Beneath the Lily Banners: Ottomans vs Swedes, "Part Deux"

I wish this pic was from our game, but it happens to be from The League of Augsburg blog. Instead, our photos were taken by Brent, the co-umpire of our game, on his phone.

So, this was round 2 of the Ottomans vs Swedes playtests for Beneath the Lily Banners, 2nd Edition. It again saw the virtual horde of musselmen, under the leadership of Ron, driving back the accidental invaders, the Swedes, commanded by Evan.

Due to a mix-up in communication (my fault!), Ron did not receive the all important roster of figures to bring, meaning we had to improvise some proxies out of blank Litko bases. Also, Brent was unable to bring his stuff, so we had to make do with the store's terrain.

Evan surveyed the field before him. As the defender in this scenario, he had to prevent the Ottomans from getting two Squadrons of Horse off his table edge. The Swedish bread ovens were assumed to be off-table, but were the objective of this Ottoman attack.

To the far right of the frame, a rather unfortunate view of myself, which I would like to edit out, but in front of me is a line of hill tops, with the brown felt representing a large ridge-line.  Just on the top of the hill to my right are two field guns represented by a single crewman on a square base. Down the slope from that is a ruined church and yard, walled with stone, which was the single built-up area on the field. Across Evan's front, from his left to right, were the defending Swedes, the blank bases in front represented field-works, then a low line of trees, flanked by a copse of trees to the lower left of frame. On the far left of the frame is a plowed field and just off frame there is a small hill.

The blank square bases scattered about the table were objective markers (more of which I will blog later) which we were testing out for campaign battle purposes.

A less than flattering picture of myself, but a nice picture of Ron eating some kibble. The Coca-Cola product was only accidentally included and should not be considered a product placement shot, although if they want to sponsor us, I won't say "no."

Ron's horde, lots of irregular light cavalry, even more infantry, and a single squadron of regular horse. There is a positional gun, limbered, in the far back, slightly to the right of the infantry in frame. Due to my emailing error, we had to represent some more infantry using blank bases, which are not in this pic, but ended up deployed on the brown felt, in line with the rest of the infantry.

Evan will likely berate Brent for this particular shot, but ignoring Buddha in the back left of frame,  one can discern that the Ottomans had their work cut out for them.

As this was a campaign playtest, I had Evan and Ron both roll several stats for their commanders, those which will be used in the campaign battles. Evan rolled very well, scoring a 9 out of 10 twice, meaning his troops were well led and highly motivated. On the other hand, Ron rolled poorly, scoring a 2 twice (on a D4+D6 roll, that is tough to do).  This meant that Ron's commander was slothful and his troops not as well motivated as warm mud. (for players of BLB, these rolls represented the command ability of the CinCs, but I also included a roll for Courage (a campaign stat) which effects the Army Morale Test optional rule).

Ron had a struggle with the number of available orders all game. He was unable to move at all about four of the twelve turns we played. This was frustrating for him and it was very telling in the eventual outcome of the battle.

The Ottomans finally get their positional gun in place, and unlimber it. Only to find that it is less than 2 inches from being in medium range to the Swedish Foot. Again, Ron was a bit frustrated at the circumstances. His light cavalry did proceed to the tree line without taking a casualty.


Ron led off with a light cavalry gambit, which almost paid off. Although, each of the irregular light cavalry squadrons are based one stand per squadron, I ruled that as long as they were in base to base contact, they could add up their bases for shooting (bows, but not really bows, more like very very poor muskets) purposes. Still, Ron just could not roll anything higher than a 2 for shooting. The charging Swedish Horse allowed the light cavalry to evade, clearing away the rabble.

The Swedish Horse come out to play...

and think better of it, as the irregular light cavalry close off nearly all options.

Very little was accomplished, by either side, part from long range cannon shots, which saw a little more casualties to the Ottomans, but also saw Swedish gunners and Foot take a beating. In fact, Evan lost all the crew off of one gun and another ran out of ammunition.

The cavalry action petered out, with both sides' purposes frustrated, but the Swedes were able to prevent the Ottomans from achieving their primary objective. The battlefield objectives which I introduced for this game were well received, and with some minor tweaks, will make for a good addition to the campaign battles.

While we don't have pictures to show you (Brent had gone off somewhere), the Ottomans on their far right had pressed nearly all the way up to the Swedish guns on the hilltop, which had just been evacuated. However, the core of the Swedish defenses were intact and the Ottoman Foot was not so fired up to press on.

Another learning experience for players and umpires and I look forward to another game of this.

