Green on green.

This was my second game of RRtK and this time I introduced new units like flying creatures, a giant, Magic, a hero and also some skirmishers, to learn more about the game and see how they behave on the battlefield.
Today, some Goblin tribes had gathered led by a powerful Goblin shaman, and had invaded an Orc territory to teach a lesson to their bigger cousins.

From left to right, the Goblin army of nearly 350 points, consisted of one unit of light chariots, one Giant, eight units of Goblins and one of Black Moon Goblins with the general in it, all deployed in two ranks to get full support; then three units of Ogres and finally three units of Goblins Wolf Riders acting as mounted skirmishers.
I commanded and deployed the Goblin army as I wanted to use the Magic rules.
All the pictures are clickable.
All the Orcs of the area had heard of the good news of fun with the Goblins, and quickly assembled an army to fight them off. From left to right, one unit of Wild Boar heavy cavalry (shock), three units of Trolls, six units of Orc warriors plus one of Black Moon Orcs with the general in it, and on the hill one Wyvern and two catapults.
The "machine" play the Orcs and I rolled Encircled Flank deployment: "Attempt to slowly push through the center as one wing made up of the fastest units attempts to turn one flank of the enemy. The other flank is defensive and tries to prevent the center from being encircled. (60% in the center -up to 10% in reserve-, 30% on the right and 10% on the left flank).
Goblins were the attacker and moved first. Moving from their right to their left, the chariots moved right to outflank, the Giant and all the Goblins and Ogres moved straight ahead in one solid block, whereas the three units of mounted skirmish race forward (they move 16"!) to engage the enemy at shooting range. When the mounted skirmishers reached enemy's threat distance, they were charged by the Wild Boars and all the Trolls, resulting in one unit of Wolf Riders routing and two retreating, leaving the Goblins' left flank unguarded!
The Orcs cheered and laughed at the sight of the routing goblins, and advanced their center line, whereas the Wyvern took off and charged the Goblin chariots. The poor sods were so terrified at the sight of the incoming monster that retreated at full speed. Now, Goblins right flank was also threatened. Yay!
In the next turn, the Giant faced right to challenge the Wyvern, and the Goblin's main body pivoted left to meet the Orc warriors who counter charged with two units of warriors. The Goblins revealed their great shaman and the Orcs their hero as well.
OK, it was going to be my first try with magic, so I decided to go for an easy spell and concentrate in a few units, to minimize risk and failure. The Gobbos had a Level two magician accompanied by one of level one, and they tried a difficult one spell (the easiest) on only two units. Thus, they casted Steel Wind and failed horribly, and all users were now at risk. Guess what, both casters failed again and disappeared in a puff of smoke. Sixty army points vaporised in an instant!
The Orcs laughed even louder and finally charged "en masse", crushing the Goblin line and killing many Gobbos, only resisting the tough Ogres. The catapults now in range, together with the Orc Hero, produced terror among the enemy ranks.
The Wyvern ignored the Giant and flew after the fleeing chariots who routed the battlefield. On the right flank the Orc Boar riders charged the two remaining Goblin Wolf riders who also routed.
The Goblins were doomed. Their General surrounded and barely resisting.
The Trolls and the Orc hero kept pushing and the Orc Warriors pivoted right and close the trap. The Goblin general was slay and the few surviving Goblin units routed. The Wyvern tried to charge the Giant by his back but failed the charge test. Also, the Boar Riders finally arrived from their far pursue of the mounted skirmishers, and hit on the Ogres' back, routing them. The Goblin cause was lost and the Orcs had a great time. Game over.
What can I say? I was miserably defeated by the machine. Well, for a start the promising Magic failed me from the very first turn, and also the Giant did not enter in combat. All Goblin cavalry deserted at the early stages of the battle as well.
I think my main mistake was that I am ill playing DBA style, and RRtK is something totally different. Here it is very important to act having in mind the unit's reactions, specially with the Enemy Threat Reaction. Deployment also is something decisive.
Regarding the Orcs, they had two units which were key to their victory. On one hand the Wyvern, a flying unit producing terror and capable to move all around the table and charge from any direction; and secondly and most important, their hero.
Heroes are too powerful and almost impossible to kill that they outbalance any battle. I think they should only be used in campaigns but not on single scenarios.

Rome against the Green Horde.

