"Game over!" -- our second 6-player Xenos Rampant Game

   Space Marine dreadnought takes heavy fire during its assault in our Xenos Rampant game

After our first game of Xenos Rampant back in summer of 2024, we decided that six 24-point detachments on an 8'x4' table was too crowded. We said for our next game, we'd try 18-points per player. Who knew it would take us six months to get in our second game? I'll take the blame for that, as I was the one pushing the rules and I never got around to scheduling round two. Well, this weekend we finally got in our second game. A great sign was that three of the six detachments were brought by the players, and I had to provide only three forces.

    Defenders, left (Keith, Joel, Allen from top) advance on Mike S, Tom, and Andy in our 6-player game

On one side, the attackers were Mike S, Tom, and Andy. Trying to hold them off were Keith, Joel, and Allen. I made sure the players who were bringing their own forces sent me their army lists because I was worried about min-maxing, which I'd heard Xenos Rampant could be susceptible to. In particular, I was concerned about the Attack Vehicles. The rules already limit each player detachment to one Attack vehicle, and any one unit to no more than 50% of the army points. I need not have worried because the two most expensive vehicles in the game, Keith's and Andy's, were driven back by their opponents and did not have a major positive effect for their side. Ordinary rank and file -- particularly those armed with heavy weapons -- seemed to rule the evening.

    Allen's Anadorans advance through the blue alien forest to firing positions against Andy's troops

All three forces I was providing, the Bronze Legion (Tom), Terminators (Joel), and the Anadorans (Allen) had three units of six points each. Both Keith and Andy's forces experimented with a handful of cheaper troops to support the more expensive ones. Mike S was trying out a Recon Infantry sniper team, and they proved very effective in his repelling of Keith's assault. I was seated at one of the ends of the table, so didn't see the nitty gritty of their game. Mike admitted that his Recon Infantry activated to shoot way above average (7+ on 2d6, failing only once I believe he said). On the other hand, I had a ringside seat for Allen's dismembering of Andy's Space Marines force. 

    Andy's Space Marines begin their advance against Allen's troops, unaware of the drubbing in store!

Allen's two units of heavy infantry had "Heavy Weapons," which score two hits for every "six" rolled to hit. It seemed like every turn, Allen's roll of 10 dice included at least three "6's" -- sometimes even four! Mike said it was similar in his battle. He basically hunkered down in terrain, soaking up the +1 to Armor rough terrain gives, and fired at Keith's forces while he moved up. In Andy and Allen's encounter, it was a similar paradigm. Allen adopted a defensive position while Andy tried to be aggressive and assault his opponent's lines. Of course, that begs the question: Is defense too tough under these rules? In the middle of the board, Joel was very tentative in his advance, with his Terminators staying behind cover and out of line of fire of Tom's Bronze Legion. Tom tried to advance and get line of sight, but Joel would duck back, keeping the alien forest or similar terrain between them. Eventually, Tom did get line of sight, and began putting hits on the machines and their forces.

    Keith's tank leads his space marine force against Mike's troops hunkered down & waiting in terrain

Keith's aggressive advance was the first to be shattered by an opponent. On the opposite corner of the table, Andy's was the second to admit defeat and pull back. Joel finally admitted that Tom's Bronze Legion had worn enough of his units down below half strength that he would have little chance of victory. So, after only about two hours, we ended up calling the game. I continue to be surprised at how fast the "Rampant" series of games play. Last week's Lion Rampant Dark Ages game ended early, too. Not that it is a bad thing -- heck no! About a year ago, we moved our Sunday evening start time up from 7pnm to 6pm specifically because we wanted to finish earlier. So, a game that plays fast fits right into our wheelhouse. 