Old School Boardgaming: Supremacy

Long ago, in a life-stage far far away, I played Supremacy. Unfortunately, I was unable to buy the game and its several expansions before its publisher ended production.

A few years ago, I did end up purchasing a copy of the game via Ebay, but the expansions have thus far eluded either my wallet or my noticing their availability. Yet, my mates and I can still enjoy the base game.

Which we did, last night...

Of the four of us, only Evan and I had played previously, so it was an introduction for them and a refresher for us. Evan took on North America, Ron grabbed Europe, Brent nabbed China, and I got the Afrikaners.

For those who have not played Supremacy, basically it is a souped up Risk, complete with economy and nukes...yes, nukes.

Each nation or conglomeration starts with five to six starting territories which are home to one army each and also one or more corporations that produce resources. The resources are oil, minerals, and grain, which are spent on convention weapons, strategic weapons, movement and combat. These, as well as nukes and L-stars (laser satellites) are tracked on a handy-dandy player card called a "Supply Center." The maximum of any one resource or strategic weapon is twelve.

Each turn there are seven stages, the first two of which everyone plays, and of the remainder a player can only play in three. In these latter stages, players secretly "bid" to play or not play the stage by hiding and then revealing a colored token (an army piece) in their hand. Then, of those who bid to play that stage, they roll off with the highest going first (which is VERY important at times) and the lowest roller going last.

Players then start each turn paying maintenance on their armies armies and navies, and then paying the salaries of each corporation they wish to keep in production. Next, the corporations produce their goods (from one to five of a single resource type) and these are added to the supply center for each player.

Stage 3 is where players can sell resources to the Market and/or each other. The market mechanism is nice as players can "play the market" and, if successful, pull off a victory, assuming they are not destroyed by another player.

Stage 4 is the attack stage, either conventional or strategic. This is where you must have one of each resource to spend for a conventional attack, or nukes/L-stars for strategic attacks. Airborne and amphibious assaults are supported in the rules. Combat is easily resolved by simple die rolls, with the attacker rolling 1 die, the defender, 2; one additional die goes to the side with the most units involved and another die to the side with the most L-stars. Every three pips rolled is one casualty to the enemy.

Stage 5 is for any non-combat moves, including embarking armies onto fleets.

Stage 6 is when player can build conventional and strategic weapons and then sell them to another player if they wish. Players may also conduct the necessary research to discover nuke and L-star technology, which are prerequisites to purchasing them directly.

Stage 7, the final stage, is when players can purchase resources from the market and, again, sell to another player. This market mechanism is very important as one soon runs out of cash unless one sells resources. Prices vary from $1 million to $1 billion and are tracked on the gameboard for each resource. As players make purchases or sell resources, the value of the good increases or decreases, which has a telling effect on players who weren't lucky enough to go first that stage. Any transaction between players is for whatever amount they happen to agree on.

This stage is also when players may elect to "prospect" for new resources in other territories, both neutral and also those nations are not being used that game (the game is for 2 to 6 players). You may open any corporation (buy spending $200 million) you find, as long as an opponent is not occupying the location of the resource, otherwise you just helped someone else as they get the corporation and its production.

Play continues until one player has conquered his opponents, more than 12 nukes have been used and a game ending die roll occurs, or you reach an agreed upon time limit. In the latter two cases, all assets and resources are tallied with the winner being the player with the most value.

About five turns into the game, I have just nuked Europe as Ron had the audacity to land troops in Sahara. I intercepted all but one of his own nukes, but he only got one of my four. It was at this point Ron began his own "Book of Grudges" (which is a LONG running semi-serious joke as I certainly have one), putting me as the first entry! This makes me proud for some odd reason.

A few turns later, Ron's nation was all but wiped out as the rest of his home territories were each redecorated with fiery mushroom clouds of nuclear devastation, with his last territory in my possession (which caused him to be eliminated). However, in a moment of inattention, I started clearing the game before giving Brent the time to take a final picture.

The surprise winner was Evan as he had an economic victory. He'd done well with market manipulation and had over $19 billion in assets where Brent had $16 billion and I a measly $7.625 billion.

I am on the lookout for the several expansions that came with the game. If you know of anyone who happens to own one or more expansions and they are interested in getting rid of them, please let me know. I cannot pay top dollar, but I can guarantee I will get a LOT of gaming use out of them!

