STEAMSHIP TROOPERS!:GASLIGHT at FallCon 26

Hey true believers! I'm back.
Had a few 'wilderness months' this summer weaving in and out of jobs (last report: out), doing exciting 1:1 scale building projects and generally being a multipurpose jack-of-all-stuff.

So less about me, here's a report and pics from last weekend's GASLIGHT game at FallCon 26 here in Calgary.

The game was titled STEAMSHIP TROOPERS. Do you want to know more? Then keep reading, otherwise the Bugs win.

Scenario design started at ambitious, moved to merely creative as the days drew closer and pretty much hit F*CKIT when I got smeared with a raunchy cold a few days before.

So for a fast and dirty 8 player (upped to 9 on account of computer glitches) I described an island recently discovered in the Indian Ocean. Filled with ruins of ancient civilizations (ain't they all?) the island was rich with Glowitanium a miraculous mineral of astounding properties. However...a race of aggressive Arachnids guard the blue material with their large chompy mandibles and multiplicities of fiendishly faceted eyes.

The Island, with the objective Glowitanium source in the centre.

'He he he..just you wait...'

Marco says: 'bring it'

This picture (right) we see Mike J in the centre pulling out his wonderfully painted Fez'd Camel Patrol. Don(l), Mark and Marco (r) look on. 








More players assemble. Left to right: Mark, Marco, Terry, Sean and Rob. Not pictured is Glen and Chen-Song but I think we get to see him later.

OOB was thus:
Mike J: His Fez'd Camel Patrol supported by a Gatling Gun.

Don: Renegade Legionnaires with the Black Guard as auxilaries.

Mark: Capitano Spumanti and the Italian Steam-Tank Contessa.

Marco: Pasha Spice and the Pirates of De-Nile and their big cannon.

Terry: Once again claimed McCracken's Camel Corp and deadly Lal Singh as his force.

Sean: New to the game he fielded the 23rd Cuminpore Rifles and the redoubtable Daffadar Stampy the Fighting Elephant.

Rob: Could we imagine him with somebody other than the Landing Party of the HMS Callipygia? Nope. And that's who he took.

Glen: Would field Maj Bampott and his fighting Highlanders. Supported by a Highland crewed mountain gun. Also new to the game.  

Chen-Song: Led Prince Haille Unlikely and his Beja horde of camels and tribesmen to glory. I think it was a first GASLIGHT time for him as well.

Liam the Real Teenage Visigoth: Not a player but monster-runner and card flipper extraordinary. Allowed me to float about the table (literally, I was on cold medication for the odd time in my life)and help adjudicate encounters and melees.

Family Teenage Visigoth confer prior to game.

Objectives were straight forward. Gather as much Glowitanium as possible by moving your hero in contact to a blue gem and rolling a save. Destroy the spiders and be the first to claim the volcanic source of the Glowitanium.

I really don't remember the sequences and what happened in what order, so I'll dispense with sequence and causality and just tell the cool stuff. Such is the fraught adventures of reffing a game whilst strung out on cold meds.

Camel Corp and Sikhs join forces, advance.

Daffadar Stampy vs The Arachnid Menace. Lal Singh moves to support.

The game was set up with no 'sides', it was a free for all. Like a Victorian 'It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, World' with Gatling guns and giant spiders. Such was the power of the Glowitanium! The promise of it's power led all present to disregard their allegiances and loyalties. In order to keep PvP action to fair and controlled minimum carnage, I allowed players to make partnerships with each other. These partnerships could be broken (and they were..) at the cost of the cad paying over half of his obtained Glowitanium.

The trick was, each time Glowitanium was obtained it disrupted the order of things on the Mysterious Island and so potentially spawned a spider.

Mike's Camels deploy very textbook like.

More Camel parades.

Pasha Spice duels with the spawn of Shaitan, which went on all game.

