MayDay The Return of Varus

The first game I ran at MayDay was a redux of Teuteburg Forest, with the (now undead) forces of Varus seeking to regain their honour after being struck from the rolls by Augustus by bagging a Roman patrol as it was returning to its outpost on the Rhine.

I used HoTT for the rules and 28mm plastics (GW and Wargames Factory) and there were five players--three Varian commands rolling 1d4 for pips and two Romans commands rolling 1d6. After three (or four?) playtests, I'm a bit chagrined we still didn't all of the kinks out.

Game 1 went reasonably well. With the small garrison of the outpost, Dave managed to break two of the skeletons commands with cagey play and some good combat dice. Terry, on the other hand had a helluva time with the skeletal warband in the woods (below). We called it when it was obvious that the Romans would be able to gang up on the skeletons and win.

Game two went... errr... less well as the players mostly switched sides and put what they learned to use. The skeletons first obliterated the garrison and then sacked the outpost. And they were also doing quite a number of the Roman patrol.

Overall, nasty, brutish and short--not exactly a fun game for the Romans. Not sure how to fix that--perhaps reducing the Varian set-up options, making the Varians set up first or maybe increasing the number of Romans. And the powerful smell of nail polish remove from the salon upstairs making its way into the ventilation did not help matters.

Up next: A general MayDay wrap-up then some HYW English. But now off to the garden to plant!