I have played a few battles with a local guy over the years, and he is a very skilled player. It is good to practice with him, and he is always respectful. Neither of us has played the old world yet, and it was good to get a game in.
Game Results and What I Learned
I lost miserably.
Sitting back and turtling isn’t a good strategy
Don’t rely on shooting
Be wary of enhancements
Units are always better on the charge
Magic matters.
The Game
Our lists are below.
Dwarves
2996
Bretonia
3000
King with Shieldbearers
316
Duke on Hippogryf
467
Thane
227
Paladin
118
Engineer
108
Damsel
90
Dragon Slayer
149
Damsel
60
21 Warriors
255
20 Men at Arms
104
18 Warriors
225
20 Men at Arms
104
9 Thunderers
100
20 Men at Arms
104
12 Thunderers
130
20 Knights on Foot
238
11 Longbeards
166
6 Knights of the Realm
165
Cannon
105
10 Bowmen
70
Cannon
105
10 Bowmen
70
3 Gyrocopters
210
10 Bowmen
60
12 Ironbreakers
243
10 Bowmen
60
12 Ironbreakers
164
6 Knights Errant
120
8 Slayers
243
5 Yeomen
80
Flame Cannon
125
5 Yeomen
80
Flame Cannon
125
3 Pegasus Knights
172
3 Pegasus Knights
172
6 Questing Knights
163
Field Trebuchet
100
Field Trebuchet
100
5 Grail Knights
197
The game took us longer than it should, as it was our first time. Understanding winning and losing in combat as well as the amount of shooting and such. There were a lot of rules. I did read the rulebook, but holy shit, there were tons to remember.
We deployed it as such below, so I won’t get into too much detail. In my head, I wanted to have the warriors and ironbreakers make the frontline with small gaps for artillery and handguns. The table was just a little too wide, and the pegasi were too mobile.
Based on deployment, his forces look far more numerous than mine. I was able to grab the first turn and did a moderate amount of shooting. I also deployed as far back as possible. I wanted him to come to me. I should have positioned the units slightly better to take advantage of the impassable lakes. Of course, the pegasi just flew over them.
I was sitting down and took this shot because it just looked cool. To see the knights bearing down on the dwarves and such.
Ditto this one as well.
The game went as expected, with me sitting back and waiting, his knights charging. The gist of the game was that my right flank completely failed, and he just rolled up my center by turn 4. One interesting thing, after the third turn, we totaled our artillery shots. Of the 18 total possible shots to that point in the game, 14 misfired. The image below is turn 2, I think.
The game was basically over turn 3, and I stopped taking pictures. When a militia unit routes my Ironbreakers, I knew it was over.
I did learn a very interesting lesson. Much more damage is done on the charge. My Ironbreakers in the center went toe to toe for three rounds with his knights, and we lost about two models total. I just didn’t bring enough stopping power. I thought the longbeards and slayers would be more deadly, and had I hit either charge roll, they probably would have been. I just didn’t hit a charge roll. The above picture shows how many knights he has bearing down on my right flank (top of the image). My opponent said that once he saw my slayers go onto the table, he knew their weakness and wanted to strike that location. He had 5 more units to drop on the table than I did, allowing him to control deployment and set the matchups. I was setting my main damage units while he was deploying Yeomen.
The Word Bearers convinced Archmagos Delvere of Constantix II to swear fealty to the traitor legions in exchange for forbidden knowledge. Delvere was convinced this would allow his world to ascend to new heights. Perched in the vast Barge City of Leiminota, the Word Bearers enacted their plot. Several smaller Barge Cities resisted, and a call for help rose into the heavens. Primarch Covax and the Raven Guard legion answered the call.
With stunning ferocity, the speartip arrived in Malcaster’s outlying settlement. Malcaster’s purpose was to maintain a small bridge where acid flowed through. The Word Bearers fled, knowing their limited forces must consolidate and draw the Ravens into a protracted siege. The Ravenguard must keep the bridge intact at all costs to speed up the assault.
Praetor Corveran Shixx will lead the speartip. His primary objective is to secure the bridge and destroy as many Word Bearers as possible. He leads his unit of Cataphractii in a deadly dance.
The Word Bearers, led by their Praetor Toradik, the Sonorous Fiend, must preserve as many units as possible for the coming assault. His legion is small, and reinforcements are far away. Drawing the fast-striking Raven Guard into a prolonged siege will lead to great benefit.