    Mike's elite armored infantry hunkered down in the town, taking shots at Keith's advancing marines

Did the guys have fun? It appears so. I think both Keith and Andy were a tad frustrated with the die rolls, at times. However, they were both looking through their copy of the rulebook and thinking about tweaks to their list or dreaming up how to field new forces. Allen pronounced himself thrilled, as he was very successful the first time we played Xenos Rampant, as well! I think we have a "winner" for continuing games. I still feel I want to keep an eye on what forces players are fielding. In my reading of comments on the game, and in the rules themselves, they warn players not to try to tinker endlessly to recruit the unbeatable force. As tough as Mike's Recon Infantry snipers were, we all agreed there are solutions to an opponent fielding them. And Mike freely admitted his rolls for them were way above average. I saw myself how Andy's rolls were the opposite. He was successful on the "Firefight" ability (which allows a target of a shot return fire on a 7+) only once in the entire game!

    Joel's Terminators were obviously programmed for a very cautious, tentative advance

So, yes, Xenos Rampant is a dice game and the outcome can be heavily influenced by who is having a good night and who a bad one. Still, how many other games are similarly vulnerable to that? The rules are easy to pick up and players are running their own turns with few questions fairly early on. You do have to be very careful if you play multiple sets of the "Rampant" rule series. I took the time at the beginning of the game to go down the list of things I'd noticed that were subtly different from Lion Rampant. Commanders within 12" add +1 to activations in Xenos, but not Lion. You roll 10 attack dice if more than full strength in Xenos, but 12 in Lion. You subtract total losses for the game from your Courage roll in Lion, but only how many SP you lost in Xenos when testing for taking losses due to shooting or melee. Lots of tiny differences that can trip you up. It would probably be helpful to create a "Differences between X and Y sets of Rampant rules," if someone had the time and drive to do so.

    Keith admitted that Attacking (melee) Mike's heavy infantry in the woods was a costly mistake

As it was, the Attackers -- Mike S, Tom, and Andy -- ended up winning on two of the three battlefields, so were declared the victors. Players were free to fire at opponents in adjacent clashes, but it happened only twice in the entire game. Each seemed focused on the detachment across the table from them, and probably rightfully so. I think I feel Xenos Rampant is more balanced after our second game than I did after the first. I made big changes to my detachments after Game 1, but now I'm not so sure they were the best call. I think that with proper generalship, all of the troop types can be useful and that none are all-powerful. Elite Infantry, which some may think are overpowering, can wilt away in the face of determined firepower. I think I will go back in and tinker with my forces, but not to optimize them. I think I will create more variety in them so that we are fielding a wider range of troop types in our next game.

    Andy kept his heavy infantry in reserve while moving his elite Marines & dreadnought forward

It was a fun, fast evening of gaming, and it was great to get everyone around the tabletop rolling dice. I will be miss the next two weeks of gaming, so I look forward to getting together with everyone later in February!

    Battle finally joined in center after the cat & mouse maneuvers of the Bronze Legion & Terminators

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2025: 7
  
• Miniatures painted in 2025: 10 

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Terrain acquired in 2025: 5
  
• Terrain painted in 2025: 7

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Scatter acquired in 2025: 9
  
• Scatter painted in 2025: 5

    Having taken 4 hits, Andy's Dreadnought Attack Vehicle is one hit away from destruction

    Andy embraced the role of Attacker, but found his troops battered by Allen's Anadorans

    Game hinged on the battle in the center, which the Terminators failed to win as their attack faltered

Year in Review: 2024

        2024 was definitely the "Year of Sci-Fi" for me and my painting and modeling projects!

Looking back over my most prolific year posting here on my Lead Legionaries blog, two main periods were dominant. Science-Fiction was by far the most dominant period I posted about, whether writing about new miniatures I'd painted or buildings or scatter. Second place was Post-Apocalyptic, as I began an entirely new type of game (Zombie Apocalypse), while continuing to run games, paint miniatures, and get buildings or scatter ready for the tabletop. Modern gaming was a distant third, though to be fair, much of what I created for post-apoc games could also be used for ones set in a modern (non-apoc) setting.

