GASLIGHT vacation game

I took last week off. Didn't go anywhere, but as they say, "a bad day at home is better than a good day at work." Got some painting done and still squeezed in a GASLIGHT game with the rest of the Basement Generals.

Emboldened by their last victory and recovery of "the Visitor", the Germans (boo, hiss) pressed their attack. This time it was a small town. Could the outnumbered garrison hold out til reinforcements arrived?

As it turns out they could. A French Aeronef dropped marines and regulars just as the German Rokkittruppen assaulted the town.

The very thin red line

German troops advance

The French arrive

Artillery duels with Klankers

Another fun game. One of reasons I like these rules is the ease of throwing a game together. I'm never sure who's going to show week to week. So the ability to grow or shrink a game is a must. Plus, the rules themselves are a blast. Now, back to painting Swiss...

Delves Dark and Deep

Last night we had the opportunity to play test Scott Pyle's newest edition to the Goalsystem family of rules: Goalsystem Delves. People who have read this blog know I am a big fan of the Goalsystem mechanics. Smooth, simple,  with just a enough luck to make things fun.

We had a new guy over who was completely new to the whole waragming experience. He picked up the game in minutes was yelling at the Ogre to "Die! Die you bastard!"

Over all, another positive experience. I will keep my comments and criticisms to an email to Scott later. 

"Ladies, ladies. There's enough of me to go around."

The adventure was split up into seperate "encounters" spread around the board. I kept it sandbox style and let the players choose which places they wanted to go, but said the ultimate goal was to reach the entrance to the Caverns of Doom, located at the opposite end of the table. We had 6 players controlling single miniature of a mix of your usual suspects in a fantasy party (except the thief, who nobody wanted to play). Assisted by Lead Addict, I ran the monsters.

"Friend, have you heard the word of the Lord?"

The party first went to the Haunted Woods. There they fought a mad Druid, who had twisted himself into an evil ent. He was joined by a group of angry dryads. The mage failed a sleep spell and the fighters charged in. The battle was short, and the party escaped with a few scratches and some treasure.

"SMASH!"

 

Rygar just can't seem to fight one monster at a time.

Next, avoided the abandoned village crossed the bridge. There they fought the evil Mer-man. 

The cleric went first, but did little. It took the Barbarian to bring the fish man down.

Then they came to Blood Pass. They were ambushed by Orcs and an Ogre. This time, a few of them actually took some hits. The Barbarian had to be healed and save vs death to survive. Meanwhile Sir Wulfric valiantly battled the Ogre. The Ogre snuck in a heavy wallop which almost brought the knight down, but in the end, the ogre was surrounded and overwhelmed.

Here, we had to stop because of the hour. I got lots of notes for the author, and had a night of beer, friends and monster bashing. Doesn't get much better.

Campaign for the Kingdom

Flush with his last victory, Oswald, Baron of Ock and Lord of the North Marches marched on the capital, assured by his hangers-on that he would be crowned KIng. But, barring his way was Roderick, Duke of Greendale. It seems Roderick, after watching his sovereign fall in battle, had taken up the standard in defense of the kingdom. He would fight for the people, and in turn they would crown him. So, Roderick was quite dismayed when he saw the former king's own son, Rutiger, marching with Oswald.

They met outside the walls of the Stone Keep.

Oswald's Battle line

Roderick's

We me again to decide the fate of the kingdom. As usual, each player started with a core of 3 units: dismounted knights, billmen and archers. From there we took turns picking 3 more (kickball team style) until each player had 6 units. Victory was set at 18 Morale points. Loss of a unit counted as 2 Morale points, and each terrain feature one.

Now the best part, rolling for Leader abilities. The contenders must of been tired from the march, because they both came up with a "Plodding". This would limit their Action Deck and their flexibility. All except for Lionel, Baron of Stonekeep. Defending his own lands, he operated at "Brilliant". This would allow him some freedom to operate outside Roderick's command radius.

