AAR: The Scarab Plague of Mars!

   As usual, this AAR is short on photos because I was too busy playing to take pictures. However, I did grab a few of the setup. Game was played on 28 JUN 2019 in my gameroom with Zach, his son Nathaniel, and myself participating.

SCENARIO:

   Two rival companies of adventurers, the British Lord Curr's Incorrigibles and the German Empire's Society of Thule have traveled to Mars via aethership. Their goal: seize ancient Martian relics of occult power. Unfortunately, they were discovered and Martian priests have awakened a terrible curse: a massive swarm of flesh-eating scarabs. The scarabs will eat only Earthling flesh, though. So now, the two companies must flee for their lives. Safety lies on the canal running through the nearest village, Golah. The Earthlings want to get on the boats; the Martians want to stop them long enough for the scarabs to catch them and devour them all.

RULES AND FIGURES:

   The rules used were In Her Majesty's Name, my favorite for small skirmish Victorian Science Fiction. The figures are a mixture of North Star (the Society of Thule and Lord Curr's Incorrigibles), Parroom Station (The Masked One, Martian leader and mystic), and RAFM (High Martians, Shield Gunners, and Archers).

An overview of the battlefield.

The mat is from Cigar Box. First time used!

The Village of Golah

Buildings are Plastruct COLORed buildings for SAGA

Custom made canals, ordered a decade ago, only second time used in a game.

Boats are all scratchbuilt and older, too.

British Start point. The Society of Thule is on the other side of the ridge.

The small dots at table edge are the scarabs, advancing as a line.

A Martian Shield Gunner stands guard outside the canal master's office.

The Masked One, a Martian Mystic

High Martian warrior. Savage flying primitives.

   The two companies moved up as quickly as possible but got held up in and around the village. If the random rolls for the scarabs' advance hadn't been very low, all would have been devoured! As it is, the two European teams ganged up on the outgunned Martians and killed all but two of them (the Masked One, who used his Mystic powers to slow up the British advance, and one shield gunner, saved by his heavy armour).

   In the end, the British reached the boats first. Rather than allow the Germans to escape, the British took all of the boats. End result: British victory (44 points, almost all of his company escaped), followed by the Martians (28 points, all because of devoured Europeans) and then the Germans (19 points, for killing Martians). But we all had fun, and that was the main point after all.

   Notes for next time we run this scenario: 

• Martians need more points to offset European gangup.
• Scarabs need to move a flat d10", not d10-2. For four turns in a row, the scarabs did not move at all. This cuts the pressure on the Europeans to get moving!

A Rare Victory at Glucken Ridge

   I played a game of Team Yankee a few weeks ago with my friends at this local club called Board and Brew. I say "local" but it's a good 30 miles from my house, forty five minutes with traffic on a good day. Anyway, it's a pretty good place with plenty of tables and they have beer. So its good.

   I played a fellow I have known for several years but rarely get to see, named Anthony. I was his first opponent ever in Flames of War. He plays Italians, I play Indian Army British. Anyway, in this game, I played a Czech Force with Soviet allies and he ran an American force.

Soviet T-64s advance on the left flank - daring the Yankees in their flashy M1s to attempt to do something about it. One Hero of the Soviet Union is made.

Minefields slow the Czech armoured advance, but a few turns of rocket artillery have softened up the American infantry defenders and the T-72M assault drives them from their foxholes.

All of my scouts are killed. Because I stupided. And my infantry never disembarked.

Beyond the trees in the background to the left, T-64s keep reinforcing M1s occupied.

Burning platoon of M1 Abrams. A sight sure to please any Warsaw Pact player.

In fact, I got very lucky and took them all out in one turn.

   In the end, I won by pushing the American infantry off the objective. The Americans did destroy enough of my units to make it a 5-2 victory rather than a 6-1 overwhelming victory. But I will take it! Anthony was a great sport about it all and a lot of fun to take on as an opponent.

