Pulp

My Pulp gallery covers a number of games in a genre which has been seeing more and more table time in recent sessions.

The first game was inspired in part by Conan-Doyle's Lost World. An aircraft crash lands on a massive plateau deep in the jungle. The crash survivors encounter dinosaurs and an ancient civilisation cut off from the rest of the world.

The next game was a scenario from the Dragon Bones supplement for .45 Adventure. At the time we were regularly using Savage Worlds so Lenin converted it. Now that we have got into .45 Adventure maybe we'll try it again!

The third game was the first part of Ice Fang the second Mission Manual from Legion publishing for Savage Worlds set in the artic in Weird War 2. The first chance to use my Brigade Games Mountain Troops and my JU52!

Pulp

In addition to the games there are a few staged photos of my Deep Ones for those into the Mythos (actually they are West Wind's Piranha Men but I think they work pretty well). The others are Pulp Figures fighting it out in front of some Microtactix buildings and die cast cars.

Science Fiction

The science fiction gallery currently covers five games and some shots of some of my other themed figures. Of the games three are set in the same SF universe which is a fusion of the GZG background, Aliens RPG and other associated sources with some Cthulhu Mythos influences. The figures used in these are generally 25mm (and I mean real 25mm) from GZG and Denizen.

The other two games are 28mm, the first being a near future Covert Drug Op which runs into an unexpected enemy and the second a Dr Who adventure.

Science Fiction

Modern

The modern album covers two games. The first was a 28mm skirmish using Two Hour Wargames' Chain Reaction 2.0 rules and Mongrel Miniatures excellent BAOR figures (Ireviewed there in an earlier post). The scenario started with terrorists taking an Ulster farmer and his wife hostage and a routine British Army patrol passing and spotting something suspicious.

The second game was a 15mm playtest of the Metal Storm rules using a US vs warlord scenario. The rules are derived from the Peter Pig AK47 Republic rules but with some significant additions - like the use of differing sized dice. The rules played fine but we weren't convinced the additions added value as were as the complications - they need another outing to work that out. The figures were from Peter Pig.

Modern

Gloire

I picked up a copy of Rattrap Productions' Gloire rules at Salute last year. They're an adaptation of their .45 Adventure rules for Swashbuckling Adventure in the Age of Kings. We decided to give the sample scenario a go with my Redoubt Enterprises super-heroic 28mm figures and they played very well - enough so for me to go off and get a copy of .45 Adventure actually!

Gloire

Colonial

Lenin has a frankly astonishing number of the Wargames Foundry and Copplestone Castings Darkest Africa figures - I wouldn't be surprised if it was all of them actually! Anyway, the ones he has managed to paint (and it's a surprisingly large number of them) don't see the table anywhere near often enough as they're very nice (as you can see). So we decided to kill two birds with one stone and try out the Antwerp Fusiliers' Afriboria rules with them.

Colonial

The rules are inspired by the Commands and Colors system but give a different type of game. We enjoyed it but there was rather too much of people being surprised by animals and eaten for our liking (not enough variety in the event cards!). It certainly has promise though.

Russo-Japanese War

Lenin picked up a load of 15mm figures for this period when he was in the States and, as you can see, has made a fine job of painting them. We had previously tried a modified version of Fire & Fury for an earlier game but they didn't quite give the feel we were looking for. So I suggested making some small tweaks to the Too Fat Lardies' Triumph of the Will rules and cobbled together the Battle of Yalu River, 1904 as a trial. The results were pretty good.

Russo-Japanese War

Renaissance

As with many period it can be quite different things that get you interested. In this case it was the figures more than anything else. Vendel Miniatures produce a number of excellent 28mm figure ranges and whilst I couldn't justify their Greeks I managed to convince myself that I needed their Border Reivers.

Renaissance

I have since extended the period with the acquisition of some of the Vendel Elizabethan Irish which I am in the process of basing.

