QILS: Rednecks & Revenuers

OK, so I played the "Rednecks & Revenuers" scenario for Quick Intermediate Level Skirmish rules. Don't let the name fool you, while the game play itself is reasonably quick, there is significant prep work involved to make the properly funny colored dots on the d6's needed. And these are not rules for those needing unambiguous determinations... I had to decide my own weapon ranges, vehicle movement rates, and the fate of the vehicle driver when said vehicle goes out of action. However, as a veteran tabletop gamer and former professional wargames developer, I already have very strong opinions about these things o.0

This is everything needed to play

Anyway, I set things up just like the scenario showed; unoriginal perhaps, but I had all the stuff. I marked the 2'×2' rough terrain with four pushpins and some thread. The Hillbillies won the coin toss to go first, and I had the Offspring flip the coin again and hide it under my Area 51 shot glass so I could look at it if the Feds ever got a direct view of either the moonshine still or the dead Fed (which is to say, the Government side doesn't know their objective when they start the game.)

The initial set-up

I figured the Hillbillies would load the still into their truck then go back for the dead Fed body while the rest of the family ran a delaying action. It worked a little too well; by the end of the third turn, the Hillbillies had put so many holes in the HMMWV that the Agents had no chance if catching the truck with the still as it went to collect the body. By turn seven, the Hillbillies achieved their victory condition of getting both the still and the corpse off the south table edge.

This is the end of turn 3 (I got too excited and forgot to take pictures of turns 1 and 2)

I think this scenario has some good replay value. There is another one I am going to play called St. Trinian's School For Girls vs. Men In Black, ten government agents against five schoolgirls on their home turf with non-combat victory conditions. It should be interesting.

Turn 6, the Hillbillies are almost escaped!

QILS and its supplements can be purchased from Irrational Number Line Games LLC

Super Mission Force: The Defenders vs. Justice League Starro Slaves

 It's been WAY too long since I've posted anything, and this isn't even the first thing I've done that I haven't posted. But I'm a bit excited about this one in particular. See, I've wanted a tabletop superhero game for like forever, and really when HeroClix came out it left me cold. Even the figures were pretty sub-par. But they wound up being pretty cheap on the after market once they lost their game value, and I wound up with a pretty big collection of exactly what I wanted and then never played with them. So I've always been on the lookout for a superhero miniatures game that allowed me to stat up the heroes I wanted to use the way I wanted to play them. And I stumbled across Super Mission Force a few weeks ago not because I was looking for it, but because I found a reference to the Solo rules for it. So, a generic superhero system with solo rules, and it's all free.

HELL YEAH!!!

Defenders Defenestrate!

To be really honest, it took me a while to wrap my head around the system and figure out how to stat up the heroes I wanted. Specifically, I wanted the original incarnation of the Defenders issue #2 from October 1972, including Doctor Strange, the Hulk, Namor, the Sub-Mariner, and the Silver Surfer. However, given how powerful both the Hulk and the Silver Surfer are, I instead decided to go with the issue #1 lineup and drop the Surfer and instead class the Hulk as a Powerhouse-level hero, counting as two members of the four man team instead of just one. As an aside, Doctor Strange is included in the rules as a sample character using the name "Professor Weird." So, I had the Defenders; I popped the figures off their 'Clix bases, glued them to some grey plastic bases for a good urban look, and this part of the game was all set.

The Justice League Enslaved By Starro!

Next up, I needed some villains for the Defenders to fight. My first thought was to use the Wrecking Crew, whose first appearance as a team is in Defenders #17. The team consists of The Wrecker, Bulldozer, Thunderball, and Piledriver. As I was searching online to see if anyone had already generated some stats for the team, I found quite a few different takes on the Justice League. As it turns out, I have a small collection of Justice League 'Clix as well, but I don't imagine the defenders and the Justice league finding a reason to just rumble. But what about four members of the Justice League possessed by the bizarre alien entity known as Starro? I have Aquaman, Flash, Gren Arrow, and Green Lantern figures with the distinctive starfish on their face from a WizKids summer event many years ago. So there it was! Starr Slaves versus the Defenders!

