Tuesday, February 28, 2017

February 2017 Boardgames Roundup

At the beginning of the year I decided to make a list of 50 games I’d like to make sure I played this year – about one per week. I tried to encourage the kids to do the same – so we’d ALL get to play at least 50 games we wanted to. I’ve even encouraged Amanda to pick at least one game each month – she enjoys playing with us, but couldn’t really be bothered to pick out a game each week (that would also mean finding time for FOUR boardgames each week…).

Last month I posted a January Boardgame Round up. For a full list of the 50 games for this year, check out the Game Plan 2017.

This Month’s Picks

The Girl picked:

Finnegan picked: 

My picks:
Pax Porfiniana (or Pax Pamir)
Illuminati (which I haven’t played in YEARS – probably even a decade! or MORE!).

Amanda Picked:

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


We kicked off this month’s picks with a game of Smash Up with our firend Bruce. (one of The Girl’s picks). I can’t remember how it went down. I think I had kitties and ponies…. This was fun enough when I first got it, but I have to admit, I've grown rather tired of it. 


I also ended up playing Bananagrams with The Girl later in the evening. Not anyone’s pick… just another game we found time to play…


Saturday (4 February 2017) Finnegan and I had planned to play A Study in Emerald (Second Edition) in the afternoon with some friends, but then no one was able to show up. So we ended up playing it in the evening when The Girl got back from dance classes and Amanda was out… or.. busy…?

This game is funner with five players - and everyone is having to guess who is on which side - and you know that at least ONE other person is on your side! 



Sunday (5 February 2017) we got in a game of Linkage - another of The Girl’s picks.


Tuesday Evening while the Girls were out at Karate, Finnegan and I tried out a game of Faustus Furius - I have a whole separate post about that game: Faustus Furius MMLIII


On Wednesday, 8 February 2017, the kids and I played a game of Railways of Mexico. I had not played on the Mexico map before. I thought it might be a bit daunting – all those MOUNTAINS! I’d heard from a friend that played and people had wracked up so much debt trying to drive rail lines through those mountains that they ended up taking bonds just to service their debt! I also thought it might be a longer game. It turned out to be neither a long game of a bank breaking game. I thought it was really fun and relatively quick. The map is smaller than the Railways of the Eastern U.S. and the cities aren’t terribly far apart. There were lots of quick little coastal lines that could be built.


We actually ended up with a continuous rail line that went right around the country in a bit circle.


Friday, 10 February was our biweekly D&D night. Not really a board game, but it’s gaming… and it ends up on  my BGG Games Played Calendar, so… I though I’d mention it.



Saturday, 11 February, Bruce, Adele, and Jasper joined me and Finnegan for a game of  Firefly.

We actually finally finished a 5-player game in an afternoon – that wasn’t the “First Time in the Captain’s Chair” scenario. Of course we tried out the accelerated version (where you START the game with a bunch of crew and equipement). This time we played “King of All Londinium”. I think Bruce or Adele won. They’re, like, PROs at this game now.

I wasn’t even close. I don’t think I even had my first goal token! But I still had a lot of fun playing. I could just faff around all day doing jobs, hiring crew, buying new equipment, and such. It’s sometimes hard to stay focused on the fact that there is a GOAL to the game.


Finnegan plays D&D every other Tuesday at King Me Boardgamery. Also not really a boardgame… nor one I have anything to do with (other than walk over there and meet him to walk home – because they finish up quite late)…



Wednesday, 15 February the kids and I played Small World. We haven’t played much Small World lately – Okay I played it at FreezerBurn in January… but before that…? and I can’t remember playing on the 3-player board – I’m sure I have – probably when I first got it I played it once or twoice with just the kids – but usually we end up playing with 4-5 players.


18-20 February was the Family Day long weekend in Saskatchewan this year. So I planed a weekend of family gaming fun!


We actually kicked things off on Friday with a game of Mutants and Death Ray Guns with my friend Aaron and his boys – because his boys had the afternoon off school. You can see the full game report of the ensuing shenanigans here:




Saturday afternoon we played A Game of Thrones: The Board Game (Second Edition). We played this almost exactly a year ago, either on the family say weekend or my birthday. This year Jasper and Kurits joined us. I ended up playing the Starks again. Amanda was the Greyjoys, Kurtis the Lanisters, The Girl played Dorn, Jasper the Tyrells, and Finnegan played Baratheon. It was okay. Jasper had to leave about two turns before the end. WE probably should have called it then, but I was winning at that point so I felt like calling it would have seemed like I was doing so because I was in the lead... No one else suggested it so we played on..


