Surf Shack Gaming

It's my shrine and I'll cut your head off if I want to, cut if I want to ...

2012-01-26T02:36:00.000-08:00

Our Jojishi (my Japanese mod for Gripping Beast’s wonderful SAGA ruleset) campaign kicked off with Shaun’s ultra Christian Mouri clan taking on the Esoteric, Fanatic, Buddhist monk/yamabushi horde – the Uesugi clan under the control of Steve… It was a 6 point game and we play in 15/18mm by just halving the measuring sticks … Simples!

The pseudo-historical campaign sees the ‘5 Regents’ who are overseeing the young Emperors rule vying for power and influence. No major battles insight small ‘incidental’ skirmishes (basically jockeying for position) and political skull drudgery is the order of the day – custom made for the small scale forces used in SAGA!

If you are interested in my mods or the accompanying battleboards, join the fun over at the SAGA forums in the ‘Lab’ section!

Scenario wise the game was based on the Sacred Game scenario in the core rules:

The 5 Regents had just attended the Emperor’s Cherry Blossom viewing party and all had a small retinue with them. Uesugi Kenshin received some information from his inside man in Mouri Motonari’s camp that the Christian Daimyo was about to send his first son with a small force to lay the foundation stones for a new church in a valley some 5 miles away … problem being they had to burn down the Torii gate and shrine standing there first!!!!!

Lazing in the afternoon shadow of the leafy valley the Torii gate stood proud, for the moment at least. Mouri Oki stood imagining the grandeur of the stone church his father was to build, more than anything it would be a statement of intent, the Japanese people would embrace the true belief, even if a few had to burn to prove it. Meanwhile, the anger was welling in Uesugi Kenshin’s stomach, not only did the peasant before him bring the gaijin weapons of dishonour (a small unit of Teppo – musket armed troops) he wanted to try and rid the land of their traditional beliefs. The next life would see him as a dung beetle (probably with deformed legs and a heightened sense of smell), that was for sure. Glancing up he saw, what was the last proverbial straw, a priest blessing the Mouri troops before they advanced. Drawing his katana and uttering what can only be described as very un-buddhist phrases he led his yojimbo (bodyguards) speeding towards the Torii gate, determined to prevent the dirty Christian scum from defiling it.

Seeing the speeding monks, basically running towards the towering red gate it spurred the Mouri samurai into action. One group moving up the left flank to teach the peasant, levy scum to bow down before their true God, the teppo left to hold the valley side and the main part of the force with Oki to go and burn down the heathen shrine.

As seen by Steve after his run to save the shrine in the first turn!

It was no surprise to the kami (spirits) watching from the surrounding woods that the major fighting was to take place at the site of the shrine itself.

The first three turns of the eight turn game saw a mad rush to the shrine and Uesugi’s side of the valley and then some intense fighting from both sides. Bad rolling was the order of the day on both sides, only saved by some good tactical use of the battleboards (where the nuances of SAGA unfold, complementing the relatively simple game play to perfection). Both sides were claiming a fair amount of victory points for being on the terrain pieces at the end of their opponent’s turn. But the numbers were dwindling in the middle. It originally seemed that Steve’s hordes of levy followers were too brittle when confronted with Shaun’s mainly warrior class Ashigaru or Hearthguard class Samurai. But the skirmish on the flank was to provide a pointer for the future. Shaun’s samurai clashed into the levy, they managed quite a few kills but then again there were a lot of them. They also suffered a casualty (taking them to 3) and gained a fatigue marker. Now in theory the levy could not charge into the samurai (not allowed in the mod due to the fact they would be too shit scared in reality) but the battleboard of the Uesugi clan allowed them to ‘taunt’ the samurai into charging them in there turn … then they used an ability which removed their fatigue and used the samurai’s to make it easier to hit. Numbers on their side and a bit of good rolling saw the samurai effectively negated as a force and losing Shaun a Saga dice. The greater numbers eventually (with a bit of luck) played a part, and so it was to be in the middle action.

OK lads in you go ... watch the long sharp things now!

Oki could see his father’s displeasure in his mind, unfortunately for him his father’s displeasure often involved a large pot of slowly heated up oil which would do more than give him a good moisturising session! With this in mind he pushed to the front, uttered some suitable insults, and led his hatamoto (bodyguards) towards Uesugi. Initially it looked as if Uesugi was to fall but enough of his followers gave their life to save him that he managed to weather the onslaught. Seeing this as a sign of the spirits egging him on he took a small band back into the turmoil. He fought his way through to Oki who suddenly regained his Japanese spirit and asked if he could commit ritual suicide (seppuka) … The gleaming swish of a katana and a Oki’s rather wide open eyes very briefly registering his upper torso being split from the rest of his body seemed to indicate that the answer was negative. Some of the Mouri samurai tried to fight to get the body but to no avail. After a period of consolidation on both sides (the Mouri moving back up their valley side, the Uesugi forces coming together at the shrine) it seemed that Kenshin’s bloodlust was still up, the Gaijin weapons of dishonour had to be destroyed. Again leading by example he and some fanatic yamabushi monks stormed the valley side. The awesome foreign weapons obviously fell foul to the damp valley eye as their two rounds of shooting as the monks stormed in were completely ineffectual … it was all over. The shrine had been saved, Mouri would be getting his son’s head delivered (with a Shinto prayer attached) at break of day!

Shaun committed himself on turn 4 and 5 – up until then it was very close in accumulated points and in casualties. Shaun saw a chance to kill the main figure in the first game as Steve had sent him ahead and got him a bit isolated. Fate was against Shaun however as a sudden surge in dice fortune saw the leader both surviving the onslaught (mainly due the use of meatshields it must be said) and then launch himself on a turn of revenge which decimated Shaun’s forces. Turn 6 and 7 saw both sides get themselves together and in the case of Steve rack up the victory points – Shaun had few dice left to play with on the battleboard. Turn seven and eight saw Steve storm the teppo in a fit of well role played religious fervour. It was a risky move as the guns could well have taken his small force out – however, they were not even to take a hit!

The end of the turn saw Steve well ahead in scenario victory points (97 to 56) but fate was to play a final part in the game as when this was translated into normal VPs which led to the players drawing campaign point cards (2-7 twice over) Steve’s five cards were fairly rubbish, all being low, only earning him 20 ON points, Shaun’s 3 cards got him 18 points!

Obviously the stories getting back to court and the Emperor portrayed the monks in a slightly bad light. Just to rub it in the winner had to pick an event card and Steve managed to pull out one of only a few bad cards – he was being fed misinformation from his spies and would suffer in the next campaign game as his opponent can pick the scenario to be played!

All in all good fun and a cracking start to the campaign …

It's mine ... No it's mine ... No it's ...

Gaijin weapons ... get rid of them!

Let the intrigue and assasinations begin!

2012-01-24T02:01:00.000-08:00

JOJISHI CAMPAIGN

Tonight our club pseudo historical campaign begins using SAGA in a samurai setting:

Our campaign takes place when the Emperor is too young to govern. A ‘Council of Five Regents’ has been set up and vie between each other to get more ‘influence’ and thus control, than the other Regents. Ultimately each wishes for enough influence that the Emperor will appoint them as Seii- Shogun … The ruler of Japan.
Whilst still insular in many ways the Japan of our pseudo imaginative campaign is open to a few outside influences, mainly that of the Spanish Christian Church. However, it is a very complex society and times. There will not be any major battles, small skirmishes break out like sporadic bush fires, normally to ensure the Regent concerned gains some small token of influence.
In the campaign the table top battles will revolve around these small skirmishes. Players will gain ‘On’ points by winning the skirmishes and aquiring 'ON' cards and also by intrigue and political manoeuvring achieved in the campaign moves which happen between games. At the end of the campaign the Regent with the highest amount of ‘On’ will be appointed Shogun… The other Regents characters will at this point have a very short life expectancy!.

The Regents in control the players:

Tokugawa (Ieyasu) - patient and calculating, he believes in the traditional values of Nippon. Played by Rich J
Maeda (Toshiie) - known as the Yari no Matuza (because of his use of the spear). Warlike he is driven by the ambition of his Christian wife Matsu and the backing of the Portugeuse Priests. Played by Spiku
Uesugi (Kenshin) - A devout Buddhist he is very anti Christian and controls large amounts of the fantical monks. Played by Steve

Mouri (Motonari) - dedicated to converting Japan to Christianity he does not mind what methods, neither Ninja or the barbarian teppo (muskets), to get what he wants! Played by Shaun

Each force will be based on the core setup in SAGA with the following modifications:

Hearthguard – This covers the Samurai class. One unit in a force can be declared as Hatamoto and roll +2 extra attack dice or +1 armour (Player’s choice and must be made prior to the game).

Warriors – This covers the trained Ashigaru and masterless samurai, known as Ronin.

Levy – This covers non trained Ashigaru – mainly peasant retainers called on and trained when needed.

Ninja - based on the 'Swords for Hire' in the core book they consist of 1 Jonnin (cell leader) and 3 Gennin (operatives).

SAGA boards have been modified and at present there are two differing ones depending on if the clan uses Teppo or Kyu.
Changes to the weapon categories are as follows:
TEPPO - ashigaru armed with Teppo are treated as if using a crossbow, they can an ability called fast reload but can not increase their range by ability. They do however lower the armour class of their target by 1.
YARI - Ashigaru armed with Yari may increase armour value by one if they discard 2 attack dice. This simulates the fact that at this level of combat mass yari blocks will not be available and so it gives little real offensive advantage. However it is easier to keep the opposition at arms length.

Ashigaru can not initiate combat with Samurai or Hatamoto unless they are following an 'Obey me' order and using the 'side by side' ability. However, judicious use of the 'taunting' ability may be of assistance here.

After the 'skirmish' the winner will pick and 'event' card and both Daimyo will pick a number of 'ON' cards depending on the level of victory.

Should be very enjoyable :)

Back from OZ ...

2012-01-14T23:22:00.000-08:00

Back to reality ... so on the agenda has to be sorting out the final SAGA tweaks before our samurai campaign. Also I really must finish the Flying Lead WWII supplement before doing a samurai set based on THW rules (something I have been promising ED for a long long time).

Board games will also encroach on the playing time as Super Dungeon Explorer and the 3 Musketeer game need to be played!

Thanks to Ayer (my skate mate) I have a new deck to put together today as well ... Then at least I can pretend I am surfing !!

More later folks !

JOJISHI Sengoku Period SAGA campaign playtesting underway...

2011-11-28T06:24:00.000-08:00

Shaun picked up SAGA at the last show we went to and it looks good enough to give a serious try out. Trouble with SOBH and my Bushi no Yume is that one is hard pressed to get more than about 15 a side on the table. SAGA looks like it will be handle between 25 and 60 figures a side easily. Obviously I already want to slant it to a Japanese feel and as we have (or at least, now have) loads of 15mm individually based we are going for this scale, halving everything in the rules to keep it in inches and enabling play on a 2'x1.5' table.

Jojishi are epic poems which I felt echoed the idea of the use of Saga in the core rules. Our imaginary (but based loosely on history) campaign will see players take the role of one of the 'Council of Five Regents' vying for control over the Government and 'Puppet Emperor' - their overall aim in the campaign will be to get enough 'bushido' points to successfully declare themselves Seii-Shogun ... Basically in control of Japan for the Emperor. For those wondering about the time line then think of the TV series Shogun.

The five Regents are the clans of the:
Tokugawa (Ieyasu) - patient and calculating, he believes in the traditional values of Nippon.
Maeda (Toshiie) - known as the Yari no Matuza (because of his use of the spear). Warlike he is driven by the ambition of his Christian wife Matsu and the backing of the Portugeuse Priests.
Ukita (Hideie) - A sworn enemy of the Tokugawa clan, he has relied on assasination and back stabbing to get where he is and isn't about to change. Shinobi (Ninja) are one of his favourite tools.
Uesugi (Kenshin) - A devout Buddhist he is very anti Christian and controls large amounts of the fantical monks.
Mouri (Motonari) - dedicated to converting Japan to Christianity he does not mind what methods, neither Ninja or the barbarian teppo (muskets), to get what he wants!

Each force will be based on the core setup in SAGA with the following modifications:
Hearthguard - become the Daimyo's most loyal samurai, called HATAMOTO
Warriors - these are the Daimyo and Hatamoto's full time noble retainers called SAMURAI, sometimes ronin, the masterless samurai can gain this much trust.
Levy - these are the peasant retainers called on and trained when needed, or else lower class masterless 'ronin', called ASHIGARU

Ninja - based on the 'Swords for Hire' in the core book they consist of 1 Jonnin (cell leader) and 3 Gennin (operatives). They can only be employed by certatin of the Regents.

Each clan will eventually get its own Battle-Board, but for present we are playtesting a generic board. Likewise each clan will have its own 'faction rules'. At present however we are using the following generic rules:

TEPPO - ashigaru armed with Teppo are treated as if using a crossbow.
Yari - ashigaru armed with Yari may increase armour value by one if they discard 2 attack dice. This simulates the fact that at this level of combat mass yari blocks will not be available and so it gives little real offensive advantage. However it is easier to keep the opposition at arms length.

Ashigaru can not initiate combat with Samurai or Hatamoto unless they are following an 'Obey me' order and using the 'side by side' ability.

I will feed back on how the testing goes :)

Dive & Shoot - ready and waiting ...

2011-11-14T12:36:00.000-08:00

The rules are now ready to be sent to anyone wanting them ...

If you want a copy they are free on asking from Surf Shack Games

noseriderATbtinternet.com

Look forward to sending them to you all :)

Dive and Shoot ... John Woo stylee skirmish and the odd moustache

2011-11-14T12:12:00.000-08:00

Not content with swashing the buckle with Musketeers in small spaces my thoughts moved onto Modern Hong Kong Film style shoot outs... You know the type diving rolls to shoot or evade, lead flying everywhere (but into the hero), Kung Fu Fighting and explosions abound. No-one does this better than the Woo master and that's where my inspiration lay. Now couple this with the mechanics from an old set we developed for WJ and Aussie Greg Hallam's And One for All with a sprinkling of Ambush Alley and NUTS and we have Dive & Shoot. Hardly new ingredients but maybe a new recipe was born ...
In PDF format they are free on asking ... a donation to my Movember page much appreciated however.

Here is a very brief encounter which shows how they work ...
Our two antagonists have been given a co-star rating of 3 just to show the game mechanics.Meet Pete and Kate who always find themselves on the opposite side of a scrap!

D&S uses a small area which is best with a lot of terrain. For our sample scene we visit a ware-house ...

Kelly needs to get across the warehouse, into the security locked room, nick the ledger (luckily left on the desk) and get out before the guard dog or Pete manage to stop them. While it is possible to 'sneak' about using opposed rolls I decided for the walk through the more dramatic rush.

So without wasting a second Kate somersaulted onto the crates... This audience pleasing 'stunt' (the word for action in D&S) earns her a stunt pool die. Stunts are always done unless a mishap occurs (a double one happening) but the 'actor' can only carry on if they maintain the initiative by NOT rolling a 1. The stunt pool dice is 'built up' during the phase to give a better chance in combat. The down side is the more they do the more tired/out of breath they get and the more chance there is of losing the initiative or having a mishap.

She made it and then sprang onto the next pile ...

Which she made but rolling a one meant her phase was over as she had lost the initiative. In games where a player has more actors the player can continue until 2 actors have failed!

Never one to miss a bit of a fight the guard dog was activated and after 2 successful rolls charged in ...

Only to be kicked off!

The game report will carry on later ....

An evening of swashing the buckle ...

2011-11-03T06:47:00.001-07:00

Took the rules round to Steve's and we had a great time and then even managed to have a few games of the board game as well ... Check it out here:
http://oddlegsenterprises.blogspot.com/

... And one for all!

2011-10-30T13:26:00.000-07:00

These are a set of free skirmish rules from Eureka in my adopted homeland of Australia. Designed for their excellent (but unfortunately out my price range in the UK) 40mm musketeer models by the co-author of the new Ganesha swashbuckling rules. If you want them and the supplement then:
http://www.eurekamin.com.au/andoneforall.php
http://eurekamin.com.au/games/A1FASupplement1_6.pdf
http://eurekamin.com.au/games/CaptureofConstance.pdf

So why am I going on about them?

Simply they are the best fun rules I have found for the genre ...

I have often wanted to do a set which replicated the old school street fighter video games where one has to build up 'power' to be unleashed on the opponent. AOFA kind of fits the bill ... The game revolves around the character using 'swashbuckling' actions to 'hopefully' build up a dice pool, which is then used to effect the opponent, either in a swashbuckling or 'duelling' way. The dodgy bit is that every time the character does (I say does as the characters always get to do it, the test tells you how well) an action they get a dice for the pool, the pool has to be used and added to each action, BUT any ones end the characters activation. Once two characters have failed the initiative goes to the other side. Note: I use the 'advanced' rules in the supplement, in the core rules the player's go is over when one character fails.

Actions can be opposed or individual, jumping onto a table is individual, roll the dice pool and hope one can carry on by NOT getting any ones. Picking up and hurling a chair at an opponent is opposed the dice pool is rolled versus the number of 'rating' dice the opponent has. The highest score is compared (more than one '6' and you add the number, ie two 6 dice means one scored 7) and the result depends on the difference (each point of difference is a 'hit'). Characters have 2-4 wounds and once they are gone they are out the fight.

Nothing is measured the characters move in a straight line until the reach an obstacle (they can stop in the open obviously) at which point they must interact with the object in some way (this is an action). The rules are simple, fluid and rely on the 'narrative' weave to explain the action ... which is half the fun.

Watch out for a battle report very soon ...

To rescue the Queen ... One for all ..

2011-10-29T13:06:00.000-07:00

Here they come ...

The table ....

Table set up for tomorrow's game ...

One for all ... another project it seems.

2011-10-22T11:49:00.000-07:00

Not content with a Morheim sideline I got Flashing Blades the SOBH swashbuckling set. More like my Bushi no Yume than SOBH as weapons now have a Combat Value etc and a new mechanic of non fatal attacks (swashbuckling) to be done in the movement phase. Got them in the thought it may well work for samurai but then I made the mistake of going to see the new 3 Musketeers.
OOPs .. musketeer cut outs to play the first game while waiting for the Redoubt figures to arrive ... Now onto a bit of a rant. A week after ordering I enquired if the order ha gone through OK to be told there was a 3 WEEK wait time on orders. No friggin mention of that on the web site. I expect the manufacturers website to handle orders quickly OR at least say it on the website.

SO while pondering whether to cancel my order I got the Sirius Three Musketeer game which has 21 lovely hard plastic figures in it although they are quite tall. Maybe they will fit in with the Redoubt stuff; mmmm maybe I'd better not cancel. Anyway playing tomorrow so will report back.

Bandits, bolts and arguments ...

2011-10-12T01:20:00.001-07:00

Last night saw the first game for the rag tag bunch of miss fits. The scenario was the 'Bounty Hunting' one from the wilderness campaign booklet and is basically a meet and greet fight with the added complication of being shot at from the farm building in the middle of the table by a group of bandits. Once one warband runs off the bandits are captured and turned in by the winner.

My plan was simple, choose the side of the table where the building had no windows to avoid being shot at, wait until the opposition (Mutated Elf types) took the brunt of the crossbow bolts getting to me. Then send in the Oni (troll) to take some of them out and make them run away.

All went well until the second go when Chi and Sai (the two twin 'boyz') started having a go at each other.I grew to hate the animosity rolls during the game, never have so many 1s been rolled then followed by 1 or 6. The upshot was Chi got so annoyed at being called a scaredy boy he ran so as fast as he could towards the enemy - which took him straight in front of the cross bow fire ... taking him out the game (don't worry he did recover). This was followed the next turn by Sai (obviously annoyed at his twin being taken out) rushing out as well. Meanwhile the rest of the group decided that waiting round was boring and hurled themselves at two unfortunate archers who didn't really stand a chance. The other elves split up, one half running around after Sai (who came to his senses) and P'anda (who was trying to cast a spell for most of the game) and the other half rushing towards the heavy boyz. Unfortunately this took them in front of the bandits fire arc and on the way they lost two characters which took them to their break point.

In a scene reminiscent of an old silent movie most the chase continued ... at one point Sai again turned round and gave them some lip, nearly getting caught. The two other groups stormed into each other just in time for the elves to take flight (they failed their rout test).

So with 8 bandits and equipment to cash in, plus a very good find of wyrdstone my boyz had done well. Chi wasn't really harmed at all (which caused another argument) and Dai Konjo (the Big'Un) took the two twins in to the weekly pit fight ... Again Sai ran off but this time it was useful as he got to reach the objective ... being taken down by a pirate (again he ended up OK so don't worry) it seemed prudent that the others just sat back and watched the two other groups beat each other up. We ended up getting some good advances and skills out of it and even managed to get another group of henchmen and used the crossbows to give us 4 ranged attack characters which can only be useful.

All in all I enjoyed the evening a lot more than I thought I would ... roll on the next round :)

Come and 'ave a go if you think ya hard enuff ...

