Ramming our way through Galleys & Galleons

    Our opponents, Tom, Joel, and Allen, bickered and laughed their way through the game that ended with a hard-fought victory for them

It is always seemed to me that there were two types of ancient naval rules sets. One is overly simplistic and provides unrealistic results. The other is too detailed, and takes too much time to learn the nuances for a game we don't play all that often. So, when Galleys & Galleons came out earlier this year, I immediately lumped it in my mind in the former category. We had played many of the "Song of Blades" engine games, and I didn't see how its activation system would adapt.

    Our side's fleet rows towards the enemy

Our group of six were pleasantly surprised by the feel that G&G gave us. We were playing an Ancient naval game (Greeks vs. Persians? There were no historical specifics in our scenario. Suffice to say, there would be three four types of weapons in our game: Ramming, catapults, "chaser guns" -- lighter catapults, and archery. Nothing really rang wrong, except maybe how archery could cause so much damage when ships got really close. G&G does not differentiate between physical damage to a ship and casualties to a ship's crew.

    Two of my quadiremes use Colossus Island to lie in wait for a larger enemy quinquireme and trireme

Those familiar with the activation mechanic of "Song of" games will be interested to see how it is handled in this game. The smaller, faster and more nimble ships have the better quality, while the larger, slower galleys will find it a little harder to activate. Flagships give a +1 like leaders do in other iterations of Ganesha rules. All in all, we weren't overly bothered by the rolling to activate ships, and the possibility of "crapping out" and losing your turn -- which I managed to do several times over a crucial span.

    The battle becomes a mess of rammed and entangled ships

One of the more clever mechanics is how damage is handled. Each ship can take damage to a certain level, then become crippled. Once crippled, there is a chance that they will sink or surrender if fighting a boarding action. There is even more elegance and depth to the damage a ship takes -- particular when it attempts to activate on subsequent turns. We all thought it was a clever effect.

    We kept track of damage with dark red dice and pretzels (oars that have been sheared away)...the black dice indicate grappled ships...pink dice a crew that has been boarded and has surrendered

We will definitely give G&G another try. Some of the players expressed the opinion that we may have found a simple system that provides realistic results. Either way, it was a fun way to spend several hours, ramming our way through a new rules set.

Rumble in post-Roman Britain

    Steve, on the left, watches as the battlelines clash. Joel, Allen, and Keith -- our Saxon enemies -- let loose the dogs of war!

Steve had a hankering to do a Dark Ages battle and get a chance to field all those 28mm Late Roman/Briton and Germanic troops he'd been collecting. He decided to use Might of Arms, despite the fact most of our recent games had been using Hail Caesar. He said he'd always liked the way the rules played, and wanted to see how they worked for a game he had in mind.

    My command huddles in shield wall as we watch the Saxon hordes close from across the battlefield

The scenario was a Romano-British force plugging a valley to stop a force of Saxon raiders from returning home. Meanwhile, the Romano-British cavalry are attempting to circle around behind the Saxons and catch them in a hammer and anvil. The Saxons need to break through. Steve deployed the troops for us and they stretched completely across the 8' wide board. Hub-to-hub infantry would clash -- no maneuver! In addition, there was zero terrain. This was the proverbial billiard table. We were to envision steep hill on either flank blocking each side. I like to rib Steve about his scenarios like this, but I think this was more to test out how the rules worked for Dark Ages and less a final scenario for a convention.

    Our army commander exhorts the troops in front of him as the first line of Saxons smash into our shieldwall

We had three Mikes in attendance, so decided to put all three of us on the same side. That way, we could claim Mike either won or lost the battle for us, and leave people wondering which. The Mikes would be the Romano-Brits, and I drew the left flank command of 4 infantry units -- one of nobles, there ordinary. Across from us was a wall of Saxon wedges and infantry units eager to close. Since time was on our side, I counseled my co-commanders to form shield wall and sit tight. Let them come to us. The longer we hold out, the better chance the cavalry would arrive and secure victory for us.

    The initial clash had grim moments for Allen and Keith, as both were to lose their commanders fighting in the front rank

That seemed to set the tone -- at least on my flank. I stayed in shield wall as much as possible, excepting my one reserve unit, which danced this way and that in anticipation of filling the hole for whichever of my units would break first. I did not follow up victories, forcing the Saxons to wait a turn to charge back in to me. The rules meant our shield walls blunted their charges, so it did not matter who charged into combat.