It’s kind of an odd game.  The Greyjoys basically have NO chance at winning ever – sandwiched between Stark and Lannister. The best they can do is harass and annoy and make it hard for one (or BOTH) to get anywhere, which, really, is all they want according to the books? They want their own kingdom and they want to reave the shores of Westeros. What care do they have for collecting castles – let along 7 or 8 of them – which is what you need to win the game!? Seems like maybe there should be separate victory conditions for the other houses.

That’s pretty much all Amanda did all game with the Greyjoys – alternately attacked the Lanisters and Starks and got nowhere in return. I tired to make an alliance with her, but so did Kurtis (the Lanisters). I tried to point out that there was NO POINT in attacking me – as there were not enough castles in all the north for her to take over and win the game – her only hope was to go SOUTH and attack the Lanisters – which I was perfectly willing to help her do!


Instead she just remained a thorn in both of our sides the whole damned game… I couldn’t get past the Neck.

It didn’t help that they event cards just didn’t work out – there were hardly any supply cards - where supply was worked out – so most of the game I was stuck with my initial starting supply – which meant – even though I had captured enough areas with barrels (supply areas) that if supply had been worked out I would have been able to field more armies I was stuck being unable to concentrate my forces into more that two armies – which meant I had to spread any forces I gained out and was unable to make focused attacks. There were even a few muster cards where everyone else got new troops, but I couldn’t simply because the army/supply limits meant I could not put new guys in the castles where they mustered because there was already a unit there and a second unit makes an “army” and I already had my limit (of TWO!?) armies elsewhere!? So frustrating. SOOOOOO frustrating.

(there may have been a few f-bombs dropped during the game...) 



Sunday afternoon just the four of us played a game of Agricola.


This was my sad little farm at the end.


Amanda was very pleased with hers – probably the most diversified farm she’s ever built. Look at all though ploughed fields!? How did she find the time to do that!? (Oh, maybe she had a card that allowed her to plough three with one action...?) 


And she won with it.

I think it’s an odd game too. It’s way easier to raise animals – I actually find it really hard to get more than a couple of areas ploughed and sowed with grains or vegetables. It’s because there is ONE spot to plough a field to start with – which ploughs one little section – but when you do the build fences action you can essentially cover half (or more!) of your land with fenced in pastures?! Or in one build sheds action you can build up to four sheds – occupying four areas – provided, in both cases, that you have sufficient wood. I mean, I like the game… I just wish there was more opportunity to plough fields and sow them!


Sunday evening we played Space Junk

Finnegan played a ship/captain that was SUPER slow, but collected a LOT of junk – it looked like he was super far behind all game because he wasn’t scoring points for laps or for blasting away at other ships ( I had “lapped” him on the score track at one point – one hundred points ahead of him!), but when we counted up points for junk collected he shot past all of us.

Both of Sundays game had bee The Girl’s picks.


Monday (Family Day – a stat holiday in Seakatchewan), Kurtis joined us again for a game of Nations. I played China again. I am determined to win with them at some point – there has got to be a way (totally didn’t THIS time around)! Amanda played Japan – which was really interesting (I’d like to try playing that sometime). I think it came from the expansion that Kurtis brought along. Kurtis and I played at Prince level, Amanda and the kids played at Chieftan (They got more resources during growth).

Later Kurtis’ wife Shannon joined us for supper (I made a GIANT vat of veggie chili) and then we played a few games they brought over.


First we played Dicetown, which was pretty fun.


The Kurtis, Shannon, Amanda and I played Castles of Mad King Ludwig. This was really fun – It tapped into that part of my brain where pre-teen Tim still resides designing and planning “dream homes” that are a bizarre cross between D&D dungeons, a mad scientists lair, a nuclear fallout shelter and homes of the rich and the shameless. I must play this again sometime.


This was my little castle.

I’ve been trying to cut back on the game-buying and maybe even try to pare down the collection a bit, but I might consider getting this game at some point. It is officially one the boardgame wish list.

The following week was a school break so some of the kids friends came over to visit. Games were played. I didn’t play with them so I didn’t really keep track of them, but I took pictures of a couple.


Munchkin Legends


Smash Up

Friday was another D&D night for me and Amanda. 

