Not a battle report - Star Wars Legion Empire Vs Mandalorians

Afternoon, at this rate I may have to look at a new URL and whole new rebrand! I can't appeal to the Warhammer Community on this one, it's Star Wars Legion! This is not the first game we've played, but it appears to be the first one I've shared.  That surprises me as I'm sure I have loads of pictures... of games I will definitely have no recollection of either!

As I don't remember what happened let us instead enjoy the pictures and muse somewhat on the game. Legion is like 40k, but based on Star Wars. There's another game - Star Wars Shatterpoint that seems like a skirmish game and seems to have a bit more support but Legion is on its 2nd edition [the new rules are free to download]. We're coming to terms with the new rules, I'd estimate we played 1st edition maybe about 6 times.

Overall, I think we like it. It's not as fun, or as simple as MESBG but it is much more engaging than 40k, despite occasionally being more complex! That's right. When I claim 40k is too complex how does a more complex game feel more entertaining? I'm still trying to conclusively answer that but I have various thoughts.

First up, every unit comes with a datacard, with all it's specific rules. You can then add upgrades, more cards, and that helps build your army. Together with an overly convoluted and impenetrable mission/deployment/objective setting stage at the beginning of the game just getting to turn one is a chore in itself.

Honestly, I think the next game we played it took over an hour in pre-game 'book-keeping'. It was ludicrous, but did add some of the high points of humour for the evening. When the game actually starts you have a set of order cards that give you some buffs but have a specific value 1-4. This is how many of your units you can give orders to and whoever 'bids' the lowest gets to activate their unit/units first. So if you choose a 2 unit order and your friend chose 3 you get to give orders to 2 units and activate them. Your friend gets to give orders to 3 units and can activate them after, or it alternates, I forget which. Like I say it's complicated and I seem only able to understand the rules when I'm actually in the shed.

There are various movement tools that feel really precise given they have hinges in, and you position them on the base and then move the leader model from one end to the other. The the rest of the squad just moves anywhere within a certain distance. Kind of undermining the precision effort but I think there is a net speed benefit in the end. Each unit gets to do 2 'actions' which could be move twice, move once and attack once [you can only make one form of attacking action unless special rules say otherwise], aim and shoot, dodge and move or even rally.

Some of these actions give benefits in the shooting phase or when you are shot at. Any time you are shot at your model gets a 'suppression' counter, like Bolt Action pinned marker, and that can prevent you from doing more than one action. To counter this you have to do a leadership roll and all of these rolls are on special 6 or 8 sided dice. 6 sided are for 'defence' - for rallies and saving throws [in white and red -  red is best]. These have shields and 'surges'. Some units convert surges to shields, increasing their defence. 8 sided dice for 'attacks' [in white, black and red - red is best]. These have hits, critical hits and surges. Again, some units convert surges to a hit, or even convert a surge to a crit! It's a neat way of managing a units capability but it does mean every time you fire or make a save you have to consult their datacard to see if a surge counts for anything else.

So yes, confusion is very much part of the game and can slow down progress. If we get through 2 to 3 turns in one evening that's a result!

Many units are single wound models, but some heroes and tough units like Wookies are multiple wound models. 

Therefore wound counters come as standard, alongside the suppression and many, many other markers. Now you know I'm a fan of markers, but even I get overwhelmed by just how many are used in this game.

Cover allows you an additional saving throw [on white dice]. Roll a dice for every hit [crits ignore cover]. Soft cover allows a shield [and surge if you convert] to negate 1 hit. Hard cover can negate 2. You also get 'cover' saves for dodging and if you already have a suppression counter. Simple and complex, it's quite a feat.

Alternating play really helps feel like you're not a spectator as your army is deleted a unit at a time. Although, the potential to remove a unit in one turn in Legion is highly unlikely. Which is one of its appeals. Even with 'tanks' like the AT-ST against an infantry unit - it just doesn't have enough guns to wipe a unit in 1 turn. It may kill 1, 2 or 3 in a squad but most of them have enough figures to weather firepower of that magnitude.

And even that will only put one suppression token on the squad so they'll still be usable if they haven't been activated. They may have one less action, if they fail their rally, but you don't feel like you're constantly losing options. I think that is one of its biggest successes - the durability of units. Unlike the films, Stormtroopers hit quite a lot, but their blasters aren't that fatal. Even Rebel t-shirts can be effective armour!

So, we're somehow loving this complex, long winded game in a way that the similarly afflicted 40k doesn't seem to deliver. It's frustrating and sad that we've all invested in a game that no one is motivated to play. I love the figures, the settings and the armies I've spent time and effort painting. We just can't bring ourselves to put them on the table

That said, I won't be investing in a Star Wars army just yet. Suggestions for factions keep being made to me and I would dearly love a Jawa army. The 3D sculpts are stunning and funny too.

However, this is is not even a legitimate faction. There are no rules for them aside from an upgrade card for one model. And without official figures even, there are no official cards, which are key to playing the game.

We discussed using Ewok rules, but the Ewoks are utterly murderous and we have an Ewok army already painted up. So there's no incentive for me to buy into another system. Nor add in a load of new figures to paint, which is actually a relief.

Not a Battle report - MESBG Rohirrim Vs a lot of Orc hunters on Wargs

Afternoon #Warhammer Community I've been #PlayingWarhammer with another game of new MESBG and despite this being one of the most recent games I have very little recollection of what happened. I can only tell I partnered with Liam and his Orcs because most of the pics are from that side of the table. 

Naturally Otty went with his beloved Rohirrim.

The Orcs had something of an advantage - being able to scale difficult terrain with ease, those cliff edges and ruins offering no impediment.

