Lord Gwendawg Rides West to Fend off Viking Incursion

Vikings at top face off against Lord Gwendawg's men of Gododdin (Welsh) at the Dragon Guildhall in Beavercreek

Adrian and Jim from Dayton were hosting a Saga game day at the Dragon Guildhall, and things worked out for Jenny and I to be able to drive over from Columbus and attend. Jenny wanted to play Vikings, so I picked out her army list from the Viking and Saxon figures I have available. I decided that I would pull out Lord Gwendawg, Guardian of Gododdin (Welsh Saga list), and let him and his oft-victorious warband ride again.

I decided to bring out Lord Gwendawg and my victorious Saga Welsh list since Jenny wanted to play Vikings

As it turned out, four of the six players wanted to do Saga: Age of Magic. So, that left Jenny and I as the only Age of Vikings armies. Our hosts apologized that we drove an hour and a half to play against each other, but I'd never been to the Dragon Guildhall, and was interested in checking it out. What's more, Jenny needed to exchange some Christmas presents with her brother in Dayton, so we visited him before the store opened. And we finished off the afternoon with a visit to her favorite pizzeria -- Cassano's, in Dayton.

The Welsh left, with the levy javelins advancing into the woods, while one of my large warrior units marches forward

Jenny and I set up the Clash of Warlords from the rulebook, and I threw out three medium to large woods. Jenny placed only a gentle hill, perhaps realizing that one of my Welsh battleboard abilities allowed my foot units to move through terrain at no penalty. So, terrain is good for me -- but not too much, as my strongest unit is a double-size (8 figure), mounted hearthguard unit. Rounding out my six points were two 12-man warrior units, a 12-man levy unit, and my mounted warlord. All figures were armed with javelins, which I've found to be very useful with the free shot when moving.

The standoff between the Welsh javelinmen and Viking archers was precisely that -- neither unit driving the other off

I deployed half my army first, intending my levy javelinmen to sweep around the woods on my left, but she blocked them with her own 12-man Viking bow levy unit in the woods. In the center, I placed both of my large warrior units, backed up by both my mounted troopers and my warlord. Jenny deployed her berserkers on her far left, with two additional small units of hearthguard on the center left. Her two 8-man warrior units guarded the center, with the warlord in reserve.

A mistaken charge by one of Jenny's warrior units left her right vulnerable to the Gododdin counterattack

I sent my javelin levy forward to exchange volleys with her archers, successfully soaking up her very nasty battleboard "Odin" ability. I brought my mounted hearthguard up to fill the hole created by the right hand warrior unit moving to a woods on the right to await the certain charge of the berserkers. As the berserkers ran foward, taking two moves to engage, I used my battleboard ability to get a shot in on them at the halfway point, killing only one of the four (disappointing die rolls). However, it was enough to lessen their impact. The berserkers died to a man -- as they seem to do in every game -- while my large warrior unit was whittled down from 12 figures to four (juuust enough to generate a Saga dice...whew!).

The 8-man, mounted hearthguard ride down the remaining Viking warrior unit in the center with a "Wild Charge"

In an equally aggressive spirit, she launched one of her warrior units forward to take on my 1/3 larger warrior units. With no dice left on her battleboard, it was a straight roll of 12 dice vs. 8, which she lost horribly. I lost only one, while she lost all but two. The same warrior unit immediately followed up and charged the survivors next turn, slaughtering them. This put a fatigue on another 8-man, Viking hearthguard unit. Lord Gwendawg waved forward his mounted riders to seize this opportunity. With the "Wild Charge" ability on my battleboard, we rolled 24 dice and wiped out the outnumbered Vikings.

After evading the Viking counterattack, the troopers returned to ride down a Viking hearthguard unit next

Jenny tried to counterattack with a fresh hearthguard unit, but my mounted troopers pulled back with "Evade." Why give them anything close to a fair fight, when I can go back in on my turn with overwhelming attack dice? Which is exactly what the mounted nobles of Gododdin did on the next turn -- after the Vikings had been softened up by javelins volleys from Lord Gwendawg and the depleted warrior unit on the right. Another Viking hearthguard unit was eliminated. Desperate to counterattack, the remaining unit of hearthguard ran foward to engage my larger warrior unit on my left. We once again threw volleys of javelins to soften up their charge in between their two moves.

