NetEpic Armeggedon learning game. Marines vs Guard

 On Friday I finally got a chance to try Epic warhammer (technically the netepic rules, which are living rule updates of the epic armeggedon ruleset with is....4th edition of epic?). I have wanted to play this for a long time, and owned the rules at one point, but couldn't quite understand how to set up and win a game. Turns out I'm not an idiot, it wasn't really in the base rulebook and came out later with a tournament back. 

Graham hosted an intro game for Nick, Peter and myself. I took one side and Nick and Paul took the other side. Each sides was two 1000 pt forces, so it worked out well. A 'normal' game is 3 or 4k, and Graham intentionally omitted the more advance things (like indirect fire, and airplanes, teleportation, etc).

I had space marines (blood angels in red and ultramarines in blue). In hindsight my troops were a bit mobility challenged as the infantry blobs had smaller stomp walkers(dreadnoughts) that couldn't go as fast as their transports. Definitely a frustration for me during the game. Opposing force was imperial guard which get lots and lots of tanks, big tanks, and mechanized infantry. And super long range  tank killers. 

 

 

It's a bit hard to describe a play by play as it runs with alternating activations. You often only play to the end of turn 3 and the victory conditions give a clear winner. Victory points are based around control of objectives (placed by both sides in the beginning), as well as breaking your opponents most potent/expensive unit, and racing to seize the objective on the opponents baseline.

 

 

My tanks (landraiders) were able to rush forward and seriously mess up Petes mech infantry advance (note to self, always debuss the infantry). Unfortunately Pete's highly effective and long range tank killer unit then proceeded to remove 2 of my 4 tanks. My rolling was pretty abysmal, so even 3+ and 4+ saves weren't doing much for me. In that I had good company as Nick and Pete suffered from bad rolls most of the game as well. 

 

Nick was able to aggressively rush some of my high mobility, short range land speeders (skimmer units) and almost destroy them. This pretty much removed any chance I had at scooping his objectives in the back field. 

I suspect I eked out the win largely based on my objective placement and close attention to controlling them. I played flames of war for a while and it's all objectives so perhaps I was a bit more attuned to the principles. I remember in May running an adeptus titanicus game where the losing side pretty much forgot to contest an objective....it was a bit surprising but probably shouldn't be. If you aren't used to living and dying (winning and losing) base on objectives and are more attuned to blasting your opponent off the table and can see how it could happen.

AAR: Fields of Glory Carthage vs Rome, the revenge

 A couple of weeks later Nate and I managed a rematch. It turns out there are some FOG version 3 army lists with much more flexibility to army construction. I think one of the challenges for me with Carthage was all the mandatory units and our low point value games (due to time constraints). I ended up ejecting the light cavalry, took larger hoplite units, and manage to find space for some medium foot. I also ungraded my elephants thinking they'd last longer (i.e. not go poof after losing one base....which isn't true, but skill rerolls definitely help avoiding combat losses). 

Some eye candy to see the painted armies. Clicking on the photos should bring up larger shots....

In a totally non partisan way the Carthaginians are obviously WAY better looking. Too bad looks don't add to combat performance (the opposite if anything).

AAR: Fields of Glory Carthage Vs Rome

Some more eye candy from a game
I had in July with Nate at the local game store. We both managed to have some time off midday for a quick game, so played on the lower end of the points scale. Nate always harangues me to field my elephants to they hit the table......to my detriment. They are such a glass cannon....a bad roll can really have them go poof with achieving little. 

 

Overall we agreed my strategy/tactics were superior but my dice were abysmal and it was a clear defeat before our time ran out. Carthage (me) managed to have a flanking force that arrived. My match ups were....mostly equal and better in a spot or two. Amazingly my kill rolls (do your bases actually go poof) were TERRIBLE (worst we have ever seen) and my army was rapidly whittled away. Once it starts you are on the back foot.

 

The flanking light cavalry raced in to sack the Romans camp (proxied by a library card). This, in theory, should have made it easier to break the Roman force and sweep them from the field. 

 

 

 

2024 Enfilade - eye candy post

 Enfilade lost it's venue in early 2024 (redevelopment of the hotel into condos) and they managed to find an alternative venue in Tacoma. The main game room was pretty snug, and as a result very loud. Vendors were in the hallway just outside which hopefully didn't affect their sales too much. The bring and buy was surprisingly full.....hard to know if it was because of a different room configuration or actual greater volumes. 

2024 Enfilade - Last ride of the Dust Devil Boys

 Friday traffic was awful and I got to the convention late, so my signed up game had filled. I ended up hoping into the game my friend James ran. Each player made a cowboy (points to buy equipment and ability upgrades). My cowboy, The Book Man, had a thoroughbred horse, charm, and mad horse skillz. Order of play was by a deck of cards with facecards giving some minor bonus. 

 

 

The outlaws have made their last big score and are racing towards Mexico with the largest posse every assembled coming after them. Resistance is futile, they have to escape, but only glory lives forever so their job is to get the most renown (individually). 

I forget some of the names, but 'Kissing Kate', Lord Byron <something>, and Rusty Red (?) I think made appearances.

 

GdC Battle of Occana - Enfilade 2025 Napoleonics Game

 At enfilade this year my friends managed to host games in all slots so snared a table all weekend. It made setup breakdown and storage a lot easier. Saturday midday we ran Ocana with Guard du Corp rules (a convention ruleset made by Doug and Seth). 

Ocana is a rare battle where the Spanish fight the French in large numbers with no support. The Spanish have taken strategic initiative and are advancing on Madrid from North and South. The French don't notice the Southern approach at first and a mere 35 miles from Madrid there are some initial encounters that have the Spanish counter march and daddle. Soon the French have raced reinforcements to counter this thrust. 

The day before the battle sees a huge cavalry action where the Spanish come off poorly. This is important as the right wing of the Spanish army is a VERY brittle cavalry formation facing enthused and strong French cavalry. The line of defensive was well chosen as on the right was a gullied river that blocked the Spanish from advancing on the Left wing. 

 

Star Wars Reinforcement; Probe Droids, Speeder Bikes, Zero G Troopers

 A bit late for May the Fourth, but I hadn't even been working on these for that reason. So....serendipity. Probe droids and the bikers are some found stls printed out. I had a couple of rounds of resizing to try and make them match my other figs (it's hard to size sitting folks and comparing them to slightly hunched rifle firing ones). 

The zero - G troops are some old sculpts from Ground Zero Games. I *think* NAC but could be mistaken. They are definitely the previous generation of sculpt and have languished in my pile o lead for a LONG time.