Close Quarter Battles Campaign - starting Act 4

 After a couple of months where life got in the way of gaming, we finally began Act 4 in the Close Quarter Battles Campaign book.

The lay out for the first part of Act 4. We just need to kill the big hairy beasties and take posession of the bridge.

After fighting our way past assorted cultists and rioting mobs!

The bridge guards.

Things started very badly, Lanroth, with the bow, couldn't roll higher than a 2 when shooting and failed activations left him very exposed at the end of the first turn! Things got even worse by turn 3, Lanroth was injured and two rolls of 1 meant that Sarmand had lost his magic for the rest of the game and a bowstring had snapped!

Things started to improve from then. The arrival of a couple of random Iron Pikes (city guard) distracted some of the rioting mobs (in fact the guardsmen slowly cut their way through almost a dozen rioteers by the end of the game, taking some pressure of off us!). Heimir (our nutty swordsman) started to pass activations and began slicing and dicing his way down the street. 

We experienced one of those cimematic moments that Sellswords produces from time to time. Several games back Sarmand had picked up a spare sword and just slung it on his back. Why? There is no bonus in Sellswords and a second sword. The reason was revealed! Rolling three passes when attacking a Saamu gladiator, Sarmand then rolled a 2 for his first attack, allowing the Saamu to grap the sword and wrench it out of Sarmand's grasp and cast it away into the water trough. We imagined the beast raising his axe with the gloating leer common to the best Hollywood villans, when Sarmand drew this spare sword and ran the beast through the chest!

Eventually we managed to take the bridge with all three characters still alive, in part due to the stirling work of the Iron Pikes.

VSF 1899 Balkans War

In the later part of the nineteenth century the Great Powers of Europe vied with one another to utilise the new technologies to create increasingly sophisticated weapons of war. Great Britain, France and Russia all developed weapons based on the technology of steam, whereas Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire depended more on the power of electricity, expanding on the pioneering research of Victor Frankenstein. All parties were keen to test their new weapons in earnest, but at the same time reluctant to commit to all-out war against another major power in Europe.

 1n 1899, the outbreak of war in the Balkans gave them the opportunity they were seeking. Each Great Power reinforced their allies in the region with new technology and military “advisors” to train in their use (and often operate the weapons as well). Britain and France supported Greece, Russia supported Bulgaria and Germany and Austro-Hungary threw their weight behind the Ottoman Empire. The ancient regions of Thrace and Macedonia became the testing grounds for the latest war machines.

 Here is a report on a typical engagement in Western Thrace.

An early casualty, a severely damaged the Ottoman armoured car makes a slow withdrawal. To the right is an Ottoman one-man walker with and electric lightning cannon, to the left Krupps Steam Automatons advance through the wood.

A slightly blurry view of the battlefield.

The left flank of the Ottoman force.

And the right flank, beyond the picture, another regular infantry unit anchors the line. 

THe centre of the Greek line, Enfield Steam Walkers advance, supported by Greek infantry. A French-made armoured car has bogged down by the road (the armoured car was to be unable to move for most of the game!).

The Greek left flank.

And their right. The Cretan Gendames have already suffered casualties from accurate rifle fire from an Ottoman infantry unit.

The Enfield walkers suffer from heavy fire from electric weapons and the Ottoman field gun. All are damaged and have their MMGs disabled. The drivers decide to charge the enemy (more of a gentle trot by now) as one of them bursts into flames.

A second walker is knocked out.

As the last walker arroaches the Ottoman line the Ottoman walker (now also damaged), intercepts the charge.

The two machines batter away at each other until the Ottoman driver is victorious, but was almost immediatly struck by a shell from the Greek field gun and destroyed!

Whilst the Ottomans held the upper hand in the centre, their flanks were being whittled away.

The last stand of the surviving Ottoman forces, the tank just visible at the top of the picture had failed to move for the entire game and only fired twice!

An overview of the end. The Greeks had two intact infantry units poised to swing around into the surviving Ottomans' flamk. At this point the Turkish commander order a withdrawal.