Learning to Play: Quar's War: Clash of Rhyfles
 |
| Art is from the Clash of Rhyfles 2-player starter set featuring Crusaders and Coftyrans. I'm not 100% sure who actually created it, but im presuming it's someone from the Rhyfler crew |
To the folks who know me all too well, why another skirmish game when our local group plays so many already? When I barely have time to sneeze somedays, why another commitment to another skirmish game?
Well, because the models of course. They look a lot like bipedal anteaters for the most part, with the fatigues and equipment that mimic World War 1, albeit with a grimsical twist.
Starting my journey into Quar's War CoR, I grabbed up the 2-player starter set, which has 2 12-model sides (one side represents the Crusaders from Tok, the other the Royalists from Coftyr), the Rhyfler's Pocketbook, activation cards, and some dice. The models were all multi-part plastics from Wargame Atlantic (I think I picked it up from Amazon at the time while making a larger order for the mundane things in life, like HVAC Air Filters and boxes of drink packets and whatnot). I'll go over what else I've gathered in later posts, but today's game will cover merely models used in this box.
The Mission
The mission we played was out of the Rhyfler's Pocketbook, Meeting Engagement, which can be found on Page 38 of the Pocketbook PDF here. But for those who do not want to click the link and find the rules, see below:
Meeting Engagement
Description: Two Patrols meet on the field of battle. Both seek a victory that only one will achieve.
Deployment: The commander's must decide which of them deploys his rhyflers first. The Patrol first to deploy starts the battle as the active commander. Each commander may deploy up to 8" in from his side of the battlefield.
Pluck: Both commanders begin the battle with 5 Pluck.
Primary Objective: Last Rhyfler Standing: The commander with the most rhyflers left, by point value, at the end of the battle gains 5 objective points.
Secondary Objective: Each commander must attempt to keep his opponent from gaining ground on the field. For every Rhyfler of his past the middle of the table a the end of the battle, a commander will gain 2 objective points.
Patrols: This Skirmish may be fought with Patrols of any size. A great starting point for new commanders is 300 points, wile an experienced commander may prefer the challenge of a Patrol of 400 or 500 points in size.
The Table
The table today was setup using some MDF farmhouses from (I think) Terrain4Games? I do not exactly remember, as I've had it for a long time. The trees, rocks, and river segments are both painted/unpainted options from MonsterFightClub. The trucks are printed from a creator I'm forgetting, but I acquired them secondhand from LoonLakeGame as he was doing a liquidation sale. The mat is from Tablewar, specifically this one, which I got for Wild West Exodus (which I am hoping to play again sometime soon).
One thing to note as well is the token I was using. They're the standard tokens from Bushido; I am not 100% sure on how to acquire them again, as I acquired them via a bigger bundle deal I do not recall if they offer anymore.
 |
| The Table |
---
The recent heavy rain in the region led to some localized flooding off in the countryside that was unfortunately awfully close to the contested front's logistical routes the Crusaders and Royalists would use for resupply and potential deployment.
Yawdryl Byveen was fresh to his squad, and fresh from schooling. As green as they come as the company command would say. The morning was chilly, slightly damp, with a thin mist overhanging their forward operating base. The Crusade forces here had been able to hold a staunch defense against local partisans, but Royalists from Coftyr had been seen advancing towards the lines somewhere to the east.
The Yawdryl had just poured himself his first cup of tea around their squads campfire when the Pyk-Pyk with his orders. He was to gather the squad he had been assigned (a rather meagre group due to deployment priorities for the FOB) and scout out a river crossing about 7 kilometers to the East of their position.
The location was normally used for the occasional beast-of-burden crossing for the riverbank farmstead, but Company Command needs to know the status of the crossing in case they need to reposition due to an advance from the forces of the Crymuster.
Byveen read over the order slowly, timing this finish of the reading to the finish of his tea. He slowly stood up, groaning after his last few nights of sleeping on a stiff cot instead of on a mattress like he was accustomed to.
"Look 'ere squad, we got some orders today. Shouldn't be too tough. Command wants us to go spy on a river crossing, see if it's still usable to get equipment and quar across to the other side. Maybe a 7 kilometer hike, so nothing too terrible. We leave out in a hour, after breakfast and another cup of tea. Any questions?"