    Contingent of 3-D printed Stormtroopers from JS Wargamer Printing guarding an Acheson building

Science-Fiction

Part of the reason that I posted so much about Sci-Fi was because there were three separate sets of rules or types of games I was playing (or getting ready to play).  In the beginning of the year, I was heavy into getting things ready for a Xenos Rampant game. Although virtually every size game likes to call itself skirmish nowadays, no matter how many figures are on the tabletop, I would call this a "big battle" game. We typically have six players for our games on Sunday evening, so I had to build forces for six different factions. I went with what the rules recommend, 24 army points. That typically means 4-6 units of anywhere from 5-10 miniatures. In some cases it may be fewer, like a war machine or bot. For the rank and file, though, 5-10 figures is the most common.

    We found that my table was a little small for six full-size Xenos Rampant detachments

In the end, I used two factions belonging to my friend Keith to run our 6-player game. Still, fielding miniatures for four factions was a lot of work. That's around 20 units, so maybe between 100 and 200 miniatures? Some were painted last year, or taken from my post-apocalyptic factions. Still, it was a LOT of work. And the worst part about it is I haven't gotten around to running a second game. We agreed after playing that six 24-point factions on my 5'x12' table was just too crowded. After discussing it, we settled on 18 points per faction for future games. Hopefully, that future game will be soon, possibly in January. I will be hosting for much of January and February while our regular host, Mike W, is out of town "snow birding."

    The Inconceivable crew sneaks up on the objective in one of my Five Parsecs from Home solo games

In addition to Xenos Rampant, I began playing regular solo games of Five Parsecs from Home. Ostensibly, I was "testing" the system out to see if it would work as a game for our Sunday evening crew. As fun as Five Parsecs is, I didn't think it would be a good fit for six players. I was enjoying the way the rules create a story arc as you continue along on your campaign. In fact, Capt. Alistair Valentine and his merry crew will finish their quest with the next mission -- so I definitely want to play that one out in 2025. My trip to Morocco in November derailed the captain and crew of the Inconceivable temporarily, but hopefully readers of my blog will be enjoying more of their adventures soon.

Although I got in only one Xenos Rampant game in 2024, I hope to play more in 2025

The third Sci-Fi game or period that I was busy prepping figures for was going to be a true skirmish (players control 4-6 figures -- not units!) in the Star Wars universe. I was bouncing around trying to decide which rules to use. Of course, we could use Wiley Games' Galactic Heroes rules as we are familiar with them. We've played a couple games with them already, plus it is the same basic rules engine and system I use for the post-apocalyptic campaign. However, I wanted to try something to give a different flavor, and an old friend suggested I download Space Weirdos (thanks Steve P!) from Wargames Vault and look over it. I liked it enough to say that's what I will try first for my Star Wars skirmish, which hasn't had a game played, as yet. I have all the factions completed (a LOT easier when you're painting 4-6 figs instead of units...ha, ha!), though. Look for that in January or more likely February. I still need to create cards for each of the player's characters and the measuring sticks it uses.

    I took these fantasy Gatorfolk from Beldolor Studies and converted them into Sci-Fi figures

Just to give you an idea of how heavily focused I was this year on Sci-Fi, I made about 16 posts about painting miniatures for the period, along with about 10 blog entries about buildings or scatter. So, a big part of my output was geared towards Sci-Fi, it seems! And now that I have all these figures, look for a lot more game reports covering these rules!

    This downed chopper was the focal point of a scenario in my post-apocalyptic campaign

 

Post-Apocalyptic

Like my Sci-Fi projects, my production in the Post-Apoc period was a mix of old and new games. Our post-apocalyptic games using Wiley Games Core Rules is still continuing into its third year. That's great news. I think my players would like me to run it more often than I do, and hopefully I will be better at cranking out scenarios for them in 2025. For our most recent game, my friend Mike S provided the scenario so he could use the city block terrain he'd been busy building. I'm sure he wanted a chance to game with it on the tabletop, so he talked me into GM'ing the scenario he'd created. For the scenarios that I create, they tend to revolve around a particular piece of terrain or scatter I've created. One example was the "Chopper Down!" game I ran where the factions were converging on a helicopter that had auto-rated down into the middle of a ruined city. There had been no explosion, so hopefully that meant some great salvage! 