Jenny cleverly used the "Loki" ability on her battleboard to limit my use of her unit's fatigue on her turns, as well as the advanced ability I'd saved up to defend against her counterattacks. However, even that couldn't save her last unit of hearthguard, who were swarmed under by overwhelming numbers of Welsh javelinmen. We called the game at that point, as only her levy archers and warlord remained. All Welsh units were still on the board, though a few were getting chewed up in the process of defeating the Vikings.

A picture of the Age of Magic game going on at the other table, where Adrian and Jim taught two new players

Adrian and Jim VERY generously gave both Jenny and I $25 gift cards to the Dragon Guildhall for driving over. Each of us picked out some treasures, and then celebrated our bounty with pizza at Cassano's. The guys say they want to have a regular monthly Saga game day there, so players of the game will have yet another venue and date to get in more games of Saga. A fun day, and successful day, as once again Lord Gwendawg and his doughty warriors protected their kingdom of Gododdin.

Last of the Pictish Warriors for Saga

28mm Pictish long spearmen muster in front of a monastery chapel, obeying the summons of their warlord

A gaming group in Chillicothe, Ohio, runs a "Pledge of the Brush" event on their Facebook group. Gamers are encouraged to make a vow to finish a particular project by a certain date, and then upload pictures. I decided to join in, making a pledge to finish my 28mm Dark Ages Pictish army for Saga by the end of January.

I mixed in three Foundry Ancient Germans to give the units some more variety of figures, like this guy in the center

First, this meant that I had to figure out the composition of my army. I am leaning towards 4 points of warriors, which means 32 figures. Counting up the long spearmen I had painted already, adding in my standard bearers,  horn blowers, and figures that could be unit leaders, meant I needed eight more to finish. That would be my first batch, and what I am posting pictures of with this blog entry. I also plan on having 2 points of Levy archers, which meant I needed to paint up six more archers. That would be the second batch. The final batch will be a Warlord stand, with a Warlord, standard bearer, and trusty dog. That would be the third and final batch.

Here are four of the cloaks -- each figure in the army has its individualized pattern on his cloak

Today is the 15th, so I have just over two weeks more to get the remaining two batches done. However, I would really like to have it done by our next Saga Gameday at the Guardtower East, which is Sunday, Jan. 26. That shortens my time to 11 days. I think it will be close!

The final two Pictish long spearmen (the guy on the right actually a German) -- glad to be done with these!

To add some variety into my warrior units, I tossed three Ancient Germans into this group of eight figures. The remaining five were two poses from the Picts that I have been painting for the last two batches -- the ones where I have to carve out the cast-on lead spear so I can give them wire long spears. There is a bit more repetition of poses in this group of 25 long spearmen, but I alternated different shield types to give them some difference. I even tried to angle the long spears differently, but there is only so much you can do. Finally, the tartans, checks, and stripes should make them LOOK like they have more variety than they truly do.

Judge for yourself -- are my tartans, stripes, and checks subpar and evidence my painting skills are in decline?

Speaking of tartans and such, I used three basic types of patterns. The simplest is alternating two colors of wide horizontal stripes. The next most difficult is the tartan pattern, which is simply a series of horizontal and vertical stripes creating a "window pane" effect. It uses only two colors, but gives the effect of a more complicated tartan pattern. The third style is a checkered cloak. This one probably takes the longest amount of time, and seems to be hit or miss with my declining painting skill. Take a look at the photos, above, and you can judge for yourself or not whether my skills are deteriorating or not.

Next up, six Dark Ages archers for the Picts!

Stone Age Safari

Keith watches and enjoys the players attempting to survive their Stone Age safari

We hadn't played one of Keith's Dino Hunts in a long time. So, last week, we decided to schedule one at Keith's house for this Sunday. Keith suggested that instead of Victorian era hunters going back in time on a safari, that we do a Stone Age hunting scenario with all of us playing small bands of anything from Neanderthals to Stone Age human hunters like my Adena group. Keith set his usual magnificent board up, chocked full with carnivores, omnivores, and herbivores.

Our tribe gets its first kill -- a Macrauchenia brought down by our two bowmen

The game drew out some of our formerly regular Sunday night games that we hadn't seen in awhile. Both Tom and Steve V showed up, and we ended up with seven bands of hunters on the table while Keith was GM. Each primitive band started on the edge of the table with the mission of bringing back some meat for the table. We were armed with anything from clubs to thrusting spears, javelins, atl atls, and even bows. Both Steve and Allen to my left were very primitive, with Steve's apparently the most primitive with no missile weapons, and Allen only slightly more evolved. My group was one of the more advanced, and our four included two armed with bows and the others clubs.

