Mythic Commander

I have been going to our local games club (Dice on the Hill) for some time and have been enjoying taking part in a RPG set in Dolmenwood. I have also introduced several fantasy players to wargaming with miniatures, and they have shown an interest in playing some more. The question that confronted me was to find something that I could easily transport to the club and that bridged the gap between fantasy RPGs and miniature wargaming ... and then I saw an advert for Modiphius Entertainment's MYTHIC COMMANDER.

The game comes from the same company that produced AIRFIX BATTLES and costs £16.00 plus postage from the Modiphius website. The game comprises:

• A 40-page Rulebook containing the rules and step-by-step tutorials.
• 7 different fantasy armies with 6 customisable options.
• 6 Scenarios.
• A double-sided folding map used as the game’s battlefield.
• 98 punch-out Game Cards:
• 60 Command Cards
• 36 Spell Cards
• 1 Fortune of War Card
•  Round Tracker card.
• 97 punch-out tokens:
• 48 double-sided Unit Tokens
• 35 double-sided Damage Tokens
• 14 double-sided Morale and Retreat Tokens.

Each game is expected to take about an hour to play and is aimed at players who are 14+ years old.

I hope to take it to the club sometime soon to show to the potential players ... and possibly encourage them to give it a try or even buy their own copies.

Sorting the button box

Back in September 2022, I wrote a blog post with the same title as this post. In it I described how, during my early days in teaching, an experienced colleague introduced me to what they termed 'sorting the button box'.

This was a task or exercise that would be set for a pupil who was upset or in need of calming down or to occupy their mind when they were feeling stressed. It gave the pupil something to concentrate on whilst they had a chance to regain some sort of equilibrium ... and over the years I have found that it also works for me when I am feeling a bit depressed or tired and unable to concentrate on reading, writing, painting, or modelling.

Looking around my toy/wargame room I realised that I had two large REALLY USEFUL BOXES full of World War II Eastern Front/Great Patriotic War models and figures that I renovated, varnished, and rebased during the COVID pandemic. I had put them in the boxes and taken them to our storage unit early last year but had retrieved them in order to stage a short Barbarossa 'campaign in an evening' at my local game club, Dice on the Hill. The boxes need sorting out and the stuff in them properly catalogued ... an ideal 'sorting the button box' exercise.

I hope that by doing this, I will regain my wargaming (and possibly my model railway) mojo ... and if it doesn't work, I will at least have sorted the contents of the boxes!

Adventures in Dolmenwood

Last February I joined the Dice on the Hill group that meets at the nearby Shrewsbury House community centre. Since then I’ve played several different games, but for most of the time I’ve been taking part in a fantasy role-play game set in DOLMENWOOD.

This is a tabletop fantasy role-play published by Necrotic Gnome and designed by Gavin Norman, It is described as being 'a dark‑whimsical, fairy‑folk‑horror setting inspired by British Isles folklore and classic fairy tales like The King of Elfland’s Daughter and Stardust.'

My character is Father Crump. He is a wandering friar who has joined the group of adventurers who are travelling around Dolmenwood to minister to their moral needs (particularly the leader, a young and somewhat psychopathic knight known as Black Philip), to spread the word (and influence) of the Pluritine Church, and to fight the evil influence of the dreaded and ungodly Nag Lord.

Father Crump ... as envisaged by ChatGPT.

Thanks to my honesty, I’ve ended up being the group’s unofficial treasurer … and as a result of eating some mushrooms during one encounter, I was afflicted for some time with bulging eyes that acted like lanterns in the dark. I was eventually ‘cured’, thanks to the ministrations of more senior members of the church, but in exchanged I was tasked to seek out and protect lost shrines that the Nag Lord is seeking to control as part of his dastardly plans.

Unlike my fellow adventurers, I am not heavily armed or armoured. During our adventures I have acquired a war mace and three daggers, and these are my only weapons … although I have been known to use a small sledgehammer in close combat and recently hit an opponent over the head with a metal holy symbol whilst claiming to be blessing them with it.

My car is back and my new shower room will be installed soon!