Raven Guard
Word Bearers
1
Praetor Catphractii with Command Covax
240
1
Legion Praetor with Command Squad Sonorous
215
1
Centurion, Master of Signals
95
1
Contemptor Dreadnought Talon
225
2
Contemptor Dreadnought
390
10
Destroyer Assault Squad
205
5
Mor Deythan Squad
150
1
Mhara gal Dreadnought
240
5
Mor Deythan Squad with Storm Eagle Gunship
360
5
Veteran Squad with Rhino
150
10
Terminator Cataphractii
325
10
Veteran Squad
225
10
Assault Squad
145
10
Despoiler Squad
100
10
Tactical Squad
100
5
Recon Squad with Storm Eagle
344
10
Tactical Squad with Rhino
135
10
Tactical Squad with Rhino
145
10
Tactical Squad with Rhino
135
10
Tactical Squad with Rhino
145
2
Land Raider Proteus
505
3
Outrider Squadron
91
1
Basilisk
200
3
Skyhunter Squadron
105
1
Sicaran
220
1
Land Raider Phobos
250
1
Basilisk
185
3
Predators
360
Lessons Learned Terminators and Dreadnoughts are a house. I am excited to play narratively and thematically and add those units to the game. For example, most of the Raven Guard Terminators were destroyed in this assault. There will not be more available until an apothecary can make them.
The punishment for moving heavy weapons is severe. More terrain across the main field would have impacted how I used the tanks. There was no line of sight-blocking terrain across the battle, so the tanks and dreadnoughts just sat and shot at things with very little movement or strategy.
I mis-deployed the Word Bearers infantry. Instead of the flank away from the river, all three units should have deployed near the river to clog the bridgehead.
Rules, rules, rules—there are many rules for the game. It was hard to keep track of them during solo play. I think I could do better once I learned to shoot and keep track.
Smaller games. 3500 was too many points for a 6×4 table like this. 2000 Would have been better. We are at 1250 for the Word Bearers for the next engagement and 2500 for Ravenguard.
The Actual Game
I actually deployed the units twice. I played one round deploying as the scenario said; the Ravenguards were completely wiped off the table. Instead, we selected to deploy 30k style with all units, not in a deep strike on the field. This was my first time using the Horus Heresy rules, so I kept everything as simple as possible. There were no flank attacks.
After the first turn for Ravenguard, very few units were destroyed. I didn’t anticipate the impact that moving heavy weapons would have. Reducing all hits to only on 6’s is a challenge to overcome.
The Word Bearers responded with a general push up the field. I wanted the Rhinos to get in the flank and do some damage. I was still far too unfamiliar with the rules. No model in all 30 tactical squads could dent a land raider. I also learned from my actions with the Ravenguard and kept all the heavy weapons as stationary as possible to maximize shooting.
Round two for the Ravenguard saw something interesting happen. The Sicaran fired on the Land Raider; however, when firing back, the Land Raider scored 3 total hits, once glancing and two penetrating. The penetrating hits did double damage, destroying the Sicaran. A great roll from the raider. However, the gunship single-handedly destroyed the veterans for the Word Bearers. Looking at the image above, you can see them behind the building to the right of the bridge. If you look at the lower image, they are gone. Otherwise, it’s just more heavy weapons shooting and missing.
The Word Bearers focused fire on the terminators crossing the field. Only 3 made it to the Word Bearers lines.
The assault on the bridge is in full swing. You can see the rhino at the bottom of the bridge was pinned by something of the Word Bearers. I think the Dreadnought. A Mor Deythan death squad also made it across the river transported by the gunship.
The Word Bearers used their desolaters to try and push back the tactical marines. They were unsuccessful and lost combat. You can see that Predator and Landraider are now in flames for the word-bearers.
The assault marines finally made it into combat and destroyed the basilisk. The devastators holding the bridge were also destroyed. The Contemptor Dreadnought for the Word Bearers has now been tied up for two shooting phases with the Terminators. We rolled to see if the Desolators could make it in for the Word Bearers. They did, and I decided to call the game. There was just no firepower left for the Word Bearers, as all their units were either in combat or ineffective against the tanks.
I could have charged with the Ravenguard leader and done a challenge here just to try it out. I didn’t.
Units for furtherexpansion
Units that exemplified themselves included all four dreadnoughts, the Ravenguard Tactical Marines that held the bridge, the assault marines that killed the basilisk, and the 30 Tactical marines from the Word Bearers who never entered the battle. Praetor Toradik also bravely charged the Terminators to try and dislodge them from the dreadnought.
The first engagement is complete. I was surprised at how close the battle was. In the first two rounds, it felt like the Germans were simply wiping the Soviets off the face of the planet. As the game progressed, though, it was a curiously close affair. I usually find in miniatures games that once one army is decimated, it just snowballs and gets worse.
Scenario Review
A thrillingly close game that came down to the last-order dice. I could have constructed both lists differently to optimize for the scenario. I was pleased with the idea and the thrill of combat. I liked the terrain setup and the distances. It played really well.
