Galactica 1980 motorcycles

If you're old enough to have been devastated by the cancellation of Battlestar Galactica and disappointed by its subsequent resurrection as Galactica 1980, you'll recognize these bikes, which are 3-D prints from Etsy.

I got six bikes, three with wings stowed and three with wings extended. Alas, there was no Wolfman Jack figure, but there was a rider-less bike included.

They are not a bad match for my Tangent Miniatures figures. It would have been easier to paint them if the rider torso had been separate.

Overall, kinda cool, not hugely useful, but, then again, this is toy soldiers so utility is not really a criterion. Now I have some outriders for my Landram and probably enough figures to a game of Xenos Rampant.

Up next: Some more sci-fi.

Dragon's Rampant

A few weeks back, Bruce and I dug out some fantasy armies to give Dragons Rampant a go. It has been a while since we've played this game. I used some old 15mm figures from the first edition of Battlelore. Bruce used some 28mm lizards he got from Kevin Barrett's estate.

We each worked out 36-point armies. First up were some dwarves versus the lizards. Most of the game went down on the right flank, with Bruce's war beasts charging some dwarven foot. Neither of us could get the left flank to move much.

Eventually the giant lizard bit it but he took down a couple of dwarves unit. An enormous dinosaur came up the middle and I could not get my heavy shooters going worth beans.

Then the left flank came alive. My giant bear (which I also think was a gift from Kevin years) munched a bunch of lizards but eventually ran itself down.

I thought I had Bruce on the ropes at one point but he retreated just out of range for the kill. 

And then Bruce put it away on the left flank.

The game took about 45 minutes so we switched side and I pitted some medieval Arthurians against a second lizard army of five very high-pointed unit. Bruce initially creamed two of my units but subsequently got shoot and charged to pieces.

 

Overall, a fun game with almost nothing to look up and I don't think we used the QRS after the first turn, just some unit stat lists. Happy that the lovely figures Kevin painted got bloodied.

Fistful of Dice: Deathstroke vs the Teen Titans

Bruce dropped by a few weeks back to try out Fistful of Dice with some superheroes. I put together the most asymmetrical game I could manage in order to really give the rules a test. The result was one hero and a bunch of goons versus four specialists.

Scenario
Deathstroke has been contracted to kill the Teen Titans. To lure the Titans into the open, he’s staged a jail break, killing the cops in the precinct, and releasing into the streets four of the most fearsome gangs Gotham has ever known.

Team Death Stroke (leader plus 4 groups grunts)

Deathstroke d12 shooting/melee

• sniper rifle 16/32”
• sword (+1 in close combat roll)
• dead eye (+1 to shoot rolls)
• ferocious (+1 to wound rolls in close combat)
• tough as nails (4 wounds)

Smith’s Grifters 3x grunts d8 shooting/melee

• pistol 6/12”

8th Street Ladies Club 3x grunts d8 shooting/melee

• pistol 6/12”

Father Mark’s Boys School Photography Club 5 x grunts d6 melee only

• club (-1 to wound roll but add additional shock marker)

Sister Mary’s Girls School Field Hockey Team 5 x grunts d6 melee only

• club (-1 to wound roll but add additional shock marker)

Team Titans (4 specialists)

Robin d10 shooting/melee

• batarang 6/12” (shock result only; 2 shocks = 1 wound)
• staff (may attack from 2” away in close combat)
• master (roll 1 additional die in close combat and select best result)
• fancy footwork (win ties in close combat)

Wondergirl d10 melee only +3” to movement

• magic lasso (may attack from 4” away; wins ties; add additional shock marker)
• tough as nails (4 wounds)
• impervious (ignore wound penalties on movement, attack and recovery rolls)

Speedy d10 shooting/melee

• long bow 11/20”
• fists (-1 to wound rolls)
• sniper (once per turn re-roll shooting)
• eagle-eyed (extra range already factored in)

Cyborg d10 shooting/melee +3” to jumping

• electric shock 6/12”
• power fist (-1 to wound roll but add additional shock marker)
• armoured (roll 1d10 per hit, on an 8-10 the hit is absorbed by the armour)
• brawler (reroll close combat roll once per turn)

Set-up

1. Deathstroke sets up four gangs within 1” of the police station; Deathstroke may be placed anywhere within 1" of the station, including on the roof.
2. Titans are positioned at least 9” from the police station.

Victory Points (highest total wins)

• Deathstroke gets 5VPs per Titan OOA, 10VPs if Titan dies in post-game resolution
• Deathstroke gets 0.5VP per grunt exiting the Board (max 8) and 2 VP per building burgled (no maximum, buildings take 3 wounds to enter).
• Titans get 1VP per grunt OOA or captured and 10 VPs if Deathstroke OOA

Coppers Arrive

Roll 1d6 at the end of each turn and adding the following:

• +1 for gunfire having occurred in the game
• +1 for each building being burgled in the game
• +1 for each figure OOA in the game

When the roll plus mods equals 12, 1d6 cops from other precincts arrive at a random board edge at the end of each turn. After all play is resolved, the cops make 2 moves towards (1) any visible bad guys or (2) the police station. Any grunts contacted by the cops are arrested. Cops will not attempt to arrest Deathstroke or the Titans. Team Deathstroke can attack cops but OOA cops just recycle.