During yesterday morning the surveyor from the shower installation company visited us, and spent nearly two hours measuring up the space and calculating what work need to be done to instal a new accessible shower in the shower room on our house's second floor. Now that has been done, the work can begin in about four weeks time ... and as soon as it has been completed, I'll be able to enjoy having a shower for the first time in well over a year. (I have had showers whilst on cruises, but I've been unable to safely get into and out of our current shower since I developed axonal polyneuropathy.)

I was also able to collect my car from the body shop yesterday afternoon ... and in meant that I was able to go to my local gaming club – Dice on the Hill – that evening.

Whilst waiting for the surveyor to do his work, I managed to re-fight the Battle of Tamai using the DOMINION OF THE SPEAR AND BAYONET rules, and I hope to write a blog post – and possibly create a YouTube video – about it over the coming weekend.

The Portable Wargame at Dice on the Hill YouTube video

I have now created and uploaded a short (i.e. just over eight minutes long) YouTube video about the rules and Operation Barbarossa mini-campaign scenarios that I used at my local gaming club, Dice on the Hill, to my Wargaming Miscellany YouTube channel.

You can view the video here.

Ancients at Shrewsbury House

On Wednesday I carefully rested for most of the day in order to conserve my energy so that I could set up and take part in a battle using the Portable Ancient Wargame rules from DEVELOPING THE PORTABLE WARGAME. My strategy worked, and I had a very enjoyable evening introducing my opponent (Richard) and an interested bystander (Ian) to the joys of THE PORTABLE WARGAME system.

I provided the terrain and Richard provided the figures ... and it turned out that although he had been assembling his collection for some years, he had not had the opportunity to fight a wargame with them. The terrain looked like this:

I chose to field a Spartan army ...

The right of the Spartan army. It comprised a unit of slingers and two units of Helot spearmen.

The center of the Spartan army. It comprised eight units of Hoplites.

The left of the Spartan army. It comprised a unit of slingers and two units of Helot spearmen.

... and my opponent chose the Athenians. (He even provided a suitably ruined temple for Athena to occupy and oversee her city-state's army.)

The Athenian army.

Two units of Athenian Hoplites.

Two more units of Athenian Hoplites.

The Athenians took the offensive ...

... and after both sides used their light troops to try to disrupt their opponent's Hoplites ...

... the battle soon became a trial of strength between the rival bodies of Hoplites.

It was a hard fought battle ... but the Athenians eventually prevailed and the Spartans withdrew after losing their slingers and Helot spearmen in order to preserve their elite Hoplites.

The battle took just under an hour to fight, and once it was over we reset the forces and re-fought the battle twice more, firstly using the 'two hits = unit destroyed' rule and 'two hits plus hit effect' rule. The Athenians won both battles, and they even managed to kill the Spartan commander during the last battle.

By the end of the evening Richard and Ian were both enthusiastic converts to the whole PORTABLE WARGAME concept ... and I hope to be able to give them a chance to try the PORTABLE NAPOLEONIC WARGAME rules soon.

Terrain in a hurry

Last Wednesday I was asked if I could stage a Portable Ancients Wargame at the Dice on the Hill club on the following Wednesday (i.e. today). The request was from the member of staff who is usually on duty on Wednesday evenings and who is - it turns out - both a railway modeller and a wargamer. He has an extensive collection of mainly 28mm Napoleonics and Ancients and as he has read DEVELOPING THE PORTABLE WARGAME, he would like to tryout the Ancients rules from the book.

After I had agreed, I suddenly realised on Sunday that all my terrain was in storage in Dartford and that I would have to visit the storage unit to collect everything that I need. Unfortunately, the virus I have been suffering from made that rather difficult, and rather than disappoint my opponent, I had to come up with an alternative fairly quickly.

My first thought was to get hold of a felt cloth that I could make up with the necessary grid of 10cm x 10cm squares, but none of the suppliers I looked at could fulfill an order in less than a week. Instead, I ordered a pack of 30cm x 30cm 6mm-thick cork tiles from Amazon ...

... and they were delivered on Monday. I have now marked the corners of the grid squares with a small crosses drawn using a red Sharpey pen, and have enough cork tiles to set up a 9 x 9 grid of 10cm x 10cm squares ... and still have a spare cork tile!

