The Brawl

On Sunday Gus, Andy, Ron and Phil came over for a first go at Gangs of Rome.

I set the terrain up using most of my current Roman terrain on my Deepcut Studio mat. 

The horrea are warehouses, one of them newly built from a Warbases MDF kit and the other scratchbuilt, originally as a Late Roman church!

The foricae is a block of public toilets. I propped a ladder up against it and scattered some tools about. The aim was to encourage someone to climb up but also as a clue that the roof constituted dangerous terrain.

The Temple of Minerva and the "town house" are also Warbases kits, the latter a villa repurposed by means of some walls (part Hovels, part scratch built). The "temple under repair" is an old resin model I've had for years. Don't know the manufacturer or why I bought it but it was a good excuse to deploy my homemade scaffolding. 

I used a variation on the rulebook scenario called The Brawl. This struck me as a good way to introduce new players to the rules. Two street gangs were to fight each other with points being scored for putting enemies out of action. Double points were awarded for style, something achieved by taking out an enemy in a single activation by two or more means (e.g. missile combat and melee).

I departed from the published scenario in a few ways. Firstly I created 11 pre-generated Gang Fighters and allowed the opposing sides to choose from them. Two of the fighters (Junius the Thief and Molendinarius the Brawler) had additional abilities. If one side had ended up with both of these, the other side would have received the eleventh model. As it was both sides ended up with five members.

Molendinarius the Brawler
(who ended up in the Blue gang
despite his green cloak)

Junius the Thief

Both sides then picked a Leader, Scaevola for the Blue Gang and Lucretius for the Greens.

Scaevola - leader of the Blues

Lucretius - leader of the Greens

My final departure from the scenario-as-written was to allow deployment anywhere on the board. Not sure why I did that but it got the action sorted quickly!

Januarius and Lucretius fighting on the roof
of the small house

The action began with a fierce fight on and around the small house. Januarius of the Blues was put out of action almost immediately. As he took damage in melee and was then thrown off the roof by Lucretius, his demise was considered to have been achieved with style and two points were scored for the Greens. 

As the fighting continued, Lucretius was then attacked by Scaevola and Aerugo (he dodged Aerugo's pilum) before both he and Scaevola were in turn attacked by angry mobs!

At the end of the first turn all three Mobs (I only have three) were angry and the Disturbance Counter was down to six.

Game turn 2 began with Molendinarius being menaced by a Mob. Some childish amusement was had from the fact that the Mob in question was represented by a shepherd and his sheep.

Further amusement came from Rufinus and Parum Icarus throwing sacks at each other and missing.

The continued fight between the two Leaders, Scaevola and Lucretius, culminated in the latter being taken out. This gave the Blues three points (they missed out on doubling this as the crucial activation involved only a melee attack). 

Having just taken out Lucretius, Scaevola is attacked from
behind by an angry mob. Aerugo is still on the roof
of the small house.

The fight left Scaevola badly wounded but fortunately he'd brought with him a vial of Miraculous Ointment so after taking refuge in the walled garden of the townhouse he was able to recover.

Another mob had by now become scared...

The third turn saw mostly the two gangs throwing rocks at each other. The only point scoring coming when Molendinarius hit Musca with his gladius before throwing him bodily into one of the columns of the old temple. Two more points to the Blues!

Keep chucking the rocks boys!

Turn 4 saw more of the same; lots of brawling but no points scored. The shepherd and his sheep were now scared and the Disturbance Counter came down to 4 but that was as low as it would get in the game.

As the last turn started the Blues were well ahead on points but with a little more luck the whole action might have swung in the final moments. Although Blue leader Scaevola had made good use of his Miraculous Ointment, he had continued to take damage, not least from being attacked by the one remaining angry mob.

In almost the final action of the game Parum Icarus ran past Scaevola and onto the manicured lawn of the town house garden. In doing so he inflicted a point of damage using his Subtle Dagger. Reaching down he prized a rock from the sward and threw it a the head of Scaevola. 

