Heavy Fighting
Posted October 9th, 2012 at 01:15 PM by Sylvano the Wasabus
Yesterday we played ten Scape games- our version of course. The beginning ones were smaller affairs, a scenario we call messenger. The victory condition of the game is simple- you have to get one figure across the board before your opponent does the same. We usually play on a long rectangular map.
My boys are good players and I only won once out of many games. The game I won was just luck of course- I was down to one figure but he had multiple lives and was able to run for it. He was wounded in a leaving engagement and he managed to fight off two more figures for me to win. One more turn and I would have lost. It was a narrow win, but the taste was still sweet.
In the afternoon we decided to play a heavy battle. It was heavy for us at any rate- a three on three, four hundred points each- so a total of 1200 points on 1200 points. What really made it heavy was that we played on the rectangular messenger map.
The scenario was simple: there were three villages and you had to control all three to win.
We have been experimenting with houses for our Scape games, as odd as that seems. Please don’t imagine doll houses and little swimming pools. (although that’s an interesting image, isn’t it? You are all invited to Raelin’s pool party!) My current design of houses cover four squares. They’re made of cardboard and have a door and window and an additional piece of cardboard that can be used as a flat roof.
The houses of course are LOS blockers, and they have eight defense- if you attack them and wound them they catch on fire. They have roofs so that figures can hide in them, archers can fire from the roof, and when they start burning there’s a moment or two for those inside to escape out the door or window if they’re lucky.
We like ambush scenarios and village clearing scenarios and terrible scenarios of invading armies that grind all in their path to rubble and bone. The house design isn’t perfect, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned from playing our game it’s that customs take a lot of time and patience to get right.
Now where were we? Oh that’s right, at the start of the heavy battle- victory condition control all three villages. Each side had a village as a starting zone and there was one village left over in the middle. The armies seemed vast.
My eldest son has been working forever on his custom skaven army- rat men. They have come a long way over the years; sometimes they were too strong and sometimes too weak. They’re a complex army because they are made up of many different types of units- the meat shields, whose job is to absorb attacks so that others might live, three kinds of artillery, sorcerers with special powers, rat ogres- which are enormous monstrous rats, rats that spread plague, ninja rats, and phalanx rats with very long pole arms.
For this heavy battle my son chose a skaven army for both sides (we play three on three- all of us against all of us). His one army had forty five figures. One of the custom rules we have for skaven is that they can fit two per hex. It makes for an impressive sight.
My younger son chose the army of Delaine- a pillaging army run by a false prophet sorcerer named Nichfello whose special is converting enemy units to his cause. His opposing army were dwarves, with some ponies for the heroes to increase their movement.
I chose what I thought was a great army- super heavy lizard men, the heaviest forces we have. I was expecting a massive melee battle and these guys have solid defence and an engagement strike too. I rounded them out with some ranged skinks- weak, but they were just supposed to be auxiliary. For the other side I took three squads of Tenth Reg and Tandros Keel to command them, with Kurrock and two fire elementals and one earth elemental as a backup.
When we finally set up all the armies the map was packed on both sides- probably about eighty figures on both sides. Besides the three villages there was a sparse forest and a few small heights.
The dice were rolled for initiative and the thunder began. We don’t use order markers- I can’t imagine using them in a game like this- it’s pretty simple one side goes, then the other goes.
My tenth Reg and Tandros Keel went for a height in the center. My lizards went up the right flank and smashed into the dwarves. But I was in for a surprise. I had been bottle necked by terrain – my younger son had chosen his position wisely- and the front was only three or four hexes- so my heavy lizards had to line up and wait to get into melee. Or, as it truly happened, line up and wait to get shot down by ranged dwarves. My skinks had veered off to threaten the center and the heavies were left to die on dwarven arrows. It was so sad- the big lizards are about three times the size of the dwarves but there was nothing I could do.
My younger son was play testing a new heavy cavalry unit who can keep punching though hexes as long as they have movement and extra skulls and they drove deep into the double ranked skaven opposing them. My tenth reg stood on the height for a while and there were enough of them to stand for a bit before the opposing skaven skittered over and cut them down. Their grey seer wizard rat hit them with a warp lighting spell they took out an entire squad too.
We usually leave the bodies on the field but this time there were just too many. Near the end we had made big piles at the back of the map. Even though the dwarves had held firm without very many loses they still lost the game. They kept trying to kill a skaven ninja with vanish and he vanished four times towards the last village, which was entirely unguarded. On his next turn he entered it and finished the game.
It had been a good game but often now I feel sad when the game is done. So many bodies, so much dead. We all have our favourite figures and formations and when they are crushed and killed it is sad. My lizard army was down to only three figures. My Einar army was completely wiped out. My sons still had a decent number of figures on the board, but all of my heroes lay dead in the piles at the back, awaiting the flames that would send them to plastic Valhalla.
My boys are good players and I only won once out of many games. The game I won was just luck of course- I was down to one figure but he had multiple lives and was able to run for it. He was wounded in a leaving engagement and he managed to fight off two more figures for me to win. One more turn and I would have lost. It was a narrow win, but the taste was still sweet.
In the afternoon we decided to play a heavy battle. It was heavy for us at any rate- a three on three, four hundred points each- so a total of 1200 points on 1200 points. What really made it heavy was that we played on the rectangular messenger map.