    Spears and swords thud on shields all up and down the battleline, and fatigue begins to pile up

I was faced off against Joel, while Allen was in the middle and Keith on the far flank. All three Saxon generals fought in the front rank -- urged on by Steve who said that was the way they would do it. Early on, both Allen and Keith's generals rolled the inevitable "1" on a d6 and died. Since generals count towards the five unit losses required before having to pass Army Morale checks, the Saxons were in trouble in a hurry. When they reached 5, we were still sitting at one lost unit (one of mine). As sole remaining commander, Joel proceeded to roll excellent Army Morale checks -- passing on three consecutive turns (one of which as a 5 or less on 2d6!). 

    Many of the Saxons could fight in wedge formation, which was canceled out (for the most part) by our shield wall

Our losses continued to mount, and soon we needed to check, as well. I had lost my general, accounting for 40% of our required losses (no surprise...ha, ha!). However, Joel was down to needing a 3 or less because of the losses inflicted over and above the check point of five. Luckily for us, Joel failed his check and the Romano-Brits were victorious. The Saxons broke and ran back down the valley, where they would be met and ridden down by the thundering hooves of the cavalry.

    The Saxons broke through our lines in one point (yes, sigh, it was mine), but our reserves immediately plugged the gap and soon drove them back, sealing the breach

I liked some of the mechanics of the game. It is less dice-intensive than Hail Caesar. The morale checks are important, but are rolled with 2d6 (one of my favorite dice combinations). One thing I noticed upon reflection is that with a single 1d6 combat roll to add to the tactical factors and combat modifiers, there isn't a lot of granularity of die rolls. The most you can outroll your opponent is by 5 pips. That may mean units who are at a disadvantage cannot win a battle mathematically. However, this is compensated by the morale check stage. Once units become "worn," they begin taking their 2d6 morale checks. Units with more damage test before lesser bloodied ones. Thus, the disadvantaged unit could pass its checks while the winning unit fails its checks. So, once you start to slide in a combat, it is not a mathematical certainty.

I would definitely be willing to play Might of Arms again. We thought of some other slight modifications to combat to try, as well. I really didn't see how maneuver worked, as we all simply marched forward. There was a little wheeling and turning among the reserves, but no real chance to see how the movement system worked. I told Steve I'd like to see a more open battlefield next time, with terrain and units having to do something besides march forward and roll dice for combat.

Either way, it was good to get Ancients out on the battlefield, again. Plus, Dark Ages Britain is one of my favorite time periods. So, anything set in that era is going to catch my interest!

Old School Naval Wargaming

    Allen insisted, so we got down on my living room floor for some old school WW II Naval wargaming

It was a little time warp as we played General Quarters with Allen's 1/2400 scale WW II ships. The rules are a bit dated, but in their day were a "beer and pretzels" set. Now, some of the mechanics seem a bit cumbersome -- especially firing torpedoes. It gets harder each year to get down on the floor and move those ships...and even harder to get back up!

Allen cooked up a convoy raid scenario with a British force (Joel and Mike S) trying to jump a lightly-escorted merchant ship convoy (Steve), before the Italian surface elements can steam to the rescue (Tom and Mike D).

Both Steve and Mike S had deadly shooting in the first half of the game. Steve sunk two of Mike's destroyers with torpedoes. When Tom and I steamed into combat, Joel also entered. We traded shots back and forth, with the British getting the worst of it. Eventually, they decided to break off contact, as their cruisers were getting pounded. So, we decided to call it a victory for the Italian navy.

Hopefully, next time we get out the tiny ships, we'll be playing a different rules system...ha, ha!

It's a Small World after all...

Sunday night board game at my place

This game probably wins the award for longevity in the "one I've been meaning to pick up..." category. I played it first a number of years ago, and liked it right away. Players control a series of fantasy races who invade and try to stake out as much territory as possible before playing themselves out, losing steam, and going into decline. Lots of player choices -- which race to choose from those available, where to arrive on the board, and how long to keep the race active before letting it go into decline so you can grab another one. Each game can be different because the races are randomly paired up with a special ability each game.