Steve's neanderthals spot some game in the distance and run howling towards it

We knew predators lurked throughout the brush and swamp, with many hanging out near the swampy river in the center of the table. We veered away from the swamp, and moved to cut off some Macrauchenia -- large tapir-like animals grazing towards the center of the table. Our movement spooked them, but we were able to race forward and our two archers shot and killed one as it crossed between clearings in the woods. We moved up and cautiously began to butcher the kill, which was too large for us to carry away.

Our brave hunters take down a bull of some sort dangerously close to the central swamp

Unfortunately, we had been watched by a huge bear, which decided to dispute our tribe's kill. Rather than tangle with such a fearsome beast, we took what we'd butchered so far and abandoned the kill to the bear. Moving through the woods towards a small herd of cattle-like creatures close to the river. Our archers once again brought down one, and we encircled the kill and began to butcher it. Before long, another predator was drawn to our kill -- this time a leopard. Even though we could probably have defeated it if it chose to attack, we had 50 pounds of meat for each to carry, so we backed off and abandoned the carcass to the big cat.

Allen's "Ginger" neanderthals were very aggressive, engaging in melee with wolves, bears, and giant vultures

Elsewhere on the board, others were faring similarly. Tom and Allen each lost a man to a counter-attacking animal. Tom ran afoul of three terror birds, and eventually managed to kill all three, but at the cost of one of his hunter's lives. Allen lost one of his neanderthals to a swat of a short-nosed bear, who had disputed their kill of a wild horse. Perhaps unwisely, Allen's band of doughty prehumans fought back against the bear. Drawn by the sound of conflict, Steve's neanderthals joined in the encircling the bear. One well-placed spear thrust by one of Steve's neandertals brought down the largest carnivore in North America.

We shook our head ruefully when Allen's tribe disputed a kill with a short-faced bear

Across the table, Mike S was becoming the first "colonel" and slaughtered a flock of aggressive, man-sized chickens. Brian was wrestling with gators in the swamp, and actually coming out on top. Joel, on the other hand, was ambushed by a giant warthog, who his group managed to dispatch. All bands of hunters retreated from the field once we had our maximum amount of meat we could carry.

Allen's foray with the bear began when they speared one of these wild horses, and refused to be chased from their kill

We agreed afterward that this version didn't seem as "dangerous" as the dinosaurs -- what with T-Rexes and velociraptors on the tabletop. Keith was using a modified version of Saurian Safari rules, and said he planned on tweaking them to ante up the level of danger for the players.  It was good to game with Tom and Steve, again, though. We all enjoyed the various puns and ridiculing the situation each other got themselves into.

A Deinotherium (I believe) grazes peacefully by the river -- safe with this size from any crocodiles

A ground level view over the should of my archers, who's deadly accuracy brought home meat for our tribe

Adding to my Pictish Warband for Saga...and some carts!

Two of my Pictish long spearmen (I believe from Foundry)...the guy on the far left is my favorite

One of my long-term plans for Saga Dark Ages miniatures is to field a Pictish warband. I've always been interested in the Picts ever since reading about Robert E. Howard's fantasy depiction of them in his Conan the barbarian stories. Learning about the historical kingdom is even more interesting, though. They ruled what is now Scotland for many centuries before merging with the Scots-Irish, who'd immigrated from Ireland. Many of what we think of as "Scottish" names are Pictish, such as McNaughton (after the Pictish name Nechtan) and McBride (Brude, or some form of it, was also a Pictish one).

Judge for yourself my job on the Pictish checkered, tartan, or stripe cloaks

Back in my 15mm DBA Ancients days, I fielded a Pictish army, too. In fact, I still own them, and don't ever expect to get rid of them. WAY too many checkered and tartan cloaks, and tattoes (i.e., Picts, or "painted people"). I also remember vowing NEVER to do that army, again. So, here I am, creating them once more, but in 28mm! It is also interesting comparing my painting skill back then to what it is now. I honestly think I had a steadier hand and a better eye for fine detail then. I know and use more techniques now, such as washes and dry brushing, that I didn't use back then. But it could simply be the difference between a young man and a 56-year-old one!