Lionel's troops surge forward.

The battle started with Roderick's forces charging out the gate. All except Lionel, who stood firm. (Mostly because of a failed Maneuver roll, which caused his troops to go on "React" orders instead).This caused the ranks to become spread out, as the faster, lighter troops surged ahead.

On Oswald's side, much the same.

As the troops moved towards each other, most were able to readjust their lines. All except Edwin, Baron of Fennwyck, who's troops seemed to alternate between charging and holding. Charging and holding.

On the Claimant's left, Rutiger's troops were the first to clash. He and Lionel's troops went at it with gusto. Separated by the river, it was a battle in itself. Both battled around the bridge and adjacent woods. Soon, both had lost half their troops.

In the middle, however, was where the battle was decided. Finally coming to grips, Oswald and Roderick's troops hammered each other. This lasted several turns, but was soon over. All but Roderick's pikes fled or were destroyed. A stunning second victory for Oswald (18 to 12). On to the capital!

After the battle Roderick was captured and beheaded. Meanwhile, their was desent in the victor's ranks. Edwin, who had done his part to capture the village, feeling snubbed joined the ranks of the Contenders. Soon he would lead them

As usual, a very enjoyable evening of medieval mayhem. I need to sit down and write my version of "10 Games That Define Me", and Flower of Chivalry will be at the top.

Assault on Space Station A.P.E.

This was the final episode in a long running storyline I've been running for my group using SuperSystem2. One of the Arch Villains faced by our heroes has been Emperor Ape. Over the course of several balanced games (points-wise) the bad guys have solidly trounced the heroes over and over. Some serious grudges have been formed, and brought several non-regulars out of the woodwork for one last try at the Emperor....
When we last left, Emperor Ape had used his insidious Simian Ray to turn the world's human population to apes under his thrall. A few heroes were off world fighting the Intergalactic Crime League and were unaffected. They now converged on Space Station A.P.E. (Advanced Prototype Experimental), recently commandeered by the would-be world conquerer and his Simian Ray.
Our heroes must destroy the Ray, and rescue any survivors of the original crew.

The space station awaits! The players were allowed to pick from a variety of heros and villains (unless they brought their own).

Emperor Ape address the troops.

First aboard were the Guantlet and the Spartan. Both hand-to-hand brawlers. The entrance was a great choke point. They were quickly cut down by the combined might of the reprogrammed station Defense Drones and the villain Killshot. Eggsterminator finished off the heroes with his "mind scrambler". Yes, there were plenty of egg related jokes. "Eggcellent!"

From the side doors, the original crew, transformed by the Simian Ray, and under the control of Emperor Ape, attack. The heroes had to subdue them without killing.

I had to give the heroes a chance to avoid the death trap of the hallway so....

The hero known as the Crimson Cowl, also a mental specialist, brought down Killshot and Eggsterminator and cleared the hallway. Meanwhile the Flea bounced down the passageways, pasted the astroapes and helped Goldar assault Ape.

It was actually Cyclops of the New Olympians, in a long standing grudge match, that finally brought down the proud Ape. Flea was able to hyper move around the station at will.

He found, and shut down the Ray, freeing humanity.

All that was left was the mopping up:

It was a great game, with many heroic and villainous speeches. It ended the way it had to, and sets us up for more adventures.

The Visitor. A VSF battle

crackle-crackle..."Science Division observed several meteorite impacts this evening in Sector 13. One meteor exhibited an erratic flight path upon entry. Dispatch Assault Zepplin Von Seydlitz to investigate. End transmission"....

With this ominous message, the players were tasked with checking out all the impact craters on the table, and returning with anything significant.

The German players got the speed, while the Anglo-French players got the firepower. Both tried to send most of their forces around the flanks. The Germans marched one unit right down the middle of town, supported by a Nightshade created Land Monitor, while the unicycle Uhlans and velocipede swung wide.

The Anglo-French hugged the flanks, only sending Impervious Suits and a lone tricycle rocket battery up he middle.