The initial surge forward.

While a flank is exposed Heroes ride to ruin and the world's ending!

With something of a bun-fight in the middle of the board.

It looks like Otty lost a lot of his army at this point, with Orcs a plenty.

Again the Rohirrim are outnumbered but not necessarily outmatched.

I cannot tell from this what happened. Otty looks stunned, but that could be that despite the pictures he somehow snatched a win. Maybe he, or Liam, can remember what happened. Bottom line I know I had fun, ate some crisps, drank some tea, rolled some dice, laughed and enjoyed the company of these guys.

Aside from a functioning recollection of the actual game we played what more can you ask for?

Battle report - MESBG Rohirrim Vs Wild Men of Dunland

Afternoon #Warhammer Community I've been #PlayingWarhammer with another couple of games of new MESBG. This was one of the new campaign missions based on the War of the Rohirrim film. Again this was a game from January, so my recollection is so bad but I'll try to remember as much as I can. This mission has the Wild Men of Dunland breaking into Edoras with the goal of burning down the village. Meanwhile the loyal followers of Helm Hammerhand are trying to prevent this treachery, by keeping the flaming brands from the buildings. There's a weird setup where you have to split your force and  thanks to some misunderstanding I put a lot of the Rohirrim in immediate danger, getting swamped by Wild Men and General Targg.

After the dust settled Targg remained while 6 Wild Men had perished to my 3 Rohan warriors. 

On the other side a smaller warband faced off against loads of archers and their more violent double-handed weapon wielding colleagues.

Targg and my hero, Theo-someone [no doubt] carried on their scrap with Targg being trapped. With a show of bravery his fodder ran to the nearby building to set it on fire.

Outnumbered but not undaunted my Warriors received the charge of the Wild Men in protecting their homes. 

I'm thinking this was a very poor duel roll that saw the Rohirrim fight back with furious defence.

But it was enough to stop them getting to the barn to try set it alight.

With Targg dead my leader and his retinue caught up with the Wild Men .

With the Wild Men engaged the Leader charged off to give support to the beleaguered flank. 

The Warriors continued to fight the Wild Men and while cutting the last one down were horrified to see his flaming brand catch on Brunnhild's cabin, setting it alight.

On the other side, with the flank decimated the Wild Men surrounded the barn but every attempt to set it alight was thwarted.

The dice were against them. Whether it be damp tinder or the barn had been prepared for such an event it would just not catch fire.

Worse too for the Wild Men, the brave Warriors had managed to put out the flames on the cabin.

My hero continued to try and thwart the attempts to set the barn alight. Without flaming brands higher rolls were needed and none were forthcoming.

More Wild Men fell to the ferocious attacks of the horse lord.

But the numbers were too great and he fell to their clumsy attacks.

But despite their small victory they still could not set the barn alight, leaving the Rohirrim to win the day.

There were a lot of great moments in this game, I may not remember them clearly but they were vivid. We played an extra couple of turns just to see if that barn was set alight but so many dice rolls failed. Even the cabin that got lit and then put out, that initial roll to see if it caught fire I think was just a thematic roll. I don't think there was any legitimate reason for the dead Wild Man to have had a chance to set it on fire but we thought it was fun.

The setup was somewhat traumatic as I think I miscalculated the task at hand. However, the Rohirrim are outnumbered from the start so I'm not sure if there's a more optimum choice on how to divide your force. It worked out in the end, luckily.

Not a Battle report - MESBG Rohirrim Vs Orcs...?

Afternoon #Warhammer Community I've been #PlayingWarhammer with more games of new MESBG but unfortunately I have absolutely no recollection of this game whatsoever. This is becoming something of a pattern, what's worse is I've another 2 MESBG games and both of those haven't been written up after 1 and 3 weeks so they'll probably not make any sense either.

So, instead, lets enjoy the pics and espouse [once again] just how good MESBG is.

Even the new rules, although there are some negatives with many factions and models moving to Legends/legacy. But the game is pretty much the same with some subtle changes and additions which aren't too hard to adapt to.

Bottom line, MESBG is still the best game that Games Workshop do. I don't know how, given it often just boils down to multiple small scale combats across the board. But they all matter, they're all decisive and most of the buffs and stratagems are easy to keep track off.

More importantly the game is fun. Not just fun in an entertaining way, but also funny in a rolling on the floor kind of way that I have never experienced in any other game. Granted this often down to a simple dice roll and pretty much every game system is like this.

But these dice roles can be so pivotally hilarious. Also, by playing doubles or two versus 1 there's plenty of of scope for offering the dice to your partner to both result in jubilant success or crushing defeat. Doubles are definitely the most entertaining way to play when you're with your mates.

And MESBG looks cool too. Of course it helps when your mates are massive Middle Earth fans and have made boards and armies to showcase the best of the game. It also means I don't have to bring anything, except a bag of crisps. Although obviously I do have my own small Moria force.

I will just take a moment to moan about highlight one annoying discrepancy that the new edition did not resolve - banners. Unfortunately some match play games have specific victory condition based on having a banner. And, if your opponent does not, then you immediately score those points. Given not all factions are allowed banners I think it wrong, especially in match play, to have banners score this way.

Let the dice decide... 😵

Not some arbitrary mechanism that rewards you before the game has even started that your factions has a sheet of cloth on a stick and your opponent hasn't the wherewithal to make their own!

Boy, I wish I knew what happened in this game! Sorry I can't give any details, just know we probably had a right old laugh.

I mean look at our silly grinning faces. The question is - who's smile is fake and hiding their pain of a crushing defeat?