    Mike S brought his city ruins terrain he'd bought and had been working on for another scenario

By far the most posts I did on this period in 2024 was a new niche, or mini-period -- zombie apocalypse! I was inspired by purchasing the County Road Z rules and began accumulating the necessary zombie horde. As I was working on it, though, I read about another set of rules called Zombie RV. It was much shorter, way less expensive, and had a fun, quick, and bloody feel to it. I was so intrigued that Jenny and I pulled out some of my post-apocalyptic figures, I set up a tabletop, and we played a game of it. Although our mission to collect supplies failed miserably, we both agreed it was fun and we'd just had some awful luck leading to our deciding to flee the field prematurely. 

    Zombies swarm towards the survivors in one of our Zombie RV games over the course of the year

I reached out to the rules author David Bezio, and he sent me an unfinished "campaign" introduction in answer to my questions about running a continuing series of games. He encouraged me to expand on what he'd started and work up my own rules for experience and improving character skills and abilities. The next step was to inflict it on the Sunday evening group. I ran three side by side battle boards with two players sharing the four survivors like Jenny and I had done. It went over really well, except Keith had issues with zombie senses -- how do they see? Do they smell? Hear? Everyone else took the simple rules with a grain of salt, but Keith had questions. So, for the next game, I wrote out an even more detailed Zombie A.I. that the rules come with to hopefully answer his scientific inquiries...ha, ha!

    3-D printed fortified trailers from Bad Goblin are one of the highlights of my Zombie RV tabletops

Of course, more players meant more zombies would be needed! My zombie horde ended up totaling 74 figures, which included a handful of "Fast Zombies" and "Nasty Zombies," according to the Zombie RV rules. The first half of the zombie horde were 3-D printed ones from JS Wargamer Printing. After that, I was able to get ahold of some Wargames Factory male and female zombies to finish out the horde. A couple people suggested using Zombiecide figures, but my initial 3-D printed batches were way too small compared to the oversized ones from the board game. Luckily, the Wargames Factory zombies were close in size, so it all looks good together on the tabletop.

    Painting female zombies from Wargames Factory were a nice change of pace in the horde

I do have to admit that I got a little tired of painting zombies! Thank goodness for the female zombies my friend Keith gave me -- I know, that sounds weird! They spiced things up and I could have some fun with various outfits including party dresses, bikinis (hey, that's how they molded them!), evening gowns, and more. I was getting so tired of painting the walking dead that by the end I was painting them to resemble my gaming friends. Of course, no one thinks "their" zombie looks like them...!

    This 3-D printed bridge from Rusty's Jarls Workship was the centerpiece of my Mean Streets games

Mean Streets Gang Warfare

My "Convention Game" for 2024 was Mean Streets, my self-published rules covering rumbles between street gangs. I ran it at Cincycon, Drums at the Rapids, and Origins. It was a big success at all three conventions. I had lots of interested players and sold some copies of the rulebook (which is also available at many other places, including Ganesha Games, Shieldwall Gaming Club, On Military Matters, RRB Minis & More, Brigade Games and other places). It turned out to be the 25 anniversary of the movie that inspired the rules, Hollywood's 1979, The Warriors. So, it was appropriate I ran a Warriors-inspired scenario in 2024. 

    The Eastmoor Kings gather on the bridge after running the gauntlet of rival gangs in 'Mean Streets'

My big terrain piece for that scenario was probably one of the biggest ones I have ever assembled and painted. It is a modern, stone city bridge that I bought from Rusty at Jarl's Workshop. I went for a yellowed, golden stone work and really like how it came out. I added in graffiti as it will see use more often in my Mean Streets games, or maybe even post-apocalyptic ones. In the scenario I ran, it was the goal for the Eastmoor Kings, who were taking on the role of the Warriors and trying to move from one side edge of the board to the opposite one. I didn't paint up any new gang members in 2024, but I did paint up some civilians.

    More than 14" height, this is my tallest terrain piece, a 28mm water tower from Bad Goblin Games

Speaking of big terrain, I also painted up the tallest terrain piece I've done to date. Once again, 3-D printed, it is a water tower from Bad Goblin Games. It has yet to see action on the tabletop, but it went together very easily and painted up quickly, as well. At $20, it is a bargain and I highly recommend Bad Goblin's 3-D printed terrain. Their fortified trailers were featured in a couple of my Zombie RV games and are fantastic. 

