|
Ataxerxes posted:Thanks for the recommendations, everyone. Also, what are the Black Powder rules like? I see they gavey sets of miniatures + rules for sale in convenient bundles, are they any good? They clearly aren’t terrible as the game is still around and people play the game - iirc it’s a similar paradigm to Warhammer Fantasy Battle in terms of stats, rolls, etc.
|
#
?
Apr 13, 2023 08:17
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 23, 2024 20:28 |
|
|
Southern Heel posted:They clearly aren’t terrible as the game is still around and people play the game looks at 40k lol lmao
|
|
#
?
Apr 13, 2023 09:27
|
|
|
Southern Heel posted:They clearly aren’t terrible as the game is still around and people play the game - iirc it’s a similar paradigm to Warhammer Fantasy Battle in terms of stats, rolls, etc. This is a great analogy because similar to WHFB everytime I see pictures of a game of Black Powder in progress it looks impressive. Everytime I play it it's tedious and takes forever.
|
|
#
?
Apr 13, 2023 10:14
|
|
|
Black Powder is like any Perry ruleset, where to make it truly shine you have to play with like 200 painted 28mm figures and play on an 8x10 table minimum. They're okay because they're so popular and it's easier to find opponents, but if I were to really get into them I'd play at half scale or something.
|
|
#
?
Apr 13, 2023 14:38
|
|
|
Count Thrashula posted:Black Powder is like any Perry ruleset, where to make it truly shine you have to play with like 200 painted 28mm figures and play on an 8x10 table minimum. Running it with 10mm you can change measurements to cm (so wherever it says "inch" change it to "cm"), and then run it on a regular-sized gaming table.
|
|
#
?
Apr 13, 2023 14:39
|
|
|
I will probably use BP / Glory Hallelujah! with Epic minis for club games because it's a simple game. GH! has some cool rules changes that make BP more ACW, but good lord the author is not good. He suggests reading Foote and watching Birth of a Nation, lol. Half the book is spent asking the British Question of "Was the Civil War the first modern war? Of course not!" and he is super into Custer, and lots of Rebel generals that amounted to nothing.
|
|
#
?
Apr 13, 2023 14:52
|
|
|
AA guns might not look great at FP 5+ but it does literally double your chances of killing stuff compared to the usual 6. Dug in GTG infantry are sitting at 6s, usually, so with rifle/MGs every dice is a 1/6 x 1/3 x 1/6 chance of a kill - 1/108. Change that last FP check to a 5+ and it's 1/54. Though, I will grant that's still not great odds. In other news: Holy poo poo where has 6mm been all my life? I've started painting extremely little dudes and it's so nice to be able to hammer out an entire battleforce in a day.
|
|
#
?
Apr 13, 2023 21:07
|
|
|
Yeah after my adventures with 6mm soviets and how fast I was banging out bases of troops I started using Heroics & Ros for BattleTech purposes. It's amazing how fast you can get a whole battalion done with those teeny guys.
|
|
#
?
Apr 13, 2023 22:25
|
|
|
I strted recording the Lasalle game and then I realised I needed to run through the rules in my head one more time because I was still a bit hazy in areas. I did take a couple of photos of the action, here it is: Probably a question for liljonas - if a move ENDS within 4MU of an enemy does that permit an interruption at that point? Or is it only after a subsequent interruptable order given to that unit?
|
|
#
?
Apr 14, 2023 10:01
|
|
|
Southern Heel posted:I strted recording the Lasalle game and then I realised I needed to run through the rules in my head one more time because I was still a bit hazy in areas. I did take a couple of photos of the action, here it is: If at any point your move action is "near", it can trigger am interrupt. Not just based on where the unit ends up. It's on page 39. You can interrupt the active player if he/she: 1) uses a volley order 2) moves near the enemy. So either a charge, a move that ends up near, starts near, or at any point is near the enemy. 3) change formation near the enemy 4) rally near the enemy The active player gets to finish that order before the interrupting player can interrupt. So if the unit is already close enough to charge, ie it got into close distance last turm, you can't interrupt and act before the combat (for example to shoot the charging unit). But you can interrupt to act after the charge is concluded. The order here is important as it always leave the passive player (if they have momentum left) the chance to react to an incoming unit, such as changing formation or shooting a volley before being charged. It also allows you to interrupt when a unit is trying to move out of range, as it started its move within close. So you can then move up after it, kepping it stuck in the action. lilljonas fucked around with this message at 11:00 on Apr 14, 2023 |
|
#
?