The spiders had two hits, one attack at 11 and a save of 14. A little too over-powered, maybe, but I wanted to have creatures tough and menacing. Monster movie baddies rather than bugly cannon fodder. They proved tough adversaries, killing one hero and chomping up more than their share of extras.

After some glowy globs were obtained and some spiders dispatched (one hit with the Highlander's cannon! SPLAT!) partnerships and alliances grew tenuous as players watched each others success and position. Suspicion and fear took hold and dark betrayal grew in the breast of once stalwart allies...

Italian steam tank lurches into the Spice Pirate's line of fire.

Here we see two such instances. (Top) The Italian steam-tank Contessa made a quixotic left run in front of the Spice Pirate's Big Damn Gun. Marco was faced with the choice to keep faith or betray Mark with a choice shot. Marco being Marco took the shot. Alas for him, it missed. Incensed, Mark brought the steel behemoth about and over-ran the offending gun, scattering the crew. While his hero, the dastardly Pasha Spice fought for his life against the eight-legged freak of death, Marco ordered his scallywags of the Nile to swarm the steam-tank. They actually scored a hit. They actually scored a hit that made the crew bail from the smoked filled mechanical monstrosity. Which was pure delight to Marco as his pirates massacred the helpless tankers.

Treachery! Prince Unlikely's Beja over-run the Highlander's gun. 

Chen-song too turned traitor and blind-sided the Highlanders. His camelry(above) slammed into the unsuspecting gunners, slicing them to tiny bits. 
The Highlander foot rallied and delivered a punishing fusillade to the camels, shredding their dromedary ranks. After they repulsed the camels a fresh wave of Beja warriors smashed into the Scots, resulting in a Pyrrhic slug match.

Beja camels are paid in full for treachery.

Maj Bampott and Prince Haille Unlikely duel to the death.

The Shore Party holds the line.

Elsewhere, Sean's Sikhs made a slow steady advance. Rob's Swabbies where locked in a fight with a couple of truculent spiders, which cost the valiant Cmdr Crankshafte-Whirlingate his life. The shore party rallied, finally killing the spiders. Devious Terry took this opportunity to bushwhack Rob with a rapid camel charge. Not totally successful, Terry was strung out with neither Rob's Gardiner gun or shore party neutralized. Sean kept his word to Rob and his Sikhs blasted the tricksy Camels. Terry was reduced to lurking about the board with his hero, snapping the odd bit of glowy stuff.Shockingly, Terry's 'special' hero Lal Singh was knocked out of action. Now, Lal Singh never dies, he just comes back next game, tougher and deadlier than ever.

Rob fared better than Terry, his survivors rallied and with the support of the Sikhs moved to secure the Glowitanium Volcano.

Across the other side of the board, Don and his Legion was engaged with a surplus of spiders. Combined with his customary caution, this kept Don and his units at the fringe of the game. Contrastingly, Mike's fezzed patrol was collecting Glowitanium and dispatching bugs with solid efficiency. So it seems only fair (it was random!) that the biggest of bads, Shai-Hulud himself should appear. Erupting amidst the ranks of Mike's forces the mighty sandworm promptly chomped a camel and rider. However, the Fez Patrol were sanguine about this. Hauling around the Gatling and surrounding the worm with rifles they dealt a punishing blast to the worm and dropped it cold.

'When Sandworms Attack, next on Fox'.

1,2,3 and Shai Hulud was out of there.

That's was pretty much where we left the game.

Mark and Marco had eliminated each other. Similar situation on the other side where Chen-song and Glen had shredded each others ranks, with only the redoubtable Maj Bampott (himself dispatching Prince Unlikely in an epic hand to hand duel)and a few loyal Scots remaining on the field.
Terry as stated was pretty much knocked out, though never to be underestimated. Rob's survivors clung to their hard won purchase of the Glowitanium volcano, testament to Rob's continued morale roll successes.  

