Batailles de l'Ancien Regimes

 With COVID-19 surging in WI this may be my last game for a while, so I was pleased to gather five others in my garage (all doors opened) on a cool Saturday night for a fun BAR game.  BAR, if you're not familiar with it, is a card-driven "old school" wargame with big battalions.  For us, 48-60 figures each.  In our game a turn of the card allowed the CO to pick a player to move.  It's not uncommon for one side to entirely move first,  Then you start the flipping again for shooting purposes.  Melee is the last thing.  Casualties are dished out in staggering numbers at times, but each casualty gets a saving throw depending on type and formation.  You don't test morale typically till you get to 50% casualties.

Our imagi-nation countries were well represented.  The hybrid Ottoman-Russian vassal state of Vaneria  fielded Russian musketeers and grenadiers, Ottoman Janissaries and Azab regulars, along with dragoons and Sipahis.  Rondovia had three musketeer and one grenadier regiments, along with two squadrons of cuirassiers.

Opposing them were two regiments from Prochistan and a squadron of Polish winged hussars.  Austria provided two musketeer and one grenadier regiments and three squadrons.  France offered the Irish regiment Lally, Auvergne, and the Grenadiers de France, with two heavy cavalry squadrons.  Each side had four medium guns.  Sorry for the poor picture quality, the garage was not well lighted and telling whether it was in focus was difficult.

My French, the stragglers are off table in the column.

The other end of the table.  Charging across the stream
necessitates a morale check to not fall into disorder.

Early in the game we drew a joker.

The joker allows you to later "trump" an unfavorable turn of a card.  Almost always used in shooting situations, it is a big advantage to know that when you really need it, you will fire first.

My orders as the French were to drive on the center.  Cavalry
starts to drift that way in the hopes of an eventual opening.

Our side pushes forward all along the table.  Opening vollies
are particularly devastating.

We greatly reduce their line on our left, but my saves
for the Irish are particularly poor.

My history of saving throws is both storied and sad.  I went through a stretch of nine fails out of thirteen (50-50 chance) and so on and on.

The advantage seems to be with us everywhere.

As the Grenadiers de France push forward, the Russians
risk a charge, while struggling to find fields of fire.

The Russian musketeers rout away, as do the poor Irish, but this
opens the gap the cavalry has awaited.

Progress in the center and another joker is used for our side.

The cavalry charges, but the Rondovian grenadiers are
able to refuse a flank so are not disordered.

Up until this point the turn of cards had evened out and they had been getting a lot of opportunities to shoot first taking a toll on our men.  Both jokers had been played so the run of red cards early on for mostly movement, was balancing itself.

Unable to control themselves any longer, the Sipahis,
Polish lancers and hussars rush to engage.

After routing the grenadiers, the cavalry retires disordered 
to reorganize, having failed to pursue as Auvergne looks to move up.

Amazingly, the hussars beat the armored lancer Sipahis,
while the Polish squadron also routs.

One Russian and two Rondovian regiments have routed and the Janissaries are near gone against one "French" and one Austrian regiment lost.  The fresh Austrians and French are advancing and so the Vanerian and Rondovian side declared a fighting withdrawal and we ended play.  We use BAR for the campaign books written by Charles S. Grant, but there was no need to bitter-end tonight's game.

If indeed COVID-19 forces a suspension of games for a time we ended on a fun note.  Both sides had fun and took the luck factor all in stride.  We're fortunate to have such a mature group to game with.  Till next time, stay happy my friends.

Our redrawn map of Europe to incorporate our Imagi-Nations.

Mars Attacks - the 2nd Wave

 Squinting through the viewport Captain Lambert commanded his eyes to penetrate the haze in the distance.  "I'm sure I saw movement out there."  Instinct won out over uncertainty.  "Runners!  And crank up the phones!"

For those familiar with the classic "War of the Worlds," All Quiet on the Martian Front represents the 2nd wave of Martian invasion.  In the intervening time both sides have made improvements and preparations.  The humans, in this case Americans, have steam powered tanks, armored infantry (think old style diving suits), long range artillery and gimmick attacks intended to immobilize the Martian walkers.  Think ATATs in The Empire Strikes Back.

The Martians have the heavily armored tripod walkers, armed with medium or heavy "heat rays" and black gas generators.  In our game they also chose a "Slaver" which was armed but also controlled three unmanned drones and two units of lobotomized humans.  The range for controlling them was limited and it would turn out to be critical.  

Each turn the sides dice for initiative and declaring who moves first.  After a movement phase for both sides, there is shooting, followed by another movement or assault phase.  

The Martians move into the clear.  Earthers are mostly
hidden.

A trio of guns with twice the range of anything else
and some infantry are all that is visible.

Cranking up the steam, three tanks, each with three
cannons, move, fire and retire behind the hill.

From the official post-action report: "We were immediately blessed when one tripod turned, just in time to receive a shell squarely in it's hood, detonating with a tremendous roar, sending metal and bits of Martian flying in all directions."

Infantry aggressively assaulted the drones with rifles
and grenades.  Taking out one drone.

The human slave infantry, drones and heat rays
decimated the two infantry units in return.  The red
blob in the upper right represents the destroyed tripod.

Amazingly, as the infantry routs away, the long range
artillery hits, penetrates and another tripod goes down.
A "forlorn hope" fails to hook a tripod on the right.

All day the human tanks were able to pop up, shoot 
and retire to cover.

Finding infantry hiding in the woods the tripods
gang up to eliminate them.

The earthers got lucky again here.  A serious mobility hit was registered on the Slaver tripod.  Each time the Martians wanted to move there was a dice-off.  If they won they got to move, if the humans won we moved it.  For two out of three tries the humans won and moved it away from their drones and lobotomized slaves.  Being out of control they reverted to the standing order, shoot at anything within 6".  Destroying another Martian unit.

The Rough Riders race out to entangle a tripod with
wires, along with some gun hits.  It became very easy
to hit and chunks of armor were flying off.

The Slaver tripod is walked to the back of the table
and the immobilized tripod is doomed.  Drones and
lobotomized humans have been eliminated.

And so, much diminished in numbers, the Martians retired, leaving the military to gather the bits and ashes, and prepare for the next round.  Each side had a break point assigned, based on the number of units they had at the start.  While the humans shot well, the Martian players did themselves in when resolving the few penetrating hits.  But, we all know the bad guys keep coming back for more, so I'm sure a rematch is coming.