    My gaming year included a trip up to Blisffield to visit my friend Jim and play in two of their games

What DIDN'T I Paint?

Compared to other recent years, there has been one (probably) noticeable period missing in my 2024 posts. I may as well talk about it, too, as it does influence my gaming. I have found myself taking a break from Saga over the course of the year. I began the year finishing my Thracians, and painting their severed head fatigue markers. However, the only other painting I did for Saga otherwise was Warlord stands to give away as prizes at the Advance the Colors and Origins tournaments. And speaking of tournaments, I have also taken a break from being the one running them, too. Thankfully, others in the Saga Ohio community, such as Lee, Joe, Dan, Rusty, and James stepped up and took over running the ones I did.

    I enjoy making specialized fatigue markers for each Saga army - severed heads for my Thracians!

I was still playing Saga through the first three quarters of the year, though. I simply was not writing up blog posts about our Saga Sundays or my tournament entries. I played in both the DayCon tournament (run by Adrian and Jim) and the Hold the Line Ancient tournament (run by Rusty and James). We were still getting together on Sundays at the Guardtower East, but our number of players was steadily shrinking. Sometimes, we had just four show up -- and that is counting Jenny and myself. We did some Facebook polling and text discussion, and eventually in the Fall decided to suspend our once-a-month, Sunday get-togethers. There was another group at the Guardtower West who were gaming weekly and were much more active. We thought, "Why split up the player base into two groups?"

    An Ancient Warlord stand that I painted up as a prize for the ATC 2024 Saga tournaments

Interestingly, in this time of my declining Saga interest I finally got around to trying my "Saga Lite" ideas. With Saga Lite, there are no Advanced Abilities. Players use only the Basic Activations, Combat Bonus, and Activation Pool on the top half of their battle board. I was happy with how it worked out, and may run that for friendly games on Sunday evenings when we have a hankering for Dark Age, Medieval, etc. battles.  

    We tried out 'Rebels and Patriots' rules for the Revolutionary War and liked them, playing 3 times

Odds and Ends

In the early part of the year, I didn't do too good of a job blogging about what our Sunday evening group did on our game nights. True, it was often board games, and sometimes the same ones over and over. Let me tell you, if I never play Seven Wonders: Architects again...ha, ha! However, looking at the rules sets I did blog about, there are nearly 20 different ones listed. Granted, many of them were "one-off" games, typically when Keith got an urge to play PT Boats or Age of Sail or something similar.

    My long-time gaming companions, Joel & Allen, enjoy an Age of Sail game put on by Keith

However, one that I think will stay is Rebels and Patriots, which are the American War of Independence version of the popular Lion Rampant series. It is what I would call a "big battle" game, and we played it three times (I believe) over the course of 2024. It uses the same engine as Xenos Rampant, which should be a positive, right? We will be more familiar with the mechanics when we play a game. The only thing that worries me about sets of rules that use the same mechanics in a wide variety of periods is will the games feel different? When I run another game of Xenos Rampant, I don't want everyone to say, "This feels like the American Revolution but just with space figures. Does this make sense? A game system's mechanics should give the feel of a period. I worry that systems like Rampant and Wiley Games may suffer from sameness. Honestly, that is why I chose to try something different than Galactic Heroes for my Star Wars skirmishes. I don't want it to feel like a Western gunfight or post-apocalyptic game simply set in space.

    After 3 games, our group has the basics of how 'Rebels and Patriots' works -- which is always good!

Still, Rebels and Patriots has gained traction in our group. I enjoy it, Keith likes running it, and the players are become more and more familiar with the rules. We will see when I run Xenos Rampant again if anyone remarks, "Hey, this feels like an AWI game..."! I'd be interested in hearing from readers if you have encountered this in your own game clubs or feel that way yourself. Perhaps I'm the only one who worries about this or feels this way? Feel free to comment below.

