Dragon Fight - Gold Rush - Scenario

Dragon Fight - Gold Rush!

I have been playing a 1990's PC game Drakan - Order of the Flame recently and it got me thinking about Dragon Fight again. But until I get a load of mountain scenery, catapults, Crow Dragons and Wartoks, this will have to do...

Dragon Fight - Gold Rush, or the Treasure of Skegness is a scenario seed for Dragon Fight! 
It borrows a scenario from the Pirates of the Spanish Main CSG game. 

Skegness, the greatest Dragon of the realm has been robbed by mannish adventurers and her golden hoard scattered! As an up-and-coming greatest Dragon, this is your opportunity to grab GOLD, show the other Dragons who's boss and earn some Prowess.

You will need:

• At least three players, more is better;
• A Playing area; a 6x4 table top should be fine.
• One Dragon (or other Flier) for each player; Each Dragon should start with 20GP distributed between Strength, Agility and Combat. Each Dragon can also have up to 12 GP to spend on Prowess, Defence or Breath Weapon/Special Attacks.
• Each Dragon will need their own Lair; Each Lair is a scenic item, such as a cave mouth, ruined tower, mountain top, volcano or deep dark lake. Use your imagination. Lairs are chosen and located in Strength order, roll Strength Dice for each Dragon. Highest gets first choice. Might is Right! Lairs should be located around the perimeter of the Playing area. Roll 1D6 for each Lair, this is the height band each Lair is placed at. note the Height Band next to each Lair.
• In the middle of the playing area is the Lair of Skegness. This should be suitably impressive. (Any one who has actually been to Skegness will know what to look for!)
• Scattered around the Lair of Skegness are the bits of her Hoard. If you don't have piles of gold, items of magic or caskets of precious jewels handy, you can use dice instead. You will need two bits of treasure for each player. Players take it in turn to place Treasure on the Playing Area. (Alt. Scenery and Treasure could all be placed by a referee before hand.)

Each Dragon starts in their Lair. Use the Lair's HB when rolling for Precedence on the first turn.

The object of the game is to steal treasure and return it to your Lair. You can take treasure from the scattered bits of hoard, or try to steal it from another Dragon. You can not take Treasure from another Dragons Lair. They are well guarded and hidden even if the owning Dragon is away.

Dragon's pick up Treasure from the Ground by landing next to the item. They can attempt to take off again on the following round.

Dragons can carry up to their capacity of Treasure items. Note: A Strength D4 Dragon can carry one Item without penalty.

Dragons can steal Treasure from each other by winning a round of combat. The winning Dragon can choose to take an item of Treasure rather than inflicting a wound. The robbed Dragon chooses which item is taken.

I would recommend that you do not play to the death! If a Dragon receives a fatal wound, they must drop half (rounded down) of any treasure they are carrying and flee back to their Lair until the next game.

The game is over when at least three quarters of the Treasure has been returned to a Lair.

Dragons earn one Victory Point for each piece of Treasure they return to their Lair.
Dragons earn one Victory Point for each round of Combat they win.

When the game finishes roll each Treasure dice and add up the total in each Dragon's possession. The Dragon with the highest total gets another Victory Point.

The Dragon with the most Victory Points gets possession of Skegness's Lair next game.

Have fun and play nice.

Slammer SMLE - Troop Quality

Troop Quality

Each element requires a troop quality rating that represents the general level of training and experience of the figures in the unit. In a section level game you may want to give each figure its own rating, to represent the figures individual fighting ability. The entire team should still have a troop quality rating for Activation purposes. This should represent the majority or average level of the figures in the team. (Elite round up; Others round down.)

For a platoon level game, all the figures in a team should have the same rating.

Leaders, Heroes or other significant individuals should always be given an individual quality rating. These may be different from the other figures in their team.