2011-10-03T14:05:00.000-07:00

My warband is small in number but with the Oni (Troll) is hard as nails ...

3 wounds, 3 attacks ... pity he's as thick as a brick ...

An unusual warband with an adopted Panda (sshhhh don't tell him) who has a penchant for the odd spell.A boss who ended up with a snake looking tail after a close encounter with a weird pool of purple gunge (he thought it was blackberry sorbet), a rockerbilly Big Un and a couple of twins who don't realise they are just 'runners'. The only thing that keeps them (mainly, well most of the time) together is their love of surfing da big waves; or at least a hatred of everyone who don't surf !

Keep watching for how they do week to week ...

Flying Tackles now at Ganesha ...

2011-10-01T11:02:00.000-07:00

With some player advancement rules and play cards for free download (later this week) the rules are for sale at:
http://www.ganeshagames.net/product_info.php?cPath=1_21&products_id=152&osCsid=96s87ogqpghnc2v7o8d5plb9a0

2011-09-25T02:25:00.000-07:00

Two years in the making ... Honed while watching the World Cup action in NZ. Flying Tackles brings the hard, furious action of Rugby Union to your table top. Play in 28mm on a 4'x3' or in 10/15mm on a 48cm x 32cm pitch.
Games last 80 -100 minutes and include all aspects of the game (including dirty play).

The PDF rules cost £2 Paypal to noseriderATbtinternet.com.

Just don't let that winger slip the tackle!

A tale of Ninja ...

2011-09-19T12:17:00.000-07:00

The club are embarking on a Mordheim campaign and although I have not ever played the rules I thought I'd try to join in.
Basing my warband on the skaven to give me a Ninja based warband. For my points I can get:
Hatsumi Maisaiki - the Jonin or leader of the ninja band.
Ishizuka Tetsuji - Hatsumi's yojinbo (body guard)
And then 8 Gennin (operatives), two with blowpipe.

Obviously rather be playing Bushi no Yume (which for some reason has seen a surge in sales over the last few weeks) but glad to get the figs out.

First game of our campaign ... a roll of fate!

2011-08-26T04:39:00.000-07:00

Draft write up - pictures to follow.

The following battle report is based on a game of Napoleon at War using the 'Flank Attack' scenario out of the core book. In the report the narrative is presented for each one of the six game turns, text in italics explains what happens in game terms.

Druot D'Erlon put the telescope to his eye, the sultry mid June weather seemed to cast a haze over the crossroads which lay to his front, the whitewashed walls of the small farmstead glistened in the thick lens. Glancing down he again read the barely legible note he had been handed by De la Bedoyere (Napoleon's aide). Apparently, he held the fate of the Empire in his hands an had to take the crossroad and hold it until Le Emperor arrived on his right flank, to put in the coup de grace. Surveying what was soon to become, the field of battle D'Erlon could only see a handful of battalions facing him. However, he had heard from many Generals who had faced Wellington in the Peninsular that the cunning old fox liked to keep his forces out of view, so he decided not to try and read too much into the knotted feeling in his stomach and to strike straight towards the crossroads. Orders were given out and the Generals and their aides galloped off.

D'Erlon himself and Major General Bourgeois were to lead the attack columns of the 5^th and 105^th Line flanked by the 2^nd Cavalry Brigade Lancers. First Corp Artillery heralded the start of the battle. D'Erlon wondered when his Emperor would arrive as he led his troops forward.

Sir Thomas Picton banged his umbrella down on the saddle, the clouds gathering in the sky seemed to indicate that he would, much to Wellington's ongoing disgust, need to use the device by the time the day was out. Bess, his long serving horse, shifted as the concussive blast of Roger's guns, situated to his left, vibrated through the air. Picton doubted that even his beloved Highland Brigade could hold out before the troops advancing towards him and, from what his scouts had ascertained, the mass of troops bearing down on his flank. Perhaps the best thing would be to pull back. From his side a horse appeared out of the smoke, the horse looked blown, the rider bedraggled. Sliding deftly from the saddle the young hussar thrust a document at him with the obligatory slight bow of the head and voiced, 'Sir …'

It seemed his commander, Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington, had decided to make these insignificant crossroads the site for the decisive battle. Picton was ordered to hold his position. Wellington himself was to try and head off the flanking force and also to relieve the troops on the crossroads. Picton just hoped he would be in time!

SET UP an Turn One- Patience and uncertainty.

We followed the prescribed set up for the scenario and laid out the terrain generated using the 'tournament' method which is suggested in the rules. The table layout is shown below.

Just a note to say we do not play in 15mm but in 10mm but all the bases and movement are to the same ratios as the 15mm ranges etc used in 15mm. SO everything should look 'right'. In any rule explanation I have used the 15mm distances (in inches as they are in the book).

The Brit player deployed their forces fairly central around the two objectives as the scenario does not stipulate where the flank forces will appear from. The French player set up in a position to head straight for the more central objective, obviously thinking the objective sitting deeper, and off to the side, would be the target of the force which are due to arrive as reinforcements in the reserve/support phase of some turn. In N@W any reserve forces will have a chance to come on at the end of the player's turn (in turn 1 one dice is rolled and if one gets a 1 a force can come on, in turn 3 say 3d6 are rolled and a force comes on for every 3,2 and 1 rolled etc).

Forces in N@W start fairly close, the attacker is allowed to deploy in their zone (often their half of the table) so long as they are 12” away from an enemy unit. This means in goo going terrain the columns can be in musket combat range after the movement phase. If the battalion is within range to fire it must. In N@W this then attracts return fire. As the column is moving and 3 bases frontage this means 3 dice with possibly -2 to this number due to the enemy skirmish bases (in N@W skirmishers take dice off the enemy's fire). Return fire from a line is going to be 6 bases at x2d6 minus any skirmishers, so probably 10 d6. As a unit HAS to stop 4” away from enemy in the movement phase this is always going to happen, the unit will then take fire as they go in during the combat (assault) phase of the turn. It is here that the subtle special rules for the different nations kick in – the French Line have a special Voltigeur rule which allows them to take skirmish bases off when they should be losing bases (normally sk bases are only lost when a triple is thrown on the fire dice).

So the French rolled their columns up to just outside of 6”(mainly in game terms so they didn't cop the 12 d6) while the cavalry were menacingly moved to the flank. The foot battery opened up on the building with their one howtizer base and managed to set it on fire, forcing a saving throw on the troops inside (and each firing phase until they put it out).

There were no support moves as their was only really the core forces on table and the French player failed on the reserve roll. The Brit turn one was basically to sit and wait, time was on their side and they resisted the temptation to move forward and fire (they would have lost half the fire dice for moving). The artillery fire forced a saving throw, but it was made …On the plus side the fire was put out in the building.

All in all for N@W the first turn was a sedate affair … Probably wouldn't last long though!

D'Erlon flinched wildly as a musket ball passed through his hat, his aide persuaded him to let his Officers continue to take the troops in. Waving them on he let the columns pass, bearing down on the crossroads and farm. A slight look of consternation passed over his face as he looked upon the awaiting lines of skirted men, resplendent in their tall busby style hats. His Emperor called them devil amazons and he could see why as they waited, not even the rounds of artillery passing through their ranks seemed to shake them.

Major Gen. Bourgeois led his column onwards. Again the building was subjected to howitzer fire but the walls and roofs must have been well dampened Well aware that they were now within the British muskets range he urged his men on, the swarms of skirmishers stretching out in front. Without warning and spreading like a virus the men at the front of the column started to level their muskets and shoot … “Merde,” the idiots would cost them. Walls of off white powder smoke rose from the British Line as the first volley of the day for the Highlanders was unleashed. Bourgeois yelled in anger as he saw skirmishers drop lifeless to the floor …

“Foncez!” he exclaimed, urging the columns on to charge the line of red.

“Hold your fire boys, wait until you see their beady French eyes ...” Picton's admonishment was passed on in various forms down the line. At what looked like only a couple of dozen yards the line of muskets exploded as one … Some columns faltered, the front ranks levelling their muskets and trying to return the carnage. One battalion wavered, before they could anything the mass of skirted amazons in front of them rose up, and accompanied by a blood curdling scream, hurled themselves at the column. Most however continued on and pushed into the British Line, bayonets and rifle butts finding their mark as the two antagonists joined in a macabre, deadly dance.

Watching on the two commanders could see mixed fortunes, in places the thin red line held, whupping and hollering as the French columns moved back and reorganised. Fighting over the whitewashed walls of the farmhouse was a particularly bloody affair, the riflemen inside managing to stem the tide and turn the blue wave backwards. However, in other parts of the line where the East Essex were involved in fierce, almost primeval fighting the columns had managed through sheer weight of number to drive the red coats back.

Where this had happened with the 2^nd Battalion though Pack had managed to plug the gaps with the 3^rd Battalion while desperately trying to pull the 2^nd boys back.

The Lancers led by Gobrecht had almost caught the 42^nd Highlanders, only their experience enabled them to pull together a square and loose a volley off before the lancers hit. As it was a number of brave skirmishers who had tried to stop the wall of points had been killed by the metal tipped shafts, fortunately slowing the regiments down just enough. The volley had scythed down a number of Lancers and they had ridden around the square and back to reform.

D'Erlon glanced around at where one of his aides was shouting and pointing, almost hysterically, towards the far flank of the action. Aiming his collapsible telescope towards the cause of this outburst D'Erlon felt a sudden surge of adrenaline course through his body. There was Donzelot's Brigade entering the fray from the flank … Hopefully he thought the Emperor would be right behind!

Picton had spent the last hour dashing between battalions bolstering their morale. At one point he dashed into a square made by the 42^nd. His Highlanders had done him proud but he was worrying about Pack's Brigade. They had been pretty badly mauled at one point in the line. Now was the worrying news that more French forces were advancing on the flank … Where was Wellington and his support?

Game Turn Two – of columns and squares

The columns headed towards the awaiting red line. It was obvious that the second turn was not going to be as passive as the first. Firstly the French columns had to take the first volleys of fire. As mentioned above this is when being able to take a sk stand off instead of a base comes in very handy (and probably accounts for why the French Battalions cost is so much higher than most others). Most of the columns faired OK and after a brief bit of artillery fire in they went in during the combat phase. This involves the opponent having to make a choice of when to do their defensive fire. It can be made with no test but using only 1d6 per base or 2d6 dice base IF the battalion passes a drill test … If they fail they miss out on any fire. This is a tense decision most of the time except for the Battalions with the special ruls 'Cold Blooded' who can reroll a fail. As most of the line had the trait the Brit commander tried to wait, on the whole it worked. Taking defensive fire triggers a valeur test to go in .A few columns had to move back and engage in a firefight which most of the time they lost due to rolling far less fire dice. However, a fair number of the columns made it in due in no little part to the French Columns special rules. This led to some of the Essex Brigade being pushed back. In the Brit turn these depleted battalions were pulled back and fresh units put in front of the French. Moving fire from these battalions was not as effective but again managed to take off a base or two as well as some skirmishers. This would make it harder for the columns to be so effective, the 105^th Line looking particularly dodgy.

The two columns of the 5^th who were attacking the farmhouse seemed on the verge of taking it, they neither suffered no base loss on the way but ended their combat phase inflicting a base but losing a base. As the combats are worked out in N@W one as they happen this meant in theory both were draws and as the attackers they drew back. However the light brigade (nominally 95^th rifles in the game) in the farmhouse had now lost 3 out of 6 bases (once they lose more than half they are destroyed). They couldn't rally any bases back as they were understrength as they had dealt some extra sk bases out to the other battalions in their brigade.

The more worrying part of the combat phase for the Brits was the charge of the Lancers on the Highlanders who were in line at the start of the phase. The Brit player had kept them in line to avoid having the French fire at them when in square during the fire phase. Now however they were left needing to make a drill test to be able to form square. If the Lancers got into the line they would have thrown 8 d6 with 4+ taking off a base AND a 6 taking off 2 bases due to the Lancer rule. Hitting a square on the other hand only gives 1d6 in total. As it happened the Highlanders made the roll but lost their skirmishers who were forced to roll a save an failed. The Lancers managed to take off 2 bases (by throwing a 6) but they were bounced off (cav always count as losing against a square) and lost a stand due to the attrition rule.

SO the middle of the table seemed to hang in the balance when a lucky roll (2d6 and a 1 and 4 rolled) saw a French Brigade under Donzelot appear on the Brits flank and move on quite menacingly. The Brits would not be able to start rolling for reinforcments until the end of turn 3 so Picton was forced to move the Highlanders he had in reserve and bricole his artillery towards the French column. Pack managed to rally a base back onto both Battalions who had pulled back.

D'Erlon saw victory beckoning as Donzelot's columns headed down towards the rear of the enemy, only a thin line of the skirt wearers in their way. Waving his hat and beckoning his boys forward he sent his columns forward again. The acrid powder smoke making an eery haze as it hung in the depression the crossroads sat in … Pack sent an aide with a desperate plea for more troops to Picton, unaware that there was little his compatriot could do to help him. Again the order was given to hold fire, this time it was not so successful!

Picton galloped from point to point as if on a fox hunt at home... He watched with pride as his Highlanders stood their ground repelling, and in one case seemingly destroying the French in vicious, brutal close in fighting. The Royal's again held out against the Lancers whose inftantry support had let themselves get involved with the fighting around the Farmhouse. But they were down to half their number, their square shrinking and shrinking, to the onlooker it was if the Lancers had overwhelmed them. The Camerons, who were tasked with stopping the flanking French columns were doing themselves proud as the columns wavered and stopped due to the withering musket and cannister fire. The Suddenly his pride turned to horror as firstly he saw the hated tricolour flag hoisted on the roof of the farmhouse. Then as one Pack's brigade seemed to turn and rout, their officers trying to stop them, but it was obvious that panic had set in an Picton could see his right flank crumble, only the 92^nd Highlanders were on the crossroads. WHERE oh where was Wellington. However bad it looked at least he was spared the view that thrilled D'Erlon.

There in there resplendent glory were Friant, Le Emperor and the men of the Old Guard moving own towards the Scottish Devils … even they would not be able to hold firm in front of the Old Guard. Surely the day was theirs? A galloping messenger reined in to a halt in front of him, through panting breath a trail of reports poured out. Wellington was almost on the battlefield, indeed his cavalry was just about to arrive. The battle hung in the balance.

Turn 3 – A very close run thing

Half way through the game and by the end the Brits were close to being forced to retreat. The French had got 2 VP (one for the objective farmhouse and one for the exhausted force/brigade) and the Brits only had 2 operative forces on the table. Once more VP are gained than the opposition has operative forces it is all over.

The centre French columns were looking worse for wear but had done their job and the 3 who were left and not understrength could rally a base or two and then attack the lone Highlander battalion on the crossroads for another VP. The Lancers had worn down the other Highlander battalion to 3 bases and the artillery and French Line no longer needed to assault the farmhouse would make easy work of them. On the rear hill Donzelots Brigade had taken a mauling loosing 5 bases across the 3 battalions but were now in the position that they could be moved back and the Old Guard could take the fore. Two things saved the Brits from an early exit at this point, firstly the arrival of one force of reinforcements in the form of the Scots Greys and secondly at least the French artillery was labouring behind.

For the first time in the day D'Erlon became a spectator as he watched the, what he could only call courageous, Scot's square disappear in a cloud of smoke and roundshot. His central forces were in a state of reorganisation and rally, massing together for a push onto the crossroads themselves. Gobrecht, having steadied and reorganised his Lancers headed off towards the advancing grey horses who were sweeping towards the Emperor.

Friant was at the head of the beloved Old Guard as they crashed into the Scot's line who had he could only presume been caught between loading as his columns had taken little fire. Napoleon watched on as his 'sons' decimated the skirted devils. It was only then that Le Emperor noticed the swarm of grey horses bearing down on his men.

Posonby had the bit between his teeth as he spurred on the Greys, at last his father would be avenged, he would destroy the Old Guard and could that be the French Ogre with them,

“Onwards my lads. Onwards to Glory ...”

D'Erlon could see it all unfold in front of his eyes. One Guard Battalion smoothly moved into square as if they were on the parade ground, Napoleon and Friant taking refuge inside. BUT wait the other Battalion wasn't moving, maybe the dip in the ground they had been fighting in hid the enemy … the Heavy Cavalry would turn them into mincemeat. Suddenly he caught sight of a sea of triangular flags, the pennants on the Lancers instruments of death. As the Greys descended onto the Guard the Lancers intercepted them. Even over the noise of the battlefield D'Erlon imagined he could hear the impact as four of the finest cavalry regiments crashed into each other.

From his vantage point it seemed to Picton the Greys had hit the square, then he noticed the Lancers and then the Greys pull back, looking like only a small measure of the force that had charged in. Not that the Lancers looked in much better shape as they trotted back, rallying around their flags.

WHERE was Wellington?

Turn 4 – the roll of fate!

The Brits were hanging on; just. The Camerons took a 'licking' from the Guard. In N@W the Old Guard were as strong as their real life counterparts were reported to have been. Rolling an extra 2d6 in combat the first column got in without losing a base. Their extra saving roll saved them on the exchange of fire getting into assault range and the Highlanders failed on their 'point blank' fire test, even with a reroll which meant the Guards got in an rolled 8d6. They actually rolled all 5s nd 6s which obliterated the Scots. Why the French player didn't form square with their reorganisation move is a bit of a mystery as there was 8 bases of Heavy Cavalry bearing down on them. After the game the excuse was, 'I got carried away and forgot' – oh the fog of war.

This took the Highland Brigade to under half strength but they passed their Valeur roll and stayed on the table. Unfortunately they still counted as an exhausted force which meant that they didn't count as 'operative' anymore. The French now had 2VP with the Brits only having one operative force UNLESS reinforcements arrived.

The Brit player wasted no time or the opportunity to charge into the Old Guard who were standing in line in front of him. The first regiment went in and the Guard passed their test,forming square and repulsing the cavalry. Neither side lost a base in the clash but due to the attrition rule a base was removed from both.

A little yelp of pleausure was heard as the second Guard Battalion failed to make their roll and looked destined to take the heavy charge in line without any defensive fire. It must be admitted it was only at this point that both players realised the Lancers were probably within counter charge range! Their test was rolled and made and they crunched into the Greys as they charged in. The resultant combat was the worst of the day. Cavalry halve their dice in combat with each other so the Lancers only got to throw 2d6 and to rub salt in the wound they had to reroll any hits as they were not classed as 'battle cavalry'. Normally they wouldn't be fighting the heavies but it was the only hope the Guards had. They rolled a 4 an a 5 – normally two bases gone but they had to reroll them. The Brit player's giggles of derision soon turned sour as the reroll showed a 5 and a 6 … THREE bases gone as the 6 counts double with the Lancers rule. Down to 1 base the greys could fight back if they passed a valeur test. Which they did and then inflicted one base … but not enough to win the combat and they fell back and being under half strength were deemed to disperse. The Lancers limped back to lick their wounds.

So it all rested on the Brit reserve roll – they needed 1 force to come on to get the game to carry on as at that point in time the French had 2VP and the Brits only one operative force. On turn four this meant that 4 dice were rolled with any 1,2,3 or 4 rolled seeing a Force come on. But the dice had obviously geared themselves up for combat as the dice settled … 5,6,5 and 5.

It was all over …

Picton saw the Greys pull back, he watched as the aide he had sent to find Wellington returned, is horse blown. The look on his face told Picton all he needed to know. The Duke had been delayed by a report of a French force on his flank and would not be there for another hour. It later came out that this was the French artillery that had got lost and saw the opportunity to open up on the Duke. Picton had no choice, even if he could hold the regrouping French to his front the Old Guard would be envelope him. He ordered his men to pull back to fight another day.

Game wise it had been very tense all the way through and an excellent opener to our campaign. The rules give an excellent feel (maybe a bit to stereotyped for many Old Nap Salt out there with the national characteristics) for me. The simple mechanics when combined with the troop abilities actually give many a subtle effect that are missed on reading the rule book.

Campaign wise Napoleon is now marching on the capital. Wellington needs to slow him down by securing the river crossings which would give him time to pick a spot for the decisive battle. Napoleon needs to keep moving, putting the master tactician on the back foot. The next scenario in the campaign will be the vital bridge scenario.

Napoleon @ War - back to a new obsession ...

2011-08-20T15:33:00.000-07:00

Naps come and go in my gaming life at various times. Always going to be the 100 days campaign I'm afraid (I am a Late War lad in all genre). More on the rules in another post but they are really looking like the FoW of the Naps world ...

My lists for our next lot of games:

BRITISH under the control of the Duke of Wellington – Courageous/Elite
'Cunning as a Fox' – after the opponent deploys the Duke may redeploy any unseen units.