We were playing the Underground version, which Mike S owns. I began the game controlling the "Historian" Will O'Wisps. They get victory points each time another player race goes into decline. Since I took my turn last, I thought that would be a good way to pick up a few extra victory points. Next, I had the "Thieving" Mud-men, which others had shied away from because another race was in control of the muddy areas. As it turns out, their special ability -- to steal one victory point from any player with an active race adjacent to your tokens -- probably won me the game. I also briefly controlled a magic ring that did the exact same thing on one of my turns. I was adjacent to 3 of the other players, which meant they lost two points and I gained two points from each. That is a swing of four in my favor against three of the other four players (we had five total).

In the end, I was surprised I won the game. I never felt on any turn that I collected the most victory points. I guess I collected enough and avoided really low turns. The others accused me of "sand-bagging," by claiming I was losing. However, I could swear two or more players earned more victory points than me every turn. It was as great of a surprise to me that I won as it was to them!

Here's the boardgamegeek link for the game.

Corn Rows quick and simple

    One of Rogers Rangers advances through a corn field I constructed for my Bloody Run scenario

One of the centerpieces of my Battle of Bloody Run scenario is the farm where Pontiac springs his ambush on the British force. I already had farm buildings and some scratch-built field stone walls. I even had some pigs to put in a pen. However, I thought I'd need a good corn field to make the table look that much nicer. I'd seen a threat on the Lead Adventure Forum about how to use the O scale corn stalks by JTT Scenery Products.

    A package of 28 corn stalks by JTT Scenery Products

Some posters on the thread were creating a one-piece field using the stalks. Others talked about basing them individually. I wanted to be flexible. Eventually, I want to do Native American style corn fields, which also incorporated beans and squash amidst the corn. I wanted to leave open the possibility of rigging something up like that. Plus, one giant field would be harder to store, while individually stalks sounded too fiddly. So, I hit upon the idea of basing 3 stalks up to a rectangular stand. They would be in rows so they could be used for settler's corn fields, but in small enough numbers per stand that maybe something could be rigged up to make it look Native American later.

    I drilled holes in each 40mm x 20mm base and forced a stalk into each hole, covering it with two-part epoxy

I took some 20mm by 40mm Renaissance Ink magnetic bases I had left over from my DBA days. I drilled three holes in each with a pin vice. This was easily the most time consuming part of the process. I was lucky in that my smallest drill bit for the pin vice matched the size of the stalks. I then forced the stalks into the hole, covering each with a blob of two-part epoxy to affix them to the bases.

    A raised row is created by drawing a line of white glue connecting the stalks and dipping it into a tub of ballast

Next, I grabbed each base and put a line of glue connecting the stalks. The base was then dipped into a tube of brown ballast to give the effect of a raised field row.

    A batch of corn row bases sit drying, waiting to be dipped into Woodland Scenics turf

Once dry, I painted the whole base with white glue. It was then dipped into Woodland Scenics brown turf and the excess tapped off. Once dry again, I put some dabs of white glue on the raised row and sprinkled it with Woodland Scenics blended grass. This makes it appear more like the corn stalk is growing out of the ground. Finish it off with Dullcoate and a sealant of 50/50 white glue and water, and they're finished!

    Another look at a quick and simple corn field costing a little more than $5!

The JTT corn stalks come 28 to a package, and are priced at $8.99 at Hobby Lobby. If you use the online 40% off coupon, that brings it down to $5.34 before tax. One package produced nine bases of three corn stalks each. Being on bases of three, I can rearrange them for whatever size and shape of cornfield I want to create. Definitely a quick and simple way to do a corn field!

Log cabin for $3.99???

    "Dad-burn Injuns would come a'raidin' while the menfolk were away...!"

Although I don't approve of their attempts to impose their morality on their employees, I confess I love Hobby Lobby. My latest stop there is an excellent example of the serendipity that can be found wandering its aisles. I stopped by on the way home to pick up a can of Dullcoate -- my one and only sealant that I use on my miniatures. Lo and behold, I see this:

    Yes, this is indeed a roughly 28mm scale wooden log cabin for $3.99!

I was incredulous when I saw the price: $3.99. My first thought was, "This CAN'T possibly be in a scale I can use for 28mm figures." I read the building dimensions on the package and turned it over and examined at the wood that came with it. It sure looked like it would work for my figures. I had just finished painting an Acheson Creations (my favorite terrain maker) log cabin, raising my total of dwellings to 2 cabins and 1 shed for the period. My upcoming game at Advance the Colors could actually use another cabin. "Hmmm...." I thought.