Mike J, Don and Sean all controlled substantial, intact forces. Don was too far from the action to grab vital ground anytime soon. Mike was spurred on by his worm killin' to make a grab for the volcano. However Sean held true to his word a second time and came to the rescue of the shore party. The Sikh's musketry sapped the martial ardor of Mike's fezzed legions.

Quick, jerky movie of the table at the game's end.  

Mike J celebrates his win.

I'm keeping the hat.

In the end, Rob won the Objective and Mike won on points. I tipped the win to Mike for his surprising kill record on spiders and giant sand worms. I awarded Sean my 'Audacious n00b' prize for being gallant and effective against treachery. Glen won his Maj Bampott figure for a series of epic heroics. Everyone left happy and laughing. Which is why we do this. A great bunch of guys and some silly and stirring stories.

Sorry if the narrative is a little disjunctive, my brain was firing like a rusty lawnmower that day.

See Terry's nifty blog for more pix. I reposted a few here to make up for my customarily dodgy pictures. Thanks Terry!

Mentioned in Dispatches: The game was a great buzz (no, not just the cold medicine...) and demonstrated the resilience of the GASLIGHT game in the face of sketchy scenario design.
Yeah, the spideys were over-powered. I think I'd up their attack to 12 and drop their save to 12 as well. Love the Reaper bones series. Hope Reaper continues to make bugs and other gigantic freaks.
The sand worm was just unlucky.
Next time I think we invade Australia... 

Wu Man, DBA and rants.

It's been a while since a music post. So here's my latest music-crush. 

Wu Man on the pipa. 

Transcendant.

Have a go, listen. 

Close your eyes. It's like speed metal. But dreamier.

Need context? Go paint some Warring States sorts or contemplate Rugged Manly Adventure in Asia Mostly Involving Nazi Punching.

In Villa Visigoth things are pretty busy. I've finished up getting the Garamantes to market. Have you seen them yet? Did you want the chance to play one of the coolest looking North African Tribes of Antiquity? Did you want a chance to play the most funky DBA army ever?

 TAKE A LOOK.

A big commission was finished. Lots of painting for a very sweet and patient dude.
 Whew. NEVER AGAIN. 

Bloody hell.  Vikings...

Now, getting all sorts of wacky love for Early Pre-Dynastic Sumeria and Shang China.

So to curb that off I have some wee Egyptians I'm working on.  Gorgeous little 'strip' era Minfigs courtesy of Paul Hannah.  The little menfat bastards are primed and ready to go. Get ready to kick some Hyksos tail.

Make sense? 

Sure...

What else is up my craw...

Yeah, the state of DBA. Pissing me off. Stupid 3.0, 2.2 and what the hell you have.

I was ready to write the game off until FallCon and then I had the chance to play some solid games with really awesome guys. And DBA delivered. Short, decisive, dramatic and FUN games.  I realized why I love this system I've been playing since 1992 so much. 

Life is good, and bitching that your favourite ancient miniatures is currently wallowing in an 'Intermediate Period' with a decided lack of cohesion is trivial. But we are humans and should be excited about trivialities. It's what makes our species strong viable. 

As far as DBA goes, I found my 1.1 rules. Much like how I rant about the first Specials album as being the apotheosis of ska awesomeness or how much I like drink that begin with 'Cabernet'... I think 1.1 is the best DBA rule-set ever.  Sure, some loser armies were skipped, (hahaha Bithynia) but it DELIVERED and terrain was placed by gentlemen according to wit and wisdom.

(Go on Grandpa, tell more, it's helping us sleep...)

Alright, here's picture from last weekend when my Iberians Freedom Fighters face down Mark S's Carthiginian Oligarchic Capitalist Army.  Game ended when a feint turned into a killfest resulting in  a 4-2 bloodbath. The Spanish massacring the Gaulic mercenaries.  Could have gone either way.

