Showing posts with label Sunday Night Gaming. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sunday Night Gaming. Show all posts

Monday, December 16, 2024

FASA Starfleet Game - Federation Convoy Smashes Through Klingon Blocking Force

    Mike W, standing with Star Trek ships shirt on, explains the rules to FASA Starship Combat
Our usual host wanted to take a trip down memory lane and play some FASA Starship Combat this past Sunday evening. He and Keith had played the game extensively with counters and hex maps in their college and post-college days. Mike W even showed off his tub with two binders full of ship display sheets. However, wanting to play a miniatures version of the game, he had his son Phil print off dozens of Federation and Klingon starships with base stands and got them ready for use.
    Situation towards the end of the game after Mike S and Joel's Klingon squadron had been destroyed
Awhile back, Mike S had run one of the many iterations of the game Starfleet Battles. Mike W, a FASA fan, had not been impressed with Starfleet Battles' complexity. Excessive complexity, in his eyes (and mine, to be honest)! As a gaming group, we had also played Starfleet Battles decades ago when we were in our 20s. We'd given up on it back then because we recognized it as one of those games that rewards the veteran player too much and makes it next to impossible for a newer player to stand much of a chance (with all other points being even). Most of us simply didn't play it often enough to "get good" at it, unlike the bigger fans of it in our group, who practiced at it regularly.

Mike W claimed FASA rules were "nothing like" Starfleet Battles, and emailed us the Basic Rules. I read through them and thought they were a nice, simple, stripping down of the excessive stuff (or "chewy" as my friend Andy says). I looked forward to giving them a try as I felt that, unlike Starfleet Battles, there wasn't enough variation in weapons systems and other things to handicap the newbie and arm the grognard. That said, I still think they were exactly like a simplified version of Starfleet Battles. You still have a ship display. You still allocate your power to movement, weapons, shields, etc. You still move on a hex grid using an impulse system. When you knock down a ship's shields, you still roll for internal damages (though not 40 times like in Starfleet!). 

    The two Federation freighters, left, and their three powerful escorts - 3-D printed by Phil
Mike W had concocted a three-sided scenario with secret components, he stressed. For example, Keith and I were not to discuss our Klingon squadron's victory conditions with our fellow Klingons Mike S and Joel. Allen and Phil ran the Federation's three starships and two freighters, facing our two Klingon squadrons of three ships each. We had a pretty good idea that the Federation ships, one on one, were more powerful than ours -- especially Mike S and Joel's squadron. We just didn't realize how vast that power difference was!

Our glory-seeking commodore Keith insisted that we move up slowly (we came on board after the first turn) and plan on letting the Federation ships destroy our fellow Klingons first. To score a major victory, both our allies and the Federation had to be destroyed, and both freighters captured by us. Even scenario designer Mike W was surprised by our lackluster approach and strategy. As it was, Allen detached his Enterprise class starship to deal with the three D7 whatevers captained by Mike S and Joel. Phil moved the other two ships, one a smaller one and another Keith said was a "monster" class one, towards us.

    Klingon squadron of D-somethings controlled by Keith and I, taking our time advancing
Allen needed no help from his ally to blow up the three Klingon ships, one after another. The slight bit of damage they put on him did not stop him from crippling my ship later in the game when our squadron belatedly arrived to fight the Federation. In fact, I fired only once on the very last turn of the game. I did zero damage to Allen (his shields absorbed it all) and Allen staggered my ship nearly destroying it in one salvo of phasers and photon torpedoes. I told Keith that my ship sent a transmission to Klingon High Command accusing him of sabotaging our chances of victory and blaming him entirely for the our losses...ha, ha!

    The doomed squadron of Klingon Mini-Ds commanded by Joel and Mike S
It was an overwhelming Federation victory. Whether it was Commodore Keith's tactical fault or scenario designer Mike W's imbalanced forces, we called the game as we had no chance at victory, at that point. The rules were very easy to pick up, though. Allen, who had never played FASA before, swatted aside Mike S and Joel's starships like he was the valedictorian from Starfleet. No one made any major rules blunders that I was aware of. If I am going to play a starship combat game, I am fine with FASA. 

    Counters mark where Mike S's 2 ships have blown up as Allen's Enterprise prepares to destroy Joel
Although Mike W insists the sides were more balanced than we (especially Keith, who'd played the game extensively) contended, I think it might take some adjustments to provide a more balanced game. For example, the weapons of Phil's monster class Federation ship (I forget what name they keep saying it was) and Allen's Enterprise class outranged ours noticeably. Their energy systems were more efficient, granting four points of shield protection for one energy unit vs. our two for one.

Of course, it could also be a case of "Federation bias" among the rules designers -- much like some World War II rules like to make Germans into supermen with super tanks. Or maybe not. I honestly don't know, but do know that the two most experienced players disagreed whether it was a balanced scenario. However, who am I to talk? I set up a scenario last week that (much to my surprise) gave the Vikings almost no chance of winning...! 

    Should the Klingons have been worried the GM was wearing a shirt with Enterprises all over it??
Still, it was fun to get together, roll some dice, move some ships around on a hex mat, crack jokes and have fun. Next week, we are trying a completely different take on my Viking raid on an Anglo-Saxon town. It will be much smaller, with each player controlling three Viking raider figures. We'll be using Ganesha Games' Sellswords & Spellslingers rules. The SS & SS rules have the "bad guys" (Anglo-Saxons) controlled by A.I. and cards, with all rolls being made by the players. It should be interesting, and hopefully a lot of fun. Stay tuned to see how it went...!

