Mortem et Gloriam - Game 37 - 2019/07/28

Greetings!

Once again, there was an unplanned break in battle reporting for which I sincerely apologise. I hope I will be able to make up for it because I played six more games after this one, four of which were at the local tournament, WinterCon 2019.

It is good I took a lot of photos from this battle, as we played a rematch with Paul who brought slightly altered army of his Bosporan Kingdom with trusted (hopefully!) Sarmatian allies. I managed to recreated the turns but there may be a few inaccuracies here and there, for which I apologise in advance. I do hope, however, that this report will be equally entertaining as the game was definitely very interesting for both of us. 

One of the reasons is that both our armies seem to represent different approach to warfare. Paul's force was mostly mounted, with some infantry to add to the flexibility. It had a significant numerical superiority as well. But it was also led by instinctive commanders and the troops were mostly formed. It could potentially provide some challenges in getting the units where they are the most needed at the right time. 

On the other hand, at least from my point of view, my smaller force should be easier to manoeuvre at the cost of smaller frontage and constant danger of being outflanked. 

Here are the details of the army Paul used as well as I could recall after some time we played. There may have been differences in the skills of each TuG, for instance, I initially thought that Paul had Greek Mercenaries but that would not fit into the army. Unless he downgraded some superior cavalry to average. However, from the point of view of the type the army list is accurate nonetheless.

Bosporan Kingdom - Army List

Game 117 - Night Stalkers - 2019/06/16

Greetings!

It has been ages since my last game of Kings of War so I am really happy to post this battle report! Even more so that this time I played against Simon, the gaming buddy from the times of Warhammer. We had a few games in Kings of War too. It was thus great to play another game, especially after a long break.

This time Simon decided to bring his Night Stalkers army, which he says he based on Forest Ghosts and Terrors model-wise. It would be fantastic to play against such an army from haunted forest with real models! For now, however, we were happy to play on Universal Battle. :)

One aspect of Kings of War I like a lot is that even in the frame of a single faction one can build various army lists that are significantly different from each other. It was certainly the case in here because I compared the force Simon created to those, for instance, that Jeff played with in our previous battles. It is truly amazing how many options are out there and it is a true testimony to a well designed game!

Here are the details of Simon's army (we played at 2000 points per side):

Night Stalkers - Army List

6 Butchers (B1), Horde, Large Infantry, Crushing Strength (2), Shambling, Brutal

- Shadow-Hulk (SH), Monster, 75 x 75mm base, Crushing Strength (3), Strider, Brutal, Speed 7

6 Butchers (B2), Horde, Large Infantry, Crushing Strength (2), Shambling, Brutal

- Butcher Fleshripper (F), Hero (Large Infantry), Crushing Strength (2), Nimble, Stealthy, Surge (3)

Butchers and Shadow Hulk are in Butcher's Block Formation.

20 Dopplegangers (D), Regiment, Infantry

- Terror (T), Monster, 75 x 75mm base, Crushing Strength (1), Ensnare, Regeneration (4+), Shambling, Stealthy

20 Scarecrows (S1), Regiment, Infantry, Shambling

- Portal of Despair [1] (PoD), War Engine, 75 x 75mm base, Advanced Deployment, Height 4

20 Scarecrows (S2), Regiment, Infantry, Shambling

- Horror (H), Hero (Infantry), Individual, Surge (6)

20 Phantoms (P), Regiment, Infantry, Crushing Strength (1), Fly, Shambling

- Funny Bone [1] (FB), Hero, Individual, Dread

3 Nightmares*, Regiment, Large Cavalry, Crushing Strength (1), Fly, Thunderous Charge (1), Windblast (5), This unit is not Stealthy 

Mortem et Gloriam - Game 36 - 2019/06/08

Hello!

In the last round of MiniMeG III tournament, where we used Pacto version of Mortem Et Gloriam rules, I commanded my Early Seleucids to repel yet another Galatian invasion! This time, the hordes of barbarians were commanded by Leigh, against whom I had a pleasure to play a few times already.

