Prufrock's Wargaming Blog

Prufrock's Wargaming Blog

Monday, April 11, 2022

Back on the horse(s)

Well, I stopped procrastinating, rearranged the garage, bought myself a lamp, and started prepping some Greeks for the Mantinea battle day project. I've jumped into cavalry and Theban hoplites first. The figures are a reminder of just how lovely the Xyston figures in this range are - beautifully sculpted, characterfully posed, and nicely proportioned; just slightly north of average for 15mm, they are not yet at the giant stage that the Hellenistics became - but also of how much of a pain it is to drill out hands for spears. 

The other problem of course it that they are intimidating. For a limited painter such as myself there is always the feeling that you won't be able to do them justice. 

Garage prep space.

But making a start is the thing. 

In other news I succumbed to an artfully placed ad while browsing TheBookDepository and ordered Undaunted Normandy. It arrived on Saturday (along with my Landmark Caesar, which is just as good as I'd hoped) and I opened it up for a wee test run on Sunday.

The first scenario in the game booklet

The first thing you notice is that the components look a lot nicer on the table than they do in photos. I was impressed enough to almost go and order the expansions on the strength of the look and feel alone. Better sense prevailed however, and I decided that I would force myself to discover whether I actually liked the game before ordering anything more (radical idea, I know!). 

How is the game? Well, I must preface my comments with the caveat that while I love the idea of squad level WWII games, in practice I mostly find them ho-hum. This one might turn out to be all right. It has a card management aspect to it that I think could be quite enjoyable with the right opponent. Solo it lacks a bit, but then that is true for most games. 

The essence of the game seems to be to build up the cards in your draw deck so as to allow you to string together move and fire sequences (or fire and move sequences, if you prefer) that will put your opponent under pressure. Interestingly, when you fire and hit an opponent's piece, you don't remove the piece, you remove one of the cards which could activate that piece. The piece is only removed when there are no accessible cards for it remaining.

So there is a natural attrition there, but it takes place in the card decks, not on the board itself. Your pieces become less able to act the more they are hit (i.e. there are fewer cards left in the deck left with which the piece can be activated), and the more pieces move, the more undesirable cards are introduced into the deck, thus making it less likely that you'll be able to pull the cards you want when you want them. This is presumably a mechanism to represent the difficulty of coordinating effectively over longer distances.

Pleasingly, Undaunted doesn't have those overpowered 'heroic leadership' pieces which seem to drive so many tactical WWII games. Leadership is abstracted into allowing you to choose cards to put in your deck, and is not the old '+2 to hit when Sergeant Skegg is stacked with your MG squad' type arrangement. 

Not an heroic NCO in sight!

I only played through about five or six turns, but will do a proper review when I've had the chance to mangle my way through a couple of games. 

A good weekend, then! I hope any readers who've got this far also had a productive Saturday and Sunday.

Cheers! 


17 comments:

  1. Dude don't be hard on yourself, I've seen your work and it's absolutely fine. That lamp on the other hand is going to cause you more problems then help. You need a shade on it for direction of light, and to shield your eyes or you'll go blind. One of the most important aspects to painting is setup. You must be comfortably, and more importantly have a really good lighting system. I've got two swing arm desk lamps that clamp on to your desk so you can swing the light around when needed. You can get these from Amazon or a Home Depot type store relatively cheap. You won't regret it.

    I've seen that game but have avoided it for other reasons based on reviews. I am interested to hear what you have to say after you've played a few games. I used to play TONS of the old Avalon Hill game "Up Front" and that was a blast.

    Cheers
    Kevin

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    1. Cheers Kevin, good advice. This lamp is just for prepping (filing bases, drilling hands), and not for painting, so will only be used in short stretches. Might look for a shade for it though.

      I haven't played Up Front, but its reputation precedes it for sure!

      Cheers,
      Aaron

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  2. Looking forward to watching your armies grow, Aaron! Great to see a renaissance in your wargame blogging.

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  3. Xyston are lovely indeed. And I'm sure you'll do them more than justice.

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    1. I'll muddle through with base, shade, and the odd highlight, but won't paint them like a master would (but that's ok - they'll match the rest of my figures)!

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  4. Museum Miniatures 15mm Z Range Greeks are worth a look too Aaron, though I find the hoplite shields are too large, they're all one piece castings.

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    1. Yes, interesting figures. Some investigation in order, I think!

      Cheers Mike

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  5. Prep work can be hard going! I can only second what Kevin has said, over the past year or so I have attempted to improve my lighting using a combination of LED strip lamp and another smaller LED lamp with a flexible neck.

    I grabbed a few Xyston, for their heads to give to my 20mm stuff they are very characterful miniatures and I know you will do them justice!

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    1. Lighting is a tricky one to get right all right. Still thinking about best way to approach the paint desk.

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  6. 'A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step'

    Very much looking forward to seeing more, but I must agree with the others that the lighting set-up is a bit harsh. Hopefully it is only temporary.

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  7. And Undaunted looks quite interesting!

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    1. Yes, keen to give it a bit of time on the table. If it's good, I'll be pleased!

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  8. Xyston are really great minis. I have some painted Alexandrian Macedonian figures and Gauls I bought off a friend a few years ago.

    I believe Undaunted Normandy is a really good game. I bought it so Dale Hurtt and I could play it (remotely). Alas I never had a time that aligned with his. It has been over a year now.

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    1. I'd be keen in principle for a remote game if it could work. That said, Cyrus and I have still not got past game two in our Commands & Colors: Ancients Vassal plans, due to my work/life/study situation at the mo. Maybe something to look at though down the track?

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  9. Good luck with your painting!

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