Suggested Troop quality ratings and typical examples are as follows:

Non-combatants

Very few wars take place in a vacuum, anywhere worth fighting over has people living there already. Mostly they will try to avoid the fighting, but sometimes the war comes to them. They may try to avoid your troops or come to you for help or need protecting. Unarmed civilians can be dangerous in numbers if they are provoked to outright hostility. 

e.g. Ordinary folks, refugees, angry citizens, civilian contractors, rioters, innocent-bystanders, camp-followers, prisoners/hostages/victims, charitable aid, disaster relief, medics or nursing staff, etc.

Non combatants may also include journalists or political observers embedded with active troops.

Untrained

Figures with no formal military training and little or no combat experience. Armed civilians are usually rated as untrained. Untrained may also include Insurgents, irregulars and or tribal units. These may have some familiarity with their weapons but have little experience of being shot at by capable opponents.

Guerrillas, Partisans, Insurgents, tribal irregulars, volunteers, resistance fighters, criminals/ terrorists, etc.

Green

Figures that have completed a programme of basic military training but have little or no front-line combat experience; May include troops from second-line or supporting services, or new reinforcements in a frontline unit.

Reservists, Militia; Garrison troops, New recruits; Irregulars; Corporate Security; Civilian Police*;

Gangsters; Terrorists.

[* while Police might be treated as Green in a military situation, they may be Elite motivation.]

Trained

Fully-trained competent troops and regular soldiers;

Trained is assumed to be the default level for teams in SMLE , they gain no additional modifiers or incur any penalty. Most regular Military types would be rated as trained.

Veteran

Combat experienced well trained professional soldiers, Long service soldiers who have served a tour of duty in a combat zone. In most armies the Veterans will tend to be section or platoon leaders whilst the majority of the unit are trained or green.

Generally poorer troops should be organised into larger teams; e.g. Green = 4 - 6 figures.

Better quality troops i.e. Veteran and Elite may form smaller teams of 2 - 4 figures.

This is intended to simulate the higher level of initiative and self confidence in better quality troops.

Note, if a team has a support weapon e.g. LMG, Mortar, etc. that counts as one figure.

For Example:

A typical trained infantry team would be 3 to 5 figures.

A special forces section of 4-6 figures might have 2-3  veteran teams of 2-3 figures each.

A partisan group of 10-12 figures would have 2 green teams of 4-6 figures.

An non-combatant group of rioters or refugees could be treated as a single mob of up to 12 figures.

Our example British Infantry Section could be played as two Trained teams, The section corporal with 4-6 riflemen and the lance corporal with two men running the Bren gun.

In a set scenario the Troop Quality should be determined before the game starts, or may be randomly determined at the start of a game.

For example;

The British Infantry section mentioned previously rolls 1D6 for each element as follows:

1,2	Green	New recruits & casualty replacements
2,3,4,5	Trained	Troops who have been in the unit long enough to know their way around
6	Veteran	Experienced troopers who have been through a few hard fights

In addition one roll should be made for the section leader with a +1 dice modifier.

Slammer vs Bolt Action ?

At my local Games club last week, I was watching a game of Bolt Action,  28mm WW2 skirmish(?). Russians and Germans fighting through a village on a crossroad. 

Lots of pretty toys and very nice terrain. It seemed to play quickly with a minimal reference sheet and a bucket load of funny dice. The apparently random initiative and lack of overwatch or reaction to enemy movement seemed very strange to me. Also the shooting ranges seemed very short for the figure scale. I got the impression that a MG couldn't shoot from one end of a cottage to the other!


It's got me hankering to re-try Slammer S.M.L.E. I don't know if I can persuade my club comrades to try my rules but I suspect it would give them a very different game. 
With that in mind I have started reappraising SMLE and may have an updated version or work in progress up here soon.

http://chrisnicolegames.blogspot.co.uk/p/smle-skirmish-rules-for-ww2-and-c20.html

I took Grandson Logan (12 yo) to the club last Tuesday evening.
We played Dragon Fight,
He won.
:o)



Now he wants to try WH40K...

Where did I go wrong ?!!

:o(

Dragon fight - Third play test

I ran another solo play-test for Dragon Fight 2.