The army lists are as follows;
Germans
1167
Gates of Stalingrad
Leutnant
50
Regular
Here infantry
90
5 Rifles 1 LMG 1 Loader
Regular
Panzgrenadier
97
5 Rifles 1 LMG 1 Loader
Regular
medic
30
Veteran
artillery forward observer
100
1 AR
Regular
Heer infantry
110
7 Rifles 1 LMG 1 Loader
Regular
heer pioneer
77
1 Rifle 4 SMGS
Veteran
mmg
50
Regular
medium mortar
60
add spotter
Regular
flammenwerfer
50
Regular
sniper team
50
Regular
Anti-tank rifle team (removed)
Regular
50mm pak 38
75
Regular
Sdkfz231
100
Regular
Panzer iii Ausf E,F
140
2nd MMG
Regular
Sdkfz 7 halftrack
44
Regular
Sdkfz 7 halftrack
44
Regular
I based the German list on what an advancing army might look like. Mechanized infantry with early war armor support. Decent equipment. I could have made the squad sizes a little larger which would have brought me up to 1500 pts, as well as a few trucks, but this should make for a decent fight. I think the game plays well at 1250 to 1500.
Soviets Don Volga
Rifle Squad
0
12 Rifles
Inexpierenced
2nd Lieutenant
50
SMG
Regular
Veteran squad
85
3 Rifle 1 LMG 1 Loader
Veteran
Rifle squad
56
8 Rifles
Inexpierenced
commissar
15
SMG
Inexpierenced
assault engineer squad
80
5 SMGs
Veteran
rifle squad
81
7 Rifles 1 Flag
Inexpierenced
rifle squad
49
7 Rifles
Inexpierenced
veteran squad
103
4 Rifles 1 LMG 1 Panzerfust
Veteran
Mmg
35
Inexpierenced
Dshk heavy machine gun team
49
Inexpierenced
Sniper team
50
Regular
Dog mines
26
Inexpierenced
Tank hunters
20
Inexpierenced
Medium mortar
35
Inexpierenced
Light mortar
24
Inexpierenced
45mm antitank
46
Inexpierenced
Ba20 Armoured Car
52
Inexpierenced
T-34
156
Inexpierenced
Truck
31
Inexpierenced
Truck
31
Inexpierenced
Truck
31
Inexpierenced
Truck
31
Inexpierenced
Truck
31
Inexpierenced
The Soviet list is based on an army in full retreat. Supplies and such were not a huge issue at this point of the war, so I was happy to give them full equipment. The Soviet army was also inexperienced at this point, which I reflected in the list.
Scenario Rules
The Soviets have to cross the river they get to VP for each unit to cross. The Germans had to destroy the units and get 1VP for each destroyed unit. The bridge can be rigged to blow by any infantry unit within 3″ of the bridge. If the bridge blows, the Soviets get 5 VP.
Round 1.
The Soviets deployed as instructed on the far edge of the river. An AT Gun and a squad of rifles sit near the bridge as a garrison unit.
The German’s 3 Waves are shown here.
1 Panzer, 1 Halftrack Loaded, and the Mortar
1 Armored Car The other Halftrack, the AT gun, is very important for later the forward observer
Last 2 More companies of rifles, the MMG, Flamer, Sniper, AT Team and Medic
I was happy with how the field of battle turned out.
The German came to the table fast and hard despite having 6 fewer order dice. They also deployed well away from any units considered a threat. Their tank quickly knocked out a truck while the rifle company immobilized another. The immobilized truck in the front carried the people’s militia squad, which I am using as the free Soviet Rifle squad from their rule. The quantity and quality are all on their own.
Round 2
The Germans continued their assault on the Russian convoy. Destroying another truck right at the base of the bridge. A very timely shot from the German AT gun. I said earlier that the German forward artillery observer would play a huge role, and he really did. He was the first unit the Germans brought in for Wave 2, and the artillery strike was beautiful. Well placed, hit on target, and pinned 6 units down at the center of the field. The Soviets were able to inflict a couple of casualties this round; they also moved their AT Gun so it could hit the tank and armored car. They also knocked out a half-track.
Round 3
The Soviets still had 0 units across the river, although two trucks packed full were moving hard toward the bridge and a couple of rifle squads. I determined to let the MMG and the mortars sit in place and try to provide some cover fire. In the photo, flames billowing up from the German Panzer tank. You should also notice a single figure lying on the ground behind the smoking white soviet truck. A lone AT man rolled a 6 to hit the tank, another 6 to damage the tank through its side armor, and finally, a third 6 on the vehicle damage table. This run of luck turned the game in favor of the Soviets. All units hit in the artillery barrage were still pinned and failed their order tests.
Round 4
The first Soviet truck crosses the bridge. The Commissar, the Lieutenant, and the sniper team all unload, giving the Soviets 8 VP. The Germans have destroyed 1 Rifle Team, 2 MMGs, 3 Trucks, 1 Mortar, the Dog Mines, and the Armoured car, giving them a one-point advantage. The Soviets will likely get 4 more VPs next turn as vehicles cross the river. The Germans were fully playing the game, sending their armored car on a suicide run to kill the remaining two veterans holding the side of the bridge the Soviets were crossing from. They also went in on the militia squad, which had successfully stayed down and pinned for most of the game.
