Basement-Con Friday night (Fistful of Lead)

For the opening night of Basement-Con we dug out an old time favorite, Fistful of Lead.

The dirty streets of Lesterville once again ran red with blood. The scenario this time? Gold in the bank, a rich Railroad Man to nab and hold for ransom, and the hand of Camel Face Annie, lady of the evening.

The town of Lesterville

The citizens, unaware of what's to come.

Deputy Dan goes down to El Guappo's guns

Marshal Bill dies early

Blood Alley. There's always a Blood Alley

Fistful of Lead. Always fun, simple and bloody. My daughter, running the League of Gentlemen Gunfighters tied in Victory Points with son, running Yellow Knife's Indians. 8 gangs, played to conclusion in under 3 hours. 

Basement-Con Saturday (Medievals)

Saturday's game at Basement-Con, was a medieval slugfest using one of favorite rules "Flower of Chivalry (see previous posts on the Campaign for the Kingdom).

The scenario, the doddering king Osbert III, had been facing opposition to his throne for years. Finally, his nephew Ruprect made his move. It would be a battle over the strategically important village of Farfield-Upon-the-Smund.

the battlefield

Ruprect's forces arrayed

the battelines close

Things looked bad for Osbert. Most of the general's on Ruprect's side were rated as "Brilliant", allowing them to operate more independently. But. early in the game, the losses were almost equal.

The battle for the village begins

Then, suddenly, in one turn, everything changed. Ruprect's troops inflicted heavy losses on Osbert, taking out 7 units in one fell swoop. It was over.

Each commander started with equal units. A knight, a halberd and a longbow unit. Then, they took turns choosing more units till they all had five.

Each commander had a card that matched his troops.

Basement_com Saturday night (Supers)

Saturday night was the Basement General's theme game, which follows our unofficial motto "First the Zombies, then the robots, then the tanks."

It was a Golden Age Super Hero battle amidst the jungles of a hidden Nazi island base, off the coast of South America. The victory conditions revolved around stopping the baddies from a) launching their experimental rocket aimed at the US coast, full of zombie gas. b) capture the scientist involved, in case plan "a" fails c) capture General Von Sturm, head of the Ubersoldaten program.

The Axis were allowed to set up first. They chose the concentrate their forces around the mountain base, rather than try to spread out and cover all the possible entry points.

The Liberty legion split in two. The flyers would approach en masse, and try to overwhelm the mountain top. The ground forces would draw off the remaining forces. Their planned unraveled from the get go. The flyers were picked off one by one by the security forces (not even supers!). Only Warhawk and Jack O'Lantern remained, with the latter lobbing fire bombs and take out most of the robots.

Then, a few ill timed charges by the speedsters of the LL landed them surrounded by enemy troops and quickly dispatched.

The mad scientist managed to get halfway through the launch sequence before Warhawk, dodging ground fire, knocked him silly. On the ground, things looked a little better for the Liberty Legion. Seawolf and Weapon H were taken out of the fight. Liberty Belle healed a few of her allies, but was attacked by zombies and was unable to finish before a few of the heavies, like Sgt. Stone were dispatched.

With hour getting late, time was called on this game despite a clear conclusion. So I made one.

"His forces decimated, Ubermensch, leader of the Axis super soldiers, hefted the giant rocket and headed toward the US coast with the remainder of the Liberty Legion in hot pursuit. He was determined to deliver the bomb to Washington, himself. Somewhere over the Caribbean, a combination of fighter planes and Liberty legion heroism brought down the rocket. It, along with Ubermensch, were lost in at sea. But where?"

Thursday Space Battle

The Carrier "Lasalle"

Last night the Neo-Soviets invaded Euro-Fed space, in a Full Thrust space battle. Both forces contained mostly ships-of-the-line with a capital ship split up between three groups.