I decided not to replace the horn blowers spear, while all the others have been cut out and replaced with wire spears

Anyway, the Saga list I will be using for the Picts is actually the "Scottish" one. Their actual Pictish list in Aetius & Arthur is meant for the early Picts that fought the Romans - not the ones who fought the Vikings, Saxons, etc. The early armies of Scotland actually had more in common, fighting style, I feel, with the Picts than with the Scots-Irish armies of Dal Riata. They used closely huddled masses of infantry armed with long spears, so I have been painting more and more infantry armed with long spears.

My newest-painted 28mm Essex, 2-horse wagon

In fact, I have been modifying the figures -- cutting out the cast-on lead spears with an X-acto knife and then replacing them with copper spears from North Star Miniatures. This has been a lot of work, but I am almost done. I have one final batch of long spear armed Picts on my painting table now, ready to be primed. These pictures are of a batch of six I just finished. I kept the lead spear for the guy blowing the horn, as I rationalized he might be towards the back and perhaps wield a smaller spear.

A close up of the loads I created for each of my three wagons, which can be popped in and out easily

One thing I also finished recently was an 28mm Essex 2-horse wagon. I've had it in my unpainted drawer for years, having finished off the two others I bought at the same time. A Saga scenario from Book of Battles called for three baggage elements (Prized Possessions), so I decided to see if I could get it painted up in time. When I first painted the other two wagons/carts, I left them empty, rationalizing that would give me good flexibility using them for various scenarios and periods. This has been true, as I even put French & Indian War women and children in them for a scenario where the menfolk are trying to escort their families to the local blockhouse. Well, I decided that while painting this last wagon I would make some bundles of goods that I could place in the wagon (or leave out), as the scenario dictated.

The load I created for the Essex two-wheeled cart I painted up years ago

I used some of the resin or plaster-cast scenery that I've obtained from various sources, epoxying the pieces down onto pieces of bass wood that were trimmed to fit exactly into each cart or wagon. Besides the treasure chests or sacks of food, I added a few beads from the local craft store that look like amphorae. I like how these pieces turned out, and think they add a lot to the look of the wagons.

Besides sacks of food and a treasure chest, I also included beads that looked like amphorae

The wagon itself was not too difficult to assemble and paint. I scratched my head a bit over how the pieces all went together, and still have one long pole I ended up not using because I could figure it out. Once it was all epoxied together, I spray-painted the bottom of it with Krylon acrylic black. I went over it with a 50/50 mixture of black acrylic paint and water, to make sure all the cracks and crevices were covered. Then, I did dark brown wet brush followed by a medium brown dry brush after the first coat had dried.

For the sides and top of the wagon, I used brush on black paint as a primer, then repeated the next two layers. I topped it off with a Khaki dry brush for highlights to bring out the wood grain. I know that an older wagon would end up being more gray than brown. I just like more how my version of wood looks than real life...ha, ha!

This burst in painting progress has been aided by my two Winter week break from school. Sadly, it is drawing to a close. I expect I can get started on the last of the Pictish long spearmen before class begins, again, though. Stay tuned to see!

Dozen Games at Guardtower, Dozen Sagas to Tell

Jenny's Viking berserkers lead the charge against Lowell's Anglo-Saxon battleline

We continue to attract new players to our monthly Saga game days at the Guardtower East game store on the east side of Columbus. With a handful of players out sick with the crud that has been going around, we still managed to have 13 players fight out a dozen battles over the course of a Sunday morning and afternoon between Christmas and New Year's. Once again, I took Sigurd Skullsplitter's Anglo-Danish army of Jorvik.

Close up of the brave (& usually doomed, in the games I've played) berserkers taking on the entire Anglo-Saxon warband

My first game was one of the scenarios from Book of Battles called "Prized Possessions." I would be trying to escort three baggage wagons across the table from my base edge to that of my opponent -- Anthony, also playing Anglo-Danes. I had skimmed the scenario rules this morning to make sure I had the proper terrain, but should have read the victory conditions more closely. I knew that I would get the most victory points if the wagons exited the table on Anthony's board edge, and would lose the most if they were destroyed. However, I incorrectly recalled that if they were still alive at the end of the game I would receive victory points, but a smaller amount. Actually, I would be penalized in this case.