Main Force

Sir Thomas Picton – Corageous/Drilled
78th Cameron Highlanders - 2sk Cold blooded, Volley and Charge, Line Drilled, B/D
42nd Royal Highlanders - 2sk
92nd Gordon Highlanders - 2sk

Maj Gen. Sir Denis Pack
95th Rifles (Light Battalion) Light Infantry, Cold blooded, Volley and Charge, Line Drilled C/D
1st Bn East Essex - 3sk Cold blooded, Volley and Charge, Line Drilled C/D
2nd Bn East Essex - 3sk “
3rd Bn East Essex - 3sk “

Roger's Battery RA

Support Force
Lt Col. Von Specht - Corageous/Drilled
Brunswick 2nd Brigade 1st 2nd 3rd Bn - 2sk Line Drilled

Maj. Gen. Maitland
1st Guards (over strength) - 2sk Cold blooded, Volley and Charge, Line Drilled, Overstrength B/E
2nd Guards (over strength) - 2sk “

Reserve Force
Major General Sir William Ponsonby - Corageous/Drilled
2nd Royal North Dragoons 2reg Impetuous, Battle Cavalry B/D

Mercer's RHA Battery Horse Artillery C/D

FRENCH under the control of Napoleon Bonaparte – Brave/Elite
Le Ogre – once a game Napoleon may take a double turn at any point. They immediately start the turn sequence again.
Aggressiveness 2

Main Force
Lt General Druot D'Erlon - Brave/Drilled
1st Brigade - 5th Line 3bn all understrength, one conscript all 2sk
Très Manoeuvrier. Élan, Voltigeur C/D and C/R

Major Gen. Bourgeois - Corageous/Drilled
2nd Brigade - 105th Line 3bn all understrength, one conscript all 2sk
Très Manoeuvrier. Élan, Voltigeur C/D and C/R

1st Corp Artillery

Support Force
Lt General Baron Donzelot - Corageous/Drilled
1st Brigade - 17thth Line 3bn all understrength, one conscript all 2sk
Très Manoeuvrier. Élan, Voltigeur C/D and C/R

2nd Cavalry Brigade 3rd and 4th Lancers
Light Cavslry, Lancers C/D

1st Corp Artillery

Reserve Force
Lt General Count Friant - Corageous/Drilled
1st and 2nd Grenadiers of the Old Guard
Très Manoeuvrier. Élan, Voltigeurs, Light Infantry, Guard, Fearsome, Artllery Notions, La Garde Recule, Le Mot De Cambronne

NOTES

Feel the Force - Scene one ...

2011-08-05T14:02:00.000-07:00

Introducing the rules to the family they were keen (not being gamers had something to do with it I think) to follow the films through ... so the first scene (scenario) is based on the opening of the film itself. Not a bad thing as they wanted to play the 'goodies' of course so I didn't feel cheated playing the Imperials without any heroic figures to fall back on.

Figures - Imperial Troops - One officer and 4 groups of extras (24 figures)
Rebels - Leia, the droids of course and 2 groups of extras (12 figures)

The Story so far ....
In a Galaxy far, far away ...
Karl Katarn had transmitted the technical data from the Death Star readouts to Tantive IV (Princess Leia's consular ship). However, Darth Vader, aboard the Star Destroyer 'Devastation' intercepted the craft just outside Tatooine's atmosphere and the tractor beam pulled them in.
Once secured the Dark Lord and his Stormtroopers board the ship in search of Leia and the transmission. Leia, realising what is going to hapwpen puts the information into a service droid called R2D2 who then leads his unwilling travelling companioon, C3-PO in search of an escape pod, The plan is to go and find who Leia wants to get the information back to her father ... a man to find is Obi-Wan Kenobi. Leia is then stunned and captured by Darth Vader.

So this was the action the scene (scenario) needs to vaguely cover. The table was set up in a series of corridors and rooms on two levels with 'lift shafts' between the levels.

The Stormtroopers will enter from one of two bulkhead doors so the initial setup of the |Rebels need to cover both. Meanwhile Leia and the droids start on the upper level but at different sides of the board. The droids will move around at random (but mainly away from the firing) until she gets to them and spends a special action putting in the message and information.

That is not the droid you are looking for ...

The droids then have to get to the escape pod which will be a Perception TN5 pool roll to activate. After the message has been uploaded to R2 any Imperial extras passing by will need to make a TN4 Perception Pool roll to notice something is amiss!
Normal Box Office Takings can be earned but with the following extras:
Rebels: 3 million for the droids escaping.
Imperial Forces: 2 million for getting the information off the droids or Leia, 1 million for capturing Leia.

Have fun !
Report later.

No R2 we are not going to ...

New Yahoo Group ...

2011-08-04T10:54:00.001-07:00

for my Star Wars rules ... you can get the rules on joining:

http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/FeeltheForce/

Feel the Force ...

2011-08-02T11:11:00.000-07:00

Finished my set of rules for Star Wars games ... now I can relax.

If anyone wants to try them, give me an email

OK ... so ADHD struck badly ...

2011-07-31T04:29:00.000-07:00

Gone are the good intentions already ... got very sidetracked with a new set of Napoleonic rules (next post will be a review and games report) called Napoleon at War and writing a set of Star War rules as I can't find any which really give the right feel ... called Feel the Force they are almost done so if anyone wants to try them out, give me an email :)

They are character driven with groups of 'extras' along for the ride ... hopefully they will play as well as I think they should :)

Holidays, Starwars and back to Naps

2011-07-24T05:44:00.001-07:00

Well it's holiday time so must actually get stuff done. Possibly in this order:
Flying Lead WWII
Playing loads of star wars and afghan stuff.
Getting back into Naps via hopefully the new Spanish rules 'Napoleon At War' which should arrive soon.

So we will have to wait and see. First thing is starwars on Tuesday at the club ... Watch this space!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone : sad ne?

You're not my father ... oh shit!

2011-07-06T15:31:00.000-07:00

Our first test of the stats for the Star Wars figures saw Luke, Chewwy, Han, Yoda and R2D2 facing a group of Stormtroopers, Darth Vader and co.Using the escape scenario we postulated that the Goodies had infiltrated the Death Star to try and recover the Millennium Falcon (which had been captured and beamed onboard while in a repair dock on a nearby planet.

Most of the board

An interesting twist was present right from the words, "Take 1" as Luke Skywalker had the disguise kit gadget and dressed as a stormtrooper was wandering around in the Dark Side's deployment zone. Meanwhile all the others made a dash for it, using cover wisely.

R2 trying to keep up with Yoda ... not a fair race!

Using concealment they all moved up but then got in a fire fight with some Stormtroopers .. which didn't have good results for Chewy as he went down after a couple of turns of fire. Luck both real and re-roll wise was not going well for them although Yoda took out a couple in hand to hand. Having a disguised Luke was becoming a pain as he was not in a good position to do anything and it was too tempting not to use him and thus reveal him ...
The game was action packed and in the end came down to the rebel heroes having to back to get to Chewwy and also to save Han Solo from being taken off by Flett boy! In the end they were both captured anyway as Luke failed the wiped out morale roll and ran off to the MF leaving them all to their fate.

Next game is nicely set up as a rebel force led by Luke with Leia and CP3O in support trying to rescue our heroes before Han is turned into carbon (I have the suppossedly 40 quids worth of rare model - so may as well use it). For more security pictures from this action see:
http://oddlegsenterprises.blogspot.com/2011/07/week-off-days-2-3.html

Star Wars ... oops found another use for 7TV

2011-07-06T03:59:00.001-07:00

It had to happen, the Star Wars collectables are out and being used ... bit of a shame I rebased all the characters onto clear bases before finding out that most of the characters are worth about 20-30 quid now but never mind, wasn't going to sell them anyway!

So I plan to stick some cast lists up very soon for your perusal and comment.

Star Wars 7TV

Luke Skywalker – Million Dollar Marvel 65

Move 6 Def 3 Hits 3 Str 3 Agi 3 Int 3 Morale 4 Luck 2

Luck, Alien, Gadgets, Drive, Knowledge, Concealment, Telekinesis

Brawl

Light saber 3+

Laser pistol 4+

That Will Do Nicely Sir – cheaper equipment.

Yoda – Million Dollar Marvel mix – 80 rating

Move 7” Def 5 Hits 3 Str 4 Agi 5 Int 5 Morale 5 Luck 2

Luck, Alien, Pressure Point, A good offence, Daring Leap, Heroic Surge, Energy Blast, Telekinesis, Small

Brawl 3+

Light Saber 3+ ignores armour.

The Force – Mind Blast – 2+ Str5 – causes confusion

Obi Wan Kenobi – Mysterious Stranger 70 ratings

Move 6 Def 5 Hits 3 Str 4 Agi 5 Int 5 Morale 5 Luck 3

Luck 3, Hypnotise, Sixth Sense, Dodge, Heroic Surge, Concealment, Mind Blast, Telekinesis

Strike from the shadows- +1 initiative if more than 6” away from non friendly

Brawl 3+

Light Saber 3+ ignores armour

The Force – Mind Blast – 2+ Str5 – causes confusion.

Han Solo – Hardened Invesigator 71 rating

Move 6 Def 5 Hits 3 Str 3 Agi 5 Int 5 Morale 5 Luck 3

Leader, Luck 3, Heroic Surge, Pilot, Dodge, Concealment, Daring Leap, Snap Shot

Brawl – 3+

Laser Pistol – 3+ Str 4 range 16”

Intimidating Put Down – opposed morale role within 6” or retreat move

Leia Organa – Military Mind – 65 rating

Move 6” Def 5 Hits 3 Str 3 Agi 5 Int 6 Morale 5 Luck 5

Leader, com trait 6 Obey me, Seduce, Heroic Surge

Brawl 3+

Laser Pistol 3+ Str 4 range 16”

Are you receiving me – holographic image – special action adds an extra activation token.

Darth Vader (Otherwordly Invader) – 85

Move 6 Def 5 Hits 3 Str 4 Agi 4 Int 4 Morale 5 Luck 2

Alien, Luck, Love to Hate, Pressure Point, Heroic Surge, Telekinesis, Energy Blast, Regeneration

Cameo, Force Field (5+)

Brawl 4+

Lightsaber 3+ ignores armour

Energy Blast – 12” 3+ ST4 high calibre – hit or stun

Unearthly Constitution – Once per turn reroll any die that involves his defence

Grand Moff Tarkin – Death Star Commander – NPof work – 40 ratings

Move 6” Def 3 Hits 2 Str 3 Agi3 Int 4 Mor 4 Luck 1

Luck, Snap Shot, Heroic surge, Gadgets, Hypnotise

Brawl 4+

Pistol 3+

R2D2 - Crackpot Inventor 44 rating

Move 5” Def 3 Hits 2 Str 3 Agi 4 Int 5 Morale 4

Boffin, Gadgets, Drive/Pilot, Repair, Mechanoid

Brawl 6+

Stun field (stun stick) – 4+ melee, Str 5

C-3PO – Investigative Academic 25 rating

Move 6” Def 3, Hits 2 Str 4 Agi 3 Int 4 Morale 3 Luck 1

Heroic Surge, Luck 1, Repair, Mechanoid, Heroic Surge, Medic

Chewbacca – Strongarm 65 rating

Move 6 Def 4 Hits 2 Str 5 Agi 5 Int 3 Morale 3 Luck 1

Luck, Snap Shot, Heroic Surge, Roar

Brawl 3+

Bowcaster 3+ Str 4 range 32”

Rebel fighters – 14 rating

Move 6” Def 3 Hits 1 Str 3 Int 3 Morale 3

Brawl 4+ St 3 –stun

Laser pistol 16” St 4

May have body armour, counts as Stormtrooper armour for +5 rating

Upgrade one in 3 with stun grenades for +1 rating.

Upgrade one in 7 to a Squad Leader (leader 1) for +5 ratings

Stormtroopers – 18 rating

Move 6” Def 3 Hits 1 Str 3 Int 3 Morale 3

Brawl 4+ St 3 –stun

Blaster 22” St 3

Stormtrooper armour – will deflect St3 attacks on a 6, and St4 attacks on a 6/4+

Upgrade one in 3 with stun grenades for +1 rating.

Upgrade one in 7 to a Squad Leader (leader 1) for +5 ratings

Lando Carlissian – 27 points

Move 6” Def 4 Hits 1 Str 3 Agi 4 Int 3 Morale 3

Blocker

Brawl 4+

Laser Pistol 4+ 16” st4

Boba Flett – Ninja – also starring 43 points

Move 6” Def 3 Hits 1 Str3 Agi 5 Int 3 Morale 4

Cat Burglar, Concealment, Dodge, Fists of Fury, Heroic Surge

Deadly training – can re-roll one wound, Agi or hit roll per turn.

Unarmed Combat 3+

Stun Pistol 3+ range 12”

Jet pack – 16” movement hop, ignores terrain as such.

7TV goes on the Rampage ...

2011-06-26T09:42:00.000-07:00

Ninja on the monoraail .... train delayed

Rampage is a yearly wargames show put on by Ilford wargames club and I normally support it by putting on a participation game. This year I went for a Spy-fi game in the morning and Dr Who in the afternoon. Although the afternoon looked like it was going to be a no go due to a group of 4 putting their names down in the morning then not showing there was a stream of willing players once the word got out. SO two games and 4 hours of 7TV mayhem ensued.

The first game was not Bond and ninja trying to stop the rocket taking off ... Bond got captured on the 3rd turn by a capture balloon and spent most of the game captured but managing to fight off being thrown n the shark tank. In the last moves after the ninja had managed to 'neutralise' the astronaut by climbing onto the mono-rail, but then ran off Bond did indeed end up in the tank ... A shark nibbled his foot but he dragged himself out and made a break for it surviving flying lead and an attempt to telekinesis him back into the shark tank.. In the end though he was overpowered by sheer weight of numbers and was captured ... The players all had a great time and were still talking about it when I saw them after the show. They had bought the game at Sittingbourne and were painting stuff up to start playing.

Run Mr Bond - end game action

The point it all went wrong

Tuck or Pike? ... No Mr Bond, shark

The second game saw Dr Who and the Daleks searching for time machine device pieces in a large wharehouse. Although the Dr Who side made in, got 6 tokens and got out they didn't do a lot of damage. The Daleks hardly found any pieces but went on a rampage of 'extermination' including taking out Capt. Jack, 4 UNIT soldiers and 8 civilians. When the pieces were revealed the Dalek's tokens were all fairy high scoring and their extermination spree saw them edging the VP quite easily. Again the players had a ball and two Dr Who fans went off happy!

Dr ... OPEN the damn door!

Tardis arrives ...

The wharehouse

Back to the 70's - Blackout style !

2011-06-22T15:51:00.000-07:00

Audiences watching 7TV's new Dr Whoooaaaa episode last night had there enjoyment cruelly cut short due to a power cut nearing the end of the episode ... they have promised to replay the episode next week but for now we are hanging on a thread as to what happens at the end.

We were playing the second instalment of our Dr Who campaign last night (Saving Cpt. Jack) when the local area suffered an hour long power cut at about 10:10 - now imagine a 4x4 board populated with interlocking card terrain (see below) , full of figures, vehicles, building interiors, cards and tokens - we had to put it away in the pith black of the hall the only lights coming from our phones!
We played the scenario below but with a third force of Judoon who were searching for their 'prisoner' - each star and co star had a 'token' which was only revealed to everyone when the Judoon scanned the character!

The town awaits (notice how the set builders left off the rear roof for internal shots

The game proved to be 'awesome' fun. The Doctor was helped by landing in the building that housed the Daleks. This was lucky as they were quickly amassing points. The Torchwood agents searched a few buildings but got drawn into a firefight with some Dalek troopers before hot wiring the cop car and taking off towards the Doctor. Meanwhile the Daleks outside of the building were terrorising civilians and also decided to shoot up the Judoons (the Doctor's side were happy they were keeping each other busy). The Dalek player's tactics were sound ... Leaving only a couple to guard Jack and activate the beacon each turn while the rest were spread out to hinder the searching of the buildings. Unluckily for them the Tardis landed in the building and the Dr could search it with his sonic screwdriver. It was then a case of hurtling up the lift and onto the roof ready to rumble.

OOOooaaaa here she comes ... a fortunate deviated landing

Capt Jack had managed to get rid of both status markers (captured and stunned - from the probing) at the end of the first turn but lay there for a further 3 (other cast members needed the activations although it didn't stop the other sides' players making lewd remarks about enjoying the probing too much).

Probe me baby one more time!

So with the cop car jumping the rails in front of the train, the Daleks and Judoons fighting it out, the Dalek sec and the Doctor in a face off and a mother ship hovering - THE LIGHTS WENT OUT, all the alarms in the local area went off and we were left, literally, in the dark as to what would happen.
Tune in next week!
Here are some random pictures from the game.

Just the second the lights went out - I thought my phone had managed to blow all the fuses somehow :)

Search the room boys!

Saving Captain Jack - next Dr Who campaign scenario

2011-06-17T10:15:00.000-07:00

Saving Capt. Jack …

Part two of the Dr Who Campaign using 7TV.

By Rich Jones

Previously on Dr Whoooa

Returning to 1975 the Doctor, companions and Capt. Jack (plus a few OAT agents) had been tasked with shutting down the Dalek’s Time Portal Beacon before the Mothership had arrived using the beacon to pinpoint their landing.

The episode ended with the Mothership having to blast out of orbit again as it could not land. BUT Captain Jack had been captured and a small ship containing more of the advance force of Daleks had landed.

OAT had managed to ascertain that the Daleks were holed up in a building and were rebuilding the TPB. Even worse (well at least for Capt. Jack) was that they are also planning on assimilating Capt. Jack’s genetic code to make another Dalek.

The Doctor and a force of OAT agents have a limited time to be able to find and rescue him and destroy the TPB before it is too late!

Location – 7TV have secured the use of the townscape plot at Pinewood studios for a limited time. The shooting needs to be done quickly, there is only time for one take.

Layout – the 4x4 foot board has a number of buildings on it and random vehicles and civilians. (Up to about 10 in number vehicle wise and as many civilians as the players can muster). These are moved in the end phase of every turn. A civilian or vehicle will carry on in the direction it is facing/going until it could possibly make a choice (at a junction). Then randomly determine the direction it will turn. We use a deviation/scatter dice and do best fit. If there is any firing within 16” of a civilian they will head off in the opposite direction. Move all the foot civilians a base 4” (or if you can be bothered roll a d6) all the vehicles will move a base 8” (or a d6+2 if the players decide). Note the civilians can be seduced/controlled/captured etc by a side, this would add to the activations – remember Daleks cause fear!

The Daleks need to secretly write down which building they are in, players could hide them, put them on top and take a phone photo of them etc etc. The Doctor’s side will start at any 2 points anywhere on the edge of the board.

They can search the building for the Daleks and TPB by entering the building and making a search roll. This takes one or two actions depending on the size of the building (decide before hand). This is an opposed intelligence roll between the cast member and the Daleks (always use a 3 for the Dalek side). If the Hero cast member wins it must be revealed if it is the right building or not. Every Heroic member in the searching group can use an action to search if they have been activated. Note in this way they can spread out or stay in a bunch to make sure. If the Dalek player wins the roll it is deemed that cast member can’t figure it out and they may NOT try again for that building.

The Doctor can use two actions to use his sonic screwdriver to ‘scan’ the building (add 2 to his intelligence).

Once the building is revealed the TPB is placed on the roof and the Daleks can be placed (not within 8” of the searching group on the same level).

The Mother Ships will be guided in once the TPB has accumulated a total of 30 power points. Each turn there is an activated dalek at the main computer panel a d6 can be thrown and added to the total during the end of turn phase (ad break).

The computer can be used in a similar way by the Doctor's side to subtract from this total. But the cast member must make an initial Int roll.

Captain Jack is connected to a machine which will assimilate his DNA – he counts as having a captured and stunned status at the start of the game. His DNA is assimilated in the ad break phase by a roll of a 6 which takes a hit away (done before the status removal roll) – when he reaches 0 hits he effectively dies and his DNA is used by the Daleks.

The game continues until one side is eliminated or leaves the board.

CAMPAIGN RATING POINTS

The following Victory Points will be awarded:

Doctor:

+3VP for rescuing Jack

+ 2VP for destroying TPB

plus applicable normal points as per summer special.

Daleks:

+3VP for enabling TPB to bring in the Mother Ships

+2VP for assimilating Captain Jack's DNA

plus applicable normal points as per summer special.

Who turned the computer off before we left?

2011-06-14T15:56:00.000-07:00

We played a Dr Who game using 7TV tonight. I wanted to keep the mechanics to what we were used to and also as it was the start of a campaign we needed to use points and the campaign system - so DWMG was out really. Because of that I took the stats from the DW game and fitted it into one of the archetypes in the rule book.

We used the scenario below and decided the game would end at the end of turn 10 as at this point the saucer would arrive etc.

It was a brilliant fun game which swung from one side to the other with an unexpected twist ... another triumph for 7TV at our club!

The DW mob decided to keep the Tardis and crew off the table until the 'Torchwood' gang had either drawn the daleks and troopers out of position (or neutralised them). Seeing the agents on their own (as Capt Jack wouldn't materialise until the end of turn 2) the Daleks and their troopers headed straight for them, quickly taking two of them out with one casualty of their own. But leaving only one trooper guarding the force field was too much of an invite as Cpt Jack materialised close by and went in fighting!

