Knyghte, Pyke, And Sworde: A Semi-Professional Review

So! Ivan of Nordic Weasel Games offered up his game "Knyghte, Pyke, and Sworde" for review purposes. And while I was a little slow to get a game in, and even slower to post this after action review, I have finally managed to get it done. I played my first game of Knyghte, Pike, & Sword a couple of weeks ago. I think my play area might have been a little small for the game, I went with 24" by 24" but I think 36" by 36" will be better for the next game. It has some good systems to it, but I rather think it is better played head to head rather than solo. In this case, the Persians destroyed the Galatian melee guys to almost the last man, while a poorly-deployed unit of Galatian skirmishers turned out to be the game-winner in the last two turns. The "characters" are not super-powered. They are slightly better than the regular combatants. In the first part of the game, the Galatians got a LOT of good dice rolls, while the Persians rolled poorly a few times when it really mattered. Later, the dice rolling was more equal, but by then it was too late; the Persians had lost their combat units and were relying on their archers to stop the enemy. At the end, I decided there was no need to play out the last stand of two Persian archers.

Now, the pictures:

Here we are at the end of the first turn. Both sides are moving towards each other, but the Galatian slingers are sort of stuck without much to target.

After a few turns, we started having a lot of casualties. The Galatian hero wiped out the entire group of Persian spearmen after the slingers softened them up. The Persian cavalry has taken some casualties as well, but the Galatian spears are even more worse for wear.

Later, the persian scout killed the Galatian fighter, the two leaders are facing off after a unsuccessful exchange, the cavalry is gone, but the slingers are coming in fast to support the remains of the Galatian line.

This is where I called the game. The Galatian leader has dispatched both the Persian leader and scout, and the slingers are still at full strength coming in on the archers.

So, you know what? This is EXACTLY the game I have been looking for, for a very long time. I fully rate it as a 10/10 for two players. I wish it flowed a little better for solo play (what with the pandemic and social distancing and all that) but an important element of the game is activating so as to force your opponents into certain moves, almost bluffing, if you will. And that finesse is lost when playing with yourself.

I highly recommend this game if you and your buddies each have a dozen or so Ancient or Medieval miniatures that otherwise do not see much use. And the unit sizes are a good gaetway to larger games such as Dragon Rampant. And (yes, another "and") there is a fantasy supplement coming along soon, so for the roleplaying gamers out there who don't have an army of, say, elves, this lets you get in a wargame with what you have,

Knyghte, Pyke, and Sworde can be purchased here.

Warhamster 40,000 9th Edition!

Myself, Joe, Kurt,  and Kurt-Eric (who is Kurt's offspring) took the new Warhamster 40,000 9th edition rules for a big ol' test drive today. We played whatever that scenario is that is included in the free download rules, and skipped CP and Stratagems. Joe and Kurt played some very heroic, if slightly ineffective Space Marines, while Kurt-Eric and I fielded the forces of Chaos, me with the Death Guard and he with Dark Angels. Chaos won the day 10-7 with my Chaos Cultists standing on two Objectives for the entire game.

The forces of Nurgle arrayed

Heroes of the day from my forces are the three Chaos Spawn which destroyed a Terminator squad on contact and shredded the better part of a Tactical squad before requiring the combined efforts of a Chaplain and a Dreadnought to finally stop. They soaked up a LOT of firepower as the shambled and slithered across the battlefield!

Sure, the game looked fairly normal when we did our deployment...

Honorable mention goes to the Chaos Cultists who bravely held two Objectives for the entire game. Well done, useless lads!

The opening moves in the game included a lot of scrambling for tactical advatnage and some sniping back and forth

I had played 8th edition a few times and it was probably the best game play since 2nd edition, in my opinion. Then they started tweaking it, and I wasn't enjoying it so much. Now, with the 9th edition rules, I feel like I'm back in 3rd through 7th editions. I'll continue playing, to play with my friends, but I'm not happy with the way the rules have gone. Again.

This is the moment that changed the game, when the Chaos Spawn swept through Joe's Terminators and then collided with his Tactical squad.

Warhammer 40,000 rules and miniatures are available at https://www.games-workshop.com/en-US/Warhammer-40-000 and at decent hobby or comic stores. Please buy locally if you can, small businesses need your support!

Cowboys vs. Zombies

On Sunday, Joe, Kurt, and I had a great game of Fistful of Lead over at the Knight Cave. It was our three gangs of assorted Old West ne'er-do-wells vs. a veritable horde of zombies, werewolves, worms, and Paiute vampires.