What the heck? It was only $3.99! I picked it up, and went home and did a dry run of assembling it. I shook my head...it really didn't look half bad. I decided to dress it up a bit, though. I dashed up to Hobbyland Graceland and bought a piece of basswood I call "scalloped" or "clinker-style," with what appears to be overlapping boards. I figured that would look much nicer than the flat wood included. That piece of bass wood actually cost almost as much as the building...Hobbyland has never been cheap. Their selection of bass wood in various shapes, patterns, and styles is unbeatable, though.

I  began putting the building together using tacky glue. The notches cut in the wooden dowels make assembly easy. Once all pieces were together, I epoxied it down to a piece of black styrene I'd cut for the base. I cut a slice of the scalloped bass wood for the floor and slid it under the logs. I then began assembly of the roof. I used some bluetack to hold it together as I glued the two triangular pieces to one side of the roof. Once dry, I glued the other side of the roof on. I then cut a piece of cardboard, folded it into a "V"-shape, and glued it along the top to hide the seam between the two pieces of wood.

Next, I glued the door and windows to the outside of the building. I tricked out the door a bit by adding a frame made from wooden craft sticks. Note that there are no "cutouts" on the inside of the cabin for the windows or door. It looks like solid wall. Maybe I'll try adding those in if I do another one!

 

    The inside of the cabin is bare, but it would be easy enough to saw the dowels to create cutouts for the windows and door

Finally, the wood chimney piece was dressed up, too. One side at a time was painted with white glue and pressed into a tub of coarse ballast. Once painted back and dry-brushed, this would give it a more stone-like appearance. Speaking of painting, it was time to paint the cabin. I spray painted it black first. Then I applied a 50/50 water and acrylic black paint to cover up all the areas the spray nozzle missed. Once dry, I added a wet brush layer of medium brown (Howard Hues Camo Brown) and then a Khaki. A black wash completed the painting of the wood insides, outsides, floor, and roof. The chimney received a black base coat, then medium gray and lighter gray dry brushes.

Flocking along the edges completes the cabin, and just that simply a new dwelling is added to my American frontier!

Battle of Bloody Run at Advance the Colors 2015

    I ran the Battle of Bloody Run once each on Friday and Saturday nights at ATC 2015

I had been running my Ohio Frontier Aflame for a year at various conventions, so I felt it was high time to shake some things up. I decided to use a historical engagement as my basis for my four battles side-by-side scenario. The Battle of Bloody Run from Pontiac's Rebellions was perfect for the format! It is a sprawling, disjointed battle that could easily be divided up into four (or more) separate engagements.

    The 12-foot long table for the Battle of Bloody Run, seen from the fort on the left and Baptiste Meloche's farm on right

The historical background is that Fort Detroit is under siege by Chief Pontiac's Ojibwe, Ottawa, and Potawatomie warriors. A convoy of boats carrying reinforcements, including by Major Robert Rogers of the famous Rogers Rangers, forces its way past the Indian blockade. Shortly thereafter, the British officer in command of the convoy, Captain Dalyell, convinces the post commander to attack Pontiac and break the siege. Pontiac watches the British column leave the fort and waits until it is strung out along the river road. As the van crosses the bridge to Baptiste Meloche's farm, Pontiac springs his ambush. Fighting rages up and down the line. Historically, the British were battered and retreated back to the fort -- thanks to the heroics of some of the British commanders, including Rogers.

    British regulars cross the bridge under fire from Pontiac's ambushing warriors

    When the redcoats take cover in a treeline, Pontiac sends his warriors forward to engage them in melee

I created four boards all inspired by the account I read of the battle in the excellent biography of Rogers, "War on the Run," by John F. Ross. One end of the table was anchored by Baptiste Meloche's farm, with two log buildings, a gorgeous Acheson Creations bridge, and woods. British regulars had to force their way across the bridge and drive off Pontiac and his ambushers. The bridge -- which doubles as a pier if you take off one end -- attracted a lot of comments, and led Bryan Borgman (who brought some of their product) to sell out of them at the event! Next in line was a curving line of river road bordered by woods. A detachment of Colonial Militia were escorting some wounded to a waiting bateau. They are attacked by a warband of Indians, their blood fired up for scalps and blood.

    Colonial militia escorting a group of wounded are attacked by Ojibwe and Ottawa warriors out for blood and scalps

The third board was inspired by an incident in the battle when Rogers and his rangers seize a log cabin and convert it into a strong point to hold off the swelling numbers of Indians. Since my Acheson Creations log cabins don't really have enough loopholes and windows to simulate this, I also threw in a wood shed and a stone walled cornfield for the rangers to use. The other end of the table was anchored by the outworks of Fort Detroit and a tiny part of Pontiac's original encampment. Here the rearguard was being ambushed by Indians within sight of the fort.