The scenario was simple: there were three villages and you had to control all three to win.
We have been experimenting with houses for our Scape games, as odd as that seems. Please don’t imagine doll houses and little swimming pools. (although that’s an interesting image, isn’t it? You are all invited to Raelin’s pool party!) My current design of houses cover four squares. They’re made of cardboard and have a door and window and an additional piece of cardboard that can be used as a flat roof.
The houses of course are LOS blockers, and they have eight defense- if you attack them and wound them they catch on fire. They have roofs so that figures can hide in them, archers can fire from the roof, and when they start burning there’s a moment or two for those inside to escape out the door or window if they’re lucky.
We like ambush scenarios and village clearing scenarios and terrible scenarios of invading armies that grind all in their path to rubble and bone. The house design isn’t perfect, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned from playing our game it’s that customs take a lot of time and patience to get right.
Now where were we? Oh that’s right, at the start of the heavy battle- victory condition control all three villages. Each side had a village as a starting zone and there was one village left over in the middle. The armies seemed vast.
My eldest son has been working forever on his custom skaven army- rat men. They have come a long way over the years; sometimes they were too strong and sometimes too weak. They’re a complex army because they are made up of many different types of units- the meat shields, whose job is to absorb attacks so that others might live, three kinds of artillery, sorcerers with special powers, rat ogres- which are enormous monstrous rats, rats that spread plague, ninja rats, and phalanx rats with very long pole arms.
For this heavy battle my son chose a skaven army for both sides (we play three on three- all of us against all of us). His one army had forty five figures. One of the custom rules we have for skaven is that they can fit two per hex. It makes for an impressive sight.
My younger son chose the army of Delaine- a pillaging army run by a false prophet sorcerer named Nichfello whose special is converting enemy units to his cause. His opposing army were dwarves, with some ponies for the heroes to increase their movement.
I chose what I thought was a great army- super heavy lizard men, the heaviest forces we have. I was expecting a massive melee battle and these guys have solid defence and an engagement strike too. I rounded them out with some ranged skinks- weak, but they were just supposed to be auxiliary. For the other side I took three squads of Tenth Reg and Tandros Keel to command them, with Kurrock and two fire elementals and one earth elemental as a backup.
When we finally set up all the armies the map was packed on both sides- probably about eighty figures on both sides. Besides the three villages there was a sparse forest and a few small heights.
The dice were rolled for initiative and the thunder began. We don’t use order markers- I can’t imagine using them in a game like this- it’s pretty simple one side goes, then the other goes.
My tenth Reg and Tandros Keel went for a height in the center. My lizards went up the right flank and smashed into the dwarves. But I was in for a surprise. I had been bottle necked by terrain – my younger son had chosen his position wisely- and the front was only three or four hexes- so my heavy lizards had to line up and wait to get into melee. Or, as it truly happened, line up and wait to get shot down by ranged dwarves. My skinks had veered off to threaten the center and the heavies were left to die on dwarven arrows. It was so sad- the big lizards are about three times the size of the dwarves but there was nothing I could do.
My younger son was play testing a new heavy cavalry unit who can keep punching though hexes as long as they have movement and extra skulls and they drove deep into the double ranked skaven opposing them. My tenth reg stood on the height for a while and there were enough of them to stand for a bit before the opposing skaven skittered over and cut them down. Their grey seer wizard rat hit them with a warp lighting spell they took out an entire squad too.
We usually leave the bodies on the field but this time there were just too many. Near the end we had made big piles at the back of the map. Even though the dwarves had held firm without very many loses they still lost the game. They kept trying to kill a skaven ninja with vanish and he vanished four times towards the last village, which was entirely unguarded. On his next turn he entered it and finished the game.
It had been a good game but often now I feel sad when the game is done. So many bodies, so much dead. We all have our favourite figures and formations and when they are crushed and killed it is sad. My lizard army was down to only three figures. My Einar army was completely wiped out. My sons still had a decent number of figures on the board, but all of my heroes lay dead in the piles at the back, awaiting the flames that would send them to plastic Valhalla.
Comments 7
Total Comments 7
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Your custom version of scape always sounds so interesting, Sylvano. It's cool that creating customs and playing is such a family event at your house.
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Posted October 9th, 2012 at 03:18 PM by Arch-vile
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Sound like more fun Sylvano-scape...very cool.
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Posted October 9th, 2012 at 04:43 PM by ZBeeblebrox
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You really need to post full rules and a sampling of customs one day.
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Posted October 10th, 2012 at 08:15 PM by Hive Lord 1233
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^ agreed, good blog (as usual)
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Posted October 11th, 2012 at 07:44 AM by sir william the bold
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Skaven army still sounds powerful, but I'll have to come over to judge for myself
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Posted October 11th, 2012 at 12:46 PM by ZBeeblebrox
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Have you and your guys ever run one of these games at a school or convention?
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Posted October 16th, 2012 at 08:37 AM by chas
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No we've never run a game anywhere but home, so far. We're getting more and more organized though, right now repointing absolutely everything, so one day it may be a possibility.
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Posted October 23rd, 2012 at 08:58 AM by Sylvano the Wasabus
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Recent Blog Entries by Sylvano the Wasabus
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- Rats Overrun (November 23rd, 2020)
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- The Battle of Twelve Ballistas (November 3rd, 2020)