Sigurd Skullsplitter's attempt to punch through on the right, led by a large warrior unit and hearthguard in the woods

What's more, I should have pre-measured the distance from baseline to baseline (two of my wagons would march onto the board on my first turn). As it turns out, the wagons must move a full Medium move distance every turn to have a chance of exiting the table edge. If they're held up for even one turn (such as by the presence of enemy troops), the odds become longer at achieving your victory. I am beginning to become less enchanted with the scenarios from Book of Battles. I simply don't think they are balanced. On the table behind me, Mike S and Dave W were playing Pillage -- which I had played at the last meeting and found very unbalanced against the raider. Their game produced similar feelings - there seems no way for the attacker to win. I would be curious to see how others feel about the scenarios in the book. Honestly, I haven't been impressed, thinking perhaps they weren't adequately play tested?

Sigurd's warrior unit drives off Anthony's warrior unit to try to clear a path for the wagons

Anyway, Sigurd Skullsplitter's force was identical to previous games, with two large units of 12 warriors and two units of 6 hearthguard each. Although this gives me only five units when you include the Warlord himself, I like the survivability of larger units. Each of the three baggage wagons had Determination, so their movement would not be a drain on my Saga dice. I set up my army to punch through on my right, screening the wagons with one of my large warrior units, whose flank was guarded by a hearthguard unit advancing through a forest on my right. Not having played the scenario before (nor counted out the distances), I was WAY too methodical in my advance. I was more concerned with protecting the wagons than a pell-mell charge across the table.

The left half of my force followed along slowly -- our two centers essentially ended up just countering each other

One of the Anglo-Danes' main abilities on their battle board is to put fatigue on enemy units. Both Anthony and I did this regularly, which further slowed down our attempts to close with each other. A unit of Levy archers stood in the way of my advance, shooting at us as we closed. My warriors did drive off his smaller warrior unit which guarded their flank. Anthony countered with a charge by a unit of hearthguard, who shattered my large unit and drove it back into the wagons. I riposted with a charge by my own larger hearthguard unit, which sent his reeling back, down to one survivor. I set it up to use Sigurd himself to drive off the archers, but Anthony astutely launched a spoiling attack on my warlord with his warlord, pushing him back.

Mike S's Last Romans on left attempt to pillage an aggressively-defended Welsh village

Sigurd's attempt to take advantage of his fatigued warlord ended in disaster and the loss of my hearthguard unit. I brought Sigurd back up to try to force the issue, again, driving back his archers. It was simply too little, too late, though. There would be no way we could clear out his units guarding his table edge. Honors in kills were close, with Anthony having a slight edge. Victory points for the wagons took him over the top, though, and Anthony won, 11-3.

Jim's Byzantine army marshals its battle line in one of its two battles

My second game was against a new player, Adam. Steve P had sat him down to play his father, Christian, in the first game. Dad's Normans triumphed over Adam's Vikings, but both were spoiling for a second game. Adam and I set up a Clash of Warlords game, with several forests dominating the flanks and center of the board. I coached Adam on how he could rearrange his points and units, and he chose to combine his two hearthguard Viking units into one big, 8-man unit, leaving the rest at minimum sized units. He placed his double hearthguard unit and his Warlord on the extreme left of his line. I promptly marched my Warrior unit facing them towards the center, and the Hearthguard on that side into one of the woods to delay the clash with these two powerful units.

Close up of Jim's Byzantine infantry and their draco standard

In the meantime, I marched my other large warrior unit forward and hurled back one of his 8-man warrior units. My warrior's left was guarded by the advance of a hearthguard unit, which was hurrying to close the distance with a unit of levy archers shooting at us from a wooded hill. I felt bad for Adam when he brought up a fresh 8-man warrior unit, loaded up with abilities from his Viking board, and charged into my bigger unit. He sacrificed two figures with Valhalla and used another ability to roll 17 dice to my 10. Uh-oh, I thought. He's beating me at MY game. However, Adam's dice completely failed him. He caused only two casualties, while I savaged his unit. Bad luck for the new player!

Anthony's Anglo-Danes advance against Jim's Byzantines in a second round matchup

I followed up and destroyed the depleted unit on the next turn. His first Warrior unit charged in, again, driving my unit back, but whittling us both down to three figures. These two remnant units spent the rest of the game resting and eyeing each other warily. My hearthguard crashed into his levies, but Adam's luck returned, and he lost only two of them to one of my figures. I would spend the rest of the game charging into his levies with the hearthguard, eventually destroying them on the last turn of the game.