    Although not mentioned on the blog often, we are avid board gamers, too, on Sunday evenings

Speaking of comments, this has probably been the most prolific year by commenters on Lead Legionaries, too. I really enjoy reading your feedback and hearing your thoughts. So, thank you to Bill, Donnie, Jason, Neil, Ray, Tom, and the man who seems to be everywhere, Anonymous! Ha, ha! Seriously, I really enjoy your comments as it confirms for me people are actually out there reading my blog. I'm sure every blogger wonders about that. Lacking any passive feedback such as "Likes" that you see on Facebook or "Times viewed" on Lead Adventure Forum, your comments are what I have to go on. I have had friends or acquaintances tell me they read my blog regularly, so I appreciate that, as well. 

    Expect more Zombie RV AARs in 2025 - more close escapes and characters that don't make it!

A Look Ahead (and some stats)

I mentioned 2024 was my most prolific year. If I get this posted tonight (New Year's Eve), it will be my 86th post of the year. That beats by about 20 my previous high, which was 66 in 2014. December 2024 has been my busiest month ever, too. This will be post #15, eclipsing the previous high pf 13 in October 2013. I actually started Lead Legionaries in September of 2013, though you will see posts dated 2007 through 2009. Those were "re-posts" of After-Action Reports from games played in those years.

    Keith, at right, gets a hankering from time to time for random periods -- like Civil War ironclads!

Why all the productivity this year? Well, it should be obvious - RETIREMENT! When people ask me how retirement is going (I finished teaching in May), I answer, "Every day is a good day." Unless I am out of town, I begin every day by going downstairs into my hobby room and putting in about an hour on whatever I am painting or modeling at the moment. I do get an occasional chance to sneak back downstairs during the day, but this steady one hour a day had done wonders for my output. As you may have seen at the bottom of my posts throughout the year, I have been tracking my Acquired vs. Painted totals. I ended up this year painting 254 miniatures. I took in 227. I hope to make the gap even bigger in 2025 with a full year of being retired.

    My 'Five Parsecs' crew investigates some of the Sci-Fi scatter & buildings I painted up in 2024

What projects will you see posts on in 2025? A number will continue -- my post-apocalyptic campaign and Zombie RV games are both meant to be continuing series. So, my players' characters will improve (though some will likely die -- especially in Zombie RV!), which hopefully means they'll want to keep playing games. I like campaigns, though nowadays this means a continuing series of linked skirmishes rather than the old school Ancients ones where players controlled a kingdom. What else? I will likely finish the story arc of Five Parsecs from Home and then reevaluate whether I want to keep playing solo games. You will see the start of my Star Wars skirmishes, with players controlling factions ranging from the Empire to the Rebel Alliance and all shades of opinion in between. I hope to keep running one-off games of Xenos Rampant, too.

    'A new period...?' Admiral Akbar asks..."It's a trap!!" Mon Calamari 3D-printed figures

 What about new stuff, you ask? Wellll...I enjoyed how Sellswords & Spellslingers worked for my Viking Town Raid. I plan to use that system for a series of linked skirmishes set in Britain during the Viking raids. The players will control a couple characters, seeking to help the inhabitants of Britain survive the fury of the Norsemen. And I plan on tinkering with that system to adapt it to...Vietnam! I have long been tempted to run Vietnam games, but balked at starting a new period (and not having a set of rules I liked). I like the idea of running Vietnam cooperatively, with each player being a sergeant in control of a squad of grunts. Their goal will be get as many of their men to survive their 13 month tour of duty in Vietnam. I will likely test it out solo, first, using my 20mm modern Africa figures. If I like how it works, I will probably invest in a new period in 2025 -- 28mm Vietnam. We'll see, though -- no guarantees!

Thanks for reading my Year in Review! I know it was long, but your readership is appreciated...!

Miniature Painting & Purchasing Tally for 2024

• Miniatures acquired in 2024: 227
  
• Miniatures painted in 2024: 254 

More RRB Minis Domed Habitats

    Two of my recent Rebels figures guard their small out post of RRB Minis & More Pod Habitats

I am on a bit of a tear right now painting up Sci-Fi terrain. Two more items were finished today that I picked up this past October at Advance the Colors 2024 from my friend Rich Brown at RRB Minis & More. While shopping at his booth, I added two more "3D Printed Pod Habitats" to my collection. If you remember, RRB was also where I got the tracks for some of my modified droids. Rich prints the Pod Habitats in three sizes, and I think the two I purchased (in the foreground above) are the "Large" variant.

