Tuesday 27 April 2021

Wargaming; April 2021

Wargaming has taken a bit of a backseat for the last few months; my garage/table is freezing in Winter (so, no gaming) and I’ve finished painting my lead pile and have not been inspired to start a new project! But Spring is here and I’m keen to get started again.

I began by rewriting some generic army lists for all my Ancient and Medieval/Renaissance forces for both Impetus v2 (Imp2), and Sword and Spear (S&S) rules, to enable me to quickly pick-up and play. Impetus Warbook 1: 3000 BC to 44 BC Cover ArtworkThis was due to the release of the ‘new’ Impetus v2 Warbook volume 1, which covers the periods up to, and including, the Punic Wars. My standard army size for 15mm forces is 400 points (with 3 commands), and for 28mm forces only 300 points (as a single command). The new lists in the Impetus Warbook do differ a bit from the earlier lists, but they seem fine to me, except the authors do favour ‘large’ units. For example, I’m not sure I like my Greek hoplites to deploy in ‘large’ phalanx-like units; this will make the army stronger on the table but it just does not look right! Of course it is not compulsory to field ‘large’ units and as I’m not a competitive gamer, I can ignore this option (anyway, I prefer to play with S&S rules when using my Greeks because I feel the game is more interesting than when using Imp2).

Next I decided to refresh my knowledge of the Imp2 rules by playing a few solo games using my 28mm armies that have been in their boxes for too long. I played two Great Italian Wars battles followed by two Samurai battles (sorry, no photos taken). In the first game the Florentines were defeated by Pisan forces; main lesson was that militia pike are rubbish. In the next game an early French army took on Neapolitan Spanish, who I thought would struggle to oppose the twin threat of Gendarmes and Swiss pike. The first phase of the battle confirmed the issue, with the Swiss driving forward and forcing the Spanish foot to retreat, and the Gendarmes smashing some Italian knights before running into some Spanish knights. At this point, with the Spanish only 1 point away from demoralisation, the Dice Gods intervened! The Swiss pursuit failed to maintain contact and a second Spanish foot counter-charged their disorganised mass and massacred them. The Gendarmes were surprisingly held by the weaker Spanish, who then with the help of some flanking Genitors routed the French nobility. Suddenly from a winning position, the French army collapsed! I really enjoyed both games and like the way Imp2 plays out. My Samurai games were both close fought, bloody affairs. Neither army had obvious weak units, and this resulted in a bit of a slogging match, with the key to victory being the positioning and timing of reinforcing units.

AK47 Republic Cover ArtworkA week or so later I decided to continue to use some of my armies that have not seen much action recently and play a couple of games of AK-47. I was undecided about whether I preferred the new AK-47 Reloaded over the older AK-47 Republic edition? I therefore decided to play the first game with old AK-47, then the next with the newer AK-47RL rules, both featuring a Dictator force versus a Peoples Revolution force on the same table layout. Rather than describe the action, I will instead discuss how the new AK-47RL rules work compared to their older predecessor: I like the expanded range of forces available. The pregame sequence is more complex compared to the old ‘political flow chart’ mechanism, but it still works well and is easy to follow. As a house rule, I would prevent carry-over in to a following week (this will mean nothing to people who have not played AK-47RL). In the game itself, AK-47RL has a lot more going on and is significantly more complex, and is therefore slower to play. The numerous markers employed can get overlooked and forgotten. The group of 3 rule for infantry and swapping of stands within units is a bit clunky; and the 1-2 base separation between groups awkward to maintain. The core combat mechanism is constant in both sets of rules (thankfully) and is ingenious, although the ‘doubles’ rule is easy to overlook! I really like the use of ‘assets’ and the late arrive of reserves and re-enforcements. In conclusion, I think the new AK-47RL rules are better for opposed games where two brains at the table helps and, additionally, each player can focus primarily on the actions of their own forces. For a solo experience AK-47RL is too intricate, and I would prefer to use the simpler, more free-flowing, open-ended original AK-47.

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