Sadly for the Greens the rock missed and Scaevola would live to brawl another day. The Greens had just missed out on a potential six victory points!

The final action saw Rufinus take down Junius for a final point to the Blues.

Rufinus (right) attacks Junius while Molendarius (rear) assists

In the end, then, the removal of Leader Lucretius and Junius the Thief, along with the very cinematic fate of Musca saw the Blues finish with 6 victory points. Their opponents managed only to dispatch Januarius (albeit with style) and scored just two points.

Gangs of Rome proved popular with the players and we're seriously considering a campaign going forward. More on that and my thoughts so far on the rules to follow in a future post. 

On the workbench

I've been fairly busy over the last couple of weeks with a wide variety of modelling projects, fully illustrating my usual magpie-like approach to the hobby.

For Gangs of Rome I decided I'd like some Roman manhole covers. Access points to sewers and underground locations (I'm being careful to avoid spoilers here) appear in at least two of Lyndsey Davies's Marcus Didius Falco books and I wanted the option to include them in games. A little Googling found some images...

I played around with Tinkercad and managed to produce some approximations. I then stuck the prints to thin plasticard and added my usual Milliput crazy paving round them.

Suitably painted I think they're OK but I'll probably ditch the contrasting stone colour.

Also recently printed was this 1/300th scale Hungarian Air Force Me109:

Not brilliant but it'll do the job when my Magyars need fighter support.

Finally, I'm in the process of completing a second unit of Prussian dragoons for the 1812 campaign. Pictures of these when they're finished but I'm also playing with left-over parts to make a Sharp Practice Deployment Point. 

Not sure why the trumpeter is on foot while the rest of them are fighting; maybe his horse was killed?

A nice antique shop find

Our recent trip to the North East included a visit to Owl and Pussycat Antiques in Whitley Bay, one of the Baroness's favourite shops. An advantage of visiting such places with an experienced antique buyer is that by throwing in something small with a larger purchase, you often get your small purchase thrown in for nowt.

On this occasion I found a few packs of Wargames Factory 28mm plastics and decided that some German tribesmen might find a place as mercenary muscle in Gangs of Rome.

The figures are just about the same size as the official Gangs of Rome miniatures from Wargames Atlantic, which is slightly disappointing as I'd have liked to see my Germans noticeably taller than their Roman citizen opponents!

They aren't the best models - a bit wooden in pose. I think I'll probably base them singly for use in Infamy Infamy. 

No fog on the Tyne

The Baroness and I are just back from a couple of days in the northeast of England. On the list of things to do was a visit to Arbeia, the Roman fort at South Shields, something we've wanted to do since a trip to Wallsend on the other side of the Tyne a few years back. With Gangs of Rome scenery on the workbench, I was keen to see the reconstructed buildings at Arbeia to get some ideas for colour schemes.

The fort we can now see the remains of in South Shields was built in the mid-second century, probably to guard the strategically important River Tyne. It went through several phases of rebuilding, much of the time serving as a supply base for Hadrian's Wall. Certainly there were far more granaries on the site than would have been normal for a fort of its size.

The site has a number of modern reconstructions of buildings and I was very impressed. Most imposing is this gatehouse on the western side of the fort.

The Arbeia gatehouse - Leven Miniatures did a similar model
in 6mm scale

A reconstructed barrack block is another modern addition to the site. Their remains are such a familiar feature of Roman military sites but it was really illuminating to see one in three dimensions.

Pleasingly, four of the six internal spaces are open to the public and have been fitted out to varying degrees. 

Quarters for a centurion with storage
chest, stool and pattens

A small wooden shrine and a wall mounting
for an oil lamp are nice touches

The centurion rates a second room...

... and a kitchen.

The spaces for the men were less palatial.