This was quickly followed by the Tardis landing near the force field control but a Dalek trooper was covering the Tardis exit. Amy piled out followed by the Doctor and stunned him.. The Doctor used his heroic surge to deactivate the force field.

Capt Jack moved in to turn off one side of the tracker. The Daleks were fighting there way through though and only a few well used cards saved the Doctor and River Song went down.

With the Doctor rushing in and turning off the other bit of the tracker all looked good. Winning the initiative again they got River and all the crew back in the Tardis ready to take off and end the episode on a high. But wait there was 20 minutes left of the show ...

It then dawned on all concerned that although it was turn 8 and the Tardis was about to leave there was a Torchwood agent left in the middle of the table ... the game couldn't end!

The Daleks were on the point of being shaken but carried on passing morale tests and managed to move in and switch the tracker back on. The Doctor had moved the Tardis to the other side of the comple, River Song had been treated by Rory using the medic skill and Capt Jack had been trying to take out the last Dalek but had been stunned and captured. With turn 10 on the cards it was left to the lowly Torchwood agent to save the day ... with the aid of an Audience Appreciation point he just managed to turn the tracker off as the Saucer reached the stratosphere but didn't quite know where to head for!

The episode ended as the Daleks on the ground retreated (finally failing a 6+ roll) ...

But when the victory points were allocated the Dalek player got a shed roll as all the Dr's side were left on the table ,,, plus the Capt had been captured. It was a sound victory for the Daleks ... while the main Saucer fleet had been unable to land smaller troop carrying ones had and would set up a base ready to guide the main fleet in again ... the Doctor would be forced into trying to rescue Capt Jack and sabotage the tracker yet again ... what a mid season cliff hanger.

The game worked so well and the players loved the way that the action did not revolve just around shooting the opposition up ... one comment was that one had to play the characters just how they would have acted on the show!

Watch out for next week continuation ...

Reports done - Dr Who scenario for the weekend testing ...

2011-06-11T12:56:00.001-07:00

‘Quick Doc, pass the key!’

An Dr Who game using the 7TV rules …

By Rich Jones

Advance Geek warning – this is not using any actual ‘historical’ DW episode or even series; it’s all for fun J

An advance scout team of Daleks have landed on earth (London about 1975) and have set up a ‘time portal beacon’ for a Dalek troop carrying saucer which contains The Master. At the moment they are still preparing the TPB in Crystal Palace Park. The GB Government Organisation Alien Threat Branch (the predecessor of Torchwood) is in situ trying to sabotage the TPB and have been joined by the Doctor, Dr Song, Amy and Rory.

Unfortunately the TPB has affected the Tardis and it is in a state of flux, the party could get out but can not get back in!

Table – 4x4 foot.

One end of the table will have the TPB situated on a concrete slab with the force field generator set up in a square. In the middle of the square is the control for the TPB. Daleks can turn the force field off by touching the control lever. Anyone else must succeed in a disable intelligence roll at -1 to Intelligence due to the alien nature.

Near this area are is another paved area. The Daleks and their slaves must start on either paved area (or within 6”).

Torchwood fighters start within 4” of the opposite end where it is wooded.

The Tardis must plan to materialise within their 10” of the same table edge. It deviates by 2d6 on landing and will not let anyone back in until the TPB is turned off.

Objectives:

Daleks – kill Torchwood and capture the other characters.

Doctor’s cast:

Disable the TPB – (+2VP)

Return to Tardis and escape afterwards (+2VP). Kill or capture the Dalek side.

Jack and the Doctor lose -2VP for each person that does not escape off the table or by Tardis by the end of the game.

Doctor and Co:

The Doctor

Amy

Rory

River Song

Cpt Jack

6x ATB agents with smgs

Dalek Advance Party

Dalek Patrol Leader

(normal stats but Leader 2)

7 x Daleks
3x Dalek troopers

Report writing and distractions ...

2011-06-11T04:18:00.000-07:00

Well it's report writing weekend which explains why I am making an aimless entry on the blog. The week took a downturn when we (the family) realised that we have run out of Big Bang Theory episodes to watch after ploughing through the first 3 seasons on DVD. I must admit to loving the show which probably brings out the geek in me I am afraid and has also rekindled my interest in 'quantum' science (Bazinga) ... That's a geek in reference for you now :)

Played Fear & Faith the other night at Steve's and it reminded me I do actually like my rules ... must make an effort to play Flying Lead ... although 7TV is still having too big an effect for anything to push to the side at the moment ... oh well.

Been collecting Dr Who stuff at an alarming rate (curse ebay and a positive paypal account!) both for school where my class are in a Dr Who frenzy as we are writing for the BBC competition at the moment and for 7TV games where I may even get Khally to join in, one never knows.

Painted some of the Dr Who magazine daleks up the other day and plan to do another 10 today after I finish the reports ... Another post report treat awaiting is a rather large parcel from Ebay which contains a wealth of the prepainted micro-universe Dr Who figures :)

Oh well back to reports I suppose ...

Groovy Baby ... Club does good!

2011-06-05T12:10:00.001-07:00

Groovy Baby ... would have been Austin Power's take on the event and he wouldn't have been wrong.

Shaun won the event (well joint first), I came third while Jon took out the painting competition (A certain Mr K. Dallimore was the judge). Meanwhile Ian and Steve won the team game although they had to take out 1960's London while doing so ... mmm

Join in quick ...

2011-05-26T04:37:00.000-07:00

Still places available for the Salute Winning participation (learn how to play) game.

Ainsty castings are bringing Spy-fi/ Dr Who type stuff and Crooked Dice will be selling stuff. Also an informal B&B … ask for details how to get there

This will be a great day … so if you are anywhere near the area don’t miss it!

Running list for the day ...

2011-05-22T13:25:00.001-07:00

Outline of the day's events:

9:00-9:30 get to the hall, meet the 7TV representatives and glare at your rivals … Oh and have a cup of tea and let Dickie Jones (the organiser) have a copy of your cast list.

9:30 – 10:00 peruse the goodies on show and sale, get your cast revved up to go, receive your first shooting scripts and organise the location for the first screentest (ie meet your first opponent, get the table finalised and do the prologue ‘stuff').

10:00 – 11:30 the first screen test will take place (see below for more details).

11:30 – 11:45 the first screen tests will be perused by Dickie Jones and helpers, Directors (yes that is you) will meet with him to get feedback (this is the first ‘public' use of the campaign mechanics found in the soon to be published ‘Summer Special'). Your cast will then be assigned an afternoon screen test.

11:45 – 12:45 Directors are free to wander the local area and seek some refreshments and lunch. The locale we are filming in has everything from Souvlaki/donners, pizza, sandwiches to Fish and Chips. This will then be the time that the wares from the prop department (bring and buy), 7TV produce and the excellent set models (Ainsty) will be readily for sale (although there will be someone there for any onlookers who want to view the auditions and buy stuff at other times)

12:45-1:00 Directors must ensure their casts are ready to commence their second screen test.

1:00 – 2:30 Second screen tests.

2:30-2:45 second screen tests will be perused by Dickie Jones and helpers. Your cast will then be assigned a final screen test.

2:45-3:00 Directors will get their casts ready for the final screen test of the day.
3:00-4:30 final screen test – results of the final screen test will be added to days proceedings.

4:50 – the winning Director will be announced and prizes will be handed out.

5:00 onwards – wind down … More games can be played, beverages consumed, money spent etc until everyone decides to go home. A day well spent!

SIDE EVENTS:

The participation game for the TV7 Live and Let Dice game will be from 10:00 to 11:30 also, the board will be the location for the show down between the top two directors going into the last screen test in the afternoon! This will be written up for the Summer Special.

The event will be photographed and written up for one of the major magazines.

Kevin Dallimore is playing but he may also have some of his books to sell at the event as well.

There will be a few tables available (with a minion or two to keep their eyes on it if needed) to plonk any goods you want to sell that you think people may be interested in. Like a Bring and Buy without the hassle but with a limited audience I suppose. Again spread the word on this one too.

People will be able to gain admission to peruse and buy at any part of the day for a small donation to the Club funds so spread the word. Tell people who want to play the demo game of Live and Let Dice to get there for 10 though.

What you need to bring:
You need to bring a couple of copies of your cast list for the day. If you have a Heroic and an Evil cast then you can choose which one is to be used at the last minute but this can't be changed during the day unless authorised by Dickie Jones. Exceptional circumstances like your stars all having a hissy fit and going home (it might happen with the campaign system) may allow the other cast to be substituted (after we all stop laughting).

Optional (but handy) – a decent bit or two of terrain, suitable for the day. Either country or urban you will get chance to use it on your tables during the day.

Prizes – if playing for the glory is not enough, then there will be the following prizes on offer.
Prizes and maybe even certificates for:
Best Director on the Day (with highest ratings after 3 matches)
Best Make Up and Costume award (for the 28mm casts obviously, not the players!)
Best One Liner of the day during the game.
Best ‘Back from the jaws of death' victory.

Spread the word

7TV day finalised ...

2011-05-14T03:56:00.000-07:00

7TV are spending the day on location in Enfield (North London, England) on the 4th of June 2011.

Directors are invited to bring their casts along for the shoot which will be attended by Crooked Dice top executives - this is your opportunity to maybe snag your own show!

7TV producers are also on hand to do a series of informal chat sessions with would be Directors, while the props people will be selling off new and old props for your shows.
Obviously participation and onlooking space on location is limited so please book your space with Rich Jones.

Please join Surfshack Productions, Crooked Dice and Ainsty Castings for a day of 7TV fun and mayhem in North London.

There is something for everyone:

3 episode/match Campaign (using the new Summer Special campaign rules to run a series of games).
Newbie sessions with one half of the Crooked Dice team on cast creation and introduction games.
Prizes and certificates for: Best Director on the Day (with highest ratings after 3 matches) - with one of their episodes featured in the Summer Special
Best Make Up and Costume award (for the 28mm casts obviously, not the players!)
7TV's award winning Salute game for people to wonder at AND get to play.
Crooked Dice and Ainsty goodies on sale, plus a chance to sell your own stuff in an informal Bring and Buy

The day will start at 10am and finish formally at about 4:30 with some people staying on for more gaming and food.

Location - Ponders End United Reform Church Hall - with various rooms, one main hall, kitchen for cups of tea and essential facilities when the excitement hits - we may also provide a sofa to hide behind.

Price to enter the campaign £5 for the day.
Price to peruse and chance to participate in the Newbie sessions £2
Informal Bring & Buy (donation of some of proceeds to Enfield Gamers)

To book your place or indicate a show of interest (although in this case we can't guarantee a space on the day) please contact:

Rich Jones
noserider@btinternet.com
Tag Email - Campaign Day 7TV
To keep up with info use the Crooked Dice Forums or see
http://surfshackgames.blogspot.com/

7TV casting auditions

2011-05-12T08:22:00.000-07:00

Breaking News - Surf Shack Productions and Crooked Dice bring a day of gaming 7TV style to Enfield ...
Featuring their award winning Salute game and a day of linked episodes to find the best cast and producer of the day ... Be there or be square Baby!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone : sad ne?

Sneak Preview ...

2011-05-08T08:06:00.000-07:00

Coming your way soon ...

Mrs Whitehouse strikes - game two in the 7TV not really Stargate campaign

2011-05-05T06:18:00.000-07:00

“Hey Fred, chuck us out that prop bag that the new show, you know snake or worm hole whatever it is needs will ya.”

“Which one is it Bert, there's a ton of 'em back here?”
“I dunno, closest one 'll do, they never bleedin' well use 'em anyway”

Welcome to game two in the ongoing Wormhole X-treme show using the excellent new 7TV rules. As a re-cap (Previously on WO-1, said in a deep meaningful voice) the viewer will remember that episode one finished with WO-1 limping back through the Star-portal with an Asgardian in tow and a badly injured cast member (Grell) and the star, Danning, looking a bit worse for wear. The Na'vl had trooped off (or ran away depending on which TV guide you buy) with a super computer and a badly wounded Prime Noomba (good job he has a Ga'old inside him to help him get 'better'). Both sides found they had access to the knowledge of where an ancient outpost containing a coveted Y.O.N. (a small but extremely powerful energy source for powering ancient artifacts) was. Both casts were sent into the next episode expecting to find it. The scenario was lifted from the rule book campaign, second game. Instead of a Village there was an overgrown Ancients outpost but everything else was kept the same.

Don't forget to check out the previous post for game one which sets the scene for this game. For those not in the know, Mary Whitehouse was a busy body who championed to keep anything more scary and violent than boiling an egg off our tellies when I was a lad – not that I am biased in any way of course!
Newsflash – 7TV news has just been informed that Wormhole X-treme has been awarded a prestigious award (a BENNY) at the industry awards. This came for 'best new intimating baddie in British TV show' and is very well deserved. On a more mundane note the first episode of the show was slated by Mary Whitehouse as being too violent. She has made a formal complaint and the new chairman of the new TV watchdog have agreed to watch and monitor the violence in the programme this coming week …

Both the above events happened as part of the campaign system that I am playtesting for the 7TV summer special supplement … and damn good fun they are too!

Letter from Mary Whitehouse to the head of programmes at 7TV and the chairman of the TV watchdog committee about the second episode:

Dear Sir,

It was with despair that I sat and watched tonight's episode of the new abomination from 7TV – Wormhole X-treme. After writing to them last week I expected to see them at least try and cut down on the fighting and shooting … But it appeared I am just an inconvenience to the TV company as this week's episode didn't appear to try and curb the violence on screen at all.

Firstly I thought my complaints had been heeded as both sides seem to creep about the overgrown set without firing a shot. However, to my disgust this soon changed as the grotesque aliens (which this week appeared even more scary, dressed head to toe in metallic blue) opened fire on the human beings. The so called HERO, obviously a potential role model to our nation of young boys watching, then viciously gunned a number of them down from close range. The graphic detail at one point was particularly disturbing, especially as at that point I was eating a toasted crumpet with strawberry jam. Also I am sure one of the actors mouthed an obscenity when pulling out the snorkel and fins from the rucsac, I am not even sure what scuba gear had to do with the plot!

Game wise – WO-1 started in the middle of the board with the Ga'old side all around the edges. The Na'vl now had a 'leader', one normal Na'vl had been upgraded using the campaign mechanism in playtest. This was to make a huge difference as it meant an extra two activations for the Ga'old each turn. The tokens were spread out with one of them being the power source they were after. These ended up on the gantries and inside various bits of machinery, we deemed it required an intelligence test to open the machinery.

The Na'vl got the initiative but couln't see WO-1 as they now all had the concealment attribute! Now Steve the Ga'old director, thought he has this covered as he had spent his think tank points on buying the infa red sights for his Prime’s staff weapon …Unfortunately for him in the prologue section I played an event card called ‘Equipment mix up’ which meant the wrong prop had been sent and instead of a useful and deadly gadget he ended up randomly swapping his only one for some scuba gear (the prop man was obviously wearing a red shirt and wouldn’t be back next week). So he had them close in and start searching. WO-1 crept about, Dr Levant getting to one of the tokens (it looked interesting but wasn't the power source). Grell used his strength to pull himself up the gantries but this left him exposed. Turn 2 saw the Na'vl win the initiative again and Grell and the Dr were shot at, Levant taking an early wound! WO-1 retaliated with Danning taking down a Na'vl with one burst all hitting and the damage rolls all being high (the bit Mrs Whitehouse obviously took offence with). The Na'vl were all closing in though.

This blatant violence just continued with no real dialogue or cerebral activity needed on the part of the viewer. At one point two new aliens just appeared behind one of the poor humans, who was oozing tomato sauce all over my screen already (thank goodness I have not succumbed to the evil radiation of a colour TV set). This was obviously intended to just provide a gory bit, luckily, or I would have been marching to the studios that second, the human somehow managed to end up on the top of the gantry. Meanwhile the only female, (although to my mind running around with a machine gun and hanging off the uniform of the hero all the time, is hardly a good female role model, I mean she doesn't even cook or clean anything all episode!) on the show climbs up the rusting metal structure being chased by two aliens. The hero does nothing but continue shooting the aliens down. Possibly even more shooting so far – how dare they!

Game wise – With Grell in an exposed position, Na’vl all around and a wounded Dr. Levant is was imperative that the WAT director got the initiative – thank goodness for the ‘Seize the Moment’ special event card which gave it to me. Very smugly I moved Levant onto a token and into cover, taking 2 Na’vl down and out … a very good move indeed I thought. But then the fun of the event and gadget cards is a huge part of the 7TV experience and now I was at the receiving end of it. Steve, the Ga’old director used his turn to play the reinforcement event card and placed some Na’vl out of action figures back into play on the table – RIGHT BEHIND Dr Levant’s hiding place! Being within 6” (2xtheir Intelligence) they were able to see him cowering in the bushes and were the recipients of 2 activation tokens … GULP. This turn saw a lot of the mechanics which give the game such flavour …I used Levant’s one Heroic Surge action (always a good buy for Star/Co-stars in my opinion) to interrupt and use a gadget  Translating the grappling gun as being some sort of ancient technology beam I whizzed him to the safety of the top gantry where I knew it would be unlucky for him to take a hit. However, Munroe was not in a good position, I had had her move up the gantries after a token, but she was now trapped between Prime Noomba and another Na’vl, she had used her ‘heroic surge’ to interrupt the movement of the Na’vl with a well timed burst – only to have it negated by Steve playing the Astonishing Accuracy card which made her miss… Another Na’vl had started the long climb up the tower towards one of the last remaining tokens.

At this point in the programme I was personally at a loss to see how it could get more disgusting … The writers of this filth were to prove me sadly mistaken! Not only did the shooting continue but two of the Aliens actually slapped the woman on the show, knocking her to floor, tied her up and then THREW her off the gantry to be rough handled by the aliens below!

Game wise – WO-1’s director won the initiative, but being spread out was down to 2 activation tokens. However, with Munroe technically being within 6” of Danning and being his gorgeous side-kick meant she could activate as well which was lucky. SO Grell activated and turned over a token and it was the power source item … he picked it up and moved to cover at the top of the gantry … now they just had to get it off the table. Meanwhile Danning used some climbing devices (gadget) to scale the tower and still be able to shoot the Na’vl at the top who had persevered and who had just got to the top, his descent was far quicker! All going well I thought, surely Munroe with her fists of fury would see off at least one of her attackers … oops wrong, a well timed event card from Steve saw her failing to activate. The Ga’old wasted no time, one of them managing to stun her and then Prime Noomba hog tying her and then throwing her over the side to two Na’vl who were waiting at the bottom. We decided with two of them there it would be a strength test with +1 because of the assist! They caught her and were 10” away from the edge of the table! The Prime just, yet again, managed to make a ¾ force morale test …

It was obviously at this point that the director remembered about my public rant as the human side appeared to stop shooting at the aliens as they led the woman off. I hate to think what they will have planned for her. As the end credits came down I immediately sat down in a rage to write this letter. I demand you do something about this show before I have to go to the PM (who is a close friend) about the matter. I will not stand by and see the moral fabric of our society eroded by shows like this!
Yours in disgust,
Mrs M. Whitehouse

Game wise – As they were about to go off with Munroe the three WO-1 members were all at the top of the gantry looking down. It was obvious they had to fire and try and slow the Na’vl down, hopefully the ones carrying Munroe … but the curse of the campaign system struck with the Ga’old director remembering that because of the Mary W effect from the campaign system he could specify one turn where WO-1 could not fire … and it was this turn. Off went Munroe with the two Na’vl and then at the end of the turn the rest ran away after finally failing the morale roll.

What a game it had been and perfectly set up the next one – Rescue Munroe where the System Lord will be able to make an appearance and WO-1 will have to enlist a guest star for the episode. Mrs Whitehouse would not like what was in store for Munroe – she will be in line for a Ga’old time – impregnation of the Ga’old lava which will turn her into a baddie for sure – question is will WO-1 be in time to save her?

Here are more shots from the game …

What TV Weekly have to say ....

2011-05-03T16:26:00.000-07:00

Last nights pilot episode of 7TV's new programme promised to be another hit for them. Here at TV Weekly we give you our thoughts:

Episode one (extra long episode) – went to air at 7pm

Wormhole Allied Treaty – WAT – is a secret United States and 'friends' organisation to defend against Alien threat. Wormhole Operatives (WO) work in teams of 4 operatives. WO-1 (Colonel Danning the team leader, and all round hero; Major Stacy Monroe, his gorgeous brainy, but who can handle herself, sidekick; Dr. Levant, the archaeologist, geeky anthropologist who relies on luck to keep him safe and Grell who was once Prime to Apofis, the Ga'old System Lord but joined WO-1 on their fist mission) have been sent to rescue two Asgardians (an ancient Alien race who are very technologically and mentally advanced who have 'befriended' earth) who have crashed on THE planet. They are believed to have survived the crash but be stunned somewhere near to the crash site. It is only the operatives' second mission although in their first mission they acquired Grell as a team member. This is shown by an opening flashback to where Danning, who is the volunteer to test the star-portal arrives on a planet to find Grell grieving over some bodies, his family killed by Apofis to teach Grell the price of making a small mistake. Grell vows to help the humans destroy Apofis. Also it is believed the Ga'old have sent Prime Noomba and a landing party of 12 Na'vl soldiers to search for the Asgardians and any interesting technology they can find.