Miniature Painting & Purchasing Tally for 2024

  • Miniatures acquired in 2024: 227
  • Miniatures painted in 2024: 235

Monday, December 2, 2024

Starfighters: Empire Remants vs. Rebels, er New Government!

    We had 7 players and a GM for our game of Starfighters, with lots of laughs heard around the table
Keith wanted to run a Starfighters game using the Wiley Games rules. We had played it once or twice before and enjoyed it, so why not? After our first game or so, I felt there was a play balance issue with X-Wings being incredibly deadly. Keith felt he had discovered a patch for this problem in online, so this game was to give it a try. The scenario was set in the Mandalorian time frame, with the Empire being reduced to remnant holdouts and the Rebels being promoted to the new government.

    The new government squadron (formerly known as Rebels) were escorting heavily-armed freighters
The New Government players (Mike W, Mike S, and Allen) each controlled a large, heavily-armed freighter and an escorting fighter. Keith had two sizes of the Millennium Falcon and a Mando Razor Crest. Two X-wings and one Y-wing completed their flotilla, with the mission of simply moving from one edge of the table to the opposite, eight feet away.

    A flotilla of Tie fighters & bombers draw a cordon across their path and attempt to turn them back
The remnant imperials job, of course, was to ambush them and stop them from crossing our patch of interstellar turf. We had four imperial players (Jenny, Joel, Tom, and myself) each controlling an identical force of three ships. We had a classic light Tie fighter, an advanced Tie Fighter, and an imperial bomber. In our previous games, the Tie Fighters had been consumed like popcorn, blowing up at an alarming rate. Keith tried to minimize this with making only 1/3 of our force light ships, the other three being classified as "Medium" and heavier armed.

    It was four remnant imperial players (12 ships) against three former Rebels (6 ships)
The biggest change, though, was the damage table when scoring a hit on an enemy. The classic Wiley Game model present throughout most of their rules was modified in one crucial area. The 9-10 on 1d10 was no longer "Out of Action". Instead, it was a single point of damage (our light Tie fighters could take three), and a score of 10 leading to a d6 roll on a separate critical hit table. Only a "6" was a kaboom, the others causing the loss of a weapon or movement or something. As it turned out, this was too much of a fix and absolutely erased the X-wings chief advantage.

    Keith had placed his foam planets and asteroids as terrain on the tabletop for ships to hide behind
In previous games, the X-wings were armed with four lasers, getting four separate rolls to hit. Each hit would make its own roll on the classic Wiley Games damage chart, with the result of every other shot or so leading to an exploded Tie fighter. Now, there was less than a 2% chance of that happening per hit instead of 20% per hit. The result was the empire drove off the former Rebels' squadron. There was a rule that if your ship had more "Pilot Shock" than remaining hits it would disengage and fly away. When we called the game, more than half of the enemy ships were in retreat and we had suffered almost no damage. 

    Jenny channels Darth Vader and closes in on Mike S's ships, 'I've got this one now...'

Keith went home that night and promptly came up with a new damage chart which we will doubtless try again some Sunday evening. It was fun to get the star fighters out on the table again, though. Of course, with our success, it was even more fun for us than them, possibly! Still, laughs were heard all around the table on both sides. I credited our victory to the leadership of our new tactical mastermind, our friend Tom, who has been attending again on Sunday. It is good to game with him regularly again, and hear his chuckle across the tabletop!

Miniature Painting & Purchasing Tally for 2024

  • Miniatures acquired in 2024: 226
  • Miniatures painted in 2024: 220 

Monday, November 4, 2024

Scavenging Among the City Blocks - Post-Apoc Scenario

 

    From left, Allen, Mike W, and Keith check out Mike S's ruined city block terrain

It had been since April that I'd run a game in my post-apocalyptic campaign using Wiley Games rules. My friend Mike S has been working hard on terrain for his own "Fallout" style games and was wondering if he could use his terrain for a scenario. All I would have to do is GM it -- he'd bring the terrain and set up his tabletop at our usual meeting place at Mike W's "Brewpub" basement. I knew it'd been too long since a game, so said, "Sure!"

    Allen's 'Followers of the Dark Prophet' move into the ruined shell of a building nearest them
Mike's terrain is mostly downtown city blocks buildings. All of them were fairly tall with several (or more) partially destroyed floors. Obviously, lots of work went into creating these. Some of the details are very surprising -- gargoyles on the outside of buildings, wires protruding from wrecked walls, and more. I'm not sure how many of them are "in progress" or if some or all are completely done. It was an impressive layout, for sure. Personally, I would have dirtied them up more with rubble, black-washing on the walls, and ageing the wood pieces showing. But then again, I probably never would have gotten SO much assembled like he has!

    With heavy cover and many windows to shoot from, each city block building was like a fortress
I was a bit worried how "fortress-like" Mike's layout was. My guess was it might minimize interactions between the five survivor gangs investigating the downtown. Mike placed a LOT of objective markers -- more than I usually do. I wanted to give him as much control over the scenario as possible, though, so said nothing. Once the game began, most of the factions advanced into a ruined building, climbing between the partially collapsed floors, and scavenging supplies. My guess turned out to be correct. There were only four gun battles that took place between the factions (plus four additional ones seeing factions firing on investigating Scout or Sentry Bots and the denizens of the "citadel." Mike had a very large building that looked like it began as a Gothic Warhammer piece of terrain. He crafted it onto a post-apocalyptic shell of a building, with ruined and crumbling walls. He said he didn't have a preference what was inside the citadel and told me to put in there whatever I want inside.

