New Road Sections & More Vehicles for Post-Apoc

    Two of the four 6"x12" road sections I made from cork tiles with some wrecked & burnt vehicles

I am planning my next post-apocalyptic game to be on an urban tabletop. So, I continue to work on vehicles to put on the roads to break up the sight lines in the game. In addition, I decided to make some new asphalt road pieces. My previous ones were created with 12" square cork tiles. These would be smaller side streets, cutting each square into two 6"x12" pieces.

    Two of the road sections without cars on them - note beveled edges & center line stripe

I wanted to make sure everything went smoothly making these, so I cut up only two squares, creating a total of four pieces. These smaller width pieces will enable me to give the board more variety and change up the look of it easier. I will likely make some more 6"x12" pieces here soon. They went very quickly and were a breeze to make. Once trimmed to size, I beveled the long edges as I did with the sides of the 12" square pieces. The beveled edges are placed against my gray floor tiles which I use as the concrete sidewalks. I think this join looks better than both the road and sidewalk tiles having a squared edged.

    The Blood Brotherhood checks out another of my burnt out, die cast vehicles

Once beveled, I painted the four edges with black craft paint. It is okay if a little brown cork shows through, as there are brownish spots on many asphalt roadways. Once dry, I paint the rest of the tile black with a wide brush. I let them dry again overnight, and then I do two dry brushes. First is dark gray and the second is light gray. Finally, I add white dotted line lane painting with a square brush. When I created my first tiles awhile back, I made a cardboard template to place on the tile so that I get the lines the same length and evenly spaced. I finished the cork pieces off with matte acrylic clear spray paint and they're done!

    This plastic SUV warped in an interesting way from the heat, but I had to paint on the blackening

On the vehicle front, I added four new models. The first one was a die cast sports car. I used wire cutters and pliers to reduce it to the metal hulk, trimming or ripping away all plastic pieces. The second vehicle was a plastic SUV. There wasn't much I could do with this one other than cut away the wheels. I then burnt these as I had done the previous burnt out wrecks. I was a little less crazy with the pyro and went for a more controlled burn with fewer cotton balls. The plastic SUV bent like it had been "T-boned," but did not char very well from the burning. The sports car looked good enough from the burning that I simply glued it to its base.

   Both of these trailers came with a pickup truck for $2.99 each from Menards

The SUV required more work. I mixed up thinned down acrylic black paint and brushed it across most of the SUV. I made sure to "erase" enough black with straight water to allow some of the original color to show through. The windows there wasn't much I could do about. So, I painted them solid black and hoped they "disappeared" to the eye. All in all, the SUV looks like a passable piece of scenery, but by no means is it one of the best I created in this series of burnt out wrecks.\

    One of the Green Dragons checks out this old and dirty Campervan for anything to scavenge

    On hindsight, I should have scraped up, damaged, or put graffiti on this black trailer

Burned Out Vehicles for Post-Apocalyptic Games

  A burned out wreck that I created by torching die-cast vehicles for my post-apocalyptic games

I decided my next terrain project for my post-Apocalyptic games would be to make some burnt-out, abandoned vehicles. I decided to use some die-cast cars available in retail stores such as CVS drug stores, Menards, etc. I figured that I wasn't the only person to ever decide to do this, so I went on my favorite online miniatures source, The Lead Adventure Forum. In their Workbench area, I asked for ideas on how to modify inexpensive die-cast vehicles to look burnt out. Much to my surprise, the suggestion was to burn them!

    Step 1: Use wire cutters and pliers to remove most of the plastic from the die-cast vehicle

Whaaat?? Play pyro and set it afire? Other posters confirmed this suggestion, so I set about this as methodically (and carefully) as I could. First, I used wire cutters and pliers to get rid of as much of the plastic portions as I could. This includes the tires, which would be one of the things that burnt off and melted. I wanted to leave pretty much just the metallic hulk. Next, I used 91% alcohol and swabbed the car and soak cotton balls to stuff inside the vehicles. I set it on fire and was surprised by the intensity of the fire. I wanted the metal portions to look burnt and the paint to peel or bubble. I adjusted the techniques a little, using less cotton ball material and toning down the heat and size of the flames.

    Stuffed with alcohol-soaked cotton balls, the trucks go up in flames pretty quickly!

Still, I was happy with how the burning of these die-cast vehicles simulated a burned-out wreck. One of the pickup trucks even split in half, with the metal connecting pieces melting. Others had the doors burnt off and falling to the stone pavers I was using as my surface. Once the vehicle looked good, I would either blow out the fire or douse it with some water to put out the flames. You have to be careful with water, though, as it may also wash away the soot that looks so good built up on the colored surfaces of the vehicles.

