Triumph Of The Will Rule Refresh AAR

 After our recent game we agreed that the firing mechanics in Triumph Of The Will were clunky and needed a review. By coincidence Chris has all but finished his Chinese Warlord army so it was also an opportunity to get these lovelies on table.

After diving into the obligatory Tea and biscuits we organised our forces. 

Chris and Steve commanded the Chinese, each had a regiment of infantry in 4 companies supported by a gun and MG. Steve also had a regiment of 3 squadrons of militia cavalry. Amongst Steve's troops were also dare to die troops with sword and pistol alongside storm troops with SMGs.

The Mad Baron Von Ungern Shternburg led our forces, Chris Flowers had two regiments of white infantry supported by one MG and a battery of 2 guns.

I led a force of Mongolian Cavalry 3 units of 7 tribal horse and 2 units of 6 Chahar Mongol "Regulars" I also had an infantry regiment of Officers support by an MG.

The key thing we have found clunky has been firing. Previousley you had one die for every 5 figures firing having to roll lower than the number of firing figures. This can then be modified up or down. The issue being that each unit is made up of between 6 and 10 figures so you are always throwing 2 dice needing different things on those dice. Clunky and hard to remember.

Chris has revamped that, something very different but still in line with the wider rules,.bare with.

Chris has some lovely 3D printed terrain peices like this lovely dragon and the Pagoda in the background.

Opening shots were White artillery as the only thing in effective range. Chris's new firing mechanism is that you can roll as many dice as you like but must score lower than or equal to the number of figures firing. I was pretty sceptical to be honest but it worked really well. So if you have an 8 man company firing you need to score 8 or less, roll as many dice as you like but if you roll 6 you are not very likely to score any hits. If you roll just one you are guaranteed a hit. You then get a saving throw. So you can gamble with more dice but need to get lucky.

Guns have a notional value of 5 figures per crew as do MG's, we were using barrage fire allowing us to concentrate a battery on one target but with a -5 so 3 crew per gun and notional 5 figures per crew is 30 for the battery, -5 for barrage fire we needed to roll 25 or less. Chris Flowers decided he would roll 6 dice so on an average roll he would be well in.  He actually rolled 25 so just in, that's 6 hits. Chris saves on a 5 or 6 being drilled troops. He saves two so 4 casualties on the Chinese guarding the bridge.

This did seem slightly too easy for artillery as you are very unlikely to miss unless you get greedy, we parked it to revisit as the game went on.

Steves Chinese had a long range hit with artillery on my Mongolian cavalry, with a notional 15 figures for his gun he rolled 3 dice, scored within 15 and got three hits, I saved 1, as its long range this is just shock so two points of shock slows the cavalry down by 4 (Infantry slows it by 2 cavalry movement is always doubled)

So far so good and the Whites are advancing steadily on the Chinese.

Our Artillery misses the Chinese this time but Steve is now in effective range and we get another 3 hits on the Mongols saving 1. 2 hits from MG fire add disruptions slowing us down further.

The Chinese militia cavalry await us calmly on top of their hill. Do they know something we dont? Maybe just that ponies are no match for modern artillery and Maxims.

 The Cavalry close and are now just a move away from hitting the Chinese, the Chinese however inflict another 4 casualties on the leading unit. Effectively putting this out of the game, the following two are badly damaged and have already been passed through. But the Chahar Mongols on the extreme left are untouched and about to go in.

Small arms fire has taken these tribal mongols down to 3 figures, artillery now takes them to just the one remaining figure and they are out of the game.

The field is looking pretty clear now! The infantry have continued to advance and having destroyed the infantry at the bridge and the MG the artillery switch's targets to the heavy weapons for both flanks.

The Chahars close and the tribal cavalry are able to reach their flank and support them. We then commence a bloody and bitter ongoing melee.

We need an unmodified 6 to cause a casualty. The Chahars get 6 dice to start then add 2 for being a training level high than the Chinese Militia. A further three for being aggressive and a further 3 each for supported flank.  One more for the Commander gives us 18 dice. The Chinese have 8 plus 4 for being supported and one for their officer so 13. 

Initially a draw we refight immediatly and the Chinese are destroyed along with their commander. My remaining Chahar charge the second unit of Chinese, now we have no idea if they are supposed to be disordered or not. Noting this down for review of rules later we fight again, another draw, then again, another draw then finally the Chahar win this time leaving 4 of the original two units of 6 remaining against one unit of 8 Chinese.

As the Infantry press forward and the artillery deal with all but one of the Chinese heavy weapons we charge again.

Mutual destruction. the cavalry have fought each other until nobody on either side remains, never seen that before.

We review the artillery rule at this stage, not rolling to hit for artillery has led them to be slightly too powerful. We re-introduce the original rule that a gun must hit before rolling casualties in our new way. The last two turns of white firing prove this to be a little less devastating so we will probably re-adopt this.

The White foot have now reached effective rifle range, the Chinese are badly damaged and only one unit of whites has taken any real damage, but its too late to press home our attack and finish the game off so we call it a day.

I have thoroughly enjoyed the game and found the small changes we made have enhanced the game. It also helps that Chris has incorporated all the rules and not missed any out as I usually do.

A great evening all around and lovely to see Chris's Chinese Warlord collection. Another soon I hope.