Here I Stand

 Here I Stand is a boardgame of Early Modern Europe, combining military, theological and diplomatic action into a very complex card-driven map-based game. My brother rounded us all up and learned the rules, and also put together themed music playlists and drink options. It was a blast.

 I decided to chip in by building miniatures to replace the standees that represent the military commanders on the board. I initially thought there was just one per faction, but there's more! I did have a couple preexisting minis that were relevant, but I had to do a lot of converting. It got a little rushed but overall they turned out quite well enough for the group.

 

The game standees have tiny portraits, so I explored Wikipedia and sometimes Google image search to get fuller pictures of the individuals in question. I did get a little creative to distinguish some of the plainer-dressed commanders.  Fun fact: Montmorency's tennis racket is not an anachronism (except maybe very specifically in the details of form, he was Francis' tennis buddy), but Dragut's telescope predates their actual invention by decades. 

 

 The game itself was a blast! We called it at the end of turn 5 or 6, since it was 2 in the morning, and my Ottomans had the most VPs (by one!) at that point, but I doubt I would have won if we played to a proper game end. 

I did feel bad about the Papacy not having any commanders to model, I had meant to bring some of the Catholic minis from my previous post so the Papal player wouldn't feel left out... but it turned out he had a better way to represent his faction: 

Primavera Occulta battle report - rounds 3 through 5

 Marenghi turn 3

Astolfo rolls (vs his Phys stat, since it is a buried treasure) to claim objective, and succeeds! Meanwhile, Adelaide charges the henchman who recently attempted to charge her, and her attack is more successful than his defense so she deals a point of damage. 

Arturo himself decides to attack his own halberd-wielding foe, but since this is the point at which I remembered that spells must be cast with specific card suits, he must resort to physical attacking, which is not his forte. He deals one point of damage. His spirit also attacks, but draws too high a card and misses (spirits never roll).

Von Hahn turn 3

Dieter reloads his crossbow. The halberdier attacks Adelaide but misses. Kaspar rolls to claim the bookshelf objective, but fails (rolling vs Ment because he has to locate the correct text). Father Schmidt attempts to charge the opposing spirit, but fails and only stumbles forward his normal 4”. His spirit also attempts that charge, making good time but barely falling short. The hireling swings at Arturo but misses

 Marenghi turn 4

Astolfo charges the henchman halberdier, and deals enough damage to remove him from the game! Hirelings have a special rule that they flee/surrender/play dead after any reasonably strong hit, but Astolfo deals enough damage to kill him outright.

Adelaide charges Kaspar von Hahn, causing one damage total after his armor takes effect. Arturo lashes out at the wounded halberdier, but misses. The hound spirit also targets the halberdier, dealing enough damage to drive the hireling from the battle.

Von Hahn turn 4

Von Hahn swings at Adelaide, and she is taken out (all her Phys points in one hit, ouch!). Father Schmidt casts Speculative Masonry against Arturo with a 6 (best Diamond card he had) but Arturo counters with the Queen of Hearts from his hand (this is a critical success for his character type, a harsh price to pay to counter a moderately powerful casting, but Arturo wants to make good his escape). Dieter shoots once more at Astolfo, dealing one point of damage (and that only because I on-the-spot houseruled that cover works differently than originally written). The Greek Spirit attacks the hound spirit and misses.

Marnghi turn 5

Arturo is unable to run with objective, so he makes a regular move toward the board edge, only just manainge to cross the wall. The hound spirit attacks the other spirit but misses. Astolfo charges Kaspar to avenge Adelaide; he successfully closes the distance and makes the hit, but Kaspar's armor lets him play a Diamond card to cancel it.

Von Hahn turn 5

Desperate to stop Arturo's flight, and lacking the card to try Speculative Masonry again, Father Schmidt charges!

He makes contact and penetrates Arturo's defense, dealing 2 damage. Kaspar attacks Astolfo, but misses. This, however, is where I remember that melee combat is “two-sided”, so Astolfo also rolls and deals 6 damage, reduced to 3 by Hahn's armor (but still a mighty blow, Hahn is down to half his starting Phys points). Dieter runs towards the bookshelf, hoping to claim the only unclaimed objective while the two armored veterans trade blows, but he bogs down in the pond. The spirits fight to a draw.

