OAAH Dominar Rigel has Worm, will use.

Once again, the superb Of Armies And Hordes are a fantasy set of rules, yet handles VSF very well.

Fiendish Dominar Rigel has escaped with the worm. Now he incites the worm cult to attack the British – who are a bit peeved at the loss of their squad.

You may notice a Martian VSF bias.  For this I make no applelogies, it will continue (as will my overspending) until I do the demo game in February. Excelsior.  

Thus is the thin excuse! Nice change, small games leading into larger. Look, I’ve paid 'n painted the worm and the SAS and now I want to use them, OK? 

 I can rarely afford to do big wopping orders, so I try and “add value” to existing forces bit by bit, moment by moment.  My Brits have benefited from a mounted officer(s) and the SAS.  By far the "bargain basement" force is my worm cult.  Their existence gives the excuse to buy big worms.  No other reason, not even sure why-.  I have the other big alternative army worm and its smaller kin.  This one had been sitting around for a few months waiting for the superglue.  So failing to find one spurred the assembly of second.

Apologies for lack of paint but my hand just didn't want to work.

We'd never tried a flank march.  I know at least one sneaky bastard (yes you, Mr Mackie) who cites his border reiver heritage to justify continual usage.  These rules are comprehensive and it'll take us a while to get into every nook & cranny. 

*Burrowing.  Had a long hard look and decided to treat the burrower as an ambush predator.  So rather than moving it was in place.  We diced for location (6x6 area table) and the beast would attack as normal any unit in range.  If it moves underground then that's visible. If it has the activations it can attack 1 square away then retire.  We used a marker to identify the hole.  Unlike some, there's no limit to the number of burrower units used.  So I could have a "worm pack".  Possibly defending an area like a living mine field.  But I'm thinking that controlling (rather than training) such a creature would be difficult from a distance.  This may be fantasy, but it still needs firm internal logic to make it work.  Having super smash-em all units great for kids, but hardly fun to play with or against.

Magic.  I kept the 2 magic users to Q4.  This resulted in absolutely no magic being used in both games.  I thought of these as amateurs as opposed to the professionals found elsewhere.

As a reminder Q3 C1 A8 refers to: 
Quality 3 score needed on, up to 3,  D6 to gain activation, 1 failure is a potential reaction.  2 failures is an initiative swap OR 2 reaction, 3 fails initiative swap plus 1 reaction OR 3 reactions.

Combat 1 (not shooting) is the plus added to a D6 roll(s) 1 is always a  fail, 6 is a kill.   To beat -
Armour 8 In this case an attacker needs a high attack factor to beat.  Usually its lots of pugalists with pointy sticks hoping to get a 6.


The Dominars flank march  (this can be up to 4 units, here there's 3 as I set a limit of 500)

Dominar Rigel 3 1 8 Sub general, Beast Lord, Shoot1, Fast, Fly, extra lives 2. 129
(Beast Lord acts as a general to such forces.  In this case it represents the control mechanism for the worm)

Giant Worm 4 4 7 monster L3, Tough, Trample, Fear, Extra lives 4 199

Hits 4+ ignore. Fear, Morale 1D.

Cultists 5 2 5 Shoot1, Rabble 10x 17 =170

Sub total 498

Cultists

Priest General 4 2 4 Spellcaster, Summon monster, Bolster, Chaos = 63

Summon monster 3 actions. 1 per game. Own area, immediate activation.

Bolster 1,2,3 actions, 1 unit no range. Gains steadfast +1 morale rolls.

Chaos 2 actions, 1 square. Target unit is disordered.

Cultists 5 2 5 Shoot1, Rabble 32 x 17 = 544
(Rabble means they are cheap & lose 2 per kill)

Beast Lord 3 1 5 Spell caster, Alter terrain, Curse, Frenzy 72

Alter terrain 1,2,3 (last per) unoccupied, clear to rough, bridge or ford, road, hill into diff type.

Curse 2 actions, 1 use, any range, target -1 A or D end of game.

Frenzy 2 actions, 1 use, any range, target +1 activation & reaction per game..

