The Long March

Round 1 underway, with me being dumb and threading my Brutes too far out by themselves where they could get shot to pieces.

I was able to meet Pete for our first in-person game since September of last year.  Because he had converted a figure or two in the Turnip28 style, we agreed to give the Version15a rules of Turnip28 a go.

The big aquarium stumps work very nicely with the 54mm scale figures.

Unlike the previous game, I had a better basic understanding of the rules, and we were also able to use suitable 'grimdark' terrain like the plastic Citadel woods and some aquarium decor, which really helped make the whole visual effect come together!

My Chaff (skirmishers) are trying to flank on the right.

I had also put together five objective markers in the form of little sacks of turnips, so we played the 'The Long March' scenario as written (actually, its the only scenario in the book at the moment). 

Pete's Chaff by contrast is right in the middle of it.

I took far more casualties but by turn 4 (of 4) each of us still controlled 2 objectives and the central objective was still up for grabs. My last two activations of the last round very nearly did succeed in (re)capturing that last objective, so the game was fun (and funny) and also challenging, which is always good.

My Brutes (elites) having been pushed back, my two Fodder units (in the backgrond) have attempted to press into the center.

Unlike my previous game, I did better making sure the special rules were actually used for Fodder and Brutes.  We also had "two scenario blunders," wherein each of us had a "Lost" unit blunder an activation and eat 1d3 of their own compatriots as a result!

My Brutes (with yellow kite shields), who have fallen back with two Panic markers. The Fodder up ahead however has taken three Panic markers.

There was quite a few laugh out loud moments at the absurdity of the game, with units losing figures at a constant clip.

My root-infected Toady (a subcommander) tries to direct my attempts to hold out in the middle.

As before, the four terrain pieces on a 4'x'4 board really clogs up available open spaces, and makes the resultant battle the sloppy mess which the game's aiming for anyways.

Pete's Toff (warlord).

A great way to dive back into in-person games! Not sure where I'm going with this Turnip28 stuff, really, but it a nice small game that's easy to transport and fun to look at.

Final melee of the game.

Trying Out Turnip28

Last summer, my attention was drawn to the Turnip28 project, which primarily involves hacking together and modifying Napoleonic miniatures to be wearing high medieval period helmets, plus a hearty helping of a mutated turnips which have over grown everything and lend everything a dark sci-fi fantasy tone. Because I had dozens of 54mm plastic Napoleonic figures in the basement, which I knew I would never use in a game and also knew had little resale value, I set about converting a few, then a lot, of those figures to helm-wearing, gaiter-sporting post-apocalyptic Napoleonic soldiers.  At the time there were also some very beta-version rules available (just a page or two, as I recall), but they were a little two rough around the edges for me to use at the time, so the Turnip54 army proceeded to sit on top my miniatures cabinet for about a year.

First try-out game, midway into first round.

Fast forward to a month or two ago, and Version 15a of the drafted rules comes out (further revisions are certain to follow, so I'll try to avoid getting into details too much), and in the intervening year they had evolved into a ruleset quite unlike anything else I have ever read or played.  The Version 15a rules has just one scenario, with both sides trying to capture the majority of 5 objective markers.  For this first try-out game, I did not have objective markers yet, and had to quickly make some terrain, but just  happy to get the figures on the table and slug away at each other for 4 turns to get a feel for things.

The figure with the red token is a Toady (a subordinate officer) who has taken a wound. Snobs can take two wounds instead of of one.

The length of the game is only 4 turns, and four "deadly terrain" (if a figure ends up in a deadly terrain piece, roll a die: on a 1 the figure is "brutally murdered" by the terrain and removed) pieces do a lot to clog up the available open space.

Lots of musketry and counter-musketry fire. You have to be careful in your target selection, as fire is simultaneous and a careless pot-shot by one unit can end up replied to with a mighty volley!

The rules follow a basic underlying premise: all of these troops are pathetic.  These are scavengers not soldiers, so they are lousy shots, lousy in a hand-to-hand fight, and huge cowards. Needing a six to do anything is the norm, and occasionally you even need a "7+" (you need to roll a 6, then roll again and score a 4 5 or 6).

