Scenario 2 "Postgame"

 
If you haven't read the initial setup, that post is here:

https://nerdusinterruptus.blogspot.com/2022/07/campaign-carnival-2022-scenario-2.html

The Heirland forces setup with the scouts on the south end of their line. They can travel through just woods (the southern half of the forest on the left, the top half is on a hill) without restriction. There are two knights on the road to lead the convoy of wagons (white dice).

The Mireland forces setup with the rage beasts on the left and the drake riders on the right. The ground forces will race for the gap in the mountains while the drakes head over the mountain to block the road.

Turn 1

The roll off (2d6): Mireland 4, Heirland 2

Mage teleport rolls (2 each since they are double moving): 2&5, 5&5, 4&4, 6&1, 6&1

Forces move up. Heirland gets on the road, their battle mages teleport to the edge of the wooded hill and the scouts move into the woods. The lead rage beast enters the mountain pass, because it's a hill and halves movement the lead beast just makes it through. The second beast is in the pass. The other units back up behind the pass.  The drake riders move to the base of the mountain.

Turn 2

The roll off: Heirland 9, Mireland 7

Mages moving base range so no dice rolled.

The mages stack up on the edge of the hill which gives them extra range and open fire on the lead rage beast.They score a total of 11 hits, the rage beast saves 5 of them. The second knight unit charges and scores 4 hits. The rage beast saves only one and dies. The lead knight unit charges the rage beast in the pass. It hits with it's charge (not saveable), and scores 4 other hits. The rage beast saves 1.

Having used all 7 available activations, the remaining Heirland forces focus on moving further across the map.

The rage beast in the pass lashes out at the knights, scoring 3 hits. The knights save two, shining armor slightly dented. The drake riders move across the mountain.

Turn 3

The roll off (Mireland plus 1 after losing a unit): Heirland 10, Mireland 8

Mage teleport rolls (4 moving and attacking, 1 double moving): 6, 5, 4, 5, 2&1

The front end of the convoy moves down the road leaving a gap for the range units. The three scouts plus one mage activate and attack the drake rider unit with the the leader. They land a total of 14 hits, including two unblockable hits from the mages. The drake rider only saves 8 and is destroyed (leader captured). Two mages attack the second drake rider, scoring 6 hits. None are saved and the second drake unit is destroyed. The fourth mage targets the next drake rider in line and scores 3 hits, 2 unblockable; one is saved. The remaining convoy units move down the road.

The rage beast in the in the pass hits the blocking knights for 3 hits, only one is saved. The remaining drake riders attack 3 infantry units in the convoy, including the leader. The leader unit takes 2 hits and saves 1; the east unit takes 2 hits and saves 1; the west unit takes 4 hits and saves 1.

Turn 4

The roll off (Mireland +2): Heirland 12 (!), Mireland 10

Mage teleport rolls (moving only once to remain in range of combat while being near map edge):3,6,3,5,4

Most of the convoy (including all 5 wagons and the knight leader unit) move off the map. Three infantry and one knight will activate along with the three engaged units. The attacks on the western drake unit score 6 hits, 3 are saved. The middle drake unit suffers 7 hits; with only 1 save that unit is destroyed. The east drake unit suffers 7 hits, but saves 5. Remaining Heirland units move close to the map edge. The unengaged knight unit near the pass moves to the road.

The rage beast in the pass scores two hits, but the knight saves both. The remaining drakes score 3 hits on two engaged infantry with no saves.

Turn 5

The roll off (Mireland +1): Mireland 9, Heirland 5

No mage teleport rolls, all units close enough to map edge for minimum roll to get them of board.

The rage beast in the pass scores 3 more hits; one is a 6 (counts as 3 hits if unsaved). The knight saves the 6 and one other hit. This unit will later receive a citation from the Baron of Heirland for Holding the Line. The two drake units score a total of 3 hits, but 2 are saved.