A bird's eye view of the Defenders starting position

The Defenders lined up on their table side with Doctor Strange and Namor behind the warehouse and Hulk with a straight shot across the board. As he is a Powerhouse, I am guessing he is going to be the most powerful, and the one to get stuck into the fighting. I am pretty familiar with these guys from the comics, so I have a pretty good idea of what they can do and how to use them.

Enslaved by Starro, the Justice League has lost it's rhyme and reason

The Starro-enslaved Justice League I just kind of spread across the board. I'm not really too familiar with these guys, so I set up Green arrow across from the Hulk hoping to get in a couple of good shots before the green goliath closed for melee. Flash has an incredible 40" movement and can make melee attacks and keep moving if he is successful, so I have him on the corner so he can go around the side and catch Namor with a drive-by punching. Green Lantern? Aquaman? Who knows? I also had the AI sheets printed out, a deck of cards shuffled, and all the elements in place to really use the solo system.

The Defenders start out strong

The first turn, the Defenders won the intitiative and rolled Hulk up to green Arrow and gave him a solid beating. I had set up a lot of fun things to play with, cars and tricks and picnic benches, but I never actually used any of them to throw or beat down any opponents on either side. Also, the buildings had fully playable interiors, but no one went inside. Maybe next time. Aquaman and Green Lantern engaged Hulk, while Flash tried to do my planned drive-by punching on Namor after being zapped by Doctor Strange but failed, and was now locked in melee with him. Oops!

Duelling Kings of Atlantis

The second turn started with Namor giving Flash a solid punch, knocking him back several inches and forcing a KO check; Flash was still on his feet, but barely. I had by this time realized that anyone in melee with Hulk was 1) not going to hurt him, and 2) going to end with a wet squeak (he had by this time already gained 2 extra dice from Rage and was rolling 9 dice on the charge; 4 is the base roll) so I thought maybe Flash should try a drive-by punching on the Big Green Guy. That was a bad idea; Flash was now locked in melee with Hulk in addition to Green Arrow. For his own part Green Arrow annoyed Hulk without any actual effect before Namor flew over to attack Aquaman; there can only be one King of Atlantis! Hulk then solidly punched Green Arrow, who promptly failed his KO check and was removed from the game. First point to Defenders. Green Lantern, switching to a flying form, grabbed Flash and flew both of them to safety well out of range of the Hulks fusilade of fists. I couldn't find any rules to resolve this, but it seemed like a very comic book thing to do, so I decided it was perfectly acceptable. I'm pretty sure Doctor Strange zapped someone; I know he made his Recharge roll for his Power Bolt ability.

Clear disposable shot glasses are amazing flying stands

To start off the third turn, Aquaman took another swipe at Namor, but to no effect. The rival Kings were too equally matched! But HULK SMASH PUNY IMPOSTER! Aquaman was knocked clear across the board by the Green Goliath. Green Lantern then flew behind the Hulk and shot a power blast into his back, unbelievably actually hurting him! Namor then followed up on the Hulk's success to try and dispatch the weakened Aquaman, but to no effect. Doctor Strange again made his Recharge roll for his Power Blast, but failed to harm Flash, who was then able to make a successful drive-by punching on Namor.

This is where the bogging down begins

HULK SMASH PUNY IMPOSTER! The fourth turn of the game opened with Hulk leaping to Aquaman and fully smashing him; Aquaman did not make his KO roll. Namor flew to engage Green Lantern, but did not hurt him. Doctor Strange AGAIN made his recharge roll for his Power Bolt and promptly dispatched Flash, who failed his KO check this time and was removed from the game. Green Lantern fought back against Namor, but had no effect.

HULK SAD! HULK NO FLY!

I frequently find that skirmish games of this type hit a certain point and they start to bog down for some reason. Here, in turn five, I hit that plateau. Doctor Strange tried to cast Jinx on Green lantern, but failed. Green lantern failed to harm Namor. Hulk Leaped across the board, but not close enough to attack Green Lantern. Namor failed to harm Green Lantern. And I realized that there was an entire solo system for this game that I hadn't used at all, I had simply started playing both sides as I frequently do. Since there were no hidden objectives, I guess that's okay, but also no chance for any of the bad guys to start monologuing or stuff like that. Hopefully I'll remember next time.