Huge worm 4 4 6, Monster L4 *Burrowing, Trample, Fear, Fast, Extra lives 4. 214

Medium worms 4 3 6 Monster L2 Tough, Fast, Extra lives 2. 3 x 123 =369

Small worms 4 2 5 Monster L1 Tough, Fast, Extra lives 1. 3 x 78 =234

Sub total 1,496

Sub total 498

1,994

British  (I forgot to point out the General, but they are near enough equal) 

General Sir Stanley Acrington. 3 3 5 General, Mounted, Shoot1, Extra lives 2.

Charabang 4 2 6 Chariot, Trample, Tough 63

(carrying) Infantry 4 2 4 Shoot2, Drilled. 8 x 45 = 360 total 423 x 3 = 1,269

Special Ariel Service 4 2 5 Shoot2, Drilled, Fly, Fast 8 x 68 = 544

Scout 4 2 6 Chariot, Scout, Trample, Tough, Artillery2. 2 x 83 166

The Game. I took the Brits, as I know Tony has a close affinity with Dominar Rigel.  Curiously, despite all the plusses, the scouting roll was a drawl.  If I had one I could have put my scouts anywhere and known on what flank the flank march was to arrive.  I advance in column as is proper, what?

The SAS receive  repeated attacks.  You're limited to 3 of each size monster and these are individual units.  Stops them getting overpowering.

The worm!  The brute attacks the charabang then the infantry spilled from it.  The remnant retreat as does the worm.

This one did better.

And the third-.

A pause, the beast lord advances to the left.

Now here's a thing.  my scout has a target (the next square) in range of its machine guns (classed as artillery)

I targeted the general, who retreated.  Close, real close.

The cultists swarm over the scout, pitting flesh against wood, steel and lead.

The scout did poorly leaving the cultists triumphant.

I form the infantry up-.

The second scout is facing the same fate.

The second scout dashes in and unleashes vengence - doing nothing.

The SAS took the honour, smashing into the cultists with cold steel.  They are undone, but only 2 SAS remain.

The cultists have a natural dislike of the machine gun and once again my scout goes down to the Martian wave.

This one does even worse-

I charged a loan worm with a charabang and got the worst of it!  There are crocs who's party piece is to bite off working outdoor motors.  Our conjecture was that a wheel was probably worried.

The worm attacks again! The infantry first, but the fighting is taking its toll and when engaging the Colonel, it expires but not before killing Sir Stanley Acrington.

Alas, my morale broke, a general withdrawl ensues.  So the cultists had won!  What was worse, the Dominar has not turned up.

Game 2.  Usual swapsies.  You'll note that I put the smaller worms in one place with the beast master.

Tony leads with the SAS and having won the scouting roll his scouts were advanced and he knew the side from which the Dominars forces would encroach.

My advance was a wee bit more - ragged.

The scout lays onto my monsters.  The beastmaster is killed.  There were no shooting casualties to the beasts, but I lose half to morale.  I just keep the big one!

The worm gets its revenge!  Then disappears.

Get out of the bus!

My infantry advance on a reaction and the SAS clash into them.

They get the worst of shooting. I should have lost 2.  The depleted SAS destroy the cultists but perish in the action.

The other scout gets some decent shooting in, clobbering cultists.

Then it sensibly retires.

Hurrah! Hurrah, here comes the Dominar! as the dice shows, on the second attempt.  Cultists first, to be met by British in strong melee.

The Brits suffer in the shooting.

Alas, all perish in the woods.

The worm again, emerging to squash an nonthreatening charabang.

In comes the other worm from the furthermost corner.

And now the Dominar.

Now the worm crashes into the infantry, the survivors retire.

Now the charabang in destroyed!

The worm has suffered and it is destroyed by Sir Stanley Acrington.

But what's this?  A large worm sneaks through the carnage and engages the General.

Now the burrower goes again.  But it to has suffered.  It is brought low but at a cost.

Now the British attempt an orderly withdraw.  No, it's dice - not painted nails.

It's that worm again!

And again!  These like vehicles, don't they?

Charabang bashed.  Infantry retire after an ineffectual attack and counter attack.

My remnant infantry attacks the disordered Brits.

They kill half, but are dispatched.

So 4 infantry and a scout get away.  I had 1 full unit, General, the Dominar 1 large, 2 small worms.

2 games with lots of movement, surprises and hard bashing in 3 hours.  Excellent.  Worms all worked well. 

Many thanks for the many kind comments I've had recently. It's encouraging to know I'm inspiring others and I hope to see their efforts some day!