Game Wise – the game is based on the 'gather' scenario in the rule book but with 9 'item' tokens to be distributed before play (2-6 number, two stunned Asgardians and a gadget card) and the Na'vl deemed to be the defenders. As we were using a table only about 31/2 foot long both 'casts' started off table and entered when activated.

With jungle plants everywhere on set the opening scene saw both 'sides' searching the location for the missing Asgardians. We had already seen a couple of shots of them both lying unconscious, one in some wreckage, one lying unmoving at the base of a tall exotic plant. The Ga'old looked like an imposing enemy as they tramped nazi like amongst the undergrowth, unearthing a few alien type machines on their travels. In contrast our introduction to WO-1 saw them cautiously moving and rummaging in the undergrowth, their stealthy approach making them hard to see. A good long shot over Danning's shoulder to an out of focus Na'vl in the background set the scene nicely. The screen exploded into action as a Na'vl shouted to the Prime (which we presume means a leader) and thrust his arm into the wreckage, then very David Nixon like pulled the limp, small body of the Asgardian alien out. Not 3 yards away another soldier, for the want of a better word, found an intriguing pistol like device. Moving into the ad break was done by a shot of the limp Asgardian being twirled like a rag doll from the point of view of Grell watching on, his eyes narrowing in anger.

Game wise – the opening moves of the game saw two different approaches, the numerical advantage of the Ga'old cast meant that ground was quickly covered to the markers near to their base line. In contrast WO-1 cast members had to keep to cover, making them all hard to target with the longer range staff weapons due to the fact they all had the 'concealment' special effect. By a huge slice f actual luck (not the game kind) the first 4 tokens revealed were the two highest (5&6) tokens, Thora (the main Asgardian scientist character) and the random gadget card. All within 10” of the Ga'old baseline. In contrast smaller numbers and the need for more caution had seen only a 3 token revealed and Monroe on a second. Grell was about half way up the table spying out what was unfolding.

As we cut back from the ad break WO-1 burst into action (well at least the ones we could see on screen). Danning opened fire on two Na'vl who dropped to the floor under the withering fire. Grell burst from the undergrowth issuing a fierce scream and hurtled over the narrow, but fast flowing, stream. He was aided by some sort of retractable firing wire, as he headed towards the retreating Na'vl, who obviously thought the job was done and were about to return to their ship. We didn't find out how the Na'vl got from the ship to the planet or vice versa although TV weekly can reveal that it will be by a type of 'transporter ring' not unlike the brilliant transporter beams used in Star-Trek to such good effect. Anyway back to Grell, he then launched himself up onto the space ship wreckage and shot the Na'vl who was carrying the Asgardian. This last move bought a gasp and then a cheer from the TW staff sitting watching as it looked as if he would hit the Asgardian. Again the excitement mounted as we reached the ad break, Na'vl soldiers surrounding Grell their dangerous glowing staff weapons all pointing straight at him.

Game wise – Things were not going well for WO-1 the Ga'old player seemingly had it in the bag as all he had to do was activate and walk of the table edge with most of the points, the important Asgardian and an impressive looking gadget all looking like a good VP total. But winning the activation there was nothing else for it as the WAT player (me in this instance) used all the tricks in the book to get Grell up the table after a good piece of shooting removed to potential blockers out of the way. Firstly there was the grappling hook gun gadget which was used to enable an heroic leap getting an additional 6”, thus moving him 12” over the stream. An heroic leap then saw the figure get onto the top of the wreckage with an action to shoot at the Na'vl holding Thora. The shot hit and when we tested who it hit it was THORA – so using a luck roll to re-roll Grell then managed to drill the N'a'vl instead.

Seeing the staff weapons all trained on him Grell leaped at the nearest Na'vl knocking him out the way before swooping down to pick Thora up. Running away he stopped barely long enough to drill another Na'vl with his staff weapon. At TW this is how we like our heroes!

Suddenly Grell was surrounded by staff weapon blasts, five in all looked like they hit, only for the smoke to dissipate, revealing Grell's smoking body armour he was wearing under his green army issue vest. Meanwhile Danning was moving from cover to cover, shooting in-between times to make himself hard to pinpoint with fire. Na'vl were dropping like flies, showing that although very scary looking, like any good evil minion on 7TV, they can't hit the proverbial barn door and the impressive looking armour doesn't do a lot. While there was not a red shirt in sight I did see one of them wearing a red sash go down far too easy, looking as if he was completely covered by a rock before going down to a ricochet from Danning's burst – red shirts!

Game wise – The WO director luckily got the initiative roll and a few Audience Appreciation rolls thrown in … he quickly used them to get Grell to get to Thora. This involved some decent game play tactics as his route was blocked … but a leap into the nearest Na'vl to push him away and off the wreckage which caused a stun and opened up a gap. Grabbing the stunned Thora for an action a Heroic Surge move him away … An added bonus at the end of the turn saw Thora become unstunned. The Ga'old director kept hitting for a change but Grell's character rolled a LOT of 5 and 6's - his body armour working well.

Just before the a break Grell took off for the river, the Na'vl in hot pursuit, only to run into a hail of bullets from Danning. The action finished with Monroe starting up the Star-portal. What a period of action and it's bound to pull people into watching next week.

The Prime and a couple of Na'vl rushed over and started shooting at Grell and this time it hurt, reeling back he seemed to recover just in time to see the small Asgardian take on the torrent of the deep stream. She slipped and the water swept her away, she appeared to just grab a rock to avoid disaster… Colonel Danning at this point managed to down another Na'vl … It looked as if they might havc had enough , the director cutting to a close shot of the nervous look on the face of a Na'vl. But a yell from the Prime kept him firing; more scared of the Prime than of death, another insight into the character of the Prime we are all bound to see more of next time!

Game wise – ups and downs for the WO director this turn as Grell survived another torrent of shots but this time taking a wound. Thor failed the agility test needed to keep her footing in the fast moving water and got swept away 1d6 inch – luckily only a 1 was thrown. The portal got closer to opening and the end of the turn saw the Ga'old director JUST passing a 50% morale roll.

The next bit of action convinced us that the producers were not afraid of letting the 'evil' characters come within an inch of victory. Grell made a rush for Thora and managed to pull her to safety at the side of the stream, Danning failed to keep the Na'vl at bay and the Wormhole exploded out the star portal. What an effect this was and it seemed like our new heroes would be fine. BUT suddenly a big staff weapon blast downed Grell, Thora then falling to a second blast from the Na'vl standing on the bank. Ads appeared and we couldn't even leave the sofa to make a cuppa as we were all chatting over the action.

Game wise – Oh my goodness it didn't go well for the WO director as both Grell and Thora falling to some lucky shooting. The tide turned again with both players low on event cards and luck, the Ga'old side are relying on good morale rolls to survive. The WAT player now having to go and get Grell before they escape through the star-portal, 'leave no man behind'.

Just when we thought that WO-1 were finished Danning makes a break for Grell, grabs him and pulls him towards the portal. Meanwhile Dr Levant carried the other Asgardian through the portal letting us see the dazzling effects as they seemed to walk into the vertical water.

Monroe took down another Na'vl, the remaining few now looked very shaky to say the least. The Prime was still up for it however and firstly hit Danning with a shot before rushing into combat with Munroe. It was obviously going to go down to the end credits.

Game wise – Danning hit, Munroe in combat but hardly any fight left in the Na'vl it could still go either way. Another superb morale roll kept the baddies in there – JUST. Levant escaping through the portal had its moments. A heroic surge meant he just had enough movement to make it. BUT the Ga'old player used the dodgy prop event moving the portal back 2" leaving him having to face a turn of long range fire - luckily they all missed!

Munroe moved away as the director used as long wide shot to show the Prime left stranded as Munroe opened up. The remaining Na'vl took flight and the show ended with the two WO-1 members carrying Grell through the portal … As the wormhole closed the end credits rolled leaving us with a healthy debate as to who actually came off the best, but in no doubt as to if there was another date with the sofa in a weeks time.

Game wise – managing to get the initiative the WAT director finished the game off when the Prime hit the deck. The other Na'vl were in no position to effect the game that move and failed the morale roll now the Prime's morale value was not used. It was a close close game and this was shown in the victory points where the WO side won but at a high price.

Another fantastic game and the rules worked extremely well in the SG setting … we also tested the new campaign rules out … can't give anything away obviously but it made the post game as much fun as the game and the outcome was Grell and the Prime were written out the series, Dr Levant threw a strop about how much action he had and the writers took revenge in the next episode!

NEW ON 7-TV THIS MONDAY - WORMHOLE X-TREME

2011-05-01T13:40:00.000-07:00

New this Monday at 7:30, in colour, on 7TV :

WORMHOLE X-TREME

Asgardian Rescue on Px-7-7-4

by Rich Jones

Follow the exploits of Colonel Danning of the ultra Secret UN organisation Wormhole Allied Treaty

and his highly trained team of operatives known as WO-1 (Wormhole Operatives 1).

After years of studying the Wormhole portal, found in an archaeological dig, to no avail W.A.T. was contacted by a race of Aliens known as the Asgardians who told them how to operate the portal. Before being able to test how it works W.A.T is contacted by the Asgardians with a request to help recover two of their pilots who have crashed on as planet known as Px-7-7-4. W.A.T have the co-ordinates needed to program the portal and are off on a rescue mission.

The only trouble is the Asgardians have warned the Ga'ould,

a race of Aliens who want to conquer the Universe is also likely to be trying to capture one of the downed pilots called Thora as she is one of the Asgardians main scientists!

The Location shot :

TH GAME - or pass the shark food Bolo!

2011-04-25T16:07:00.000-07:00

Preamble for those readers who can't remember TV without video recorders, Sky/Virgin Plus, Iplayer, replay, downloads or any of the other ways we can now watch what we missed. It wasn't always like this, once we only had a few channels, once we had NO repeats and once if you didn't make sure you were home you had to have a friend tell you what happened. Not on MSM, Twitter, Facebook etc but face to face in the playground in the 5 minutes before school started … it went something like this:

'Jonsey' glanced around to see 'Woody' hurtling across the playground.

“Well, did you watch it?”

“No … The bus was late so we didn't get back from me Grans in time.”

“It was rad, want me to tell you what happened? It's frothy mannnnn”

Smacking Woody around the head Jonesy implored,

“Course I do, spill the beans ...”

“Well, you remember that dumb red head who got captured last episode, well this one starts with her on a conveyor belt heading towards a buzz saw … Mum says it serves her right, Dad just said he hoped she escapes. Anyway Stevo had these Japanese commando types called Ninja or somethin' with him and they had to get into Dr Iya's secret lair and save London and the Tamara woman … You should have seen this little helicopter thing he had ...”

Make sure you check out the scenario objectives and special rules in the previous post.

Steve hovered above the gap to the base, the ninja were about to rope in, he picked out his landing zone. Below he could see the technicians starting up the laser gun and rotating the platform. Steve realised they didn't have much time, and where was Tamara? The guards could hear the gyrocopter and were rushing to get a bead on him. The ninja wasted no time as they flew down the ropes and seemed to melt into the background.

Game wise – After picking their gadgets and dealing out the event cards the evil producer won the initiative and used it to get 5 of his guards in position and to crank up the laser and get it aligned. Both rolls were successful and 8 was added to the 'warm up' pool and the laser rotated a fifth of the way. The ninja who activated all chose the fast option and although 2 had a dodgy fast rope non were injured and all ended up in cover which meant they could use their concealment special effects. The director chose to land Steve on the bigger landing pad and get out … playing it safe.

He'd been watching the little helicopter swooping down onto the helipad, he ran across the walkway towards the enemy agent. He could see the other guards getting into position but no one seemed to be able to get a good fire line on the agent. The two technicians were busily working on their tasks soon the laser would be fired and the world would take D.U.D. seriously. Unseen to any of the guards the ninja stealthily moved into position to pounce. Suddenly he felt a thud in his shoulder, he spun around and lost his footing, falling to the floor below.

Without even breaking stride Steve pointed his other arm, the arm which had N's new fangled firing zip line built into his jacket. Thin wire followed the dart as it hissed across the gap embedding itself into the gantry opposite. Taking a leap of faith Steve jumped, as he was plummeting to the ground the retracting wire sent him in an arc … Straight for the guard who just stood their mouth agog. Steve tripped the secret dagger, built into his shoe, striking for the guard, narrowly missing. However, the momentum of Steve's swing knocked the guard down, his head crashed into the gantry and he slid to the floor.

Game wise – The evil director won the initiative, the ninja couldn't be targeted as they were all too far away (being concealed the guard needed to be 6” away to see them and not being within 12” they couldn't make it and shoot, so he decided to get them in better positions for next move) and no line of sight could be drawn from ground level to the Steve figure. Worse still for the director the warm up the laser roll only added 5 towards the 20 total needed and the other technician failed his intel roll to figure out the co-ordinates, so the laser didn't move. The good director went to town with his Star. Using his heroic action to shoot the guard running over the walkway (who then failed an agility roll an fell off the walkway), he then used a gadget (the grappling gun) to swing down on the guard and another to use a shoe knife (which actually failed) before hitting him so hard he was stunned anyway. However this had used up a couple of gadgets and a luck reroll. The ninja moved into position to strike at the technician guarding the laser control panel and start trying to depower it.

Ignoring the 'splat' behind him the technician watched as the power surged into the laser beam weapon. The turntable moved slowly towards its final position. Guards were running everywhere as Steve ran across a gantry shooting one guard and nearing the technician on the control panel. One guard spotted a shadow near to a stalagmite move and gave a burst of his SMG. A black clad figure fell out of the shadows. On the turntable the shadows seemed to burst into life as ninja close into the tough nut on the control panel. He fights for his life …

In the prison cell Tamara couldn't understand why the machine was not on yet but it had given her time to loosen the bonds holding her to the conveyor belt.

Game wise – Again the initiative fell to the evil director who again succeeded in getting the laser closer to being able to fire – it was up to 28 points (needing only 20) and only needed to be aligned . He held off activating the buzz saw as he wanted to capture Steve and make him witness it … going for maximum victory points. A couple of guards fired at Steve but either missed or failed to damage him. One guard using an audience appreciation bonus did take down one of the ninja The Good director again relied on Steve to do the heroic stuff with the aid of heroic actions, luck rolls (he had used an event card to boost the amount of luck) and Audience Appreciation points. Having the snap fire skill was proving handy as even at -1 to hit he was doing OK. To cap his good feeling off Tamara managed to throw her captured status at the end of the turn!

In state of near panic a guard sprayed the ninja in front of him even though the tough technician was still fighting them; the bullets seemed to hit but must have gone high as the ninja leader seemed to laugh at the guard's attempt. But another guard got the idea and followed suit … two figures dropped, unfortunately one of them was the technician!

With Steve bearing down upon him the technician on the main control section continued trying to align the laser beam – it was almost there now. However, he also had a couple of tricks up his sleeve and in his collar. Green vapour spread out from him as a mask slipped over his nose. Steve coughed but seemed to be OK as he decided to speed past the technician (not before shooting him mind you) and barrel into the guard at the far end of the platform, near to where Bolo (Iya's right hand heavy man) stood menacingly stroking the back of his sword, seemingly waiting for Steve to get within reach. The uninjured ninja closest to the laser control panel frantically tried to shut the weapon down but to no avail as the generator seemed only to shriek louder.

Tamara dispatched the goon who was trying to turn her into a pack of bacon and stealthily slipped out of the room into the main area ...

Game wise – in an action packed turn the evil director got the initiative yet again. The technician was the recipient of a couple of gadgets and the game would have been very different if the KO gas had taken Steve out … Luckily for the good director it failed (just). As it was the technician used his second action to get the laser within 1 turn of being able to be fired. Unfortunately for him however Steve stunned him on his way past to try and get to Iya.

The ninja leader had been taken out but survived by the timely intervention of an event card. Only to be hit randomly by the next burst which saw a bit of 'friendly fire' take out the tough technician as well! The surviving ninja could not make the necessary intel roll to deactivate the warming up process though!

Steve had hurtled through a guard and looked to face Bolo on the next move.

As Steve was dodging some flying lead which made mincemeat of a close by control panel Bolo marched over and kung fu kicked him in head with a double spinning kick – Steve hit the floor like the proverbial sack of spuds. Bolo grabbed his shoulders and dragged him towards the shark tank … It appeared to be feeing time. The technician remained on the floor however and other guards seemed to be hitting the floor all around as lead and star shaped 'shaken' (commonly called erroneously shuriken) flew all around. Tamara and a ninja battled their way through towards the steps. D.U.D. operatives seemed to be thinking of making a b-line for the nearest exit until the shrieking, maniacal voice of Iya commanded them, over loud speakers, to fight on!

Game wise – Having narrowly missed with a guard shooting Steve the evil director sent in Bolo who stunned him and dragged him to the shark tank. In fact he recovered at the end of the turn only to see the evil director win initiative and stun him again! In the couple of rounds the above action incorporates the evil Director had to make a couple of morale rolls – each successfully and even managed to get a couple of stunned mullets back into the game. However, the important one, the technician who could have finished the weapon alignment remained down.

SPLASHHhhhhh Steve hit the water and the shark seemingly exclaimed, if animals could talk that is, that it was about bloody time, he was starving. The ninja reaching the top of the steps hurled a couple of shaken at Bolo, one sticking deeply in his shoulder, causing even the tough man to let out a cry of pain. Tamara and another ninja fought their way passed a couple of guards who had pulled themselves to their feet … this time there was no coming back one felt.

Steve quickly, as one can imagine, swam to the walkway and pulled himself up, drawing his pistol (thanking N for the waterproof weapon) and shooing Bolo, the big man dropping to the floor.

Frantically on the turn table the ninja managed to figure the controls out and switched the generator off. Things were not going well for the forces of evil.

Game wise – the good director was fortunate to activate Steve before Bolo got to go onto the walkway and make his exit from the pool harder. Also shutting down the generator was timely as the power decreased by 10 taking it back to 25 (still enough to fire but the evil forces couldn't get to the alignment panel and the technician was still stunned). Bolo going down was a blow and it left Steve with nothing between him an Iya except a bit of furniture.

Steve strolled up to Iya, trying to convince him to give himself up as all was lost. Suddenly however Iya was not there, Steve looked around in disbelief.

Iya smirked, the invisibility shield never let him down and he moved swiftly towards the control panel and keyed in the final alignment … He only had to hit the button and victory would be his … Bwraaaa haaa haaa … He slammed his hand down on the button … But wait nothing happened, he turned to see the generator had turned green again … not enough power … Blast that Steve... he vowed to return an then slipped away invisible into the background.

Game wise – it went down to the wire, with Iya invisible it looked as if the evil director had managed to pull it out the bag. Indeed he would have if he had won the final activation as the laser still had enough power. However, failing it the reactor lost enough points to take it below 20 and Iya slipped out to fight another day.

An excellent game and my mate Shaun who was new to the rules managed to save the world and have a great time doing it!

Random images from the game

The Plot ...

2011-04-25T03:48:00.001-07:00

YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE – unless you are a 7TV star!

Scenario:
With Tamara captured and about to go through the bacon slicer, Professeor Wheals about to destroy London and not being able to understand the clean shirt vending machine, Steve faced a moral dilemma like the ones in a Year 12 RE lesson – do you save the girl and get immense amount of Brownie points or save London …Mmmmmm, maybe there is just time to do both!

Location and set up:

Master criminals lair – should have the usual dastardly, megalomaniac features:

Huge world map (to see how much one has destroyed/taken over Check.
Shark or other nasties tank (ready for goodie goodie agent to fall in) Check
Captured goodie goodie about to get sliced Check
Big super laser thingy to destroy cities with (that needs 'warming up') Check
Loads of exciting walk ways and scenery to hide behind. Check

How to tell one has won:

Stopping the super laser from destroying London 5VP

Firing the super laser and destroying London 5VP

Rescuing Tamara from the slicer 5VP

Slicing Tamara 2VP

Slicing Tamara while Steve can see 5VP

Plus all normal stuff!

Special rules for the scenario:

Gyrocopter

Advanced, flyer, infiltrator; moves 16” when airborne.

Needs two actions to activate and 'crank up' before it can take off.

Avoiding obstacles, flying under walk ways etc requires a pilot agility roll or it catches the rotors. In this case it is an intelligence roll to put the gryo down safely but this is worked out as an out of control vehicle (P42). If crashed then the pilot takes appropriate damage as per rules (p42).

