AAR: Of Gods And Mortals: Another Desert Twist.

    It was a late Saturday night when we got a call from our friend, William. It just happened to be back in town and bored. These things happen. For the moment, Kalissa and I have slowly been introducing him to wargaming. I would have originally thought this was an easy push, since for quite a few months for Tuesday evenings, we would play D&D online. For all of those unfamiliar with Roll 20, it is a website you can play and meet up with other D&D players if everyone is long distance. We had fun with this when we lived in our last apartment, but then, the game master moved to China ending the game at hand.
     Now that we have a house with a game room, I have the tendency to leave different game boards up. The first time, I convinced William to play a wargame, we were playing Iron Cross. Though, he beat the snot out of me, this did not seem to satisfy him. And I know what it was without him telling me. He plays tons of Fantasy video games and board games. When he came over on Saturday, there was something different on the table. Kalissa and I left out our forces for Of Gods and Mortals. A-ah! A Fantasy wargame!
    Naturally, a whiskey and some interest, we ended up playing an Of Gods and Mortals game with my wife coaching him through the game and teaching the rules. She is a teacher anyway, so it was easier for her to do it. The results were a fun game that he enjoyed while beating the snot out of me again! But it is a good thing, because he mentioned how the rules were good as well as it was easy to get into. These are the statements that the wargaming industry wants to hear with all of there products. This just encourages me to finish up some of the other factions we have for the game for a rematch!

AAR: Of Gods And Mortals: Ares Commands the Day.

     For many who read about After Action Reports, most of my games are War World II related. I assure you that we do not just sat focused on one period of history. In all honesty, I have been slack on quite a few things for wargaming. Between, Kalissa and I, we have lots of stuff that has yet to make it on the table top or at least, recently. The list is pretty extensive. We have stuff for Robin Hood, Ronin, Medieval knights, Furry armed animals, ninja rabbits, Muskets and Tomhawks, Of Her Majesty's Name, and random figures for a bunch of periods we have no bought into. In fact, the only reason I could really see winning the Lottery would be all wargaming related. Maybe, something else.
    Either way, I decided to challenge my wife to a duel of Of Gods and Mortals. I really like this game, because the rules are fairly simple and you get to play all of Mythology whether that is Norse Gods, Egyptian Gods, or Greek. There are really no limits to create lists based off of religion and legend. My wife has an Inca list she made with spitting lamas and condors. When I start on jungle terrain, we will have to look into that!
   The basic game is pretty simple. You have three types of units: A god, legends, and mortals. The god you pick is the most powerful unit and cannot truly die. If he/she is taken out of the game, the mortals, if still alive, can bring he/she back to the fight. Legends are the support units. I like to think of the as the special forces of the game. Each one of them have unique abilities. The mortals are the core units.
   The game flows very well. You have a quality rating that you have to roll for for actions. You can roll up to three D6 and use whatever passed as an action. However, any failed roll gives your opponent an action as long at it has the same quality or better. Two failures gives initiative to your opponent. Combat is resolved with a combat rating plus modifiers, any support, and special abilities. Both sides roll. The winner is decided on the higher number and about of difference, which can result in nothing to a kill for one side or the other. Again, really easy, and our games last about an hour.
     So for our game, it was Greek on Greek action. It was not porn, but you can get figures to make it seem so. In this case, it was Ares versus Athena. My wife had Ares with 10 hoplites divided in half, Medusa, Perseus, and the three-headed dog:Cerberus. I had Athena with 9 hoplites together, Odysseus, Hyppolyte, and a Griffin. With the Griffin, we had to make up some statistics for it. And for those who have played the game, Medusa is not usually against Athena. Details, details!
    I rolled and won to choose whether to be attacker or defender. I chose to defend. In this game, the defender gets to step up the terrain before the game. This is important if you are playing against certain characters, since they may benefit from certain features. I would have liked to see Poseidon summon a Kraken  through a well in the middle of the desert! Either way, the board was set up in advance.
   I chose to really defend in this game. I thought that if everyone supported everyone else, I would have had a better chance. Also, Athena had borrowed lightning from Zeus, so I figured I could easily lightning bolt people throughout the game. However, the bolts did not kill as normal. Also, the legends on both sides died out by turn four. It was a real slugfest after that. It really came down to the Gods. Ares decided to really dice up my mortals. Though, I took out quite a few mortals on her side, the whole separated hoplites paid off. It happens! But it was a lot of fun getting there.

