Dungeon Tile Time - a return to AD&D

With my youngest sons now on school break, we decided to take further advantage of the access to the dungeon tiles that we have.

This time with more detailed characters and miniatures more to match the characters.

I used my 'storyteller' cards to set up the situation for the game start

A king had his beautiful crown stolen by 'frog like creatures' (bullywugs under the command of some Devils) and the players were tasked to go into the cave that these frog monsters came out from ...

overall 'dungeon' start plan (#2 from DMG)

there were some spider bats that the adventurers had to get past at the start

they wisely dashed down the stairs to avoid further entanglement with the bat-spiders

though once in the first chamber the Bullywugs came out to attack

combat in the confined spaces makes for busy actions

one final look back at the encounter, both boys said it was fun and we might make another go of it ...

That's it for my access to these detailed and wonderful miniature dungeon tiles by Dwarven Forge.

Next up, one final playtest of Fire & Stone before Salute convention.

SIEGE WARFARE! Playtest continues ...

The second game on Rob P.s new table saw a reversal of commands; for the first time ever Rob would command the attacking force and Pete took on fortress command.

scene from early in game two as the Royalist horse charged out from the fort and actually reached the Parliamentary attackers investment lines!

The table 're-set' took only 15 minutes.

getting the 'squares' re-set

back 'in action' (after a quick lunch break)

Rob took a more diversified approach with a plan to get his guns close to the walls before firing.

only the defenders horse came out on Day 3 ... they never did get back to the fort, for even though they invested the attackers line they were forced to retreat from the field ... (maybe I need to consider a 'rally' option for the horse coming back?)

Another switch back to strategic time now and another few days go by ...

now day five

entrenchments and sapping continues

great details in the works by Rob

the visuals are great

you get the sense of dread that the defenders must have had, and the wall sets off the minis great!

This time the clock was running out on the attackers ... concerned that the horse that ran off had gone to collect re-enforcement and not being able yet to knock a hole in the wall, the attackers chose to do a direct assault!

The Assault! Card played

from close range sap and trench the leading pike and shot would move

right into the MINE set by the defenders!

the look of the lines of investment at battle end

The defenders won completely this time as the attackers were unable to breach nor climb the walls!

I now have some new cards and a few player aids to create and next Sunday we will play test the version for use at the coming SALUTE Convention in Burnaby.

SIEGE WARFARE! Playtest ...

Scene from early in the first game

At long last the tabletop version of Fire & Stone comes to life here, put together by Rob P.

table going together at day's start

each 'square' is 8"

Creating a grid for the 'glacis' of this fortified home

We set out the board and explored some of the refinements that Rob put in while I deployed out the troops for action.

We have settled into a force of four Pike & Shot and a 12 man horse troop with three 'officers', two on horse and one on foot for the attacking force.  For the defenders they have two Pike & Shot units and a 10 man horse troop with two two mounted officers.

Each side has two 'cannon', the attackers have massive siege guns that can hit the walls from the far side of the table (yet only behave the same as the smaller guns when used against the moving targets of men or horses) while the defender have more humble field guns scavenged into the defense role.

Attacking forces

Defending forces

The initial attack set out a great 'chevron' of long 'saps' from both flanks

the new sappers and digger minis get their first action

looking very symmetrical in a starting position

The terrain board is not quite perfectly finished, with some refinements and details to come, which will really turn this into a great game set!

we were able to 'simulate' 4 days of siege in only an hour of tabletop action

then the attackers were ready

because they had breached the wall!

and more casualties came from the advancing infantry

For a full on run of the system and our layout this was excellent as we were able to get all the parts set out and be 'in action' in less than 30 minutes (for the first time ever this was great).

the game moves from 'strategic days' to 'tactical turns of 15 minutes' whenever there is an ASSAULT! order

the defenders were hard pressed as the attacking forces were ready coming out from advanced saps in the second parallel

the first try at the defensive ditch

many casualties as dice were suddenly hot or cold

defenders caught a lucky break as they run out from the ditch to cover the breach

meanwhile a plodding pike and shot is moving to attempt to scale the wall ...

We discovered a few missing elements regarding attacking into trenches and have some simple solutions.

The new morale rules worked out to perfection.

into the breach!

scaling the wall did not work out so well ... as the defenders managed to get to the wall section in the nick of time

good overview of the entrenchments and breech

assault stage one ... a draw

assault stage two was a loss for the attackers

Though the investment might be able to continue, if any re-enforcement arrives for the defenders then this siege is lifted, if the attackers get some fresh troops, then the breach will be assaulted and given the losses of the defenders, they would be invested and slighted.

 

Thus ended the first game ever on Rob's newly designed siege game table.

Fire & Stone - playtest

image grabbed from video of the TV Series "By the sword divided"

Tomorrow, March 24, we will be gaming out the Siege Warfare tabletop system that Rob and I have been working on based on Christopher Duffy's Fire & Stone.

This will be the first of two play-test games for the coming game event convention Salute in Burnaby in April.

some of the attacker cards

the defender cards

 Looking forward to seeing what Rob has done with his terrain building skills!

Tunnel Time - some whimsey

I had an opportunity to mess around with some of the Dwarven Forge Dungeon Tiles today, along with my son we told some quick underdark tales and got a feel for the tiles and what they might be able to be used for.

looking thru the 'cave' entrance ...

with flash

without flash

a fantasy sci-fi mash-up using minis

the wizard was one of my few contest entrants that came in 2nd

more 'in action' shots of the heroes in the underdark

a third game was simpler, yet involved more possible surprises and hidden objects

the tiles sit well on their own and did not actually need the little 'butterfly' clips to hold them together

lots of scatter makes for visual and action usable spaces

again with the flash on

Looks like we will get a chance to explore them more next weekend as well.