I have a collection of ELASTOLIN figures, 40mm plastic figures, that have three things going for them. First, the figure anatomy is, by far, the best in the business. The little 40mm guys are all beautifully sculpted in great detail. Second, the plastic figures are cast in a flesh color, so that lazy people, such as me, have only to paint their clothing, their weapons, add an eyeball or two, and they’re ready to go. Third, the figures are no longer being manufactured, so that their value is now rising… when I last inquired, the asking price per infantry figure was around 6 dollars. I set out some of my ELASTOLIN Vikings on the table. All the men are singly mounted, and the attacking side was given 7 units, termed ‘bands’, ranging from 3 to 5 men each. The defending side had 5 bands, but they also possessed a fortification, a small castle, providing them with lots of cover and defensive works. I was about to run through a solo scenario, when Jeff Wiltrout and his wife, Eulalia, appeared at the door. They were quickly drafted for table-side duty. Eulalia and Jeff have been married for about a year… She’s an absolute treasure… she paints little figures! Jeff took the 5-band defenders of the castle, while Eulalia and I ran the 7-unit attacking force. Since this was to have been a solo game, I had created, in effect, a sequence governed by the draw of one of 6 sequence cards. Each card, in turn, laid out 6 subphases for the bound. For example, 2 of the cards contained the following guidelines (the abbreviation AS stands for ‘Active Side’, while NAS stands for ‘Non-Active Side’): Card #1 AS moves all bands NAS fires all bands NAS cavalry moves AS fires 1 band AS does not rally its bands AS does not regroup its bands Card #2 AS move all but 2 bands NAS fires all but 3 bands NAS cavalry does not move AS fires 3 bands AS rallies its bands AS does not regroup its bands In this manner, the sequence cards spelled out the number of units that would act for that bound. Functions were accomplished from left to right, i.e., movement first, and regrouping last. After all 6 functions were done, combats were resolved. The last 2 phases require some explanation: Rallying refers first, to seeing if men that had panicked and had been placed in the off-board Rally Zone would rejoin their units. If they didn’t recover, they were dead. Second, during the fire and melee phases, bands accumulated casualty figures, and the effect of these figures were assessed. Each band had 5 Efficiency levels (EL) and the casualty assessment meant that one or more of these levels were lost. Regrouping was necessary because the units were small… 3 to 5 men each per band. As the bands took losses, you’d eventually have 1 and 2-men bands running around the field. The regrouping phase permitted a side to join up these guys into larger, more efficient units. Back to the battle. Eulalia and I lost no time in trying to storm the walls of the fortification. Our bands rushed toward the walls at 10 inches per movement phase. Having arrived at the base of the wall, it was time to set ladders up… 70 percent chance to do so. I think that out of three bands attempting to erect a ladder in this first rush, two succeeded. And now, did the men climb the ladder? Another 70 percent toss required. One unit was up, one wasn’t. Our attacking group contacted a unit of archers that had been defending that section of wall. Jeff brought up another one of his units (within 10 inches) to reinforce the archers. The band of archers consisted of 4 men, and when Jeff diced to see how many men out of his supporting unit would run in and assist, he found that only 2 more men would join the melee. But Eulalia and I were in truly bad shape. We had no nearby units (within 10 inches) to reinforce our heroic band, and so we couldn’t call in a support. Opposing Jeff’s 6 defenders were only 2 of our own men. Our original band had contained 5 men, but had been somewhat attritted in their mad charge forward. The archers had had at least 2 rounds of fire at them, and the result was to send the bulk of the unit to the Rally Zone. The Combat Took into Account 3 Parameters First, N, the total number of men on a side striking the opponent Second, C, the total number of casualty figures assigned to the opposing side. Third, an aggressiveness factor, A, assigned to each band (it was diced for) at the beginning of the battle. The A factor ran from +3 (extremely aggressive) to -1. Each side added the above 3 factors, and multiplied the result by a 10-sided die. Alas!… our die roll, our multiplier, was a mere “1”, and our heroes were thrown back, off the walls, and the entire attacking group was tossed into the Rally Zone. Throughout the battle, our attackers proved extremely ineffective and, what was of even more importance, unlucky… we won only one hand-to-hand combat (at which Eulalia and I applauded vigorously) out of about 6 combats. There were 6 cards in the sequence deck, and we called it quits after the second run-through of the 6-card deck. At this time, there was no doubt as to which side wore the victor’s laurels. One Item of Note in the Rules System There was no direct morale testing. Usually, in my rules procedures, when a unit is hit, I impose a morale test on it to see how it reacts. Here, instead of a simple morale test, the affected unit took a ‘reaction test’. There were 4 possible results of the test… the testing unit could hold, hold and fire back, advance 5 inches and fire, or advance 10 inches. The aggressiveness factor of each unit came into play here, biasing the dice throw to make the more aggressive bands tend to advance. Indeed, that was how one of our attacking units scaled the walls. The defending archers potted it, and as a result of its reaction test, it moved forward 10 inches, placing it next to the wall, threw up a ladder (70 percent), climbed it (another 70 percent), and flailed away at the archers. To no effect. Another melee lost, and more men in our Rally Zone. Back to PW Review December 2000 Table of Contents Back to PW Review List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2000 Wally Simon This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. 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