners two handed weapon and his furious attack that pushed all three enemies away from him at times. 

On the right flank my leader Krass pushed Reiners Goreboys back with the help of a construct. And where the underdogs succeeded in defeating Reiner in the center, his Goreboys weren't as lucky. 

It was a very enjoyable game and we would have tried to more games on sunday had the convention not closed down on us. 

The rules for both ranged and meelee are so close that with just a few combat situations you will have them in your head and can concentrate on the gaming. 

The only real downside to the game is that you have to keep track of wounds to both body and mind in order to see if your warband reaches it breakpoint. Some paper tally would probably come in handy here. 

Currently there are no expansions etc, but both fantasy stuff, solo play and other things is on the drawing board. 

This has definately not been the last time I have played these rules, they are well worth the £10. 

The Gimp deployed in front of my left flank Undead Construct

The Gimp qucikly dispatched while things are getting up close and personal in the middle and on the right flank.

My leader Krass Omenthrall engages two Gore Boys with another Undead construct in support. Reiner Bloodgore is advancing on his own in the center.

My last Undead construct begins to engage the troll "Tiny" while my Priest Deckard stays in the back watching Reiners advance.

Combat in progress. Reiner has no problem fighting both Deckard and the Undead Construct. Tiny interferes from time to time and forces back the enemy where Reiner wanted them close.

Three Goreboys attacking Krass and the undead construct. Where Reiner pushes his foes back in the center, Krass does the same here. Even being attacked from the front and back doesn't stop him.

One Goreboy down, two more to go. 

Even with Tinys help Reiner ends up getting caught between Deckard and a construct. The attacks from both sides pushes him back and fore into the deadly blades. As he falls mortally wounded to the ground the rest of his warband losses their fighting heart and flees the battlefield.

20mm WW2 US Airborne (and some modern spetznas)

So... everything has been awfully quiet for a long time.. no surprise there ;)

Before christmas I managed to paint up 14 spetznas for some Chain Reaction/5150 gaming in Afghanistan with my son. It was one of the first times I did the painting before applying sand... which means that there still is no sand on them.. 

But now the time has come. I have begun working on my US Airborne (will probably be painted up as 101st although they will most likely be playing some 82nd scenarios at some point). The paratroopers are ready to get some sand on them and then I will throw in the spetznas as well in that process.

The last picture line up is as follows:
Top left and down:
- 2 man Artillery FO
- 2 man light mortar team
- 3 man AT crew
- 2 man bazooka team
- 3 man HQ team

Top right and down:
 1st squad
2nd squad

I was planning on buying Face of Battle when/if it reemerges, but until then they will be used for NUTS!, Chain of Command and the recently aquired Bolt Action.  I can only muster 2 sections albeit fairly large at 12 man each, so not sure if it will fit in with any if the rules but I think I have enough other teams (.30cal, .50cal,80mm mortar team, 6 pathfinders + 4 spare rifles and 1 thompson extra). They will just have to make do with what they have. 

I have a 57mm AT gun as well for the crew so they should be able to deal some damage at least.
As for vehicles I think I have a Stuart to support them, but I will probably get a Sherman or two... since I have both a pzIVH and a Stug for the germans.

That's it for now, next update when I begin applying actual paint!

Packing for Horisont:V and following BS Kickstarter

Once more an update without any miniature work done.. I have of course been following Battle Systems Kickstarter for some nice 28mm terrain. Today they added the "Hulk" add-on essential giving you a Strongholds worth full of stuff, but for single level play only. Apparantly a lot of people were interested in this. It comes with free single level stretch goals as well so you won't feel cheated ;)

And a post should have images - so here is one for the new Hulk add-on :

I must say I find it to be a very long time to wait until may next year to my hands on this.. I have already begun writing more down for my 5150 campaign and am researching spaceship/station layouts to use for the campaign. And with every stretch goal met more stuff is going to rain on me. Wheiii.. I am so loving this :P

I am digging stuff out for Horisont:V as well, and although my own doesn't take much space, I have promised to bring some 15mm terrain for Chain of Command as well as some 15mm scifi miniatures to help test a game a good friend of mine have been working on. 

In about 14 hours from now me and my son will load the car with all the gear and set out to pick up two more conventioners that are going with us in the car. If all goes well, we should arrive late afternoon and be ready to get some gaming done! There are quite a few games that I want to try and of course a lot of chatting with old friends to be done as well.. 

\m/

November update

Nothing much to report for now in the work in progress department..

I made good use of my ships at Viking-Con this year and in about 14 days I will be bringing them to Horisont:V as well.

Next on my workbench is probably my RRtK army that needs finishing as well as some 15mm scifi.. or 28mm scifi as I need both. I got a huge amount of Khurasan scifi before summer and I really want to begin painting those nice dolls.

But I also want to do more 28mm scifi miniatures, especially since I backed this Battle Systems™ Sci-fi Modular Terrain yesterday. I am really looking forward to this and it will fit right into the 5150 campaign I am working on. Originally I was planning to use the terrain from the Deadzone kickstarter for this, but having real interior terrain for spaceships/stations is way better.