    Keith (in green) moves one of his miniatures while Mike S to his left enjoys the look of his tabletop!
I decided to make this even more of a joint scenario design. I extended an invitation to our friend Keith to come up with the bad guys or monsters that would be in the citadel. I asked him if he had any figures he'd been wanting to play with but hadn't had a chance to get on the table yet. He said he did, and sent me a link to his Orca Finn's Basement blog and pointed out the post-apoc denizens he wanted to use. I created cards for them and printed them off so they'd be ready if anyone investigated the citadel. I even offered bonus Renown Points to any faction that went inside. I didn't want to tease Keith and promise him his figs would get in a game and not have it happen!

    F Troop's Pvt. Hippie searches an objective marker (suitcase with pom pom) - the goal of the players
With five players on a 6'x4' table, I had two each deploy on the long edges, nobody on the citadel's short edge, and one on the opposite edge from it. They had to deploy all four of their survivors within a foot of the spot I indicated. I gave them extra deployment depth because I wanted to push them forward in the hopes of getting more interaction. Mike W's Bass Reeves deployed on the short edge opposite the Citadel. He groused a bit that there weren't as many objective markers near him compared to the others, likely a valid complaint. Nevertheless, his four figures advanced directly towards the building closest to their zone and began to scale it to reach the objective markers. Mike S had placed most on the upper floors. So, before the game, I asked the players how they wanted to handle scaling the interior of these buildings as there were no stairwells modeled. We came up with a system which was probably very generous. Keith likened his Nightstalker's ascent to"a group of Chinese acrobats." 

    Cpl. Killer climbs onto the roof of the citadel - modified Warhammer (?) building he incorporated
To the Bass Reeves' right, Allen's Followers of the Dark Prophet similarly moved into a city block building. They began to ascend to the second and third floors, where several markers were scattered. To his right, his brother Joel marched his F Troop forward, climbing the Citadel's roof, as well as moving alongside the building the Followers were exploring. Across from him, Mike S's Bucknuts entered the building to their front or moved down the street alongside it. We tease Mike S for his invariably aggressive play, and true to form, he fired the game's first shots. His leader Coop (yep, same figure from the Zombie RV games) squeezed off a shot at Pvt. Killer of F Troop, immediately knocking him out of action. Next, Coop fired through the opposite building's ruins and picked off Allen's Yeshua, who fell three stories to the ground, unmoving. Yep - same Mike, aggressive as ever!

    Two Bucknuts - Earle & Wrich - investigate a rubble pile in the lobby of a ruined building
Coop got his comeuppance immediately after, though, as another F Trooper climbed onto the roof and blasted away with his assault rifle. Coop toppled to the ground, wounded. The next thing to happen shows the advantage of playing a campaign over a one-off battle. Rather than firing at the shooter, Coop's compatriot Jackie dragged her wounded leader inside the building and out of line of fire. Mike knew that Coop was his team's best weapon and didn't want to lose him to a poor post-battle roll if he was knocked out of action. However, the two out of action figures meant the threshold had been reached for the Machines to be drawn by the sound of firing. In my version of the world of "Terminator," each 10% of out of action players draws a chance for the arrival of a Scout Bot. Because I was afraid the action would be limited by the terrain, with each city block a mini-fortress, I had increased the chance by an extra 10%. Sure enough, a Scout Bot rolled onto the map between Keith's Nightstalkers and Mike W's Bass Reeves.

   Scout Bot rolls onto the table drawn by the sounds of gunfire and dispatched by 'Skynet' to investigate
Seeing no Nightstalkers, it rolled in the direction of three of the Bass Reeves sheltering behind a burnt out car. Mike seemed unconcerned and was instead focused on payback against Allen's Followers of the Dark Prophet. Allen had knocked out one of the Bass Reeves last game, as well as a member of F Troop. He would pay for it as Mike sent nearly his entire force to pick off Napthali, who was actually on an errand of mercy. He'd jumped down from the second floor of the ruined building to check on Yeshua, and then carry him off-table. I give a bonus to the post-battle roll if an out of action character has been carried off the board by his comrades. Three members of the Bass Reeves squeezed off shot after shot at the black-robed survivor. He fell to the ground wounded, and then was shot again, while he lay there. Mike was relentless, though, and kept firing until Napthali had accumulated three wounds which takes a character out of action. In fact, that may be the very first time a player was taken out in one of our games because it reached its wound limit of three! Usually, a fortunate roll on the wounding table knocks them out, instead.

    Joel, Allen, Mike W, Keith, and Mike S enjoy the chance to get their survivor gangs out onto the table
This brought another Scout Bot onto the table. It ended up by Mike S's Bucknuts -- probably not a good place as his band is loaded with particularly lethal shooters. Sure enough, it was blasted several times before finally being knocked out of action. Shortly thereafter, a replacement came on board, though. This time it was a Sentry Bot clomping its metallic heavy feet in the path of the Scout Bot that was engaging the Bass Reeves. The Scout Bot had closed to within range of Big Bass and began thumping away at the concrete wall with its machine gun. The cover and the shock hit inflicted on the Scout Bot kept Big Bass safe, even though the machine missed by only one several times. Once Big Bass's men had finished off Napthali, they scrambled to the windows and doorway of the building and added their gunfire to the battle. Scout Bots were originally designed to by humanity to patrol vehicular traffic -- not intervene against heavily armed survivors. The three vs. one gunfight could end only one way with the bot knocked over, its wheel spinning as it sparked and smoked.