Things are really heating up! Two hirelings and one Initiate down, nearly everyone else injured, two of three objectives in hand. A couple more turns should do it! I just need to be better about remembering my own rules...

Primavera Occulta battle report - rounds 1 and 2

I probably should have posted the deployment in the previous post, but since I forgot I'll put it here. Arturo Marenghi unsurprisingly decided to deploy in the center, leaving von Hahn and his men to deploy along any three board edges. They deployed along the North, West, and South edges since the house (played as impassable terrain owing to the unfinished inside) would make fleeing East more challenging for the defenders.

Also, I neglected to mention that any summoned spirit needs a designated master. For both warbands, I chose the Scholar character (Arturo and Father Schmidt).

(Unfortunately, due to poor phone battery charge planning, there are no more pics until the end of round 2.)

The first turn mostly involved movement and ranged attacks, as is to be expected in nearly every miniature wargame. Arturo began his side's turn by claiming the objective he deployed adjacent to (with no roll needed thanks to his spirit), while Astolfo and Adelaide struggled to make progress towards the objective up on the crag. The hound spirit did attempt to impede Father Schmidt with a magic spell, but Schmidt was able to use a card to defend.

Von Hahn's warband also moved into position, except that Schmidt and the Greek spirit decided to stay put and cast spells (there are no range limitations in the game, since the board overall is not large.) They were able to inflict one point of damage on the hound spirit. One of the halberdiers did make unexpectedly fast progress toward his foes, ending his move right next to Arturo even despite the intervening wall. However, he was unable to attack, as he had not thought to declare a charge.

The second roundopens with Arturo Marenghi feeling quite distressed at the proximity of the enemy halberdier, so he casts Blasting Force, propelling the hireling a full eight inches away. While no spell inherently deals Physical damage, the hireling takes a point of damage for being pushed over the wall. If the wall had been high enough to block movement, he would have taken five points!

Astolfo succeeds this time in climbing up to the objective, and will be able to test to claim it next turn. Adelaide attempts to follow, to provide healing support to the beefy halberdier, but is unable to negotiate the rough terrain. She's not really dressed for bouldering, I guess. 

The hound spirit attempt to use magic to pin the recently-launched halberdier in place, seemingly a safe bet since the hireling can only draw a card for defense instead of playing from his team's hand... but he draws an ace and is unaffected.

Kaspar von Hahn's turn begins with the priest and the spirit both using the Prepare action to draw additional cards from their hand. One of their cards appears to be a double-back misprint, surely an omen! for the sake of the playtest, however, the misprinted card is set aside and a new one drawn. The 6 and 7 thus received are not ideal for a game where low is better, but they'll just have to make do.

The crossbow-wielding squire takes a potshot at the remarkably prominent Astolfo, but misses outright, although he might have had trouble penetrating the armor even if he had hit.

The halberdier accompanying Dieter goes after seemingly easier prey, but his poor rolling and Adelaide's better luck result in him overshooting his charge as she sidesteps.

The other halberdier likewise charges, but Arturo's defense means that no hit is actually scored.

And so ends the first couple turns of this playtest. Most characters have suffered no damage, and none has taken serious damage. The defenders have claimed one objective, and each remaining objective will, barring bad luck, be claimed by opposing initiates in the next round.

Primavera Occulta battle report - initial set-up

 After tweaking the rules somewhat, I've decided to play another solo Primavera Occulta game, and document it a little more thoroughly on the blog. This time I'm going to go real slow, only playing one or two turns a night so I have plenty of time to take notes and consider the rules as I go. To refresh you memory, Primavera Occulta is a game I am writing for small-scale skirmishes in the Italian Wars, with a period-specific supernatural element.

So, this post covers the set-up, or perhaps the pregame phase.