My wife, Kalissa's force.

My force!

Starting position. I kept everyone somewhat together.

Kalissa was more spread out. Ares and some hoplites.

Medusa is out there!

My side.

This is the first time out for the Griffin. I always loved this creature!

The other hoplites of my wife.

Cerberus is attacked by the Griffin and Hyppolyte. On the Left, Perseus and Odysseus are in hand-to-hand combat!

Odysseus and Perseus before they killed each other at the same time!

The Griffin scared off Medusa before she shot him with an arrow and killed it.

The hoplites and Hyppolyte dance on Medusa with spears in revenge for their flying friend.

My hoplites need a drink of water.

I got flanked everywhere!

The victors!

The Games We Play.

 

     It is true that most of my posts have been mainly our Bolt Action stuff my wife and I play. Right now, it is the most showcased due to my terrain projects. It was the other day that a friend of my said the he had not had us over, because of a large set up of an American Civil War game he had going. I, then, told him that we can play that as well. It never dawned on me until that moment that people we know might only think we play certain games. And come to think about, most of our fellow war gamers are never around when we play different rules or time periods with exception of our good friend, Bill who is up for anything. So I figured I was share some highlights of other games my wife and I play.

      Chain Of Command.

       Okay, so this is more WW2 stuff, but this last game was in the dessert in 1942. My wife, Kalissa has a rather large British 8th Army. I have a German DAK counter army. In the shots below, our friends, Hugh and Joe were the Axis Powers versus my wife and I as the British. It is rare that we are on the same side. Also, Kalissa does not particular care for Chain of Command, because is does have it's slow moments. It happens. I do have to agree that there are long pauses in the game, especially, when one side get multiple phases. One game of Chain, I had 9 phases before my opponent did anything. Multiplayer seems to reduce this.

 

Some of our British.

Hugh's Italians. The red strips were represent Barbed wire.

Germans attacking a Valentine Tank.

    Angels 20.

      It is a real shame that this game from Axis and Allies did not take off enough. We've played a few times. The game is fairly simple. And who does not want to shoot down their friends. I still have not fulfilled my challenge to our friend, Rick. I wanted to take one some of his planes with my French planes, that are the worst in the game. Anytime they fail a move, they loose altitude each time until they crash.



This is my German plane exploding in mid-air. The pilot that shoots me down. My wife!

Lions Rampant.
   This is a newer game of Osprey that involves simple combat during Medieval Times. This a fun a bloody game. We will be playing more of it in the future once I finish painting our stuff. I have not got around to modelling terrain for it either. I know once I a commit to building a castle, it will be game over for me. I will just have to terrain out of control!

Kalissa trying out her Mongolians for the first time.

Bill's Knights.

 

Song of Blades And Heroes.

    Our friend, Bill introduced my wife to these rules, and she really liked them. We ended up buying a bunch of woodland critters armed with swords and such. I still have a lot to paint, but they are still good rule sets.



 



My Fox Guards

Kalissa's Mice.

 Ronin.
   Yet another game of Osprey that we like. We actually got all of the factions when this came out. Though, I tend to use my Samurai the most. Kalissa has her "fundamentally peaceful" monks. This changed after she discovered you can cut off heads as an action. This game was Bill's group versus my bandits I had never used. The fact, I have peasants armed with hammers seemed extra amusing.

I found the peasants to be a lot better than I thought.

 

 

 

Black Powder:

     We played a game of Black Powder American Civil War. Though, we do not have anything yet for these rules, both of us have played different time periods.



 



 

 

Of Gods and Mortals:
     We like Greek Mythology. This game covers all mythology. It is awesome!

Athena takes the high ground and uses lightning bolts burrowed from Zeus.

A hoplite becomes a chew toy!

Ares: God of War!

      Anyway, we do need to play some more games. We still need a few armies for the rule sets we have like Muskets and Tomahawks, Pike and Shot, Black Power to name a few. Also, I will eventually finish a future Con Game: Sharknado! Here are some of the characters so far.