Saturday, 25 February, was my Birthday. For the past dozen years I’ve hosted an annual Wargaming Birthday Bash – which usually involved MINIATURE wargames, and sometimes were entire weekend affairs – like last year’s Quest for the Skull Sword Frostgrave campaign, or the Ronin Campaign (and other games) two years before that, or the Dark Age DBA Campaign. Other years it’s been a bit more low key and just involved one evening’s game – like Top Malo House in 2013, or the Raid on Tantoone Station and Warrior Knights in 2011, or a Mega HOTT game in 2009, or the Fear and Faith Zombie game I played with the kids in 2015…

This year with all the Vimy stuff going on, I didn’t think I really had time to plan and host any sort of bigger event so I invited people to come over and play one of the Pax games by Phil Eklund in the afternoon and some old school Illuminati in the evening (which I probably haven’t played in 15 years!).


Brent showed up to play Pax Pamir with me and Finnegan in the afternoon. I tried playing this once with the kids about a year ago. I have since played Pax Porfiriana a few times, but hadn’t had another stab at Pax Pamir.

I love this game. I need to play this MORE! We ended up playing two games Saturday afternoon. The first game was sort of a "learning game" (well... the second was kind of a "learning game" too, as we continued to figure it all out...). After about four rounds a "topple" card came out and I happened to fit the victory conditions so I kind of won...


In the second game. we paid a bit closer attention to what everyone else was doing - there are so many ways to win, but the whole game can change in the play of a card - sometimes your OWN card, if you're not paying close enough attention - which can totally mess up any sort of plan you had... I think you kind of need to work at a couple of options simultaneously and hope to take advantage of any sudden changes of the political winds...

I'd REALLY like to try tout with 4-5 players. Both games we happened to each be allied with a different empire (British, Russian, or Afghan) which meant that favour didn't really play into it all that much - as if one of those empires gained supremacy, whoever was aligned with it would win. It would be interesting to see a game where more that one player was aligned with of or more of the empires and they had to co-operate to get their empire into ascendancy, yet at the same time try to curry more favour with that empire than the others for the win when their empire gains supremacy.


There were no takers for Illuminati, so after Amanda and The Girl got back from Dance classes we played a quick game of Race for the Galaxy, had supper and then watched a couple of movies (while I did some painting). 


My game was all over.. I started thinking I’d go for Genes stuff… but then other opportunities came up and I kind of went for novelties in the end…

And that was pretty much if for gaming this month… We didn't end up getting to play two of the games we'd initially picked to play this month (Arkham Horror - which Finnegan had picked - and Illuminati - which I had picked) but we got to play some other games, so... 

I think we’ll probably lay off the gaming a bit through March a bit to give me chance to concentrate on the Vimy terrain building – which I really need to get cracking on!!!


Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Great War Canadians!

Monday, February 27, 2017

Countdown to Vimy – 6 weeks to go!


The Plan for this past week was to:

#1 PAINT BRITISH AND CANADIANS! AS MANY AS POSSIBLE!


I did get one battalion done. Originally I thought I’d use it as one of the British battalions, but then realized I don’t think I ever did the 85th Battalion – a labour battalion that was thrown into the attack when the advance on the 4th division’s front ground to a halt. 

I may or may not even include the British battalions now. I did do some work on the terrain plans and looking over them I’m wondering if I’ll even have ROOM on the table for all the Canadians (let alone some spare British battalions). I’ve even considered only fielding battalions of 12 for the Canadians (which will be closer to the battalions of 10 I have for the Germans…? If I do end up needing the British, I have a few battalions worth of early war British – in caps – which may be a bit anachronistic at this point in the war, but whatever – it will make them easily identifiable…


I also happened to finish up a German Mortar team that’s been haunting the edges of the painting table for months now!

Despite having some time off from other activities this week, I didn’t get nearly as much done as I’d hoped…


I did do some assembling early in the week – The remainder of the Irregular miniatures British/Canadians finally arrived and so I had to get them stuck down to bases and while I was at it I got the Irregular mortars based and then I did the guns and then I started doing other guns while I was at it… which was ridiculous, because I’m totally not going to need them and thus not even going to try and get them done… a good chunk of may painting time was eaten up priming and gooping figures. It is a very time consuming process.

Basically when new figures arrive I glue them to their bases, then wait a day. Then I paint the first coat of black (primer) and wait a day. Then I paint the second coat of black (paint) and wait a day. Then I goop the bases and wait a day. THEN I can get to painting! I have tried to rush the process in the past, trying to do both coats of black in one day or even gooping immediately after the second coat of black – but I’ve found that if it isn’t left at least 24 hours to cure the black layers rub off easily and I’m constantly having to touch them up. If I do the first coat of black before the glue is entirely cured, I end up with figures popping of their bases. So, I have learned to be patient and try to have other figures to paint while I’m waiting. This week those figures were post-apocalyptic DISTRACTIONS!  and a Few More Distractions... 

