Victory Without Quarter Stagonia wins at Library table

Again the forces of Alpia and Vile Stagonia came to clash, this time over cupcakes in the little village in the Alpian foothills.

Stagonian pike and shotte marching in column

The players had experienced the game system, Victory Without Quarter, once before, though as subordinates - this time they would be solo commanders.

table at start

Alpian left wing

Alpian center

Alpian right wing

Stagonian right wing

Stagonian center

Stagonian left wing

another view of Stagonian center

Again the troops from Jeff Hudelson have been brought out to take action on the tabletop.

the first deck saw about 1/2 troops get a move

Alpian guns boomed out (to no effect due to range)

Stagonian guns got into motion

whole columns of Stagonian troops got moving

with the second deck very few troops moved

though just enough got to move so as to present a good target

The Alpian commander 'called' this card #1 in the deck for move 3

this was the setup for Zuff

Stagonia looked to have all the action early on

indeed two brigades of Stagonia were going forward as planned for the Stagonian commader

The third 'deck' (cards are used to determine who is moving/shooting), and Alpian commander used his magic (calling out to the gods to tabletop luck) and got the first card he wanted and Zuff shot apart the leading column of Stagonian Knights.

some break-up of the Alpian forces as others did not get to move much

Zuff - Alpian Pike & Shotte blasted Stagonian knights

a Stagonian "stupid" commander chose to counter-march his brigade

other Stagonian horse drive forward to support the Knights

deck 4 and still more closing on the 'cupcake' towne

Alpian cannon continued to fire

victory looks close at hand for Alpia's Queel (ship flag) Pike & Shotte - and if you look at the background you can see the windows into the library lobby where folks can look through to see us playing - we did get a few come in and get a closer view

many counter-marches would send the Stagonian forces into disarray before the battle would be done

My camera came out less for a few decks, as they went by rather quickly often only 6 or 10 cards.

Turn 8 was something of a turning point as again nearly the whole table got to move.

now the whole table was in motion

though Stagonian 'stupid' commander was counter-marching over and over

there was one Brilliant commander that was keeping the horse moving

while the others were going in circles

the artillery action card did not come up in time to stop this charge by Alpian horse

while the stupid Stagonian commander kept ordering fire into the town

I have left the last turn (8) photos with the background intact so that you may contrast them with turn nine (9) photos for comparison when I used the painted backdrop to improve the photo shots.

deck (turn) nine (9) was to be the victory point as the Stagonian crossbowmen had finally stormed into the square of the town and taken control over the cupcakes!

here are the crossbowmen holding the town square

while behind the town the rest of the Stagonian brigade and their 'stupid' commander continued to counter-march

Stagonian horse, steeled their nerves to face Alpian Knights and cannon

while Stagonian foote moved to cover the right flank

the Alpaian Green Knights were to be the best on the table this day

while on the Alpian left an entire brigade kept marching so slowly that they never did get into the fight at all

Stagonian cannon prayed for the ability to get to fire (card driven mechanics are tricky)

more of the counter-marching Stagonian foote

both commanders were on the far flanks all battle long, in this case the Stagonian commander was keeping one of his stupid brigadiers 'in-line' so that the troops could keep moving as needed

the Alpian commander was in a panic!  those were Stagonian horse that had just run down the crossbowmen to his left!

while coming around the town and into the center were even more Stagonian horse

with two full ranks to support continued charges into Alpian lines!

Turn nine (9) was the critical moment as the Alpian flank was run over and the Buffoon Alpian brigade retreated off the table (taking three pike & shotte regiments out of the battle).

There was still a chance to deny the town to Stagonia, those Crossbowmen had to be broken.

though the Alpians pushed hard on the crossbowmen in the town, they were not able to push them out

ultimately Alpian foote did not take any aggressive actions at all in this battle

the Stagonian crossbows stood firm

these Alpian Green Knights were able to destroy three full Stagonian troops without losses

the Stagonian foote was on the hilltop on the Alpian flank, the battle was lost, no cupcakes for Alpia this day

STAGONIA WINS

the second Library engagement

Squad Leader at Library

The Guards Counter Attack

October 1942, Stalingrad

all ready for playing scenario #1

The Library needed us to shift time from 12 noon start to a 10 am start, and finish at 2 pm, rather than the usual 4:30 pm.

Because of this I decided to go with the faster set-up and take down: Squad Leader.

There were the inevitable delays in getting the room started, the role-players were needing some early support time and they have now split into two RPG groups (yes there were 15 people there this time).

I was able to bring in one player (when they were TKO during the RPG).

