After quite a bit of prep work to understand the rules and the forces, we got AWT on the table this week. Whilst it is nominally 28mm, we of course we played in 10mm!
The core twist to the setting is that in 1916 an asteroid crashed into the moon, causing the sea levels to change, leaving the doggerland (eg the English Channel) dry, and causing the old gods to awaken. The game takes place a year or so later, with the WWI fighting continuing, but more as large skirmishes and fortified zones, rather than the typical trenches of the western front.
Played RaW for unit sizes and ranges, with one exception of making infantry sections 4 30x30mm bases of 3 figures, rather than 8x individually based 28mm figures.
We got the hang of the core mechanics fairly quickly, the magic and vehicle rules took a bit more flicking through the rule book, but I think we got those too.
As a first game there wasn’t too much going on tactically, we more wanted to get a feel for how units work.
The British Empire forces nearest the camera / left hand side. I had a smallish force with 4 infantry sections (each of 4 bases), a Mark IV tank and an 18pdr field gun, along with a Captain and a Witch.
The Germans on the far side, had a bigger and more diverse force. 4 infantry sections, HMG, Lancers, Flammenwerfer, 3.7cm AT Gun, T-Gewher AT Rifle, Sniper, Captain and Witch.
These were both fairly small 19pt forces - but seemed a good size for getting started.
Terrain wise I idea was the revealed sea bed - where some areas of greenery have sprung up, perhaps fed by the blood of fallen troops… There were a couple of areas of water, and several areas of mire. There is a large hill nearest the camera, which isn’t very obvious on the photo.
The left flank, the British 18pdr behind a hill, with a couple of infantry sections supporting, along wiht the Captain who has issued an Order to the gun to make its shooting a little more effective. Each turn your force generates command tokens, which can be used for a number of things, Orders from your officer, rituals from your witch and abilities by those units which have them.
The German forces undertake a general advance. The Britsh hold at the far end, and advance nearest the camera.
The British have already caused a couple of casualties on the German Lancers knocking them to half-strength which inflicts a Combat Stress Maker (CSM) on them. The 18pdr had hit an infantry section, causing casualties and pinning them.
Both sides push forward, engaging each other. The British infantry in the wood where under sustained fire from the German HMG, which pinned them frequently (the pinning mechanism feels pretty good). The Tank trundle to the crest of the hill, where its MGs proved very effective, as it could fire the ones on different facings each turn. It was hit by the 3.7cm AT gun, but this only caused a single wound - and really wasn’t that concerning to me. The German Lancers have been shot off by the infantry - only having 4 wounds and not being in cover makes them pretty vulnerable - and given their speed they were a priority target.
Getting towards the end. The Geman HMG and Flammenwerfer were taken out by 18pdr fire. The FW felt very useless in this game - it costs more points than the HMG, only has 10” range (compared to 25” for rifles, and 36” for the HMGs). Perhaps in an game with heavier terrain it would have been more useful.
The Tank was very effective with its MG fire taking out a number of German units. The German section charged into melee with one of my infantry units, and this turned into a protracted fight, with the slight numerical advantage for the British being telling in the end.
My Witch had been unsuccessful in the various rituals he attempted - but these rituals generate manifestion dice, which can also be generated by winning in close combats. I had the maximum of 6 manifestion dice, so went for the 2nd most powerful summoning, Trolls. Which was succesful, they appear on a board edge, so I choose near the 3.7cm gun - this lead to a very one-sided melee! The German witch only had 3 manifestion dice, and when attempting their summoning failed, and rolled doubles, meaning he was stunned for the rest of the turn!
All in all a fun game - the rules are pretty dense and have certiainly taken some digesting over the last couple of weeks - but once on the table we got the flow of the core mechanisms pretty quickly.
29 November 2023, 08:53:46 PM
