28mm cultists

I continued painting some 28mm GW cultists for Pulp Alley this week. I managed to get four guys moved off the painting table.

The first two are from the whips-and-chains brigade. Nice motion in these sculpts.

The other two are the BDSM game, complete with blazing hat and mobile gallows.

They will make a nice addition to my cultists--maybe for a Hallowe'en-themed game?

Boxer rebellion playtest

Bruce has been working on a new Boxer rebellion game, using Dragon Rampant as the basic engine and a NPC system from an old western game to operate the Boxers. The basic scenario is five colonial powers must hold off the hordes of Boxers trying to seize their embassies.

The rest of the details I'll leave off as it might spoil the fun for when Bruce brings this out to the club. Maybe needs one more playtest to make sure the play balance is right but I think it is close.

Lost of new terrain as Bruce has recreated the five besieged embassies. Also new figures for the most part.

We had pretty decent luck with the event cards not causing too many problems for us. I'd say that is unusual and problems should be expected! As it was, we had hordes of Boxers appearing. The Germans held many of them off (random entry).

There is also a supply mechanic that gives players the opportunity to interact with one another. Don't make fun of the German accent or you may find yourself short of ammunition!

We had some repeated bad luck trying to achieve an objective, getting caught twice outside the walls by the Chinese.

This lead to a subsequent shortage of manpower for the defenders.

There was also some damage to the fortifications that started to pile up. Fortunately, the Chinese entry points did not correspond to the damaged portions.

We also had some visitors!

By the end, things were getting a bit touch and go as we were running out of troops and had some late appearances by Boxers that were inconvenient.

Fortunately, we managed to run out the clock before the Boxers could capitalize upon the mounting casualties.

Overall, a pretty fun game and I enjoyed playing against the gaming system.

Tomb of Horus

We had four guys out at the cub on Tuesday, with Terry hosting Chen, Bruce and I in a game of Tomb of Horus. Basically, this is a smash a grab kind of game wit the winner having the most dosh at the end. The excitement comes from the random nature of the falling blocks (which creates a random end point).

Bruce handily won the first game, rushing in, grabbing the highest value treasure and then getting out while I wandered around with no real plan.

Game 2 was better and I ended up with the most treasure. We also saw Chen trapped inside the tomb when a block came down just as he was making his way out.

Overall, a fun game--thanks to Terry for hosting.

28mm cultists and new dice!

This week I finished up some more 28mm cultists from GW. First up was a bunch of guys who like to play with fire.

Then the BSDM crowd with clubs and shackles and what not. Nice figures but happy to be coming to the end of them.

A few weeks back at Red Claw I picked up some new eight-sided dice. These will replace the ones I had from D&D in the early 80s that are almost impossible to read. Thanks to everyone who has suffered through Pulp Alley using the old dice!

Up next: Cultists, some historic forts, and some 54mm AWI.

Guilford Courthouse at the club

We had five guys out on a lovely July evening this week. Daniel hosted Terry in a game of Mythic Battles which had some pretty cool minis and terrain pieces.

Chen and Craig played a game of Tricorne against me. We chose Guilford Courthouse and they elected to play the rebellious scoundrels in blue. Below I believe they are looking at unit stats and saying "this militia REALLY sucks". 

The opening turns saw the British advance and try to pick up some quick kills against the first line of militia. The game required 10 banners to win and the Americans started with 3 temporary banners that they retained as long as I did not occupy any of the hill hexes on their base line so I had ground to make up right off.

Chen made a series of amazing morale rolls and the battered militia ran for the hills meaning much of the damage I inflicted did not convert into destroyed units.

Eventually I managed to put together an attack on the right to rout the American troops and start to turn the line. This took some time and Craig and Chen used that time to shore up some battered units and reform their remaining two lines.

I then use the Highlanders to start pushing into their second line from the right side while the main force slowly lumbered forward into shooting distance. I barely managed to hold off a counter attack on my left before coming to grips with the militia and finally scoring some kills.

I think the final score was 10-6 for the Brits. This is a tough scenario for the US and the militia are ridiculously brittle. The tension is using them to attrit British units and then get them out of the way so the British can break themselves on the regulars on the final line.

Lion Rampant: Find the lost noble

Bruce hosted another game of Lion Rampant. The scenario saw the troops in the foreground searching the terrain features for a lost noble (die roll for success with escalating chances). Once found, the noble had to be spirited off of the board. The other side (background) had to stop this foolishness.

The early game saw lots of moving and searching. Good activation rolls on my part and a tough terrain set up for Bruce was much appreciated. My bleeding knights kept failing their activations, though!

Eventually, the lost noble was found hiding in some trees by my crossbow unit (on left of photo above). This looks like an easy win for me as I just had to get him off the board (two moves to side or four moves to rear).

Bruce then challenged and killed my general. And this must have rattled the troops because I could not activate anything for several turns. Bruce took the opportunity to ride down my foot sergeants (jerk!).

Then the chase was on. I fell back, hoping to draw his forces onto the two units of knights that never really got going and triggering an impetuous charge. This tactic did in fact work, which was good because my crossbow unit was unable to retreat effectively.

Eventually things turned around and I managed to get both of knight units in positions where they just kept charging his pursuers and my crossbow guys got away with the noble. An ugly, ugly 7-5 win for the good guys.

We played a second game with the same units but objectives reversed. Bruce found the noble on his first try and got him of the board before my guys could even sight his units (a 5-0 win!). Overall, a fun scenario.

Strange Aeons, Look Sarge, No Charts, and The Great War

It was a busy night at the club with three games running. Dan hosted Terry and Chen in a play through of Strange Aeons 2nd Edition. I have no idea what happened in that game, other than the scenarios went quickly.

Scott hosted Craig and me in a game of The Great War. I was the British while Craig played the dastardly Hun. Victory was 6 banners and my plan was to push left to gain points through unit kills and trench occupations.

This started out okay for me. Then my hand turned into "right only" cards and Craig played like a mad-man! It was like the Harlem Globe Trotters were Mrs. Wright's Grade 2 class. There were crazy card combinations and terrifying "activate everything" turns and he was always in the bleeding trenches! It was a complete disaster for the British general staff.

This was the best I could manage in terms of an advance and I was within one turn of winning on points. Then Craig continued with his amazing card play and I was screwed. Good game, though!

Bruce hosted Wiley and Richard with some 15mm Napoleonics using Look Sarge, No Charts. The French set up on the left and had to run for the top of the picture. The British set up on the top of the photo and the right in an upside-down L.

By the time I joined the game, things were thoroughly confused. Bruce's British cavalry had been routed and Richard was attacking (from the right?) while running the majority of his troops off the board. It was quite a show!