Thursday Night GASLIGHT

I'll let the pictures talk.

The calm before the storm...

British Naval Brigade troops back up the Zouaves.

I think its this way, chaps.

French Marines supported by the Spyder.

L'Roue, American Volunteers and French regular move in from the far right flank.

Lady Hussars face them. Their rifles would prove deadly accurate.

The Electro Cannon is a fricken' sniper. It takes down the the Little Spyder first shot and devastates the infantry opposite.

Here comes the Wheel. Uhlans wait in reserve.

FORWARD!

The "brave" marines take a breather in the woods.

German steam. He was a killer last night, too.

Full reverse. Unicycle Uhlans drive L'Roue back.

The Zouave Captain takes on the Steam Tank alone.

The bloodly aftermath

At 10pm we called it. The Anglo-French alliance only really had one funcyioning infantry unit, but 2 contraptions in the fight.

The Germans still held the base, so I called it a minor German victory. Some of the pictures are blurry. Our new war correspondent (the Boy), wasn't used to the camera yet. But at least he was sober.

RECRUITs

Had a chance to run two games of Pulp Alley at our RECRUITs convention this past weekend. I only took a few pictures of the Friday session, but David Phipps (creator of Pulp Alley showed up) along with his daughter so hopefully they snapped a few too.

Each player got a mission objective packet.

By all accounts, it seemed everyone had fun. The mechanics were easy to pick up, and I think we broke some kind of a record by playing with 8 players. I slowed a bit, but didn't break.

The table is set

The Royal Society dukes it out with Danger, Inc. over some fuel

One of the Iron Legion captures the rocket pack

I allowed players to choose their set up, and both games ended up with almost identical start points.

The Red Raptor won both games, mostly because those players went right for the Plot Points and didn't get bogged down in fire fights. And because he's a complete bad ass.

Can't wait to try with the Basement Generals.

Hail Caesar Fantasy

We finally had a chance to get Lead Addict's lovely 15mm Demonworld troops on the table. Newly based and flocked, ready for battle. Using Hail Caesar, with the lists from the Hail Sauron Yahoo Group (which are too Warhammer-centric for me, but can fix), fight between Orcs and Elves began.

There were 3 players a side. The Elves went for bigger divisions with fewer commanders. This would make it tough to "Break" a division, but the tactical abilities would be limited.

We orcs went with smaller divisions but 5 commands. This would help later in the battle.

Trolls make sure the troops in front stay in the fight

Giants, too.

The Elves won initiative, but being the fey gentlemen they are, elected to let us brutes go first. There was spirited advance all along the front (good die rolling, no failures).

Then the elves moved. They got all but their flying elements moving.

The forces prepare to clash

The elven right flank

The gods decide the elves fate

By turn 3 we were getting close. A boulder from my rock lobbing troll, sent an elf spear unit scurrying away. Meanwhile on the orc left flank, wolf riders and flying horses and centaurs were mixing it up. A certain hill exchanged hands many times.

When it was time to come to grips, a group cowardly elves decided to use the woods as shelter, and  pick at the brave orcs from afar. A bloodthirsty charge drove them deeper into the woods and ran a few off. But this left that division close to breaking.

In the center, a group of minotaurs was run off without a fight, a the flanks were turning into a meat grinder. Having started late (stupid kids and their sports), we didn't get much farther. It looked like the elves might get the upper hand, but you know how things go in war, they could have just as easily lost. Time for re-match.

Moments before the treants destroy my spearmen

As far as I'm concerned, we've found our much longed for fantasy mass battle rules. HC is scalable, so we' just halved all the distances. Worked great. Next time, we throw in magic and get reference cards for the troops. I'd also like some proper hi markers. The figs are so nice, I don't like mucking up the table with dice.

A good evening, and K-State and Mizzou both won!

GASLIGHT

Any time I throw out, "what do you guys want to game tonight?", the answer is usually GASLIGHT. This scenario found the Great Powers investigating a "fallen star" that hit somewhere in the deep desert.  I brought in some elements from Pulp Alley like plot point areas. There were four minor and one major.

These plot point areas led to some fun bits. 

Uhlans find the Spring

"Look sir, some sort of idol".

Stalwart Ladies, I say

The Brute Class Land Ironclad

The Germas lost 2 guys in the quick sand, the French woke a mummy who followed them around, the British awoke a beast from Beyond, and the German Uhlans found the Guardian of the Eternal Spring. All while a battle was raging.

Other points of interest:

In any game its in, the Killenkanner is either an unstoppable killing machine or a complete dud. This game it was the latter.

The uhlan never got to use the Creature, because the officer commanding him was whacked by an unlucky (or lucky for the French) shot.

