Victory Without Quarter - Alpian Wars - solo game

 After much work on completing a downstairs bathroom and the first series of tests on my First Responder course I decided that there must be an Alpian Wars throwdown.

Lacking opponents, I decided to use my solo simple system to lay out a battlefield and set a simple objective.

The tabletop was 1/3 'swampy ground' in two of the six sectors, so this was likely something happening in the 'low-countries' where flooding is common.

a hill and a small town rounded out the battlefield.

For 'orders' the Stagonians ended up with the task of killing or capturing the enemy commander and they could use much resources to do this (King of Diamonds drawn); for Alpia it was more vague ... they had to use a 'plan' to win (the Nine of Clubs).

Stagonian Command

I have many photos of the table, yet the whimsy of the miniatures and the look generated by the clip to comic app seems to serve telling the overall story of an Alpian Wars game better than the many other shots.

I will still use a few of the photos, AND there is a time lapse of the whole game broken down by deck draws.  (at the end of the post)

the Alpians used their pike and shot to some effect
in guarding their commander

I randomly assigned the troops to the commands, three to each brigadier and two to the CiCs.

No artillery were used and the artillery cards were removed from the draw deck.

the Stagonians were in greater strength on their right
as were the Alpians to the right of the hill

the great story of this battle would be the
many times Stagonians rallied (like here)
and how most often the Alpians did not rally

Zuff P&S

and Queel P&S were great at blasting away

at Stagonian Knights, who were eventually
killed off the field ...

while the Alpian Knights simply withdrew
after taking some fire and having other troops
retreat through their ranks
(many, many failed rally rolls - the like the '2' seen here)

Alpian forces were down to minimal, with Brigadiers
attaching to help keep the men from fleeing

in the midst of the ninth deck,
the Alpian Commander decided that his life
was more valuable than any army and left the field

a score of 6 : 1 in favor of Stagonia
a tactical victory but a strategic draw ...

Fun to get the minis on the table again this month - looks like I might have an opponent for another game this long weekend - this time some FPGA.

Finally enjoy this longer form video of the whole process, from set up through each card deck and finally clean up.

Image processing for a new gamebox

 Once Upon a time I had a plan to put the whimsical bloodaxe miniatures, painted by Jeff Hudelson, into a gamebox set for use by those who perhaps were interested in tabletop minis, yet were unable to have the space needed and could experience something of the game with Cyberboard.

Then we learned that we would have to move.

I did not know if I could even keep the minis, due to storage needs.

This spurred me on into generating a set of photos of these minis.

Then we had a location and all my photo works were put into reserve and the other plans put on hold.

Now I find I have some time to put into the process again ...

a quick image done of the two army CICs

 

The overall summary of the games, so far, can be found at The Alpian Wars.

Each unit and command is getting a full image treatment:

The Yellow Brigadier of Alpia

So far only Alpian forces have been done.

Up next will be Stagonia.

Alpian Wars - Stagonia WINS AGAIN!

 The last action of 2020, for my broadcast table with an online player was an Alpian Wars matchup again using the wonderful Blood Axe miniatures of Jeff.

Nate took command of fair Alpia, leaving me to run the vile Stagonians.

We used the terrain generator cards, as created by Grid Based Wargames, and came up with a stream bend, town without walls, fields without walls a woods and a couple of hills.  Done in 30 seconds.

opening field situation, Stagonia bottom left, Alpia top right

Alpian foote hold a hill and extend into the center
of the field

early battle saw Stagonian Knights hit hard

the Alpian foot only just held on ...

while the second line - of Alpian knights become
disordered by the fleeing foote

 I had the video recorder going, yet at the moment having troubles getting either images or a time-lapse of the game ... at least I did take some more photos.

It was 'deck' or 'shuffle' four that had the next most interesting events.  Each unit and commander has a card in a deck that includes re-loads and a 'turn end' card that starts the 're-shuffle' process ... so no one really knows for sure if they are going to get to move at all or not.

Stagonian command

Alpian horse

the Alpian horse were met by some Stagonian horse

on the flank Alpian foote held back Stagonian knights

the right flank was busy with Stagonian foote
moving forward ...