    Mike W's 'Bass Reeves' stalk across the streets on a mission to exact revenge on Allen's gang!

Downed bots are another source of scavenge in my games. Players can snag ammunition, valuable circuitry, and even guns from the disabled machines. Both Mike S and Mike W pounced on the bots they'd knocked out of action and quickly salvaged some parts and pieces to take back to their encampment. The Nightstalkers soon engaged the Sentry Bot as it clomped ever nearer to their location. The Sentry Bot, also only lightly armored, met no better fate. The combined gunfire of two Nightstalkers sent it crashing to the ground. Specialist Cypher of the Nightstalkers whipped out his toolkit and pounced on it. He had soon removed a valuable hunk of machinery and his gang members nodded at each other and took that as a cue to depart. The next bot to arrive, likely a Military Bot, would be much more difficult to defeat. They decided it was best to get out of the ruined city center while the getting was good!

    Keith's Nightstalkers demonstrate their 'acrobatic skills', ascending to the upper floors
There was one last act to be played out, though, before we called it an evening. Allen had darted his remaining two Followers into the citadel (carefully avoiding the firing lanes of the Bucknuts!). As they neared the open doorway, they heard loud and somewhat incoherent shouting from inside. The two nodded at each other and ran through into the room. They were met by three red-skinned mutations. They were humanoid in form, and even sported a large shock of blond hair sprouting from their skull-like heads. Their blue uniforms looked for all the world like 20th century suits. The creatures gesticulated at the two and shouted curses and profanities the two struggled to understand, but seemed too frightened to actually charge and attack them. 

    Allen's 'Followers of the Dark Prophet' encounter the citadel's annoying, verbally abusive mutants
The Followers shook their heads and raised their weapons. They fired on full automatic and soon all three were on the ground, twitching but no longer shouting. They rushed through the next doorway and first heard, then saw, three more of the annoying beings. "What the Hell are these things?" they mumbled to each other. More automatic gunfire and the creatures began to back off. From the next doorway, they heard more incoherent shouting coming closer to them. "Should we get out of here?" The two nodded to each other, and turned and ran back towards the entrance, followed by the insults of the creatures. 

    The textured round discs mark figures that have moved this turn in my games
We decided to call it at that point. A couple of the players' survivor gangs were already leaving the table. They had picked up the most accessible objective markers, and the Machines would soon be sending in its heavier warmachines. It was time to go! I was happy to see the players seemed to have fun. All five players took down at least one enemy, so the game wasn't without action, like I'd feared it might be. Still, I think I learned a bit about cramming too much hard terrain on the board. It was good to see the survivor gangs out on the table again, though. Hopefully, it won't be another six months before it happens again!

Miniature Painting & Purchasing Tally for 2024

  • Miniatures acquired in 2024: 226
  • Miniatures painted in 2024: 208

Tuesday, October 29, 2024

Zombie RV: Exploring the Creepy Farms for Halloween

    Zombies chase survivors at 'Creepy Farms' -- a game with 6 players and 12 survivors on table
I had been wanting to run a big game of Zombie RV with all the players on the same board. Halloween being this week was a perfect excuse! I set up a countryside board this time, centered on two creepy (zombie-infested) farmsteads. We had a great turnout in my friend Mike W's downstairs "Brewpub" at this house, while the ladies partook of a Halloween-themed charcuterie upstairs. I had six players, including the return of our good friend Tom. It was great to drink beers and game with him on a Sunday evening, again. Welcome back, Ptomas!

    An overhead look at the 'Creepy Farms' table, with the locations of objective markers circled
The board was 5'x3', bigger than the three, individual 2'x2' areas we used last time we played (see Zombie RV Times Three). What difference would the 15 square feet vs. 12 make? Honestly, I wasn't sure! I thought it would be less compartmentalized and the players would feel more like they were all in the same mission,  and hopefully cooperating. I established two spawning points along the center line of the board, 18" in from each side edge. I represented the spawn point as the doorway to the farmhouses. Apparently, the local families had holed up inside and the zombies had broken in and were feasting on them. Lots of zombie feasters...as well as feasted-upon family members! Honestly, I think "spawn points" are one of the hardest things to rationalize on a gaming table. I can see when it is a board edge or street corner leading off-table, or something like that, but something in the center of the board requires just a wee bit of suspension of disbelief. Think of it as watching a play. A zombie play!

    Daisy & Coop leave the RV and set off to scavenge for supplies at the zombie-infested farmsteads
However, I was throwing in a twist in this game. Since each player controlled two survivors, there would be 12 total characters. That's equal to three, 4-survivor groupings in the base Zombie RV rules by David Bezio. My third spawn point would be completely random each turn. Each zombie arriving from that spawn roll would then have a separate calculation to see where on the board edges they would arrive. I divided the perimeter of the board edges 12" lengths and numbered them #1, #2, etc. We would roll to see which point we would start at for that particular Ordinary zombie, Fast zombie, or Nasty zombie,. This was followed by a d12 roll to see how many inches counter-clockwise from that point along the board edge it would be placed. 

    Jackie and Wrich set off to explore the ruined stone cottage looking for some supplies to scavenge
Afterwards, I asked the players if having to worry about zombies showing up behind them was too devastating and they all agreed it wasn't. The players get a movement after the spawning and before those just-spawned zombies move. So, they could clear out if a nasty zombie showed up just inches away -- which did happen. Ask Joel's "Earle" character, who spent most of the game running, it seemed!