I've tried a number of rule sets with these figures including Vendel's own Hot Trod & Red Hand, Fyre and Sword and the Antwerp Fusilier's Renaissance Raiders; however, for skirmish I think I may fall back to Two Hour Wargames' Black Powder Battles (with suitable adjustments). I'm still trying to work out which rules I will use for the Elizabethan Irish games though...

Steampunk

I have been slowly collecting some interesting miniatures to use for Steampunk or Victorian Science Fiction if you prefer. The album shows my 25mm Parroom Station Masked Minions and an Ironclad Miniatures steam tank on the surface of Mars.

Steampunk

Photo Spring Clean

I know it's a little early to be spring cleaning but I decided to organise my gaming photos - hence the massive growth of my Picasa albums. I'll be putting in additional entries for each of the new albums over the next couple of days. Some of the photos were previously published on a small Yahoo website I was running and some haven't been on the web before.

Lenin's Library

My regular opponent and the source of my many excellently painted minis, Lenin, is just creating his own website with blog. Lenin's Library, as he has named it, will be where he will blather on about his own (and sometimes our shared) projects, hopefully post pictures of his extensive collection of beautifully painted miniatures (plus some ones of girls with guns I suspect!) and general gaming stuff.

If you're vaguely interested in my gaming witterings then, since we share a lot of the same interests, you'll probably find something to interest you there too!

Review: .45 Adventure

.45 Adventure is a set of miniatures rules by Rattrap Productions for Crimefighting Action in the Pulp Era. These rules have spawned several supplements and versions for other periods including Fantastic Worlds (Pulp SF) and Gloire (Swashbuckling Adventure).

Each figure is assigned various stats familiar to anyone who has played RPGs; however, these have been allocated names suitable to the genre - shivs (melee), heaters (shooting) etc. These are allocated to one of four hit locations (head, torso, arms and legs). When hits are taken in these locations the stats are reduced and eventually the figure will be disabled or killed. Each location is also allocated a damage rating (DR) which is taken into account to determine whether a hit is effective or not.

In addition to the stats the figures may be allocated specific attributes or skills which may improve stats or provide special abilities.

The game only uses a 10 sided dice (d10) which makes is less confusing for new players than Savage Worlds, which we have typically used for this period in the past. The mechanics used are based on stat tests where a player will roll a d10 and add the relevant stat (adjusted by an appropriate modifiers) and if it equals or exceeds 10 then they are successful.

On a game turn initiative is rolled and then players activate figures alternately within each Dodge level. Each figure can then conduct a single action (unless they have a special ability which permits more) which include moving, aiming, shooting and the like. Moving and shooting is permitted if appropriate but with a significant modifier.

Figures also give the player Hero points which may be used to improve dice rolls or allow dice to be re-rolled. This contributes significantly to the Pulp feel as along with the better characters being more robust you can use the hero points to avoid results which would spoil the "feel" of the game.

All the usual combat situations are dealt with along with rules for appropriate period weapons and vehicles.

One of the key features of the system is the approach to the terrain. Rattrap have clearly recognised that most games end up being fought in a relatively small area of the table no matter its size. Consequently their scenarios are based around a 2' x 2' area. Obviously the rules will work with larger tables but the more compact approach certainly speeds up game set up and reduces the costs!

In addition to the terrain the scenarios are expected to include encounter markers which trigger events or allow figures to discover equipment, clues or whatever is required to move the story along.

The rules come with a decent number of character archetypes (which are further expanded in the various supplements) and rules for creating your own. Two sample scenarios are provided along with guidance for making up your own (the supplements go on to build in both of these areas).

Whilst .45 Adventure doesn't have the absolute range of Savage Worlds (particularly in the area of magic for example) it is much more straight forward and provides a really fun experience.

Given the minimal requirements to run a game these rules are recommended. They are available as both a hardcopy ($16) and a .pdf download ($8).

First Look: Tannhäuser

We managed a couple of games of Tannhäuser by Fantasy Flight Games at the weekend. It's a board game with pre painted plastic miniatures set in an alternative 1949 where the Great War never ended. This alternate world looks a lot like some alternative WW2 settings but obviously avoids the swastikas which would preclude the game from being sold in some European countries.