    Cheers and groans rang out along the table as dice rolls heralded successes and defeats

The two games filled up with eight players in both. On the first night, the British could do no wrong. They won an overwhelming victory using the scenario VPs I'd created. However, on the second night, it was much, much closer. The British won on two boards and the Indians on the other two. Counnting up the totals, it came to a difference of 10 points -- one scalp! One more British soldier killed and scalped and it would have been a victory for Pontiac. All the players seemed to have a great time.

    Indians close in on the log cabin that Robert Rogers and his rangers have occupied

 We sold 8 copies of Song of Drums and Tomahawks rules at the show. I was hoping we'd sell more -- especially since we had a dealer table at the show, as well. I think we've hit HMGS Great Lakes conventions fairly well this year, though, and many of the attendees had already purchased them. Time to get back to work on that Beaver Wars in Ohio campaign book...!

Can I call them the "Stink-eye" Tribe?

    28mm Old Glory Indians (well, one is a Falcon fig -- can you guess which one?) from the "Stink-eye Tribe"

I am sure that sometime during my decades of painting miniatures it took me longer to complete a batch of figures than these. However, I can't think of any recent examples. These 8 Old Glory 28mm bow-armed Indians have been partially painted and sitting on my desk (or conveniently hidden out of sight in a drawer) for months. Not years, but definitely quite a few months! Well, they're done, now. I want to call them the "Stink-eye Indians" because they have been sitting there, glaring at me, for so long, impatiently waiting to be done.

My friend Mike gave them to me when he purchased a horde of them at a flea market for a great deal. I needed more bow-armed Indians for my Beaver Wars campaign playtest, so I eagerly bumped them ahead of other projects in the queue. I wouldn't say I lost all motivation to paint shortly after I started on them, but I certainly had a lot of other things jump up and grab my attention. It didn't help that they were Old Glory figures, either. To me, Old Glory is the minimum of baseline of quality in historical miniatures. If you go much lower, it is not really worth investing your time in them. They aren't great figures, but they aren't horrible, either. They certainly do not hold a candle to my usual Conquest Miniatures. But when Mike handed me a batch of these for free (my favorite price, I admit), I chose to paint them over putting in a new order with Conquest.

    More Old Glory"Stinkeyes" ready to participate in my Beaver Wars playtest!

Since they weren't the world's most stunning miniatures, I decided to experiment a bit on them when it came to warpaint. I am normally fairly conservative when it comes to warpaint on my Indian miniatures. However, I tried out a couple whole torso warpaint schemes. Plus, I used a different technique for the red paint on the scalp. I actually liked how both experiments turned out. So, though these will never be my favorite figures in my collection, I was able to use my painting of them to improve my skills a bit.

Next up, is a batch of 7 28mm Indian women produced by (wait for it...) Old Glory. Once again, my O.G. pusher Mike purchased a batch of these online and asked if I wanted to split them with him. Since there is a decided shortage of 28mm Native American women, I agreed. After this, I think I want to take a break from Indians. Not sure what it is that I'll paint, but I can definitely use a change of pace. Hopefully, it won't take me as long to complete the Old Glory women as it did the men of the Stink-eye tribe!

Dinosaurs as the "good guys"??

    Although it was a laugh-a-minute for the players, it wasn't so much for the Nazis frantically trying to escape

We were heading to Keith's "man cave" for our usual Sunday evening of gaming. He was hosting his 11-year-old nephew, Michael, for the week, and wanted to put on a game that he might enjoy. With Keith being only mildly over-the-top about dinosaurs, it was only a natural he put a game on involving dinos. Rather than one of his usual Dino Hunts, Keith had a twist in store for us this evening. WE would be playing the dinos. And we would be hunting humans...specifically, Nazis!

    Nazis try to in vain to take refuge on a steep hill

Keith had seen a light-hearted set of rules called, "Eat Hitler" on Wargame Vault and downloaded them during their July sale. The scenario for the evening postulated that Hitler and his closest associates, with assorted guards, escape the fall of Berlin in a time machine. Russian artillery fire knocks the controls awry, though, and they ended up back in prehistory in a valley populated by hungry dinosaurs. Each of us would play a carnivorous dinosaur (or a number of smaller meat-eaters) with the herbivores and Nazis as non-players.

