Thursday GASLIGHT

It was cold outside last night, but guns and boilers were hot down in the basement. Scoring some extra buildings from Gen. Steve, I was able to really fill the battlefield nicely. 

A small river split the village of La Objective. Whoever could the most troops on the other side was the victory. Recipe for a bloodbath.

The Anglo French Forces.

The Germans aided by the evil genius Prof Nightshade (boo, hiss).

Regulars and Zuoaves move forward under the protection of L'Roue and the Spyder.

The naval brigade tries an outflanking manuever.

Rockettruppen prepare to launch.

The center of town erupts into battle.

It was the usual GASLIGHT fun. Things didn't start, whole units were wiped out in a single turn while others went unscathed. Whenever I leave the game up to the players, I always get asked to put in a VSF game.

Battle at the Ford

One again the Legion in Mexico braved the heat and superior numbers. This time, to get supplies across the river to an outpost under siege. It was a straight shot down the middle, but of course, rebels barred the way. 

The Legion tried to get tricky and head down one side, thus denying the rebels their full fire power. Indeed, some rebels spent the game criss crossing the table trying to get in the fight. 

Deadly fire from the rebel's "Green Die of Doom" quickly brought down more thn a few Legionnaires. But, it was when the Legion stopped to try and duke it out with the rebels on the catina roof that they effectively lost the game.

I'll try this scenario again with equal forces, or give the crack French troops a better bonuses.

Thursday night gunfight

I knew we were having quite few of the boys over last night, so I dug an old favorite, "Fistful of Lead". Every bit of scum in the territory showed up to steal the railroad payroll. 

Each player had their own objectives besides capturing the gold. The Leftover Gang and the Injuns started a skirmish right off, but decided after a couple of casualties, maybe a team-up might be better.

El Guappo and his banditos stated in a terrible place between to other gangs, and got chewed up pretty bad. Meanwhile, the Longriders and Stinky Dixon's gangs took advantage of cover and stayed clear of the sometimes violent citizens of Lesterville. (except when the Dixon's almost ran over local Egg Shin and got karate chop in return).

the Dixons steal a wagon

In the end, Injun Joe of the Longriders, was able (with the help of the Dixons) to steal the payroll and win.

Run El Guappo, run!

too slow

Mini-Basement-Con

The Baroness left for a gathering of the lady nobility this weekend, so I put on a mini version of Basement-Con. Thursday and Friday were mostly boardgames so I pulled out the stops for a GASLIGHT mega-battle Saturday night.

Here's the pictures:

a "Spider" walks through the trees....

Franco-British forces push towards the bridge

Clankers advance towards the farmhouse

French marines find a ford, while the Le Roue blocks the bridge

Skirmish on the flank

One of the Empress's Own Elite Lady Hussars brings the Roue to a halt.

Arena

Sorry for the delay from last Thursday's usual battle report. I've been working on a set of fantasy gladiator rules for awhile. Something easy enough for a convention, but good enough to hold up for one of or regular Thursday night games.

So, I had the rules, but no arena. Using 2 inch thick pink foam, I cut 6 x 6 inch pieces. Glued those to a same size foam core base.I scribed in one inch squares, added cracks, painted black and dry brushed grey. I repeated this 15 more times to create a 2 foot by 2 foot geomorphic arena, that can be easily reconfigured over and over. Some tiles have walls, some pits or crevasses. I still have to add some flavor: different color tiles here and there. Moss, blood and most of all sludge or water for the pits.

I used some marines I had laying around and painted them up quick for test run. This made it ore SciFi than fantasy. There were "power ups" all around. Players could land on them and had a 50/50 chance or grabbing upgrades, ammo or armor to their gladiator, from the cards I made. This served as a way to keep the players from sitting in one place blasting away. I also limited the ranges and gave them limited ammo. I added simple teleporters and viola!

It was great !

Things I'm adding:

Traps. Now when you land on an upgrade, there's a chance it's a trap.

Drones. Eliminated players can still screw with the living by piloting little bombots around.

The list goes on!

Flashing Steel!

After the brutal beating we gave Drums and Shakos last week, I decided to pull back and try a smaller game. We only had 4 players last night, so I dug out some minis I've had sitting around patiently for rules to go with. 

I recently downloaded the latest in the "Song of..." family from Ganesha Games, "Flashing Steel". Having played lots of games from the family the group was already familiar with the mechanics. But, FS seemed to have a little more depth. I gave each player only two figures each (except the Cardinal's men who got a bunch of "extras"). Each team only came out to 150 points. Normally in a two player game, you use 500 points a side.

The scenario went thusly: A messenger carrying secret letters of love to the Queen's lover has been waylayed on the road to Calias. She has sent her loyal Musketeers to find the messenger and the letters before they fall into the wrong hands. Enter the Cardinal's men. They want the letters to prove the Queen's disloyalty. Somewhere at the crossroads they meet....

Each player had to search areas on the board. Aramis found the messenger right away, but forced to burn an activation each turn to keep him close. He could take him off the board, but would lose Aramis for the rest of the game.

The Duc D'Harme and his lackey Smedley stumbled into the thugs that had attacked the messenger. While they were distracted D'Artagnon and Porthos attacked. Unfortunately for our heroes, it was a bad move. D'Artagnon was taken out by a common thug, while Porthos was done in by the Duke and his man-servant.

On the other side of the table Athos was dispatching a veritable horde of Cardinal's Guards single-handedly, while Rochford (boo-hiss) stumbled around the woods looking for letters (which he found along with a pack of wolves).

It finally came down to Aramis and Rochford. It was Aramis's "Slippery-ness" that won him out. The Queen's honor remains intact!

ITEN-Fantasy

In the Emperor's Name, a free set of Sci-Fi rules set in the not-40k universe, turned out to be great time when we tried it out several weeks ago. Though nostalgic for early GW days, that universe has never been my bag. Fantasy, particularly a large scale skirmish, which is the best for my group of 6-8 weekly, is what I wanted to try. Now, I loves me my Song of Blades and Heroes, but it's really a two player game. I figured it would be simple enough to tailor ITEN to fantasy. The ensuing brawl proved me right.

the Wastes

"The temple of Baal-El has lain buried in the Wastelands for untold centuries. But recently, during an earthquake, the temple emerged from the depths. Now, forces converge. Some to destroy the temple, some to worship it's dark god..." 

the Elves

The Adventurers

The Barbarians

the Forces of Chaos

The King's Men

The forces weren't balanced point-wise. But tactics should have panned out. They didn't. It was mostly a one sided affair in favor of Chaos. The Boy, controlling the Adventurers, got hammered by the Barbarians second turn. He never even got off a spell. (Spells are basically Psyker Abilities from ITEN). The forces of Good should have hauled ass to the temple, and then defended it's narrow passage. Chaos warriors are slow, the Barbarians have no long range, and the orcs were farthest away and blocked by terrain. Oh well. It was still fun.