The board is double sided and is laid out with paths marked in different colours. These colours allow the line of sight rules to function amongst other things.

The 10 miniatures are plastic and painted to a decent standard (equivalent to Heroclix). They each come with a character card and a number of tokens which allow you to customise them in terms of equipment, skills and the like. The components are relatively language independent but it didn't take too much effort to work out the meaning of the various icons.

The rulebook is of the usual Fantasy Flight type but still relatively easy to understand and we were up and running pretty quickly. In broad brush terms the game pits the Federated States of the Union (the Allies) against the Reich's forces which is a battle generally between technology and magic. On the face of it some of the characters look very powerful but actually our games were pretty well balanced. Once you've mastered the basic concepts it's a fun game.

I believe more figures and expansions are on the way and this one will get some more outings that's for sure.

All Things Zombie

Last weekend Lenin and I played a game of ATZ by Two Hour Wargames. It's another of their rule sets based around the reaction system and with rules to govern the zombie movement and action it works really well solo.

The scenario was based in a ruined world following a catastrophic series of meteor strikes. Lenin had a small squad out searching for survivors and resources. His squad entered the table in two Vietnam era trucks (borrowed from the National Guard) and managed to get about a third of the way in before finding the road blocked by a bus. Failed attempts to start the bus attracted a zombie and from that point things went downhill rapidly. With more and more zombies being attracted by gunfire the squad managed to hold them off for a while but then began to struggle. After losing a couple of the team the others boarded one of the trucks and made a run for it with a huge number of zombies in pursuit. Unfortunately the driver lost control after barging a car out of the way and the truck crashed killing another of the team and injuring the driver. They managed to give the main horde of zombies the slip but ran into another couple on the way to a stronghold they though might hold the local police. Managing to evade them they crossed the bridge to find that the police had succumbed to the zombies and only just managed to get off board.

Lenin thought he'd done pretty poorly having lost half the team, two trucks and not having recovered any resources. On the contrary just managing to get anyone off the table alive in an ATZ game is a win in my book!

See my earlier post for some photos of the game.

Gaming The Red Star

If you read WebWitter, my other blog, you may have noticed that I was lucky enough to get a copy of the collected edition of The Red Star. With such powerful imagery and a compelling storyline any wargamer's thoughts turn to gaming it. Given that Lenin originally introduced me to the series we have already done a little investigation into possible sources for figures and the like. I thought I'd pass on some ideas in case you too are interested.

For figures the obvious starting point has to be Copplestone Castings with his excellent 28mm lines including four packs of Neo-Sovs from his Future Wars range along with some Partizans who might be useful for the Nokgorka rebels from Run Makita Run.


Lenin also suggested adapting one or two of the Bolshevik Heroines as Warkasters.

For those less keen on painting the Red Blok forces from Rackham's AT-43 line are also a possibility. This line also includes some walkers which, whilst I can't recall similar ones appearing in the story could easily be fitted in.


As to vehicles, I doubt that any sane person would look to try to put a skyfurnace on the table (always you had a table big enough) but some of the armour could easily be represented by the Old Crow Sabre heavy tank with a suitable paint job.

I haven't found anything which I would be happy with for Al'istaan as yet but we're still looking...

Pictures from the Gaming Weekend

Gaming Weekend - Jan 08

Gaming Weekend

Lenin popped over this weekend and we managed to get quite a few games in. As expected Rattrap had a good showing with games of .45 Adventure and their new offering Fantastic Worlds. We also had a fun All Things Zombie game and a whole slew of boardgames including a first outing from Athens & Sparta. I did take a few pictures but the lighting was a little problematic so plenty weren't up to much. I should post the few that are worth looking at soon along with a little more description of the games.

Happy New Year!