As this was my first game with Rally Round the King, I did not pick any heroes, magicians, monsters, flying units nor skirmishers. I just picked my DBA EIR army that cost 302 points in RRtK, and an equivalent points force of Orcs; eleven units of Orc warriors and a Black Moon Orc unit with the general in it. I neither wanted to bog down with new terrain rules so I deployed the armies in a clear plain with a solitaire wood on one side.

The EIR army consists of one unit of cav (shock cavalry according to RRtK), four units of auxilia, five of legionaries (having one of them the general), one ballistae and one of archers. Legionaries Rep 4 and auxilia Rep 3 are elite and have throwing pila and javelins which give them a +2 in the first round of melee. They also have AC 4 (armour class), which proved to be decisive in the battle.
The Orc army consist of eleven units of warriors with AC 2 and one unit of Black Moon Orcs Rep 5 and with AC 4 with the Chieftain in it. All of them frenzy and undisciplined.
Both armies have Battle Tactics class A which consists of armies heavily dependant on melee troops which try to close ground as fast as possible. I commanded the Roman army whereas the Orcs were manned by the "machine". I rolled for their deployment and tactics and they got Penetrate Center: Heaviest melee units are placed in the center with a light screen of skirmish types in front, while the wings hold back to prevents being encircled. Objective it to push through the enemy center. 60% of units in the center with up to 10% in reserve, 20% on the left and another 20% of units on the right flank.
Both armies deployed up to the maximum distance allowed from their baselines, 12 inches. The table is 4'x3', so the armies started approximately at 12" of distance between them.
Romans moved first at their maximum speed (6"), with the cavalry going right to later outflank, and two units of auxilia and the archers heading for the forest. The artillery fired and inflicted one hit on one Orc unit at very long range.
Then it was the Orcs turn and they also moved 6" forward, and being at 1" from the enemy the were dragged into melee. I did not expect them to be upon my Romans so soon!
Being all the Orcs frenzy, they easily passed all their Wanting to charge tests, and all the Roman held except one auxilia that which gave ground and took one hit. The Orcs could not hurt the Romans with their heavy armour and the only wounded were two auxilia that gave ground. On the other hand, the hitting power of the Romans added to the poor armour of the Orcs, inflicted a lot of hits on them.
In the next turn the ballistae routed two Orc units next to the wood, and the equites charged on the right flank routing another one. Meanwhile the legionaries in the center were pressing the Orcs, exchanging some hits and losing one legionary unit in the process.
The Black Moon Orcs, commanded by their leader and supported around by many boyz, proved to be a tough nut to crack, but in the end they routed when the Black Moon Orcs had six hits!
One unit of Orc warriors charged to the equites flank and rout them. Game over.
The Romans lose one unit of legionaries and one unit of cavalry whereas the Orcs lose eight warrior units and the unit of Black Orcs. victory points: Romans 456, Orcs 146.

I have to play some more games to have a better opinion but right now I can tell RRtK is an excellent ruleset to play solo, and possibly head to head. The campaign rules also looks promising. RRtK plays differently to DBA or HotT, and have similar results in different ways, so you must use different tactics.
Something that maybe some people do not like is that troops not always do what you order to them, and you have to live with that. Perhaps it is more luck dependant than other systems but that also adds uncertainty to the game, which is not bad.

Mech Breakthrough.