The knights attack the west drake unit. They score 4 hits; only 2 are saved and that unit is destroyed. An infantry unit score 3 hits on the remaining drake, which is also destroyed after only saving 1.  Most of the remaining Heirland units get off the board, including the infantry leader, and all the scouts and mages. The few remaining units moving down the road.

Turn 6

Roll off (Mireland +2): Mireland 9, Heirland 8

The rage beast in the pass score 3 more hits including a 6. The knights save 2 including the 6.

The remaining Heirland units move off the board.

And with that the heroic knights in the pass are captured as darkness descends and the rest of the Mireland army arrives.

The final tally:

By stands (dice): Heirland (1 Mireland leader captured, 5 wagon escaped) 12 VP

Mireland (1 Heirland unit captured): 2 VP 

By figures (pips) : Heirland 12 VP, Mireland 7 VP

 In terms of troops lost:

Heirland: Injured- 400 Infantry, Captured- 300 Knights 

Mireland: Killed- 600 Drake Riders, 1 Rage Beast; Injured- 492 Drake Riders;            Scattered 300 Drake Riders; Captured- Drake Rider leader

In terms of victory points either a solid Heirland win or a draw. In terms of losses, a lopsided victory for the Heirland forces. 

Because of the terrain draw, the turn 2 roll off was a killer. By activating first, Heirland was able to keep the vast majority of Mireland forces bottled up.  Had Mireland won that roll, they'd have broken out and the chase would have been on.

But this was the only way this battle could have broken down in Heirland's favor. A different set of terrain and a substantial portion of the Heirland force would have been tied up in battle and lost after turn 6 given the scenario conditions.

So what could have been the Heirland forces losing up to half their total forces ends in a substantial victory. This is why we play.

Campaign Carnival 2022 - Scenario 2

 A Tale of Two Conundrums

The second scenario of the Carnival has Side A (Heirland in my campaign) trying to escape across the map from Zone 4 to Zone 1. They have only six turns to do so; any units still on the board after that are captured.

First conundrum: The battle board I have is 36 inches across. In the system I'm using (Dice Legions) most units only have 3" of move per turn. *If* they don't get involved in combat, they can double move. But that would take the entire scenario to get across the board. And in Dice Legions only 1/3 of units are activated each turn, so a max of 1/3 the units might make it across.

To make matters worse, terrain effects could halve movement. The scenario includes a road across the board, but with only a 25% boost to movement.

Plus there are 5 added transport units which represent the only way to score victory points for Heirland. (Mireland [Side B] score points for all units of Heirland captured or chased off a different edge.)

So I'm going to have to muck with the system again. The question is triple movement or boost movement and activate all units every turn? Ultimately I decided on a version of the latter:

• Any unit that only moves activates for "free".
• Movement is boosted by 50%. So the 3" move units now have 4.5", the 4" have 6".

So that settled I broke out the cards to generate some terrain. From the CC 2022 booklet:

Using a regular pack of cards, draw ten cards, placing them on the table, in order by Sector:
♠ Hill Court Card – Impassable
♥ Grassland Court Card – River Ace – River with Bridge
♣ Light Woods Court Card – Wooded Hill
♦ Grassland
Use your best judgement to determine the course of any River results.

 And that's when I got a surprise. I just had to take a picture of it.

Cards 1-10.
 

So putting everything we know about the map setup together:

Still need to figure out how to position the river and road. But the Mireland  setup area is boxed in by impassible terrain!

Decision time again. the obvious solution is a gap between the hills on the southwest corner of the deployment zone. Also, the Mireland cavalry unit is airborne. a regular hill would not even slow them down. So again, a little from each.

There will be a one unit gap (each unit is 300 troops) in that Sw corner.

The Drake Riders can climb the impassible hill (mountain), but they only get one 'action' (move or attack, no double move or move-attack). The effort to elevate over the mountain requiring a rest period.

As for the river, it will originate from the north edge mountain. A die roll for the direction: 1-2 - along the north edge, 3-4 - 45 degree angle southwest, 5-6 - due south along the edge of the hills and woods.