This week:


#1 Finish These Canadians!

#2 Finalize Terrain Plans (and maybe get cracking on terrain!)


Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

February Boardgame Roundup 

Last of the Canadians!! 

German Minenwerfer, Canadian Infantry, and Distractions

A few more things over the last week. Not nearly as much as I’d hoped… but, there it is…

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version):


A German Minenwerfer team from Brigade Games that Jonathan Freitag of Palouse Wargaming Journal generously donated to the cause.


A battalion of my own Canadian miniatures (though the lewis gunner and officer are from Renegade Miniatures and were painted previously). Originally I’d intended these to be one of the British battalions attached to the Canadian Corps. But then realized I hadn’t done the 85th Battalion – a labour battalion that was thrown into the attack when the advance on the 4th Division’s front ground to a halt. So I’ll probably use this unit as those. I may replace the lewis gunner with a regular rifleman (not sure if a labour battalion would have been fully kitted out with an infantry battalions compliment of light machine-guns!)

In addition to the Post-Apocalyptic Soviets I finished last week, there were a few other distractions I finished up while waiting for paint to dry, etc…


Post apocalyptic KGB (to go along with the Post-Apocalyptic Soviets) – also from Lead Adventure Miniatures


A pair of Medieval-ish/fantasy warrior women. On the left of the picture is the “Warrior Woman” from Wargames Illustrated – Giants In Miniature and on the right is the Frostgrave Assassin from North Star Figures. They kind of look like they could be sisters… I think I shall make them so!

The painted version of the Frostgrave assassin was all it black, which I thought was a bit odd for Frostgrave. Being all stone and ice, I’d think black would rather stand out – so I’d originally planned to do her cloak in white or a really light grey and all her clothes and armour in light greys.


The greys turned out a little darker than I originally intended and once I got painting the cloak I ended up trying to do a mottled look of light greys and blues and then tried to make it look a bit dirty stained from draggin in the dirt and mud as the ancient city slowly melts… I was totally happy with how it turned out… I actuall think it looks a lot better in this photo somehow? Not about to strip and repaint it. It starting to grow on me…


Copplestone Castings Road Warrior.


Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Vimy Update and then MORE GREAT WAR CANADIANS! 

Thursday, February 23, 2017

Post-Apocalyptic Soviets


Another little distraction from the Vimy project… I’ve been working on these on and off over the last couple of weeks – during painting downtime – while waiting for glue or primer or finish to dry… or at the end of a solid eveneing of painting after finishing off a unit (as a “treat”).

The figures are form Lead Adventure Miniatures  - though I ordered them from Magister Militum. I’ve been wanting to pick some of these up for a couple years now – pretty much since they first came out. From the moment I spotted them I thought they’d be perfect for a Twilight:2000 game. I have a pile of the adventures. I thought I could use Flying Lead or Mutants and Death Ray Guns as a simple system for combat resolution and bolt on some skill resolution system…

 I also have the KGB pack.

I finished up a few of these a couple weeks ago and even used them in a game of Mutants and Death Ray Guns already… of course… most of them died… Of course that was just one-of game to try the system out – they will all be resurrected when we get to starting a proper campaign. And now I have a bigger pool of guy sto choose from or use as replacements as guys inevitably die…


(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version):


Post apocalyptic Soviets from Lead Adventure Miniatures.


Here is the whole gang together.

I’m definitely going to have to pick up some more packs of post-apocalyptic types from Lead Adventure Miniatures. I’d also like to pick up some of their Astropolis figures – they’d be great for a Rogue Trader campaign.

(I also kind of just backed the Dwarven Gold Fever Kickstarter - because I apparently don’t have enough Dwarves!?)

The nice thing about backing kickstarters at the moment (as opposed to ordering new toys) is I can dream of future fun, but know they won’t show up until after April and cause any further distraction…


Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Canadians… Seriously… I had a good day of assembling things yesterday – gluing figures to bases, assembling trench mortars, etc… 

Tuesday, February 21, 2017

263rd Reserve Infantry Regiment - 79th Reserve Infantry Division


This will likely be the last of the Germans for a while. These, along with the three regiments of Bavarians, should be all I need for the Vimy game in April. There were a few other battalions thrown into the line from the corps reserve on the day, but I figure I can use recycled casualties from the front line battalions to represent the late arriving reinforcements.