This time I played the Large Green vs the Night Fox. Both 30 pt designs, but the Big Green looks like more Dragon for your points. Night Fox's smaller Body Dice meant he got to use Agile manoeuvres. Big Green had to stick with more stately Soaring and Banking.
As it was Night Fox's Breath was pretty ineffective compared to Strike. I really need to look at the Flaming Breath rules...

Changes this time,

• I rolled a single Wings dice at the beginning of each Round for Precedence and Movement Points. 
• I used gaining or losing Speed when Climbing or Diving to modify start of round Wings roll's. 
• I made Tight Turns [60'-90'] an Agile Manoeuvre.

Night Fox got lucky on the starting Height Band rolling a double 2 for HB = 8 (2 +6)
Big Green rolled a 3 and a 1 for HB = 3

Big Green.    Started at position 6, Height Band  = 3
Body:  D10  +1
Wings: D8  +1
Strike:  D8  +1
Defence:     +1
Breath:   -

Night Fox.       Started at position 1, Height Band  = 8
Body:   D6  +1
Wings:  D8  +1
Strike:  D6  +1
Defence:    +1
Breath:  D6

Night Fox's Height advantage gave him Precedence for the first two rounds whilst Big Green soared for more height. As Green had to climb he was losing Speed each round which effected his initial Wings rolls. Even so for the first four Rounds, Big Green got more MP and as he was using a D10 template he moved much further than Night Fox's D6 template. Both Dragons circled gaining height.

On Round 3 Green won Precedence. Fox went on the offensive performing a Wingover to dive into Breath range of the larger Dragon. Fox rolled a 1 for Breath +1 for Speed gain, which Green shrugged off with a Body roll of 9. Green was now at HB 7 whilst Fox was back down to HB 8.

On Round 4 Green won Precedence again. Fox swooped in for a Strike rolling a 4 which Green shrugged off again with Defence of 1 and a Body roll of 5. This time Green made four Turns to bring him into Striking range of Fox. Green's Strike roll of 4 less 1 defence  was just beaten by Fox's Body roll of 4.

On Round 5 Night Fox won precedence again. As it was getting near going home time, Green curved off to head back for his lair. Fox chased after and struck rolling a 6+1 for 7 damage. Green Countered rolling 3+1 for 4 damage. Both dragon's Defence took one off the damage, Fox rolled a 3 for body equalling the damage. Green rolled a 3 meaning a major wound, then a location roll of 1 for a head wound. Fox wins by a knockout!

Interesting game as the two dragons appeared mis matched at first. Big Green came over as rather lazy relying on his greater size to intimidate, while Night Fox showed a real aggressive streak. 

Flaming Breath has been totally ineffective in all the play tests so far. I may have to go back to the machine gun rules from Fokker Fodder.

Dragon Fight - Play Test 2

Dragon Fight 2

Second Play Test 12th May 2015

I had another solo play-test of Dragon Fight. Flying my Red and Green example dragons over 9 rounds.

The new manoeuvres seem to work well but combat was pretty inconclusive.

There was plenty of conflict as both Dragons got chances to hit each other and they both took damage but only Red took a Wound, reducing his Breath Weapon to D4.

As they were both rolling D6+1 for Strike and had D6+2 or D8 body and +2 Defence each, they managed to shake off most of the damage.

I played the Evade roll as all or nothing. If an Evade attempt fails (rolls less than Strike) then the defending flier takes all the Strike roll as damage. It is not reduced by the Evade roll.

I need other players to create dragons for testing.

Thirty points may be too limited, forty points should give you plenty to play with.

I was rolling Wings twice at the start of each round, once for Precedence and once for Movement Points.

Red the less agile flier won Precedence on five out of nine rounds but consistently had less Movement Points in each Round.

It might be more sensible to use one roll for both, or that might be too much of a double whammy for fliers with smaller Wings dice ?

There were a couple of occasions when one or other Dragon got into a Tail position.

In these cases it made game sense for the dragon in front to move first despite Precedence.

The Wings roll for shaking off a Tail became redundant as both Fliers managed to manoeuvre out of the Tailing situation.

I took photos of the game in progress.

Green:

Body:     D6          +2           Green uses a D6 / 6" move template.