North edge it is. I think the most logical route for the road is north from the river and along the hills then turn east along the hill, through the clear zone, and southeast off the map.

The forces will be:

Heirland: Infantry 2310 (7 full dice and 1 @ 5 strength), Knights 1320 (2 full and 3@5), Scouts 726 (3@5), and 5 Battle mages

Mireland: Mercenaries 2508 (6 full and 3@5), Drake Riders 1392 (3 full and 2@5), Goblins 756 (1 full and 2@5), and 6 Carnage Beasts.

Each type of regular unit will also have a designated leader.

Pink Phantom Postgame: An army in flight

My reworked redux of the first scenario of the Campaign Carnival 2022 took place early this morning.

My previous post, Still Tinkering, discussed the details, but here's a brief synopsis:

Army A (Heirland) has suffered a battlefield defeat. 45% is fleeing the pursuing Army B (Mireland). Outnumbered two to one they must escape the scenario batttlefield. Army B is looking to inflict as much damage as possible.

In my prior playthrough, using the scenario as written Side A scared a tremendous victory, and neither side suffered much in the way of losses.

 This time was different.

Aftermath

The Heirland forces were very much wiped out this time, victory point wise. Out of 18 units, only 6 of them escaped and two of those were of reduced strength. Two of the three Weirland leaders were captured as well.

In terms of victory points -

By stand (unit): Heirland - 14; Mireland - 30

By figure: Heirland - 32; Mireland - 148

Heirland casualties: Inf - 350 killed, 450 injured; Kni - 150 killed, 250 injured; Sc - 250 killed, 300 injured, and 1 Battle Mage injured

Mireland casualties: Gator - 50 killed, 150 injured; Drake - 650 killed, 700 injured

From a purely "dead and gone" point of view losses are fairly even in numbers.  But the Mireland forces had a two to one advantage to start, sooo moral victory for Weirland?

Scenario execution

As far as running the battle: 

By increasing the ratio of men per figure, it went quicker. Only 52 units to manipulate vs 99 in the previous play. I did add some markers, but they didn't add a lot of time. Despite my added deployment mechanic, and added setup time for cameras and tracking sheets, the entire play was about 4 hours from start of setup to tear down, vs well over 5 the last time.

 (this deployment section will make more sense if you've read the previous post.)

I had mixed feeling during the battle of using cards and bags to randomize entry of most of the armies onto the field. Early on and very late I thought my process was hamstringing Mireland, but they also benefited from the process in the middle section.

Mireland forces were slow to accrue on the first two turns because of the stacked mature of the top of the deck. There were more Heirland cards than entering Heirland forces, so there were 'empty' draws, especially on turn 2. The one change I would make to the process is making sure the card selection matched the armies available.

But once on the field, Mireland benefitted from the automatic movement entering units had until they entered battle or moved into command range.

(end deployment section)

The presence of the cameras inhibited my access to the board and reference/tracking cards/charts, but not too badly. I don't know how people play while providing continuous commentary. Much respect to the consistent Youtubers in the hobby.

From a strategy standpoint:

In the Dice Legions system, once a unit is engaged in melee, it is stuck there until the unit(s) engaging it 'dies', unless they have a special ability to escape (Mireland Drake Riders and Heirland Battle Mages do).

My Heirland strategy was to use the initial numbers advantage to kill the few Mireland units and free up incoming units, then flee. My Mireland strategy was to use drake riders and double moves (which can be executed instead of move-attack) to engage and cut off forces. Then oncoming numbers could polish off the Heirland units.

I used the leader led units to reorganize incoming units for Heirland, but with limited activations, it'd have been better to let the incoming units benefit from the 'free' move action disorganized units of both sides had. Still things might have worked out if the initial Mireland forces could have been killed faster. I definitely erred in the mid-game, trying to save a tied up leader unit when a third or so of the Heirland forces were unengaged and had a good chance to escape.