I also needed some hills, and I made these by trimming some IKEA cork pot stands to shape.

I now have a set of portable terrain that I can take to the club this evening, and assuming that I am well enough to go, I hope to be able to take some photographs and share them on my blog later this week.

The Portable Wargame at Dice on the Hill

Last week I took my PORTABLE WARGAME to the local gaming group, Dice on the Hill. I chose three interlinked Eastern Front/Great Patriotic War World War II scenarios and a slightly simplified version of the rules.

Several of the gamers had expressed an interest in the rules, and I had not difficulty in recruiting a willing volunteer (KenM_7!) to give the rules a try. He usually plays Frostgrave, and before we started he was a bit apprehensive that it would take him a long time to learn the rules, and he was shocked when I replied that I would be surprised if he need to look at them much after the third turn. As it was, by turn 3 of the first game he was pretty well au fait with the rules and only looking at them very occasionally.

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The scenarios I chose were as follows:

BARBAROSSA MINI-CAMPAIGN: BATTLE NO.1: CROSSING THE RIVER

Both sides had six units plus a commander available to take part in the battle.

The invading Germans have:

• Four infantry units (= 16 SPs)
• One artillery unit (= 2 SPs)
• One machine gun unit (= 2 SPs)
• A commander (= 6 SPs)

Note: The Germans will become exhausted when they have lost 9 Strength Points.

The defending Russians have:

• Three infantry units (= 12 SPs)
• One artillery unit (= 2 SPs)
• One anti-tank gun unit (= 2 SPs)
• One machine gun unit (= 2 SPs)
• A commander (= 6 SPs)

Note: The Russians will become exhausted when they have lost 8 Strength Points.

The Germans advance from the bottom edge of the terrain and the Russians enter from the opposite edge.

BARBAROSSA MINI-CAMPAIGN: BATTLE NO.2: COUNTERATTACK!

Once the Germans had broken through the Russian front-line, they advanced as rapidly as they could into Soviet territory. The Russian response was to send all available units forward to meet the invaders, to defeat them, and then to throw them back across the border.

The Germans have:

• Three infantry units (= 12 SPs)
• One machine gun unit (= 2 SPs)
• Two tank units (= 6 SPs)
• A commander (= 6 SPs)

Note: The Germans will become exhausted when they have lost 9 Strength Points.

The Russians have:

• Four infantry units (one of which is militia) (= 15 SPs)
• One anti-tank Gun unit (= 2 SPs)
• One tank unit (= 3 SPs)
• A commander (= 6 SPs)

Note: The Russians will become exhausted when they have lost 9 Strength Points.

The Germans begin with three units occupying the built-up area. The rest enter after the battle begins. The battle begins when the first Russian units (led by their tank unit) enter the terrain.

BARBAROSSA MINI-CAMPAIGN: BATTLE NO.3: DEFENCE LINE

After the Russian counter-attack, the Germans continued their advance into Soviet territory. By this stage Russian resistance was weak, and the Germans knew that if they were to reach Moscow before the snows of Winter arrived, they had to push on and destroy all remaining Russian forces. In response, Stalin issued Order No. 227 on 28th July 1942. It was intended to help stiffen resistance and included the command 'Not one step back!' (Ни шагу назад!/Ni shagu nazad!), an order that was ferociously enforced by blocking detachments of the NKVD. Soldiers (including officers) who retreated without written permission were liable to be shot on the spot or sent to a penal battalion (штрафной батальон/shtrafnoy batalyon).

The Germans have:

• Three infantry units (= 12 SPs)
• One machine gun unit (= 2 SPs)
• One artillery unit (= 2 SPs)
• One tank unit (= 3 SPs)
• A commander (= 6 SPs)

Note: The German will become exhausted when they have lost 9 Strength Points.

The Russians have:

• Two infantry units (= 8 SPs)
• One machine gun unit (= 2 SPs)
• One artillery unit (= 2 SPs)
• A commander (= 6 SPs)

Note: The Russians will become exhausted when they have lost 6 Strength Points but as they are defending and will obey Stalin's 'Not one step back!' order, this will not seriously affect them.

The Russians start in their defences. The battle begins when the leading German units enter the bottom edge of the terrain.