'Come on you Numidian dorks'

 Happy Games,

-TV

DBA at FallCon: Alberta Open 2012

Clan Toho, Post Mongol Samurai, photo by Mark Wall

 Oh sure, I'll cut to the chase... I won the Alberta Open. 

 Yep. Me and my trusty Post-Mongol Samurai army ('a' list if you care) went three rounds with some of canniest and trickiest DBA practitioners in Alberta. And I managed to thump 'em.

Ahhhh. I will bask for a while. OK, all done now.   

C'mon, it's not that often really I get to gloat and roll around on my bed full of prize money and DBA groupies.  

I painted Clan Toho up four years ago for the first Samurai Night Fever game.  It's organized thus: 1 x Cv General and another cavalry unit. 6 x Samurai Blades, 1 x Bow, 3 x Ashigaru Auxilia.  Initially built as a 'b' list with spears, I built a bow and a blade unit to morph it. The blades I made out of warrior monk figures, and it has been the paper tiger of the army. Cory mocks them as 'lousy drunk monks'.  Which for those of us who know about the historical sohei, this  is more likely than not. We'll follow their fortunes throughout this recount.

Why 'Clan Toho'? The banners are painted with the Japanese kanji logo you see at the beginning of all your favourite monster movies. Toho studios, we love you and salute you.

Decided against taking the Medieval Irish. I was in an non-subtle ass-kicking mood and not so much being crafty in woods. Ironically that would be game 3. 
I usually enter Open games with a challenging army, rather than a balanced one. Not today. I wanted blood. 

I had three wonderful games. First round was with Marco and his Sudanese.  This was the trickiest game. Marco is pretty sly with light troops. Initially he tried to rush my camp with his psiloi in the first round blitz. Only my single stand of sohei blades stood to repulse their attack. 

Rumble in the jungle. Marco's Sudanese psiloi rush the lone element of warrior monks.

Relief column tries to save the ashigaru assault force.

Marco left his flank open and his camp unsecured. I took the bait and rushed it with my auxilia.  It went promising at first, but when his light horse pinched off their escape, they were overwhelmed by the psiloi and wiped out.  Only a heated exchange in the center and the sudden defeat of his general secured me the win.  Not really saying it should have been Marco's game, but yeah, it should have been. Fortuna favours the foolish.

MONK REPORT: Beaten and harrassed by psiloi. Driven out of the woods and into the camp.

Game the Second: I faced down the wrath of Mark Stadel's Later Carthaginians. I wasn't too worried. I had superiority in heavy foot and light troops. Mark is not an easy guy to score a win against.  His deployment was...a little suboptimal shall we say. I kept him wedged between bad going and he wasn't able to spread his line out. His warband kept me busy, but I was able to take his flank with my ashigaru. Not a finesse win, more of a rope-a-dope. But I'll take those sorts of wins as well.

MONK REPORT: Steam-rolled by Gallic Warband. Splat.

'WHY WON"T YOU DIE!!!' Mark's Carthaginian general is sorely vexed by the intransigent Samurai battle line. 

Game Three: Byzantine bashing.  Feeling all hepped up on goofballs and two wins I faced down Cory and his Kommnenan Byzantines. 8 units of horse vs my two. Furthermore, without psiloi support (the Achilles heel of the P-M Samurai in tourney) facing down his collection with my blades alone was a dim prospect.

I was lucky enough to lay a cluttered board. I deployed most of my blades in the rough and the woods, creating a funnel for Cory to approach me. I hoped that I would be able to pick off his horse as he approached. Of course Cory would never do that. It's quite nice when you've played a guy before. So I left my back door open. I garrisoned my camp with my singular Bow unit. Cory had three light horse units and I knew he'd go for a camp-rush.

He did.  My archers sallied and with a reserve unit of blades pinning the Pecheneg raiders, I dropped all three units. In the centre Cory had advanced, wiping out my picket unit, but not yet taking the full bait. On the right flank, my auxilia had engaged his psiloi and the Varangian blades (below) with some success.