To put down the copter on a pad which is smaller than the rotor span is an agility roll. If failed the pilot will hesitate and not put down.

Ninjas in the air – fast roping insertion

The Ninja all abseil/fast rope down from the edges of the volcano/air vents etc.

This must be done on the edges of the board, they can choose their 'base' edge or up to half way up either flank.

They can choose sensible speed which requires no roll but 2 actions to reach the bottom of the rope OR fast rope it. In this case the ninja needs to make an agility roll to avoid taking a 'one level' fall damage roll. However, getting to the bottom by this method only takes 1 action.

Blowing up London

Firing the laser is a two task job if it is to be successful. Firstly the laser must be warmed up (worse than waiting for the telly to warm up) and set to fire. This is done from the firing platform control panel. Two actions are needed to crank it up and then every evil producers turn from then on roll 2d6. The laser is then ready to fire when the total is 20 or more. If more the total can be subtracted if a 'good' character is at the control panel. In this way it can be switched off before it has fired.

The laser must be in the right position to 'bounce it off the satellite and onto London (Houses of parliament, Buckingham Palace and Wembley are the prime targets). In order to do this the platform must be aligned using the control panel in front of the world map. For every turn a character spends at one of the panels and makes an intelligence test roll the platform can be rotated by 1” until it has moved to the opposite side – 5” away (this is easy on my table as it rotates – alternatively just count down from 5 to 0). Once on target the evil mastermind can press the big red button on his desk to fire!

Slicing and dicing

Tamara is bound to the conveyor belt – once it is switched on at the control panel (requiring 2 actions) the conveyor belt, which is moving slowly to increase the tension of course, takes 5 moves to deliver the captive to the blade. Of course Tamara can check each move to see if she can escape. The saw can be blocked by jamming something metal in there, this takes one action and a strength test pass. Once jammed it may release at the end of the turn using 1d status roll. Getting Tamara free from her shackles is a special action needing an intelligence roll.

If the unthinkable happens and she is delivered to the blades she takes 3 Strength 5 hits – if she survives it is presumed she managed to wiggle mostly to safety etc she will however count as being stunned.

Feeding time

Ending up in the shark tank can happen in one of four ways:

A very unlucky landing.

Falling in when wounded.

Falling in when trying to run across (must make an agility test if moving across using 2 move actions in turn.

Being thrown in!

Once in there the sharks no what to do … it takes 1d3 turns for them to size up which bit of sashimi they want first. After that they will attack … Hits 1 Defence 4 Strength 4.

Until that time it is suggested the figure gets out of there! This is a special acton with an agility test to pull themselves out! If there is someone on the walkway stomping on the figures fingers it is n opposed agility roll!

The Lair ...

2011-04-24T12:16:00.000-07:00

already for the next episode, made from various bits and pieces and some scenery Ian made for necromunda.
The shark tank leads to the evil mastermind's office which is over the cells with mandatory circular saw and conveyor belt:
Will let you know how it goes :)

7TV test game ...

2011-04-21T15:16:00.000-07:00

The following was a test game for the latest set of rules I promised not to buy into at Salute - but couldn't resist.

It was a throw together game quickly set up on my coffee table with … aghast … unpainted figures, SO please excuse me!

NEW ON 7TV TONIGHT … Down dog, down!

Follow the exploits of the agents from the 'Counter Revolution Agency Premier Strike-force'. Tonight Agent Stephen Fasey and his faithful, and beautiful, partner Agent Tamara Spead infiltrate a warehouse complex believed to house a top secret lab belonging to the Desiring Universal Domination group. It is believed they could find intelligence about the where about of Dr. Li's hide out where the reported super laser is being constructed.

“Quick Dad turn the telly on!”

“Hope this one isn't going to be scary,” implored Mum, already eyeing up the route to the rear of the sofa.

“Isn't this one the new one with that red headed lass in her 'romper' suit?” enquired Dad settling down with a wry smile and a cup of tea while the telly 'warmed up'. Young Richard just watched on in anticipation while the intro came on. Tomorrow would see the episode replayed in the playground, but today was just about watching and dreaming …

Driving along, sun shining onto them, Steve and Susan passed the barbed wire perimeter of the warehouse complex. Steve checked his rear mirror, the dark green land-rover keeping a few hundred yards away, he smiled at Sue,

“Here we go then ...”

Stretching his arms the Security Guard at the gate, glance over at the sight of the beach buggy coming towards him. Raising his eyebrows at the 'youth of today' he smiled as the engine began to make a choking noise.

“Silly buggars have run out of petrol, serves them right,” he said out loud to himself as the buggy chugged to halt just in front of the gates. His attention somewhat distracted by the leggy red head getting out the buggy he failed to notice the green land-rover pull over behind the line of trees. More out of jealousy than actual inconvenience the guard growled at the blonde young man swinging out the buggy an coming towards him.

“Hey, you can't leave that thing there, you'll have to push it down the road a bit ...”

“Sorry old chap, we seem to have run out of petrol, have you seen this house around here anywhere, we seem to be lost.?”

That would be right, posh twerps, the guard thought to himself. He craned forward to look at the card being held up for him. Funny it seemed to be a black spiral, wait now it's moving around spinning …

AD BREAK - “Mary, be a love and go and put the kettle on ...”

“What did your last servant die of?” came the reply.

“A broken heart”, murmured Dad, images of Tam Spead still burnt in his retinas.

Game wise our intrepid duo started the game in the buggy next to the gate. Winning the initiative they got out and used on action to walk to the guard. The 'good' director then rolled an opposed intelligence roll to try and hypnotise the guard … it worked!

In the 'evil' directors turn he had lost the use of the hypnotised guard and the other guard, who was a dog handler was patrolling the grounds, the scenario deeming that this would be a random movement until he had cause to head in a specific direction. The rest of the evil cast were in their underground barracks until the alarm was raised. Unfortunately for the director the movement kept him out of sight of the front gate. Onto turn 2.

Treating them like long lost friends the hypnotised guard led them towards the door of warehouse 1 the one containing, as he so readily informed them,

“The secret room where all them things go on.”

Keeping close to the available cover the 3 C.R.A.P.S field operators slinked through the gate, ducking for cover as the dog handler came around the corner of the warehouse, our agents and their guard in front of him … The dog seemingly seeing dinner just being delivered.

Game wise turn two began with the agents winning initiative yet again. The Guard had failed to remove his status in the end of turn phase and remained hypnotised. If they had not had the guard to lead the way the agents would have had to have searched each warehouse in turn to try an find the 'lab'. As it was they were having it easy, until the guard with the dog appeared around the corner. Their random movement had taken them into view!

“Fred, meet my new friends here, just showing them around...”

Now Fred actually thought this was a bit strange, but then Bill always struck him as a bit strange in his choice of friends. But 'Bully', the dog, wasn't having any of it, he knew a bad 'un when he smelt it, and started straining at the leash. Fred pulled him back,

“Steady boy, steady, SiiT,” he implored imitating that woman off the telly.

Bill walked forward towards Fred, Steve took out his pistol and took aim, squeezing the trigger. Fred dropped to the ground. Bully wasn't a happy dog, he'd been right about the strangers and now even that familiar human seemed to be against his owner, and he had vague canine memory about being kicked as he had been eyeing up fallen battered sausage! The dog made a b-line for the guards mid section. It was all Bill could do to hold off the snarling dog!

Game wise – Winning the activation yet again (well I suppose it was the pilot episode, they ha to o well) the agent' director used some sense. Knowing things could go pear shaped he moved the hypnotised guard closer to the dog so he became the closest target if the dog got free. The best shot (Agent Steve) then took an aim action to make sure of hitting (in fact he had to use a couple of audience appreciation points). This released the guard dog, who did indeed go for the closest target but failed to make the attacks pay off.

Bully was determined to say the least but finally went down at the second shot,as Bill managed to pull his pistol. Meanwhile Steve and Tam opened the warehouse door.

“Wait, don't go any further ...” Steve held out his arm but Tamara pushed past him as she saw the steel door on the side wall.

AD BREAK - “That lass is stupid, she should listen to Steve, any one with any sense would have known there would be a laser beam across there.” exclaimed Mum.

“Awww give her a break lass, she can't have brains and looks; Richard lad put that banana down now AND stop trying to shoot the cat!”

Game wise – The dog threat was quickly neutralised even if for the first time the Agents had lost the initiative. The director then sent Steve and Tamara through the door. There was a good chance of seeing the beam across the room and the scenario decreed any figures should roll an intelligence test to stop in time … Tamara failed and walked through the beam.

Lights started flashing, bells started clanging and worse than anything for the CRAPPS agents the metal grate in the concrete slab in the 'yard' started to slide open. Out from this hole came black, mask clad figures waving swords and other oriental looking weapons. Not waiting for any more of an invitation the Field operatives opened fire on the ninja who were spreading from the hole. The first two fell under withering fire from the 3 operatives and the still hypnotised guard. But more ninja poured out and one made it to contact with the Guard. A mighty cut with the katana sword saw Bill just manage to duck; banging his head on the side of the warehouse. Rubbing his head he cried out, looking like he was seeing the ninja for the first time. He turned to look at the operatives and yelled,

“Stop right there, what's going on?”

Steve and Tam rushed to the door, Steve fiddling with the numerical key pad, it would have been so much easier if it were an old fashioned lock!

Game wise – this turn saw the evil director win the initiative again! Not wasting any time the ninja and the co-star spread our from the hole although a couple went down. Tamara had set off the alarm and now it was a rush against time! The end of turn phase saw the guard discard his status marker at last, maybe the bang on the head cleared the hypnotic state!

Now it was all down to if the ninja could close to contact or if the SMGs of the operatives would prove too strong.

The ninja won the initiative …

Pulling out 'shaken' (the deadly ninja throwing star) the ninja and Bill 'fired' at two operatives, the cover of the warehouse corner saved them. Somersaulting through the air a ninja landed on the crate and swiped at the field operator who narrowly escaped the razor sharp blade. Dixi Mittford (who had been the Dr's Psycho right hand man for a few years now) and the remaining ninja cut off to the right with plans of cutting through the warehouse and behind the C.R.A.P.S. Operatives. When they got there the door appeared jammed, they would have to find another way. Tamara and Steve meanwhile confronted the technician in the lab. Steve tried to hypnotise the technician but failed, the technician pulls out a stun pistol an Steve had to dive out the way. Tamara's front kick to the head soon did what the hypnotic 'attempt couldn't and 'put him under'.

Game wise – the ninjas attacks all failed which was a blow for the evil director. Then as he moved the 'nasty piece of work' and the other ninja to the door to cut behind the agents the good director played an event card and moved the door away! The technician nearly pulled off a surprise as a gadget card was used and the technician shot at Steve; thankfully he had a shocking to hit rating which was bumped up with Audience Appreciation points but the damage roll missed. The same could not be said about Tamara's kick which rolled a 6 then a 6 laying him out.

Outside the building the action was furious as the field operatives managed to down all the visible opposition in a torrent of lead. Dixi and her sidekick finally found a way in rushed to the end of the warehouse hoping to give the operatives a nasty surprise. Tamara searched and searched but couldn't find any clues, Steve however came up trumps as he rummaged through some files and came across the details for particle accelerator at the head 'lair' which some map grid co-ordinates.

“Taraaaaa, let's get out of here baby,” he called to Tamara.

Game wise – The operatives rolled really well and mowed down the ninja, this showed how important the initiative can be. If the evil director had won then the ninja could have closed in to melee where they were more potent. It also illustrates the tactical subtlety of choosing the right 'half to activate first. Steve and Tamara had to make intelligence rolls to try an find the clues, Tamara failed but Steve saved the day. The evil operator managed to get the main co-star and the other minion into a good position … how effective they would be would depend on the initiative roll as if they won then Steve and Tamara could be walking out to find themselves cut off.

Tamara and Steve appear out the door and make double time down the drive way to their buggy,

“Ok chaps let's get cracking back to base!” he proclaimed, his jacket flowing.

The field operatives, who remembered their training, set up one on watch in cover while the others moved down and into cover, classic leap frogging tactics. As the doors clunked open Dixi opened fire on the disappearing down the drive … Bullets zinged around the operatives but the cover save them. The remaining ninja slunk back behind the wall as he saw too many SMGs trained on him.

Game wise – the agents got the initiative and made it all the way back to the buggy while the field operatives covered their escape. The evil producer was unlucky that the smg shots went to pants and then played an event card to move the ninja back when it was obvious he would probably be mowed down.

Jumping into the buggy Steve and Tamara turned on the ignition and shot off down the road with the vital information in tow. One of the operatives opened up on Dixi and took her down.

“GO, go go,” he yelled to the other two ..

They need no other invite to take off down the drive. Enraged by the shooting of his boss the remaining ninja screamed and pounced on the nearest operative, who spun away and down as the sword struck.

Game wise – Again winning the initiative proved very important with it allowing the main two characters to depart to safety while one operator managed to open up and take the main evil one down. Having survived a morale test roll the ninja finally managed to actually hit an cause some damage.

Looking over their shoulder the two operatives hesitated as they heard the scream of their colleague, they looked on with horror as the ninja hurtled the drive and struck out at Number 2. The sword sliced through his uniform and hit the floor, blood spreading across his green uniform.

Game wise – the evil director pulled a swift one by playing an event card which meant the two operatives couldn't activate. They then charged the ninja in who again hit and caused damage … but wait … A counter card was played which gave the operative his hit point back

As the operative hit the floor he realised it was only a flesh wound, the ninja was over him about to give the coupé de grace. He put everything into his kick driving the ninja back. Number 3 guns the ninja down and then goes to help his colleague up … They would soon be back at base.

Game wise – it looked bad for the operatives, but a good use of a card followed by using the push back mechanic to enable the other operative to finish off the game.

All in all it was a good fun introduction to the rules. The mechanics all went down well and we will be playing again soon :)

Random game images ...

Gladiators and Kids Footy ...

2011-03-23T13:14:00.000-07:00

Gladiator campaign kicks off ... even managed to paint some up

http://rsbs-gladiators.blogspot.com/

Also developed a kids version of The Beautiful Game which my class LOVE !!!!!!

Watch this space.

Gladiatorial Obsession Disorder ...

2011-03-16T15:56:00.000-07:00

Red Sand, Blue Sky arrived in my mailbox from Ed a couple of weeks ago. Until then I had no interest in Gladiators at all - definitely would have been a, "No Sir" answer to the pilot on Airplane - "Do you like Gladiators Sonny?"

But all that has now changed with a RSBS campaign about to kick off at the club and a stack of Crusader Gladiators about to hit the doorstep (I hope) ...

Started yet another blog to cover it at:
http://rsbs-gladiators.blogspot.com/

Hammerhead ...Op Squad, Chindits and Daleks!

2011-02-13T12:04:00.000-08:00

Shaun and I had a trip up to Newark today to help out the Warlord lads by showing off the Operation Squad rules ... Saving Private Wood saw a section of British Paras battling to get behind the German lines to bring Pvt Wood home to safety. On their way they came across a German Machine Gun nest dominating an important cross roads. Their mission was to get off the table in 8 turns and would be a bonus to neutralise the LMG nest on the way.

The forces were offset the Paras having a full 500points the Germans just about half of a normal squad, less than 250 points. The idea was to give the players a feeling for the rules and how the mechanics work.

Table from the German LMG nest end

ruined buildings added the cover for the Paras to move up with fire and manoeuvre tactics

People loved the rules and we got through about 9 demos I think ... Warlord and Caliver sold out of the rules so we must have been doing something right :)

Confirmed that the rules worked as nicely as we thought they did, a member of the current army who played used the best tactics of the day and obviously succeeded well, the point being real life tactics were not only possible to do but reaped the best rewards - always a sign of a good set of rules.

The show seemed quite busy, although I must admit I was at the table most of the time. Acquisition wise I got a supported section of Chindits and some Japanese to go against them and a few bits and bobs Doctor Who wise ... putting them together tonight hopefully.

Wandering around the show I bumped into these characters ... but managed to survive!

The Beautiful Game is released ...

2011-02-05T07:54:00.000-08:00

It is now available from Two Hour Wargames and I have created a dedicated BLOGSPOT for it :)
http://thebeutifulgame.blogspot.com/

THE BEAUTIFUL GAME ... release imminent !

2011-02-02T04:23:00.000-08:00

My footy game is about to be released by Two Hour Wargames ... pull out pitch and cut out figures ... or play with your subbeuteo stuff :)

The cover and the pitch in their full glory :)

Very exciting for me ... hopefully it will take off !

Operation Squad - dodgy name, brilliant rules ...

2011-01-31T13:40:00.000-08:00

Operation Squad – World War Two

It’s a pain being, what has often been described as, a ‘rules junky’. A new set of WWII skirmish rules hits the shelves and the nagging longing starts. Illogical I know as I have my own set of skirmish rules out and am perfectly happy playing NUTS and Force on Force but it had to be done.

On first glance at the rule book £18 for a smaller than A4 46 page (almost half of which are either squad rosters; marker pages or QRS) seems a hefty price. Even if it is all colour it hardly warrants the ‘eye candy’ status given to such recent rules such as Black Powder etc. But like I always say one is really paying for ‘rules’ and the ideas behind the mechanics … if they are smooth, innovative and above all else work, well then it is money well spent. If they are run of the mill and end up on the shelf it is £18 of potential lead one has just wasted.

To be honest when I got the rules I was slightly blasé about them … I thought I had seen, or even used most skirmish mechanics; that I’d be surprised to find any new mechanics (that actually worked). Well I was surprised, contained within the set of rules are some fairly innovative mechanics which actually work ‘jolly’ well!

Operation Squad join that genre of rules which are on the face of it IGO UGO (albeit in this case my character, your character) but which have a ‘reaction’ system which blurs the whole distinction quite severely. Now I am used to this, being a big Ambush Alley/Force on Force and Two Hour Wargame fan, but I realise many are not, so a little explanation is probably warranted:

After determining who goes first with an initiative roll the players take it in turn to activate a character. Each character can only activate once in the turn (although some high ROF weapons have a limited ability to fire across the turn). The player can give the character one action from a number of options of moving, firing etc etc. BUT this is where the fun begins …

When a character is activated and the action declared the opposing player can declare that they will activate a character as a reaction. This can then prompt another character activation from the initial player (as a reaction to the reaction) until either one player ‘passes’ or 3 figures from each side have been activated and their actions declared. Then the order that these actions are performed is determined by dice rolls. All this sounds somewhat complex and hectic. But believe me it is far more complicated on paper than it plays out on the table. Rarely are 6 figures involved and we have found it is usually just 2 or 3. What it does do is provide a brilliantly simple way of keeping the action fluid and to a point unpredictable.

For example:

Player McTague activates a character, declares that they are to move up from behind the barn to the hedge and fire at the character in the building that would then be in his sight. Player Jones activates (in reaction) the character in the window, declaring they will shoot at the character as it moves up to the hedge and then move back away from the window. Player Mctague activates another character (in reaction to the reaction) to fire at the window. All the characters have 2d6 rolled for them and they add their value to the total. The highest total will go first, working down to the lowest value. Remember in theory all the actions are taking place fairly simultaneously. The initial character gets a total of 11, Jones’s 10 and the other 8. The character will run over to the hedge and shoot first (of course is Jones’s had scored higher they would be shot at on the way). The shot has no effect … Jones’s character then shoots at them and scores a pin result and then moves back. McTagues character then has a wasted shot at the now empty window. However if McTague’s final character had managed to score highter than the character at the window – things could have been different. Let’s say they opened up and scored a wound result on the character at the window before they could move back. The whole mechanic works very, very well and adds lots of ‘spice’ to the game.

However, this is not an entirely new mechanic of course. It reminded me a lot of the way InSight reaction checks were handled in NUTS v.1 – losing this way of doing thing was my only regret when THW moved to NUTS II. However, it does give a limit to the reactions which is something that often ‘breaks’ other rules which have tried to do similar things.

It is with how firing is handled which is, perhaps, one of the biggest draw cards to the rules IMHO. It is an opposed roll for anything but a stationary shot on a character in the open. Both characters roll a certain number of dice (normally 3d6 plus weapon/range 1-2d6 and adds their value VERSUS 1-3 d6 for cover and possibly 1d6 for movement) the defence dice total is then subtracted from the total of the fire dice. The resulting number determines the effectiveness of the shot. The effects range from pinned (on a 11-13) through wounded to KIA (16+). For small skirmish games this is an extremely fun and ‘plausibly realistic’ system. Hard cover SHOULD keep you safe even if firing out … but with a bit of good luck on the firer’s part and some bad luck on your part the odd round may well sneak through. Conversely a character can get away with diving from behind cover, running like crazy across the open ground and diving behind the pig sty … Just don’t try it very often! It is extremely fast once the players get used to it and keeps both players well occupied … In fact Operation Squad is not a game for players who like to ‘wander off’ when it isn’t their turn! The mechanics are smooth and easy to pick up and we are already adapting them to melee based games using armour (yep you guessed it … samurai). Grenades and small mortars are in the rules of course and the damage is handled in much the same way, both have a fair chance of some deviation utilising a novel way of using a d10 to determine it.

