Achilles Rampant! Farewell to the Lad

Reilly is leaving home very shortly and moving to the Australian State of Queensland (thats 2000kms away) so the club fellahs got together for a big bash game last weekend.  In keeping with his favourite genre it was Trojan War, and 10 mates fought it out before the gates of Troy.  

The 15 foot table was graced with some 30 chariots, 27 horse and 540 foot troops, all in 28mm - looked very impressive

My Trojan line, led by Hector, gets ready to defend their beloved Polis

Oh mighty Zeus give us your blessing this day!

The game was setup with a large swirling chariot and cavalry action on one flank, a broadly open plain for an infantry battle in the centre, and a broken area on the other flank on the banks of the Scamander River.  Here are a selection of pics from the phrenetic, loud and exceptional fun that followed!

The Lad in the centre -playing Achilles naturally! (Yes, I had Hector!)

Crafty Odysseus and his men capture the golden fleece!

Achilles and the Myrmidon seek Hector at the Temple of Apollo

Patroclus advances, seeking his Glory

Paris is Slain by the Greeks, who 

Achilles flanks the main Trojan line

Hector find Patroclus in the centre of the battlefield and challenges him to a duel

...and takes him down!

...followed by an enraged Achilles challenging Hector

Here is the live action of the Duel (5&6s hit- highest wins)

Achilles defeats Hector - Historical Outcome!

What is it with all this defilement by Chariot today!

So with Hector fallen, the Greeks won the day in the end - thanks very much indeed to the guys for coming along to farewell Reilly. He had a blast and we went home to watch the movie Troy (over a few beers of course)!

Rules notes

We used Lion Rampant rules with a few significant modifications, to make the game flow better with so many platers and 60 odd units on the table;.

- Everyone had 6 units, and while they were slightly different to one another, the 5 pairs of players facinhg one another had identical forces

- Units activation was by "Chit pull" with the Umpire (aka Gav aka Zeus) randomly pulling from 6 Trojan and 6 Greek tokens from a bag Bolt Action style, with everyone on the side indicated attempting to activate a unit of their choice, keeping everyone involved in the action.

- Each Player had a major Hero from the Odyssey: Menolaus faced Paris, Ajax faced Sarpedon, Odysseus faced Aeneas... and Reilly played Achilles facing off against me with Hector, naturally. Each character led a 12 man Foot Companion units and added a number of dice to the attack score of their units (eg Odysseus 3 dice, Hector 5 etc)

    For extra authenticity, Achilles was a Level 4 hero, until Patroclus was slain - at which time he became a 6!

- VP wise each pair of players had a terrain objective to control at game end worth 3 VPs, and each major unit (not skirmishers) was worth 1 unit if destroyed. Heroes weere worth another 1-2 VPs.

- To reflect the fickle influence of the Gods, each player had rerolls equal to d6: 1=zero, 2-5= 1, 6 = 2... +1. Soe everyone had between 1 and 3 rerolls, to be used anytime during the game.