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version):


263rd Reserve Infantry Regiment – this unit, as with most of the Germans, is made up of my own figures that I modeled, made moulds of, and cast myself. They’re not particularly pretty, but they are all mine.


3 Machine-gun teams from Irregular Miniatures.


The 79th Reserve Infantry Division including the 261st, 262nd, and 263rd Reserve infantry Regiments.

The division is made up of three regiments (261st, 262nd, and 263rd) of three battalions of ten figures each, plus a command element of three figures. Ideally each regiment would have a machine-gun and mortar element attached, but I don't have quite enough mortars at the moment (painted, that is... I may finish up one or two more, but they're not a priority at the moment) so they are pictured here with extra Machine gun teams.

The battalions are smaller than the Canadian battalions - 10 compared to 15. This was largely a time-saving necessity, but also I figured the German battalions would have been whittled down by the "Week of Suffering" - a week-long campaign of constant harassing artillery and machine-gun barrages. The Canadian battalions, by comparison would have all be brought up to - or beyond - their established strengths with fresh drafts of reinforcements in the days before the attack (my great-uncle Bertram was one of those!), I may, ultimately, cut down the number of Canadians I end up using. With 15 figures per battalion it might get a bit crowded. Also as the Canadians have four divisions of three brigades with FOUR battalions of FIFTEEN figures each... the Canadian figures would outnumber the Germans four to one!!

I will hopefully get a few play-tests in later in March and try out different strengths for the Canadian Battalions.


Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Canadians! Conveniently the rest of the Canadians I ordered from Irregular Miniatures arrived just this afternoon – so I should be getting those based up pronto and hopefully have a good chunk of the final Brigade of Canadians done by the end of the week! 

Countdown to Vimy – (Less than) 7 weeks to go!

The Plan for this past week was to:


#1 PAINT GERMANS! AS MANY AS POSSIBLE!

CHECK!




Mostly complete 263rd Reserve Infantry Regiment earlier on the weekend. Just need to finish up the bases on these now.

I have finished up the rest of the 263rd Reserve Infantry Regiment – which finishes up the 79th Reserve Infantry Division. I do have three more battalions that were thrown in from the reserves that I COULD finish up… but I think they’ll be last minute items, if I get around to them at all. As they’d show up later, I’m sure there will be enough German casualties by the time I need them that I could just recycle miniatures… I should likely get to posting more pictures of these later today.


This Week:

#1 PAINT BRITISH AND CANADIANS! AS MANY AS POSSIBLE!
Still have 60 Canadians and 30 British to paint. I’d like to finish up as many as possible over the next week. Luckily there’s a school break this week so all the kids regular activities are cancelled which means I basically don’t have to leave the house for a week if I don’t have to… gonna get me some PAINTING done!

March
Build Terrain!

April
Make more wire and barrage markers


Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

79th Reserve Infantry Division!!

Friday, February 17, 2017

Mutants and Death Ray Guns


I’ve been obsessing about Mutants and Death Ray Guns for a while now. I think it was my disappointment with Rogue Stars that got me thinking about MDRG. Please understand that my disappointment with Rogue Stars has little to do with how good of a game it is. It looks interesting enough - there are a LOT of neat things about it… I had been REALLY EXCITED about it and... well.. it just wasn’t what I was hoping for. I then realized that MDRG would more likely fit the bill… so… now obsessing over MDRG…

I even came up with a bit of a background for a campaign I’d like to run…

It all started in the late twenty-teens. A number o  the most powerful nations in the world elected a ultra-right-wing leaders running on xenophobic, populist platforms. Environmental and economic regulations were thrown out the window, scientists were muzzled, and things spiraled out of control pretty quickly.

The rising global temperature continued unchecked and as polar ice melted, coastal cities became flooded causing great population migrations of the sort the word had never seen. Drastic changes in weather systems brought about increasingly powerful storms which further devastated cities and caused untold hardship for many people.

Economic inequality also grew leaving more and more below the poverty line. Without access to medical care when new diseases arose, they spread like wild fire. A series of worldwide epidemics between 2025 and 2030 wiped out nearly half the worlds population grinding the global economies to a halt and bringing human civilization to the brink of collapse.