I bought into the Stronghold x1 pledge wich without stretchgoals/add-ons will make it possible to build this:

More than sufficient for what I have in mind and since it is modular I can rearrange it as I like.. Way cool... 

That's it for now...hopefully I will soon be havng some kind of WIP post to do.. (and just so you don't think I am doing nothing, I am actually working a lot on getting a RPG site for a homegrown set of rules up and running.. too many hobbies, too little time!)

And finally, welcome to the new followers... it makes me feel warm and fuzzy to have more people here ;)

Warmaster signing out...

It Is Warm Work - AAR

After rushing to get my ships ready for Viking-con it was time for a test game of the rules I am going to use namely It Is Warm Work. It is a fleet level game that is fairly simple rules wise. Mastering them is another matter ;) Each ship has a "strength tack" that describes its condition in terms of damage, crew, rigging as well as how heavy a broadside it is able to deliver. 

Since my ships are in the absolute low end (minimum guns in the rules are 20) so a strength tack for my ships looks like this (1) (1) (1). What this means is that each ship can take 3 hits in total and fire with one dice each time it fires a broadside. On the yahoo group it was suggested that because we were playing with few ships rather than a whole fleet we could give each ship for strenght tack rows. So onwards me and my youngest spawn went. He seems to be turning into a  francophile and has from the very beginning of the construction been wanting to play the french so here he is plotting the opening moves for his french ships.

So far so good - everything is in order to here.. trodding along merrily (we started out using centimeters as space was limited, but as max movement is 10" the 10 centimers soon became odd.. longest range of guns is 10" as well.. and once more 10 centimers for firing looked very odd.. so a few turns in we reverted to all inch based measurements).

Above you can see the result of the first truly bad move made by yours truly. .turning the Raven (closest british ship) into the wind.. And my devilspawn moving in for a raking fire with his red french ship. Here I took my first hit.

Since we played the "in irons" rule wrong when turning into the wind, I remained in irons for the next turn and the devilspawn just inched forward and delivered another raking fire. Sigh. 

Had we played the rules properly I would only had been in irons for one turn, but alas such is the result of not doing my homework.

Just a top view of Raven getting raked.

And yes...  he managed to move the Loire into a raking position of HMS Sophie in the background as well.. Before this I decide that 4 rows of strength tacks took too long and with only 1 dice for each broadside things were taking far too long compared to what I had in mind. 

So I reduced the rows of strength tacks to two and changed them into (2) (1) (1) meaning they would each fire with 2 dice until they had taken a hit. 

Proof of my poor seamship skills ;)

In the end he had to move the Lynx away from it's raking position, but still well within firing range. More hits to the Raven... And with both my ships strength tacks reduced to firing with 1 dice I was already in poor shape here.

I managed to move HMS Sophie (top british ship) to a better position. And HMS Raven was still drifting due to being in irons.

I was somewhat saved by the bell (bedtime for the teenager :D). The Lynx had moved to a new raking position and the Loire and HMS Sophie squared off in a broadside firefight. 

A clear victory for my son. 

Hit results:

French

Loire 1/6

Lynx 0/6

British

HMS Sophie 4/6

HMS Raven 3/6

When we go to the convention it will be with the following strength tacks for each ship.

(2) (1) (1)

(2) (1) (1)

Giving them 2 dice each, until they have taken two hits. I think this will work very well as a small scale convention game. 

I was very please with the rules. Although they might seem simple, they do have the right feel (for me at least). I look forward to taking revenge on the french!

"Signal Close Action"

Shipyard production almost complete

Since I started last sunday (1 week ago) I have been working like a mad man to get the next three ships done. 

I have corrected a few errors I did on Sophie and introduced a few new ones, but all in all the new ships turned out pretty well. 

I will not comment all the pics below as the process is the same as for the previous posts when I made HMS Sophie. At times it was a daunting task when everything I did had to be tripled. 

As for the colors on the ships I know they are not completely historical, I went with white bottoms of the main masts on the french ships, something they did in warmer waters. The same goes for the jib boom, the color choice is mainly enforced to make sure that the ships stand out easily on the gaming board. Especially until I get some flags on them :)

I have used thicker thread for the rigging this time - which makes it more visible than what I first used. I much prefer the new rigging. The ratlines are still thin thread, and I might still add the horisontal lines later on.

I still have to finish the jib sails and the after rigged sails, but that is something that can be done after the convention if I don't make it before. I want to do a few cliffs and a small island (you can see the preparations for them below as well).

I have made a name change as well. The second british vessel is now named Raven rather than Retribution.. My reality sense kicked in when it dawned on me that I wouldn't be able to fit that name in on the ship with my lousy brush handling ;) I added a slab of card on the back of the quarterdecks for this version because I corrected an error I made on Sophie. The bottom of the aft part of the hull side should have been cut to have the quarter deck hang out over it. But when I did this on the new ships I had much less space to decorate the back., thus the added card.

At the bottom of this very image heavy post (sorry) you can see all the ships of my current fleet.

From left to right : Lynx, Loire, Raven and Sophie.

From left to right : Lynx, Loire, Raven and Sophie.

From left to right : Lynx, Loire, Raven and Sophie.