Saturday, March 27, 2021

Ravenfeast: Escort the Priest Scenario and Review

 

Feeling Dark


Me: "Doctor, I just feel like it's coming back after a long time away."

Therapist: "What's coming back?"

Me: "I've just been feeling so Dark lately."

Therapist: "Uh-huh, and how long does this last?"

Me: "Oh, it lasts for Ages. What does it all mean?"

Therapist: "It means that it's time to blog about the Dark Ages on that silly little miniature wargame blog of yours."

Me: "oh, I can do that!  Sounds Great!  Thanks Doc!"

Therapist: "No problem.  Glad I could help.  That will be $500 for the session and I don't take insurance."

Me: "....."


Ravenfeast produced by Little Wars TV


I'm sure most of us are aware of Little Wars TV the youtube channel.  Lots of vicarious fun going on there and a great presentation of what a miniature wargame club could be like (My favorite guy is Keith).   They also do a nice job of promoting 'the hobby' and have put out a FREE set of wargaming rules for the Dark Ages called Ravenfeast.  Billed as a simple wargame aimed at beginners.  Very admirable and the group deserves a lot of praise and support.  It's the first entity that I've seriously thought about supporting on Patreon.  I haven't; I got a family to support and a small drug habit that needs feeding.  But I've thought about it.






I also thought to myself,  "I love the Dark Ages, and I love new rules, and I haven't played a miniature wargame in months, and I'm so bored lately, and I stubbed my toe, and my hair has split ends, I need to have some fun, so why not give the rules a try out?"  Yes, I tend to think in run on sentences.  


Escort the Priest to Victory


Ravenfeast comes with 3 scenarios and there are more online, but I still made up my own escort scenario just for fun-zees.  Here's an attempt at a dramatic backstory:

"King Alfred is moving his armies of Saxons against the Vikings lead by Guthrum.  A great battle will occur soon.  Several days journey from the armies a priest has a vision; If he carries the cross from his holy order of the Incredibly Nice Saint Augustus Nativity Ecclesiarch (or I.N.S.A.N.E) to the battlefield then God will surely grant victory over the heathen Vikings.  So he begins to walk without stopping and word travels ahead of his coming.  A Saxon Earl takes his men to provide an escort for safety and protection.  A Viking Jarl is dispatched to capture/kill/prevent the priest from fulfilling his quest and sets an ambush...."


Set Up: Use the exact same set up as the 'Back to the Boats' scenario in the rule book.

Forces: The Saxons are the Defenders and the Vikings are the Ambushers.  The Ambushers have about 200 more points than the Defenders (in hindsight I reduce this to 100 after playing it).  There are sample troops in the book which also provides the point structure so you can create your own unique profiles.  The forces I used were composed of:

That is 403 points of Saxons and 607 points of Vikings.


I used the open point structure to create the Viking Hirdmen Archer; basically a slightly better archer with some armor, because I HAD THE MODELS and they LOOK COOL.  

Distorted image but you get it....


Objectives: The Saxon Defenders must escort the Priest safely across the table.  The Viking Ambushers must stop that from happening. 

Victory:  The Saxons win a major victory if the Priest and at least one Earl or Earl's Champion exit the table (at which point they are somehow magically saved from further pursuit).  Minor Victory if only the Priest leaves the table.  Anything else and the Viking win.  Dirty Vikings. 

Special: Add to the Saxon force the Priest who has the following profile and special traits:
I made up 3 of those traits.
He has a 3" move because he is tired and carrying something heavy.


Game Pics from the Dining Room Table


RF uses a 4x4 table but I am lazy and didn't want to drag out the folding tables from the garage, so just used my dinner table which is around 3x3.  We'll get to the carnage faster that way.  


Table set up



 
Brave Saxon Defenders guard the Priest.
The Earl is the one with the fancy cloak and the raised sword.
All good leaders point their swords in the air.




Dirty Vikings block the road.
The Viking Jarl is wearing the fur cape.
He's also pointing his sword straight up, so he must be a great at this job.




Saxons (on right) move to block the force


Saxons (on left) use the waddle fence as an obstacle to defend
against the Viking flank attack from the other side.








