Vows of Iron: Battle for Sicily!

This past weekend I ran a Vows of Iron game. I took a historical backdrop and created a fictional battle.  My idea was this: The Pope had grown tired of Frederick the II's willingness to allow Muslims and Jews to live in Sicily without persecution. The Pope contacted Philip Augustus and bestowed upon him the charge of a crusade to rid Sicily of Frederick and the Muslims and Jews.  The back ground is true to a point. The Pope did excommunicate Frederick the II for allowing Muslims and Jews to live under his reign and the Pope did call for a crusade against them called "The Sicilian Vespers" but the battle I depicted on the table did not happen.

The above rosters for the battle came from Piquet's "Beat the Drum" system from the rule system Band of Brothers.  The armies are little larger than what the rules Vows of Iron states but it worked out.  I did keep the army break points at 20 each.  This seemed to work out as well.  

The Sicilians line up for battle.                      The French are lined up and ready to attack.

Jeff, Andrew (Frederick the II) and Andy prepare their troops for battle

Dave, Peter (Philip Augustus) and Tim prepare their French forces.

And me, your humble game master.

The Frederick's commanders react to some French Taunting.

Opposites views of the battle.

Both armies lurch forward towards each other.  Several turns of movement brought them close enough for the knights to roll for their impetuous status. Most failed and charged at their enemies. 

The Center witnessed the bloodiest fighting with Frederick and Philip leading from the front.

Melees abound!!! Much blood was shed.

More views of the bloody center melees.

Some of Frederick's troops falter and fall back.

Frederick's right clashes with the French left and are pushed back.

Frederick's right holds it own against the French causing many casualties.

Frederick's infantry on the left holds on the hill waiting for the French. The knights smash into each other just below the stream. The Sicilian captain dies in battle. The first major death of the game.

More action from Frederick's left and center. The French right commander also perished in combat. Both sides were starting to loose fatigue points now.

The center of the battle was a whirling mass of melees that sucked in troops and it caused Frederick's troops to falter and their cohesion slipped away as their fatigue points dropped to zero.

The aftermath from the battle saw the Pope happy to have vanquished Frederick and Philip gained new territory for the French crown.

The game itself ran very smoothly, I had to spend some time looking up rules because it had been awhile since we played but everyone enjoyed the game and the out come hung in the balance for awhile. Both sides were close to breaking until the last few turns that saw the French win a couple of decisive melees which caused some of Frederick's troops to be destroyed or routed that then caused multiple "crisis tests" that only snowballed as more of his troops failed their rolls.

For the next battle I'm going to try and throw different troop types to see how they react with the rules and get a good feel for the rating system.  The group overall enjoys the rules and we will continue to play them. 

Vows of Iron: Game #2

Hello everyone!

The group got together this past Saturday and we had another run at the rules "Vows of Iron" by Allen Campbell, Vows of Iron. I introduced the rules to three new players and had four returning players from the last game.  That made it easier as the referee for this game.  Also one of the guys, Jeff, had purchased the rules and had read them before the game!!  Over all I spent a whole lot less time looking things up and spent more time taking photos and adjudicating situations than last time.  

This battle was, again, the scenario in the back of the book. French vs. the Holy Roman Empire and for the most part a pretty evenly matched game.  I did use the extra Unit Captain for both sides. 

The initial layout for the table. French forces are on the left. The Holy Roman Emperor's forces on the right.

The top three photos are the French forces. The commanders setup their own units.

The next 3 photos show the Holy Roman Empire's forces. The players were allowed to setup their forces as they saw fit.

The opening couple of turns saw the forces marching towards each other.  Once they were within 20" the Impetuous Knights had to start making rally tests to hold if they passed or to charge if they failed.  Most of the knights passed their checks throughout the game.

Getting closer in the middle too.  The Holy Roman Emperor allowed the French King to do a lot of the closing in.  

The Roman Empire's Lone Unit Captain said "the hell with it all" and charged full force into the Van of the French army.

The Rear battles fought each other to a bloody pulp all night. Once they started their melees they were locked causing fatigue hits but not enough to cause serious damage until the end.

The Main Battle between the Emperor and the King was also bloody with each side trading blows but not enough to knock each other out.

The Emperor's Unit Captain has been captured!!!  He would later be escorted back to France for ransom. 

The Rear battle seesaws back and forth. Swords swinging, men falling and the Emperor's Crossbowmen on the hill fought valiantly against the knights. Holding their own for several turns. 

The Main battle lines continue to slug it out. Fatigue points are climbing! Who will break first!