The battlefield

French Marines use the Spyder as cover

A British Brute Class Landship steams forward

Unicycle uhlans investigate a crater. Nothing here, sir.

German troops advance through town

The French line

A combined Uhlan-Rokkittruppen assault devastate the British Naval landing troops

The pilot of a Killenkanner finds a strange craft crashed in the field. An even stranger creature emerges. The Killenkanner pilot "hears" inside his head, "Take me to your leader".

The Empress's Lady Hussars greet the Visitor.

Rokkitruppen mop up.

The ladies blast away at some British troops assaulting the Killenkanner.

With evening waning, the Anglo-French called it quits. Their forces were down to a few contraptions and the Tricycle Rocket team who had only moved 6 inches the whole game.

The Germans escaped with the wreckage of the ship and the strange new Visitor form the sky. What secrets would he bring, and could it turn the tide of the war?

Once again, GASLIGHT, with some of our own tweaks, provided a fun game. It has inspired to work on some new troops and some new weapons......

Future War Commander

I missed out on a lot of games last weekend when I couldn't make RECRUITs. One I especially wanted to try out was a game of Future War Commander put on by fellow Basement General, Greg. It was pretty game with lots of lunar terrain and vehicles and aliens almost exclusively done with Mechwarrior and MonsterApocolypse repaints.

I've always been a fan of Blitzkrieg Commander, and have read FWC a dozen times but never played. The scenario involved first contact between the humans and all their tech and an alien hive-mind race. Of course things went bad immediately.

On the alien side we had a creature that could project a forcefield dome, one that could teleport into close combat, a giant beast with horrific ranged weaponry and hordes of little squishy thing to tear and rend. It didn't do us a bit of good.

Our plan was to be very aggressive, but we just couldn't mount an attack. We lost most our forcefield troops off the bat and our hordes died quickly. Not a good first showing for the new fearsome race.

I still really like the rules. Robofire! wins for simplicity and quickness, but FWC has a bit more depth. There is also included in the rules, a version for playing 28mm skirmish with essentially the same mechanics. Looks like I got some painting to do. 

The Campaign for the Kingdom 2.0

The KIngdom has been in turmoil since Rutiger the Usurper took the throne. And so it was, that within a year of his coronation, Rutiger was already fighting for his crown.

Oswald, Baron of Ock, Lord of the North Marches, gathered a three of the other great houses against Rutiger. They met on the rolling countryside outside the capital.

The forces were about equal. The King had brought three of his closest allies, men who had been key in winning his crown. As the morning fog burned away, the forces face each other. Battle lines were crisp. Flags fluttered in the breeze. It was all very beautiful, really.

Then, a single horn cut the silence, and Rutiger's troops lurched forward. Across the field, Oswald's men did the same.

Both sides fought to keep their lines tight, but both had starts and stops. Some nobles stopped to allow their archers some play. Men fell.

It was finally in the center, where Rutiger and Oswald met. The king's men would get the worst of it. The center was not holding....

On the flanks, Royalists troops were beating back the rebels. It looked like it would be a close thing.

Then, the center gave. Rutiger's men fled the field. With their king retreating, the royalists retreated. In the confusion the king fell from his horse. Oswald's men captured him.

There, in within sight of his capital he fought his own uncle to take, Rutiger lost his head.

The king is dead. Long live King Oswald!

As usual, Flower of Chivalry gave us a great game. There was a lot more use of the Marcher Men (Welsh and Irish auxillaries really), They proved tough troops. I hope to add some light horse to the mix, and some fantasy elements. The campaign is off! Read more how the campaign works here.

Also, we had an extra treat. The National WW1 Museum (the biggest & best in the country) is sponsoring our local con RECRUITS. This weekend, the museum is letting RECRUITs host several games in the Museum's main hall. Among them will be a trench game that one of our group brought in to test last night.

As you can see very cool. Packed in nice little 2x4 carrying case.