Incident Near Al Shain

Al Shain is a city in Monokeros near the border with Kaelum and Musca.  Along the border there are several small forts and villages.  The following game took place near one of them.

The8.5x11 inch political map for the Vela campaign that I ran years ago.   There is a more detailed two foot by three foot hex map of the region.

I invited some friends over for a game day and bar-b-que on May 25th.  The first game used the Fistful of Lead rules and was a diplomatic mission..  An emissary was travelling from Kaelum to Monokeros with an important message.  He and his escort were trying to reach the safety of the border fort.   Agents from Musca were attempting to intercept them before they reached the fort as they passed near a local village.   A group of Dwarves from the nearby mountains were on a mission to retrieve a pair of gems that had been taken from them and used to adorn a statue in the village square.  There was also a group of bandits from the Ancha desert out for loot and hostages to ransom.  The scenario is intended for about six players, though it can be played with as few as three.   The villagers could also send for assistance from the fort garrison.   Gary Bitters commanded the villagers and the diplomatic Escort.   Mike O'Brien had the desert raiders and dwarves,  While I had the rangers from Musca.

 The calm before the storm  Over view of the table from the north on the evening before the game

 View from the west

 The local fort.   The buildings and fort are from the Desert village and Desert fort sets on Wargame Vault

View from the south

 View from the east.  The village militia asleep in their homes.

 The raiders arrive at the edge of the village.

The rangers and the escort spot each other

The rangers block the path in front of the diplomat and his escort.   I was able to take down their escort leader and wound the second in command with bow fire.  One of the village militia attempted to take out the hero with the rangers by sneaking up and attacking her from the flank only to be knocked dead by a backhand slap.  (rolled a twelve to hit on a d12 for a +2 to the wound roll added to the hero's additional two +1 to wound traits and a high die roll on the wound table)

The dwarves (top center) advance gets bogged down in an exchange of missile fire with a village archer

 Fighting near the town square.  Two of the raiders have been taken down to the left of center by bow fire from the elf..  Mike's raiders and dwarves eliminated most of the village militia.   Leaving only the village chieftain, his henchman, the wounded elf, and one or two of the militia grunts still alive.

 Another view of the action between the rangers and escort.

 The dwarves reach the edge of town.  One of them would get into the building to the left, then climb to the roof where he slew the archer.   He would then exit from the front of the building to attack the elven archer from behind.  The other dwarves at the center of the picture fighting the villager.   This combat went a number of rounds with the villager (who was a grunt) being able to hold off the dwarf hero and clan leader in hand-to-hand combat.  The melee ended when the elf shot at the group with her bow killing the villager and putting shock markers on the three dwarves.  The Dwarf crossbowmen are busy reloading after missing the archer on the building roof to the left.

Dwarf on the building roof on the left. the elven archer between the building and market stall facing the angry dwarves after shooting at them.  Several of the raiders are down with wounds.  Their hero has reached the statue and was able to pry one of the jeweled eyes loose.  We ended the game after this turn with Mike being declared the victor.  The archer laying on his side on the right indicates that he is inside the building.   The green markers indicate figures that have acted during the turn.

After lunch we played a game of Red Alert.   Mike jumped out to an early lead in the game mauling several of our fleet units.   We were playing scenario three from the rule book..  Gary and I took out his heavy battleship squadron and led for a brief time.   Mike regained the lead as he continued to heavily damage our units with great use of his combat and command cards.   Gary and I were finally able to win after being able to use our cards to advance our four center units over the course of two turns and take out Mikes fleet commander.   Two of our four units were eliminated in the process.  We all made a few mistakes as we haven't memorized all the rules yet.

Thanks to both Mike and Gary for a fun day of food and gaming.