One was from Russ as his Roman army was crushed by Ian's Carthaginians. Russ was chagrined to find that under Warmaster Ancients rules and with lucky dice, Ian's cavalry could travel the whole length of the table and flank his amry - who couldn't even turn to face. Insult was added to injury when he found that his skirmishers couldn't evade either! We could hear severe chuntering - not helped when Herr Shaw turned up to view proceedings and was told to go forth and multiply before physical admonishment was adminstered.
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| Russ contemplating Life, The Universe and Everything while steam comes out of his ears. |
Meanwhile, after discussing our grand strategy for Tarawa, the rest of us had another bash at Check Your Six! I had three Thunderbolts, Mark had three Focke Wulfs and John had two Mesherschmitts and a Heinkel. The scenario was that Rommel was in the Heinkel, the 109's the escort and the FW's were hanging around.
My task was to down the Heinkel.
All well and good - I managed to cripple a 109 and aimed for the Heinkel with my 'Ace' while the other two kept the FW's busy.
Long story short - my Ace got three salvos with 8MG's in at close range and - apart from perforating Rommel's undercrackers - managed to inflict zero damage on the Heinkel. Nothing. Zilch. Nada.
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| Thunderbolts head for the Heinkel. Needn't have bothered! |
So while Russ was bemoaning his fate on one table, I was similarly cursing on ours. To add salt to the wound, my other two planes collided in mid-air - at which stage I was compelled to gather my dice and offspring and head chuntering for the door. "These rules are s**t!" was the warcry.
In terms of the ancients campaign, Rome is now doomed (Russ holds only three territories now). As a consequence I am now doomed as Macedonia now sits sandwiched between the Seleucids and Carthaginians.
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| Mark using the Force to save the Heinkel. |
In terms of Check Your Six! - they are a good set of rules to be fair, but as with all rules, if the dice are against you, there's nothing you can do.