    Meanwhile, the first set of zombies at the spawn point become restless and head toward the survivors
The players as a group would also start on a board edge, specifically either (or both) of the two long edges. I gave them up to three vehicles to "arrive" in. They would place the vehicle on either of the gravel roads running along the long edges of the board, and all their characters much start the game in contact with their particular vehicle. I gave the players some time to talk strategy, first pointing out all the objective markers on the board, what was difficult terrain, and so on. Although Tom tried to engage them in a tactics discussion, the group spent less than a minute doing so. NOT an auspicious start! Anyone who has played Zombie RV probably knows how cooperation amongst survivors is key to success. This dirty dozen's mission was to successfully grab at least eight of the 10 objective markers and then get off-table for the "win."

    Junior and Roman cross the ditch beside the road on the footbridge to investigate the veggie stands
As it was, they split up into three groups of four -- just like in classic Zombie RV. Mike W and Allen began on the near corner, not far from the pond. Keith and Joel began in the center, where the burnt out wreck blocked the driveway. On the far side of the board, Tom and Mike S parked my new RV model next to the toppled over truck blocking the other driveway exit. And then they scattered! Yes, they were spreading out to snag as many objective markers as quickly as possible. However, it seemed there was little cooperation or communication. Mike S turned his guys away from the shed he was heading towards once he saw that Tom's guys were going to get there first. Keith darted off down the road to the footbridge leading across the ditch which ran alongside the road. Allen's boys meandered towards the pond while Mike W's survivors split off from them towards the ruins of the old stone house. It seemed like it was every pair of survivors for themselves and -- crucially -- no group really close enough to the others to support them if they ran into trouble.

    After leaving the RV, Red and Mophius sneak inside the shed to find more supplies
Allen's Big Bass and Benny drew the attention of the zombies first. Benny drew the short straw and got to wade through the green water of the pond towards where a boat was tethered. There were a couple closed bins on it that looked promising to Allen. Oh, a side note on game mechanics: the players know the location of the objective markers. I marked them with pumpkins for this game! However, they must make a successful "Brains check" to actually find the items there. A Brains check is a d6 roll added to the character's Brains stat, which could be 1, 2, or 3. Guess what Benny's was? A "1"! Now we know why he drew the short straw! "Sure, Big Bass. I'll wade out there and search the boat if you say so." 

    Big Bass and Benny survey the farmstead before heading down the road and across the ditch
Meanwhile, Keith rolled an extra action for Roman (not "Moe" or "Schmoe"...ha, ha!), who was able to hustle down the road, across the bridge, and to the marker next to the farmer's fruit and vegetable stands. Roman is no dummy and successfully snagged some supplies. In the center of the table, Jimmy also had rolled an extra action and tiptoed quietly through the ditch, over the fence, and into pumpkin patch. He also found some supplies (probably some unharvested veggies which he quickly tossed in his backpack). Joel's other character, Earle (not Darrel!) crept along the same fence line towards the second cabin. The zombies who'd been clustered near the door ignored him and shuffled towards Big Bass and Benny, as did the ones from the opposite farmhouse.

    After popping off a couple shots at zombie horde, Earle soon decides to run back to the road
Annoyed at being deemed insignificant and not a threat, Earle popped off a rifle shot and splattered the head of the nearest zombie. That'll teach them, he thought. This changed their trajectory, as the horde quickly hurried towards him, as did the next batch to spawned by the farmhouse door. They ignored Jimmy in the pumpkin patch, who breathed a silent thanks to his friend Earle's bravery. Earle proved that bravery by promptly firing one more shot then bolting back to the gravel road and behind the ditch. Jimmy felt he owed his friend one, though, and raised his pistol and splattered a zombie pursuing Earle. He then hightailed it through the pumpkin patch, vaulting the fence, and entering the cornfield. He was joined by Junior and Roman, who pointed back towards the footbridge. A randomly spawned zombie had appeared on the road next to the bridge and was crossing in slow pursuit of the pair.

    Meanwhile, the zombies keep coming -- a minimum of 3 from each of the spawn points each turn
To the left of the pond, Mike W's Jackie and Wrich located the supplies and found some extra ammo. Jackie began the dangerous trek past the water tower and towards the other cornfield, all alone. Wrich wandered towards the farmhouse, took aim, and shot a zombie that was shuffling towards the pond. On the next turn, thrilled to see the zombie's head explode, he squeezed off two more shots. Two more zombies went down. The mob heading towards the pond ignored him because Big Bass was busy blasting away with his shotgun with both his actions. Meanwhile, Benny was puzzled by the latches on the bins. They appeared to be locked or resisting his efforts to pull them open. 

    Junior & Roman are surprised by a zombie spawning on the road behind them & dart into the corn!
Although Wrich was out of sight of the door to the farmhouse, the zombies who had just spawned there heard his gunshots clearly. Unfortunately for Wrich, one of those zombies was a Fast zombie. The whole crew spilled around the corner towards the surprised survivor. Wrich was even more shocked when one ran fast enough to come into contact with him. Uh-oh. Things were about to go south in a big way for our host's survivors!

    The zombies chasing Jimmy, Junior, and Roman wade into the cornfield, hopelessly slowed down
On the far side of the table, Tom's survivors were able to locate and secure the objective marker in the shed. Red and Mophius did a great job playing cat and mouse, staying out of sight of the zombie spawning points. Meanwhile, Mike S's Coop and Daisy headed the other direction towards another fenced field near the corner of the board. They also stayed out of sight as best they could. Unfortunately, that meant by far the bulk of the zombies headed towards the near side of the board and Big Bass and his friends. One group of zombies chased Jimmy into the cornfield, but had little chance of catching him. The rest all seemed to converge on the pond, or on Wrich. Jackie stopped her trek towards the far board edge and came back to help her friend, but she missed with her pistol fire more often than not. 