The Mireland strategy worked very well, though at the cost of hi casualties among the Drake Riders.

Final Thoughts

Overall, I like how this scenario played out. A change in the fortunes of war could have changed the victory points result in Weirlands favor but also could have led to much higher Heirland casualties had it gone the other way.  The semi-random deployment mechanic is something worth using and refining in the future.

Now I just have to figure out how to hammer this video footage into something coherent and...not 3 hours long.

Still Tinkering

 I've been thinking of revisiting the battle I just fought as part of the Campaign Carnival 2022 started by Purple Druid of Wargame Culture. I've had to crystalize what I wanted to accomplish. Do I need to use a different system that fits the scenario setup and objectives better? Should there be victory point objectives added or eliminated? 

Ultimately I've decided to use the Dice Legions ruleset again, partially for familiarity and partially for result comparisons.  I also want to adhere more close to rules as written. I am going to rescale the units from each "pip" on a die representing 20 men to 50 men in order to reduce the number of dice.  Why? Below is a picture of the initial setup of my previous battle.

 

Yup.

What I am going to change is the setup. Since this replay will be not be included in the Carnival results, I want to try to reexamine the nature of a 'aftermath of a lost battle' clash.

 A quick overview of the original setup:

The original setup called for:

• Side A to set up in Zones 9 and 10, facing north, with 45% of initial army
  
• Side B to set up in Zones 5 and 6, facing south, with 90% of initial army
  
• Side A attempting to leave via Zones 2 and 3
• Random terrain via card draw. Mine had forest in Zones 4, 9, and 3 with hills in Zone 9
  

The new setup will retain previous terrain and the 45% of total force available for Side A (in this case Heirland) and 90% available for Side B (Mireland). It will also retain the goal of Side A to exit through the same zones. 

 The new part of the setup:

• 25% of the Side A force will be set up in Zone 9. (The fluff behind this is that it was a reserve force that never got into the initial battle due to the collapse of Side A's army.)
• The rest of Side A's force will be offboard to the north. these will be elements of the army fleeing the battlefield.
• Side B's force will also be offboard to the north and will be pursuing the fleeing elements
• All of the units entering from the north will be considered disorganized until rallied. some of them (the first to enter of each type per Side) will not be full strength, having participated in the first battle.
  
• Units may be rallied by a unit with a leader. There will be one leader attached to a basic infantry unit, a cavalry unit, and a 'range' unit on each side. The Side A leaders will be with the reserve force. Side B leaders will be determined as units enter the field. Leaders will have no other effect than being able to rally units. For victory point purposes they will also serve as 'character models'.

Entry of offboard units will be determined by card draw. Court cards will be Side A units and numerical cards and jokers will be Side B units. The value of the card will be the number of inches from the Zone edge the unit will enter. Red cards will measure from the right side of the board, black cards from the left. The deck is going to be stacked with the court cards and 8 other cards at the top. This represents that the fleeing units left the battlefield first. The first Side B units to enter the field will be the faster cavalry units. The leaders will come in with jokers or 10s (or the last of each unit type to enter the field of play).

 

Side A units that enter will move a full move each turn until rallied.  If they take any loses and leave the board without being rallied, they will be considered routed for victory point purposes.  Side B units will make a full move towards the nearest Side A unit until rallied by a leader or engaging/being engaged in combat. Side B

 

Dice Legions gives each side 1 activation per 3 dice. For this scenario only non-disorganized units will 'generate' activations.  So as units are rallied each side will gain more battlefield control over their units.  Based on overall unit counts, fully rallied Side A would have 6 activations and Side B 11.  That is a total of 17, any "unclaimed" activations will be used to draw cards, bringing units onto the field. So on the first turn, side A will have 3 activations and 14 cards will be drawn.