So scarily enough it's 2008 already (how many of you remember when you were younger thinking the year 2000 was a long way away!) and a chance to make a few changes. I'm hoping to get some gaming in next weekend (.45 Adventure and derivatives is likely to dominate this time) and get some of my lesser played games to the tabletop. I'm sure that, like all New Year resolutions, will fall by the wayside under the relentless pressure of real life! But I'm going to give it a go. Sorting out my figures and terrain would be a useful beginning as would labelling them!

Anyway let me wish you a happy and prosperous New Year!

Duell

I managed to pick up a copy of Duell, the fencing card game, which is a republishing by Ravensburger of En Garde by Reiner Knizia, from eBay. Having read the various comments on BoardGameGeek I used the En Garde rules and tried a few games with my wife, starting with the Basic Game and moving on up through the Standard Game to the Advanced rules.

The game is very simple in concept a linear track is placed between the players and pawns placed on either end of it to represent the fencers. Each player is dealt 5 cards from a deck of 25 (5 sets of values 1 to 5) and then plays the cards in turn to advance down or retreat back up the track or to attack their opponent. With the advanced rules, which include advance and attack and defensive retreats it is a really fun game that actually manages to give the feel of fencing despite its simplicity.

The production values of the Ravensburger version are fine but if you are looking for a real visual feast you might want to check out the version of En Garde being produced by Ferti (although it doesn't contain the English rules so you'd need to download those). Personally if I want to improve the look I'm going to fish out my Redoubt Musketeer figures and I'd also like to work out a way to get it into a miniatures game as it's the best fencing simulation I've found so far.

Lardies Christmas Pudding Arrives!

The Too Fat Lardies have released their latest seasonal special just in time for Christmas. Weighing in at 133 pages it's the usual excellent mix of supplements, scenarios and articles for the Lardies various rule sets.

I haven't been through the whole thing as yet - it only arrived a couple of days ago but I've found from the previous seasonal specials that, even if you don't have the rules in question, all the articles and scenarios and an interesting read. It's sure to keep my occupied over Christmas and for only £5 for the .pdf it's not to heavy on the pocket.

Which is more Important: Your Morale or Your Troops' Morale?

We played a Late Roman skirmish last week using Pax Romana and the game raised some interesting questions for me. One related specifically to the rules, and more of that later, and the other to the issue of morale. Crazy Dave was playing the Franks raiding inland from the Medway and I was fielding the Romano-Brits defending (later ably aided by Gav and Ben when the reinforcements arrived). The game started slowly with Dave picking his way through the early morning fog and eventually spotting my settlement but not before I'd spotted him and nipped off to inform the local garrison. Dave advanced his veteran troops towards my village, which was only defended by armed farmers and it looked like it was all going to be over pretty quickly. But when my lone archer loosed a couple of shots Dave decided to retire to the woods to regroup. By the time he'd got himself organised a patrol from the garrison had arrived and the fight looked like it was going to be a little more even. Unfortunately for Dave his reputation for unpredictable dice rolling was well earned and getting into the village was pretty heavy going for him. But he'd awung some of his troops in a flanking manoeuvre which surprised us from the rear and despite the patrol it started to swing Dave's way. Then more reinforcements arrived from the garrison and we all thought it was over for Dave. But despite the odds Dave moved onto the offensive and charged into the approaching units some of which broke and Dave's vets made their morale rolls. After a lot of heavy fighting Dave was eventually beaten but at a huge cost to the locals.

This all made me think, the game would have been quite different if Dave had used his aggression when advancing on the village in the first instance and had someone else been playing his troops later when the reinforcements arrived they could have simply run for the hills (which given the odds was what we were expecting!). It really highlights that no matter the morale rules for the troops the morale of the players is just as if not more important. It also goes to show that no matter what the odds any game with dice can go either way!

As to the rules one of the things that helped Dave was his veteran troops which get more actions than the less experienced troops. On reflection we were concerned that the veterans were getting rather too much of an advantage from this which was difficult to justify logically. Ben suggested using alternatives including getting several activation cards and being able to choose the highest thus allowing them to react faster. Bronze is now pondering so there may be a revised version coming.