Round 5
The last Soviet truck was destroyed on the bridge as it attempted to cross. The veterans did run across the bridge as their odds intensified, so 4 more VPs to the Soviets. The Germans knocked out another unit and immobilized the T34 tank. Their flame thrower team moved quickly towards the military squad, trying to eliminate it from contention. Still, the fuse has not been lit.
Round 6
It came down to the last two dice. The Germans were able to kill two riflemen who were attempting to remove their AT gun. The last Soviet activation lit the fuse on the bridge, but the Germans had a dice roll left, a natural 6, to cancel the bridge’s blowing. They succeeded. With the T34 and the rifle squad destroyed, the Germans ended with 13 VP compared to the Soviet 12. Had the Germans not diffused the bomb, it would have been a Soviet Victory.
Conclusions
For the Soviets, the militia squad, the veterans that held the bridge, the truck driver, and the AT Gun, plus the Garrison Rifle squad, all performed well and are up for a little more narrative follow-up next game.
On the German side, the armored car, the Heer Pioneers that saved the bridge, the Flame Thrower, and the Observer are also worthy of more follow-up and a bit of a story piece.
Soviets did not have any truly useless units; the inexperienced rifles didn’t do much, but they were not useless. The German medic was useless, as were the halftracks.
Radio silence killed the blog is a good name for a song. 5 weeks is a very long time to go without a post and it goes to show how insane the last 5 weeks have been. As most of you know I am a soccer referee. I officiate from competitive kids clear up to NPSL and UPSL including High School and College. Wyoming High School season is an absolute hose as far as time goes. I officiated an average of 10 matches a week, very few being less than a two-hour drive away. It was just busy. This last weekend featured the Wyoming State Championships. It was my first year in 7 years not being a member of the championship crew.
I have also been selling off my magic collection. There were several days of 50+ orders per day which take a solid hour to package and mail. Just too much.
I did play a couple Vanguard matches and will finish my Vanguard league this week. That’s my update.
The hobby room continues its long, arduous completion process. My desk is ready and fit for work; now, I am just putting items away.
In the meantime, I entered into a Vanguard League. My FLGS saw how many people wanted to try Age of Sigmar, so they created a league. The gist is that everyone purchases a Vanguard box. You get bi-weekly pairings and progress through the various missions. In total, there are eight participants. I have fought two battles thus far.
Final Thoughts on Vanguard
For the battle reports see below. The quick summary is I think Vanguard games are just a little small. They work great as an introduction to the game and really allow new players to use and practice the new abilities, but balance wise they just aren’t quite there. I routinely have command points I can’t use and the many obectives and battle tactics are not achieveable. Unit balance is also off. Some large units while points wise are not out of line, when faced with other options, they are just inferior in every way.
I picked the Daughters of Khaine. I was the last to pick, and I wanted a faction no one else was really talking about. The Vanguard list is below.
1 Mulusai Ironscale with Arcane Tome and Master of Poisons 5 Blood Stalkers or Blood Sisters 10 Witch Alves or Sisters of Slaughter 5 Doomfire Warlocks
My first battle I faced Kolten and his Seraphon. His list is below;
1 Sarus Oldblood on Carnosaur 3 Kroxigor 10 Sarus Warriors
We played the first battleplan, Frontal Assault. I have a decent amount of AOS expierence. My opponent had zero. The game started very slow. Getting the opponent used to Grand Strategy’s and Battle Tactics took a significant amount of time. Once those were arranged I won the roll and elected to go 2nd. I felt like a round 2 double turn on the small table could be decisive.
Kolten advanced up the board, but was unable to get a charge in based on my deployment. My round I used my warlocks and archer to eliminate his entire unit of warriors. I then positioned myself to have the witch aelves charge the oldblood my next turn. I wanted to avoid the Kroxigors at all costs until we met on my terms. Turn 2 the battle went to shit for me. I did win the double turn, and I threw everything I had at the Oldblood. I should have killed it twice according to mathhammer. Timely rolls, timely saves, I reduced him to exactly one wound with all my units execept the Blood Stalkers engaged with it. His turn he was able to withdraw then charge again, plus got a charge in with his Kroxigors, plus healed the maximum with his heroic ability. My Witch Aelves and Warlocks were elminated. I was able to kill his Oldblood leaving only the Kroxigor, but my Blood Sisters were cornered. At this point he managed to get both of his Battle Tactics and Grand Strategy so I was going to have a tough time coming back on points. Turn 3 I tried to force my way out. But his unwounded Kroxigors took out my Ironscale. I was left with 3 Blood Stalkers against his 3 Kroxigors.