Stop me if you've heard this before: Jenny's berserkers lead the charge...this time against Jon's Irish

Meanwhile, the showdown on the center-right was looming. I slowed his advance enough with fatigue enough to be able to concentrate three units against his two -- one large warrior unit, a hearthguard unit, and Sigurd himself. What followed was a knock-down, drag-them-out slugfest. Both of our hearthguard units were slowly whittled down, as were my warriors. Although both warlords were brought to exhaustion, neither of us could strike the killing blow. There were tense moments for each of us, but all five units were still facing off against each other when the sixth turn ended.

The climax of game two - Sigurd Skullsplitter trades blows with the Viking warlord

It was VERY close on points. I ended up squeaking out a victory, 20-16. Adam played a great game, and showed he was picking up the tactics and use of the Viking battle board well. I was impressed. With a couple breaks, he could easily have won this game. His awful start on dice rolling handicapped him, but his luck returned at the end when I could have killed his warlord. Fun game!

Dave W borrowed my Welsh (being of Welsh ancestry) and went 2-0 for the day, defeating Steve's Romans

Only one of the 13 players had to leave after round one (Steve P had not played the first round, shepherding Christian and Adam through the rules). Here are the results of a great day of Saga gaming:

Round One

• Anthony's Anglo-Danes defeated Mike D's Anglo-Danes in Prized Possessions, 11-3.
• Jenny's Vikings tied Jon's Irish, 20-19 in Clash of Warlords. 
• Dave W's Welsh defeated Mike S's Last Romans in Pillage, 19-7.
• Lowell's Anglo-Saxons tied Daniel's Norse-Gaels in Desecration, 16-16.
• Andy's Anglo-Saxons defeated Jim's Byzantines in Desecration (no score tabulated).
• Christian's Normans defeated Adam's Vikings in Clash of Warlords, (no score tabulated).

Round Two

• Mike D's Anglo-Danes defeated Adam's Vikings in Clash of Warlords, 20-16.
• Jenny's Vikings defeated Lowell's Anglo-Saxons in Clash of Warlords, 29-20.
• Christian's Normans defeated Mike S's Last Romans in Clash of Warlords, (no score tabulated).
• Dave W's Welsh defeated Steve P's Romans in Clash of Warlords, (no score tabulated).
• Jim's Byzantines defeated Anthony's Anglo-Danes in Clash of Warlords, (no score tabulated).
• Andy's Anglo-Saxons defeated Daniel's Norse-Gaels in Clash of Warlords, 33-20.

For those counting, we had two players each using Anglo-Danes, Vikings, and Anglo-Saxons. We had all varieties of Rome, with one player each using Romans, Last Romans, and Byzantines. Representing the Celts, we had Welsh, Norse-Gaels, and Irish. And finally, one player used Normans. The bulk of the armies continue to come from the Age of Vikings book, with only the Byzantines being from the Crusades book. The Romans are from the Aetius & Arthur book, of course.

Another great day of Dark Ages wargaming -- worthy of the sagas! We look forward to welcoming back our friends who were under the weather, today, and growing even more!

Sunday Evening board games with Zeke

We eventually ended up with 10 players for Sunday night board games

We had a pleasant surprise and our old friend Zeke was able to make it again for Sunday Night gaming. He had a board game, Wingspan, that he wanted to introduce to use. I brought along some extra games, knowing we'd likely have more than its five-player maximum. With eight of us in attendance, we split into two groups of four. Zeke, Keith, Joel, and Mike W played Wingspan, while I trotted out Pandemic for Allen, Brian, and Mike S.

Looking at the thinking going on, it is tempting to make a "bird brains" comment, as Zeke teaches the Sunday evening crew how to play Wingspan...

Everyone seemed to be having a good time learning Wingspan, so much so that Keith planned to pick up the game soon. I told Zeke that made him 2-for-2 on introducing new games on our Sunday nights, as the last time he brought Imperial, two of the players ended up going out and buying it!
In our Pandemic game, we b-a-r-e-l-y squeaked out a win. Mike S found the fourth cure and we did not have enough cards to complete his two-card draw. So, we won by one card! I think having the Dispatcher, Researcher, and Scientist is a great combination. The Dispatcher regularly moved the Researcher to the Scientist so that he could give him cards, enabling us to find the cures with four cards rather than five. My role was the Medic, so I could bounce around the board tamping down the worst disease outbreaks. It was a tense ending to the game, because we did not have enough cards to win the original way we planned it, so we had to come up with an alternate idea.

