Witchfinder General: a Review

When first seeing the fluff on the new Witchfinder General rules I was immediately intrigued. The combination of dark northern European folklore and 16th-17th century wargaming caught my attention instantly with images of foggy cemetaries, mouldy churches and cuirassed pikemen fending off howling werewolves. So I was a sucker for this ruleset at first glance. As fate would have it, I was able to pick them up at Crisis in Antwerp a few weeks later.

WG deals with battling the supernatural evil in 17th century England. Pikemen and musketeers aid witchhunters in their strife against vampires, witches and their human and non-human followers. Among these are the Barguest, the mythical hellhound of English moors and Noctelinger, a kind of ghoul. Humans on both sides fight with musket, pike and edged weapon. If you ever needed another use for your Border reiver figures or an excuse to buy a box of Warlord Pike & Shot plastics, this set is it!

For your money you get a 108 page softcover book with b/w and colour illustrations, mostly pictures of miniatures. Even the examples are usually photographed miniatures. While still a matter of taste, I found them well painted and -presented and actually quite inspirational.

The text is pleasantly spaced single-column and uses bold type to indicate key words and phrases. The book layout seems logical and well thought-out. It has an interactive IGO-UGO system which is explained in a traditional sequence of turn sequence, moving, firing and combat (“Fisticuffs”) and then on to special rules like pikemen, “on guard” (a type of overwatch), skills, troop types and terrain effects. Occasionally one comes upon something not yet explained but reading one usually encounters them soon enough. Fortunately attention has been given to the traditional circumstances of battling werewolves and the like and Gloomy Condition rules are provided for fog and night.  

All this results in a fairly straightforward ruleset that encompasses most things you´d want from it (there are rules for cavalry and cannon as well as for flying witches!) and will probably still function well if you leave everything out except moving, shooting and fighting. I will most likely leave some things out since all the different movement modifiers seem a bit complex to me, but who knows?

It is mostly skirmish “scale”  but besides individual figures units can be given orders as well so pike & shot formations can actually be played as such. The book ends with 6 scenarios to be played separately or as a campaign. Games contain as little as 12 figures or as much as 30 figures per side. Markers are used to keep track of reloading, morale and such things. I am not generally a fan of cluttering your table with markers, so we´ll see how needed these really are...

A downside is that the rules contain a number of tables and no Quick Reference Sheet is provided in the book. There is a main rules summary page that can be photocopied but one memorizes these rules quickly while all the modifiers will require a lot of leafing through the book the first few games. However a PDF version is available as a download on the site as is a PDF with markers .

All in all I am looking forward to my first game and am happily converting some old LOTR Wargs into Barguests. To be continued!

Witchfinder General: days of revelation

Eric Barnes

Dashing Dice Games 2011

http://www.dashingdicegames.co.uk/

Dystopian Wars terrain

Since a very enjoyable amphibious game some weeks ago I played with the idea to make some custom terrain for just such a scenario. Finally finding some time I came up with this:

 The overall layout of the island inspired by some episode of "Coast" ;o)  The beaches (sand-coloured bits) offer possibilities for an amphibious landing. Fir forests and high ground enable cover and reach for the defenders.

 Some small sub-islands were added to create some more interesting possibilities for using the terrain for cover.

 The harbour and the highlands. Note the fir trees.

The low point and the airfield that makes the island strategically important.

Detail of the heavy bunker with twin heavy gun turrets placed on the highest point of the island. I used the spare energy turrets that came with the Covenant dreadnought moored offshore on the picture below.

Detail of the airstrip.

Detail of the harbour and its subterranean shelters and warehouses with the heavy bunker in the background and a smaller AAA bunker on the rocky point to the right. A moored cruiser for scale.

Covenant of Antarctica Dreadnought

My Covenant dreadnought, the terror of my enemies and the paragon of destructive naval power is finally finished. With thanks to Spartan Games who were kind enough to provide me with a spare bridge when that part turned out to be missing.

Note the Covenant of Antarctica flag on the stern. I equipped all my capital ships with flags because they just didn´t have that Victorian feel without pompous banners!