By turn 5 I had whittled down 1 Kroxigor but he still had two left and I was behind by 4 points. Had I gone second I would have tried to charge my unit into his, but because of the turn structure I would have been tabled going first. I think with shooting and charging I could have gotten him down to 1 Kroxigor, but if I missed I would have been completely tabled.
My second game I went against Eric, he and I have played several times in the past, I never faced his Lumineth.
The amount of magic he could must scared me, but I also knew how squishy his army was. We played Burn and Pillage. He placed almost all of his units in a single corner of the field. His archers were kind of out in the middle rather than behind his lines which suprised me.
I was able to take the first turn, and put everything I had into the blade lords. I felt like this was the most dangerous unit on the field to me. They were killed on the With Aelves charge.
I only lost one elf for one of his command abilities and I took out two Wardens as well. In the bottom end of the first he wiped out my aelves using his phalanx and killed a single Warlock. I was able to shoot with my Warlocks and do a couple damage to his Wardens.
I picked off a few of his wardens and took three objectives to his zero. I also completed one battle tactic and elimnated his grand strategy so I felt good about where I was. Turn three I finished off all but one warden and he eliminated my warlocks. I also killed 2 more sentinels. Turn four I finished off his commander and wardens and put him down to 5 sentinels. He killed my Ironscale and 2 blood stalkers. To be able to kill my blood stalkers he had to move his sentinels forward, a big moment and what I thought was a mistake. I was also 1 VP behind and handnt completed my grand strategy. Turn 5, I couldn’t get him off the objective by just shooting, my grand strategy was every unit fights and my stalkers hadn’t. I needed my +1 buff and a roll of 8 to get the charge off. Missed my first roll and used my only command point to try again, got an 8. He killed one of my stalkers on overwatch, but after my round of shooting I had him down to 4 models. The sisters did glorious, he was down to one, I had my two snakes left. They struck, he saved one and missed one tabeling his army and earning me the victory.
Most of you know I officiate soccer. We are entirely into high school season now, and my weekends are becoming more constrained. I have been the center official eight times over three weeks. I have three more centers coming this weekend. One very interesting part of Wyoming High School soccer is that almost all the matches are played at the same time on the same day across the state.
For example all 34 schools are in action at 4 pm Friday. Some matches start at 3 the rest at 4. The same is true at 6pm. We have two regions East and West. Typically, in the West, matches start at 5, and men’s and women’s teams travel together. So for example Rock Springs travels to Star Valley, the Men’s JV and Womens Varsity start at 3pm while the Mens Varsity and Womens JV start at 5. On the East side the Men’s team stays home and the women’s team travels and two weeks later they switch. The other interesting factor especially on the West Side, very few schools are closer than 100 miles.
As an official who travels, I can rarely do more than 2 matches in a single day. I typically move about 6.5 miles as a center official and 3 to 3.5 as an assistant. If I have to work two matches, that’s a ten mile day. Previously we have been very fortunate to almost always have a 4th official. Referees would either do 2 ARs or 1 Center and 1 4th. This year is different, most games only have ,3 and several we are running 2.
This Week’s Casper Cup
I pride myself on having good control of matches. I specialize in challenging Men’s matches for both men’s and women’s where rivalries occur and tempers can flare. About ten years ago there was a major incident at the state tournament where the two Casper schools were involved in a massive altercation that included parents, players, and coaching staff from both sides. Since that happened I have always done the Casper Cup men’s match.
The last two or three years were simple where one school dominated and I expected that to be the case this season. I was very wrong. The best player for the home school was out with a concussion and they lacked a true leader on the field. The away school fell behind 2-0 early, but came together as a squad. While the home team dominated in the number of chances, the away team put together several strong fast counter-attacks. The score was 2-1 with 25 minutes remaining, and in those last 25 minutes I made all the money from the last three seasons.
I went from 0 yellow cards to 4. Had two confrontations where players faced off ready to brawl. Of my 7.3 miles, (warmups, field walk, etc included) I did 3.2 in the last 25 minutes. I never broke from a decent jog and was running hard for a solid 5 minutes at one point in a thrilling end to end contest. The away team had a pacy winger who ran down seven or eight loose thru balls blowing by defenders and executing a solid cross. His pace meant that the cross usually went harmlessly across the box with no teammates nearby.
Another challenge for me as an official were the three holding midfielders between the two teams. All three players were powerfully built and had strong personalities. These players were constantly engaged in battles for the ball and aerial duals. These battles were fun to watch and I think I only had one or two falls all game from their interactions. The challenge came from the attacking midfielder for the away team. He was out of their class size and strength, but made up for it with skill and quickness. It is hard to manage when you have three big bodies battling for the ball, but when they try and do the same interaction with a smaller player it results in a foul.