Somehow, my Banditos were caught between two Spawn Points, and one stupid Worm killed a couple of my guys and my gal. Another Worm killed the fourth guy, leaving El Armadillo running for a rooftop to escape the advancing Zombies.

I loved the Zombies. I'm not a zombie fan, I've never enjoyed zombie movies or games, but this one hit it right. They were hard to kill, and every time they killed one of our people or a townsperson, the casualty was replaced by another Zombie. There were three of them at the start of the game. By the end, we had seen nine or ten on the table, but I think not more than eight at the same time.

Enjoy the pictures!

Los Vatos: El Boracho, El Nino, La Fea, El Gordo, y El Armadillo

Worms and werewolves, oh my!

Showing them worms who's boss!

Prosperity, NV

That worm on the right killed three of my people!

My cardstock/papercraft buildings blend right into the town

"My name is Inigo Wormtoya; you killed my brothers, prepare to die."

El Armadillo scurrying to safety.

More Rangers Of The Shadow Deep With Mike

OK, so I had a chance to visit my friend Mike again and hammer out a couple more games of Rangers of The Shadow Deep. The last time we played was back in January to try out the first scenario of "The Missing" for Rangers of the Shadow Deep, and we had full plans if getting together two weeks later to play the second scenario and then the Blood Moon mission. But then the whole world went sideways, and we are just now finishing up our games!

To start, we played the second scenario of the "The Missing." It's a good thing we are both compulsive about keeping our gaming notes, as this scenario required the same Heroes we used in the first scenario, and there were some carryover effects like injuries and disease.

Our deployment

To be really honest, I am not a fan of this scenario. This is, I think, the fourth time I've played it and the second time I've played it cooperatively instead of solo. It's not unbalanced, it's just a tad on the boring side. It has no Clue markers to go after, which means the only big variable is the card draws, and that's only every other turn in this scenario and I hate the card draw game mechanic anyway.

Random in-game picture

In addition to my Ranger, I also had a Swordsman (SwordMAIDEN in this case,) a Recruit, and a dog. Both my Ranger and the Swordmaiden were poisoned by the spiders, and only had one action per activation afterwards instead of two. The Swordmaiden did a lot of spider ass-kicking though. In the end, both Mike and I had our Rangers level up.

After that, we played the through the single-scenario Blood Moon mission. This is only the second time I've played through this one, and the first time cooperatively.  Given the limitations on how many Companions I could bring with my Ranger, I opted for the Swordmaiden again but had to leave the others in the village. This mission includes four additional Companions, so Mike had the old man (Covin) and archer girl (Orla,) while I had the axeman (Seb) and the duellist (Nicolan.)

Set up and deployment (up there in the top right corner lol!)

Mike's group went towards the barn, mine went towards the trees. We both managed to defeat all the basic encounters we faced, and we managed to draw out all three Survivors during the course of the game.

Advancing into the manor grounds

Before we entered the Manor House, we sprung one of the werewolves from a Clue marker. As it begins within the manor, we ruled that it unlocked the door coming out. It attacked my group (because I was closer) and it took a few turns of combat to take it down. The Duellist is the one who killed it after all, which was really funny because when we finally revealed the second werewolf, it turned out that he was the monster! So the secret werewolf killed the other werewolf to maintain his cover! After it was all over, we both levelled up twice, bringing both our Rangers to level 4. Nice!

Three versus the werewolf!

I really enjoyed the Blood Moon mission both times I have played it, and I would highly recommend it. These two games we played were really the second part of the trial run for Mike and I; we have decided that we do, in fact, enjoy Rangers Of The Shadow Deep and so it is what we are going to playing for a bit. The cooperative aspect, as well as the opportunity to choose different Companions before each mission, gives us a breath of fresh air that has been sorely missing from our usual games of the same warbands or armies against one another.

During the course of both games, I was having a really good time just enjoying the game and socializing with Mike. As a result, I didn't take as many pictures as I usually do. I think this too is a sign that it is a good game, since I am more interested in what I am doing that what I am going to be presenting later on. It looks like "The Beacon Tower" is going to be next. I gotta get to work on the scenery...

Rangers of the Shadow Deep and the supplements can be bought here.

FiveCore Blue World

So, today I decided to hit three targets with one game:

1) I wanted to play a game, any game, on my new blue terrain.