The last Lady Hussar on the table was shot unceremoniously from behind by the Roughriders (paging Dr Freud).

Professor Nightshade's Walking Monitor has only been destroyed once before. Over countless battles the Spider has battled the Monitor, always losing to the Professor's contraption. Vive Le France! The Spider took her down.

The dreadful Rokkittruppen manage to live through the fight by hiding in the trees. I ask you Basement Generals not in attendance last night, who do you think commanded them?

That was just a few highlights.

Come along little Froggie

The much maligned clockwork tank stayed in the fight

By end of the night, both sides had captured 2 minor plot points, while the Major was overrun by the Brits. They found it was the ship of yet another alien race, there to warm them of their impeding doom.

Golden Age Supers

A small hamlet in the English countryside is about to become a battlefield. This sleepy little village is actually an Allied secret base, home to numerous top secret technologies and currently the prison for the nefarious Axis scientist Faust.

Guarding these secrets are members of the Freedom Force.

They are soon to be attacked by Team Axis.

Team Axis was giving the choice of spreading out, but we chose to keep it tight and all enter the board in one place. Our henchmen quickly fell under a hail of bullets. Blitzkrieg dashed forward, pummeled Britannia, then zipped away. Kriegshunde then charged up and hammered her. It looked bad for the Allies.

Between Uberman's brute strength and Agent Axis's deadly fire, the soldiers guarding the town went down along with the Druid.

Golden Crusader was surrounded and beaten, while Jack-O-Lantern seemed the only Freedom Fighter capable of dealing any damage.

In the end, the scientist was rescued but KO'd. The radio tower was smashed, and the Freedom Forced forced to flee.

It was a great game. Kriegshunde definitely gets the MVP. That guy took a beating but still kept whalloping the good guys. It was nice to have a small group, including the Boy who tore himself away from Black Ops 2 for once. SS2 always gives a fun night. I'll be starting a new campaign with new heroes and villains, so stay tuned True Believers..... 

6mm Fast Play Grande Armee

We hadn't dug out this old favorite for awhile. Some of the group actually had never played Fast Play Grande Armee, so this was their chanve. Of, course, those particular few didn't show.

I've been battlin' the Two Week Crud so sat this one out, instead helping remember rules we alwasy forget.

The scenario was an Austrian defense in depth. The French were going to have to capture or at least push the Austrians out, of the towns and secure the bridges beyond. The French had a 1.5-to-1 advantage.

The Austrians decided to push as far as they were allowed to deploy forward, taking the hills. As you might have guessed, it was a hard slog to push them off. It wasn't helped by the French left, made of the entire cavalry force. They wouldn't budge. When they finally got moving, they swept everything aside and made a huge wheel around the Austrian right, but not before time ran out.

The Austrians managed to do the same on their left. A defensive strategy quickly went offensive as they began to push back their French opponents.

As usual, a great game with plausible outcomes and a feel for the period. I like that there is built into the rules, a great follow up, post game pursuit mechanism. It pays not to commit all your cav. You can turn a minor victory into a crushing one as your victorious horse ride down the defeated foe. Great for campaign. Wish Sam would publish these by themselves instead as a an add on for Grande Armee.

The great 6mm Baccuss minis painted by Mr. Scott.

A little skirmish

Over the break we played a little VSF skirmish. In our big GASLIGHT story arc, the Germans have been getting new weapons and technology from the alien Visitor. One of their not-so-secret bases is located at Castle Von Lowenbrau. An diversionary attack on the nearby coast by British forces has left but a skeleton crew to watch over the base. Now, British forces led by the legendary Sir Nigel Tuftnell 3rd earl of Spindletapp, are sneaking in. 

The German garrison stand ready

This Lady Hussar guards the lab at all costs

The British are assisted by an escaped scientist who has told them of a secret way under the walls. The British decide to send their Naval Landing Party right at the gates, while the rest find the secret way in. They must find the technology and destroy any new weaponry they can't carry with them.

From the start, the deadly fire from the German garrison is telling. Not a man makes it through the gate house.

Sir Nigel scouts the walls.

Sir Nigel's forces fair little better and only just make it into the castle before being slaughtered.

In hindsight, the Brits should have had more troops, but only a handful of folks made it out. Instead of GASLIGHT, we used my Fistful of Lead rules, which worked great for the small action.

Lady Hussars prove deadly accurate

Captain Pennyworth gets farther than any of his men

Corporal Hastings pays back the Ladies

The Allies were not successful at all. They even got the scientist recaptured. But fear not, a Norwegian observatory has spotted a strange light in the sky, headed directly for Earth!