I was generally happy with my performance. There were no match critical incidents. I could have given the home team a foul at one point but the player had a tendency of going down too easy. When I wasn’t giving him those fouls he stayed on his feet and scored a goal with several other attempts. On the away end there was a critical attack stopped by a cynical foul. The away team quickly set the ball and played it forward within a second or two. The other officials were asking for a caution there but because of the quick restart I didn’t want to stop their attack a second time. One of the senior officials after the match stated that I could have cautioned it at the next stoppage. I know this is the rule in FIFA, but I don’t think it applies to NFHS.
Otherwise I had a good game, and the coaches complimented my control.
Two months later than scheduled, the battle for Stalingrad will commence. My hobby room will be done this weekend. Currently, it looks like :
Yes a bit overwhelming, more than a bit really. But I have all day Saturday and Sunday; with nothing scheduled; I am going to fix it. It will be glorious.
How did I get Here?
A great question. As we were moving things, I was counting the thousands of items I had forgotten I even owned let alone ever used. Those have been going away. I started my TCG store (Red Desert Wargaming), and selling 90% of the magic collection. This seems like a lot by 10% of 140,000 cards is still 14,000 cards. I am keeping my reserved list items, all the dual lands, fetch lands, various staples, and building about 10 decks give or take 2 to 3 in every format. The rest buh by. Do I really need a playset of every modern playable card? Do I really need 88 copies of negate? No. I will most likely sell the bulk to my FLGS, while anything over .25 will get listed on my TCG Player Account. I should easily clear $40,000 total after everything is sold. If not a little more. In two weeks of sales, just duplicates I had in the office or laying around I have already moved $18,000. I still have to sort the colorless, lands, and multicolored cards, but I am comfortable with where I stand now.
Other items that I have moving on from, 3d printed buildings are moving to the attic. I have a really cool Mos Eisley/ Desert Town setup for 28mm. But it’s 3 big boxes. It will work great in the attic. Ditto my Tyranid terrain. I also have 15 ish generic buildings, a church, some brick houses, those will stay downstairs for use in the campaign. Many of the fancy building ruins, trees, roads, will stay as those get used on a monthly basis at least. Although I have like 3 boxes of trees, pine trees, jungle trees, normal trees, colorful trees, big trees small trees, palm trees, too many.
I do need to come up with a better solution for 8,000 15mm Napoleonics. Currently they are stored in white Ikea letter holders, you can see one to the right of the picture on top of the lone shelf. The entire left line of the room shelves is lined with the Nappys. It is too many. I have one of my bun racks set up in the attic to move them, iffffff, I can’t keep them. I would say they are my favorite period to play and favorite armies to paint, but space.
I have two big challenges facing me. DND Figures, 1000’s of them, and game pieces for other games. I keep a drawer for dice and tape measures and other basic wargame needs. It fits nicely in a small drawer. But games like Legion, Armada, MCP, XWing, Blood Bowl, that require special rulers or dice and especially tokens do take up a ton of space. Each one has a toolkit filled with things, Xwing and Armada have three each. I am going to put up a wire shelf in the attic for said pieces, but my attic is getting very full. So is the attic at the office. It might be time to admit I am hoarding.
As far as DND figures. It has been over a year since I last DM’d. I don’t have much desire to DM right now. My creative bug for DND just isn’t there. I love playing and I really love DMing, but the last group just burned me out. I may have to migrate the smaller figures to sheet pan trays to clean out drawer space, but the larger figures are legion. We own a storage facility, I just hate the idea of renting a unit.
Moving Forward
Goals for the weekend, a place for everything and everything it its place. Start with cleaning off the 8×4 table in the middle, and all walk paths. Use my label maker to label drawers. Items like a map shelf, bins for rollout battlemats, specific shelf sections for terrain. If I don’t know when I have used it, it can go away. Magic down to one wire shelf. Dnd down to 3 sections, drawers for each game system. I think it will take 2 or three passes to be good, but I am close.
Get all Warhammer Figures to the Warhammer storage area, its the attic office, literally every. single. army. I am a big fan and love to play and paint. They can all be in one place though. Have the hobby desk clean and ready for work. This means if its not used for painting or building its in a drawer or something. Not on my desk. This is a non-negotiable. I am fine with some projects under the table, but get the hobby space clear. I have already sorted all the paints.
It will be a ton of work. I have a good book on tape, the ear buds are charged. I’ll see you all on Monday.
This is my very informal review of General D’ Armee 2 rules just published. You can purchase the rules through Two Fat Lardies. I have yet to play with the rules but I am very familiar with the first edition with well over 100 games in my belt and most of the review will be a direct comparison.
Conclusion The rules are better laid out and organized for play. 2nd Edition is superior in almost every way.
The original ruleset was written by an engineer I think. An example;
Evading the following units must evade a charge.
1…..2…..3…….4…….
