Miniature Wargaming with Spudnick: AAR: Of Gods And Mortals: Ares Commands the Day.

Sunday, October 23, 2016

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.