Beneath the Lily Banners: Ottomans vs Swedes

Whilst researching for my M.A., I wrote a significant paper on John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough. Previously, I had heard of the famed general, but had not spent a lot of time or effort on getting to know his campaigns, battles, and personal life. However, throughout the course of my research, including reading many of his letters (those in French and English, but not yet the ones in Dutch), I came to like the man and appreciate his military accomplishments.

Of course, being a wargamer, I also decided to collect an army of the period and then later decided to run a miniature campaign (which has yet to start, but the starting is imminent!) after putting on a game of the above pictured rules for my local club. I've umpired several games, for various members, but we never played with the optional rules nor any of the armies outside Marlborough's historical friends and foes.

However, as we begin the ramp up towards the campaign start, two players have elected to base their imagi-nations on the Ottomans (Ron) and the Swedes (Evan). Having never used their special rules, we decided to give them a go, a week ago Tuesday.

Read on...

The rules are fairly straightforward and if you have not had the opportunity to play, that is really unfortunate. I like how these work and they do not easily enable players who are min/max types.
I was the umpire, ably assisted by Brent who wants to learn the rules better for the campaign. Ron fielded his Ottoman-ish army, and Evan borrowed some Austrians from Ron as proxies for his Swede-ish troops. I use the "-ish" because the imagi-nation armies are made up of Western European peoples, but the players are allowed to choose a single nation whose military organization, structures, and tactics serve as a foundation for their own. The players must write their own histories on how this came about, and to what extent their nations have adopted these foreign traditions, but this is all meant to create atmosphere and interest for the campaign.

The umpire is at the top of the picture (looks like he needs to lose a few pounds), with Evan on the right and Ron the left. Brent is behind the camera. 

The Swedes had two brigades of infantry, each of four battalions of foot; a single brigade of horse, of three squadrons; one light gun. The infantry battalions were, Guard x2, Elite x4, and Drilled x2. The horse were Guard, and Elite x2. I gave the Swedes a morale advantage as he was outnumbered and the two player's armies were based on the campaign organization established in the rules. With the Ottomans having a heavy gun, Raw or even mainly Drilled troops for the Swedes would have made for a short game.

 Don't blame me for the blurry pic, it's all Brent's fault!

The Ottomans had a positional gun, a light gun, two brigades of infantry and three brigades of horse. Half of the infantry was tribal and Raw, the other half was regulars with a Guard, Elite, and two drilled. The cavalry had a single brigade of Guards in two squadrons, and two brigades of single stand irregulars who were each Raw. In the campaign, I am allowing Ron to "buy" his new squadrons of horse as irregular cavalry at half the cost that everyone else is paying for their regulars. Thus, we wanted to see how that would work out on the tabletop.

I tried to warn Ron about this stacked deployment, but he chose to go with it. If he was happy with the result, I don't know, but he got to choose this set up. Of course, it does look like a dangerous horde...


A few turns into the game. The best Swedish troops are advancing on the Ottomans, while the less experienced infantry is defending a stone wall. The Swedish cavalry has been ordered to shift from the left flank to the right. The first brigade of Ottoman irregular cavalry is opposite the leading Swedes and already pouring in harassing fire. This was actually more telling than I anticipated.

The Swedes have now lost a stand of Guard quality Foot, with the Ottomans losing a stand of Raw irregular cavalry. An expensive trade off! The Ottoman's positional gun is on a low hill to the left, out of frame, and it is firing as quickly as the gunners can load. It does dish out about 8 figures of damage, five on one battalion and three on another, as the Swedes advance, but is forced to shift fire to the cavalry, where it only manages to kill another figure before they, too, gain the cover of the trees. Notice the Ottoman regular cavalry advancing on the far right.

Ron tried to be sneaky, but Evan noticed in enough time to form two battalions facing his left flank. Had he not done this in time, Ron's cavalry would have rolled up the second Swedish brigade of Foot. The Swedish cavalry at the top of the frame is under fire by the Ottoman positional gun.

Evan is subtly ensuring that he gets his mug in the shot.

The light horse has been driven off, but the Swedish infantry in the center has taken more casualties than it has caused. Cavalry can be very difficult to get rid of without killing off the stand. The Ottoman Foot ignore the fleeing cavalry and press on to attack. Note: that light gun in center left of frame does very little during the game. Ron would have been better served to have it just in front of his positional gun, getting in long range shots, and also making an assault on the guns more problematic.