Pulp Adventure native cannibal

A while ago someone stated that the Wargames Factory Zulus were no  good for making Pulp Adventure natives. I said I´d prove him wrong and here is my attempt!

The great warrior Boboti of the Wabapi tribe, ready to defend Skull Island against film crews and other insidious threats!

Finished my Dystopian Wars fleet!

After going on a mad painting spree this weekend I finished my entire DW Covenant of Antarctica fleet. Well, except the Dreadnought since a part was missing and while Spartan games was kind enough to promise to mail me a replacement, it hasn´t arrived yet. Still, without further ado:

The mysterious Callymachus Time Dilation Orb!

Aristotle class battleship with two Galen escorts

Pericles class Carrier with robot drone CAP . I have 3 squadrons of 5 drone stands and a single recon drone.

Plato class cruiser: 3 of these make up a squadron

Plutarch destroyers. Five of these make up a squadron.

One of my two Ptolemy bombers

One of my two Icarus medium flyers.

A Diogenes class frigate.

And the entire fleet!

I can´t wait to try them out in a game.....

Border Reivers at Ducosim

Today we played a Border Reiver game based on GASLIGHT rules on the Ducosim game convention in Amersfoort. We managed three games before my voice and feet gave out (ouch) in which bands of Elliots, Musgraves, Armstrongs and Irvines slaughtered each other for a fine herd of cattle. Crivens! Chased on occassion by the Warden´s Hot Trod to spice up the game a little. Below are pictures of the table, players and figures involved.

Greatest Reiver of all turned out to be little Lucas, who won the game three times in a row!

Great thanks to Folkert and Luc for lending me their figures and terrain and to Folkert for helping me all day!

The table 

 The Hot Trod

 Git me thees chicks, Angus!

 The Price: prime Lowland beef

 Warlord´s magnificent moss trooper model

The Musgraves, one of the four Clans

Mech Mayhem!

For the pas few years the kids next door had been standing with their noses against the glass of the showcase drooling over my toys and games. So finally they had me promise them a game. With Robots! Being 6 and 8 years old, I had to adapt the rules somewhat and so they had a lot of fun destroying my giant robots with their giant robots. Twice.

Here are some pictures:

High noon in Robotown!

The models used were Arii plastic kits (the Glaug/Marauder still has to receive its decals) and Revell 20mm moderns, reinforced with some plastic toys. 

The Great War: 100 Days Offensive

Last night we revisited The Great War rules. Of course I forgot my camera so I´ll make do with some older pictures of games long past ;o)

A Canadian attack group supported by Whippet infantry tanks attacked a German trench battallion during their retreat to the Hindenburg Line in the summer of 1918.

The Germans had entrenched themselves in a ruined village and had covered the road with medium field guns. The Canadians attacked on the German left flank but their concentrated formations suffered heavily from German HMGs and was slowed down signficantly. Despite losing their frontline platoons the Germans managed to stall the Canadians, knock out one tank and call in a Stormtrooper group as reinforcements. The game remained unfinished due to our late start but the Germans were still firmly entrenched at the end of it.

GASLIGHT and Victorian SF

For my coming GASLIGHT VSF games I painted a number of Steampunk figures that had been gathering dust for the last few years. Most of them are made by Steve Jackson Games and a few of unknown (or forgotten by me) manufacturers.

First some of the old Warzone plastics. I went for a more late Victorian VSF feel with swapping some weapons or adapting them. I am not happy about the shoulder pads (but they won´t come off in a pretty way) and I think that the head of the blue "German" officer would be better if I used a British head with a peaked cap.

Then the Masters of Mekaniks! Victorian scientists (not looking all too stable in some cases) and their humanoid contraptions. The guy on the far right even worked on himself!

Then some stylish gents and Ladies (well, women anyway). Note the female trooper of Flashman´s hussar regiment and the Clockwork Cat.

And finally some stalwart Defenders of the Realm; Wargames Factory Zulu war British converted to Home Service dress.

Post Apocalyptic survivors

Some of my painting of the last few weeks. Be it the nuclear winter or World War Z, these people have survived it! But will they survive the next game....?

EM4 Scavengers bought at Crisis last year and already they have been painted! I am so proud of myself. I especially like the stylish gent in the far right of the top picture.