The Van side of the battle goes all in. Both sides trading blows with units routing.

The Rear side of the battle still struggling against each other. A slug fest at its finest.

The Emperor's center starts to crack. A few units have routed and some have only 1 or 2 fatigue points left.

The Van side of the battle continues to trade stand for stand.

The Rear side of the battle for the Emperor starts to falter with a unit of knights being wiped out but the Kings knights are also flanked! Things don't look good.  

The Emperor's center is crumbling. 

The final straw to break the Emperor's army when the Van loses another unit the break point drops to zero.  A glorious victory for the French King and he gets to partake in collecting the Ransom of one of the Emperor's Commanders.

The French commanders from left to right: Kevin, Andy, Andrew, as the French King, and Tom.

The disheartened Emperor's commanders from left to right: Gabe, Dave, as the Holy Roman Emperor, and Jeff.

We had an enjoyable three hour battle.  Within two or three turns everyone was pretty much running the game without me.  The 3 new guys, Gabe, Dave and Tom enjoyed the rules and want to go again. Now that I've gotten a couple of games under my belt I'm going to start planning battle with more variety of troops on the board and see how things go.

We really enjoy the rules and they play smoothly.  I recommend them.

Vows of Iron: 1st play through!

Last night, five of us from our group got together to try out the new rules "Vows of Iron" by Allen Campbell.  You can find the rules at his website: Vows of Iron.  I had watched a video about these rules that was posted on Facebook in the Medieval Miniature Wargames group.  After watching it, I was intrigued and bought them.  Last night was the groups first time playing them and my first time umpiring.  The rule system allows you to use any basing system you currently have, so no re-basing is necessary. 

If you are not familiar with the rules they have a nice dice based system for melee, missile fire and disorders.   In the picture above you can see the dice used.  Each unit is rated a die based on its color. The yellow die is the lowest die and red is the highest.  A yellow die has only 1 and 2's on it while the red die has 2-6 on it.  The other colors fall in between those.  The troops are rated a color and then that die can be modified up or down depending on the situation.  The troops are grouped together into "Battles" with a leader. Each side has 3 battles: the Main, Van and Rear. There is an option to have an additional "Captain" who is attached to a unit and functions outside of the big three.  There are 8 cards for activation 2 Main, 2 Van, 2 Rear and 2 Captain cards. One side is colored Red and the other Blue.  You shuffle the cards and whatever you pull, like Red Van, that command then moves.  All missile fire and melees are simultaneous. 

The rules are geared towards the wearing down of troops and the eventual break down of the army as a whole, which is something I like and too me represents what I've read.  The armies have a Break Point Value. As units are removed from play their loss goes against that point value for the army. Once it reaches zero the game is over.

The battle we played was the scenario that come with the rule book.  The troops are all ready filled in on the sheet and it was pretty straight forward and seemed like a good place to start.  In the above photo the troops are on the table with the red side on the left and blue on the right.  

The commanders for game are as follows: for the Red team (left) Andy and Andrew. On the blue team Kevin is in the back and Jeff is closer to me.

The start of play. After spending a few minutes to go over the mechanics of the system, the commanders arranged their battles they way they wanted and we started.  The red side pulled the first card and the march forward began.

The armies drew closer together and crossbow and bow fire streaked through the sky causing hits on both sides.

The blue sides mounted crossbow unit takes a hit!

Now the fun begins. The armies have closed, the Knights begin their melees, most would turn into bloody, drawn out affairs.

Hits are starting to mount on both sides.

Andy and Kevin spent much of the game seesawing back and forth with their knights locked in combat.  Both of them had their commanders captured at one point and Andy's ended up being killed.

The two photos above show the main battles from both sides trading blows and infantry units being wiped out.

The blank wooden disks were a reminder to Andy that his troops now had to roll to activate since his commander had perished in battle.

The slug fest in the middle wears on.

The Red's right melees the blues mounted crossbow.

The dials next to the units show much fatigue is left on the unit before it either routs or is destroyed completely. 

The mounted crossbow won against one of the two units that attacked it.

The battle ended with the blue side reaching zero on its army break points and they scattered away from the heavily wounded red army.  The game moved very quickly despite it being our first time playing it and my need to look up rules.  After the first few turns the commanders were pretty much running the game with me holding the rule book and answering a few questions.  I did miss a few things but that is expected on a first play through.  The best part of the evening was when the four of them all said they enjoyed playing the rules and want to keep playing them!!! This, for me, is excellent to get such a perfect consensus on a set of rules.

I will run another game next month.