Terrain has a cover effect, either linear or area, which affects the number of defence type dice rolled. Movement wise different terrain reduces (or increases for roads/tracks) the possible movement rate by a random amount (using a d6). Other things that struck me as ‘cool’ mechanics are – the way belt fed automatic weapons are handled, how the ‘out of ammo’ works and the fact it IS useful within the turn to have an assistant, how wounds are kept simple but have an effect, how the medics work and how auto weapon spread is handled. Some of these are more innovative than others but it is how they all blend together which impresses!

Each squad, characters in the squad, and even weapons can have characteristics to flesh them out. These tend not to be personal attributes like in some ‘lite RPG’ games such as my Flying Lead and the Two Hour Stable of games. Nor are any of them going to make a character into a super man – there will be no one man armies, which obviously is a good or bad thing depending on how one want one’s gaming that evening. They do however add to the game … In fact it seems to me that the author didn’t add any rule mechanic or characteristic unless they KNEW it would add to the game as a whole. I have seen too many individual action based sets of rules dissolve into unwieldy monsters due to having too many, or too prescriptive actions just for the sake of it. Operation Squad avoids this excellently.

Operation Squad is a points based game and a player can play one of 12 squads/sections from the US, Brit, Russian or German armies (lots more appearing on their official forum). The base squad is worth between 235 and 400 points and is bolstered up to the game standard 500 points by adding characteristics, weapons, equipment and even buying ‘wait actions’ (which force the opponent to activate characters while you wait). The scenarios included in the rules are aimed at squad actions and are fairly straight forward. The rules are designed I suspect to be ‘competition’ useful/friendly and games are generally over in 60-90 minutes, all the scenarios being 8 turns in length.

The games we have played have been smooth and fast flowing, the rules work very well and have a different feel to any of the normal rules we play which means we will add them to the night’s options. What probably reads as being quite convoluted, is on the table very flowing and fast. In a world where rules often seem to be a rehash or rework, Operation Squad is a breath of fresh air. What will be interesting is hearing from people who are not used to any sort of reaction system at all (having not played rules ranging from Cross-fire, NUTS, Force on Force etc) coming to terms with the gamut of possibilities the reaction system can throw out.

I can’t recommend the rules highly enough but there are two intertwined issues that people have raised. To be honest these are not mechanics based but the fact that on the face of it one does not get very much for the cover price of £18. The other problem appears to be the perceived ambiguity due to some of the language once it is translated into English. No major issue at all but for some have added it to the £18 gripe.

For me the rules have filled a gap. It is between a ‘lite RPG set’ (like NUTS and Flying Lead) personal detail wise and the complexity and abstraction of a set like Force on Force as well as the pure complexity and RPG detail of say ‘Final Combat’. I play different rules depending on the feel of the game I want that session and Operation Squad has joined the select group of possible sets to use. However, I have a sneaky suspicion that I will be using them more than some of the others!

HOT OFF THE PRESS

If things go to plan you should be able to try them at Hammerhead on the 13th Feb when I am running games in conjunction with Warlord!

Ninjas in the Night ...

2010-11-29T15:03:00.000-08:00

We had a quick run through the solo/co-op scenario I post on the forum
http://surfshackgames.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=bny&action=display&thread=29

The ninja were poised ... the samurai got the initiative however and all but one when into a state of zanshin (read overwatch) ...The first ninja group stealthily slipped over the wall (they made their roll and managed to stay 'hidden') ... in theory they were within the base visibility of the ashigaru but he needed to try and spot them so with his one action he could raise the alarm ... He must have been distracted somehow as he failed due to the shadows and night time making his Kyu one worse. They were not in site of the other ashigaru as the rock stopped the light from the torches.

The other group of ninja also managed to sneak over the wall and to the house wall without being spotted ... again the night time visibility struck

The first group of ninja popped up, the first threw a shuriken at the ashigaru, making him seek cover. Two of the others took the opportunity to pounce on him, despatching him to the next world. The last rushed over to the other ashigaru in the hope of stopping him sounding the alarm ...

Valiantly though the ashigaru, in a state of zanshin, decided to use his one action to beat the drum to sound the alarm. The ninja struck him while he was doing so ... but the armour saved him being doubled and therefore wounded ... instead he was pushed back. BUT the alarm was sounded.
The next group of ninja turned the turn over ...

But not before the other ashigaru was overwhelmed ... the samurai poured out of the buildings to start hacking through the ninja ... the omake trait making them easy to despatch ... but could they do it quick enough?

The remaining ninja entered the house in the hope it would have their target in it ...

Waves of ninja kept coming over the walls as the ninja converged on the building that must contain their prey. The hatamoto samurai valiantly tried to cut them down.

One ninja made a break for it, a hatamoto followed ready to cut him down:

However the ninja played a Karma card they had received earlier ... the samurai tripped in the stream!

The ninja converged on the house ... two made it in to start battling with Nakamura and his yojimbo

They were quickly dispatched ... the battle raged on ...

Even more ninja flooded over the wall ... Nakamura a Hatamoto and his Yojimbo went to the pebble garden and they ringed him to protect him ...

The hatamoto who was surrounded was wounded due to the fact I was playing the optional Dai Roku (exploding sixes) rule ...

The final blow was due to the ninjas ganging up and also throwing a Dai Roku !
The battle of the pebble garden raged on ... the yojimbo cutting through the ninja ...

The samurai were slowly cutting through the numbers ... the battle had been hard fought.
When all the ninja had been dispatched the wounded samurai checked to see how bad his wound was ... being bad he decided that ritual suicide would restore his honour ... the Yojimbo acted as his second

It had been a tense ... closer than it looks probably, game. At a number of turns it seemed as if the ninja were going to swamp the defences ... all four ashigaru and a hatamoto had to sacrifice themselves to save their Lord.

I was glad I had used the ninja 'red shirts' - with normal stats I suspect the game would have been very different!

After Action Review - Compound Scenario

2010-11-28T12:11:00.000-08:00

Took the scenario out for a spin this afternoon, used my Empress US forces:
Table set up - the Fire Teams had moved up and were about to enter the first two compounds. The Taliban, although not on the table rolled for the JOW cards and won. The increased cover card was to play a big part later.

Both FTs made it in OK and the compounds were both empty when the check was made. FT Charlie (on the left) checked suspicious looking piles near the barrels and the VW van. The one near the oil drums was determined to an IED and they radioed it in and gave it wide berth.

They moved up in the next turn (there was no Taliban activity as of yet as there was no firing or useful cards to trigger it off) and began to search the building. Going in 'white' they found a group of locals who were not too happy to be disturbed. It took the FT a few turns to settle them down before they could search the building. After all that it was not the IED plant.

I tend to use the emotion/morale dice for locals - roll one each and take the majority as how they are feeling. these guys were pretty pissed! Meanwhile FT Delta had run into some locals who, after a bit of persuasion let them search the building ... no IED materials found though.

The scenario was playing out well, I never normally play solo but to be honest if anyone was playing the Taliban they would be pretty bored so far ... but as a co-op game the scenario was working well (my daughter and I had a FT each). With another building cleared and no IED plant found the teams were having to move further and further away from each other.

Delta decided to go for the ramshackle lean to, after checking for IEDs they entered the building and found it empty of people ... However, an action searching struck gold, or in this case large amounts of explosives and electrical wire. Radioing it in they were told to set demolitions to deny it to the Taliban. Before setting it off they did have to search the other buildings to make sure no one was in danger of being in the blast area.The other FT arrived to help out. Although fun I was sort of sorry that it hadn't kicked off ... however, it seemed to be a good result and the boys would be back to the FOB safe and sound ... really should have known better I suppose.

It was at this point that a couple of things conspired to send the mission pear shaped. The first was the US getting a FOW card which said that one of the possible civilians in the building to be searched would be a Person of Interest and they had to bring them in!
Then when checking for civilians in the building a 6 was rolled - civilians with arms - possible Taliban. If they rolled another 6 they would be and would open up on their activation!

The US troops had to challenge them and the Taliban did not surrender (remember at this stage they could have just been armed civilians). Luckily the first to activate failed 2, getting one action to shoot before the turn passed to the US. Being an auto fire weapon all the troops could be hit (with successive shots getting harder of course).

As can be seen a BAD roll by the first US soldier saw him being doubled - making him Out of Action ... in small games I roll a hit location die to see where they were hit ... an upper leg hit! Although the Taliban sprayed the other US troops were not hit.
On their activation the mini-mi effectively mowed the Taliban down ... leaving another character to check his buddy's wound. It was a T3 (walking wounded) and the FT would now have to get him out to the extraction zone. BUT there had been shooting and the local Taliban were about to flood to the area. The first roll presented 6 Tier One with an RPG appear in the alleyway (bad result) and another small group of Tier Two across the irrigation ditch ...

FT Charlie managed to get into a good position and go on overwatch (3 actions were rolled). The injured character was escorted down, heading for the extraction point. The Taliban opened the gate ready to open fire ... the RPG wielding character could become a hero with a good shot.
Luckily the weight of fire from FT Charlie took two down and made the RPG figure duck for cover instead of letting loose.

A good activation roll saw the other FT managing to move out and fire on the group of Taliban over the ditch, taking one down and driving the others into cover.

The Taliban in the alleyway had a chance to bundle in and hit the FT in the compound as they had failed to get enough actions to go on overwatch ... as chance would have it they rolled 3 fails. The US FT were not to fail again and not having any valid targets they pulled back out the courtyard ... one lobbing a grenade over the wall for good measure. Excellent rolling saw it land on top of the Taliban behind the wall taking 3 of them out!

It was at this point my camera decided to run out of battery ...
Only a couple of smaller groups of Taliban appeared due to the firing in the next couple of rounds and these were easily dealt with as the FTs did the old 'overwatch' move leap frog out of danger. The IED factory was remotely destroyed and everyone made it off the table ... job well done but it was a close run thing at the end.

It has inspired me to actually make up a few more specific solo scenarios for my rules though!

Compound Scenario

2010-11-27T13:55:00.001-08:00

http://surfshackgames.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=hm&thread=28&page=1

Warfare, Taliban and samurai ...

2010-11-20T12:39:00.000-08:00

A good day out at Warfare saw a few games played, a few Perry Samurai bought and a few Hovel Houses for samurai skirmish games:
Played the new Mantic rules, King of War ... nice and simple unit removal stuff, played OK and for BIG games I think it will be good BUT it is deadly boring when you are the inactive player as you get to do NOTHING. A simple fix would be to have the defence roll (you have to hit and then another roll to beat the opponents defence) could easily be made into a save roll - which is what I think we are going to do when we try it this week with the samurai based 15mm.

I then wandered across to the Royal Airforce Games club participation game ... special forces in an Afghan town on a search and destroy ... rules by Pete Gill got a lot on the table and played real well I thought, had a good chat with him, nice to have a set of rules made up by people who have been there and done it for real ... as for the game we did OK and apart from not being able to get the Taliban hiding out in the mosque we cleared most of the game by the end of the 55 minutes for no casualties ... will certainly be using the rules again for when I want to get more on the table than using my Flying Lead.

All in all a decent day out which took my mind of real life and work !

How to Buy Bushi no Yume ...

2010-11-06T08:33:00.000-07:00

Visit:
http://surfshackgames.proboards.com/index.cgi

If you want to buy them email me at:
noseriderATbtinternet.com
I'll send them asap after £5 in the old PAYPAL account using the same Email as above.

Bushi no Yume is selling well ...

2010-10-28T09:26:00.000-07:00

off down to Spartan Games towers to catch up with Neil and have a few games with his superb Samurai stuff and maybe a run out with the VSF game :)

Cover art for Bushi no Yume

2010-10-21T04:58:00.000-07:00

I did the cover this morning ... quite like the way it came out ...

Samurai, Jaffa and now football ...

2010-10-19T06:28:00.000-07:00

Bushi no Yume is just waitin.g on some photos ... then it will be out :)

Bought a shit load of 15mm Jaffa and SG marine types for doing Tomorrows War with - looks like it will be real fun.

Also putting final touches to a 15mm football/soccer game which is hush hush for someone :)
If anyone really loves soccer and wants to do a final playtest let me know - it can be played on a card pitch with chits easy as the movement is by zones

Samurai and Aliens ...

2010-09-24T12:06:00.000-07:00

Bushi no Yume is going well ... hope to have it out next week for anyone interested.
That depends on if I get sidetracked with Tomorrow's War - the new offering from Shawn and co at Ambush Alley. They look superb like always:
http://www.ambushalleygames.com/

Will be playing it next week I hope!

Bushi no Yume playtests

2010-09-08T13:37:00.000-07:00

Bushi no Yume is my new set of rules for fighting samurai action on the tabletop ... it can be used for historical and fantasy settings, realistic or 'chanbarra' or even amime type action with differing rules for each 'genre'. Whilst firmly aimed at samurai action playtesters are already using it for straight LOTR style fantasy.

After a bit of tweaking Shaun and I played a couple of small core force games last night. Weighing in at about 5-8 figures each and 40-50 minutes to play they gave most mechanics (including magic) a good going over and the rules seemed to work as we wanted which only leaves me with writing the bumph and doing the photos etc ... seems like an early October release maybe :)

The first game saw a group of Ronin taking wanting to kidnap the Daimyo's daughter while she was visiting the spring of youth (Princess Haiku needs it believe me!). 3x3 table, forces entering on turn one.

The Ronin got the initiative and wasted no time in moving to the river, their resident hero went up and along the cliffs with the intention of cutting the samurai off if they got to the Princess first. Their shugenja (magic using priest) got into a lofty position on the hillock.

The samurai band raced to the Princess's rescue ... or so they thought!

A well placed fire ball from the shugenja sent the ashgaru archers running for cover ... magic in Bushi no Yume is based on the anti tank ranged combat mechanisms in Flying Lead. The magic user rolls to see if the spell works (the nearer the easier of course) and then the target rolls to see what effect it has. Everyone who has tried it says that it feels better than the magic in SOBH and of course it has a further range. There are also a wider variety or spells including healing and protection. It was important to screw the archers over as much as I could as they too are more powerful than in SOBH due to using the Flying Lead mechanics.

So the Ronin leader gave a group order for four of them to move up and grab the Princess. The naginata wielding figure successfully held the samurai at bay. However the giant hatimoto samurai charged in (he has 'dashing' and 'combat master') and the ronin and visiting Shaolin monk both recoiled.

However Shaun then managed to prematurely end his turn by failing 2 activation attempts with his leader. On the beginning of the next turn I received a 'Karma Card' by doubling his KC roll and then the ronin grabbing the Princess managed to drag her off to the ford in the river while my Leader moved in to block anyone getting to them easily. Meanwhile the Shugenja let off another fire ball, driving the archers into cover again.

But the samurai were beginning to get through the ronin, the naginata fella went down wounded (but he would jump up next go due to the karma card I had drawn). It was doubtful they would get through in time though.

As they crept closer to the winning edge the Ronin hero leapt over the river (heroic jumps are all part and parcel of the fantasy setting) but got instantly downed by the Hatimoto.

Then it all started to go wrong as the samurai archer got a shot off and took the shugenja down (archers have a far longer effective range in BnY). But surely the Princess was still about to be dragged off!

The mounted Daimyo galloped through the water and into the Ronin Leader (although they did not have enough actions to attack as well). The other samurai were downing the other Ronin and there was a danger it would spark a morale test ... the lowly Ronin with the Princess may well then drop her and run.

However I survived all the tests and everyone stayed put!

However Shaun had drawn a couple of Karma Cards and one of them was about to be put to good effect!

The sky clouded over and the kamikaze (divine wind) started ... it was to halve all my movement for a turn, thus I didn't make it off the board with the Princess.

When the kamikaze finished I was one short move off the edge of the board ... with the Daimyo unhorsed and struggling, my Hero (courtesy of another Me no Kami - recovery card ) holding the rest at bay (although the armour rules, ported over from Hearts and Minds, was making life, well killing samurai, very hard!). It was looking good!

It was at this point I rued making archers more 'realistic' as the Samurai archer took an aimed shot at the ronin roughing up the Princess ... it was an impossible shot almost, first they had to randomize who actually would get hit (Shaun made the roll and it was to be my figure) and then as you can see managed to triple my total with a perfect aimed shot and an instant kill... we roll a hit location die just for fun when people are taken out or wounded and it showed he got hit in the head! All of a sudden it was all on again!

My hero made a b-line for the Princess, using his iajutsu skill to move in and to put her down ...he really was wanting to kill her but fantastic rolling on the Princess's part saved her ... the unmounted Daimyo and giant Hatimoto closed in ...

After two rounds of combat ... the hero was down but not out ... the Princess was left to activate and got just enough actions to strike from prone ... obviously pulling our her hairpin and plunging it into my heroes neck .. well all my hero rerolls were used up and after a terrible roll she managed to stick him .. it was all over!

It was a great fun game which had taken us about 45 minutes to play. Everything worked fine and it was time to try a 'chanbarra' setting ninja assassination scenario!

Ninjas were hiding in the woods waiting for the Daimyo

The ninja in the tree was rumbled on a good spotting roll ... game on !

The ninja leapt out and started peppering the Daimyo with shaken (the proper word for the ninja shuriken) which unhorsed him ... the Samurai hero piled in

The Samurai were making mincemeat of the Ninja ... even the ninja hero was in trouble being outnumbered by the fanatic samurai trying to save their Lord ...

While lots of the mechanics will be familiar to Flying Lead players a lot of the new abilities add a chanbarra or anime feel to the action ... the ninja hero used his ukemi skill to add to the combat roll but it means he can't damage the opponents ... if successful they 'roll' out the way a short ...

The ninja weren't making any headway at all .. their Jonin (leader was taken down with arrows)

The hero got surrounded

But springing off a convenient rock saved the day.

With all the other ninja wounded or Killed the hero was determined to fulfil the mission ... the Daimyo made a dash for safety while the hero was surrounded yet again ... this is when the Karma cards kicked in for me!

Ukemi out of trouble, throw in an increase movement card then throw in an extra action card and rush in for the kill .... hopefully!

Unfortunately though it the theatrical moves were followed by a rubbish roll ... the game ended with a flurry of blades ... the ninja wouldn't need the vial of poison to stop himself being captured alive ...

Another good fun game with 'exploding sixes' (another new mechanic) lots of action and the cards worked well ... if you want to preorder (£5) and get the pdf as soon as it is ready then let me know at

noseriderATbtinternet.com

Got to do it ...

2010-08-30T08:37:00.000-07:00

Back in training and naturally my thoughts fall back to providing a Japanese Skirmish set of rules. The Ganesha SOBH set seems to be a long way off so I am going to write one using the Flying Lead mechanics and publish it as a PDF. Fleshed it all out so now for playtesting :)

If anyone out there is proficient with Flying Lead and wants to playtest the samurai rules then let me know ;)

Pacific Action ...

2010-08-19T10:02:00.000-07:00

Just preparing a BIG Pacific game for our games night on Tuesday ... will be using FoF as Flying Lead will not handle a company a side. 15mm 6x4 at least (probably 8x4 I am thinking) getting the Allied forces off the beach will be the order of the day.

SG-1 - must have sorted out new contracts for Series 11 ...

2010-08-14T05:33:00.000-07:00

The last cliff hanging episode saw the intrepid heroes being taken out of orbit by the Goa'uld pyramid shaped mother ship ... captured again with a rather pissed off System Lord figuring out which torture would be most appropriate for his guests!

But fear not SG-Command and MGM hadn't written them off quite yet and it seems after a bit of back room wheeling and dealing the Team were about to be given another chance ... maybe!

Lurking close by was an Asgard cloaked ship with some new technology awaiting aboard ... they had devised a way to 'jump' someone into a ship past the screening and shield devices ... at the prototype stage, they couldn't actually be sure where the using party would quite end up, but one of our little rubbery friends assured SGC that it wouldn't be a into a wall cavity etc. SO with no further ado SGC picked 3 SG-teams out of the volunteers and gated them in to the mothership ... they knew roughly where SG-1 were being held. The only way out for them though was through the ships transport rings ... meanwhile SG-1, not knowing about the rescue attempt were plotting their own escape; give Daniel and Sam a hair clip and some rims from his glasses and ...

The set up, SG-1 imprisoned opposite the System Lord's room ... the SG teams are to appear randomly at different rooms around the Mothership floor:

The teams beam in using Asgard technology ...

SG team straight into contact ... the heavier fire power D8s rather than the Jaffa's D6 paid dividends ...

The teams close in on the prisoners ... all things going well so far chaps ... but we know what can happen!

But in a major turn up the Jaffa reinforcement rolls (courtesy of Shaun) were CRAP and the SG-teams rescued SG-1 and started to leapfrog back to the ring room to escape.

Obviously at this point the System Lord had to throw his weight into the fray (as his troops were obviously having a party somewhere else on the ship!

In the ensuing battle ...

the System Lord an his crew went down ... and due to a bit of luck stayed down ... the SG Boyz now had a bit of a trophy to hump back as well.