Procedure
Step 1….2….3…4…5…6…7…8….ect
In 2nd Edition the rules while functionally the same is easier to follow along and allows more nuances to be accounted for.
This basic change is similar across the entire scope of the book and might push General D Armee above many other Napoleonic rulesets.
Slightly More Depth
The rulebook is high-quality, with great color photos and decent organization. The font is a little more excellent to read. The basics seem far superior to the first version. Esspecially for beginners, what do I need to play, basing scale, etc. They are quickly introduced and nicely laid out compared to 1st edition. I absolutely hate the basing advice for cavalry. I still have no idea how I should be basing my cavalry regiments, how many bases a regiment should be, there are good details for infantry and artillery just cavalry is lacking.
The troop types and formations are clearly laid out and easy to find. Small tables are abound throughout the rules. I also like the example blurbs being easy to find as well. When I first started I remember the allocating brigadiers step was just a little confusing.
I enjoy the new setup for Corps Battles vs Divisional Battles. I do wish there was a set of rules for army battles as I really enjoy playing with more than one Corps.
In general all of the chapters are just better laid out for player use. The deployment chapter is a prime example where it clearly follows what players actually do. The first edition rules struggled to have relevant information where you actually need it. The 5th chapter is similarly helpful and laid out with references to the chapters for more depth. I do wish the PDF was hyperlinked to the same sections.
Chapter 6 hasn’t changed much in function just more clearly laid out.
Chapter 7 is not new persay. It sure feels new. There are some nuances that are different, but again love the layout, love being able to follow along clearly the steps.
Chapter 8 is where the rules do get quite dense. The basic steps are clearly outlined, but the 6 or so pages of extenuating circumstances and tables are a bit tiresome. I am glad the supporting units section was made more clear. I also like the new evade rules.
Chapters 9 to 17 follow the same formula as above. Some variations to the rules are of course going to happen, but as a whole much easier to follow.
Chapter 19 is welcome as an appendix. First edition had something similar, but this seems superior.
The last major thing I want to talk about is the cheat sheet or quick reference sheet. The rulebook is 118 pages long, the creator made everything fit on 4 pages. There is a ton of information that is clearly laid out and much easier to follow than first edition.
The entire basement has been fully painted. We do want to paint the stairwell going down. Most items are in the rooms they are supposed to be in. The Library is 100% complete, the Den is 95% complete (need a TV), the Bathroom is 100% and the Laundry Room is 100%. We are working on the guest bedroom, which needs all its stuff moved out, and then my disaster of a hobby room.
Wow, I have a lot of items. Working hard on whittling down what I don’t need. Two loads to the landfill so far of misc boxes, broken things, things I’ll never use. Filtering out single-use terrain vs more generic terrain. It’s a lot of work. Hopefully end of this week first of next week we will be complete, but soccer season is in full swing. I will probably take pictures to show everyone what I am talking about. One of my biggest hurdles is slimming down the MTG collection. I have been playing since Shards of Alara. I have 116,000 cards in my inventory; at least another 20,000 are not inventoried. Until Brother’s War, I maintained 4 of every Pioneer Legal card. The work and the amount of storage it required was too much. I am going down to 10 ish decks and hopefully 20,000 total cards in the inventory for use in EDH, Legacy, Vintage, Ect.
The worst part is over the years my organizing has gotten lazy. As it stands, all Pioneer cards are organized based on set, then set order. Each in a 1000 count box. Everything else is in 5,000 count boxes, one box for each color, plus one for gold, colorless, and non-basic lands, all cards alphabetized. I only use one type of sleeve, KMC Hyper Matte Reds. Every card gets double-sleeved. It makes it easy to move cards from one deck to another, and I try very hard to keep sets of 4 of each card. The problem is I wasn’t planning on Pioneer when sets like Theros came out. All the cards up to Amonkhet were mixed in with the general collection, plus things like trading. I have stacks everywhere……. I am alphabetizing my piles, then going through letter by letter and removing Pioneer Legal cards to go in their respective boxes. The blues took about 8 hours. Black (will be the hardest), Red, Green, Grey, Gold, Lands. At least another 45 hours……
My games this weekend.
I was fortunate enough to officiate a couple of MLS Next matches. As a whole, they went well for my first experience. The pace of the U17s really surprised me. It took absolute focus and pushed my abilities as an AR to the limit. I wish I had footage of three decisions. I am confident I missed where a player was trekking back, but it didn’t amount to anything. Another on a shot where I was 90% he was offside, luckily the shot went over the bar so my decision didn’t actually matter, had the ball gone in I would have flagged the player. The third resulted in a corner but I had the player onside hitting the line at full speed. Immensely difficult as a referee to get those correct.