TROOPS AND TERRAIN REQUIRED

• Germans: sixteen infantry figures, a machine gun + two crew figures, a gun + two crew figures, two tanks, and a commander.
• Russians: Twelve infantry figures, three militia infantry figures, a machine gun + two crew figures. an anti-tank gun + two crew figures, a gun + two crew figures, a tank, and a commander.
• Terrain: 8 x 6 green Hexon II hexes, 6 x 1 green Hexon II hexes, 6 x 1 Hexon II blue hexes, 1 x 2 Hexon II hex hills, 6 tree bases, 5 lengths of barricades, 2 bridges, and 3 small buildings.

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During the course of the evening, several other gamers paid visits to the table we were using and expressed an interest in giving the rules a try in the near future. I had taken several copies of the rules and scenarios with me ... and they all went!

As to my opponent (KenM_7!)) ... well, he enjoyed the experience and took several photographs, and these are shown below. As the German player, he also beat me very, very soundly!

One of the interested spectators (Leon!) also took some photographs.

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Please note that the photographs shown above are © KenM_7! and Leon! of the Dice on the Hill gaming group.

Today I could have gone to Cavalier ... but I haven't

Tunbridge Wells Wargames Society's annual show – Cavalier – is taking place today, and as it marks the beginning of the wargaming year for many of us who live in this corner of England, I usually go ... but this year I haven't.

The reasons are varied, but essentially they are as follows:

• My ongoing problems with mobility. Although I can drive, once at the car park near the venue I will have to walk the rest of the way, and once inside there is nowhere on the ground floor to sit, something that I must do quite regularly. (I can walk about 100m before needing to rest.) Furthermore, walking around a crowded venue with a walking stick will not be easy and I do not want to risk tripping up and falling over.
• I have agreed to stage a World War II Portable Wargame at Dice on the Hill on Wednesday and need to get the necessary figures and terrain out of storage in Dartford. As I have several appointments on Monday and Tuesday, I will have to go to the store on today as I do not want to leave it until Wednesday ... just in case.
• My wargaming mojo is not what it should be at present (Although I should have got over the 'flu bug I caught earlier this year, I am still finding difficult to concentrate on anything for more than about ten minutes), and I lack the basic motivation to go to a wargame show.
• There are several things that I really need to do and that I cannot (or should not) put off any longer. For example, I have a detailed review of Steve Parker's DOMINION OF THE SPEAR wargame rules and DOMINION OF THE SPEAR BATTLES EXPANSION half finished, and I want to get it uploaded to my blog within the next day or two.
• I have the second play test of my simple late nineteenth century battleship vs. battleship naval wargame rules to stage and write about on my blog ... and possible make a video for my YouTube channel.

I might have made the effort to go to Cavalier if there had been anything in particular that I wanted to buy, but as my current project is currently on hold, there isn’t.

Hopefully I will make it to next year’s Cavalier … and will not regret not going today.

Dice on the Hill

During a recent visit to Shrewsbury House - our local community centre - Sue pointed out that a gaming group met there every Wednesday evening. She suggested that I ought to pay it a visit … so yesterday, I did.

The group - Dice on the Hill - started in 2018 and has a membership of over 150, although not all of them turn up every week. It also has a presence on Facebook, Instagram, and X as well as an active Discord group. According to its website:

The majority of our members are playing role-playing games, mostly that is D&D 5e where there is always a space to play. But we also run many other systems, such as Call of Cthulhu, WFRP, Star Wars, Free League RPGS, and more. We host multiple D&D 5e campaigns and welcome newcomers for both short-term and long-term adventures.

We offer a welcoming environment for both experienced players and newcomers to explore popular games like Blood Bowl, Kill Team, Magic: The Gathering, Warhammer 40k, Zombicide, and more.

I had a reasonable idea as to what would be on offer when I visited the group … and it lived up to my expectations. I was made very welcome, and had the opportunity to see loads of RPG games in progress ...

… as well as two games of FROSTGRAVE.

I spent most of the time watching the latter, and joining in the banter around the tables.

I thoroughly enjoyed myself, and will certainly be going back again … hopefully next week!