 

The force breakdowns:

• Side A has seven units of infantry (2 @ 5 str, 1 @ 4), four units of knights (1 @ 5, 1 @ 4), two scouts, and five mages. Four inf, 2 kni, 2 sc, and 2 mages will start on the field.
• Side B has thirteen gatorkin (3 @ 5), eight drake riders (5 @ 5), four goblins, and nine carnage beasts.
• The mages and carnage beasts are single person units and do not have leaders
  

I hope to get this on the table this weekend. I'm going to try to record it.

 

Campaign Carnival 2022 - Force determination and 1st Scenario

 

 The Fluff (pulled from the Campaign Carnival 2022 booklet by World of Weirth, barony names adapted from the forces of Dice Legions Roll vs Evil): 

Two neighboring Domains have been involved in a trade dispute for nearly a year.
Baron Arron of Heirland has had enough! He has lost all patience and in the Spring of the year mustered his forces and sent them into the Barony of Mireland to seize the disputed resource area.
Baron Barren called up his own bannermen to defend the domain, meeting the army of Heirland on the Fields of Aprikoosit.

 

The Crunch: To determine the initial forces, I've utilized the system from The Solo Wargaming Guide by William Sylvester. I rolled dice to determine the towns/villages and available forces. Since per scenario these are two baronies (generally smaller forces) I decided there would be a central castle town (rated A[2-5 regiments]) for each barony and 4 additional potential sources of soldiers. The rolls were fairly even:

• Mireland received towns of B [1-5 regiments] and B size and villages of D [3 companies], F [1 company], and H [no units]
• Heirland received towns of A and B size and villages of D, F , and H
• Mireland's A and two B towns yielded 4 regiments, 2 regiments, and 2 regiments
• Heirland's towns yielded 3 regiments, 2 regiments, and 3 regiments 

 So the dice were kind and both baronies start evenly matched, 7920 troops each. In Dice Legions each side has three types of regular (pip based) troops.  I chose to divide them up as
4200 basic infantry, 2400 cavalry, and 1320 'trained' (due to range attacks) troops.  I then added 10 of each sides' special units to the mix.

The 1st Scenario (from the CC 2022 booklet with DL names): 

The Fluff: The overconfident and headstrong general of Heirland was defeated, his strategy thwarted, and he was ignominiously captured by the Golden Guard of Mireland! Heirland’s army was forced to withdraw from the field, leaving behind a small force to defend the retreat.

In my head canon, the Baron of Heirland was unaware that the coveted resource (a mineral useful in magic and alchemy) was located in the goblinoid inhabited swamps of Mireland. Baron Barren had made a deal with the goblinoids, sharing the riches of the trade for rights to the mineral. This also generated goodwill with goblinoids, who now swelled the ranks of Mireland's army.  Baron Aaron assumed the light human population of Mireland would not be able to resist the size of Heirland's army. His general was ill prepared to meet a foe of equal numbers and savage intent.

The Crunch:  Per the scenario, Heirland will only have access to 45% of its forces, while Mireland will have 90% of its starting units.

Heirland:

1890 Heirland Infantry (by Dice Legion standards - 16 dice with one die understrength at 4)

1080 Heirland Knights (9 dice)

594 Heirland Scouts (5 dice with 1 at 5)

5 Heirland Batttle Mages (5 dice with one starting at 4 of 8 health points)

Mireland:

3780 Gatorkin Mercenaries (32 dice with 1 at 3)

2160 Goblin Drake Riders (18 dice)

1188 Goblin Infantry (10 dice with 1 at 5)

9 Carnage Beasts 

 Terrain:

Using the method in the CC 2022 booklet to generate terrain, the battlefield has a large section of woods on the west and southwest corner with some wooded hills just south west of center. 

In Dice Legions woods give cover (allowing for rerolls of failed saves against hits). Hills give extra range to ranged attacks. Of the Mireland forces, only the Carnage Beasts are slowed by the forest. Heirland Infantry and Knights will both be affected by this terrain.