The Neo-Soviets charged in fast, catching the Euro-Fed fleet unable to maneuver amid an astroid field. But, the Battleship October Revolution, came in a little too hot. His engines were damaged and she was unable to turn very quickly or slow down properly. As a result, she flew right out of the battlefield. 

A huge fighter skirmish erupted. Several of the smaller ships were swarmed and destroyed.

The battle swayed back and force for several turns, but in one turn the Neo-Soviets lost 4-5 ships and it was over. I'm sure they'll lick their wounds and be back...

Super Thursday

Last night was another Super System game, this time with a lot of kid players, and you know what that means? Chaos. They rarely do what you think they're gonna do, or should do.  Which equals FUN.

The kids (and one adult) were on one side running the Heroes. They moved very cautiously through the city, hugging buildings. Not very heroic.

The villains, on the other hand, were more aggressive, taking to the sky and rooftops.

The heroes had a few early victories, stunning villains with mental attacks and hyper-moves.

But, in the end, the bad guys began to grind down the heroes. Captain Cryo froze several, Mechagor slammed the Cowl through a building, and Flea was gunned down by Killshot.

Doc Titan faces Emperor Ape

As, usual SS provides a great game. The mechanics make it easy to grasp, and the powers make it fun.

Blood Bowl Thursday

Elvis

Meat was back on the menu last night. The Nevereverlanders took the #1 spot in the standings (Only because the Maulers sat out this time). They beat the out-classed One-Eyed Jacks in a game that saw lots of Dirty Tricks. The Jacks almost had a TD overturned because of it!

Four games at once

Uller's Uglies just could not keep up with the fleet feet of the Skavens. The Fury Rodents lost their Rat Ogre early in the game again, due to Dirty Tricks.

The No-Name Nasties and Kleavers fought a brutal battle on the pitch, with Karlsborg pullling off a stunning TD in the last minutes, but not enough to win.

There may be a new team taking the pitch late in the season. The Amazons take the field, perhaps filling the spot taken by the "No Show" Orcs.

Battlefield Evolution playtest

Maybe it was the offer of free booze, or maybe everyone wanted some WW2 again. We've tried different rule sets over the years, but never clicked with any of them. Like all the Basement Generals games, we want something simple, can be played in about 3 hours, but gives a feel for the period. So, we gave Battlefield Evolution: World at War a whirl.

Rules? Check. Dice? Check. Beer? Check. Cigar? Check.

We kept it simple. No tanks, no artillery, no crazy objectives. 6 1/2 players (the Boy would run a MG team and the panzerschrect), each controlling a squad with the option of splitting those into fire teams. The rules themselves are basic. One side goes, then the other, with each unit getting two actions. You can move/shoot, move/move, shoot move, etc. No big revelation here, except when you take in the Reactions. If an enemy unit comes within 10" or fires on you, the target may fire or move in reaction. The shooting mechanics are simple enough charts weren't really needed after awhile.

Germans emerge from the trees

The objective was the walled farmhouse. Take and Secure. Both sides closed from each end of a 6 x 8 table, playing length-wise. As in real life, plans went smoothly til the bullets started flying. Players found how deadly gunfire is. A well placed MG can wipe a squad out quickly. Now, for a word about Morale. There isn't any, really. When a unit is reduced to half, be it a fire team or squad, they are mostly combat ineffective. They can take no offensive actions, merely react. No rolls for morale. Some players took awhile to adjust to this, but I thought it had a lot of subtlety to it.

The Americans attempt a crossing

Splitting you squad into smaller units gave them more flexibility, but made them more vulnerable when casualties started. Bigger squads could take more hits, but were had less tactical options.

On the American left, a well placed German MG cut the squad to pieces, effectively taking them out of the equation. On their right, a stream seemed to slow them down for an inordinate amount of time. Maybe they were just being cautious?  When they finally did get across, a bazooka shot took the corner off the building along with most of a German squad.

Overall, I liked them. I want another try. I find a couple of play tests is what you need for a final decision.

The remnants of squad huddle next to a wall for cover