Apr 14, 2023 10:36
|
|
|
Excellent, thank you. In this case I played it wrong then and my guards cavalry could have flank charged the approaching French infantry : west a brain teaser! The interruption mechanic makes it very hard to not overthink turns!
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2023 07:45
|
|
|
Southern Heel posted:Excellent, thank you. In this case I played it wrong then and my guards cavalry could have flank charged the approaching French infantry : west a brain teaser! The interruption mechanic makes it very hard to not overthink turns! Yeah interruptions and momentum play hand in hand in creating the puzzle of lasalle. Do you bait interruptions to sap your opponent’s momentum? Do you ignore smaller threats to save momentum to deal with bigger ones? And do you react with a volley or a formation change when a bunch of cossacks approaches? It’s also one of the themes so to say, that stuff outside close range is simplified enormously to allow for action at close range to be more detailed without bogginf the whole game down too much.
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2023 09:31
|
|
|
I think I’m just too stupid for it - I have the same problem with chess.
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2023 09:45
|
|
|
Has anyone tried Valour & Fortitude from Perry Miniatures? Here’s a QRS that has most of the meat of it. The main game is a free 6 page pdf). The grog in me wants to play a crunchy game like FoGN or GdA or GdB but I just don’t think I have it in me, so the simplicity of this ruleset does appeal. The main omission (which is for some reason included in each army list as duplicate) are squares, which adds an extra possible formation to the default of line/column that halves all damage by cavalry - at the expense that if that unit is defeated by cavalry at any point it is automatically routed, rather than just taking damage. I like the “fate” mechanic which allows you to draw one card each turn into a hand that can be played to auto-pass a test, reroll, double move, etc. depending on the value.
|
|
#
?
Apr 16, 2023 07:08
|
|
|
Had a really interesting but not very successful game of Flames of War yesterday. Mission was Counter-Attack and my British were attacking his Germans. Basically we thought at the start the mission massively favoured the attacker, due to not having to wait on Reserves (the defending Germans had 2 powerful tank platoons in reserve, but they literally couldn't have come on any slower, he failed all rolls and brought on his Panthers in Turn 3 and Tigers on Turn 4). This proved to not be so simple as my attack went home on his late-war German infantry, I think Volksgrenadiers?basically not great motivation or training, but full of panzerfausts! My opponent was I think very lucky in his re-rolled saves against 3 Crocodiles and 3 Wasps. I expected my flamethrowers to clear him up in a couple turns but in fact both infantry platoons survived. I had thought my Crocodiles and 2 troops of Churchills would run roughshod over his infantry and the only threat I was worried about was his AA88s. But in fact, my machine guns fired barrage and kept those 88s pinned and ineffective until they eventually got a lucky kill and the surviving gun failed its Last Stand roll at the firs chance. Whereas his artillery, firing at the Crocodiles, killed 2 over 2 turns and the last one also failed its Last Stand immediately! I kept rolling 1s on my saves, I didn't think artillery would do such a number on tanks. I compounded my problems by trying to assault his infantry with my Churchills, not realizing how deadly the panzerfausts would be in defensive fire, I lost several tanks over the game doing that, and eventually, having only a single troop of 2 remaining, their formation broke and those 2 survivors fled the table. With all this going on, the objective I thought I'd smash was completely secure, and by then his tank reserves had come on. I had a battery of 17pdr anti-tank guns waiting for them, but was a bit unlucky and only killed 1 Panther, with my opponent passing some 5+ remounts to keep the unit going. On the other objective, another Volksgrenadiers unit, with half tracks, was facing off against my Motor Platoon (no transports) supported by Vickers carriers. So we ended up in a situation where it was too dangerous to assault (he lost most of his Platoon trying it) but given bulletproof cover on both sides, it would take ages to actually wear each other down. This was on Turn 6 and I had to go, so officially we both lost. We discussed it and I told him I was happy to concede. As I saw it, his artillery (howitzers and mortars) were more likely to finish off my infantry than my machine guns and small arms were to finish off his. I also thought it more likely his tanks could come and help finish me off, than it was for my 17-pdrs to destroy them. So I believe it would have gone to a few more turns but I'd eventually have lost. Super interesting and we've agreed to play the same mission with me as the defender next time.