Dice Legions Roll vs Evil forces are set up as and even matchup of 18 dice in each army, with 6 activations per army fielded. Since this is a fight of uneven numbers, I'm ruling one activation per every 3 dice. Heirland will have 12 activations per turn and Mireland will have 17 per turn.

 Setup:

The standard set up for Dice Legions calls for a 12" 'no go' zone between opposing armies.  This assumes the armies will move towards each other rather than one trying to get away. Dice Legions also has no facing, so units can move away just as easily as moving towards the enemy.  Given these reasons (and my small battlemat) I'll be setting the Heirland forces within a 6" strip in the middle of the board and the Mireland troops just outside that strip. This is to keep the Heirland forces from turning tail and running with little chance of being caught.

 

Results: 

It was a wipe out. The Heirland forces knocked out two Mireland leaders on the first turn (one killed and one on a retreat that never ended). All three of their leaders were gone by the end of round 3

The improvised morale rules, rather than allowing Mireland a chance for points from routed units (though that is where most of their points came from), proved a boon to Heirland as a means of escaping melee or forcing Mireland forces to retreat. Admittedly a lot of that is the whim of the dice, but by RAW Dice Legions, once in melee most units are stuck there until one of the units in melee dies.

 I got caught up on the Mireland side with getting the drake cavalry and range units up to tie up units, inflict damage, and possibly cut off retreat. I didn't move in the gatorkin infantry until late. those guys can really lay down hits and avoid (save) hits. (Both are a success on 3+ on each d6).

 The final results: Mireland inflicted casualties of two units, routed 8 off the board, and captured one leader. Heirland had one unit escape disrupted and 24 escape in good order.

Going by stands (dice): Heirland 49 VP; Mireland 13 VP

Going by models (pips and special units):  Heirland 341; Mireland 116

 

Aftermath: 

Heirland: (in models, 20 men each)

Scattered: 36 Infantry; 7 Scouts; 7 Knights; 1 Mage

Injured: 5 Infantry, 1 Scout; 2 Knights

Killed: 4 Infantry; 3 Scouts; 3 Knights

Mireland:

Scattered: 4 Gatorkin; 12 Goblin Infantry; 21 Drake Riders; 7 Carnage Beasts

Injured: 4 Goblin Infantry; 3 Drake Riders

Killed: 1 Gatorkin; 3 Goblin Infantry; 4 Drake Riders

Lessons Learned:

If you're going for mass battle, get the scale right.  By choosing a 1:20 ratio for each model/pip, there were 99 stands/dice on the battlefield. Admittedly, some were set up and never moved, but that was a lot going on for a solo play. A 1:40 ratio would have been better.

 The Law of Unintended Consequences: The morale rule I implemented and leader activation bonus I added lengthened the game.  the morale rule added a third roll to combats (from attack rolls and save rolls to attack, save, and morale) and a post combat movement phase. The leader bonus activations made especially the Heirland turns longer (Mireland barely used that rule). These factors plus my inexperience with the system and the scale snafu above led to this being a 5 hour game from set up to finish. That does not include to time to put everything away and factor up the loses.

RAW first, mod later. Rules as written exist for a reason, try them first. (It turns out I didn't foul up as much as I thought. I believe my setup modification more than countered the ill advised morale and leader rules. I 'reasoned out' a RAW combat with the same forces, and I believe the result would be the same. see below if you're interested.) There's a reason a 'full army' in Dice Legions is 18 dice. The mass battle "Legion" level of the game is one army "per player". The game I played should have been a 3 on 2 as I set it up.

Scenario rules matter: I did an oopsy. I either missed or just skimmed passed the rule about using die rolls to determine which units would be part of this battle. I just took a straight 45% of total Heirland forces.  Fewer Scouts would have meant the Mireland leaders survived longer. Fewer Knights and Mages would have meant slower units in the forest, more likely to be locked up and destroyed. Would that have turned the tide? Hard to say. Reading Is Fundamental, kids. :)

Notetaking: I definitely need a campaign journal to track what's going on force wise. Who's available next, where are the injured, etc. I also need to adapt a more systemic way to track the action on the battlefield.  I had to go back and forth though several notes and my memory to figure out the AAR. I have blank notebooks around. Time to use one.