Wings:   D10        +1

Strike:    D6          +1

Defence:              +2

Breath:  -             

Red:

Body:     D8                         Red uses a d8 / 8" move template.

Wings:   D6         

Strike:    D6          +1

Defence:              +2

Breath:  D6         

Rolling for Start positions and Height Band.

Green started at 1 HB 6

Red started at 2 HB 6

Round 1

Green:   Precedence = 8  MP = 15               HB = 6

Red:       Precedence = 7  MP = 7   HB = 6

Precedence (P) = Height Band + Wings dice +/- Speed

Movement Points (MP) = Wings Dice + 4

Red:       Soar; Straight;                   Gain 1 HB, lose 1 Speed

Green:   Soar x2; Bank; Straight;   Gain 2 HB, lose 2 Speed 

Both Fliers started at Height Band 6 then spent the first couple of rounds climbing to HB 8. Both dragons stayed at HB 8 for the rest of the game.

Note: Straights and Soars can include a turn of up to 30' so both Dragons were curving round to meet.

If there were more fliers would there be more incentive to change altitude during the game ?

Round 2

Green:   P = 8      MP = 9   HB = 8

Red:       P = 7      MP = 8   HB = 7

Both fliers rolled low on Precedence and the Speed penalty reduced it further

Green wins Precedence Red moves first.

Red:       Soar; Straight x2               Gain 1 HB, lose 1 Speed

Green:   Straight x3, Strike!, Straight

Green Strike = 5-2 Defence = 3 damage, Red Body roll = 2 resulting in the only Wound of the game. Red's Breath reduced to D4.

Red Counters = 3-2 Defence = 1 damage, green Body Roll = 6 no wound.

Round 3

Green:   P = 10    MP = 9   HB = 8

Red:       P = 10*  MP = 6   HB = 8

*Red wins Precedence as he has a smaller Wings dice. Green moves first.

Green:   Bank x3

Red:       Bank x2

Both fliers pulled round towards each other but did not engage.

Round 4

Green:   P = 12    MP = 14               HB = 8

Red:       P = 12*  MP = 9   HB = 8

*Red wins Precedence as he has a smaller Wings dice. Green moves first.

Green:   Straight x6

Red:       Bank x3 Strike!

Green made 6x 30' turns, trying to make some distance between them.

Red made 3x 60' turns, Red catches Green and Strikes, Green Evades.

Red Strike = 4

Green Evade (Wings) = 11 Red misses.

Round 5

Green:   P = 13    MP = 12               HB = 8

Red:       P = 10    MP = 6   HB = 8

Green wins Precedence, Red moves first

Red:       Straight x3 

Green:   Bank x4

Red turns away after striking, Green Evades.

Red Strike = 7

Green Evades (Wings) = 3

Red strikes Green for 7-2 damage, Green Body roll = 6 no wound.

Round 6

Green:   P = 11    MP = 7

Red:       P= 14     MP = 5

Red wins Precedence except Green has a Tail, Red has to move first.

Red:       Bank, Straight

Green:   Straight x3

Green Strikes Red for 5, Red Counters for 3.

Green Strike = 5-2 Defence = 3 damage, Red Body roll = 6 no wound.

Red Counters (Strike) = 3-2 Defence = 1 damage, green Body Roll = 5 no wound.

Round 7

Green:   P = 11    MP = 7

Red:       P = 12    MP = 10

Red wins Precedence, Green moves first

Green:   Bank, Straight x2

Red:       Tight turn (90') x2, Straight

Green Banks away, Red pursues and Breathes.

Red Breath = 3

Green Evade = 6 Missed!

Round 8

Green:   P = 12    MP = 11

Red:       P = 11    MP = 5

Green wins Precedence, Red moves first. Red attempts to Tail Green but is shaken off.

Red:       Bank, Straight

Green:   Straight x5

Turn 9

Green:   P = 17    MP = 13

Red:       P = 10    MP = 8

Green wins Precedence, Red moves first.

Red:       Straight x4

Green:   Straight x6

Time to go home, both Fliers head for their lairs.