    Too far from the others, Jackie & Wrich are swarmed by zombies, including a deadly 'Fast zombie'
The Fast zombie had wounded and knocked Wrich down. Amazingly, though, he was able to use the medicine he was carrying, heal himself, and back up one move. However, that wasn't enough distance when facing a runner! She caught him again and knocked him down and wounded him once more. This time, some of the ordinary zombies were able to catch up, too. In our experience, when a survivor is wounded, knocked down and surrounded by zombies, he's dead meat. Wrich fought for his life desperately, though. Jackie waded in and tried her best to help him targeting the zombies with her pistol (and unfortunately, continuing to miss more than she hit). However, Wrich eventually was taken down. Jackie got too close, and was also caught and eventually killed, as well.

    Mophius faces off against a horde of zombies, while Red is wounded & knocked down by a Fast one
Far away on the opposite side of the board, Junior was doing a much better job using the cornfield to keep distance between him and the zombies. When random zombies showed up on the board edge near him, he blasted them effectively with his shotgun. Between Junior and Big Bass, they probably killed three quarters of the zombies I was putting back into my magnetized box as quickly as I was taking them out for spawning! Jimmy hung out with Junior and Roman, and the three eventually linked up with Coop and Daisy, who had not really accomplished much. Two pistols (Daisy's and Jimmy's), a rifle (Coop's), and Junior's shotgun were unfortunately all far, far away from where their companions were being swarmed and overwhelmed. 

    Daisy & Coop call for the others to head back to the RV while Red tries to fight off the Fast zombie
Big Bass and Benny ("Hey Bass, it's like these bins are tugging back on me...! I can't get them open!!") were about to be inundated with zombies slowly slogging through the pond. Big Bass was magnificent, though, firing blast after blast with his shotgun. He never rolled the dreaded natural one on his attacks, though, meaning he was out of ammo. I have ruled that since the shotgun fires in a cone and allows you to attack multiple targets, you are out of ammo only if the natural one shows up on your first roll of that cone. Zombie after zombie went down in the pond, sinking to its green depths. Earle was slowly backing up towards the duo, though, calling to them, "Nasty zombies, guys! Big ones! Coming our way. We gotta go!!" This was followed by Benny's surprised shout. One of the bin's had finally come open. Inside was a man who had been trying to hold it closed against Benny's tugging. 

"Man! I thought you was zombies!! You scared da crap out of me!" The survivor, who they'd later learn was nicknamed Curly for his bald, black head, leapt out of the boat into the pond, wading desperately towards the shore, away from the horde of zombies in the water. Benny followed him towards the gravel road, as did Big Bass. Earle zipped by all three of them, firing one final shot behind him. A pack of zombies were on his heels, including two Nasty zombies in the lead.

    Things look grim for Big Bass - out of ammo, wounded twice, and facing two Nasty zombies
Big Bass cocked his shotgun again, shaking his head and planting his feet. "Muthaf...BOOM!" He blasted away at the pack of zombies, again and again. His friends called to him to run, but Big Bass refused. The shotgun boomed out again. Suddenly, he was down and wounded. Still he raised his shotgun and aimed, "CLICK!" After being reliable all game and never running out of ammo despite the odds, Allen finally rolled a "1". Big Bass continued to fight, though. His friends had seen enough. They darted for the van to escape.

Across the table, a similar scene was played out. Tom's two characters were both in contact with zombies. Amazingly, Mophius was able to break away and make it back to the RV. Unfortunately, Red (not Trunk Monkey!) went down. A Fast zombie caught him, and when the ordinary ones caught up with the downed and wounded survivor, it was a brutal end. As three vehicles spit gravel as they pealed out, putting distance between themselves and the creepy farmsteads, silence soon returned to the area. The screams had stopped and the only noise was the sibilant, sickly sound of zombies feeding on fresh human flesh.

Roughly two and a half hours after we'd begun, it was over. My big game experiment with Zombie RV seen one of the highest percentage of survivors lost (33%) in any game so far. Had I made the game too difficult? I don't think so. In my opinion, a lack of cooperation had doomed the survivors who died. Wrich and Jackie were far away from any other survivors. So, when they hit their first setback, no one was there to help them out. Similarly, when Red went down, there was a lot of firepower unable to help him. Big Bass' end was probably a foregone conclusion. He had defied the odds all game long, dispatching hordes of zombies. He simply held his position too long. Benny took too long getting the objective marker, and Big Bass stood when he should have ran. 

I liked the big battle version of Zombie RV. Hopefully the players did, too! I will give them their experience points and let them buy new skills or improvements for next game before we try again. Feel free to comment below if you have questions about my additions to David's excellent rules. Oh, and Happy Halloween!!

Miniature Painting & Purchasing Tally for 2024

  • Miniatures acquired in 2024: 226
  • Miniatures painted in 2024: 208

Tuesday, October 22, 2024

Giving Alpha Strike 'Stompy Robots' a Try

    My smaller Mech unsuccessfully plays 'Hide and Seek' with Jenny's bigger one in Alpha Strike
I've been remiss in documenting our gaming sessions, lately. It seems all of my blog posts are about painting miniatures or creating terrain. However, we do game weekly on Sunday evenings. I'd estimate one out of every four sessions is miniatures, though lately we've been doing minis more often. Our host is ambivalent about miniatures and prefers board games, but humors us. Here are some pictures from last Sunday's learning game of "Alpha Strike" -- the latest iteration of BattleTech, I believe.