I started with the two opposing sets of Initiates. These are the core of the warband, the nobles and veteran warriors united in their search for esoteric knowledge. Each warband has three initiates, one of each Archetype: The Warrior, the Scholar, and the Apprentice. These correspond to the King, Queen, and Jack card respectively. Each player distributes 8 special rules across the three Initiates, no more than 4 per character

One the left is Kaspar von Hahn, accompanied by Father Schmidt and his squire Dieter. Kaspar has the Leader, Armor, and Heavy Armor rules. Schmidt has rule Orator, and the spells Stupefaction and Speculative Masonry. Dieter has the Ranged Weapon and Armor rules.

One the right, Astolfo has the Armor, Heavy Armor, Big Blade and Bad War rules. Arturo Marenghi has the Leader rule, and the spells Blasting Force and Enticing Visions. His wife Adelaide is a Healer.

Next, the players are each dealt 10 playing cards. They bid up to two cards each on the Recruiting subphase (the winner get more hirelings or more powerful spirits), and the Scouting subphase (winner has more control over terrain placement and deployment. Higher cards are more valuable here, as opposed to lower cards in the actual battle. Certain suits are better in one or the other.

Having won the Recruitment subphase, von Hahn obtains the services of two halberdiers (hirelings with the Big Blade rule), and summons a minor spirit in the form of a young piper from Ancient Greece. Arturo Marenghi summons a spirit as well, his taking the form of a great hound. The former spirit is an aid to magic, and the latter helps claim treasures, but they are otherwise identical ruleswise.

While Marenghi was less successful in recruiting, he was able to scout more effectively, and set up the terrain to his advantage. He has placed a strong defensive position in the center of the board, which he will occupy in the next post.

To be continued...

new Swiss, new apartment

Hey all, pandemic precautions have been less productive than would be expected, on account of moving to a whole new apartment. But I finally unpacked enough to resume hobby activities! Have some freshly-painted Swiss skirmishers:

As before, batchpainting for convenience. The final units will be more varied.

Swiss Pike Block

Finished a few batches of Swiss, a fairly haphazard mix of Perry Mercs and Warlord Landsknechts. Some combos turned out better than others, but overall I'm pretty happy with the approach.

Italian Wars officer types

I tried mashing together Landsknecht and Perry Mercenary bodies with ECW arms and bits, I think it works out pretty well even if the details are a bit off. Also trying out the camera on my new cell phone, not bad.

Landsknechts, now with arquebuses and doppelsoldners

Oh yeah, this project is coming together. This is basically 1/3rd of what I have in mind for the Landsknecht component of my Italian Wars collection. Overall, my plans are mostly modeled after Olicanalad's interpretation of the Battle of Novara.

Landsknecht Pike Block

Since I was pretty pleased with how the test Landsknechts went, I painted up a couple more batches. Mixing them all together works out quite well, I think! Such a colorful bunch.

No flags until the end of the whole project, sorry.

Italian Wars - infantry proofs-of-concept

So I painted up the landsknechts in the previous post, and a few more infantry as well. The Swiss are a mix of Warlord Landsknecht bits and Perry Mercenaries (including some separate metal heads the Perrys produce), with some greenstuffed codpieces to boot.

(Yeah, I know that neither side of the Italian Wars wore uniform colors, I'm just going to batchpaint different color combos out of laziness and then mix them up when they're all done.)

Italian Wars, because why not

Picked up a bunch of Warlord Games plastic Landsknechts a while back, just for funsies. A lot of them are being assembled as-is, but I can't help adding a little variety here and there. I took a pic of some typical examples.

Conversion details from left to right: Warlord Celt head; press-molded hat; greenstuff sleeves; greenstuff beard; head and body from ranged weapon kit; Warlord Celt head and Perry Mercenary arms.

Celtic and Germanic cavalry

Still Warlord, still unconverted. I'll get to the shield transfers eventually...

Project Barbarian returns! German and Celtic skirmishers

Getting inspired by the release or Warlord's SPQR skirmish battle system to catch up on my ancients backlog. Just some unconverted Warlord Games metals here, simple but fun.