Overall this was fun. I felt stretched and challenged. I can get better. As evidenced by my system tinkering, the old brain juices are pumping. I think the space of how to do a wargaming campaign has a lot of room for development. How to you make a campaign flow in a way that individual battles are interesting and competitive and the flow of the overall conflict doesn't become a runaway? What is the right mixture of the random and planning? How do we keep the focus on the action on the table? I'm looking forward to what comes next in the Carnival, and beyond.

RAW refight (utilizing the forces I employed in the battle I fought)

 The setup rules for Dice Legions: Setup a 12" no man's land in the middle of the board. Each side has free setup on either side of that zone.

The obvious Heirland setup given the 'just escape' objective: setup on the very edge of the board. Put the Battle Mages in the wooded area side by sidewith at least one unit outside the outermost of the Mages. (Why will be explained in Turn 3.) There is no facing in Dice Legions, so just activate and move off the board.

On my 24" by 36" gameboard, the Mireland forces setup RAW would be a minimum of 18" from the Heirland board edge. The fastest of the Mireland units are the 18 Drake Riders. The have a move of 4". In Dice Legions a unit can either move and attack or move twice. There is a contested die roll (roll-off) each turn, the winner can choose to go first or last.

Turn 1: Regardless of the winner of the roll-off: Mireland activates 17 Drakes and they move 8"; they are now 10" from the map edge. Heirland activates 12 units and moves them off the board. (This could potentially be 13. The Heirland Scout unit has an ability to activate a Scout for free if Heirland wins the roll-off.)

Turn 2: Same actions as Turn 1. The Drakes are 2" from the map edge, an inch or so from the Mireland units. There are 9 to 11 Heirland units left on the board. Five of those will be the Battle Mage units. The others will be Heirland Knights. (Why will be explained in Turn 3.) 

Turn 3, option 1- Heirland wins the roll off: The Heirland units activate and move off the board. All units have escaped with no losses. 

• By stands: Heirland 70 VP Mireland 0 VP
• By figures: Heirland 370 Mireland 0
  

Turn 3, option 2 - Mireland wins the roll-off:  The Drakes move and attack. Heirland forces should be aligned in a way that only a couple of outside units could be double teamed. The Mages and Knights have a 3+ save versus any hits. Setting them up in the woods gives them cover, allowing rerolls of any missed saves. Only extremely Mireland slanted rolls should result in any units being killed in one round of battle. The Mages have a special ability to move even when engaged in melee. On the Heirland turn, they leave the field. The remaining 4-6 Knights will be locked in place and only be able to attack in turn.

After Turn 3, option 2: Chances are the remaining Knights will be ganged up on and killed. There is a chance, if they are engaged with a single unit, they can escape if Heirland wins the next roll-off. Best case scenario for Mireland: 29 Heirland dice escape, 6 are killed. The totals:

• By stands: Heirland 58 Mireland 12
• By figures: Heirland 298 Mireland 72

Both the above outcomes are worse than what I gamed out. RAW in a 'playing the game by the rules' strategy by Heirland does no favors to Mireland victory point wise.  In terms of casualties for the campaign, Mireland would fare better overall. A refight with my modified setup rules might narrow the Heirland ability to escape, or it could tilt the balance of the scenario the other way. Maybe a battle for another time.

Until next time, folks, may your dice roll true.

 

The Dice Carnival commences

 Hey look, long time no blog! (Has it been 6 years? Whoa.)

     I'm jumping into the Campaign Carnival 2022 presented by Wargame Culture.It's going to be a campaign of 4 linked scenarios where the results of each battle will influence the campaign as a whole.For more info follow the links above. (Also check out other videos on the Carnival on the Wargame Culture channel).