Now we get down to it. A melee ensues in the center of the field. I must admit that I did make an error here, in that I added additional bonuses for reinforcing units, but really, it had little bearing on the eventual outcome as the Ottoman unit was Raw and the Swedish were Guard.
Another melee, and Ottoman leaders join the fray. This melee lasted six bounds as each primary opponent was Guard quality and after two tied rounds, the Ottomans lost four in a row, causing the survivors to rout. The Swedish leaders escaped unscathed, but two Ottoman leaders were wounded, with the lucky result adding +1 to their morale and the leader surviving. Note: Ron's imagi-nation is a theocracy and he wanted to include a fanatic bodyguard unit of a single stand. I allowed this and gave that stand a chance to void a leader casualty result for the CinC (4-6 on a d6). It failed once and succeeded once, the success causing it to be removed.

The aftermath of the melee in the center. The Ottomans involved in the melee have routed, but all other Ottoman Foot pass their morale tests. Lucky break for Ron! Unfortunately, we did not get a better shot of the action on the Ottoman right, where their regular cavalry ended up charging and defeating Drilled Swedish Foot.


One unit of the Ottoman cavalry was shot down, with the survivors driven off, but the other squadron was able to beat and drive back the one battalion of Foot. The subsequent pursuit saw the Ottoman cavalry smash into the flank of a second battalion of Foot, also of Drilled morale quality.

It was Ron's bad luck that we ran out of time, as I would have loved to see what his regular cavalry would have accomplished. By the same token, the Swedes were advancing, steadily, in the center, and may have routed the rest of the Ottoman Foot in another turn or two.

Initial placement of troops has a very real impact on the game, especially concerning the artillery. Evan's single gun got off one shot (a miss) the entire battle. Ron's stacked deployment cost him time and options, whereas Evan's smaller force seemed to be well suited for the space he had available to him.

One thing, I might change the tactical rules slightly, in that the long melee delayed the game considerably, partly as we had two new players and partly as I had not umpired either army before and was therefore unfamiliar with all of their abilities and bonuses. Yet, six (may have been seven) bounds of melee was really too much and I would have liked to see more action than that. I will talk to my players and see what they think about setting an arbitrary limit of say 4 bounds per turn (with the results carrying over to the next turn, of course) or perhaps rolling a d4+2 to give a variable melee length during a turn.

In the end, each of the players and also Brent as an umpire in training, had a good time and we learned a lot about how these new armies would fight in the campaign. I certainly don't want to fight either army without some amount of special preparation, namely buying more artillery!

A final note: I must mention that Ron was especially generous in that he gifted me the vast majority of the Austrian troops we used as Swedish proxies. I did not expect it and his kindness allows me to further test some rules on my own, as my army is not yet ready for the table.

Saga: Normans vs Anglo-Danes

Several months ago, the club starting to seriously get involved in playing Saga. Many members, not including myself, purchased and painted 6-12 points worth of troops. Others, including me, happily used troops "loaned" from the first group to play some games.

After about six battles, I am hooked on the playing part, not yet on the buying, assembling, and painting part. I lack time, money, and space, at the moment. Yet, when offered a chance to play, I take it.

Thus, a week ago Tuesday, several of us got together at the local FLGS and played a multi-player scenario, designed and run by Brent.

Ron, Evan, and myself took on the mantle of the stalwart defenders of Northern Britain/Scotland, who faced the evil usurpers of the crown, the Normans. The gits (players) commanding the wholly broken army that is the Norman list for Saga were, Alex, Manny, and Brent (pulling double-duty as umpire).

The heroic defenders were tasked to protect a village and pallisade, whilst the despicable Normans were intent on laying waste to the peaceful and innocent inhabitants of the area. Game length was 10 turns and the Normans were given first move.


Here, Alex and Manny are at top and left of the frame, whereas Evan and author are at top right and middle right of frame We are already a few turns into the game. Notice the line of archers/crossbowmen in the center left.

Manny chose to mass his missile troops in the center, while Alex and Brent pressed on the flanks. Luckily, this freed my Saga dice to support my allies as I had very little movement to do throughout the game. On the other hand, I did take numerous casualties to missle fire, but not as many as I would have had I not passed so many armour saves.


My left flank, vikings commanded by Ron, who are facing Brent's turn-coat Anglo-Danes. Ron gave nearly as good as he got, but was giving ground. You can see, in the top of the frame, a little of my action.

On my right, Alex's cavalry slowly, but progressively, advanced to Evan's flank and charged in. The contest was indeed bloody, which also included my using Saga dice to kill some Norman knights, with Evan losing two units of warriors, for killing off one unit of knights and hurting the second.

Evan makes an offering to the dice gawds, prior to receiving cavalry charges.

We had to call the game due to time, but the Anglo-Dane defenders barely held the invaders off.