|
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2023 09:47
|
|
|
Question: I've found, maybe obviously, the GW Militarum Green and Creed Camo contrast paints really good olive and green-khaki. I've found plaguebearer flesh and ork flesh acceptable, too, if perhaps not perfect (Plaguebearer needs a grey undercoat and ork flesh can be a bit blueish). Are there any good ones for representing the dark blues and greys? In particular for WW1 French and Germans. I'm pretty endeared with contrast for speed-painting 6mm but the ones I've gotten so far are simply too vivid.
|
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2023 14:40
|
|
|
spectralent posted:Are there any good ones for representing the dark blues and greys? In particular for WW1 French and Germans. I'm pretty endeared with contrast for speed-painting 6mm but the ones I've gotten so far are simply too vivid. Do you have to use GW paints? Because Vallejo "Grey Blue" and "German Uniform" are quite good for what you're looking for.
|
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2023 14:53
|
|
|
Vallejo has an Xpress Paint called Black Lotus that's an interesting blue-grey. My post history in this thread has a picture of it in use.
|
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2023 14:53
|
|
|
Cessna posted:Do you have to use GW paints? They don't have to be GW but I'm getting extremely used to the format of slapping on some contrast, picking out details, and getting an army rattled off in a day! Springfield Fatts posted:Vallejo has an Xpress Paint called Black Lotus that's an interesting blue-grey. My post history in this thread has a picture of it in use. Oh Black Lotus looks like exactly what I'm after, yeah! I assume that's Lotus with a bit of green to make it more feldgrau? spectralent fucked around with this message at 14:58 on Apr 17, 2023 |
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2023 14:55
|
|
|
spectralent posted:They don't have to be GW but I'm getting extremely used to the format of slapping on some contrast, picking out details, and getting an army rattled off in a day! You can mix Vallejo paints with GW "Contrast Medium" and get the same effect.
|
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2023 15:01
|
|
|
That I did not know!
|
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2023 16:08
|
|
|
Genghis Cohen posted:I compounded my problems by trying to assault his infantry with my Churchills, not realizing how deadly the panzerfausts would be in defensive fire, I lost several tanks over the game doing that, and eventually, having only a single troop of 2 remaining, their formation broke and those 2 survivors fled the table.
|
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2023 16:59
|
|
|
Arquinsiel posted:Most infantry-carried AT weapons in FoW exist just to make this happen. They're either too short ranged to be useful in shooting or you don't get enough shots to be worth risking the sprint into the open. Yeah, we realised that if I stayed outside of 4" I was safe from the panzerfausts, and as you say, moving into the open to fire them is a huge risk. I just didn't quite appreciate how effective 2 panzerfausts in each platoon would be when they did get to fire. My British get 1 Piat per pl, which has a more flexible 8" range but is lower AT and of course that exact team can get killed, unlike the Germans where they can always pick 2 of their infantry teams to fire. Now I think of it though, we measured 8" for defensive fire, but probably allowed some German infantry to fire panzerfausts at things further than 4" away. And I think they would still be bound by their weapon range in that situation. So maybe the effect of mutually supporting Platoons was magnified.
|
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2023 17:57
|
|
|
spectralent posted:They don't have to be GW but I'm getting extremely used to the format of slapping on some contrast, picking out details, and getting an army rattled off in a day! Yeah, I think it was 1:1 Black Lotus and Troll Green. Cessna posted:You can mix Vallejo paints with GW "Contrast Medium" and get the same effect. Kind of. The set came with Vallejo's version of this and it's sort of close but not the same consistency and significantly longer dry time, which granted could be a good thing if you wanted wet blends or something.
|
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2023 19:00
|
|
|
Genghis Cohen posted:Yeah, we realised that if I stayed outside of 4" I was safe from the panzerfausts, and as you say, moving into the open to fire them is a huge risk. I just didn't quite appreciate how effective 2 panzerfausts in each platoon would be when they did get to fire. My British get 1 Piat per pl, which has a more flexible 8" range but is lower AT and of course that exact team can get killed, unlike the Germans where they can always pick 2 of their infantry teams to fire.
|
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2023 21:23
|
|
|
Arquinsiel posted:I can't remember how defensive fire worked offhand when I played last, but IIRC the range was only used to determine if the squad had time to plan for the assault. Sorry, how do you mean? I haven't seen anything in the rules about time to plan for an assault? My assumption was that although teams within 8" of an assaulting team are eligible to use defensive fire, they still need to be within line of sight and within their weapons' range to do it.
|
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2023 23:00
|
|
|
I am probably mis-remembering but I think there was a rule about not being able to use defensive fire if you couldn't draw unobstructed LoS to a certain range, to represent ambushes being conducted from cover or whatever.
|
|
#
?
Apr 18, 2023 01:37
|
|
|
Arquinsiel posted:I am probably mis-remembering but I think there was a rule about not being able to use defensive fire if you couldn't draw unobstructed LoS to a certain range, to represent ambushes being conducted from cover or whatever. Sneaking Up On Tanks, you can't use defensive fire with vehicles if they've been contacted by an infantry stand they couldn't see when the assault started. I think it's not a rule anymore but it served to stop tanks with good armour or MG loadouts from just sitting right next to forests or buildings and shooting at them.
|
|
#
?
Apr 18, 2023 01:42
|
|
|
I posted this to the A/T ancient history thread first, but was referred to this thread (following this one from now on). I was hoping the thread could help me with something: I recently played a game of "Saga: Age of Hannibal" and really liked it. As a result, I've ordered the Republican Romans as my first army. I was hoping the thread could point me in the direction of some resources to how the Roman legionaries from that time period were kitted out. It would be too much to hope the miniatures are completely time period correct, but I can at least try to get the colors and markings correct. I searched the tread for anything SAGA-related but nothing relevant came up. Any help would be greatly appreciated! I did come across a mention of Little Big Men Studios and their shield decals which look pretty dope, imo.
|
|
#
?
Apr 18, 2023 07:54
|
|
|
The ubiquitous go-to is usually osprey for these things - they have a LOT of Punic war books that will give you all the info you’re looking for.
|
|
#
?
Apr 18, 2023 07:58
|
|
|
The way you dig out infantry in late war FoW v2 as the soviets is to buy the really cheap company of t-70s and charge right into them because late war t-70s are cheaper than infantry stands but are still considered tanks.
|
|
#
?
Apr 18, 2023 12:03
|
|
|
In v4 the T-70 is pretty awful, but I love the thing because it’s so adorable
|
|
#
?
Apr 18, 2023 12:26
|
|
|
sixth and maimed posted:I posted this to the A/T ancient history thread first, but was referred to this thread (following this one from now on). As mentioned, Ospreys should help. When you order your LBMS, just make sure you get the right transfers for your manufacturer. Some of them are under old manufacturers - like some Warlord stuff is in there as Saxon miniatures. The owner responds pretty quickly to questions so it is worth asking since they are across the pond and shipping takes a long time.
|
|
#
?
Apr 18, 2023 12:43
|
|
|
Arquinsiel posted:I am probably mis-remembering but I think there was a rule about not being able to use defensive fire if you couldn't draw unobstructed LoS to a certain range, to represent ambushes being conducted from cover or whatever. spectralent posted:Sneaking Up On Tanks, you can't use defensive fire with vehicles if they've been contacted by an infantry stand they couldn't see when the assault started. I think it's not a rule anymore but it served to stop tanks with good armour or MG loadouts from just sitting right next to forests or buildings and shooting at them. Aha, yes, this still exists but only when Infantry assault tanks - I'm not sure if it's Infantry that can't be seen from their assault-starting positions, or that are just Concealed (ie in cover) at their start positions. But it's definitely an Infantry unit that hasn't moved or shot that turn. So it's sort of only applicable if the tank player takes a risk or makes a mistake, and brings his tanks within 4" of the static concealed infantry.
|
|
#
?
