Druid and 54mm AWI

I dropped in on Bruce Tuesday to start our Hell Hath No Fury campaign, based on the old board game Druid. The set up is simple. The Britons need to make hay while the Romans are activating.

We played about half way through the 20 turns in an hour. I was busy burning SE England while Bruce marched legions towards me. I spent some time disappearing in the forest and also marching and counter marching to keep his legions tied up. Eventually we had the makings of a major battle north of London that we'll game out using Aurelian next time.

I also finally moved seven 54mm AWI British troops off the painting table. These are plastics left over from an Any Regiment box by Armies in plastic.

Nice enough troops. I sealed these before washing to give them a fresher look than the dirty metal figures I've done. I have six British cavalry under way. And I finally cracked the plastic on Muskets and Tomahawks.

Up next: I think I am free for both club nights in December.

Aurelian and Druid

I didn't get to the club this week but I did get a few gams in. Jess and I have been continuing to play through Red November, trying to get a win against the mechanics. Sheesh.

Last week, Bruce hosted a game of Aurelian (Rome v Hairys). The scenario was an ambush where the Hairys had 15 hands of play to control a base of sheep. We're still learning the system and I think I got lucky with the terrain placement.

My plan to face down his screaming hordes was to close and minimize his ability to maneuver while running out the turn clock.

My heavies moved through the skirmishers (who became the reserve and last line of defence) wile my cavalry moved to refuse the flank against his cavalry.

The eventual clash in the centre was a bit of a slog. The right-hand part of the lines because a bit of a FUBAR as Bruce cagily sought to turn flanks and try to get a break through.

Fortunately, that game works both way and managed to delay his advance and run his cards down.

In the end, he just ran out of time (15 turns in insanely tight!). Also tangling head on with Romans is a rough business. I suspect I will face some terrain woes in future engagements.

Bruce then broke out a copy of Druid and we played a few turns to get the hang of it. His thought is to use it as a campaign mechanic for Aurelian. It seemed simply enough and I'm looking forward to it

Up next: I have been doing a bit of painting as I move a bunch of 54mm British AWI off of the painting table. Not sure what comes next!

November 1 Club Night

We had 12 guys out at the club last night. Bruce hosted Chen and I in a game of Aurelian. I played the Romans. I fiddled around a lot with the bases and neglected to recognize the importance of the hill on my left...

Bruce put his barbarian heavies in the woods, leaving me to face skirmishers and a bunch of horse. I went forward and he dropped some annoying terrain that really disrupted my movement.

The horse battle on the left was inconclusive for a long time. In the meantime Chen joined Brice and pushed forward the barbarian foot while my troops were disordered. Things were looking bad as my card deck was getting low.

I finally managed to attrit the barbarian cards in the horse battle, then stalled their movement with an event card and the slammed into the side of main force for two turns.

The resulting unit loss pushed them to the break point of their card deck just before my own deck expired. The lesson here is that good luck and the toughness of the Roman can overcome really bad generalship.

Bruce and Chen played a second game with the Romans winning again.

We also had a game of Silver Tower out plus whatever the heck Richard Borg's WW1 game is called.

And Dave hosted a WW2 Crete game (Bolt Action maybe?) with Jon.

Up next: Some more 54mm AWI.