2) I've been wanting to play a nice little solo game without it being a part of one of my campaigns.

3) I've wanted to play FiveCore 3rd Edition with my Warhamster 40,000 models for quite a while now.



So, a one-off FiveCore 3rd Edition game pitting four Death Guard against nine Eldar on Blue World. I rated the bolters as 2 Kill dice and 2 Shock dice, with a More Dakka option of 6 Shock dice instead. Their pladma gun was a true killer, with 2 Kill dice, 3 Shock Dice, and a further 1 Kill die and 1 Shock die to any other model within 1" of the target model. Oh, and Power Armor for the Death Guard as well. The Eldar's shuriken catapults were rated as 1 Kill die and 2 Shock Dice, with an option for 4 Shock dice. They didn't get any armor.



The Death Guard had to escort an uarmed Cultist to Objective 1. The Eldar had to kill half of the Death Guard. The Eldar managed to scrape out a win after many turns of battering each other back and forth..



This was the first time I had used the random objective generator in the FiveCore 3rd Edition rules. Had the missions been reversed, the Eldar would have probably won the game on the first or second turn, rather than after an unacceptable level of casualties.



It was fun playing FiveCore again, as it's been quite a while since I have done so. Mostly I have been playing either Five Parsecs From Home or Five Leagues From The Borderlands, both also from Nordic Weasel Games. Once in a while I dabble with Rangers Of The Shadow Deep as well. However, after having spent as much time as I have playing games that are designed for solo play from the ground up, I think in the future I am going to try to talk my friends into FiveCore and continue with Five Leagues and Five Parsecs for those times when I am playing with myself.



As an aside, my wife thinks my "Blues Clues" objective markers are a bit silly. I maintain that, as I am using them while I am playing with my toy soldiers, they are perfectly appropriate.

FiveCore 3rd Edition and the supplements are available here.

Five Leagues From The Borderlands and the supplements are available here.

Five Parsecs From Home and the supplements are available here.

Rangers Of The Shadow Deep and the supplements are available here.

The Missing, Scenario 2

The great part about some of the missions for Rangers Of The Shadow Deep is that they occur in multiple, linked scenarios. For instance, after I played scenario 1 of "The Missing," I had the chance to follow that up with a second game, based on the results of the first. In this case, Turtle Power and her Companions used the clues from Scenario 1 to track the spiders to their forest home, and now bring the battle to the nasty eight-leggers.

Our Heroes, left to right, top to bottom: Conjuror, Arcanist, Turtle Power, Archer, Swordsturtle, Turtle-At-Arms

I took a few liberties with the scenic set up, I added some water features just for fun because I made some finishing touches to the big pond I had made for the "Blood Moon" mission. I am also reasonably happy with how the nest trees turned out, I'm not sure if I will have a chance to use them again, ever, but they were made from some trees I was going to discard so it's all good. And this is as good a time as any to mention that the last time my wife saw me setting up my game board, she mentioned that it has been taking a bit of a beating and I should really consider touching up all those white spots with some paint. And I will. Some day.

Into the woods we go...

So, the first couple of turns involved moving to cocoons, searching them, releasing zombies, and killing them. And a giant spider. That one was dead too. And then the Turtle-At-Arms got stuck up in some webs, but it only took him a few seconds to break free.

Zombies and spiders and webs, oh my!

The next couple of turns were spent advancing further into the woods, and killing whatever zombies and spiders were encountered. Of particular interest was that the Conjuror failed to do any damage with her Magic Bolt for the third game in a row. And the Arcanist lost a fight to a giant spider and, while he survived, he would spend the rest of the game Poisoned.

Deeper into woods and the webs.

As members of the warband reached the nest trees, they set fire to the webbing. So little was happening, in fact, that I am just going to post the rest of the pictures without much in the way of explanation.

And after it was all over, Turtle Power leveled up to 2, and is almost at 3. Everybody survived. There was no treasure, only experience. This was a visually impressive scenario, but it was not very exciting to play. I hope "The Beacon Tower" gives more fun from beginning to end.

Rangers Of The Shadow Deep and associated products can be here.