    You can see the three sizes of habitats here, with the 2 in front being my most recent purchases

I had three of his habitats painted up already, two small ones and one "Very Large." They paint up very quickly, I've found. I do a black prime on them, followed up by painting them one of my favorite craft metallic paints, Chocolate Brown. I did the structural support pieces in Gunmetal Gray. At that point, I pulled out my old ones to make sure I was doing them the same. Oops. I wasn't! So, I went back and redid the trim on the two small ones I'd previous painted to match the "new" scheme which I'd used on the Very Large one. Now, all five have the same look. Whew -- these things are important! Ha, ha!!

    The habitat on the left has my replacement MDF door, but I think it fits the look rather well

In addition, I used a Turquoise metallic for what I am interpreting as the windows or skylights. The door control panels I paint black and then gave glowing red,  yellow, and green buttons. Speaking of doors, I somehow lost the door on one of the habitats in between the time I bought them and went to prime them. I looked all around, but couldn't find it. I'm sure Rich had included it in the bag. It probably fell out either when I took pictures of my ATC 2024 purchases, when I stored them away, or maybe when I pulled them back out. No biggie! I was able to find a couple MDF pieces that looked good and glued them on to cover the missing door.

I really like these 3-D printed models, and will be picking up more of them next time I see Rich at a convention. I think I'll buy the "Very Large" size from now on. It is in the middle in the above pictures, and was big enough for me to add some miscellaneous Sci-Fi machinery (which I also bought from RRB!) to the the top of the door's roof. If you like them, I encourage you to pick some up from him. He's got quite the selection of retro Sci-Fi looking terrain and models like these.

Get ready for more updates coming soon. I finished four more survivors for Zombie RV just this evening. Well, I still have to put their names on their bases, as soon as I think of good names. What should I call them...? Schmoe? Trunk Monkey...? Ha, ha - nope!!

Miniature Painting & Purchasing Tally for 2024

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

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

Cool 'Rebel Alliance' Figs from Several Manufacturers

    Decided to do 1 more batch of figures for my Star Wars skirmishes - this one for the Rebel Alliance

So, I thought I had all the Star Wars figures I needed for my first skirmish. However, I decided to paint up one final batch specifically for the Rebel Alliance faction (as opposed to the Local Rebels). I was making cards for each faction and I noticed the Rebel Alliance figs were being pulled from several different projects. Unfortunately, that also meant they'd have several different basing schemes and flocking. Call me anal, but I wanted each faction to match - so they at least looked like they belonged together. I know, I know. Think of this way, though -- it gave me a chance to paint up these really cool figures.

    These 5 figs are from 3 different manufacturers - I think they nicely show a polyglot alliance

This might be my favorite faction as far as looks go. The Criminal Syndicate is close, but the Hydra Miniatures I used for the combat droid and the Valkeeri sniper are top notch! I wanted this squad to reflect that the Rebel Alliance was pulling from different races and trying to unify all the anti-imperial forces in the galaxy. So, I went through all of my unpainted Sci-Fi figures pack by pack, and picked out four that I really liked. A fifth I would assemble from the Stargrave Crew boxes. The sixth would be one from the Mon Calamari batch I painted earlier this year. I'm shooting for squads of six figures, though I will likely have players initially start with 3-4 miniatures per force until we get used to the rules we'll be using.

    These awesome figs are from Hydra Miniatures - I really like their retro look & how they turned out!

I mentioned the Hydra Miniatures, so let's start with them. Awhile back, when I was painting forces for Xenos Rampant, I ordered a few packs of their Valkeeri and Astro Angel lines. I painted one of them up as a crew member for my Five Parsecs from Home campaign, but hadn't touched the others. And on a trip up to Michigan, I stopped by the Michigan Toy Soldier & Figure Company, I picked up a few packs of their Robot Legion. Because...you know - that's what we miniature wargamers do! They are incredibly cool figures and I don't know why I didn't think earlier about painting some of them up as a faction. So, I pulled out one of the robot legionaires and one of the kneeling Astro Angel figures to include in this batch.