Mid game






Saxons (foregroud) advance toward the Vikings blocking the road




Shieldwalls form and clash together





General Mayhem as the fight breaks down to individual engagements.
The Vikings are able to start attacking the Priest.  



Oh no, the Viking Jarl and some nameless Bondi
are ganging up on the Priest, there are just not enough Saxons to prevent the attacks.



For awhile there it looks like the Saxons are winning.
Viking dead on the left, Saxons on the right




At this point I had to take a break in game due to the Great Interrupter (otherwise known the baby boy) needing a diaper change, a bottle, and 30 minutes of rocking before going back to sleep.  

When I got back, I played two more turns and the Vikings killed the Priest mainly because the Saxons did not have enough men to block each Viking.  


Rules Review?


You don't really need a rule review for Ravenfeast.  The purchase of rule reviews is to give more information so that folks can decide to buy a set of rules or not, and these are free so no need for that! 

Though here are some observations from my game play:

The rules are really well produced.  These look sooo professional and better than some rules that I've paid for. 
The rules do exactly as intended; it's a simple fun rule set.  Us veteran wargamers might find them a little too simplistic (because we're all tactical geniuses right?!)  And there are some nice general hobby encouragement pieces.  It's very well written as well.  

Other observations:
Miniatures are stuck in combat unless they do a disengage move which grants a free attack with no save, which seems strange to me.    I had several models that were stuck in place for several turns because no one could win a fight.  

For example:
The Viking Champion and Saxon Earl shown above were stuck in combat
basically the whole game just trading blows.



Morale tests happen at the end of a turn, and the rules are a little unclear if miniatures who are stuck in combat should take them.  Or maybe I'm just used to LOTR where miniatures are who are fighting are too busy to take morale tests.  I played it that models DID take morale tests and if they failed made a disengage move. 

Rules don't say if a shield wall could be formed in rough terrain (Shield walls move at half speed and rough terrain is also have speed so would a shield wall in rough terrain be half half? I just played no shield walls in rough terrain.

The rules do mention that if a miniature is attacking over an obstacle it takes a negative modifier to it's melee stat.  This did come up in my game.  But it's unclear what happens when the miniatures get stuck in combat like I was describing.  Is one still considered the attacker?  When the Vikings charged the Saxons defending the fence, I gave the Vikings the negative; but if two models continued to fight over the fence I gave them both the negative.   


Overall though, I had a nice evening messing about with my dark ages stuff.  Scratched an itche if you know what I mean.  Till next time.

25 comments:

  1. Nice review, game looks great and an enjoyable skirmish. I too quite like the little wars stuff, but I already have three or four dark age rules so even free I can’t see me using them.

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    1. Thanks Matt. I also have a number of skirmish rules, my current favorite being clash of spears. But RF seemed like a simple rule set ideal to try out for a small solo game. They played pretty well. 😀

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  2. A lovely compact game / scenario with a lot of action, what’s not to like! Little Wars TV have done a great job on these and if they get people playing a game when they might not otherwise have set one up (that mythical mid-week game), then they have hit their audience mark.

    I know you had a few rule questions, I wonder whether that is a ‘veteran wargamer’ thing. I.e. if someone has never played or been exposed to a wargame before, would they see those gaps that we see, because we are already ‘contaminated’ by other systems and experiences. As an intro set, maybe that aspect is part of ‘the thing’.

    I do like your table and figures and the three viking entry points looks like the making of a very dynamic scenario.

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    1. Thanks Norm! I think both things happen; that my experience with other rules is a set up and that there are some real gaps as well that could use more defining. Such as the shieldwall and obstacles questions. How the melee morale works is probably just me being contaminated. 😀
      But overall I think this is a good product and does what it sets out to do. And it was fun to put some miniatures down and give it a try out.

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  3. Superb game and looks fantastic - made me pick up the rules which seem quite good for a simple set.

    ...almost made me buy some figures - almost...