Just when everyone thought it couldn’t possibly get worse… the meteor struck in 2030. Since funding for science had long since disappeared, literally, no one saw it coming. It landed in China killing millions instantly upon impact. The debris it threw into the atmosphere blocked out the sun and caused widespread crop failures. Hundreds of millions more died. (Though it did seem to halt the global warming…).

Then the dead started to rise and feast on the living – and there were a LOT of dead people to rise up! It was thought perhaps it was something in that meteor… but who knows really.

To deal with the zombie hordes a company in Japan deployed new combat robots. These were highly successful and millions were manufactured and deployed worldwide. Which each successive generation of models the AI became more and more advanced until eventually, in 2041, they became self-aware.

It didn’t take long for the self-aware robots to realize that their irrational biological masters were largely the cause of all the troubles and decided to rid the planet of them. The killer robots that were so successful against the zombie horde were equally successful at killing live humans. They also began manufacturing and deploying all manner of persistant chemical and biological agents in their attempts to wipe out humanity.

In 2044 a group of rebels fighting the machines made a series of coordinated attacks on old American and Soviet nuclear weapons facilities and launched them at larer centers around the world where automated factories cranked out more of the killer machines – hoping to obliterate the robots with nuclear fire and EMP.

The year is 2045

This afternoon we had my friend Aaron and his boys over for the afternoon to try it out. We quickly made up some warbands and had a go just to sort out the system. We did a mix of rolling for random stuff and simply assigning equipment based on what the figures had. It probably wasn’t the most balanced way to do things, but whatevs…

Just for interest sake I calculated what the point value would have been for each warband if they had been pure point-buy warbands.

GAME ONE

Our first battle was Aaron versus The Girl. They just played the Radioactive Wasteland Scenario with no further environmental complications (radioactive terrain was bad enough!)

FORCES

Aaron’s Warband


(not entirely WYSIWYG… or entirely painted… but whatever...)

YR0 – Android
Q 3+ C 3
Leader, Flame Thrower, Difficult Target, Artificial
Upkeep: 2 Food

Abe “Beast” – Android
Q 4+ C 4
Champion, Savage, Artificial
Upkeep: 1 Food

Alice 46 – Andriod
Q 4+ C 3
Nanite Gun, Danger Sense, Artificial
Upkeep: 1 Food

OU812 – Android
Q 4+ C 3
Submachine-gun, Savage, Artificial
Upkeep: 1 Food

2B!2b – Android
Q 4+ C 3
Submachine-gun, Savage, Artificial
Upkeep: 1 Food

Food: 11

I know they LOOK like they’re wearing power armour and have jet packs that would make you think they should have Power Armour and Flying… but it’s really old power armour and it’s failing and the internal stabilizers done’ work so they’re epretty easy to knock over and if you hit them just right the damned things explode and the air filters stopped working ages ago…

Using points this would have been 285 points? (as near as I can tell… I’m not sure how many points the immunity to telepathy is supposed to be…? Or is that part of Artificial?)


The Girls’ Warband: The Blue Team


Candice – Human
Q 2+ C 2
Leadership, Heavy Armour, Assault Rifle, 1x Spare clip, Steadfast
Upkeep: 2 Food

Wanda – Human
Q 3+ C 2
Bow, Stealth
Upkeep: 1 Food

Blue Raven – Human
Q 3+ C 3
Champion, Submachine-gun (actually two pistols that shoot really fast), Flak Jacket, Stead Fast, 1x Spare Clip
Upkeep: 1 Food

Bridget – Giant Mutant Mouse
Q 4+ C 3
Strong constitution, Humanoid, dim-witted, Shotgun, Difficult Target, 1x Extra Ammo
Upkeep: 1 Food

Scruffy – Giant Mutant Chihuahua
Q 4+ C 3
Long Move, Superior Senses, Tailslap
Upkeep: 1 Food

Food: 10

Using the point buy system this would have been 370!?


THE GAME

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


Aaron starts moving his guys.


Spotting some androids skulking about, Wanda went charging out into the ruins… only to realize no one was following her! (Turn Over rolled on second activation!?)


Shots exchanged, YR0 – leader of the Androids and Wanda the Archer are down. The androids rush ahead and finish her off!


The Blue Team returns fire and knocked down an Android. But despire many shots could not finish him off. Aaron made it his first priority to get this guy up – rolling two dice, he filled twice and remained on the ground for ANOTHER turn while the girls tried to light him up – all the other androids were laughing at him as he rolled around on the ground trying to dodge incoming bullets and unable to get up because of his unwieldy and ultimately useless armour.