    The goal of the torching of the vehicle is to get some bending and bubbling of metal, and soot stains

Next, I took the hulks and based them up on textured plastic that I wanted to use to simulate the road surface. First, though, I sprayed the plastic with black spray paint. I set the vehicles on top of the plastic and noted where the metal touched the surface. I scratched away the paint in those places, exposing the raw plastic. I used two part epoxy to attach the bottom parts of the vehicles to the plastic surface. Once secured, I added Woodland Scenics ballast to the surface on top of Tacky glue. I wanted to represent a raised or melted asphalt effect. This was painted black and then dry brushed with a dark gray. I think it turned out okay, but felt it was too boring looking.

    I added some watered down black paint to supplement the soot stains and cover up any bare metal

I then added turf, brown tufts, and more fine blended gray ballast to give the road surface some detail and an interesting look. I also added some plaster bricks and washed them and the gray ballast with a black wash to dirty them up. All in all, I was happy with the look of the road surface around the vehicles. 

    The warping and contortion of the metal gives this a look you couldn't get from just painting it

I did have to go back in and put some black wash on parts of the vehicles that didn't get much soot. I also added some watered down black paint to other parts where the soot had been scratched, or where I felt there needed to be more of a burned look to it. In the end, I am happy with this experiment. I think in the long run, the soot and melted metal are the two things that make these burnt out wrecks look convincing. Interestingly, the soot will still rub off to the touch even after two coats of matte clearcoat spray. I really don't know what else to do, except remember to touch the models by their bases and not by the cars themselves.

    A freebie large truck becomes a great terrain pieces to break up sight lines on the post-apoc streets

I also had a long plastic truck that was given to me as a freebie by Diabolical Terrain. I thought it would make a great wreck, laying on its side. I placed some masking tap on portions of the decal before spraying it with acrylic black primer. Actually, before that, I had based it up with a styrene tube propping up one side. My thought was to paint it like an aluminum pole so it looked like it has slammed into a light pole, taken it down, and was now resting on it.

    I used a combination of masking off pieces of the decal on the truck and dry brushing & washing

After the black priming, I removed the masking tape. I also touched up the metallic pieces with various shades of metallic gray, pewter, and silver. Once I was happy with it, I did a heavy black wash. By no means is this the most amazing scatter piece for a post-apocalyptic table, but I think it looks okay. It will take up a decent amount of space the tabletop. Actually, that was the whole point of the burnt out vehicles. I wanted to break up the sight lines that areas of road will create on the table. Most skirmish games require cover to give players interesting decisions to make. Where do they move to? Where do they hole up?

    The Bucknuts investigate a burned out wreck, hoping to find something to salvage

I'm happy with my burnt out wrecks, and plan to create some more. I'll keep this page updated with new ideas or refinements I make on the techniques I used. I hope you like them, and stay tuned for more!

    This VW bug could probably have used more charring on portions of the blue painted surface

    Some colors show the soot stains better, like this tan colored pickup truck

Congo, Bloody Congo - Wars of Insurgency AAR from Cincycon 2023

    The Katangan Merc's armored personnel carriers roll along the road carrying vitally needed ammo

For Cincycon 2023, I wanted to play around some more with the number of "sides" in a six-player game. For many of my Wars of Insurgency games, I have done an "every man for himself" scenario with each player controlling their own faction with wildly different objectives. At Advance the Colors 2022 I ran a three side, 6-player South American game with Leftists, Narcos, and Paramilitaries. For the Cincycon scenario, I reduced this to two sides, but each of the three members would have different victory conditions and objectives. They wouldn't be shooting at their so-called allies, but they may different goals in mind. One of the advantages of this type of scenario is it will move much faster than every man for himself. All of Side A will be activating one of their units followed by all three players of the other side.

    For this 6-player game, I had two sides, but each faction had their own separate victory conditions

The "Congo, Bloody Congo" scenario was taken from the 1961 U.N. Operation Morthor, when ANC Congolese and U.N. troops attacked Katangan gendarmes, militia, and mercenaries to end the Katangan Secession crisis. This is all the operation that saw the more well known Siege of Jadotville. The mercenaries would appear in this one as one of three players on the Katangan side. They controlled three armored personnel carriers loaded with vitally-needed ammunition for their Katangan employers and allies. They would seek to move diagonally from one corner of the 6'x4' board to the opposite corner. The Katangan gendarmes awaited them at the destination corner. The road the APCs would take passed in front of a Katangan village, filled with militia who were much more concerned about protecting their homes and families than the fate of any white mercenaries!