I like the purple color scheme for the Valkeeri sniper's uniform. That and the bright bronze metallic seem to go well together. I kept the green skin I used for Zorina of my Five Parsecs crew. It is Sci-Fi after all, there HAS to be green-skinned aliens! Otherwise, I painted her jet pack exactly like Zorina's, but made one or two other changes. The main one being substituting purple for the color shift paint I used on Zorina. For the Robot Legionaire, I painted him a base Gunmetal Gray metallic. I gave it Pewter and Silver highlights. The accent color I decided to do as a Turquoise Metallic. The baby blue color looks "good guy" enough so he's not confused with an imperial droid. I gave him some panel lights on the front and back, too. I am very happy with how these two miniatures came out. I need to find a reason to paint up more of them!

    If Star Wars can have Chewbacca, why can't my Rebel Alliance have this Battle Valor orangutan?

Seeing how Chewbacca is part of the Rebel Alliance, I thought I could use a big furry guy for my faction, too. I had one unpainted Orangutan with gun from our order with Battle Valor Games. I had already painted one up for my Planet of the Apes forces, but remember that thing about bases? I wanted his base to match the rest of the crew's, not be completely different. I tried a slightly different color scheme, too. I base coated him in Georgia Clay, then did a Salmon dry brush highlight. I think this was a mistake, though. The colors were too similar and the highlights don't show up in the fur as much as I'd like. I probably should have stuck with the red-brown base coat and the more orange highlights. Oh well. I made sure I gave him a good dark brown wash, though, so that would help out with some depth. His face, hands, belly, and feet were done in dark brown with medium brown highlights. Even though he didn't turn out perfect, I still like the miniature and how it looks.

    Plastic Stargrave mini on the left, Battle Valor metal on the right - enjoy the metal much more!

While going through my post-apocalyptic figures searching for suitable rebels, I found several left over unpainted from my Followers of the Dark Prophet survivor gang. One of them had a very cool heavy weapon, so I picked him out, cleaned up his extensive flash and mold lines as best I could. I decided to go with a more desert look for his color scheme. Starting with a white headdress and face mask, I stepped down a shade in lightness for each layer. The cowl that covers his shoulders was done in a light tan, the tunic in a dark khaki, and the pants in a lighter brown. His boots were dark brown. I pulled out the micron pens to give him some decoration and really like how he turned out. This is probably my third favorite figure of the batch mainly because of how his color scheme turned out. 

Finally, I put together another one of the Stargrave plastic figures. I was initially thinking he would be a leader type, but now I'm not sure which figure I want to be the leader for the faction! I chose one of the heads with an interesting helmet, and then gave him a pistol in his right hand and some strange zapper looking device in the left. Once he was all assembled, I had to choose colors. I decided to go with the light olive for his tunic and gray for his pants. One thing about the Stargrave miniatures: they don't take dry brushing well. The detail is simply not deep enough, I feel. It is too smooth. I tried to give him some decoration and ornamentation a bit, but he didn't turn out quite as exciting as the others.

Still, throw in the 3-D printed Mon Calamari guy and this is going to be a pretty cool looking squad! I've very happy with how it turned out. Now, I can finally say I am truly done with painting the player's initial factions. I promise! I will still have lots of Sci-Fi terrain to work on in the upcoming weeks, but the miniature part of the project is completed. In fact, I am working on a set of three Sci-Fi buildings right now that would be quite at home on Tatooine. 

With this batch completed, I am firmly in the green on my Acquired vs. Painted. I think I can say 2024 is going to be a "Plus" year where I finished more than I bought. I like how it makes my purchases more focused and will definitely continue this next year. 

Miniature Painting & Purchasing Tally for 2024

• Miniatures acquired in 2024: 226
  
• Miniatures painted in 2024: 235