    My dino snacked on two Nazis before they decided to flee the hill

I don't think the rules were designed for the 7 players we had participating, so we had to make some modifications early on. What's more, after playing it through, we had some more suggestions for changes if Keith were going to run this as a fun, convention game some day. We had a good time, of course. Just about everybody got to chomp some Nazis. My Allosaurus-sized dino (whose Japaneses name I forget) managed to eat one guard and Adolf Galland. No one ended up eating Adolf Hitler, who was saved from a pack of velociraptors by his loyal dog, Blondi. The seven players chased the Nazis around the board, generally ignoring each other and the herbivores. In the end, only Hitler, Blondi, and two others were left scrambling furiously to avoid the dinosaur rampage.

    Steve's raptor pack used their cleverness to drive a pack of herbivores ahead of them to avoid Nazi firing

Keith's nephew Michael played the T-Rex, and seemed to have a good time. I took lots of pictures of the mayhem, and decided to go ahead and post some here. Enjoy!

    Michael's T-Rex showed up and crashed the raptors' dinner party

    A spinosaurus got in on the feast and chased down the last remaining group of Nazis

Beaver Wars - Turn 4 Conclusion & Wrap-up of Phase 1 of Playtest

After we played out the first three battles of the Turn 4 of the Beaver Wars playtest, I never expected it to take 2 1/2 months to get around to doing the final two. Some issues at work ate into both my motivation and my time. One of our ordinary Sunday night gaming crew asked for a break from First Command Wargames playtesting, and we were more than happy to grant it. Add to that a busy May convention schedule, and we encountered delay after delay in picking it up again.

Four of us got together to fight out the last two battles. In one, the Ojibwe were attacking another Potawatomie village. In the other, the Seneca sought to take over the last of the Illinois towns. Keith showed up to help us fight them out, so he fought Steve's Ojibwe while I tried to hold the ground for the Illinois. Since we had fought all six choices for "Invasion" battles, I set up both boards before the players arrived. One would be a battle amidst the longhouses and wigwams of the Potawatomie village. The other would be fought in the woods near a rocky outcrop just outside of the Illinois village.

The intervening weeks had seen us reflect on the performance of "Youths" in the campaign. We all felt they were simply too weak and not worth the cost even at 2 Youths = 1 Warrior. Keith and I exchanged emails and came up with something we liked. We would improve their Quality score from 5 to 4. We would also give them the "Woodsman" trait, meaning they could move normally in the woods rather than slower. However, to balance it out, we gave them the "Wavering" trait, which meant they would be -1 on morale checks. Keith ran the points and found that, when both were armed with a Bow, they came out to exactly half of a warrior's point value according to the Song of Drums and Tomahawks point system. Perfect!

    Seneca warriors form a firing line to snipe with my Illinois defenders

We would definitely get a chance to see how they'd perform, as all players selected a good number for their rosters. Many of us chose the exact same breakdown: 1 Chieftain, 6 Warriors, and 4 Youths.  At the conclusion of the games, all four players gave a thumbs up to the changes. The Youths could be an asset in battle, but still needed to be used carefully.

In my battle against Mike's Seneca, I formed the Youths up as a second line. Think of them as "linebackers." In Song of Drums and Tomahawks rules, you must fire at the closest enemy (unless he is a worse shot because of cover or whatever). So, I was careful to make the Seneca target my Warriors, who at a Combat score of 2 should be more survivable than the Youth's 1. This worked for the most part, except it meant that as I lost troops, I lost my tougher and more experienced warriors. Mike wasn't as careful with his Youths, which meant I picked off a number of them. It was a heck of a battle, though. Both of us had to take "Below 50%" moral checks. It came down to my Illinois Chieftain and 3 Youths vs. the Seneca Chieftain and 2 Warriors. I got a bit risky with my leader and he was killed. The Youths fled back towards their lines, and we decided to call the game. The Seneca invasion force had been bloodied, but they held the field of battle and collected their scalps.