    A player no-show put me in command of the local ANC, hurrying to get a shot at the APCs

Meanwhile, the ANC/UN side also had three players. The Belgian-trained paratroopers came in on the corner directly across the table from the mercs. Their goal was to simply to crush the rebellion, getting most of their VPs for killing enemy. The local garrison of the ANC (Congolese Army) was aiding them, but were upset with the central government. They felt starved of ammunition and equipment, and would dearly love to seize the APCs or their ammo. The UN was itching to take out the mercs (as they seemed to be historically). All point totals for the side were identical except for the mercs, who were given a supplement because they had to move from one corner to the far corner with lots of folks gunning for them with abundant RPGs on the table.

    Meanwhile, my ally, the Belgian-trained paratroopers, advance towards the Katangan village

The player controlling the Mercs had no qualms about shooting up the opposition. He immediately got into a firefight with the ANC, which deployed to his right. However, as soon as any of his APCs saw a long-range shot on the paratroopers, he was not shy about engaging them, either. Although this may seem somewhat unwise when you weren't really sure what each player's real objectives were, the Mercs had luck on their side. As it turned out, a LOT of luck. Their dice were consistently hot all night long. I ended up playing the ANC as I had a no-show player. My dice were the polar opposite and were ice cold, which also helped the Mercs.

    When one APC veered off the road, my ANC pounced and blazed away to little effect, unfortunately

The paratroopers and the opposing Katangan militia in the village were controlled by husband and wife players who delight at going to a convention and getting out their aggressions against each other. They blazed away at each other merrily all game. The militia ended up better off in the long run. They stayed hunkered down inside their huts and sniped at the paratroopers through windows and doors. Meanwhile, the paratroopers had to advance across the light cover of fields and medium cover of the bush. Whenever the heavy machine guns of the APCs opened up on them, they lost a couple troops. This turned the tide in the militia's favor in the long run. The paratroopers seemed unable to mount an effective enough assault to breach the village's thorn and wood fences.

    On my right, the Ghanaian UN contingent ran into pinning fire from the Katangan gendarmes

Meanwhile, the APCs progressed steadily across the table. The ANC fired shot after shot from their RPGs, but were unable to score a hit. The Congolese troopers did manage to slow whittle down the number of mercs, though. The machine gun required repeated re-manning in all three of the vehicles. Other shots picked off the crewmen riding in the open toppped APC, as well. However, the hope of stopping the vehicles seemed to be fading as the three APCs passed midpoint of the table. Perhaps this would not be the day the under-supplied garrison troops scored a bounty, after all.

    The Mercs' APCs begin to run the gauntlet, rolling incredible saves and dishing out stinging fire

On the right side of the battlefield, the Katangan gendarmes and the UN were locked in a long-range firefight. Each scored successes against their enemy, but casualties were relatively low. The harassment by the gendarmes kept the UN from effectively lining the road to take shots at the APCs as they came into view. The Katangan fire was keeping the UN pinned down in cover and unable to advance quickly to the roadside. Meanwhile, the UN's allies, the ANC troopers, were being worn down by the constant barrages from the mercenaries on board the APCs. The last ANC RPG gunner scored a minor hit on the trailing APC.

    Katangan gendarmes await the arrival of the APCs, providing effective covering fire against the UN

The ANC/UN's greatest moment followed that. A long-range RPG shot from the UN hit the slightly damaged APC. The player rolled maximum damage. The Merc player picked up his dice -- which had yet to really fail them significantly all night -- and whiffed all his saves. The APC went up with a flash of flame and rebounding explosion that echoed through the bush. When the Merc player rolled the saves for the men on board he failed all of those, too. We theorized that the RPG round ignited the stored ammunition, which caused a devastating secondary blast that killed everyone on board and destroyed the APC.

    Did I make the Mercs' force too strong? Or was their player just rolling too well?

The first two APCs had reached the cover of the Katangan force shortly afterwards. They gunned their engines and roared off-table to the cheers of the gendarmes. We decided to count up victory points at that stage. It would still be possible to rack up more VPs by killing enemy soldiers. However, the main action had occurred, and any losses would probably be relatively balanced on each side. Once totaled up, it was a resounding victory for the Katangans. Operation Morthor -- or at least this skirmish -- had failed to quell the secession crisis. The Katangan gendarmes had been resupplied and a victory gave them fresh heart to face down the central government. They would hope that the UN and ANC would deem their losses as unsustainable and would return to the negotiating table.