Milwer Wygiin stood up, the squad's second in command. "What are we looking at for possible opposition? Royals? Partisans? Cause if I have to come face to face with another one of them Sarf-cyn I might lose what little of my snout I have left."
"Unknown. Command just needs us to go out, spy on the crossing, and report back. No express rule of engagement on this one. Pack some extra magazines just in case though."
"Aye" responded Rhyfler Isayk, the squad Ryshi gunner as he grabbed another magazine to begin loading.
"Hynes, Evynyn, and Madwell, go to the armory and see if we can get an H-11 along with some additional ammo for the Bogens after breakfast, I got a funny feeling we may need one."
"Aye" responded Madwell, snout full of breakfast toast with some sort of packaged grub-smear. "I'll head over in a jiff."
"And we have to walk?" asked Hynes while filling up his cup with tea. "We just did a route yesterday that was 10 kilometers one way."
"Yup, we have to hoof it on our feet. As far as I know the motor pool is all in use for the gear runners. The last flatbed was ambushed a few days back and there's been no word yet on if it can even be recovered considering the storms and the flooding."
The groan was audible from even the next squad tents over, who chuckled. They had a similar patrol route the day before, but they're so beat up they're staying the FOB for a while.
While the rest of his squad set about their breakfast and equipment prep, Byveen went to the communications tent, to review the local maps to plot a course to the crossing.
---
Forces and Deployment
As this is a "learning to play," I made 2 small forces, being a mere 6 models per side. The Crusaders (piloted by me) consisted of:
- Rhyfler w/ Bogen (25p)
- Rhyfler w/ Bogen (25p)
- Rhyfler w/ Bogen (25p)
- Rhyfler w/ Ryshi (28p) (M.I.)
- Milwer w/ Bogen (28p)
- Yawdryl w/ Bogen (30p)
The Royalist forces (piloted by my buddy Connor from a majority of my recorded Infinity games), consisted of:
- Rhyfler w/ Harlech (25p)
- Rhyfler w/ Harlech (25p)
- Rhyfler w/ Harlech (25p)
- Rhyfler w/ Cryfen (32p)
- Milwer w/ Harlech (28p)
- Yawdryl w/ Doru (33p)
We determined who deployed first/go first based on who better succeeded in a skill check with our leaders; Infinity style as what we are used to. Crusader's won the roll-off, and were going first. I deployed on the side nearest the buildings, while the Royalists deployed more towards the trees and rocks on the opposite side.
We played the game using the value of 150 pts per side, so a max of 3 full turns.
 |
Our Deployment Zones |
 |
| Deployment |
For the deployment, the crusaders (from top to bottom on the left-hand side), have a Bogen Rhyfler behind the top rock, a Bogen Rhyfler, Ryshi Rhyfler, and the Milwer behind the central fallen tree, and then the Yawdryl on the rocks in the bottom right, flanked by the final Bogen Rhyfler.
The Coftyrans had two Harlech Rhyflers behind the top-right fallen tree, the Yawdryl behind the central rock pile, a Harlech Rhyfler and Cryfen Rhyfler behind the central fallen tree, and then the Milwer is hiding behind the rock behind the tree in the bottom right corner.
--- Turn 1 ---
With the nature of how Quar runs, being vague reminiscent of Bushido/Necromunda in an "I go, You go" fashion, the turn breakdowns will mainly cover some pictures during the turn, pivotal moments, and then story. Otherwise, we're all just reading a bunch of words instead of seeing pictures; that said nothing is painted so it does not really matter now, does it?
Anyway, major events in turn 1 see a majority of the Royalists get up to the center line, as we misplayed Dive for Cover, forgetting that a Ranged Attack failure, but with a result under 13, lets the attacker move the target to cover, and they're gobsmacked; which led to the royalists really advancing as they just kept diving for cover forward when I failed my ranged attacks, despite most the rolls allowing me to have them dive for cover somewhere that wasn't to cover with MA range of them.
