The War of the League of Aspico, Episode 2 - King of Rome, Pope of the Hill

After their Nibeunese allies got beaten at the Battle of Piadda, there was pressure on Papal general Lodovico da Montelupo, to force decisive action. With peace looming, the League of Aspico needed a victory to bring to the bargaining table.

Opportunity presented itself when, encouraged by their Fransican allies' easy victory, the Republic of Fradice launched an attak on the Lomagna, without any clear strategic intention other than the good old 'pillage what you can, burn what you can't' method.

The two armies met at Monte Piombo on the common border. Montelupo was wise enough to send a scouting force of two gendarme units and occupy the ruling height. Otherwise, the deployment of the two armies mirrored each other: both had three gendarme, two pike block and one arquebusier unit.

The War of the League of Aspico, Episode 1

The army of the Kingdom of Fransica has crossed the Northern Alps to the Italian Peninsula. They formed an alliance with the Republic of Fradicine and are ready to start a war. 

Their opponents are the League of Aspico, comprising the northwestern Italian states under the Alliance of Nibeuno, and the Papal State to the south.

The Fransicans, with a well equipped army, advanced into Nibeunese territory. The opposing army had trouble paying their Swiss mercenaries, which meant a limited deployment. King Robert VIII (nicknamed Le Puant) had met the enemy at the border river of Piadda, and was determined to crush them once and for all.

Scratchbuilding frenzy - the Jazygian Campaign

The house was empty for a week so I planned a massive gaming event, the table was set 24/7 and battles raged to save or capture the mountain land of Jazygia. I could not document the gaming sessions though because the 'good' camera was taken by the family to their trip.

Few words of mighty Jazygia: a sort of Balkanian state, her leader is Ebhard Magnutörk, Great Prince. The country is just after a war with Ahbania to the west and the main armed forces are divided. The aggressor Visigothians plan a combined attack through a bridgehead and a shallow river crossing with boats and whatnot. The bad guys were the Strelets KuK infantry featured earlier. They were stopped at the capital but had some great losses before.

Obviously for an early WW2/1930s setting I could not use the armor and other equipment I had around - time to improvise. I had glue and paper and scratch. So what I put together is:

2 monoplanes
3 armored cars
2 tanks
1 APC
2 cannons
4 MG pill boxes

The whole lot with figures for comparison

Martian Rebellion Campaign Ep. 2. - Zaqasdari Incursion

The united Martian-Terran fleet has to cope with the xeno threat. The battlefield is kind of 'hard terrain' with a large asteroid field and an ancient shipwreck occupying the centre. 

The Zaqasdari have a slight disatvantage in points which they make worse by moving in linear formation. The opposing fleets station on the two sides of the asteroid field and plan to launch their fighter squadrons throughout the field impassable for larger units.

Two small notices before continuing: first to welcome Warlord Paul, the 77th follower, and to tell I am not entirely sure I will be able to finish this campaign because I plan other uses for the Lego material involved - an Age of Sail naval game along the lines of One Page Fleets. Working on some terrain right now, well perhaps I could scratchbuild some ships too.

Martian Rebellion Campaign Ep. 1 - Viribus Unitis

The Martian Red Fleet was well prepared for an attack of the Terrans. They knew too well the conflict won't end peacefully this time. However the fleet commanders did not favor the violence with which the Overseers met, there was just enough patriotism in them to launch the fleet, trying to intercept the Terran attack. 

That attack came soon enough. 

The Terran centre of battlecruisers moves forward slowly.

Martian Rebellion campaign - rules and background

We are at the beginning of the Space Age: Earth is ruled by the Federal Nations' Overssers; mankind's first colony is the terraformed Mars, and outposts had been built throughout the solar system. A good two hundred years ago a fleet of colonists left Earth, seeking for other habitable planets, but no news were heard of them. 

After warp speed had been made possible for humans, so-called warp holes spawned around Sol in the outskirts of the system, and sentient aliens appeared - one species, the Zaqasdari being aggressive, while the others look for trading and forming new alliances. These Zaqasdari usually appear, cause some trouble then leave with their massive ships. These actions called for the commission of a united Martian-Terran fleet, together a formidable force of several types of ships.


Before continuing, I strongly advice to check out the magnificent Back to the Minis blog  where giveaways are held and the prizes are worthy of a comment. A non-paid advertisement this was.
Also check out the Principality of Schultze-Böhnstadt where I uploaded two battle reports with tons of pictures.

Naval campaign - Episode 5. (Finale)

Ep. 4 is here.

Turn 32-3

Another Imperial fleet showed up. The routed Rebel cruiser reached Fleet Yellow and gave a detailed list of Rebel units inside Ingre Harbor. Yet the Imperial admiral was hesitant and instead gave order to wait for Fleet Grey 2 to arrive and launch a cooperative strike.

The Rebel fleet, however, moved out to strike them down.

Initial setup. The Imperial left flank is protected by mines.

The Rebels charge right in. Two destroyers attempt to defend their carrier from enemy cruiser fire; those are busy enough fighting the Rebel heavy ships anyway.