    One APC takes minor damage, but then suffers a catastrophic explosion from a UN RPG round

I was fairly satisfied with how the scenario went. All the players said they had a good time. I felt that perhaps I'd placed too much terrain on the table, which meant player forces were slower to engage. I also may have made the Mercs too powerful. Still, they suffered significant losses in men, so perhaps not. Their die rolls were incredible for most of the night. So, maybe they don't need to be cut down too much. I do think I need to do something to speed up the engagement between the paratroopers and the village militia. That was a little slow and static for what I like in a convention game. It certainly is a scenario that could use some tweaking and another running. Perhaps at Drums at the Rapids, this May? Stay tuned, and we shall see...

Throughout the game, the Katangan village militia remain hunkered inside their huts, sniping away

    Too many paratroopers died crossing the fields of millet -- both from the defending militia & APCs

    Katangan gendarmes cheer as the first APC rolls past their defenses, bringing much-needed ammo

Acheson Scatter Terrain for Post-Apoc & Modern Games

    Acheson Creations has always made quality, inexpensive terrain - here is some of the latest I painted

I continue to plow away on the terrain that I have purchased for my modern and post-apocalyptic games. My latest accomplishment is to paint up a number of pieces from Acheson Creations. Most were bought from the Miniature Building Authority booth at Cincycon 2023, but some have been sitting in my unpainted tubs for longer. They painted (and flocked) up very quickly, and I already have them tucked away in my downstairs closet displaying all my terrain on shelves.

My next post-apocalyptic game is planned to be on an urban battlefield, so I jumped these pieces to the front of the painting queue. I particular like the miscellaneous pieces which include tires, barrels, and a concrete slab. I grabbed four of them from MBA at Cincycon. I also picked out the stacks of tires, knowing how easy they'd be to get ready for the tabletop. My standard method is to run the pieces through the dishwasher on low heat. Next, I spray them with Krylon matte black. I follow that up with a 50/50 mix of acrylic black paint and water to ensure complete coverage. Then I dry brush it a dark gray, light gray, and so on. For the rims of the tires, I painted them with a metallic gray steel-colored paint. Finally, they receive a black wash and flocking and they're done!

I think these Acheson concrete pillars will look good for a bombed out or post-apocalyptic area  

I also liked these lone concrete pillars or pilings that look like they belong on a ruined city or post-apocalyptic tabletop. They received the identical treatment as the tires, above. Now that I see them in a photograph, I may have to create some piles of rubble to mix in amidst them. Or who knows? Maybe I already have something that will work for that -- I will have to check.

   The Bass Reeves, one of my post-apoc gangs, prowl through the rubbish looking for things of value

The final pieces are absolute trash. Well, two piles of garbage and a row of trash bins, that is! The trash piles are NOT Acheson. I'm not sure where I picked them up. My guess is that they were cast for me by my friend Tim Peaslee a couple years ago, and could very well be Hirst Arts or something similar. They took the most time to paint up due to having to put more than just black and gray in them. I could have spent even more time picking out details in the trash with other colors, but decided to keep it simpler. They are designed with a flat back and I believe meant to be shoved up against the wall of a building to show trash piled against it. The row of trash bins ARE Acheson Creations, and was the first time I found this casting in 28mm. I should probably buy more for my modern games, but hey! That gives me something to look for next time I see MBA or RRB Minis and More at a show!

All in all, these pieces should flesh out my tabletop more. I honestly believe it is the random "scatter" pieces that can make a game table seem to come to life. Acheson Creations makes some great pieces for that! If you see someone carrying them at a convention, you should pick some up!

More Sci-Fi Terrain & Ruined Buildings

    All that remains of this ornate church is its ruined facade -- a 3-D print I purchased at ATC 2022

I'm really enjoying cranking out more ruined buildings for my post-Apocalyptic games, as well as Sci-Fi terrain for Space Station Zero. This update includes the last of the ruined buildings that I bought from Rusty of Jarls Workshop at Advance the Colors 2023. I am really happy with how the two-story facade of a ruined church turned out. I am looking forward to running another post-Apocalyptic game and getting all of these on the table together! Likewise, I'm itching for Jenny and I to get in another game of Space Station Zero soon. This batch of fairly small buildings or scatter terrain should add some variety and color to our exploration of the derelict space station. 