The Missing, Scenario 1

So, while we are all practicing our "social distancing" during the global pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 while it is creating new cases of COVID-19 all over the place, I am doing more solo gaming. Which is to say, the only gaming I am doing is by myself, which isn't too much different than life without the global pandemic. While my usual solo game of choice is my Glorantha-themed "Five Leagues From The Borderlands" campaign, I have been revisiting "Rangers Of The Shadow Deep" this week since I finally finished up some more scenario-specific terrain for it. In any event, I decided to play through the first Mission from the core rulebook, "The Missing," with my new Ranger and assorted hangers-on that I used for the "Blood Moon" mission earlier this week.

So, Turtle Power (which started as a goofy nickname but now appears to be her actual, in-game name) has been called upon to investigate a small settlement whose inhabitants have gone, as the mission title implies, missing. She is accompanied by some of the same Companions as last time, as well as some new faces.

From the left: Conjuror, Arcanist, Swordsturle, Turtle Power, Turtle-At-Arms, Archer

The first scenario of this mission requires the Ranger and her Companions to deploy within 3" of the center point of the table, in this case represented by my Giant Weeds Planter. And after that, the buildings, clue markers, and monsters get placed. This is the fourth time time I've played this particular scenario, so I'm getting an idea of how to place the terrain for a more interesting game.

This is how it all looks at the beginning of the game, before everything starts going horribly wrong for Our Heroes.

The first turn of the game was mostly movement, a good shot by the Archer, and the appearance of another zombie. Turn two involved more of the same, but more monster killing and the appearance of four more zombies. Turtle Power rescued a survivor. And the Archer found a treasure. So far, so good for Our Heroes, who have mostly not had any problems whatsoever.

The end of turn 2 sees six zombies now closing in on Our Heroes.

There was a bunch of fighting with zombies after that. Two turns worth, actually, and a lot of the zombies and a lot of the Companions, and even Turtle Power, were now showing some injury. But the Arcanist ditched the Conjuror to a zombie so he could run for a clue, and found a mutilated corpse. A Survival roll let him know what kind of creature had done all that biting (spiders! But we don't find that out until next scenario.) And then a wave of terror incapacitated the Archer, who would be doing nothing next turn. Which was kind of bad, since she had a zombie moving in on her. And another zombie appeared...

Ahhhhh!!!! Zombies!!!!

Turtle Power made a move towards another clue, and sent the Turtle-At-Arms to intercept the zombie approaching the Archer. That zombie was then repelled when it attacked him. Another zombie sent the Conjuror out of action, and the new zombie shambled towards Turtle Power. Then the Swordsturtle injured the zombie that had so recently toppled the Conjuror, and the Arcanist finished it off. And, some giant rats showed up.

Hey look, kids! Only two zombies left!

Turtle Power ignored the oncoming zombie and went to investigate the clue marker by the cottage and wagon. It was a set of strange tracks, which she was able to identify as belonging to giant spiders. The zombie shambled after her. The other zombie again attacked the Turtle-At-Arms, and was quickly cut down by the fearless chelonian. The giant rats attacked the Swordsturtle and the Arcanist, but were no match for the mighty warriors. The Archer then destroyed the remaining zombie with a really good shot. Like, an amazingly good shot. So fantastically excellent, in fact, that she was unaffected by the big wave of terror that tried to overcome her.

Look, ma! No zombies! Or rats!

Turtle Power ran to get to the clue marker inside the building. The Turtle-At-Arms went for the remaining clue marker. The Arcanist, Swordsturtle, and Archer all headed towards the center. A wave of disease spread across the whole land, meaning bad news for any casualties...

It's amazing what can be done when there are no monsters around!

Turtle Power found his last clue, a bundle of herbs (to be determined after the game.) The Turtle-At_Arms found Aventine's body, but failed to recognize the sword accompanying the body as magical. Everyone else safely arrived at the center of the game area. And then two more zombies appeared behind the building close to the Turtle-At-Arms. And so Turtle Power joined the Companions at the Giant Weeds Planter, the zombies shuffled towards the Turtle-At-Arms, he charged the closest and killed it, and POOF! the scenario ended just like that.

The Conjuror made a complete recovery, and tested negative for any disease (including COVID-19.) Turtle Power leveled up, and now had a dose of Fireheart Green herbs. The treasure token turned out to be a Two-Handed Weapon, Elemental Strike (3) which can be used to add 5 points of damage to an attack that has already caused at least one point of damage, up to three times before it reverts to being a mundane weapon. Guess who uses a two-handed weapon, besides the Swordsturtle? That's right, Turtle Power now has a magic club!

Rangers Of The Shadow Deep and associated products can be here.