Apr 18, 2023 13:10
|
|
|
sixth and maimed posted:It would be too much to hope the miniatures are completely time period correct, but I can at least try to get the colors and markings correct. There's very little real info and a lot of speculation. Archaeology for the Punic Wars is has significant gaps (i.e., we don't have a single Roman sword from the era, so we don't know for sure what kind of sword they used). There are some references to colors in primary sources (Livy mentions what color feathers they wore on their helmets) but nothing about tunics or designs on shields. We can reconstruct some things by inference and/or by learning what was used much later and projecting backwards, but again, there's nothing definitive. Personally I paint my Romans with red tunics and Allied legions with white/tan (unbleached) tunics. There's no evidence whatsoever that they did this, but it looks good. (Also, if you're okay with metal miniatures, Aventine's Romans and Carthaginians are outstanding.) lenoon posted:The ubiquitous go-to is usually osprey for these things - they have a LOT of Punic war books that will give you all the info you’re looking for. Osprey books are pretty good, but they're speculating as much as anyone else due to lack of real evidence; as such, don't take them as fact. Personally I think they present an unrealistic perspective - for example, I seriously doubt that any Romans had tunics bleached as clean as these:  And, more seriously, (a) Livy also mentions purple feathers (they weren't all black) (b) the wolf-headdress is mentioned, but there's zero evidence of the wolf insignia on the shields, etc, etc. The point is, you can pretty much paint what you think looks right (within reason) and no one can tell you you're wrong. Edit: And Carthage is even worse, we have even less info on what they wore, for obvious reasons. Edit to add: If you're interested in Punic Wars era skirmish games also check out Clash of Spears, it's quite good. Cessna fucked around with this message at 16:24 on Apr 18, 2023 |
|
#
?
Apr 18, 2023 15:42
|
|
|
Help I'm having extremely stupid decision paralysis about Saga basing. I've currently got my foot troops on 25mm rounds, heroes on 30mm, warlords on 40mm rounds, and all mounted troops/heroes/warlords on 50x25mm rectangles. Now that I'm painting a bunch of heroes at once, I'm thinking that I might want to distinguish them from the other mounted troops. I'm considering 50x25mm ovals for the heroes and 50mm rounds for the mounted warlords, but I'm waffling over actually making the decision.
|
|
#
?
Apr 18, 2023 16:13
|
|
|
StashAugustine posted:Help I'm having extremely stupid decision paralysis about Saga basing. I've currently got my foot troops on 25mm rounds, heroes on 30mm, warlords on 40mm rounds, and all mounted troops/heroes/warlords on 50x25mm rectangles. Now that I'm painting a bunch of heroes at once, I'm thinking that I might want to distinguish them from the other mounted troops. I'm considering 50x25mm ovals for the heroes and 50mm rounds for the mounted warlords, but I'm waffling over actually making the decision. Saga is really flexible about basing. Personally my Rep Romans are an army I built long ago for Warhammer Ancient Battles/Age of Hannibal, so they're on square bases. There's no drat way I'm rebasing them, they work just fine in Saga. You could distinguish heroes/generals in different ways, like by putting an enemy casualty on the base (like a dying Gaul) or by adding other friendly models like messengers and standard bearers. You could make a little vignette like this on a base: 
|
|
#
?
Apr 18, 2023 16:23
|
|
|
Cessna posted:You could make a little vignette like this on a base: Goddamn, that thumbnail is misleading as hell. I thought that was gonna be some l'il kid signifer, not a dude standing down the hill...
|
|
#
?
Apr 18, 2023 16:47
|
|
|
This thread is making me wish I had my stack of FoW core books nearby so I could check all the rules I half-remember, but on the other hand I am also glad that I have given up on that game and don't need the hefty rulebooks anymore.sixth and maimed posted:I posted this to the A/T ancient history thread first, but was referred to this thread (following this one from now on).
|
|
#
?
Apr 18, 2023 17:33
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 23, 2024 20:28 |
|
|
Saga: Age of Hannibal is Punic Wars, so about a century before Marius. Velites, Hastati, Principes, Triarii, etc. It does seem a bit off to have skirmishing units of, say, Triarii and Velites in the same fight together, but, hey, it's a game.
|
|
#
?
Apr 18, 2023 17:51
|
|