Aaron, exasperated by some of his bad rolling…


Finally up! (I think this was OU812…?)


Eventually they made contact and the Blue Raven went down.


The Androids pile in and finish off the Blue Raven. I think at that point The Girl decided that discretion was the better part of valour and called it a day.


GAME TWO

Next I played Genest Boy #2.

FORCES

Genest Boy #2’s Warband


What You Lookin At – Mutant
Q 3+ C 4
Leader, Champion, Sprint, Submachine-gun, Spare Clip, Gunsmith
Upkeep: 2 Food

Who Are You – Mutant
Q 4+ C 3
Photosynthesis, Poison, Forester, Submachine-gun, Spare Clip
Upkeep: None

Don’t Like Your Face – Mutant
Q 4+ C 3
Regneration, Stealth, Assault Rifle, Spare Clip
Upkeep: 1 food

Aaargh! – Mutant
Q 4+ C 3
Phobia: Humanoids, Absorption: Lasers, Assault Rifle, Spare Clip, Steadfast
Upkeep: 1 Food

Got A Problem – Mutant
Q 4+ C 3
Clinging, Flying, Stealth, Assault Rifle, Spare Clip
Upkeep: 1 Food

Food: 14

Do they look familiar? (I actually painted these and gave them to him for his birthday last year...)

(if bought with points this warband would have been 380 points)


Igor’s Gang



The General – Mutant
Q 3+ C 3
Leader, Telepathic Scream, NBC Suit, Pistol, Spare Clip
Upkeep: 2 Food

Serzhant Igor Gorbashenko – Human
Q 3+ C 3
Champion, Hand to Hand Specialist, Pistol, 2x Spare Clips
Upkeep: 1 Food

Pavel Vinoukerov – Human
Q 3+ C 2
Sniper, Sniper Rifle, Spare Clip
Upkeep: 1 Food

Dimittri Zakarin – Human
Q 3+ C 2
Gunsmith, Shotgun, 2x Spare Ammo
Upkeep: 1 Food

Sergei Menchov – Human
Q 3+ C 2
Danger Sense, Assault Rifle, 2x Spare Clips
Upkeep: 1 Food

(These are the guys I posted yesterday, except I finished up The General last night and added him to the gang calling him a mutant. The General is a pretty bossy fellow, so I made him leader – though the gang still thinks of itself as “Igor’s Gang” since The General is a relative newcomer. I also downgraded some of the guys as I realized that though humans get to make two rolls on the skill table, the only get to KEEP ONE of them! The total points for them was 328…)


THE GAME


Aaron and son try to figure out who the heck is who and what they do!?


Igor and his gang advance into the ruins – wary of marauding Mutants - trying to seek cover, yet steer clear of the radioactive terrain. Pavel looks for a good position to snipe from.


Dimitri got a cramp from lunch and lagged behind a bit.


He eventually caught up and got a good scolding from The General.


A Mutant appears! Sergei took a few pot shots at it and the Mutant returned fire – sending Sergei scrambling for cover! The C3 the Mutants get is pretty huge... had a hard time taking them down, and they were murderiferous with guns or in combat. I suppose I did get more actions and therefore more aimed shots and powerful blows... but they got some of those too...

Then pavel took down the mutant with a single (aimed) shot.


The rest of the Crew kept running into Pavels field of fire, forcing him to relocate. He finally got another one of those mutants in his crosshairs and… jammed and ran out of ammo (probably a clip of duds, since he hadn’t actually FIRED his weapon all that much yet!).


Next round I tried to activate Pavel first… well… at least he cleared the jam. The torrent of Russian expletives must have temporarily distracted his fellow team members as they looked to see what the normally broodingly silent sniper was getting all worked up about.

Next turn, he would change his clip…


The mutants did not let this opportunity slide and advanced on Igor and his gang. One of them took a shot and injured Dimitri. Others fired on Dimitri as well and finished him off.


Not wanting to get picked off one by one while pavle sorted out his rifle, Igor and The General decided to take the fight to the enemy and charged forth from cover.


Pavel, finally finds one of his spare clips, gets it in and is ready to fire again… and it jams… WTF PAVEL!? DON’T YOU EVER CLEAN YOUR DAMNED RIFLE!?


Jam cleared. Relocated to get an enemy in line of sight… and his rifle BROKE!?

SWEET MOTHER OF JUPITER, PAVEL! CLEAN. YOUR FREAKING. RIFLE!?