By now reinforcements were arriving but due to rolling low there was too few ... too late!

SG-1 escape by RINGING OFF to the Asgard ship - YIPEEEEEE

This was achieved on the last definite move of the game, the scenario had a variable turn ending and another turn was rolled for.

Allowing the next team to escape ....

But time ran out for the team encumbered by carrying the System Lord ... the Jaffa shut down the ring room and recaptured their Lord ... SG-1 were safe but one whole team were left behind ... catch next episode to see what is in store for them ...

The game ran well in just under an hour ... bad rolling on Shaun's part made it relatively easy for me until the last roll ... shouldn't have been VP hungry.

Well they didn't make it, must be the end of series 10 !

2010-08-12T15:09:00.000-07:00

In the last episode Shaun managed to capture SG-1 ... being held and questioned by the System Lord it was time for SG Command to send in the heavies ... the Mothership had landed on PX413-T for repairs, there was a nearby Stargate so the game was on.

There was a team of Jaffa guarding the gate the ring in spot was just nearby. SG-1 lost the initiative roll and the leaderless Jaffa went on overwatch. The SG teams stormed through and took the team out but took one light wound.

Leaving one team watching the gate the other SG teams made it into the ship but hand their work cut out to search the three possible locations for the captured SG-1.

As Jaffa closed in on them SG-16 prepared to take them down ... which they did

Maintaining the initiative they moved of to search a room while the next group 'rang' in to cover the escape route, quickly finding themselves in action, but seemingly had it all under control.

They hit the jackpot as it was the right room, they managed to pin the SL and his bodyguards but took a KIA.

What resulted in the next few moves sealed SG-1's fate ... the Jaffa now had the initiative and the System Lord was stopping the team getting to SG-1. Meanwhile the team guarding the escape had taken numerous hits and were only combat capable because of some extremely good casualty check rolling ... they even had to call the other team in as support ... the Jaffa reinforcements just kept piling in.

Putting the SL down the group pushed on to release SG-1 but failed their Q test ! Next move saw the SL get up and slam them down ...things got real bad in the ring room as everyone want down in a hail of staff weapon fire!

After one team again rolling well (flesh or light wounds all round) the other group had the roll of death !!!

The System Lord at last went down and SG-1 were released. But the SL made a run for it and time was running out ... we were playing a variable game ending after turn nine ... basically to make it last the SG side had to roll their 'initiative dice' and equal or total the game turn number ...

Both other teams were put down and finished off in close combat. With no easy escape things got worse when SG-1 ran out of time ... they were captured again and the mothership headed off ...

Chinook lands ...

2010-08-12T01:25:00.000-07:00

Exciting morning when the doorbell went and my new 1/55 scale Chinook from Malaysia ... watch out for it featuring in the next Afghan game - just when my newest batch of Eureka Taliban have been equipped with an old Soviet surface to air launcher !!!

Next I have to make the Apache model I bought ... one has to love diecast out the box ebay purchases!

SG-1's luck ran out this game ...

2010-08-11T14:25:00.000-07:00

No photos this time but Shaun and I played 2 games of Force on Force SG-1 tonight ... using the Ambush at Belushi scenario idea out of the Operation Urugzan book.

SG-1 have to battle it down through a valley to the Stargate and home ... the Jaffa waiting in Ambush have to stop them ... simple!

First game I had the Jaffa and didn't manage that many reinforcement rolls ... SG-1 managed to get through on the last turn with 2 SG12 an 13 KIA in tow. After totting up the victory points and then using our d6 bank or gamble system Shawn with SG got a minor 1 point victory.

We then switched and the first 4 moves looked like I was going to romp through the game easily - then it all went very very pear shaped ... just as there was hardly any Jaffa around and Daniel was activating the DHD a lucky reinforcement roll and hot spot placement saw a great horde of Jaffa pounce out on SG-1 taking Jack and Teal'c down (Jack was KIA ! ), all the SG groups tried to drive them off but it didn't go well and Daniel under pressure failed to activate the DHD again (we used a Quality check for this) Sam went down SG12&13 took casualties and then Daniel fell. The last 2 moves saw Daniel managing to roll a 6 to limp up but then got put down again ... it was all over.

Jack was KIA the other 3 captured !!

Tomorrow's episode sees the SG teams trying to get them back. I promise photos !

SG-1 barely make it ...

2010-08-10T17:03:00.001-07:00

See the write up here:
http://www.ambushalleygames.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=36368#36368

Ambush Alley meets the STARGATE ...

2010-08-10T10:13:00.001-07:00

Tonight sees a big SG-1 and co game as our heroes try and 'snatch' a System Lord !
Will report back later ...

Post show review ....

2010-08-09T14:42:00.000-07:00

What a great show it was ... the atmosphere was way better than any show I had been to for bloody years! Very friendly and I ran back to back games from about 11:30 which was great! Converted a gang of teenage 40kers which was great!

wrong way I know but not my link to picture

Claymore ...

2010-08-04T11:54:00.001-07:00

400 miles to put a game on in Edinburgh ... quite excited AND it is the festival ... will report when we get home!
Game is a Afghanistan 2010 - Force on Force game with prizes from Ambush Alley!

Afghan campaign ...

2010-08-01T01:52:00.000-07:00

Have decided to run a Afghan campaign following the exploits of a Platoon of Brits sent out to win the Hearts & Minds of an area. Based as a 'mythical' FOB Peter the area around them is in a transitional stage. The Locals are beginning to trust the ISAF forces to bring them a better life. However it is on the boarder of the Green Zone and has many lucrative poppy fields, so the local drug kings and the Taliban are not going to give it up easily. One local Elder is paving the way for co-operation with the local Brit Commander, the Taliban are not very pleased about it!

The campaign will use both Flying Lead and Ambush Alley/Force on Force depending on the size of the forces involved. The idea is that anyone of my local club or gaming mates can run either side in games, it is the result that matters to the campaign narrative and not the players! The scenarios will come out of the 2 mini campaign booklets put out for FoF, the Operation Uruzgan supplement and the Hearts & Minds add on for Flying Lead.

The first game used Steve and myself as the players.
Hope you enjoy 2nd Platoon's 'tour' !

An hour and a bit to spend so what better ...

2010-07-26T13:35:00.000-07:00

than to have a quick throw together game of Ambush Alley 'Force on Force'?
Why 'Force on Force' and not Flying Lead I hear you ask ... Well, one I really enjoy the rules, two it lets one put a lot more on the table than my set and still get through a game quick due to the mechanics. For this game we couldn't even be bothered to put the 6x4 out, just covered the 3' round living room table with a latex mat and away we went.
Decided to adapt the Operation Uruzgan 'Mine Strike' mission to the space, basically by having the Brit troops having to neutralise the disabled Warrior and extract the T1s off the board to the LZ which was 'off table'. Instead of having the Taliban forces necessarily on the small space of the table they were placed around the edge of their random entry point and counted as being in cover and in their optimum range of the Brits covering the area. If they wanted to move on to the table they could of course.
The scenario entails the ISAF forces having to make safe the disabled vehicle, stabilise the T1s and then get them off the top of the table... they start just after the mine strike as they are making the area 'secure'.

Having got out the Viking two fire teams secure the area, the fire team from the WMIK cover the front while the Command Group scramble out the Warrior with two bad casualties.
The first move sees one Fire Team moving to neutralise the Warrior, while the other two and the sniper team go on overwatch.

The local Taliban (what they lack in firing skill they make up in numbers and effort) begin to arrive. In the scenario the Taliban arrive as 'reinforcement' every turn, rolling 2 dice on a chart to see what arrives. All I can say is that my daughter rolled VERY well.

The Taliban are placed on the edge but fight 'off table' as described above. A decent roll though gave them two lots coming on, while the civilians keep out of trouble :

Out of contact movement allowed the Taliban to move around easily. One Fire Team had their hands full with but managed to pin down the Taliban firing at them.

Another thing that plagued the Brits all game was the fact that it seemed that the Taliban rolled a very large number of 6s on their casualty rolls AND not only lost every reaction but often did so on a 1 which triggered a FOW card ... which was normally it seems in their favour.
By turn 4 (of 8) the Brits had denied the Warrior and stabilised the T1s ... they were heading back to the Viking to load them up and be away. Meanwhile all the other Fire Teams and the sniper team were very busy keeping the growing number of Taliban at bay ... and to be honest it was going well :

Yet another FOW card landed an off board rocket strike on the Viking ... wrecking the Viking but happily not causing any real further damage to the nearby troops.

OK ... no need to panic I thought ... deny the other bit of the Viking and trot the casualties off the table by hand, the Taliban (who are all 'local' d6 troops in this scenario) were having little effect on the Osprey EBA protected Brits in hard cover. BUT then the curse of the FOW cards struck again with the Taliban losing a reaction check on a '1' and the card being an IED card. My ever thoughtful daughter placed it next to the WMIK - thankfully the Fire Team made its spotting roll, saw it and from then on gave it a WIDE berth. But clever placement meant that it put paid to my path off the table. That meant I had to run the gauntlet around the compound which was by now in LOF of 3 large groups of Taliban!

Remember the groups are shown on the edge but are off table a bit in cover!
So with 3 turns left I needed to make a move carrying the casualties meant only cautious movement which although was 12" in 28mm still meant cutting it fine. The Sniper team was holding a flanking group at bay thankfully

Some excellent fire power and good use of suppressive fire meant the Brits were able to keep the Taliban fairly well pinned apart from the middle group who managed thankfully to miss the Fire Team carrying the T1s

However time was against me and by the end of Turn 8 I wasn't off the table!
Saved by the fact that the Taliban had not inflicted any further casualties and I had managed to deny the vehicles meant by the victory points for the scenario I had won 7VP to 5VP ... personally having to explain the lost vehicles when we got back to the FOB would not have been too pleasant I think!

An excellent game, played in just around an hour and a bit on a very small space ... shows the rules work well. They gave an oppressive feeling on my part, while not taking any casualties it actually felt very tense. The game showed the reaction system off to its best I thought as the Brits were able to use overwatch and reaction fire to pin the Taliban down well at an important part of the game.

Made a very pleasant change from FL enabling us to get all the painted stuff on the table!

Holidays here ...

2010-07-25T02:44:00.000-07:00

So promise to keep it updated a bit more ...
Managed to raise 90 dollars for the Combat Stress appeal so far through sales of Hearts & Minds which is OK for the first week I think ...

Been playing with H&M obviously and painting new US camo on the figures ... all good fun!

Also been working hard on the footall game rules which hopefully will be the next thing out ... the WWII supplement for Flying Lead is close on its heels though.
Had a few games of Memoirs at school with the kids which was good fun.
Decided what my gaming is going to consist of from now and thinking of selling anything which doesn't fit in :)

20/25/28mm:
Flying Lead (Frontline Heroes, Hearts and Minds and Songs of Ancestors)-
A Very British Civil War
ISAF in Afghanistan
Quar Civil War
Sci-fi - mainly Stargate and Serenity type stuff
Ambush Alley/Force on Force
Afghanistan stuff

12/15mm
Ambush Alley/Force on Force
Pacific WWII
Black Hawk Down

10mm
Black Powder
Napoleonics

Everything else can go (or Shaun has custody I suppose)

Blame it on Ross Kemp ...

2010-06-16T15:13:00.000-07:00

Reading a book on Afghanistan, watching Ross Kemp's series following our troops set off a chain of thoughts and feelings which has resulted in the first 'Theatre of War' supplement for Flying Lead

Hearts & Minds

Winning the war in Afghanistan

This inaugural ‘Theatre of War’ supplement for Flying Lead takes the player to arid deserts and lush ‘Green Zone’ of Afghanistan. Fought over for centuries by major powers, the scene of the Soviet’s ‘

Vietnam

’ it is now seen to be the UN’s ‘Front Line’ and the key to winning the ‘war on terror’. Troops from all around the world form the International Security and Advisory Force (ISAF) and work together to bring stability to the region.

Hearts & Minds is a detailed supplement for Flying Lead:

· Interact with the locals, gain their trust, drive out the oppressive Taliban and win their ‘Hearts & Minds’. 14 scenarios, force advancements and campaign rules let the players wrestle for control of vital areas.

· New rules and mechanics add detail and grit to the core rules. Expanded and enhanced combat and vehicle rules and the new ‘Joys of War’ cards add suspense and certainty to the ‘historical’ setting.

· Force specific rules, new abilities and force rosters combine with rules for the latest ISAF advanced technology and equipment to enable the ISAF player to fight against the Taliban, a tough, often fanatical and ruthless enemy.

In conjunction with Battlegames Magazine Rich and Andrea are contributing 10% of the proceeds to the Combat Stress Appeal, helping those who gave up so much helping us!

Bring on the surfers ... Kernow Separatist League

2010-03-12T10:17:00.000-08:00

Kernow Separatist League

The area covering Cornwall and some of Devon has long since seen itself as a separate entity and for many a century it may have well have been. Apart from a bit of tin and gold, fish and the occasional herd of cows or sheep people in the rest of the country saw it as too far away , hard to get to and having little to interest them anyway. When the ‘troubles’ started it wasn’t going to be long until factions in Cornwall saw the opportunity to strike for independence. However the KSL had ulterior motives … the League consisted mainly of surfers. It had only been a few years previous that Jimmy Dix, a Midlands based dentist obtained a 14’ Koa wood surfboard from Hawaii and took it down to Newquay to try it out. An ice cream salesman named Pip Staffieri joined in and soon stand up surfing took hold. The 14 foot finless planks of wood attracted a hardy breed of what would now be called ‘x-treme’ sportsmen. The area around Newquay were excellent for the new sport but it wasn’t a big leap of intelligence to see that if this ever got out the area would be spoilt for ever as people flocked to Kernow to go surfing … and this they couldn’t allow … localism arrived in the South-West disguised as Separatism.

The group are all hard core surfers (no wetsuit, no fins and 60lb of hardwood trying to hit one in the head tended to only attract a certain breed) and will do anything to ‘free’ Kernow … and keep the waves to themselves.

Enfield Anglican Troop - yet another AVBCW force

2010-03-12T08:46:00.001-08:00

Enfield Anglican Troop

Like all the Anglican Leagues around the country the EAT were at logger heads with the Crown and therefore Loyalist Forces. They bitterly opposed King Edwards relationship with Wallis Simpson and as their verbal campaign from the pulpit had not had the desired effect which means they were only left with the option of force.

However the Enfield Troop had an added extra complication to keep them busy. Reports had been emerging that the ancient forest in Epping was being defiled by occult practices. Allegedly these were being conducted by Aleister Crowley who was going by the more occult name ‘Al'istar K'rawlee’ who had strong ties to Mosley and the BFU. So EAT see it as their duty to stop these wicked practices and restore a moral order to the area.

The Middlesex Mistery ... a FL force

2010-03-12T06:20:00.000-08:00

Middlesex Mistery

The English Mistery, was founded by William Sanderson taking the name from a 1930 book, That Which Was Lost: A Treatise on Freemasonry and the English Mistery. Sanderson had been a Freemason but was disaffected. His new party entered into the turbulent 30s with an agenda which included bringing back the Feudal System, being against anything to do with welfare, the LSE (London School of Economics) and even the United States as a whole.

While not actually affiliated with the BUF or Nazism many of its members were, shall we say sympathetic. While some of its ‘character’ members were not of this ilk there were also members such as Graham Seton Hutchinson, founder of the pro-Nazi and anti-Semitic National Workers Movement. By the late 30s however the main party was in a bit of disarray, they had not really fully recovered from the 1936 split by Wallop who formed the English Array.

However fringe groups were still going strong and thus was the case in Middlesex. Landowners in the area had been suffering from threats from emerging ‘Communist Collectives’ who wanted to seize their land, they were also bitterly disgusted by the Kings insistence on marrying what they still considered a colonist instead of a good old English girl. As far as they were concerned it was ‘bring back the good old days’ when a Landowner had serfs and a stream of money coming in from letting them farm ones land.

So it was time to band together and arm themselves to fight against the Commies (who were trying to take their land), the Loyalists (who for some reason thought the American woman could be good for Jolly England) and the Jews (who owned the banks who were trying to foreclose on the family businesses and helping the city spread towards their green and pleasant land). There was a natural ally in the British Union of Fascists who could help them with the more esoteric arms and if the push came to a shove they could handle all the rest!

A Very British Civil War ...

2010-03-09T12:54:00.000-08:00

l after playing Flying Lead in various forms at home against Shaun while keeping the wifey company in her hours of need we hit the local show at Tonbridge and ZAP a new genre was on the painting table ...

A Very British Civil War covers an alternative history set in the late 1930s in Britain ... the story goes that Edward VIII refuses to give up on the love of his life and also refuses to abdicate which results in a constitutional crisis with no party agreeing to form a Government until ... Edward asks his friend William Mosley (and his British Union of Fascists) to form a Government ... from this point it all goes downhill.

The alternative history is being mapped in a series of books from Solway Crafts and on the Gentleman's Wargame Parlour (sort of like a quintessential British TMP). The beauty is that practically anything is possible ... so Shaun has gone down the Fascist route ... basing his forces on an Enfield background as where I am going for the Devon and Cornwall route with one force wanting separation for Kernow and the other force the Devonshire Lights being loyal to the King and Country.

My group of 1930 surfers have already seen off some BUF and stand proud and Cornish!!

Flying Lead is actually on sale ...

2010-02-07T13:07:00.000-08:00

Not my first rule set obviously, but the first commercial set so far which is quite exciting to say the least although never going to make me rich one feels. SO I envisage this blog will become a FL blog for at least a while ...

More on Lasalle ...

2010-01-05T08:36:00.001-08:00

Well as we wait for the snow to hit, hopefully enough to stop me going to work tomorow (so long as I can get home tonight) I thought I'd wax lyrical on my new found passion for Naps. It started back in Primary School where a mates big brother had the old 30mm Naps, dip painted and a sand table ... we nicked the rules and started collecting figures although airfix plastics and conversions were the way to go when one is 10 with the equivalent of 50p a week pocket money! The last game I remember from this period was a Waterloo refight a mate's loft on the floor. Then ancients took over until I ended up in a brief 6mm Waterloo moment which was lost when the box containing all the forces was lost during a Uni move.

Naps were not to figure on the gaming horizon for quite a number of years until working for Wargames Journal I came across La Grande Armee by Sam Mustafa and having a bit of spare dosh at the time built up a 15mm couple of forces - which probably were not actually that big but the bug had struck again and we even started a FOW conversion called 'Balls of Iron' which went down well across the globe freakily enough. But then other stuff WWII and Stargate etc got in the way and the 15mm Naps were sold ... bugger!

Luckily Shaun had kept hold of a load of stuff and when Black Powder arrived on the doormat it was actions stations and Naps was back ... brilliant rules but eventually we tried Lasalle mainly so I knew what it played like for things like 'Meeples and Miniatures' podcasts etc. Then we realised it gave us a little more tactical feel which we like for Naps ... so here we are, spoilt for choice.

Long time ... no post ...

2010-01-03T13:19:00.000-08:00

but a New Year deserves a new post. Gaming wise it is all Black Powder and Lasalle at the moment - both Naps games and both very different. I love Black Powder for all sorts of Horse and Musket games but Lasalle seems to be pipping it at the post for Naps at the moment which is a bit of a shock. Black Powder retrofitted into Warmaster however is going to be the next craze in our house I think.

Flying Lead is nearly out and I actually need to get the footy game in action, firstly getting a couple of 'newbie' footy lovers to play the game to see how it goes.

Painting wise - been doing the naps on the whole and also some Warmaster stuff.

Been reading a lot of Nap stuff both factual and narrative which has been good ...

Hand better, infection sort of better and new rules to obsess on!

2009-11-07T08:23:00.000-08:00

Well as everything gets vaguely back to normal; even managed a surf or two at the end of half-term gaming takes a turn down a road I thought was blocked - Horse and Musket. Even as I was purchasing more Pacific material and books a hefty block of eye candy landed on the doormat between postal strikes. Black Powder is the name from Rick Priestley (whose rules I have always had a fondness for) and the guys at Warlord ... well what a breath of fresh air from normal Nappie or ACW rules which are often for the anorak adorned gamer.

If you want to know more join the yahoo group I set up or watch this space for games between our pacific stuff. Bad thing is I really now have to get 10mm naps !!!

Mobilisation of forces ...

2009-10-19T09:10:00.001-07:00

but not me unfortunately ... apparently have a severe viral infection of throat and resp track ... so can't do anything that will make me breathe heavy, not talk and rest !!!!

Not going to be board or anything am I?

Good job Shaun bought lots of 15mm pacific stuff at the weekend as at least I can do some painting I suppose. Will even try and do some photos ...

SELWG was OK at the weekend but only cos Shaun bought a lot I suppose ... bought some dice (nice yellow ones for my IJA) and a load of Pacific books from the B&B and second hand stalls. The games were all so so and again just made me think wargamers on the whole are just sad bastards!