In the end I pinched off one of psiloi units to take the win.  Quite surprising. 

and gratifying. A battle plan that actually worked. Worked against Cory as well. 

I expect all sort of accolades for this win. 

MONK REPORT: Instrumental in pinning the light horse and driving them off the map. Reputation vindicated!

Cory's Byzantine psiloi and Varangians cunningly lurk in the forest, ready for ambush action.

Last Stand of Liamicus. Sub-Roman British fall before Sudanese onslaught.

I'd like to thank Don and Mark for running the gig. I'd also like to salute my fellow DBA gamers. You are a funny, fun and clever bunch. There was no acrimony, endless debates and other buzz kill activities. I'll sit across the board with any of you anytime. 

Thank-you for reading while I went the Full Rimmer.

-TV

DBA at FallCon: Tupi or not Tupi.

Best in Show. Mike's Burgundians clash with Medieval French captained by Mark S.

Friday Knights at FallCon 2012 was played September 28th 2012. 10 participants strove over the Field of Honour and Glory, crossing pike with lance and enduring endless arrows of misfortune.

Have a view at the following tapestries kind pilgrim and attest to valour and the pageantry. 

More French vs Burgundian grudge settling. This is how medieval killfests should look.

Participating:

-Anglo-Normans captained by Don Ray

-Burgundian Ordonnance generaled by Mike J.

-Kommenan Byzantines lead by Strategos Chen-Song Qin.

-Medieval Portuguese of Don Marco

-War of the Roses lead by Eric 'Mr York' Parker (Jr. Winner)

-Sicilians captained by Stephane the-not-quite-Hohenstaufen (Biggest Loss)

-Cilician Armenians championed by Liam the Martyr (Jr. Biggest Loss)

-Late Swiss generaled by David von Parker

-Medieval French avec Markquise Stadel

-Tupi lead by chief Mark W. (Tourney Winner)

It was gratifying that I only needed to lend out two armies, the Sicilian and Cilicians. Do you see a pattern? I had painted up a brae Scots Common army using old Essex figs I've had since Year 0 but for some reason a feisty high aggression army predominated by pikes seemed like a lame choice for a tourney. Geez people...

I also had whipped off a couple light horse to morph my ol' Norse Irish into brand new Medieval Irish. They weren't picked either, but I did get a game in with them. More talk later...look at pix.

Mobile and perfidious, Marco's Medieval Portuguese rally against David's trenchant Later Swiss pike blocks.

Portuguese horse array for a charge.

Chen-Song's sweet blue Byzantines.

More Byzantines in action.

Liam commands his Cilician Armenians to hold against the Stephan's Sicilain onslaught

I enjoyed organizing and reffing this night. Thank you so much to all the participants. Everyone got into the ye ol' courtly theme of bloodlust and played some tense matches. What more can a event runner ask for?

Don's Anglo-Normans advance, glam battle wagon in tow. Swiss seem unimpressed.

Gorgeous armies no? I love the painters that live here in Magna Calgaria (CCF) and in Edmontograd (EDBAG). From Chen-song's subtle rhapsody in the limited palette Kommie Byzantines to Don Ray's flashy day-glo Anglo-Normans we had all approaches to the spectrum.  Made for some good pix.

The pageantry of Mark and Mike's respective French and Burgundians (mmmmm Burgundy...) made my Sicilians feel dowdy in comparison. Well done all.

'We go now to Brother James, currently held aloft by an unconfirmed number of Angels for the eye in sky report... Yes, the Anglo-Normans have cleared the rough and are headed to the Swiss lines, back to you Abelard'

The games were quite brilliant, some gripping contests that only DBA can supply when knights and pikes and blades occupy the table-top.  Brother Markus our scribe has the final tally of the who-won- what-against-whom. And will be reported when Brother Markus makes his report.