    The rear of the 3-D print -- you can see there is room for 28mm to fire from the 2nd story platform

The two-story ruined church is the eye-catcher of this batch, I think. It comes in two parts, and I used 5-minute epoxy to affix the top half to the bottom part. Rusty's print was exceptionally clean, as always, and required almost no cleanup prior to priming. I followed my usual black spray prime, followed by a 50/50 mix of black paint and water, to get it ready. A dark gray dry brush with light gray highlights was all that was required to paint this model. Next, I did a black wash, which I think "blends" the dry brushing strokes well, giving the model a smoother looking appearance. I added in patches of green grass flocking with white glue to break up the all-gray look. Otherwise, this was an extremely fast model to paint up. I thought about putting more debris like bricks and ballast on there, but as tumbled stones were already sculpted into the model, I didn't think it was necessary. I think a mix of different heights of ruins will add to the look of the table, so I am really glad I picked this one up from Jarls Workshop!

    This Acheson Creations chimney ruin has been sitting unpainted for years

Next up, is an Acheson Creations building that I have had sitting in my unpainted tub for a number of years. It is originally meant for their Frontier America line, but in the end, it is a ruined building and won't look out of place mixed in with the other ruins.  It is a square chimney with some stones tumbled down. I believe it is modeled to represent the rest of the house having burnt down, leaving only the chimney standing forlornly. I really miss Acheson Creations. They were my favorite building and terrain producing manufacturer. Fortunately, some companies like Miniature Building Authority and RRB Minis & More are carrying some of their pieces, and you can still see their stuff at conventions where vendors bought up some of Acheson's products.

    The Green Dragons prowl amidst the ruins of a house where only the stone chimney stands

This was done with the usual method above, except an added preparation step at the beginning. Since Acheson pieces sometimes have a paint-defying mold release agent on them, I run them through the dishwasher at low heat first. I did an extra black wash on the inside of the chimney to represent its smoke-darkened stones on the interior. The wooden beams were done in Howard Hues Camo Brown dry brush and tan highlight. Looking at it now, I should probably added more shrubs or flowers or something growing amidst the ruins for a more 3-D look. Oh, well - I made up for that on the next piece!

    See the lizard outline beneath the flocking going up the column? No? Good - that's how I wanted it!

I almost didn't paint this last piece. I bought it when our former Acheson Creations local rep, Bryan Borgman, was selling off most of his stock. It is a ruined, circular pillar. Sounds great, right? Well, molded into one side of the pillar is a bizarre statue of a lizard with outstretched arms and holding a dragon-headed staff. Obviously, it is meant for fantasy games. However, as I was painting it up, I got the inspiration to simply cover the lizard and staff with flocking and flowering plants. I really liked the way they disguise the outline of the lizard. One more piece for my ruined post-Apocalyptic tabletop!

    This piece is also from Acheson Creations (I believe) that I picked up from RRB Minis & More

Now, on to my smaller terrain pieces for Space Station Zero for part two of this post. These were actually finished several weeks ago, but I simply hadn't had time to take pictures of them and write up a blog post. Speaking of weeks, it has been awhile since Jenny and I played out a mission in this cooperative, solo/multiplayer game. Hopefully, we will get in mission #2 in soon! Anyway, I really like the look of the dark green metallic craft paint that I have used for some previous Sci-Fi terrain. The snaking light green hoses came out really nice, being a three-color base coat, dry brush, and highlight. The dark metallic gray and copper for machinery components looks cool. I went with a slightly darker metallic grayish-silver for the base of the miniature.

    Sci-Fi domed building from RRB Minis & More - will work great as a stand alone small terrain piece

Next up is a piece 3-D printed by RRB Minis & More. I picked it up from them this past December at Shore Wars 2022 in Mentor, OH, I believe. The roof comes off on this one, but I decided that since I am using it for Space Station Zero, I really won't need to remove the roof for games. So, I epoxied it down, and added it a control panel I also bought from them atop the entrance to make it look even more high tech. The color is technically metallic brown, according to the craft paint maker, but I like how it looks for Sci-Fi stuff. I did the accent pieces in Pewter and Metallic Gray. For the glowing control panels, I painted them black first and did tiny dots of red, yellow, and green to look like lights. I like how it looks and am pleased with how it turned out!