Primitive fireplace with a flue built into 
the wall

With eight men in a contubernium, these bunk beds will
have been somewhat cramped

But at least there's a ceiling to provide
some insulation against the British weather

Another section of the barracks has been left partly completed so visitors can see the wattle and daub construction of the internal walls.

I was able to get some useful photos of roof construction details. I may have a go at 3D designing some Roman roof tiles as they're quite different to modern pantiles.

At the southern end of the site there's a very impressive reconstruction of a third century commander's house.

Ignore the ironwork - it's a modern anti-climbing measure

A nicely done household shrine

Lots of paintwork to copy

The interpretation boards are numerous and really well done.

The interior of the commander's house has been fitted out in Third Century style. I took loads of photos but I'll just share a couple here.

Finally the on-site museum is crammed full of interesting finds with more in the internal rooms of the gatehouse. 

A painting by the late Ron Embleton, brother of Gerry
the well-known illustrator of military subjects

Tyne & Wear Archives and Museums and South Tyneside Council have done a superb job here and I thoroughly recommend a visit to Arbeia if you have an interest in Roman subjects.

Hachigata - The Assault

Mark, Ron, Phil and Andy came over this weekend and we played out the culmination of our Siege of Hachigata, 1568 campaign using The Pikeman's Lament.

The campaign has covered four games with each of the players taking on the role of a samurai commander attempting to gain personal honour whilst fighting on behalf of their lord. The assumption is that there are large armies involved on both sides and that our player characters' contingents form but a small part of them. However, key events of the siege do seem to have followed our boys around!

For the defending Hōjō clan Phil took on the role of Hōjō Tsebedetsu while Ron played Date Masamune. The attacking Takeda were represented by Takeda Mochinaga (Mark) and Honda Gozaemon (Andy).

Left to right: Takeda Mochinaga, Date Masamune, Hōjō 
Tsebedetsu, and Honda Gozaemon

This final part of the campaign saw the Takeda assault on the castle. I hadn't originally planned it that way. The historical siege ended when the Takeda gave up and their army marched away. My idea was to follow history and play two or three games set during the siege and maybe a couple more with Hōjō forces harassing the withdrawing Takeda. In the event, however, the Takeda were victorious in every skirmish of our table-top campaign. It seemed they'd have to have a go at assaulting the castle!

I thought events of previous battles should influence this one.

The Hōjō side's failure to steal Takeda Shingen's heirloom armour would give the Takeda the chance to reroll a failed Morale test as the unit concerned caught sight of the daimyo, magnificent in it.

Their success in digging a channel to divert the castle's water supply would give the Takeda the chance to infiltrate men into the castle. More on this later.

The capture of an outlying bastion (or yagura) would give the Takeda an additional, albeit immobile, unit in the game in the form of arquiebusiers firing from the tower.

Finally, I wanted to give the defenders a little something to reflect the stratagems used by defenders in Japanese siege warfare. I allocated them some two-inch-long strips of bamboo skewer. These represented a pile of logs that they could send crashing down to sweep attackers from the glacis. In the event, this was never used as no Takeda forces were in the right location. If I had the time again I might allow them to be used in any location but with a high target number for activation.

The game began with the defenders deploying their units lining the castle walls. This determined the attackers deployment area - basically at least six inches from the walls, further in areas where defending missile troops' maximum range extended beyond that line.

I had given the Takeda players the ability to infiltrate from the woods to the wall (and potentially into the castle) using the channel so laboriously dug by their miners in a previous fight. Mark ended up commanding this sector of the field and he was given two options. He could try to infiltrate a unit of samurai or he could employ ninja for the task.

With 13 inches to cover to reach the wall from the woods, samurai would move 2D10 inches whereas ninja would move 4D8 inches. Ninja were a better bet for penetrating the defences but taking them would cost Mark two points of honour!

Mark decided that the honour of victory would expunge any stain from using the untouchable assassins and made his way over to the dice tower to roll his 4D8:

 The resulting six inches of movement had the Hōjō snorting in derision.

