A Simple Turnip28

Ran a Turnip28 teaching game for Andrew whom I had not seen in almost a year, due his job change and a change in my schedule.  So a game and a visit was a double win! We played "The Long March" with vanilla, no-Cults regiments, just to give him a handle on the basic rules and flavor.

Yesterday was a TurnipDay

Another good Turnip28 Day.  Total of six players, so we placed terrain on three tables and then did round robin rotations so that everyone played at each table once and always played a different opponent.  Everyone had lots of great models and many scenarios and cults were tried out.  Many donuts were eaten.

"Into the Breach" scenario

"Long March" scenario with the pike mercenaries cult

 

That "catch-the-pig" scenario.

Another game of "Into the Breach"

The War in Idenfels (Burnt Toast; the Long March)

Melee fodder secures an objective in dangerous terrain.

Numerous regimental cults were involved in heavy fighting in the vicinity of Idenfels. First was the 'Burnt Toast' scenario, but with four players arranged into two teams of two. An alliance of Grand Bombard and St. Alamei's Rockets miscalculated the deployment of their respective artillery pieces and fell to a Fungal Herd of pigs and Stranglin' Harry's (?) men.

Burnt Toast scenario set-up.

Burnt Toast scenario.

Burnt Toast, a turn or two in.

There followed a Long March with the Grand Bombard and Knights of Shellwood taking on the Herd and Strangling Harry's men again.

This time the melee power of the Shellwood Knights, supported by some effective shooting by the Bombard secured a strong win.

Burnt Toast at Trudestaadt

 

Turnip28 returns to the table with a game using the 'burnt toast' scenario. Three pieces of terrain are arranged in the center.  Welcome to the hamlet of Trudestaadt!

Hamlet of Trudestaadt.

Objective markers are set, all except one, but both sides are nervous as someone may have left the kettle on in that central house. On turn 4 (or what is 5?) the central piece of terrain burns to the ground and the fifth and final objective marker piece is set in its place.

The Grand Bombard cult lost to the Tall Man this time (I think? This was about 3 weeks ago now).  The Bombard itself scored a hit but also exploded itself. 

Fodder.

Grand bombard

The Tall Man.

The rules of Turnip28 are becoming set in our minds. The games are breezy and easy, now. I really need to convert a stump gun and some cavalry. Ideas for additional terrain piling up in the brain.

Crossing the Dredge at Beleynay

Terrain set up for the Dredge.

I arranged a game of Turnip28 with Roger, who has a wonderful collection of converted and customized Turnip28 regiments.  We played the "Crossing the Dredge" scenario from the main rulebook but on a 3'x3' board.  The Dredge is a single piece of defendable terrain in the dead center of the board, with dangerous terrain extending out to each side.  Objective markers are placed on each piece of terrain.

The Dredge, viewed from other side.

I played the Grand Bombard cult again, and Roger used the Lopers stilt-walking cult.

The "kissing booth" objective marker that Roger made!

Unlike in the prior game of Turnip28, my bombard was actually able to score a hit on the second turn, reducing the unit of stilt-walkers from 6 models to 1 in one shot!  However, after this, I started having problems finding targets in LOS of the bombard (which cannot move).

Bombard makes a hit.

My fodder take the objective in the center...

 

...while my Brutes take an objective on the right flank.

 Things sort of see-sawed for a turn. Roger's Lopers made some melee progress on his right flank,

Roger's melee fodder, led by his horrifying tooth-head Toff.  His carrot-headed chaff-skirmishers are in the background.

But dangerous terrain took its toll, and the bombard seems to have given me too much control of the right side of the board, which allowed me to grab control of three of the five objectives by the end the game.

This was a really fun and really inspiring game, and it spurred me to make some more progress on my forever-90%-completed fourth piece of dangerous terrain.

Long March from Hopfurst

Managed to arrange for a game of Turnip28 quite quickly after finishing my terrain set! Ben's regiment is only partially painted but he completely restarted the project with new conversions. He suggested just starting the campaign from the Taster book. He took the Tall Man cult and I took Grand Boombard.

 

I previously played Ben back in February or so (no photos) and a new version (v17) of the rules had come out since.  So there was a lot of rule looking up.  Luckily, the tri-fold QRS that is now available is super helpful and a lifesaver.

In the Taster-version of the Long March there are five objectives, one basically in each quarter of the board and one in the middle.  We were both able to claim the two in our halves and Ben got to the center one first.