The other group ended up playing three different games - Pandemic, Splendor, and finally Tsuro

As the birders were still birding with Wingspan, we broke out Splendor - an awesome four-player game. I am used to playing it on my ipad, though I hadn't in quite some time. As such, played my worst game of it in awhile, ending up vying for last place with Allen. Mike S stomped us on points, though it really looked like Brian was going to win the game for most of the later part of it. I feel Splendor is a completely different game head-to-head, as live players are so much better at spotting what cards you're gathering chips for than the A.I. can be.

My diabolical plan in the second game of Tsuro works out as four of my opponents crowd together, facing elimination!

Since the Wingspan game wasn't quite finished, we broke out Mike W's copy of Tsuro -- my all-time favorite "Introductory" game. Jenny and Mike's wife Tammy had been going for a walk while we were gaming earlier, so joined us on two quick games of Tsuro. Jenny and I ended up tying the first game, and I won the second outright.

All in all, a fun Sunday evening of board games. It was good to connect with Zeke, again. I hope to see him again, soon!

Second Gladiator Playtest Proves Small Arena

A general melee breaks out in our "Heavies vs. Lights" gladiator game using my 28mm Crusader Miniatures figures

 I have 33 gladiators painted now, more than enough for my very large History classes that I plan to run it for the week before winter break. But what to use for arenas? I figured that I needed at least three (which would be 10 students per arena in my largest class), so I wanted to do something inexpensive -- a scratch-build, of course. I scoured Hobby Lobby for ideas, and found a circular wooden sign that was about 15.5" across. I bought it, marked its surface up with 1.25" hexes (my gladiator bases are 1" hexes), and we gathered for a playtest Sunday evening.

Donal the Gaul, right, a Provocator, mixes it up with a heavier Dimachaerus, Jugula the Numidian

We were seeing if a much smaller arena meant matches would go too quickly. We had six players and played two games using the small arena. All of us felt that it was a good length of game -- especially considering my classes are only an hour long. In the first game we had three teams of two each. Each team had a heavily armored gladiator paired with a lightly armored gladiator taking on the other teams.

3 heavier armored gladiators at top face off against 3 faster, lighter-armored ones at bottom in my small arena playtest

I played Massinissa, a heavily armored Provocator from Numidia. I was teamed up with Syphax, a Carthaginian Retiarius. I don't seem to have a lot of luck at this game, for some reason. In my first exposure to it at Advance the Colors 2019 when Randy Miller an a pickup game, my die rolls were abysmal and my opponents' were on fire. It was similar with Massinissa. Jenny's Laquearius, Gilgamesh, lassoed my Numidian and he was nearly helpless as the other two teams took turns hacking away at him. In the end, Bruce and Brian's team of Simba the Retiarius and Brennus the Gaul were declared the winners, as only one gladiator remained standing to fight them.

Syphax, left, and Simba, two Retiarii, square off while Brennus the Gaul trades blows with a Cruepllarius

In our second game, Keith suggested we do two teams -- one heavy vs. one light. I took Donal the Gaul, a Secutor who was a more truly a medium gladiator (Armor of 7 instead of the Retiarii armor of 9 -- higher numbers are worse in the rules). I figured my two allies, Brian's Simba the Retiarius and Keith's Mikipsa the Velite, needed someone who could trade blows with our heavier foes. It was an interesting matchup, with our lighter gladiators dashing in to strike a few blows, then withdrawing to force the slower, heavier gladiators to use up their action points closing with us.

Mikipsa the Velite, left, is the epitome of a light gladitaor, moving around the arena and tossing his 3 javelins

Jenny's gladiator, Lucius the Scissores, was heavily wounded in the leg early on and was only able to hop one hex per phase. Mikipsa ran around hurling javelins, while Brian and I tried to remain elusive. I had battle royale with Jugula the Dimachaerus. In one turn I scored about 7 blows against him, all turned away by his armor. Simba took advantage of his distraction and struck him from the side, though, and eventually, Bruce's gladiator went down. With one heavy out, another severely wounded, we called it a victory for the lights.

So far, three of my friends (Jenny, Keith, and Bruce) have volunteered to come in to the school that day and help me run the games. That will allow me to run four arenas, which will mean we will have 6-8 gladiators per arena, instead. That should make the game go faster, I think, and hopefully finish within an hour's period.

Keith and Jenny also had another suggestion for what to use for my circular walls of the arena -- quilting hoops. That means another trip to the craft store and hopefully I can find something even more suitable for an arena. Either way, with my gladiators all painted, it's time to begin working on arenas!