 

     I've chosen to use the Dice Legions system to play out this 1st scenario. It's a system I've been watching via it's Facebook group for a while and wanted to give it a test spin.

• Six sided dice are used for the units, with each pip being a 'man'.  (For the larger numbers in the campaign I'm treating each die as a stand and each pip as a figure. Each figure will represent 20 soldiers). 
• There are specialty units that use other dice (most commonly d8) and their value is a number of health points and not individual 'men'. 
• The units have a unit card designating it's attack, movement, and defense values and an special abilities.  Most units roll a six sided for each pip on the die, with the attack value designating when hits occur.  The defender can then roll to negate any hits. 
• Each side gets a limited number of unit activations per turn with each unit finishing any movement and/or attack before another unit is activated.

      This system is not the best fit for this campaign as it does not have morale or leader rules. I've violated a prime principle of gaming (don't tinker before you've even tried the game) by adding these rules.

• Morale: When a unit suffers a hit (successful attack) that unit, after it's save (defense) rolls, must roll a 6 sided die as a morale check.  If the result is equal to or above its Morale Value (the number of pips/health points currently showing), the morale check is failed and the unit must retreat half it's move. If the attack was a ranged attack the unit's player determines the direction of retreat, as long as it's away from the attacking unit.  If a melee attack incited the morale check, the opposing player decides the direction.  On it's next activation the unit may make another Morale check; if it fails it can only continue to move away from the enemy.
  
• Leaders: One standard unit (pip based d6) of each unit type has a leader.  The leader counts as the last pip lost, but does have a d6 worth of health points to be killed.  Any unit within Command Range (3") of a leader gains a bonus of 1 to its Morale Value. If a leader is killed/captured, any units within Command Range must make an immediate morale check. Each leader can activate one unit in Command Range per turn independent of the normal number of activations per turn.

Once I've played out the scenario, I'll detail the results in another blog post.  So stay tuned!
 
 
 
 
 
 

WITS: Kicking It

What I Think, Sports edition

I was going to call this the "kicking chaos" week, but so many of the top teams lost in college football that the chaos was minimal.

Dabo Sweeney had to be kicking himself after calling for two failed runs to try and put the game away when his team had thrown for over 580 yards (vs 50 rushing) during the game.  A short Pitt drive and 43 yard field goal later, and Clemson's latest tightrope walk of a game (see also Auburn, Troy, Louisville, Florida State, and NC State) ended in a loss for the Tigers.

Michigan also lost on a last minute field goal by Iowa this weekend. And Washington's decisive home loss to So Cal at home concluded the trifecta of CFP top four teams losing.  Al-a-bama rolled (Tide) on.

Despite all that, Clemson and Michigan still control their own destinies. Win out, you're probably in the playoff.  The Huskies, maybe not so much.  They can still finish the season with with one loss and a conference championship, but the committee proved in their first poll they don't think much of Washington's schedule.

The PAC-12 is far from clear. Utah, Colorado, Washington State, and Washington are all in position to win out and claim the conference crown.

Ohio State is in the unenviable position of potentially having a one loss season, beating rival Michigan and another top 10 team (Oklahoma), and not even making their conference championship game.  They could be sitting home watching Wisconsin and Penn state battle for the Big 10 title.

Which raises the question: If 3 conference champions (Big 10, Big XII, and PAC-12) all have 2 loses, and Ohio State and Louisville finish with one loss, who joins Alabama in the playoff?  (Potentially 4 conference champs if Virginia Tech beats Clemson for the ACC title.)

And the kicker for this post, the Carolina Panthers lost their 4th game of the season due to a last minute field goal, three made by their opponents and one missed by them.

Cherish your kickers, coaches; cherish your kickers.

P.S. Shout out to the John Carroll Blue Streaks for ending the 112 game win streak of Division III football powerhouse Mount Union.  The loss also ended the Purple Raiders 21 year stranglehold on the Ohio Athletic Conference title.