It's like deja vu all over again

That plateau I was talking about in turn five? Turn six was exactly like turn five. Except I didn't have a revelation about forgetting to use the solo rules. That had already happened,, but was still on my mind.

Defenders triumphant

Then it all came together! Green Lantern failed to hurt Namor yet again, but Doctor Strange managed the Recharge roll for Jinx, and successfully cast it. Namor then dispatched Green lantern, who failed his KO roll. The Defenders win! The warehouse district is safe from Starro!

I am not bothering with any of the campaign stuff for this game, as I'm sure I got some of the rules wrong and I really think the Justice League got the short end of the stick because I didn't realize quite how scary The Incredible Hulk was going to be in melee. The Justice League also suffered from lack of familiarity with the various characters' abilities; I don't think the write-ups I borrowed were necessarily bad, but I'm not that familiar with them to begin with. Shooting at Hulk is much better than trying to melee Hulk. Always ALWAYS shoot hulk whenever possible!

As an aside, I built the terrain featured in this game probably about 15 years ago. It's some of the earliest papercraft models I remember making. The board was going to be to demo some game or another, i never managed to get into it after all. I decided to go with the 2' x 2' board because I had it, not because I thought it would make a better game. I think it made a faster game. Next time, I might go with a 3' x 3' board; it doesn't have to be a city fight!

So I definitely want to play this again.

Knyghte, Pyke, And Sworde: A Semi-Professional Review

So! Ivan of Nordic Weasel Games offered up his game "Knyghte, Pyke, and Sworde" for review purposes. And while I was a little slow to get a game in, and even slower to post this after action review, I have finally managed to get it done. I played my first game of Knyghte, Pike, & Sword a couple of weeks ago. I think my play area might have been a little small for the game, I went with 24" by 24" but I think 36" by 36" will be better for the next game. It has some good systems to it, but I rather think it is better played head to head rather than solo. In this case, the Persians destroyed the Galatian melee guys to almost the last man, while a poorly-deployed unit of Galatian skirmishers turned out to be the game-winner in the last two turns. The "characters" are not super-powered. They are slightly better than the regular combatants. In the first part of the game, the Galatians got a LOT of good dice rolls, while the Persians rolled poorly a few times when it really mattered. Later, the dice rolling was more equal, but by then it was too late; the Persians had lost their combat units and were relying on their archers to stop the enemy. At the end, I decided there was no need to play out the last stand of two Persian archers.

Now, the pictures:

Here we are at the end of the first turn. Both sides are moving towards each other, but the Galatian slingers are sort of stuck without much to target.

After a few turns, we started having a lot of casualties. The Galatian hero wiped out the entire group of Persian spearmen after the slingers softened them up. The Persian cavalry has taken some casualties as well, but the Galatian spears are even more worse for wear.

Later, the persian scout killed the Galatian fighter, the two leaders are facing off after a unsuccessful exchange, the cavalry is gone, but the slingers are coming in fast to support the remains of the Galatian line.

This is where I called the game. The Galatian leader has dispatched both the Persian leader and scout, and the slingers are still at full strength coming in on the archers.

So, you know what? This is EXACTLY the game I have been looking for, for a very long time. I fully rate it as a 10/10 for two players. I wish it flowed a little better for solo play (what with the pandemic and social distancing and all that) but an important element of the game is activating so as to force your opponents into certain moves, almost bluffing, if you will. And that finesse is lost when playing with yourself.

I highly recommend this game if you and your buddies each have a dozen or so Ancient or Medieval miniatures that otherwise do not see much use. And the unit sizes are a good gaetway to larger games such as Dragon Rampant. And (yes, another "and") there is a fantasy supplement coming along soon, so for the roleplaying gamers out there who don't have an army of, say, elves, this lets you get in a wargame with what you have,

Knyghte, Pyke, and Sworde can be purchased here.

Warhamster 40,000 9th Edition!