Naval campaign - Episode 4.

Previous episode is here.

Turn 27-8

A new Fleet Yellow arrived at the Imperial main base.

The 3 Rebel divers and 2 blockade breakers struck on the harbored Imperial fleet.

Rebel startup with a diversion force of blockade breakers.

They don't last too long against the coastal battery, but win enough time for the divers to sneak in.

Naval campaign - Episode 2.

See the previous post here.

Turns 8-9
Now if Fleet Yellow wanted to move along, could not do it without a fight. They had to secure their 3rd rig to the south-east, but also secure their base of operations. Luckily enough the Rebel main fleet set its course back to Western End and did not bother capturing the third rig.

Turn 10
The Imperial fleet moved out of harbor and set up attack formation out of the reach of the Rebel coastal batteries near Western End. The Rebels moved out with full force to meet them.

The two fleets approach each other.

The Yellow battlecruiser and the Rebel battleship aim for each other.

Naval campaign - Episode 1.

Turns 1-3

The Rebel feet assembled at its southernmost base of operations. The Imperials were soon aware of their presence and sent a unit of 9 frigates and destroyers to the Western End rig.
A strike force of 3 divers, a medium cruiser and 9 destroyers (plus an engineering ship) attacked the rig in hope of capturing it.

Rebel strike force.

Inter Arma campaign session 1. - The valley

Gameplay on Saturday's campaign. Never had the opportunity to play this part of the rules, now I've had enough players. See the map of the environment above.

Additions for the Risk game

A few minor scratchbuilds for the Nations of Riskopia game. The campaign's going on and there was a siege already but the gameplay requires some modifications on the rules. 

Above, fortifications out of matches. Been collecting the few the household uses and honestly, they never seem to be out of stock so why not have some fun with them? The river, by the way, is a very old build from last October.

Houses, there's 11 of them, the material is styrofoam and cardboard. Not so detailed but these are for gaming purposes and who would look at them that closely anyway?

Some plastic caps camouflaged as trees/wood markers, not very effective but useful for sure.

And another new project

...Called The Nations of Riskopia(?)

Put together a campaign map with this fun prog called Hexographer. There are three neighboring countries (Ulpianea, Auroventia and Aronia), each has armies of Risk figs I've based and set up very simple rules for them. 

Campaign rules:

• Starting with rolling 1d6 for armies, 1-3 armies on first turn
• Roll 1d4 for reinforcements each 2 turns, 1-2 armies until reaching a maximum of 6
• Armies may move 5 hexes per turn modified by 1d6: 1-2 = -1 hex, 5-6 = +1 hex

May work on arrival of supply trains and available supplies based on rolls later.

And here you can inspect a battle (only one has been fought so far), a border conflict for a bridge. The figs are based on a 6x2cm cardboard piece: 8 infantry figs make a regular infantry unit, 4-5 a Jäger/irregular unit, 4 cavalry figs a cavalry squadron and 3 cannons a battery. 

Rules for combat (again, very, very simple): 

• Infantry moves approx. 5cm, cavalry moves 10; guns move 4. I'll figure out some sort of sticks to make measurements easier.
• When fired/charged at, a unit takes a test, if rolls 1 on 1d6 it routs 1 unit of movement (guns don't rout, two hits mean the battery is destroyed). Volleys happen simultaneously except when fired at from the sides/back. 
• Roll a test again on routed units at the beginning of turn, if 1 again said unit is destroyed.
• Command fig (2 per army, one foot and one mounted) can save 1 or 2 units from routing/destruction in its proximity.

This is just some relaxing stuff to keep me entertained while I'm slowly running out of paint but it looks like I'll have a permanent job at an office from August and on, good news, good news!

Also, damn the Blogger editor for making the text's background white.

Winter of 10596 Campaign

Off to a campaign with the completed collection of my minature armies- Somewhere in the East Mountains in Jackewline, a few, tired but experienced Jackewlinese regiments are facing new Dorroseani units coming from the border. The campaign will begin tomorrow.

Objectives at the beginning of the campaign:

-Dorrosean: the main army with its four regiments is commanded to break through the Jackewline line and destroy all opponents facing them. The southern units shall protect the rears and flanks of the main attack force and capture/loot anything they find in the undefended or lightly defended villages.

-Jackewline: The Maquirech and Sannereid Regiments are supposed to counter the enemy attack (which at the moment they are unaware of) and rout or destroy all enemy troops within the area to secure it.

Roles

-I will conduct the main movements and decide which unit acts how in the strategic map while in the battlefield my brothers would take charge (of course with my supervision).

Legend:

Unit sign with dot over it - Regiment

Unit sign with darker dot - Irregular Regiment (in this case, Dorroseani militia)

Unit sign with golden dot - Guard Regiment

Unit sign w/o dot - secluded Battalion

Villages - black-red squares

There is an old Fergh (fort) NE of the two main Jackewline regiments which the opponents desire to take for a base of future strategic movements.

Roads - brown lines

Paths / passages - dotted lines

Woods - green lines

Hills - ochre curves

Water - blue lines