    Another Acheson Creations Sci-Fi terrain piece picked up (I believe) from RRB Minis & More

The next piece features a new metallic cover I'd purchased when painting the flying drones for Space Station Zero. Like with the Dark Green, I really like how this Dark Red looks on surfaces that are supposed to be metallic or otherwise shiny material. This one was incredibly easy to paint. I gave it a black base coat and then a couple coats of the metallic red and metallic pink (NOT how it was marketed...it was supposed to be red!). The black base coat would show through, requiring multiple coats to look like this. 

    The final terrain piece is another from Acheson Creations, which I did in a blue metallic

Finally, a smaller version of the Acheson domed structure was done in blue, as well. I probably should have jazzed this one up with one of the control panels I bought from RRB Minis & More. However, things were pretty busy and hectic for me at that point. I just wanted to finish them and feel like I was getting things completed. 

All in all, I am happy with the additions to my Sci-Fi and post-Apocalyptic terrain. Next up, is some even smaller pieces of scatter terrain from Acheson Creations. So, stay tuned!

Thracians Facing Down the Greek Phalanx

    Rusty Parker's Athenian hoplites from Victrix Miniatures were my Thracian's first opponent in Saga

Awhile back, Saga released their Age of Alexander book covering armies from that part of the Classical period. Of the six armies covered, the Thracians interested me the most. These semi-barbarian tribes from the northeast of Greece were a thorn in the side of a number of Ancient kingdoms. They were also known for very colorful cloaks, which I thought might be fun to paint in the 28mm scale. However, they had an unusual mechanic attached to their Saga army list called "Pillage." I thought perhaps I should try them out  for a game or two before purchasing any figures.

    Rusty, left, consults his Greek City States battleboard as he analyzes what to do against the Thracians

I know, I know! That goes against the knee-jerk response of most miniature gamers: "Oooh, shiny!" New army? Take my money, please! For a change, I was being deliberative about the process. So, I read through the list the day before our latest Saga Sunday at the Guardtower East. I drew up an army list and then went downstairs to cobble together forces to be my proxy Thracians. I used my Picts, Irish, some medieval peasants, and Roman cavalry to represent three units of Thracian warriors with javelins (two 9-figure and one 10-figure unit), one 6-man foot hearthguard unit with rhomphaia (a Thracian heavy cutting weapon), one 8-man mounted warrior unit with javelins, and a mounted warlord.

    The two armies deployed for battle - Thracians at bottom and Rusty's Greek hoplites at top

Rusty contacted me and said he'd be coming down from northern Ohio for the weekend for family reasons, but would sneak away for a game of Saga on Sunday. He wanted more practice with his Athenian army from the Alexander book, as well. Perfect! Rusty and I had never played each other in Saga, and we'd both get a chance to test out Alexandrian armies against each other. Rusty's Athenians were composed of a foot general (which we both decided would be better to switch to a mounted one in subsequent games), one 8-man foot hearth guard unit of veteran hoplites, three 8-man warrior hoplite units, and a 12-man unit of levy slingers.

    While Rusty and I fought a historical matchup, Mike S and Andy S play Age of Magic fantasy Saga

We decided to try a straight-forward "Clash of Warlords" game, since we were both learning new armies. Since the Athenians had no mounted, I began terrain placement with a large gentle hill in the right center of the board. He placed fields on his right for his slingers to shelter inside. I countered with a ruins opposite it on my side of the table. He then placed a marsh on my base edge, hoping to mess up my deployment. I then eschewed placing a piece, instead scooting the marsh towards the side edge. With the mostly open battlefield set up, we were ready to deploy. 

    The Thracian cavalry at right pull back after a lackluster pair of javelin tosses at the Greek hoplites

My plan was to use my cavalry and javelin-armed warriors to swing around on my right and enfilade and shoot at the left end of his battleline. I deployed my three foot units of warrior javelin men across the center of my line. Backing up the unit on the right was the hearth guard with their big chopping weapons. I placed the cavalry on the far right, where they would attempt to use an ability on the Thracian battleboard that allows units to throw javelins then move away. If I used a "Rare" die, it was a free move. Otherwise, it would cause one fatigue, as per normal. Either way, the dice used to activate "Elusive" not only gave two bonus shooting dice, it also moved them. A nice ability, I thought, and fitting with ancient skirmishers.