Myself, Joe, Kurt,  and Kurt-Eric (who is Kurt's offspring) took the new Warhamster 40,000 9th edition rules for a big ol' test drive today. We played whatever that scenario is that is included in the free download rules, and skipped CP and Stratagems. Joe and Kurt played some very heroic, if slightly ineffective Space Marines, while Kurt-Eric and I fielded the forces of Chaos, me with the Death Guard and he with Dark Angels. Chaos won the day 10-7 with my Chaos Cultists standing on two Objectives for the entire game.

The forces of Nurgle arrayed

Heroes of the day from my forces are the three Chaos Spawn which destroyed a Terminator squad on contact and shredded the better part of a Tactical squad before requiring the combined efforts of a Chaplain and a Dreadnought to finally stop. They soaked up a LOT of firepower as the shambled and slithered across the battlefield!

Sure, the game looked fairly normal when we did our deployment...

Honorable mention goes to the Chaos Cultists who bravely held two Objectives for the entire game. Well done, useless lads!

The opening moves in the game included a lot of scrambling for tactical advatnage and some sniping back and forth

I had played 8th edition a few times and it was probably the best game play since 2nd edition, in my opinion. Then they started tweaking it, and I wasn't enjoying it so much. Now, with the 9th edition rules, I feel like I'm back in 3rd through 7th editions. I'll continue playing, to play with my friends, but I'm not happy with the way the rules have gone. Again.

This is the moment that changed the game, when the Chaos Spawn swept through Joe's Terminators and then collided with his Tactical squad.

Warhammer 40,000 rules and miniatures are available at https://www.games-workshop.com/en-US/Warhammer-40-000 and at decent hobby or comic stores. Please buy locally if you can, small businesses need your support!

Cowboys vs. Zombies

On Sunday, Joe, Kurt, and I had a great game of Fistful of Lead over at the Knight Cave. It was our three gangs of assorted Old West ne'er-do-wells vs. a veritable horde of zombies, werewolves, worms, and Paiute vampires.

Somehow, my Banditos were caught between two Spawn Points, and one stupid Worm killed a couple of my guys and my gal. Another Worm killed the fourth guy, leaving El Armadillo running for a rooftop to escape the advancing Zombies.

I loved the Zombies. I'm not a zombie fan, I've never enjoyed zombie movies or games, but this one hit it right. They were hard to kill, and every time they killed one of our people or a townsperson, the casualty was replaced by another Zombie. There were three of them at the start of the game. By the end, we had seen nine or ten on the table, but I think not more than eight at the same time.

Enjoy the pictures!

Los Vatos: El Boracho, El Nino, La Fea, El Gordo, y El Armadillo

Worms and werewolves, oh my!

Showing them worms who's boss!

Prosperity, NV

That worm on the right killed three of my people!

My cardstock/papercraft buildings blend right into the town

"My name is Inigo Wormtoya; you killed my brothers, prepare to die."

El Armadillo scurrying to safety.

More Rangers Of The Shadow Deep With Mike

OK, so I had a chance to visit my friend Mike again and hammer out a couple more games of Rangers of The Shadow Deep. The last time we played was back in January to try out the first scenario of "The Missing" for Rangers of the Shadow Deep, and we had full plans if getting together two weeks later to play the second scenario and then the Blood Moon mission. But then the whole world went sideways, and we are just now finishing up our games!

To start, we played the second scenario of the "The Missing." It's a good thing we are both compulsive about keeping our gaming notes, as this scenario required the same Heroes we used in the first scenario, and there were some carryover effects like injuries and disease.

Our deployment

To be really honest, I am not a fan of this scenario. This is, I think, the fourth time I've played it and the second time I've played it cooperatively instead of solo. It's not unbalanced, it's just a tad on the boring side. It has no Clue markers to go after, which means the only big variable is the card draws, and that's only every other turn in this scenario and I hate the card draw game mechanic anyway.

Random in-game picture

In addition to my Ranger, I also had a Swordsman (SwordMAIDEN in this case,) a Recruit, and a dog. Both my Ranger and the Swordmaiden were poisoned by the spiders, and only had one action per activation afterwards instead of two. The Swordmaiden did a lot of spider ass-kicking though. In the end, both Mike and I had our Rangers level up.