Scoring-wise I used a classic rehash of Neldoreth's Visigothic Romance scoring and my own formulations for Samurai Night Fever. Kill the general, take the camp, be a hero and don't die and you will win. It's all designed to encourage a bit of role-playing in the tourney rather than the grimmer math of standard scoring. I added a little funny by penalizing the general who is killed by foot troops rather than in glorious combat with fellow mounted sorts.  Killed by peasants...silly king.

It's the sort of scoring that if you concentrate on standard DBA tactics (find, isolate and kill 4 stands) the winning of the match may not win you the tourney.

Liam the Armenian proved that as he lost his impetuous Knight general in every match, despite making reasonable headway with his truculent spear troops.

Eric of York landed on his feet with only a few previous games of DBA under his belt at took the War of the Roses English to pretty stellar heights. His bravery and chivalry with the WotR clankers have inspired me and Liam (the pre-Teen Visigoth) to make matched sets.   

Stephane captained the Sicilians with a verve and style that lead to some pretty outlandish tactics. (see below)

Audacity: Landing double ranked knights against defending archers. Recoil is a bitch.

Will the Saracen guardsmen cut their way through the Tupi warbands in time to succor the Knights? Yeah, not so much...

So Mark Wall won the tourney with the Tupi. The combined might of Feudal Europe failed against a painted horde of warband and bows. Mark faced valiant foes and was able to use his limited troops to their maximum. Is that not a true portrait of a DBA player?

OK, now I know some of you are gnawing and gnashing about the thematic catastrophe that is a Mesoamerican Army winning an event called Friday Knights. And I sort of agree with you...but it was a Book IV tourney, loosely themed on Ye Olde Merry Plaguey-Wagey Europe. Given that he faced top quality mixed-arms lists and still triumphed gives him his due. I gave him a nice tower camp. And a stern admonishment to buy some plate mail.  

Tupi gone wild. Well done Mark!

I did get a game in whilst reffing and coaching the junior players (well done Eric and Liam!) After Mark dispatched another opponent I fielded my newly morphed Medieval Irish (light horse option) and showed Mr Tupi pants how we roll in Donegal. OK, yeah I sliced up a warband and bow army with Auxilia and Light Horse. What a champ eh? With a record like mine, you need all the wins you can get.

I'll follow up with pix and thoughts of the Alberta Open, FallCon and tourneys as such.

Check out Mark W's bloggo for another look at the games.

-TV 

FallCon 2012 Friday Knights

Once again, into the breach dear friends. I will be hosting DBA at FallCon 25 on September 28th here in Calgary.

Let's celebrate that high point of European history, the High Middle Ages!

With violence and calamitous battles!

With the help of DBA 2.2 and the armies of Book IV (1100 to 14 something or other) we take you to that glorious time of pointless feuds, religious massacres, sketchy cuisine, tin pants and of course THE PLAGUE. 

Relive the time when smashing some ingrate peasant with your mace was just one of the many things you did before breakfast. The Crusades, War of the Roses, Hundreds Year War, Hussite Wars, Mongol Invasions, and Braveheart are all tragedies that should inspire you.

In the proud traditions of FallCon and the Calgary Camp Followers, the Friday Night DBA game is one of easygoing, friendly wit replete with guile, bloody endings and treachery.  
Families and children are welcome.

It's easy, just register and show up. Loaner armies will be provided to villeins, serfs and others without worldly goods. Otherwise, bring your DBA V2.2 or 3.0 Book IV army and slug it out! . Whilst the focus is on the bloodshed of Feudal Europe, you can bring an army from another part of the world...Aztecs? Sure, but we'll laugh at you behind your back. Let's try to keep in the theme shall we? That way you'll be eligible for the Best Army prize. Prizes to the winner (scoring to be made up the night before) and the prize for the biggest single loss/debacle of the evening will be rewarded with beheading or burning at the stake (winners choice). Prizes for the best newbie and junior player as well. Time to GET MEDIEVAL.

 -TV