A crusader rhyfler did push really far forward past the farm houses, only to get thunked on the head and lay there confused for the whole game. We learned here (and confirmed it through the Rules channel on the Zombiesmith discord) that melee combat really is just Quar hitting each-other with the target making no reactions.
---
The patrol route to the crossing wasn't super difficult, after the cross the wire and defensive perimeter of their FOB, it was mainly flat fields and farmland. The sounds of the Long War were somehow absent during the patrol out, the mist cutting visibility down to maybe a quarter kilometer at best. The farm roads were relatively fine, the squelching of mud under-boot and the sound of light raindrops hitting their helmets and fatigues would have been relaxing if it we're for their current situation.
After some time, the squad came to the crossing. One farmhouse looked fine, but unoccupied, front door left open, a window seemingly shattered from the debris-field from a fallen tree. Another house across the dirt road had part of the roof caved in, and other damage visible from just approaching from the field. Some abandoned vehicles were left between them, likely belonging to whomever was here before.
As the squad approached further, Byveen called the squad to halt as he looked through a spyglass into the mist. He saw movement, but wanted to make sure he wasn't mistaken. He would have figured it was the previous occupants of these homes, if it wasn't for the bright metallic helmets the Royalists from Coftyr wore sitting atop the heads of half a dozen quar approaching the cross as well.
In a hushed, yet loud-enough tone, Byveen ordered "Royalists. As many of them as us. Spread out, use the trees for cover, and push them back."
The sound of equipment packs jostling and breach-checking quietly sounded off as the quar moved to what positioned they could.
~~~
Byveen and his squad acted first, firing rounds off that narrowly missed their Royalist targets. The Royalists, in return, advanced surprisingly quick, ignoring these near misses to advance up to the farmhouses faster than Byveen had figured.
 |
| Board state around the half-way point in the turn |
Byveen had eyes on all his Quar except Hynes, who ran off around the left farmhouse and was out of sight.
---
 |
| Board state at the end of turn 1 |
--- Turn 2 ---
Here we saw every royalist that went Out of Action in Turns 1 and 2 get tended to, with all but 1 Quar getting the I'm Good, I'm Good! result, which was infuriating. The one that failed was the Cryfen Rhyfler who got a It's Just a Flesh Wound! result, but he was sitting behind a farmhouse at the time, so he was pretty much safe.
We also got to use the rules for the Charge action, which does not need line of sight to the target, the target just needs to be within double of the Rhyfler's MA, but also outside of the base MA value (here was between 5 to 10 inches). We did have a game-y moment where a quar was not able to declare a charge if if went directly into base-to-base, but if it looped around, it could eat up the extra 2" it needed to to make it. That lead to the inevitable death of my Ryshi Rhyfler as a Royalist Rhyfler charged around him to bonk him on the head (rolled triple 1s, and got a result of a 27 on the might roll since the result of a 9 was tripled).
The Crusaders we're in a delaying action most of this entire turn due to constant Dive for Cover shenanigans and my dice deciding I do not need to succeed on any sort of roll possible.
The Crusaders we're in a delaying action most of this entire turn due to constant Dive for Cover shenanigans and my dice deciding I do not need to succeed on any sort of roll possible.
 |
| Board state around the half-way point in the turn |
---
Something must've happened to Hynes, cause shortly after he ran around that farmhouse, a Royalist trooper came around, ran up, and beat Isayk senseless, leaving him a husk on the ground until he ran back to the farmhouse. He slowly watched each of his quar fall to the oddly deft Royalists. As he jumped down from his perch to help Rhyfler Madwell, a royalist rounded the corner and the last thing Byveen knew, he was fighting for his life with his rifle butt.
---
--- Turn 3 ---
This turn ended on the second card, as I had a whopping 1 model left active, that being my Yawdryl, who got teamed up on an bullied cause he brought his morning "tea" with him to the battlefield, and cause his Bogen looked an AWFUL LOT LIKE a Grifkis shotgun (he was being proxied).
---
The last this Byveen saw as the Royalist's rifle-butt struck him in the temple was Madwell's unmoving body lying on the ground. The rain was getting a little heavier, and there was shouting and warcrys from other Royalists around.
His eyes closed.
---
--- End of Game ---
Regardless of the overall points at the end, Royalists won the skirmish as all of the Crusaders were either Out of Action or removed from the field.