 Again a few more 'deck shuffles' happened before I ran the camera.

by deck 8 the situation was clear ...
fair Alpia was not going to hold the field much longer

Stagonian foote had pressed back Alpian horse in the town

all Alpian commanders were pressed into action
to support the foote in holding the line versus the
Stagonian Knights

endless volleys were fired

pushing back some Stagonians

though not on the right flank, which stormed the town

a massed Stagonian volley leaving only an Alpian
brigadier to hopefully withdraw, as his
horse had already withdrawn

it seemed no rally efforts were working any more
for the Alpian horse

Alpian commander could not move to help the horse
as he was already committed to the foote

the Stagonian High Command were clearly triumphant
with the Knights leading the way

Alpian knights just did not manage to get into action
without becoming bogged down with their own
foote in the way of attack or retreat.

GOT IT!

Did one more video processing and had the time-lapse of the game come through.

Let me know if you like the video clips or time-lapses from the past few games.

I am curious to know if I want to continue doing the processing.

Cheers

 

Looking back ... looking ahead

 2020 was a difficult year in many ways, yet it brought forward a new way to interact with each other over long distances - via the web in real time.

I'm not certain so many of us would have done this without the incentive of "it's either this way or NO WAY."  Given that I would really rather have a game than none at all ... I took up the challenge.  The Alpian Wars have never seen the table as much as they did this year.

Alpian Wars battle from April 2020

With help from my videographer sons, who all took some video production in high-school, I was able to assemble the cameras and some software to make the tabletop come to some life via the internet connections.

setup from Command Zone 2020

I was able to help the Salute convention team have some presence on the otherwise cancelled weekend, then jumped in with HMGS to support them with a game.  Meanwhile I also ran some virtual games for the mental release of the local gaming community.

Pratzen from Lets Roll of HMGS

 In summertime, we were able to game outdoors under a sun cover and did a set of games that likely could not happen any other way.

April ECW game

Bussaco 1810 game

 

Playtest for Stoke Lane

Stoke Lane web view

The Stoke Lane tents setup

Stoke Lane in action

more of the Stoke Lane action

Further incentives to complete my Pirates came with the time having to just wait it all out at home.  

 

Blood & Plunder Sloops finished

(good thing I have a hobby and all the tools to make it happen on my own)

 

more Shako II action in a mini campaign

under tents in September sunshine

more under tents in the campaign in September

the third battle was large

including some unusual deployments

and an opportunity for my new Bavarian forces to reach the table

campaign rounded out indoors, with doors wide open for good ventilation
(the rain had started)

October was one more time outside in the sunshine

Victory Without Quarter
The Alpian Wars again

The year ended with another tightening of face-to-face opportunity and that spurred me to completely re-set my office space so that the 4'x6' table could be quickly set up and left that way for the duration of games (or have games left on the table overnight).

This led to the year end somewhat quieter than usual, with just a couple of online runs in November and December (less than was hoped for).

 

Pirates with Blood & Plunder did make it onto the tabletop first in 2020

The coming year has a few more posts from last year to go yet, a SHAKO II game and another Alpian wars to edit.

For the coming year, I shall be re-setting the table away and pushing into the painting projects, first up are some more 40K characters for my eldest son, then likely some sculpting of some special sci-fi characters I have been meaning to work towards for many years.  The spring rounds out with another ship for Blood & Plunder, then some Lorraine French troops for 'invaders' to the English Civil War (conjectural forces - mostly built from gift and left over ECW forces I already have). Then some molds will be made for casting of the new troops to come when the weather turns drier in late spring.  I have also been given a heads up that I will likely have some 18mm AB Crimea Russians to put paint onto in the coming months.

Ideally by April I will have the last of my planned Pirates, the completion of the ECW forces, save for perhaps some more border horse or clubmen of various description and made a start into the French and Indian Wars troops for skirmish and more.

As for the rest of 2021?  Too 'out of focus' to be able to make any real decisions about.  I am hopeful that by May/June time frame we will be able to gather in groups of 6 (or more) and that the worst of restrictions will be relaxed (so that my wife can be working well again in live theater - 50+people -  would be great).

Ultimately I will be ready to take on more virtual games if need be and shall keep a record of those actions here dear readers.