    Stung into action, the Greek hoplites dash forward and shatter a unit of Thracian javelin men

Rusty deployed his battle line close together, as the "phalanx" special rules require. From my right, there were two units of hoplite warriors, then the double-strength veteran hearthguards, then another hoplite warrior unit, and finally, the levy slingers in the fields arrayed against my left. I was first player, so moved forward in a staggered line -- pressing forward on my right and hanging back on the left. We also edged the left towards the center to avoid the enemy's sling stones. The warlord trumpeter sent a long, deep-throated blast on his horn, and with a shout, the Thracian cavalry galloped forward. They tossed their javelins, but I held "Elusive" back because I planned a second volley. Rusty saved against all of my hits. I did the second volley with Elusive and this time nicked one figure for a single casualty. Ten dice and one kill was under average...hmm. Was this a sign of things to come? Rusty had a chance to slow the cavalry down as they withdrew, but decided against it. 

    Greek phalanx advances 12" with 3 Saga dice on Turn 1 -- everyone is within spitting distance!

Instead, his eyes were focused on my first unit of warrior javelin men who had advanced forward quickly, the rhomphaia men close behind. We were both about to very shocked at how quickly an Athenian hoplite battle line advanced. The Greek City States battle board has a Basic ability (meaning it can be played as many times as a player likes) called "Form Line of Battle." It allows all phalanx unit in the battle line to move a Short distance (4"). Yes, I know, that sounds slow. Remember, though, it costs only one dice for all those units to move. Rusty played it twice, plus used "Marathon" which changes the following Form Line move to "Short plus Short: (8"). So, for just three dice, all four of his battle line units came screaming across the battlefield 12"! One of the Form Line activations can be a charge, so his leftmost hoplite unit slammed into my right wing unit of warrior javelin men.

    Thracian cavalry men charge into the surviving spearmen of the Greek phalanx unit

With all the defensive abilities the Greek City States battle board allows, and three dice for movement, Rusty didn't have any melee abilities queued up. I felt relatively good having 10 guys vs. his 7, though his armor class was one better. Rusty rolled all seven hits (needed 3+), though, and I piled onto this misfortune by missing all seven saves (5+). Yowsa! The dice were definitely showing bias in favor of the Greeks in the early going! We hit him hard in return, though, causing four kills. It was a bloody start to the hand-to-hand fighting! Thankfully, Form Line of Battle allowed only one charge, otherwise he could have decimated my line on turn one!

    Not to be outdone, the Thracian Rhomphaia men wade into the next phalanx in the Greek battleline

On my second turn, our two battle lines were already close, within spitting distance. I used "Elusive" on my middle warrior unit to toss javelins at one of his hoplite units and then pull back a Medium distance (6"). I debated having my horsemen throw javelins at the depleted unit, but I figured it would be too easy for the hoplites to shrug off the hits. Rusty had played on of the four (!) Activation/Reaction abilities on the Greek board to make all of his units save vs. shooting as if they were in cover. I decided to send the Thracian cavalrymen in for a charge instead. Javelins add +1 to the attack roll in melee, and his unit had a fatigue which means I should rack of plenty of hits to eliminate the unit. The dice did not cooperate, again, and there was one survivor reeling back from my horsemen. Still, I decided to follow up the success and send in the hearth guard Rhomphaia men in with their choppers. I expected another slaughter, as this was my best unit rolling 12 dice at +1 against a fatigued enemy. My dice deserted me once more. I rolled a boatload of 1's, plus Rusty continued to save like a demon! Instead of nearly wiping out the hoplites, we killed only three, while he killed one of mine.

    End of Thracian Turn 2: My plan to envelop his left end of his battle line appears to be working

I knew my Rhomphaia men's charge would leave them dangerously close to his veteran hoplites. So, I played another ability to remove the fatigue from our battle, and had queued up the best defensive ability on the board: Protect the Loot. The Pillage mechanic means that when a unit wins a melee against non-levy, it acquires a Loot marker. So, both my cavalry and hearthguard had loot markers, now. Interestingly, this also means they would be harder to activate to move. Still, I was willing to dig in and let him charge my hearth guard and see how Protect the Loot worked. Unfortunately, Rusty wisely kept track of what I had queued up on my board and did not fall for my trap. Either that, or a Greek version of Admiral Akbar was whispering in his warlord's ear!

    The dice begin to go my way -- my unit of Thracian javelin men shatters and drives off a phalanx

Instead, the wily Greek general consolidated his depleted units away from where I was enveloping him, and towards his right. He then moved to the attack on that wing. His warrior hoplites crashed into my Thracian javelin men opposite them. I decided to save Protect the Loot for this fight and have my 9 warriors try to kill as many of his hoplite as I could. We had also killed some of them with javelins last turn. Once again, the melee was bloody. The Thracians got the better of it, though (were the dice changing in my favor?), as only two hoplites were left standing at the end, while four of my javelin men were alive. Crucially, as it would turn out, they also acquired a Loot marker. 