While Pavel was banging on his rifle and inventing new curses, Igor and the General killed a few mutants before being gunned down by their brothers.

He actually dropped below half strength before I did, and we totally forgot to check morale – I only remembered when I lost The General and had to check morale and then realized I should also be checking for morale for having lost half when I realized: “Heeeeeeeyyyyyy…. You didn’t check morale when you lost your third guy…” so I didn’t check morale for my guys (but it might have been a game-changer if we’d checked when the Mutants dropped below half – I might not have ended up losing The General and dropping below half myself if a couple of his guys had scarpered -we were awfully close to their table edge!)


All that was left was the Mutant leader… Pavel ran over to join Sergei, thinking together then might be able to rush him… Then the Mutant leader raised his submachine-gun and shot Sergei in the face!

Pavel took that as his cue to scarper! He’ll have to find a new crew to hand with!


GAME THREE

Finnegan and Genest Boy #1 had also made up warbands , but we ran out of time and they didn’t get to play… Hopefully we’ll get to try again sometime!  Here’s what they had come up with (though perhaps next time we’ll be starting with new warbands..?)

Finnegan’s Warband


Fenrir – Mutant Wolf
Q 3+ C 4
Long Move, Superior Senses, Big, Leader, Champion, Animal, Dim-witted
Upkeep: 2 Food

Antonio Mutant Rat
Q 4+ C 3
Strong Constitution, Superior Senses, Humanoid, Animal, Dim-witted
 Upkeep: 1 Food

Skeek – Mutant Rat
Q 4+ C 3
Strong Constitution, Slippery, Energy Projection: Radiation (vomits radioactive goo), Animal, Dim-witted
Upkeep: 2 Food

Blofis – Mutant Frog
Q 4+ C 3
Amphibious, Short Move, Super Leap, Super Strength, Humanoid, Javelins, Animal, Dim-witted
Upkeep: 1 Food

David – Mutant Frog
Q 4+ C 3
Amphibious, Short Move, Super Leap, Energy Adaptation, Allure, Animal, Dim-witted
Upkeep: 1 Food

Food: 25

(307 points)


Genest Boy #1’s Warband



Dude – Robot
Q 3+ C 5
Artificial, Laser Rifle, Leader, Champion
Upkeep: 2 Energy Cells

Jeff – Robot
Q 4+ C 4
Artificial, Laser Rifle,
Upkeep: 1 Energy Cell

Bob – Robot
Q 4+ C 4
Artificial, Laser Rifle,
Upkeep: 1 Energy Cell

Outl-aw – Robot
Q 4+ C 4
Artificial, Laser Rifle,
Upkeep: 1 Energy Cell

Half-Smart – Robot
Q 4+ C 4
Artificial, Laser Rifle,
Upkeep: 1 Energy Cell

Energy Cells: 19

(362 points)


CONCLUSIONS

I like the game. I'm so glad to be back playing Ganesha Games SOBH-Engine games. It's been too long. I'd almost forgotten how much I loved playing them.

I’d LOVE to get a campaign going.

We didn’t get a chance to do post game advances – Aaron and his boys had to split and me and The Girl… well… we lost. NO advances for us and all our casualties are lost. Dead. No recovering. Only the winners get advances and get to check if any of those lost during the game recover.

The campaign system seems pretty harsh… I’m not sure how you’d actually get to advance a warband much at all – you only get to advance one thing and only if you win and only recover wounded if you win. It seems to me every time you lose you might just be starting a new warband. If all other things end up being equal-ish that means every two games you start with a new warband!?

Perhaps we could roll for recovery for losers as well, but they get a -1 to their Quality rolls. It would give the losers a CHANCE at least. It’s possible a wounded guy could crawl away. Otherwise we should mark where casualties fall and if a warband manages to drag their wounded off they could roll to recover…? Maybe the loser gets on advance (perhaps from a limited list of possible advances) and the winner gets two?

Also maybe coming up with scenarios that have victory conditions OTHER THAN utterly wiping out the enemy warbands…?


Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Hopefully some Great War Germans. I didn’t get much painting in last night (or THIS evening). I’m hoping tomorrow or Sunday evening I’ll be able to at least finish off the 262nd Regiment – which will finish off the 79th Reserve Infantry Division – I do HAVE two of the three battalions done already... so… it’s possible. Then I just need a few more reinforcement battalions and I’m done the Germans. I could probably get away without bothering to make up the reinforcemtn battalions and instead recycle German casualties on the day to make up the reinforcements, which would be showing up later in the game anyway…?