Game ends

• All Titans are OOA or off board or
• All Deathstroke grunts are off board, OOA, or captured.

Outcome

I ran through the scenario three times (Deathstroke won twice) and it poses some difficult choices. Deathstroke (with a d12)  is super powerful and can easily take out a Titan. But he's also vulnerable to bad rolls. The grunts are almost useless but, again, a bad wound roll can take out a Titan. and there are so many grunts.

Some gaming updates

So last fall, Bruce suggested we pool a list of games we wanted to play again and then work our way through them. There are about 20 games on the list with the sequence being randomly generated.

First up was Struggle for Europe, a reskinning of Lincoln (which I don't think we've played) by Worthington Games. This game focuses on WW2 in Europe and offers one of the best games at this scale that I have played. There are relatively few counters, only 30-some areas, with point-to-point movement and the game uses cards to drive play. There are three decks (representing the three phases of the war), the game ends when one player has exhausted all of their cards (which creates major opportunity costs plus creates a tactical "attrition" option for players), and you win by controlling key locations. 

The strategy for the Germans is to either win early or try to hold on and preclude an allied victory before the cards runs out. I think this is the third time we've played this and every game is a nail biter. This one ended up in a German victory just as the US was invading France (some luck in the desert and at Leningrad tipped it--otherwise, Germany was spent). 

Next up was Sam Mustafa's Longstreet. Other than the Union won, I don't recall much of the details of this ACW skirmish. This is another card-driven game at the brigade level. A few years ago, we played through the full campaign system (which sees the cards and armies change over the course of the war). This is a good game to be the defender in!

Then we played Sam Mustafa's Nimitz. We've done a couple of WW2 games of this but Bruce had bought some pre-Dreadnaught minis so we refought a break-out action in the Philippines between the US and German fleets (I think). Overall, this is a pretty solid game. Sometimes the amount of effort to resolve shooting seemed tedious but, if that were streamlined, there wouldn't be much left.

We then played the same scenario using the 1980s rules Fire When Ready on a hex grid. It was a messier game (no formations required) with preplotting and (I think) simultaneous movement. Not a bad game. Nimitz feels more modern in terms of gaming conventions and mechanics, though. I think the scenarios split one win for each side.

We continued with the naval theme using Mustafa's Halsey rules (basically a map game) of a British convoy run through the Mediterranean during WW2. This is a very solid game and was, I thought, much more interesting than Nimitz in terms of the decisions (I tend to prefer high-level games, I think). 

Once the fleets come to grips, the game has a small battle board mechanic. In the end, the Germans won on points (I could not roll worth crap that night). Overall, pretty fun and the use of blinds created enough fog of war on a shared board to make decisions tough.

We wrapped up the autumn gaming with Taskforce, a cold-war naval game with double blind movement set in North Atlantic. We played duelling convoy runs with surface and submarines (no fixed wing air to simplify the rules a bit). The author is better known for the Victory Games 6th/7th/2nd Fleet series that came out about 10 years later.

There is a bit of fiddly searching (such is double blind without an umpire) but that got easier after a couple of turns. Once there is contact, you switch to a battle board to resolve air, missile, torpedo and gunnery attacks, which is kind of cool. I don't recall who won (it was close). 

There were some interesting battles: a Soviet convoy getting stalked and repeatedly attacked by NATO frigates using guns (having used their SSMs to take out the escorts) and a NATO convoy being stalked and repeatedly attack by Soviet subs and surface ships. This created quite a lot of tension.

For a 45-year-old game, this was surprisingly good and the multi-step battle board gave an interesting feel. Your SSMs, for example, come in, face area AA, then jamming, then close AA, then they strike (or not...). You can decide how many missile from each volley drop at pickets and how many continue into the main fleet (which means being subjected to a second set of defences).

Shambling Mound

One of the bigger figures in the fantasy box I got from Chen was a shambling mould (think animated compost pile). I'd say this monster has use beyond D&D.

I had to look online to figure out what colours might be appropriate. Basically green and brown seemed to be the answer.

I did a brown wash over white, then a medium green dry brush followed by a lime green drybrush and some yellow highlights. The mushroom was just some tan paint, then everything got a wash.

The colours look better in person. Below, you can see the brown wash and the various highlights. I was pretty happy with how the mushroom turned out.

Up next: Maybe a wrap up of some games Bruce and I have been playing.

Wolves and a water elemental

This week, I knocked off five wolves. I went with a grey palette since I already have five wolves in a brown scheme.

I also have this watery creature shooting up out of the ground.

It was tricky to get a shot that showed off the nice sculpting of its face.

It is also a good-sized figure (28mm druid for comparison).

Up next: I'm not sure, maybe a recap of some gaming?

Werewolves and ghosts

This week, I finished up some 28mm werewolves and ghosts. These are more figures from the lot I got from Chen. I decided on grey for the wolves. The remains of the clothing is a tan colour but, overall, everything kind of washed out in the lights. Oh well! Maybe light blue would have been a better colour.

 

I also had some ghosts, again cast in translucent blue that hid the nice sculpting. I may have over drybrushed these. Meh.

Up next: Some wolves and a water elemental.