    Thracian defensive abilities are put to the test & enable 4 warriors to drive off 8 hearthguard!

Now, the question was where would Rusty send his veteran hoplites -- fully 1/3 of his army points? He chose to have them go in mop-up role against the surviving four javelin men. I played Protect the Loot and also another Thracian ability that allows them to count as in heavy cover. Not only would I be saving on a 4+ instead of 5+, Protect the Loot allows me to re-roll 1's and 2's that missed. If I had a Rare (which I didn't) it would allow re-roll of ALL missed saves. On top of all that, the ability also allows the Thracian player to discard their Loot token to cancel the first two casualties suffered after rolling saves. The Athenian veterans rolled their 16 attack dice and I rolled my two. Amazingly, both were hits, and even more astoundingly, he failed both saves. On my end, I saved all but two of his hits. That means we tied. Since I was defender, and in solid cover, my javelin men drove off the Athenian veterans! The worm had truly turned, I felt.

    The battlefield at the end of Athenian turn 2: Thracian speed, javelin fire & defense are proving key

On my turn 3 (wow, was this really only turn 3??), I sent my only remaining full strength javelin men forward, charging one of the heavily depleted hoplite units he had consolidated onto his right. The survivors were wiped out, which sprayed fatigue around to all units within Short distance. Rusty and I surmised that this is a danger players of Greek City States armies need to watch out for and minimize. Over and over in this game, his tightly-packed units suffered fatigues when one of their number was eliminated. Towards the end of the game, this sometimes meant three units were taking additional fatigue. Encouraged by the mayhem my Thracians were creating, I sent the Rhomphaia men into to assault one of his other hoplite units. It was not nearly as devastating, but brought the five-man Greek unit down to two at the cost of one of my Rhomphaia men.

    Rusty consolidated his depleted units into his line, which left them easy targets for my fresh units

Rusty was in a pickle, he knew -- mainly because of the fatigue he had been suffering. Also, as yet, his slingers had not contributed to the battle at all. He surprised me by sending his Greek warlord charging in against my Rhomphaia men. In continuing with a theme, the battle was bloody. All four of my hearth guard were cut down. In return, he took three casualties. Rusty had planned well, though, and his own veteran hoplites were within "Bodyguards" range. He decided to kill two of them, and take one fatigue. He then pulled the general back to a safer distance (giving him a third fatigue, and exhausting him).

Rhomphaia men join in on the mayhem, whittling down more Greek spearmen & bunching them up

I knew if I could kill the remaining veteran hoplites and his general, Rusty would likely concede the game. So, the Thracian horsemen -- who proved to be a key force in this game -- charged in and trampled the remaining fatigued Greek spearmen. The full strength javelin men unit then raced forward and hurled their javelins at the warlord. It came down to Rusty's saving dice, and this time, they deserted him. The Greek Strategos was transfixed, and fell to the ground. 

    When the Athenian strategos is transfixed by javelins and killed, we called a bloody end to the game

With that, we called an end to a very bloody (and fast-moving) game. The Thracians had triumphed with their combination of speed, javelin fire, and a couple stalwart defensive abilities on their battle board. They DO take some management with the Pillage mechanic. The Thracian board gives good multiple move abilities for units without Loot markers, but the tribesmen become less willing to move once they have one. Both hearth guard and warriors activate only on Rares or Uncommons once they have Loot. The warlord's "We Obey" can be used to remove or give a maker to a unit, but that means you lose that ability to activate a unit to do something else. This is not a beginner's board, in my opinion. It has the potential to be a very fun one, though. I really enjoyed playing them, and thanks to Rusty for providing a fun, hard-fought game.

    Joe's Mutatawwi'a camel riders and foot battle against Dave E's Roman legionaries

Otherwise, it was a lighter Sunday for us, with only 8 players total showing up for Saga that day. Here were the scores in the various games:

• Mike D's Thracians defeated Rusty P's Athenian Greek City State in Clash of Warlords, 28-16
• Dave E's Romans defeated Joe M's Mutatawwi'a  in Clash of Warlords, 16-10
• Andy S's Undead defeated Mike S's Native Americans in an Age of Magic Battle of Heroes, 27-17
• Jenny T's Eastern Princes defeated Mike C's Carolingians in Clash of Warlords, 25-17

 

    Mike S's Native American army battles hordes of undead in an Age of Magic game