My gaming buddy and I decided to pass the Sunday evening playing a battle of mechs with the rules of Mekatac. We set the game at 400 tons per side and randomly decided to play the scenario Breakthrough. He played defender and I had to exit the board behind his line. I won victory points per tons of mechs exiting the board and he per tons destroyed. We used his Advanced Squad Leader de luxe boards as the MWDA bases fit perfectly in their hexagons.
My forces started at the right with a 90 tons Fire Starter as the most heavy mech, and then a Black Hawk, one Mining, one Forestry and one Agromech and one Arbalest. My friend chose similar mechs although more faster and also being one of them a scary 100 tons Mad Cat with twin Plasma Cannons and SML.
All pictures are clickable.
In the two first turns both sides rushed towards the center of the battlefield, forming two close firefights and fierce melees on each flank, while on center my Arbalest run through, crossing with the Mad Cat which ignored it and headed for the last of my mechs.
My Mining mech fired first its three XLML and Rail Cannon with a total damage capacity of 12d10+3d6! I could have destroyed that devil cat but I missed all my shots except one. Then he returned fire and melted my mech with his Plasma Cannons. Ouch!
On the right flank my Black Hawk and Forester met three enemy mechs, one Wasp, One Hollander and one Arbalest. There I managed to destroy the enemy Arbalest and some weaponry of the Wasp, but in return my 80 tons Black Hawk resulted deadly wounded.
He tried desperately to run and exit the board with its jump jets, but burning from flamethrowers and hot pursued by the Wasp, the Hollander and the Mad Cat, he collapsed under a rain of plasma and missiles at two hexes from the sideboard.
On the left flank my Fire Starter failed with its Heavy flamer and Rail Cannon and pushed through enemy mechs, leaving behind its Lance mate, the Agromech which toppled down and got straggled.
Although badly mauled, the Fire Starter managed to escape from his pursuers, but not so the already depleted Agromech on the left, and the heavily outnumbered Forester mech on the right, which tried to escape using covering terrain as much as possible, but was blown away at point blank by the Mad Cat in the last moment.
In the end I escaped with two mechs for a total of 150 tons and my buddy destroyed four for a total of 250 tons. Decisive victory for him and lots of fun for both.

Meka Tac GSR Patrol

I recently discovered a free ruleset to play with giant robots or mechs called Meka Tac and written by Lloyd Krassner. I read and translated it into Spanish to play with my mates but then I discovered GIANT STOMPY ROBOTS , a Meka fansite with lots of optional rules, and a revised edition of Meka Tac, with many changes and improvements in it. I liked so much what I read that run to print the game cards and grabbed some forgotten plastic mechs and readied this game. As I was playing solo I borrowed some rules from Two Hour Games like the PEF (Possible Enemy Force) system, and here is the result.
All pics are clickable.

A 240 tons Nova Clan Mech Lance is commanded to patrol the bottom of a canyon where a possible enemy infiltration is expected. The Lance consists of one 60 tons Nova Cat Mech piloted by the commander Janis, one 70 tons Crimson Hawk, one tons 80 Black Hawk and one 30 tons Koshi small scout. They can read multiple signals on their screens (3 PEFs markers) and move forward to check them. Both two first possible enemies resulted to be a false alarm, so the whole Lance headed for the third marker behind the top of a big hill. The first to pass the crest of the hill is the Crimson Hawk and it runs into an enemy Mech, a Skorpion mech assault class which shoots in opportunity, exchanging some damage with the Crimson Hawk, which after that, reverses and gets some cover behind the crest. The Koshi and the Black Hawk get close and poorly fire against the Skorpion. Now the Skorpion moves to close combat with the Crimson Hawk, firing all its armament and making a total of 23 damage points! Janis is too far to help. The Skorpion attacks first again and made 19 damage points against the mauled Crimson Hawk, but now the Black Hawk charges it on its flank and smashes the pilot cockpit(critical hit), killing him instantly and leaving the mech unmanned. The Koshi keeps moving forward and spots a hidden enemy scout mech class, a Frog (a Koshi variant), shooting against it. The Frog ignores the Koshi and runs passing and firing to the Crimson Hawk, adding some more damage to its already debilitated structure. Suddenly, some reinforcements appear, a PEF which splits in two, one of them being a Wasp and the other still unknown. The Wasp flies straight ahead and fires all its weapons against the Crimson Hawk but fails. Now the Frog shoots at Janis and then jumps over her, but she turns around and shoots it down with its two Laser Cannons and SML salvo! Two enemy mechs down. Now the Black Hawk closes to the Wasp and releases all its weaponry, making two critical hits that ruins its computers and produces a reactor core. In the next turn and before the Wasp's reactor explodes like a bomb, Janis goes up the hill, shoots at it and wrecks it. Chalk up another one! In the meantime the Koshi discovers the last enemy mech, a 40 tons Hunchback armed with one plasma projector, one small flamethrower and one small mortar. The Hunchback closes to the Koshi hoping to kill it in one go but misses the plasma and mortar. The Black Hawk come in help, producing a lot of damage and one critical hit that destroys the mortar. The Hunchback tries it again and this time kills the little Koshi, but then it is quickly dispatched by its big brothers. The Nova Cat Clan has lost one 30 tons mech but salvaged an almost new 80 tons Skorpion and win the day. The game was great fun and fast, and the rules gave me the feeling of commanding giant robots into battle. Soon I will be playing another game!