Leigh brought a force that had a very similar core to the army I played against in round two. The main difference was perhaps in the fact that he also had some Chariots and the commanders were of higher skill (Legendary and Talented). From my point of view this army posed a similar challenge, though, so I hoped to adapt similar plan. And improve from round 2 by applying freshly learned lessons.

Here are the details of the army Leigh brought to the event:

Galatians - Army List

Mortem et Gloriam - Game 35 - 2019/06/01

Hello!

In the second round of the small tournament, MiniMeG III, where we used Mortem et Gloriam Pacto rules, I faced fearsome horde of Galatians commanded by Dale.

I was really impressed by the number of units Dale had in his army. Vast majority of the forces was comprised of Fearsome Warriors and the cavalry and light troops formed only a small contingent.

It was an interesting challenge as I didn't have many occasions to fight against such army before. I was also curious about the way such force would operate under Pacto rules.

Here is the army list Dale used:

Galatians - Army List

Mortem et Gloriam - Game 34 - 2019/05/25

Hello!

It's been a year since I started playing Mortem et Gloriam and since I attended my first tournament, Mini MeG. It was thus a great opportunity to come back for Mini MeG 3, this time organised with Pacto version of the rules.

Dean from Olympian Games was the tournament organiser again and this time he also participated in the event with his Parthian army. 

If you would like to check the details about this small tournament and/or the version of Pacto rules adapted for it, please follow this link: Mini MeG 3 - Rules Pack 

In short, Pacto is a simplified version of Mortem et Gloriam rules that allows to play with scaled down armies on smaller, 3 x 2 foot tables. In my understanding it is to allow quicker games but mainly to serve as in introduction to the full set of rules. As it requires fewer bases of the units, it should be very good for beginners and those who has just started building new armies.

I was very curious about this set. I was in particular intrigued by the opportunity to play on small tables. While I like full scale games, with the number of units that allow recreating big battles of history, having a smaller version of the rules has some advantages too. It may simply be a good alternative for quicker games when one may not necessarily commit enough time for a regular battle. 

I managed to scale down my army without any changes to the number and types of units. It was great because it allowed me to have a very good comparison between both versions. 

There were 6 participants on the day and we were to play 3 games. The armies represented were as follows: Armenians, 2 x Galatians, Early Seleucids, Parthians and Anglo-Danish. In the first round I played against Steven who brought an army of Armenians with some Hunnic allies. Here are the details of this force:

Armenian - Army List

Mortem et Gloriam - Game 33 - 2019/05/25

Hello!

After a longer break in gaming that expected (and certainly not planned!), I had a great opportunity to play against Paul. This time he decided to try a new faction, Bosporan Kingdoms with some Sarmatian allies.

While I had some thoughts about minor changes in my own army, especially considering my experiences after Ascending Valhalla tournament, I decided to play with the very same force anyway. I did not come up with any alternative option in the meantime so I concluded I should focus on the tactical plan instead!

Unfortunately, my computer has recently crashed and I have not been able to recover some of my date, including the photos from this game. It means I had only end of turn photos I uploaded to facebook in the meantime. Because of that this particular battle report is going to have fewer diagrams, i.e. no sequence of actions gifs and no zoom-ins. I apologise for that, I hope I will still be able to recover them. If I succeed I am going to review and update this battle report.

I have never had a chance to play against Bosporan Kingdoms and I was intrigued by the large number of units Paul started unpacking. It was a mixture of heavy cavalry, horse archers, heavy infantry and skirmishers. Here are the details:

Bosporan Kingdoms - Army List

Mortem et Gloriam - Game 32 - 2019/05/05

Hello!

In the fourth and final round of the Mortem et Gloriam tournament, Ascending Valhalla, I played against the army of Ghaznavid  commanded by Carl.

I played against Carl at CanCon so it was good to have a re-match so quickly! Back then he played with the army based on Khurasanian Dynasties. Ghaznavid army seems to me to follow the theme of less known factions in the history and once again I found myself trying to learn about them after the game.

Carl's army was a bit smaller than mine, with 9 TuG's only but as it had no SuG's it had higher break point. All cavalry was equipped with Bows and that in itself was a very interesting option. Here is the army list with all the details:

Ghaznavid - Army List