---
Byveen was stirred awake. It looked like he was inside one of the farmhouses at the crossing. A young kit, startled by Byveen waking up, scurried off to another room. An adult quar, wearing working-mans clothes, entered the room.
He doesnt remember much about the conversation, but the gist was that while his squad was beaten by the Royalists, they retreated as quickly as they had arrived, likely fearing a larger force was incoming, or so the farmer thought. The farmer and his farmhands were coming back from help another farmstead further up-river when they saw the bodies of Byveen and his squad. It had been maybe half an hour after their initial engagement had occurred when the famer returned.
Out of his squad, everyone was able to make a slow slog back to the FOB except for Isayk, who's body was lifeless when the farmers had brought him inside the damaged farmhouse. Most of their loose equipment was gone, from packaged mothcakes to field bandages. Firearms were fine, albeit caked in mud, if anything their spare magazines were sitting outside in the mud.
The light sprinkle they had approach the crossing in turned into a regular rainstorm. Not as heavy as to cause widespread flooding like recent days, but enough to cause concern for the already waterlogged areas.
"Give it some time to lick your wounds, but not too long. We can give you some drink and eats 'inna moment from the other house." gestured the Farmer.
"Thank you. We can just get a quick bite and sip and we'll be out of your hair." grunted Byveen, slowly sitting up on the haybale mattress he was lying in. His helmet was next to him on the ground, and his squadmates we're lying around as well, some stirring more than others.
Madwell walked back into the room holding two bogens and a loose magazine. "Gads you look rough Yawdryl. Good to see you made it through though. Got to get these other buggers up soon so we can get back to base."
"That slog will take a while with us being wounded 'n all." Responded Byveen. "Really wish it weren't raining like this. Those trucks outside wouldnt fare well in it anyway if we could borrow one."
"Yeah, it's really coming down out there too. Considering how the roads were on our way in, it'll probably take us twice as long to venture back to base."
"Well, we'll see how this rain goes and we'll go from there. Thankfully there arent many turns to get back home."
"Aint that the truth." responded Madwell.
Slowly over the next hour, the remainder of the Quar in the squad arose, various aches and pains bandaged as best they could be. When a break in the rain and cloud cover opened in the early afternoon, the squad ventured out to return home, with hot tea and jelly-toast in their bellies. They carried Isyak's corpse with amung them, the farmer giving them an older draw-behind cart, the beasts who once used the cart having been gone for years.
The squad eventually returned to their base, beaten and bruised as the cloud-cover broke further and the sun began to set. While they were able to determine the crossing was passable, it needed to be secured first.
Isyak's next of kin will be notified of his passing. The rest of the squad went to the medical triage for their more serious wounds, and they got a guarantee of a few days off their feet to recover.
Right as Byveen began to write his first letter home after getting to the squad tents, the clouds began to move back in again, rain began to sprinkle the grounds, and the Quar who had the luxury of a firebox in a personal tent used it.
"So this is really what it's about huh?"
---
--- Conclusion and Final Thoughts ---
For my own sake, I did the rolls for my remaining Out of Action Rhyflers after the fact. My Ryshi gunner was just straight to dead, and everyone else rolled -/- rolls and recovered.
The game plays quite fun, and can be played fairly quickly if you and your opponent are willing to not second-guess what you're going to do. We burned through our pluck quite quickly, even if it was detrimental to what we wanted to do (Dive for Cover would've made things sillier if we did it right from the start).
I will likely do some other games of Quar, either solo games or maybe another demo game or two. I know at least one other person wants a demo, but if I'm not able to manifest a matching time, I can easily play a game against myself, or do a 5 Quar-sects from Home style thing, for the giggles and whatnot.
So overall, Quar is something I'll keep an interest in for a bit, considering the support in plastics from Wargames Atlantic and plastic Tractors coming soon for Coftyr and Crusaders, I'll be might preoccupied between Quar and other games.
Anyways, catch y'all next time!
Man. I wish I was closer Uber, it would be a blast for hobby night!
ReplyDeleteHobby nights are quite the rare occurrence these days, but im sure it would be
Delete