    Potawatomi braves attempt to defend their town from the Ojibwe invaders

I did not get to see much of Keith and Steve's battle, even though they were sitting right next to me. I did hear the groans of Keith as the Potawatomie were rolling no better under his command than they had so far in this game under Joel. In fact, Joel was so disheartened with how his tribe was progressing in the Beaver Wars that he actually dropped out, turning them into an non-player tribe. I will discuss this aspect later in this post. It looked like each tribe's warriors tried to form a strong point in the village and pick off the enemy with ranged weapons. Twice, Steve's victorious warriors charged out after enemy scalps, which forced the battle into hand-to-hand. The Ojibwe proved the stronger at this, and soon the Potawatomie were fleeing out the back gates of one of their last villages in the Ohio country.

    The campaign map at the end of turn 4

At the end of four turns of playtest, the Ojibwe held a one point lead over the Seneca for control of the Ohio territory. Both had won a similar number of battles, controlled the same amount of towns, and had turned in the same number of beaver pelts. The Ojibwe edge was in battlefield experience points, where they held a six point lead. Both Steve and Mike are aggressive players, and it would be very likely they would clash in the future. However, it is just as likely that they'd declare a truce and attack the other three tribes (Ottawa, Miami, and Wyandot). The chart below shows the scores in each of the four categories, along with the standings at the end of four turns.

Afterwards, I wanted to talk to the players about how the campaign was progressing. Although Keith, Steve, and Mike were all very positive about how it was playing, I had some issues. It came to four main points that I did not like about the way the rules were written at this point. These were:

#1 - The campaign system meant that usually not everyone had a battle to fight in each turn. When tribes chose to "Trap & Hunt" or "Visit the Trading Post," they usually would not have a battle. This meant they were often relegated to sitting and watching the others play. To me, that was unacceptable on a gaming evening. Sure, it might work in a large club, where there are plenty of other things to do. But in a small gaming group meeting on an evening to do a turn of Beaver Wars, I don't like some people not being able to play.

#2 - Players were being knocked out of the campaign. Joel's Potawatomie were essentially knocked out only 1/3 of the way in. Some have no problem with this type of game. Think of "Risk," for example, which always results in players be knocked out one by one. To me, that is old school, and I would rather have all my players involved up till the end. The lower ranking ones may have no chance of winning, but they should still be able to show up and do something.

    My Illinois tribesmen cluster atop a rocky outcrop in attempt to hold off the Seneca attack

#3 - The campaign had the potential to generate too many battles to be resolved in one meeting. Although the players felt there was no such thing as "too many" battles, I felt this could lead to logistical issues getting the right combination of players to show up in a subsequent evening. It took us 2 1/2 months to finish off Turn 4. It is true there were other factors that helped cause that. As a GM, I like it to be clean and neat. We meet for an evening of a campaign, we should walk out with all battles finished.

#4 - Keeping track of individual experience points for figures that survived battles was too much. I had suspected this might be the case going in, but four turns of the campaign proved it would be a lot to ask of prospective players or GMs. I wanted the system to be more elegant and simple. Keeping track of each warriors's XPs and then what traits he has purchased was simply too much logistics for a campaign I wanted to produce.

So, was Beaver Wars done? No. I had been brainstorming ideas in the week leading up to our evening and had come up with some ideas to retool the campaign. After getting the players' input on the campaign, and asking their feedback on the four issues above, I presented my ideas to them. All three liked the ideas I had to change Beaver Wars and make it more simple and elegant. They gave a couple suggestions to the new system that I liked, as well.

    The clash between Seneca and Illinois gets bloody and up close as Indian warriors and youths close to hand-to-hand

Since it would be pointless to play out six more turns if I was going to make major changes, I decided to call Phase 1 of the Beaver Wars playtest complete. I would assemble players to restart the campaign using the newer system. To me, I want a campaign system that will be easy for people who purchase it to handle. I want the game systems to work together seamlessly and do an elegant job of producing tabletop battles for players to have fun resolving. I want players to have fun seeing how a campaign is progressing without being bogged down with or arguing over minutiae.

So, watch this blog for the start of Phase 2 of the Beaver Wars playtest. We may even try out the earlier, mid-1600s campaign which features the initial Iroquois onslaught into the Ohio area. It will give us more chances to test our rules adaptions for the early period, as well. I hope you have enjoyed reading this account of the Beaver Wars. Yes, unfortunately the changes and more playtesting means it may be more months before the rules are published. A bright spot is that the retooling will require more scenarios which will be included in the rule book. So, even those who don't want to play out a 10-turn campaign may be interested in a supplement that contains dozens of scenarios. I am more excited about the final product now than I was before, and think purchasers will get much more bang for their buck!