I was happy with my performance, not my pace. It has been a long winter, and I am not yet in form to make explosive runs for 4 hours. Something the two matches really required. I wish I had pre-gamed with the center referee a little better. I think we could have had better communication to help on-field issues. I apologize for being very vague. But for these games, referees are frowned upon for commenting or putting anything in writing or on social media.
For the future, I need to push my sprint workouts a little harder. My Achilles has been bum since at least October, and I have been trying to rest it. It felt decent, and once warmed up, it didn’t bother me until the 2nd half of match two.
This weekend rather than repeatedly tell you all that I will keep working on my basement. I refereed an indoor soccer tournament. It was a blast I had a great time, but I had one really interesting and definitely match critical situation detailed below.
Situation
The game is being played using modified indoor rules. Relevant rules are a universal clock, no stoppage time, all balls that go over the two touchlines are IDFKs, two referees on the match, teams should have 4 players and a GK. I think that is all the changes that matter.
From my perspective. (so you have it for further education if needed) this situation happened in about ten seconds. My position on the field was team side, with my back towards the other fields, and on the opposite side of the field of the losing team goalkeeper. The losing team’s bench and coach were directly behind me. The current score was 6-5 with about one minute on the universal clock.
The ball goes over the touchline, last touched by a player of the winning team. The original matchball ends up two fields away. When the ball is identified as being a good distance from the field of play, the losing coach and team demand an alternate ball be sent to the field. A suitable ball was available and given to the losing team to take their IDFK restart. The losing team took the ball for the restart. Both teams seemed aware that an alternate ball was found, (as in the winning team, who was not in possession, handed me the alternate ball to check and the losing team kicked it in)
Play is restarted from the losing team’s defensive third of the field on my touchline, and the ball is quickly (less than 3 seconds) turned over to the winning team, who immediately scores a goal. The shot was taken from the opposite half of the field near the goal area. The losing team goalkeeper was in the corner of the field with the original game ball in his hands.
I was not aware that the GK had left the field to retrieve the ball, how far away the GK went from the field, or even where they went.
Decision on the field, award the goal to the winning team, restart with kick-off.
Sidebar two touches after the ensuing kickoff, the losing team scores to make the final score 6-7 instead of 5-7. The clock expires before the next kickoff.
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Rules, thought process, and perspectiveAfter a little more thought and review, I would say you definitely have a point about starting the match with the GK off the field, and it could have been handled differently. Ideally, we don’t grab the extra ball and wait for the GK to retrieve the ball that is left to restart.
After the goal was scored, the most fair thing I could have done was say no goal and give the ball to the scoring team with an IDFK where the shot was taken from.
In the moment, the match ball is gone, the clock is ticking, we are in a game that must have a winner with high emotion, the winning team tosses me a suitable ball to be put into play, I toss the ball to the losing team and move to the opposite goal-line for the restart. (All 3 losing team players were in or near the opposing team’s goal area) I 100% did not look for the losing team GK. I did make eye contact with my other referee, who kinda gave me a shoulder shrug. IDK what to do, deer in the headlights look. Again, the clock was ticking; I felt like by the time we had a conversation, the game would be over anyway. The losing team coach was shouting, “Who cares, get the ball back in play!”. Live I also had a deer in the headlights look, because Fuck what now, and I determined that the goal stood.
My thought process in that split second was
A) Was the GK considered on the field even though he was retrieving the ball? answer yes
B) Was what happened fair? answer no
C) Do the laws allow me to fix this after the restart was correctly taken? answer no goal stands.
My assessment for point C is questionable. I don’t think it was incorrect based on the duties of the referee, the method of scoring the number of players, or anything else.
Playing devil’s advocate here, when can we call a GK on the field? The laws are pretty vague that a team has 11 players, and one must be the GK. There are sections about going under 7 players and a player having to leave for treatment etc, but nothing about the GK leaving the field. We do not allow a team to play without a marked GK at all. We do not allow a team to play (limited substitutions) when the GK is on the sideline getting treatment. But if a GK is not on the field due to their actions and no other circumstances, I don’t see a reason we can’t start the game. To further that point, we allow a GK to take a throw-in or corner, and they are typically off the field when play is restarted. I will accept that a goalkeeper taking a restart is vastly different than a goalkeeper retrieving a ball. I also think GKs retrieve balls all the time aka when we keep an extra ball behind their net. I honestly never check for them to be back on the field if a teammate is restarting play, but should I?
I don’t feel bad about the decision, and I honestly don’t think the team that lost can complain. I don’t think their team was done an injustice based on the time left in the game with less than a minute and no time able to be added for stoppages, them being down by a single goal, and the absolute rush to get a new ball on the field. My justification is this. If the losing team scores the tying goal instead of allowing a goal while their GK is somewhere else, would it be fair to take their tying goal away because their GK was not on the field? My other justification is the losing team is in charge of restarting the game. They were the team in possession, and their GK was elsewhere, and they chose to restart anyway.
stonewalljackman 