    Not sure if the game is designed for 8 players, but Andy and Mike S gave it their best shot
Andy S and Mike S both wanted to play it. Keith also had a handful of mechs, which he has run the Wiley Games version (Alpha Suit). However, we used all of Andy's stuff this time. He tried to explain the whole "lore background" or history of the BattleTech universe, but we probably weren't as interested in that. We were more focused on learning the rules. Andy set up a city center amidst a wooded and hilly area, and then proceeded to put all his mechs out on the table for us to choose from.

    My force of 3 Mechs moves towards the cover of the center of town that Andy had set up
We were instructed to take 100 points worth, but not mix "Clan" and "non-Clan." He had a term for the non-Clan mechs, but I can't remember it at this point. I chose three -- a Guillotine, Wolverine, and Commando. The rules were pretty easy to pick up, though Andy had some modifications. He and Mike S went back and forth on deciding how to do the sequence of play. Alpha Strike appears to be a two-player (or at least two-sided) game, and our group doing an 8-player free-for-all probably was going to call for some changes. As usually seems to happen lately, the Wiley Games card activation system was inserted. Since all mechs move before any firing, it was actually an advantage to draw lower value cards and go last (which explains my Ace-King-Queen draw on Turn 1 or 2...ha, ha!

    Once in town, my Mechs go in all around defense try not to expose their vulnerable rear (???)
Andy and Mike made some changes on the fly, including scrapping a weird provision which allows the last moving mech to fire first and then returning to movement order. They said it doesn't matter since all firing is simultaneous, which made me wonder why we bothered to even use the cards to determine order of shooting. It got really weird when one mech wanted to charge another one and enter hand-to-hand combat. Apparently, big stompy robots (or "pilots" in mech suits) still do that far in the future. They ruled that if you charged an enemy mech who hadn't moved it could simply move away and avoid melee on its turn. Hunh?? They searched the rulebook and couldn't find a solution to this conundrum, so that was the way we played it.

    Two of my mechs fire at Jenny's force advancing - our 'cover' proved essentially worthless
All in all, the rules worked. Beginning with your skill value, adding cover and range modifiers, and the enemy's target modifier produced the score you needed on 2d6 to exceed for a hit. Once you hit, Andy's other change was that you roll 1d6 for each damage you would normally score on the enemy. If you rolled a 1-2, it was a miss. Guess what I rolled a lot of that evening? My dice rolling is usually pretty streaky, and tonight it was definitely on a bad streak. By the end of the game, I think I had scored only five total damage points on Jenny or Allen's mechs. Some mechs were doing more than that on just one hit!

I've never really been a fan of big stompy robots, aka Mech games. I will play the game again if they run it, of course. However, it didn't inspire me to go out and purchase the rules or begin buying and painting mechs. Instead of Mechs, it was more "Meh"....ha, ha!

Miniature Painting & Purchasing Tally for 2024

  • Miniatures acquired in 2024: 226
  • Miniatures painted in 2024: 200 (see next update)

Monday, August 26, 2024

Zombie RV Times Three!

    The chaotic aftermath of the Shell Station board, overrun by zombies and on fire
I taught the Sunday Evening Gaming crew how to play Zombie RV last night. I had each of them create two characters using the campaign adaption that I am playtesting upon hearing the author's ideas. They paired up and were each given a 2'x2' block of zombie-infested city to explore. Jenny and I used our crew, back for their third mission with yet another new face, Curly. Having lost shotgun-wielding Mophius in Mission 1, rifle-armed Coop in Mission 2, would we actually make it through a game with all four surviving? Time would tell, but we were down to just two pistols for firearms, with both Woody and Curly armed only with hand weapons.

    Quon takes on the roll of the "rabbit," again...shooting at the zombies to lead them on a merry chase
I reworked my Quick Reference Sheets emphasizing in all caps that the first thing the survivors do is roll to see if anyone gets a third action ("6" on 1d6). Lo and behold, with us not forgetting to check, we actually rolled quite a few 6's! In fact, I would say the third actions that Quon and Woody (especially) rolled were key to our success. Quon chose to be the rabbit, again. He dashed into an alley way near the spawn point and fired upon the initial five zombies. Guess what? I rolled another natural "1" on my first shot of the game! That meant one of our two pistols was out of ammunition! Meanwhile, Jackie stealthily investigated Sams Quickie Mart while Woody began an end run to the water tower (where he could see a pile of boxes peeking out from the underbrush). New-guy Curly was given the job of investigating the factory nearest where our pickup truck was parked.

   We added a new wrinkle with a second survivor drawing off the zombies chasing Quon
Quon got a third action to start the second turn, and boldly ran up to the closest zombie, smashed its head in, and then scampered off, leading the zombies in merry pursuit. Both Jackie and Curly found more supplies in their respective buildings. Something weird, dice-wise, was happening in our rolls once we discovered a Resource Token. We only roll 1-2, which yields generic Supplies. We had plenty of food! However, we had yet to roll any weapons, ammunition, or new survivors. As a side note, Keith and Joel would roll TWO new survivors in their searches in their game. Side note #2: Don't let Keith and Joel name characters. Their choices for their four new characters? Moe, Schmoe, Darryl, Darryl. Their two new guys? Trunk (because that was where they found him hiding), and something I didn't even write down because it was equally silly.

