Pig Wars: Tired of Cold Mutton

Our recent King Con included a whopping 7 player game of Pig Wars. Though it shows it's age in some respects, Pig Wars remains an excellent game after 30 years, especially for a quick, convention style, donnybrook. No dice, just a deck of regular playing cards each and after a turn or two, everyone knew how to play with minimal rules questions.

The situation was an Saxon raid on a Romano-British settlement. The Saxons rode the river to it's source and unloaded to wreak havoc. The residents of the village sent to the local magistrate for help and help they did, mostly themselves.

There were three each Saxon and Romano-British players while I took the role of the villagers; no more than a speed bump. Though the players had two 'sides', each had their own secret Victory Conditions, which may or may not award them for attacking their allies. 'Regular' VC applied as well, points for exiting with livestock and/or supplies. (Chickens, ducks, sheep, goats, horses, barrels of foodstuffs.)

A view of the whole table. The villagers are spread out, doing their chores and minding their own business.

Paddocks in the center of town.

The church with it's priest and a few locals. The Saxons, as a team, can earn victory points for burning it down.

Just minding their own business...

The local magistrate has answered the call! Romans start emerging from the forests around town.

Take that!

Holy shit! There's a bunch of them. There's going to be a fight!

Must be important, they're on horses and stuff.

Meanwhile, the Saxons are going to have something to say about all this.

Armed with swords, they mean to kill quickly, and with little patience.

In rules terms, edged weapons are better than spears, two handed weapons, like axes, are more powerful still.

Horns blaring, the game is afoot!

The Saxon ship. The Romans can also earn team points by firing it. Neither side got near to their 'burning' goal, a fault of the game designer: me. Next time. I'll modify the rules.

Nice picture except for the damn tape measure.

Have you noticed I have an obsessive compulsion to write a caption for every picture?

The mad rush of a hungry Saxon war-band.

But the locals aren't totally unprepared. Their militia farmers form a shield wall in the middle of town.

Light troops skirmish in front of the heavy Legionares.

The undisciplined ardor of the Saxons is ironically mocked by the formed and trained Romans in the background.

Great shot of the swirling melee in town, horses and sheep are prized and blood is spilled over the taking of them.

These guys quelled the only attempt by the Saxons to fire the church.

One beserker would rather single handedly attack the Roman shield wall rather than return home to his nagging wife. 

I love this shot; prolly my fave.

Back to the ship!!!

No! Get 'em!!!

A good shot of the massive melees all around the board.. It was fun to watch it unfold.

Two shield walls clash.

The locals decide to form up in the paddock to protect the valuable horse.

A view from the drone.

Now we know who owned the Sutton Hoo helmet.

15 guys for each player in their war-band. each had a slightly different make-up. Some more shooty, some more blades... You get the picture.

It's all fun until someone draws a heart from the deck and puts an arrow in your ass.

The church is safe.

Saxons are mean.

The locals decide to engage while the Saxons were taunting them.

Unfortunately, both sides were fighting with fungo bats and neither side could cause a wound.

Random shot of some of the local action.

All in all, I think we all had a pretty good time. The score ended up very close but no one was really too concerned. It was a good looking game and we enjoyed ourselves. Pig Wars is a great convention style game: it's fast, easy and, most importantly, fun!

The End.

 

Kulm 1813, sort of.

Met with friends and family over MLK Jr. weekend for our 7th annual King Con gaming 'convention'.  This year we had participants from 4 states, including as far away as Kansas and New York. (The event was in NE Ohio.)

We played a total of 12 games by my count, many board games and several larger mini games, which will be featured here. The first was Kulm, 1813. Or sort of. I sold my Austrians years ago (I substituted Saxons in their stead), and had to use what troops I had to sort out the rest the best I could. I just felt it was an interesting situation that was good to game. No one seemed to mind that the buttons and turnbacks may have been incorrect than the actual historical participants. I suggest you do the same. Hah!

I apologize in advance for the quality of some of the pictures. I usually take better pictures but screwed the pooch on many of these.

The gang. Three of my brothers attended! Somewhere, my mother smiled as we are finally at the age where hardly anybody cried when we lost and no one punched each other. 😊

A view of the whole table from behind the French lines. We used Age of Eagles rules, in my opinion a great adaption of the F&F rules for Napoleonics. I am such a geek, I even had my copy of the rules signed by the author several years back at a convention.

The same from behind the Allies' lines.

Note the Russian Grenadiers in the wood in the bottom center. That wood would become the site of a real back and forth.

French Dragoons screen the advancing Polish infantry.

Russian Cossacks and heavy Currassier in reserve behind the stream.

The Allies refuse their right flank in an effort to protect the road where the rest of the Allied armies are retreating. The French would earn extra VP for capturing the exit.

Polish lancers lead the way.

Polish Hussars advance with the infantry in the center, ready to exploit any holes in the Allied lines.

The attack by the French right against those Grenadiers begins.

A view down the French lines as more and more troops get stuck in.

Cavalry charge in the center!

The Allied left flank, trying to hold behind the stream and make the French pay for every yard. Sorry, I mean 'meter'.

As the battle rages on, evening sunlight falls on the Russian Hussars.

The Hussars charge in the center. The Russians form square and repulse them!

In the 'not really there' category, French Guard Grenadiers advance. They are aiming at seeing the Russian cavalry off.

The Prussians appear on the French left flank. (My command) They immediately fail their orders rolls and sit there like little lumps of white metal.

The French CinC is in the thick of it as they continue to grind forward.

From behind the French lines, you can see they have pushed all the way through the wood and begin to threaten the Allied flank.

Artillery supports the French advance. The Russian Grand Battery in the center was a huge deciding factor in French dispositions and movement throughout almost the entire game. That is, until French counter battery fire damaged some of the Russian guns. This allowed for the major French push in the center.

At this point we called it, and though the Allies had a sizable victory, one or more turns would have seen a major swing as the French were poised to exploit all the damage they had done. But we were hungry and had dinner reservations! It was much closer than the final score indicated.

It was a good game, I think. Everyone seemed to have a good time. My fear of it just being a smashmouth slog was mitigated by the fact that we were all together and just playing games like we used to 40 years ago.

It was a good day.