My Toff (a warlord) on his sickly steed ordering his Brutes (elite ('elite') troops) to advance, probably.

To this pathetic-ness, add the following interesting and clever mechanics: 

• Every order (march, move-and-shoot, volley fire, or charge) can be blundered, where the action can still be carried out but at lesser effect.
• You have three Snobs (the collective name for Warlord and his two subordinates) to each give one order per round, but have four units, so one unit must give itself an order, and if it blunders, it carries out the lesser action but also loses 1d3 figures as it "gives into its ravenous hunger" (snicker).
• Units retreating through other units (be friend or foe) take a dangerous terrain test (loss a figure on a 1).
• When you fire at a unit, they must shoot back (if they have not shot yet this turn) and this is considered simultaneous - however, in hand-to-hand, the attacker attacks first and defenders casualties are removed, then defender generates dice and counter-attacks.
• Units acquire a panic token every time they take a casualty in shooting or participate in a melee, and panic tokens cause you to be more likely to turn tail when charged.

Powder markers are essential since you can only shot once per turn and being fired at will cause you to return fire.

All of this adds up to a game with remarkable thematic consistency - troops are pathetic, but you also lose models at a brutal pace.  There are many opportunities to lose figures to circumstances beyond your control (falling victim to the environment, being eaten by your fellows) but none of them feel unfair, and I never had that dreaded "roll dice, stuff happens" lack-of-control feeling during the game.  

So, somehow, you still feel remarkably in control of the game despite all the thematic stuff going on and removing your figures randomly.  

Turnip28 is a good excuse to make banners.

There's still good tactical opacity, I guess - Chaff are hard to target, so have them shoot at a unit and force them to counter-fire, and then charge that unit with your Brutes, because the target unit can't offer closing fire because they already discharged their weapons at the Chaff (there's that pathetic-ness again).

In our try-out game, figures died in great numbers. We forgot to use certain special rules for Fodder and Brutes.  The rules are short and quite succinct, so you don't have flip through pages and pages of photos and long paragraphs to find what you are looking for.

The rules are fun (and funny), and well worth the effort of converting figures (in whatever scale). 

20mm Ancients

Looking to play some Punic Wars, Sicilian Wars, or Pyrrhic Wars (let's just call it the 'Hellenistic Age') in the near future with my 20mm collection using the gridded ancients rules in Developing the Portable Wargame.  Assessing the existing armies, I noticed that a 24-figure unit (six 40mm square bases) looks way sexier than 12-figure, and also fills up a 6" grid square better.  Switching to this would give me a lot of armies with four heavy infantry units, supported by three or four 9-figure light infantry units (3 figures to a 40mm square base) and at least two cavalry units (I could go with 6- or 12- figure units on this, both look fine).  While a 9 to 10 unit game will work just fine in Developing the Portable Wargame, some of the armies still felt a little on the small side if switching to 24-figure units. So painting has gotten underway and more figures acquired.

Here's what I've managed to finish up this last month, despite a busy summer calendar:

96 Macedon (or Pyrrhic or Successor state) phalangites by HAT.  The pikes are steel wire. They were attached to figures by heating one end (of the wire) over a candle and attaching to the figure while still hot - the soft plastic melts and sticks and the wire embeds a bit.

Some of these are clearly facing to the right, if you look. Its peculiar these were sculpted this way when the overall set is clearly meant to be arranged in a multi-ranked block of sarissas. Oh well.

Thessalian cavalry by HAT.

I'm not a big fan of the figure at back right corner, with his arms out akimbo. I should have used hot water/cold water treatment to reposition his arms. Oh well.

Celt infantry by Caesar miniatures. I paint 16 of these for Hail Caesar over a year ago (two years?). I painted up 8 more and finally based them to get this unit of 24. This unit will really help bolster Carthagenian infantry lines.

Like most sets that feature forward-rushing ancient infantry, positioning the figures on a multi-base can be a bit of a pain. Especially when you have some figures who are clearly not rushing forward. You do the best you can and probably no one else even notices...