    After leading the zombies into the underbrush beneath the water tower, Woody backs away
Meanwhile, Curly decided to get the zombie horde off of Quon's tail by moving closer and shouting. One of the rules I think I am going to add is you can always voluntarily add +1 Noise to your actions. This freed Quon up to slip around the corner and investigate the second factory. Meanwhile, Woody had waded through the underbrush beneath the water tower and found...a box with a grenade! A new weapon? Woo-hoo! He pocketed it, while keeping an eye on the new batch of zombies from the spawn point surging towards him. One included a mutated, Nasty zombie! He made sure they were scrambling over the wall into the underbrush before backing off and ducking behind the car on blocks. 

    Jackie prepares to blast away at the zombies until she rolls a "1"...CLICK!
After grabbing supplies from the Quickie Mart's shelves, Jackie fired out the window of the rear door, splattering a zombie. This led several of them to shamble towards her. She retreated out of the shop, with three zombies staggering after her in pursuit. Taking position near the overturned semi-trailer, she saw Curly round the corner running as fast as he could. She yelled at him to get in the driver's seat of the pickup truck and start the engine. She faced down the zombies staggering towards her, raised her pistol, aimed for the head of the nearest and...click! Our of ammo, again! What??

    As Curly drives the pickup truck, Jackie jumps in the passenger seat and Woody dives into the bed
Our crew was completely out of ammo, but had gathered all four resource tokens. Quon had quickly searched the warehouse and found more supplies (of course!). Woody continued to roll 6's for extra actions, so sped away from his zombie pursuers along the alley beside the Quickie Mart. Using our speed and the lack of any Fast zombies, we each made our way back towards the street. It was a close call, but Woody and then Quon dove into the bed of the pickup truck as Curly kept the vehicle just out of reach of the zombies. Our first truly successful mission!

    Firing from the barricade at zombies mired down in the brick pile, these guys had an easy mission
On the table to our left, Allen and Mike S were having a cake walk of a mission. The tire barricade left in place by the apartment complex (before it was overwhelmed), was a natural firing position. The brick rubble field near the spawn point meant all the new zombies s-l-o-w-l-y made their way towards shotgun blasting Big Bass and a rifle-armed survivor who looked like Coop's brother. Those two blasted away pretty much the entire game while their two compatriots quietly infiltrated the buildings containing the supplies. Once they'd collected all four, they ducked back through the alleys, hidden from the center commons were all the zombies seemed to be. All four were able to load up in their van and drive off. Yeah, I definitely made their board way too easy! That, and the only character on their board who rolled a "1" for shooting was the guy who had the extra clip!

    The 'new guys' - Blue Van Crew - laugh Jackie's boys as they drive by after their cake walk
The third city block, dominated by the Shell gas station, seemed to be a mess, though. Keith and Joel's survivors were scattered along the edges all across the board, with zombies swarming everywhere. Things looked grim until one of Keith's survivors (Moe or Schmoe, who knows?) found a Molotov Cocktail. He immediately tossed it into the biggest horde of zombies he could find, frying half of them instantly. Joel and Keith were also helped by two new survivors they rounded up hiding in the vehicles. With their clubs and cleavers, they were able to turn the tide and escape every time the zombies got too close. When Jenny and I had first finished our game, I looked at the gas station and thought they would lose two characters, at least. However, with Molotovs, fortuitous rolls, and skillful redirection of zombies, they were able to all escape. Barely!

    No cake walk at the Shell station! Zombies swarm towards three different survivors
Had I made the tables too easy this time? I definitely think Allen and Mike S's board was too easy. We agreed that their should have been gaps in the barricade where the zombies had broken through to overwhelm the residents of the apartment complex (and become the new zombies they were facing). Our board probably had too much terrain, too. I had been really happy in Mission 2 how survivors could lead zombies into difficult terrain to slow them down. I think I need a little more open board here, too, to give the zombies more of a chance. The gas station seemed okay, though. I clarified with the rules author that ordinary zombies should not clamber over vehicles, but instead be channeled around them. I'm not so sure, now. Maybe I will simply count them as difficult terrain and they will swarm around or over them, whichever is quicker? We'll see.

    One of Joel's 'Darryls' and Trunk shelter behind a rubble pile as a Fast Zombie scampers their way
The Sunday Evening gamers enjoyed Zombie RV, though. They handed me their character sheets and said they wanted to play it again, keeping the same survivors for a loose campaign. Jackie's Crew even traded some supplies to the Darryls & Schmoes so they wouldn't go hungry. In return, we recruited one of their new guys to our crew. I think I will be doing some renaming, though. I'll paint a name on the base of the new survivors I've painted up, like I had done with the others for my post-apocalyptic campaign. I didn't spend hours on them for someone to slap Moe or Schmoe on them...ha, ha! 

    Earle (who Joel renamed Darryl) and Moe? Schmoe? sneak around the back of the Shell station
Now the new challenge will be to tweak the rules to manage a bigger game with 10-12 characters on the board. I'm thinking of trying that rather than having three separate games going on. Some ideas:

  • At least a 3'x3' area, maybe bigger. 
  • Multiple spawn points. 
  • Wandering zombies arriving on random board edges each turn.
  • A chance that each room a survivor enters may have one or more zombies in it -- like in the Army Base scenario we played for Mission #2.

    A fortuitous find of a Molotov cocktail blasts the zombies moving towards Trunk on the rubble pile
I would love to hear suggestions from others who have done this, or have ideas!

    Zombies mumble and groan about the Keith and Joel that got away on the Shell station board...!