The Soviet Guards did manage do disrupt one of the German held buildings

by the end of turn 1, though the Germans had broken up the first attempt at that one building - and - managed to disrupt Soviet troops in a building on the right (other) flank

My active player needed to return to his Role-Play and I continued the scenario in  solo play mode.

storming the building a close combat resulted

all 31 men were dead at the end of the combat ... only an LMG was left behind on the board

It has been some time since I played to a near stand-still on both sides.

The Soviet Guards, just could not break out from the first building they captured and the Germans did not take one stone building (they came close) from the Soviets.  So not quite a draw and certainly not a Soviet victory ... the attrition battle in the streets of Stalingrad continues ...

end of turn 5, the Soviet Guards were mostly in broken condition and a squad of Germans were just outside of a former Soviet held building

Given the limited response to Squad Leader, I shall bring out the more colorful miniatures in the future to the Library game day.

Victory Without Quarter - Stagonia v. Alpia at Library table

The forces of Alpia and Stagonia once again come to clash of arms.

The colorful armies are deployed

Knights were in the center for Alpia

Horse was massed on the Stagonian left

Stagonian foot were the right wing

while Alpia had foot on their right and a mix of horse and foot on the left

Bluebear Jeff's wonderful 15th century collection took to the table, with five active players to command them.

by the third deck we had actually had a turn where ALL units got to move

blades men were sent up the road

while Alpian crossbowmen stormed into the fields

Stagonia used a more measured deployment

Horse were facing foot on each flank

The colorful flags of Stagonian foot

Stagonian General and staff with messenger

Alpian General and messenger staff

The use of the cards makes the 'length' of a turn hard to accept for those who have played simulations, while for those new to the game table find that having a clear direction of who is moving and what they can do makes for a simple 'game'.  Hence using this mechanism at the library with four essentially 'new' players they were able to keep on top of the game.

after 7 decks (turns) we had done two full decks of movement

The Alpian forces were leading at this point, yet not enough to call a victory

Alpian horse was finally going into action

Sadly the Alpian knights had such new mounts that the sound of the cannon sent them into a skittish randomness, that was to doom the knights in the end ...

At the end of turn 9, one Stagonian General had totally lost his command, here he is seen desperately trying to rally the last stand of pike ...

The Stagonian left had collapsed by turn 10, sensing a chance at total victory the Alpians rushed forward ... only to fall apart in morale as they made charge attempt after charge attempt and failed over and over ...

short of powder this group of Stagonian foot held against repeated Alpian attack

Alpian horse, though not much damaged, flee from the battle

Stagonian potential shifted, now they send in their horse

The Stagonian horse threatened to overrun the Alpian command

while Stagonia came close to snatching a victory, the final score was 1 stand (not a unit a single stand) in favor of an Alpain win.

ALPIA WINS!

the first battle at the Library tabletop.

Alpian Wars returns - Victory Without Quarter battle at the library

Victory Without Quarter battle in Alpia returns

This 24th of September the Victory Without Quarter rules will be brought out and Bluebear Jeff's Alpian Wars with Alpia and Vile Stagonia will be on the table at the Campbell River branch of the Vancouver Island Library.

Seven Active Players

The Campaign of the Hundred Days has begun.

There are seven active players taking on the roles of Bonaparte, Wellington, Blucher and their Generals and Marshals.

I have added a new link on the side bar here to help others find the new blog that will be a support for the coming actions.

Beyond the active players are three others with table-top miniatures to support many different battlefields.  This makes for 11 participants on three continents across 18 time zones.

Expect more After Action Reports of the battles here on Murdock'S MarauderS.

Hundred Days, heating up ...

Having worked out the details a few more times, I am now able to put out this last call for prospective players in a Campaign of the Hundred Days or Waterloo Campaign.

Even if all you have to take part in the game is an email address and a computer capable of running the Cyberboard software, then please do contact me below.

If you have some French and 'other' opponent troops, best would be Anglo-Dutch and Prussian of course, yet even if all you have are Russians to take on the French and a table-top crew to game out the battle then please do contact me below.

I am planning to use similar systems and methods as I did with the Campaign of Nations game, run from 2013-2015.

To summarize, I am recruiting at least three 'Commanders' to take on the Napoleon, Wellington and Blucher roles, then I would also like to have a 'deputy' for each one also that could generate the kind of movements and 'alternate' history that makes for a more fun experience.  Yes this means I would like to have 6 players.  Even better would be 7 players, 3 for the French, 2 each for the Anglo-Dutch and Prussian Armies.

I know that I have been musing about doing this for many months now, and given that the big ceremonies of the 200th anniversary are over now, we could get on with a re-set of a different proportion.

If this interests you please do contact me or comment below.