After that, we played the through the single-scenario Blood Moon mission. This is only the second time I've played through this one, and the first time cooperatively.  Given the limitations on how many Companions I could bring with my Ranger, I opted for the Swordmaiden again but had to leave the others in the village. This mission includes four additional Companions, so Mike had the old man (Covin) and archer girl (Orla,) while I had the axeman (Seb) and the duellist (Nicolan.)

Set up and deployment (up there in the top right corner lol!)

Mike's group went towards the barn, mine went towards the trees. We both managed to defeat all the basic encounters we faced, and we managed to draw out all three Survivors during the course of the game.

Advancing into the manor grounds

Before we entered the Manor House, we sprung one of the werewolves from a Clue marker. As it begins within the manor, we ruled that it unlocked the door coming out. It attacked my group (because I was closer) and it took a few turns of combat to take it down. The Duellist is the one who killed it after all, which was really funny because when we finally revealed the second werewolf, it turned out that he was the monster! So the secret werewolf killed the other werewolf to maintain his cover! After it was all over, we both levelled up twice, bringing both our Rangers to level 4. Nice!

Three versus the werewolf!

I really enjoyed the Blood Moon mission both times I have played it, and I would highly recommend it. These two games we played were really the second part of the trial run for Mike and I; we have decided that we do, in fact, enjoy Rangers Of The Shadow Deep and so it is what we are going to playing for a bit. The cooperative aspect, as well as the opportunity to choose different Companions before each mission, gives us a breath of fresh air that has been sorely missing from our usual games of the same warbands or armies against one another.

During the course of both games, I was having a really good time just enjoying the game and socializing with Mike. As a result, I didn't take as many pictures as I usually do. I think this too is a sign that it is a good game, since I am more interested in what I am doing that what I am going to be presenting later on. It looks like "The Beacon Tower" is going to be next. I gotta get to work on the scenery...

Rangers of the Shadow Deep and the supplements can be bought here.

FiveCore Blue World

So, today I decided to hit three targets with one game:

1) I wanted to play a game, any game, on my new blue terrain.

2) I've been wanting to play a nice little solo game without it being a part of one of my campaigns.

3) I've wanted to play FiveCore 3rd Edition with my Warhamster 40,000 models for quite a while now.



So, a one-off FiveCore 3rd Edition game pitting four Death Guard against nine Eldar on Blue World. I rated the bolters as 2 Kill dice and 2 Shock dice, with a More Dakka option of 6 Shock dice instead. Their pladma gun was a true killer, with 2 Kill dice, 3 Shock Dice, and a further 1 Kill die and 1 Shock die to any other model within 1" of the target model. Oh, and Power Armor for the Death Guard as well. The Eldar's shuriken catapults were rated as 1 Kill die and 2 Shock Dice, with an option for 4 Shock dice. They didn't get any armor.



The Death Guard had to escort an uarmed Cultist to Objective 1. The Eldar had to kill half of the Death Guard. The Eldar managed to scrape out a win after many turns of battering each other back and forth..



This was the first time I had used the random objective generator in the FiveCore 3rd Edition rules. Had the missions been reversed, the Eldar would have probably won the game on the first or second turn, rather than after an unacceptable level of casualties.



It was fun playing FiveCore again, as it's been quite a while since I have done so. Mostly I have been playing either Five Parsecs From Home or Five Leagues From The Borderlands, both also from Nordic Weasel Games. Once in a while I dabble with Rangers Of The Shadow Deep as well. However, after having spent as much time as I have playing games that are designed for solo play from the ground up, I think in the future I am going to try to talk my friends into FiveCore and continue with Five Leagues and Five Parsecs for those times when I am playing with myself.



As an aside, my wife thinks my "Blues Clues" objective markers are a bit silly. I maintain that, as I am using them while I am playing with my toy soldiers, they are perfectly appropriate.

FiveCore 3rd Edition and the supplements are available here.

Five Leagues From The Borderlands and the supplements are available here.

Five Parsecs From Home and the supplements are available here.

Rangers Of The Shadow Deep and the supplements are available here.