My Little Wars Melbourne ~ 2019

Little Wars Melbourne has come and gone. I presented my Siege of Rhodes game and it was a hit. I got plenty of interest and a lot of great comments. I rounded up some players who played the game through the afternoon.

Thanks to Chee, Carston and Dylan for playing. Unfortunately, we didn't get to finish but I think Rhodes was doomed this time around. Chee played the naval game and destroyed the Rhodian fleet, whilst Carston knocked holes in the landward walls (although Dylan gave him a very bloody nose).

My game was part of a display by the Naval Wargames Society (Victoria branch) run by Bob and Mark. We had three tables: one with my game, a display of different scale ships and a Napoleonic game.

There were a whole range of games on display: some big, some small and some in between. From what I could see most of them were participation games, so plenty of people got to join in.

All in all, a great day (if somewhat tiring). But I got home safe and my wife Zoe, cooked some nice salmon with a butter sauce and now my belly is full and contented.

Fist some pics of my game:

 I made these Moral Clocks for the game. They're used in the Age of Hannibal rules. They look better than dice.

 I took this photo to show the holes in the wall created by Carston.

 Lord of the Rings game (without figures).

 I don't know what this is but it looked good.

 FOG Waterloo in 15mm - This was very popular (as Waterloo always is).

 SAGA - A very nice set up.

 Pirates. I don't know the rules. Another nice set up.

 A Vietnam game by NWA member, Cameron. I really liked the look of

this and, if I'd had the chance, I would have like to play it. My favorite of the day.

 Jason and the Argonauts. I sold the bloke running it the GW stone arch at LW last year.

 Ancients - I don't know what.

 Chain of Command run by NWA Member John. 

This one was good. Denisovan hunting. I really liked that he used

whittled sticks from the garden as measuring rods.

Views from my table.

 WWII Wings of War in the Western Desert.

This looked fantastic and the pics do it no justice at all.

 I don't know what this one was but it involved racing trucks

Shopping
As usual there are always plenty of traders at these events and how could I not spend? My haul for the day was: A box of Zombiecide zombies, two Wings of War biplanes and the Frostgrave rulebbook.

Back to 28's

It's been a while since I painted any 28mm figures and these guys felt like giants after all the 6mm.

I don't know where these two figures came from but they look good. I'm guessing Reaper, but I that really is only a guess. The Chess King, guy is a really nice sculpt. I'm assuming they're both spell casters of some sort. The one on the left has a very D&D cleric feel.

"Call in the Riot Squad!" ~ These guys are from Offensive Miniatures. I bought them a few years ago and they've been sitting around waiting for some paint. Very nice figures and easy to paint. I have a few more including a pair on horseback, another type of leader (I think) and a couple with tear gas projectors. I'm planning to use these in some zombie apocalypse games.

A quick look at the Offensive Miniatures site when doing the link and I'm thinking I might have make another order with them.

Siege of Rhodes ~ Game #2

Different day ~ Same siege.

I took my Siege of Rhodes to my club, NWA for another play test before presenting it a Little Wars Melbourne next Saturday. It was a cold rainy day in Melbourne but the inside of Croydon RSL was warm and dry and the game ran well, if a little slow.

Since it was last played I reworked the naval rules and the improvements worked well. I did away with the d6 and brought the rules in line with Age of Hannibal and the use of d10's. It saved a lot of confusion about which dice to roll. I also added a small damage matrix because the difference when rolling d10's could be too severe.

As a result of this re-write, I've been working the rules a bit further to create my own set of ancient naval rules. There's still a way to go with them but the basic concepts seem fairly sound.

The Game

There was a bit of confusion with players for today's game. It started with James and I and then Mark got roped in. Then Tom (who played the first game) joined in. Then Tom had to leave and Pete took his place. Then Mark was called away... So I ended up playing several of the commands and ended up as Rhodes on the landward attack & Demetrius on the harbour attack. No bother, I my real goal was to the test the game. It actually turned into a good test with players dropping in and out. It proved that the rules are easy to pick up.

This time Mark brought on the naval attack and James the land attack. I started as the Rhodians on both land and sea (until Tom arrived only to be replaced by Pete).

I won't give a detailed account because it was a pretty confusing day. But in brief:

Mark took a different approach compared to the last game. He concentrated on the naval aspect as opposed to the marine landing. As a result ships were maneuvering, shooting, ramming & boarding all over the place. The siege ships managed to batter down the harbour gate. The Rhodian navy took a bit of a hammering but came back swinging.

James' attack on the walls started slow and I thought: Nope, he's not going to get anywhere like this.
But his attack steadily took its toll and he smashed down the gatehouse and a wall section. He got troops onto the walls and I threw them back down. He pushed troops through the breaches in the walls and they took on Ptolemy's veterans and the Rhodian militia with some success. On the right I set one of the siege towers on fire but the wall was brought down and the Macedonians poured into the city resulting in one of the Rhodian generals being captured.

Here's a bunch of pics:

One thing I think I need to make is a few Moral Clocks. Using a d12 works but I kept picking up the dice and rolling it. And I'm the dunce who's supposed to be running the game! Besides that, they'll look better than dice sitting there looking ugly.

And another bunch of pics I stole from our resident club photographer Russel: