"Any game where you massacred your enemy?" Topic

Did you ever play a game where you killed ever last one of the opposing player's troops? Or ran them all off?

No, but I have been on the receiving end.
In fact at one memorable Cold Wars, I played in 5 games, commanded 85 total figures, and got 79 killed.

That is a lot of dead toy soldiers, John.

One WRG Ancients game where we inflicted 8-1 losses (in points, even higher in figures) on the other side.

And been on the receiving end. One game of 1776 in a campaign saw Burgoyne's army get whipped a year early. We lost about 8-1 against the Rebels. Managed to pull it out when the Rebels did some very poor play in the overall game (AH 1776 board game).

And of course, very early rules I played (Joe Morschauser) had no morale rules, so often the last man standing won.

In one ancients battle with a friend we fought on the banks of a major river. I pinned his force against the river and a well timed elephant charge broke his front rank and his entire army imploded. The only troops of his that survived were his cavalry which never actually came onto the battle field. A Cannae type of wipeout, very bloody and gruesome loss for my friend.

In a game of Gwar RIA the band destroyed the entire Toledo police force and only lost a few slaves. Then they ate the concert goers. It was a massacre

A few years back I made it to Historicon and played in one of Peter Pig's "Battles in the Age of War" Samurai demo games. My side lost in unheard of heroically epic proportions.

More years ago we did a Swiss-Burgundian battle and my Swiss stampeded the Burgundians off the table edge.

Solitaire board wargaming I have, plenty of times…usually one of the older NAW/NLB, 30YW or PGG type games.

If I'm going to win, I want to win.

I actually hate games where you win and there are still tonnes of other guise on the board…COW does that a lot.

My Dwarves shot a Vampire Counts army to pieces in 4 turns once.

I remember one DBM game where the dice was – quite undeservedly – all in my favour.

I trundled straight forward with a lot of Medieval French knights, while my opponent skillfully managed his more maneuverable Teutonics to put a strong Light horse force right on my flank, and also managed to line up his Knight wedges against a small unit of inferior irregular bow, which should have been swept away, leaving my line totally open.

But thanks to unlikely dice rolling on both sides, my knights just laughed off the flank attack without loss, with a couple of knight bases auto peeling off and massacring the LH despite each being double flanked and one being attacked from the rear as well. Then the 6 bases of bowmen killed half their opposing knights before contact and the rest shortly afterwards. At about that time my main line of mounted knights smacked into the rest of his line and ran over it.

I broke all three of his commands without any loss at all. A huge albeit undeserved victory for me, and a massacre for him.

Yup.
Both, getting wacked and doing the wacking!

I played the humans in a zombie game, and at the end there was nobody left alive on the other side,

In Lost Battles, completely routing the entire enemy army is a relatively common occurrence, as it was irl.

In a game of Armati 2, single sized armies on both sides. Each of us had a Mongol cavalry army. My opponent did not know that his light cavalry could not stand up to my heavies. In two turns his army was destroyed.

I really should have told him what he was doing wrong.

I played a Napoleonic game when before I had my first turn 90% of my army had been forced to flee. A few guard units were all that were left on the table.

I had a friend whose Dark Eldar force was designed to be massacred. The thing was basically the nastiest hero she could tool up, surrounded by a mass of, erm, ablative armor.

The objective was to use the ash-and-trash to get the hero into your formation, where it would slice your troops to ribbons. At least, that was the plan. When she faced the Rat Marines (who love their meltas), the hero would get insta-killed often, leaving her with no figures left on the board.

In recent years I have had two incredibly one sided games which have gone my way.

Alan Sarmatian Vs Early Imperial Roman:

link

WoTR Yorkists Vs Lancastrians:

link

The latter game was in a campaign where my Yorkist force were exhausted, and fighting at reduced level. A wholesale massacre resulted where not only did I not lose a unit, I lost not even a single strength point.

I shall dine out on that one, when I am old and very grey.

Alzo Zero, Yanks vs nazis, two infantry platoons facing off against each other in a village somewhere in Europe.

Germans deploy defensively anchoring their flank with a tripod mounted MG-42. My GI's try to fix, then flank the Germans. The German player keeps one squad in reserve, hiding right behind a school, inside the school is a Panzershreck weapon team. I target the team with my mortars, they miss, deviate and land in the middle of the German squad huddled together behind the school. By now the German squad on the right flank is pinned down by one of my squads and a .30 machinegun. While the infantry squad and MG42 on the left is being pounded by mortar fire. My two squads complete their flanking move and start to pour fire into the MG42 team and squad, already weakened by mortar fire. I reposition my .30 to enfilade the MG42, completely suppressing it before I launch an assault that almost completely wipes out the squad and MG team. What's left of the last squad leaves the field, leaving a trail of defecation behind them.

I have to admit the mortar was a massive lucky shot that rattled my opponent, but the flanking move was textbook material.

A few years ago at Historicon, I helped turn Braddock's Disaster into Braddock's Overwhelming Victory. My co-players and I left the table shaking our heads, both at the loss and wondering how we ever had a chance to win.

Another one is last year playing a WWI in Africa game. The British were positioned behind a raised railroad track so considered entrenched. The Germans came at us wave after wave only to be shot to pieces. I felt bad for my opponents, again wondering how they ever had a chance to win.

In our Ancients games it is very common for the entire Barbarian army to be killed/routed/captured (usually when I am in charge)

Been on the receiving end of such myself. Also occasionally dishing it out and at least in one Aerodorme match,everybody got it.

I have been utterly destroyed a couple of times in Space Marine(epic) and I had my whole 3,000 pt Warmaster Empire army either destroyed or routed in 1 turn by a Undead army.

My godson wanted to have a go at a non 40K game. So one night when his dad and I were playing NUTs he jumped at the chance to lead a British squad. Unfortunately, he led his squad straight in front of one of my MG42 tripods. Wasted 5 figures and the remaining 4 squad members all routed off the table.

It was a very short game and my godson went back to playing 40K.

First game with my group (and how I got my nickname.)
Brother against Brother AWI rules.
My militia stood tall and took out charging highlanders, light infantry behind stone walls, a cavalry unit, and utterly destroyed the British. I only lost 1-2 stands while I decimated the Brits.

Then weeks later, it was decided to scrap the rules because the group found another set. Yes, we found out that we played the rules wrong. But, I won and came away with a nickname.

Warhammer and Warhammer 40K often result in complete massacre style games – the rules and army lists actually encourage it in some cases. I've been on the receiving end a couple of times, and witnessed numerous other examples. In historical games, under the rules we use (used), I've never seen a complete and total destruction of an enemy army. I've seen horrendous casualties inflicted by one side on the other, and I've participated in inflicting them on several, and watched as they occurred in others.

A couple of the worsts as examples:
Old-style Warhammer 40K game – Ork biker with virus bomb bikes over and lobs the bomb on turn 1, top half of the turn. The casualties are such that the Imperial Guard player who did not have protection was down to the last man standing at the bottom of turn 1. Game over, his player stated that based upon the visual trauma, his remaining soldier simply committed suicide rather than surrender or try to die fighting.

Another example: Historical game – Mongols versus Crusader army. The game was going along and was touch and go as both sides skirmished for position and got their troops into position, until the fateful shot. One of the skirmishing Mongol cavalry units fired a shot at one of the units of knights who immediately charged them. This caused the entire right flank to follow in a mad dash to try to catch those pesky light cavalry. The result was all of the knights ending up in the center of the board, blown, unable to do much, surrounded by Mongols. The entire right flanks collapse/charge resulted in them being wiped out, while the crusader center and left were helpless to do anything about it as they were now flanked, or forced to try to deal with the broken and routing units fleeing or attempting to flee from the Mongols. The game was called as the crusaders started a quick withdrawal toward the board edge, sacrificing those few units which had managed to hold in the center of the board, and the skillful use of their remaining cavalry to prevent a solid pursuit.

I will not dwell on those times I have been on the receiving end of a massacre (those games have been stricken from the annals of JtG).

I once was in a tournament taking a Spanish Imperialist army against Poles using the old WRG rules. The Polish commander would not give up even when he was reduced to one wagon (with a driver!!!!). When I speared the driver he finally conceded. (btw, that was the same tournament where my brother had his entire Milanese army run away on turn one – a personal best even for him).

Ha only a wussy counts the dead. I do not remember any of my loses only my victories. I might remember getting some significant losses at the Alamo but Texas always wins in the end.

VR
James Mattes

Whatisitgood4atwork mentions an undeserved win due to dice. I was once running a DBA campaign set around 550 AD. My Franks got into a tussle with Goths. Warbands are meat for knights. I figured I'd just attack, take my whipping and get on with the campaign. I didn't figure on the whims of the dice gods. And Glenn's rotten dice.

I attacked along the line. I had warbands in the open vs. knights, and warbands in the woods vs. skirmishers. This was first edition DBA, back in the 90's.

The skirmishers began taking my boys apart. But the knights in the open, who would kill any warband they beat, could not win a fight. Every now and then I'd double the score of one and kill it. Finally, the Goths went down 4 – 3, having lost 4 knights to my warriors (those guys in diapers, as Glenn's son called them).

I went to take my beating like a man and won instead.

Lots of times, especially in the early days when we played Chainmail!

WRG 7th, killed the C-in-C. Army went to retreat orders and the sub-generals scooted off table before one of them could be nominated as the new C-in-C.

Always thought this was a goofy rule as the other sub generals should be able to follow previous orders but that was the way the game was written.

Oh, this happened to me too. I was playing Alexandrian Macedonians. I failed about 11 morale rolls and managed to roll 1s with Regular A Companions more than once!

Quite common when I play WH40K or FOW.

In one game of FOW, the opponent had to kill every single member of my Russian batallion including support assets. Last to die was the batallion commander, squished by a Panzer II!

Soviet and SS forces (or 2+ morale Fallschirmjager) seldom run, so it's more common for platoons or companies to havce to be killed to the last man.

Also in tank v tank combat between SS and Soviets, the winner tends to kill all of their opponents.

Worst I've seen was a pair of StuGs kill an entire Russian tank force of 15 T-34s and 2 Su-152s whilst a pair of 88mm guns pretty much wiped out the supporting infantry company (I couldn't roll a single save) and then the German panzergrenadier platoon dug in in front of the 88s gunned the few survivors down.

In 40K I've had games where every single Ork in my force was killed (out of 115+ fielded).

In one game of 3rd ed 40K I had a Space Marine Assault Sergeant go berzerk and wipe out an IG army by himself after his squad died – he killed all 2 out of 3 supporting tanks and nearly two platoons of infantry byhimself (back when you could sweeping advance into new combats). The rest of the IG were massacred by the rest of the army.

I've had one (I think) game of DBM and a few games of FOG where I have broken the opponents army without losing a single base.

I was playtesting my medieval-ish fantasy rules with a wild card giant (size 8 sneakers on the playfield.) During my turn the giant started doing a random move "dance" and squished the opponent's entire army. (Neither army was very big to start with…. ;-)

Besides being only a game, in real battles not very often is a side wiped out but has happened. Brought up in a posting of no quarter wandering if anyone has done that and probably does happen more often if only for a brief time.

Alligator Creek in Guadalcanal, 1942 is great example of an attacking force being wiped out.