Of Gods and Mortals - Olympic Games - Game Three

After a brief (ish) pause for more warm beverages and general wargames chit-chat it was back to game three.

We played a version of the Spring of Life scenario but with a strict time limit (as we'd spent a little too long on general wargames chit-chat.

Hades was to take on Athena with a real risk of finishing bottom and being relegated to the Conference of the Gods.

The Talos stood tall and proud

And did the same in this picture too.

The Shades spooked up

Over on the other table Achilles and Tenes marshalled the hoplites.

Cerberus closed in on Athena's hoplites while the harpies took advantage of the birdbath of Youth.

Cerberus took an Owl to the face.

Splash, flap, splash!

The Talos stared hard at the Shades

Cerberus and Zeus tried to deal with Perseus, but he slipped on his Nikes and winged away.

Then the Talos came over 

And stamped Cerberus into the ground.

Athena de-owled herself and set upon Orpheus.

And then tackled the Shades.

...and then time was up!

With two Legends dead for the cost of only a couple of hoplites Athena was victorious and Hades returned to the Underworld with not a single victory to his name.

This was a great fun way to spend a day.

We're hoping in the future to be able to stage a bigger version for more players at the pub that hosts the Lenton gamers club when the plague finally abates a bit.

Of Gods and Mortals - Olympic Games - Game Two

And so, fortified with pork product and warm beverages we returned once more to the Soldier Shack for round two.

While I'd been donning the chef's apron the rest of the crew had rearranged the tables to each include a Sacred Grove. Hades would be taking on Apollo for a somewhat gnarly and forbidding grove while Hecate and Athena had a cat fight over the alarming giant obelisk of skulls.

My multi-tasking ability deserted me at this point, so there are no pictures of the ladies and the obelisk. Sorry.

Orpheus accompanied the Shades over by the ruined temple.

My harpies hung out in the ruins.

On the opposite side Cerberus and the Skeletons got together (Although I did question the wisdom of a placing dog with three heads near all those tasty looking bones...)

Achilles led the Greeks forward

While Apollo and his son Tenes headed the other way.

Hades also hung out with the Shades. For some reason (the reason being that I forgot) the Shades didn't take advantage of their "flying" ability to move painlessly *through* the woods.

The Skellies blocked the passage.

At about this point Achilles expired. His invulnerability again exposed by Sam's willingness to throw ones.

After much jockeying for position the endgame approached (to speed things up a little we'd imposed a six turn limit) and Hades decided it was time to eject Tenes from the grove.

With a mighty *poof* the brave young Greek banished the Lord of the Underworld!

....and then we remembered that gods can recoil in such situations - so Hades came back.

Briefly Apollo was banished and all the hoplites left the scary wood in a hurry.

On his return Apollo rushed into the wood himself.

The fleeing hoplites were now just invoking!

Apollo scared off with the Big One-eyed Lad and despite not being able to get him out of the grove it was enough to claim the victory.

Another great fun game. The interaction between the different tiers of models in the game can really change things around. Sam had most of his force safely in the woods but then the death of Apollo suddenly caused them all to flee letting me back in to the game.

Of Gods and Mortals - Olympic Games - Game One.

I am very fortunate in that I have a dedicated gaming space - my converted garage the Sherwood Soldier Shack. It holds an 8x4 table and it occured to me that (if I tidied up a bit) it would be possible to have a mini OGAM gaming day. Four players, two games side by side, three games over the course of a day with everyone playing everyone else once. And so I invited James, Martin and Sam to do just that.

As a theme I decided on Greek Gods and Goddeses (we're serious gamers you know, so keeping things "in period" is very important) and so the first Nottingham OGAM Olympics was born.

I took Hades along with some Skeletons and Shades (I used the Flying rule to replicate their ability to move through terrain and other units and drift away from combat) and some Harpies to drag unwilling victims down to the Underworld. Legends were Cerberus, obviously, Orpheus (for his Underworld connections) and a Cyclops (downgraded to Big rather than Huge to reflect the model size). Pretty thematic - though I'm now thinking about modelling some Furies or possibly Charon.

James chose Athena (as Zeus with his lightning can be a bit powerful) Martin took Hecate and Sam had Apollo.

First up it was battle of the Underworld as Hecate and Hades went toe-to-toe! For this first game we used the basic Showdown scenario as most of us hadn't played for a while (ChillCon over two years ago in Martin's case)

The pleasingly scattered nature of deployment in OGAM took some getting used to for us all

Cerberus supported the Shades

Hecate also had Undead with her (but hers didn't "fly")

Hades had a little think to himself

Meanwhile on the other table Athena had the Talos with her (it's a tourist statue from Crete that James repainted - everyone always asks) 

Apollo and his lads stood firm

Athena supported her hoplites

And Perseus with some Harpies completed Athena's force

Hades, in the shade of some olive trees, fails to notice Hecate sneaking up on him

Cerberus barks (and barks and barks) a warning

The skeletons come down with labyrinthitis thanks to the Minotaur

Hecate had some satyrs in support. They were drunk, inevitably.

Hades' harpies and the cyclops went flanking.

With crushing inevitability the Big Lad drew the combat and expired. As per usual Legends are brittle!

Hecate, and her harpy legend took on Cerberus and the Shades. Cerberus proved every bit as brittle as the cyclops - two legends down and the game barely begun.

Hades (I kept calling him Zeus, which didn't help) took on the Minotaur. This took longer to resolve than necessary. Not helped by two consecutive double ones on his activation roll!

The queen of darkness steamrollered the Shades (Hades' handovers meant they never got to activate and take advantage of their free disengage!)

Hecate's minions caught the Harpies

Zeu Hades still struggling to deal with the bull headed lad.

Back on the other table Apollo and Athena drew a fight and awed everyone! (she's in that cloud somewhere!)

Hades came to aid the harpies and drove off the undead.

Medusa spent the game stalking (in a shoot with arrows, rather than send creepy unsolicited emails sense) Orpheus. At one point he ran and hid in the olive grove.

The fight raged on between Apollo and Athena

Finally Hades and Hecate came to blows. I realised this might be my only chance of a win. With the Satyrs being drunk if I could banish her they'd have some tough rolls to pass. Sure enough she left the mortal plane and both groups of Satyrs fled the field!

Apollo meanwhile set about Athena's hoplites.

My skeletons and harpies pulled back and formed a battle line.

Orpheus managed to get himself killed at around this point and "good arrows" (plus poison) from the half snake woman mauled the harpies.

At about this stage we ran out of time. Well, we *could* have played on but, you know, bacon cobs.

On a count-back of models Martin had killed more of my force and so Hecate could claim victory (and pre-eminence in the Underworld)

On the other table Athena in Owl form manages to topple Achilles and this in part led to her claiming the win.

OGAM was great fun to play - after a turn or two we were all back in the swing of playing and the game cracked on.