The battle, then, would be fought with the Takeda attackers having to get across the walls without the assistance of a friendly force within.

The Hōjō tactic was to mainly use ashigaru to line the walls and to keep samurai in reserve.

A group of townsfolk was available and these were employed to guard the area of rough going where the stream had previously run through the watergate. Rated as "Clubmen" in TPL terms, they actual fight better in rough going than they do elsewhere!

The Takeda advanced on a broad front...

The defenders had a contingent of warrior monks who had the Wild Charge special rule. I declared that this would apply if the monks were actually lining the walls but not if they were held in reserve within the castle. 

Eventually Phil decided to let them have their head and they charged out into combat. They didn't last long but they seriously dented the Takeda line before their survivors were routed.

A couple of Takeda units made it across the wall but on both occasions they were surrounded and cut down. In the end Andy and Mark decided that they no longer had the strength needed to penetrate the castle's defences. The campaign would conclude, somewhat historically, with Takeda Shingen withdrawing to besiege the less imposing Takiyama castle instead.

At the end of the game we examined the Honour scores of the samurai captains involved. With a string of previous victories behind them, the two Takeda captains came out of the campaign with their reputations significantly improved. 

Takeda Mochinaga (Mark) lost two points for his unsuccessful use of Ninjas, another for acting without panache and a fourth for failing his boast. Still he finished the campaign with a total of 22 points of Honour.

Honda Gozaemon (Andy) had made three boasts before the battle and succeeded with one. He did act without panache at one point and, overall, lost two points of Honour ending with 30. Having started with 13 points, his was a tale of success despite a strategic reverse.

The Hōjō leaders were less successful overall.

Hōjō Tsebedetsu (Phil) was successful in his boast and on the winning side. He added six points of Honour to end the campaign with 16, the highest level he had achieved to date.

Date Masamune (Ron) was the only leader to have acted with panache throughout the battle but a failed boast saw his score unchanged overall on 17. Given that he started the campaign (as a veteran of many battles) on 18 points he had clearly failed to progress his career during the Siege of Hachigata.

And so the campaign is over. The players all said that they enjoyed the rules and would be happy to play some more The Pikeman's Lament (or its stablemates Lion/Dragon/Xenos Rampant) but next I think we may go on to try some Gangs of Rome.

Looting on the streets of ancient Rome

Today I had a first, solo, go at using the Gangs of Rome skirmish rules from Footsore Miniatures & Games.  

Looking back at this blog I see that I purchased version 2 of the rules at Fiasco in October last year but the serious push to actually play has been on-going for just five weeks. Not bad going!

I set up a 3'x3' area using my Deep Cut Studio city mat (with some plywood and a metre rule defining the playing area as the mat is 4'x4').

The buildings are a mixture of actually-Roman stuff built for Christmas 2018's Dark Ages game, some buildings that looked vaguely believable because of their pantile roofs, and a few pieces knocked together recently.

While the set up was on the table, Postie arrived with a couple of additional MDF building kits; a temple and a granary from Warbases. More on these later!

Having just used the basic rules, I've found them to be fun and quite clever in places. For example. I was wondering why they have separate "Move" and "Climb" activations when the distance moved is the same in both cases. The answer is that the results of failure are different between the two.

Fail your die roll to Move and you just stay where you started, fail you roll to climb and you fall half the height you were attempting to reach and take damage accordingly. Cleverly, though, climbing a ladder is counted as a move so is safer and potentially quicker than shinning up the scaffolding elsewhere.

I used the first scenario in the book in its "Core Rules" configuration. Basically it's won by the side that gets the lion's share of four resource tokens scattered around the board. On this occasion the Green Gang led by Molendinarius were successful.

I think Gangs of Rome would make for a great Saturday Afternoon Wargame[TM], possibly even giving us a campaign to follow the soon-to-be-finished Siege of Hachigata series.