The next turn was just sort of back and forth. There was a biggish melee on my left, and I ended up losing my objective marker over there.  The Grand Bombard kept firing but not hitting anything.

At some point at maybe turn 3 I realized the utility of the Grand Bombard cult's ability to have Toffs and Toadies (commanders) seize objectives - every objective I had added +1 to the Bombard's to hit roll.  At the beginning of the fourth and final turn I was able to momentarily capture 3 of the 5 objectives.  +3 to hit!  But the Bombard rolled a one and since it already had 3 panic tokens (making it "unstable" as an artillery piece) the whole thing exploded.

Ben was then able to fairly easily recapture some of the objectives since they were defended by a solitary individual, and he picked up the win.

Appropriately, this piece of dangerous terrain was responsible for consuming many figures!

This was only the second time I've played Turnip28 this year so I wasted a lot of game time looking stuff up. In theory we will link our future games together using the system proposed in the Taster book.

Up next? I need to finish my fourth and final piece of dangerous terrain its about 50% done), and I need to make some obstacle pieces (crumbling walls, waddle fences, etc.). I need to make tokens to denote which objective is currently in control of whom. I need to make/convert a stump gun (i.e. a regular artillery piece) to go with the Bombard.  I have the pieces to create some cavalry and a procession of woe cult, so I should do that sometime soonish.

The Creusot Has Spoken!

 

A 3D-printed 155mm Creusot breechloader siege gun, better known as the "Long Tom" gun from the Boer War. The print is pretty low on detail - I added the rivets (dots of PVA dabbed on with a paperclip) and the aimer/loader's platform. I have three more so both sides could deploy up to two if they wanted...

 

French columns coming up the road...

...where British columns await beyond the hill.

British foot artillery, limbered and waiting.

The table at the beginning.

Ghurkas, playing light infantry in this game.

View from British left flank, where Irish Guards stand ready. Those two columns of British regulars are perhaps not positioned very well...

The French take aim for the Creusot's first shot...

...and the results are nasty! Six men lost in one blast and the rest sent running!

Following the first barrage from the Creusot, the first company of British regulars has taken advantage of marching in column on a road to move quite far and then deploy into line, and the British artillery has deployed. Together, they are able to force a company of French regulars to fall back (they can be seen marching in column towards their own table edge past church).  The Irish Guards have advanced and are exchanging fire with Zouaves in the woods.

The French right consists of the 155mm Creusot gun and a Hotchkiss machine gun with half companies of Zouaves (in skirmish order) to each side.  "This is the future of warfare, right here," Jamie declared, pointing.

The French regulars who fell back rally, but I am able to play this 'What Luck, Chaps!' card on them.

The Foot Artillery chipped away the French regulars to their front, but made slow headway against them as they had deployed a skirmisher screen.

The Irish Guards kept firing into the woods but could dislodge the Zouave skirmishers.

End of game, but I have figured out brutal trial and error that advancing in line with skirmishers deployed to the front is the way to go.

Another fun and educational game of A Gentleman's War with Jamie.  Terrain was again randomized using my tiles. Jamie carried the day again, in no small part because he actually makes a plan while I just sort of generally flail about. Regular infantry with skirmish line deployed certainly seems the most beneficial formation for moving up the table. This also resembles the common open order formation in Funny Little Wars which I admire.

We played to the fourth Joker, at which point I counted up my casualties and realized I had lost over half my figures (a faster metric than losing half your units), probably a card or three earlier than the joker's appearance.

The Creusot 155mm seemed a little too powerful, with its six crew throwing six dice, not only decimating the earlier line infantry company but doing some major damage to the Irish Guards toward the end. Rifle fire seemed ineffective as it counts as an open order target so saves pretty well.  We agreed that some fast moving cavalry, getting into a flanking position or in cover and dismounting to lay down small arms fire, might be a good counteragent.  But infantry with skirmishers deployed might also be able to get close and send the gun crews running in close combat.  Another potential benefit possibly not fully explored is is a subordinate commander figure attached to an artillery gun (and therefore granting a single reroll on shooting "to-hit" dice, which could be huge).

I'm slowly but steadily working on dismounted and mounted cavalry figures, and those should be table ready soonish.  I also need to convert more artillery crew figures and I have an idea for some more HQ staff figures I want to do.