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    1. Thanks Duc. A free download is easy to do and makes for some light reading. I think most of enjoy reading rules. And these are generic enough that really any sword a shield setting could be used. 😀

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  4. Good to see you scratching out some time for a game, Stew. Even if the rules are free, I think a review would still be useful. Enjoyable BatRep!

    Perhaps you ought to apply for San Francisco's Artist Universal Basic Income to support your efforts?

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    1. Thanks Jonathan! I’ve not heard about the income thingy but I am hours away from the Bay Area.
      I couldn’t help to put some of my observations at the end there; so a kinda miniature review and I’m glad you liked the bat rep; I feel I struggle to write those. 😀

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  5. Dark age skirmish is always good to see: small figure count and small spaces--perfect. Thanks for the report.

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    1. Thanks Ed. Glad you liked it. Though it makes me want to do a bigger game now. 😀

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  6. Great stuff Stew, your table (the new tree plates too) and miniatures look fantastic! I didn't know that the Dark Ages were a period that you had figures for and gamed in, I've been really good about not buying into Saga despite wanting to 😀

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    1. Thanks Ivor. The dark ages collection has not featured much on the blog but it’s one of my favorites. I got a large collection by my standards. I started with saga a long time ago and it just grew and grew...
      though I don’t play saga much anymore as I grew tired of the battle boards mechanics. 😀

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  7. You've been holding out on us, Stew! I think your Dark Ages minis might very well be the best painted ones you own. The pictures from your game looked really sharp and I enjoyed reading your thoughts afterwards. The being stuck in close combat unless you let your opponent get a free attack, seems a bit odd to me but I think morale tests are more puzzling. I guess I come from the LOTR mindset as well! :) Regardless of that, I hope we'll see more Dark Ages stuff as this was a lot of fun to read.

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    1. Thanks Jeff. My dark ages stuff is mixed bag. Some are painted well and some are average. This has put me n the mood for even more dark ages stuff so more will come. 😀

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  8. Nice to see your dark age chaps getting a run out,they look great! As do your tree bases,free rules sounds good, maybe I should get them? Dux Bellorum is still my dark age focus but I'm open to other rulesets!
    Best Iain

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    1. Thanks Iain! You might as well check out the rules: the price is right. 😀
      My current fav fir the dark ages is probably Clash of Spears fir skirmishy fights, but I still haven’t settled on a set fir mass battles.

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  9. Looks like a fun rule set..the Little Wars TV guys also seem like a good bunch of guys. The figures and terrain are all top notch too.

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    1. Thanks Kieth. Yeah, the LW guys look like they’d be a lot of fun to game with. 😀

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  10. I like your Dark Ages collection and enjoyed when we played Hail Caesar, Saga and... Lion Rampant(?). My own is only partly painted and something I really want to get finished up soon. I think though I have enough for a ruleset like this one and it sounds interesting and for the right amount of minis and time I am afforded too... I will print them out on my work printer as I am sure that's what Governor Newsome would want me to do.

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    1. Thanks Dai! Yes we’ve had some dark ages fun together. RF would suit your messily collection fine. 😀. This has really gotten my mojo back for the genre as I’ve let it sit for a long time.
      And I won’t tell you how much stuff I have printed at work. Books really by now. I consider it a perk of employment.

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  11. Nice table top. I like the man to man aspect of the rules. I was reading through the Ravensfeast rules and it seemed like there was no limitation other than having 3+ men or disadvantage to forming a shield wall. Because of that did you find units trying to form shield walls as often as they could?

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    1. Hi Kurt. Thanks for the comment. Sorry to reply late as somehow I missed it.
      To answer your question; the only drawbacks to shieldwall is the reduction to a half move and only being able to move straight ahead. And that it takes a move to form one. I had multiple SWs and yes, they formed them all the time. The +2 defense is a big deal and really increases survival. 😀

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  12. Great stuff! Inspired by this AAR I'm running the same scenario at my local club. I don't have as many figures so it's three Viking warbands of 13 against 16 Saxons; I have given the priest a an escort of four mounted Housecarls to offset the numbers a bit, although one of them has already been felled by an arrow.........And yes, shieldwalls are tough to crack but so easily outflanked!

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