IHMN at MillenniumCon XX

   The third game I participated in at the convention was the game I brought: In Her Majesty's Name. It's a Victorian Science Fiction skirmish/warband game. 

   I provided four factions: the Society of Thule, the Servants of Ra, Lord Curr's Incorrigibles, and the human Minions of Otto Maton. The mission in this game was simple: escape oncoming death. Having disturbed ancient secrets in the Sahara, a curse of flesh eating scarab swarms is chasing all of the factions. Their only hope is to make it to the river boats.

The village of Ruh Naway and the all important boats moored at the docks.

   In order to escape on a boat, a faction had to have control of it - there could be no members of a different faction aboard. Then, on the following Movement phase, it could leave - but not if anyone boarded that turn. Boats then moved up to 9" in a turn (just off the board was sufficient).

The setup.

Lord Curr veers his Incorrigibles away from the Society of Thule

The Society and the Servants mix it up on the right.

One of the Servants, Sairah the Assassin Queen, dashes far ahead of the rest.

Every cultist would lay down his life for Akhenaton.

Maton's Minions move in a disciplined group along the far left flank,

led by the quadcycle.

   The fellow who played the minions stuck strictly to the mission, and it paid off. He got every one of his forces onto the boat, gaining a game-winning 45 points (plus two kills).

In the village square, "Mad" Mick stands alone against the Jaegers and Todtruppen

of the Society of Thule.

   This is the first time I have managed to get the Todtruppen (zombie jaegers) on the field. They are fun, but slow. Mick was abandoned to his fate by the rest of the Incorrigibles.

The boats casting off. In the lead is Akhenaton.

   Note that one boat is missing: Sairah stole it by being first to the docks. This ensured that one team would not be able to escape. A clever strategy. As it turned out, the Society of Thule was doomed. Even more fun, the mummified priest used his power of the Path of Shadows (essentially a teleport spell) to board the boat after it launched.

   After the game ended, we had a bull session about how to improve the scenario. The best idea was to change the motivation of the Servants of Ra. The suggestion was to use them as a blocking force in the village, and reduce the number of boats to three - or maybe even just two. Most importantly, everyone said they had fun, which was the whole point.

   I want to give a special thanks to Jim Johnson for helping me out by bringing a few pieces of really nice terrain. A couple of those buildings are his, made by Crescent Root, and excellent pieces. 

Zombicide Black Plague: First Game

   One of the things I received for Christmas this year was a copy of Zombicide Black Plague, the fantasy/medieval version of the hit boardgame Zombicide. I'd played it once before, last May I think it was, and had enjoyed it a lot, so it went on the list for this year.

   Today we broke it out and played for the first time. The players were myself, my son Dane, his girlfriend Elysia, my friend Zach, and his son. Setup was pretty quick. I ran through the rules with everyone (it took about ten minutes to explain the basics to everyone), and then we set off on the Tutorial Quest.

Not us playing - but it is the tutorial quest

   It took a bit longer than anticipated - about an hour, as opposed to the projected 45 minutes - but we made it through the quest, all hale and whole. We moved on to the first 'real' quest (there are ten in the rules). 

The 'dashboard' - one of the things I like about Black Plague

   We had two objectives, either of which would win the game for us: activate all the objectives, thus finding the laboratory, or killing one of each Necromancer and Abomination. We started with the objectives. Things started off well for us in the quest to destroy the laboratory of the foul Necromancer. We cleared a couple of objectives, and then... Dane (playing Ann the Battle Nun) went off by himself and pulled an objective - the laboratory! Which caused a Necromancer to spawn there. And his zombie protectors. Down went Ann. The Necromancer then proceeded to attempt to escape from the board, as they are supposed to do.

   Luckily, we had one player running two characters, so we just put that character (Samson) under Dane's control. Lesson learned, we did our best to stay in a fairly tight group, especially when an Abomination spawned. In our tight group, we ran away from it, because we had nothing that could stop such a terrible monster. At least not until we found a vial of Dragon Bile! Luckily, we moved faster than the Abomination, so we kept out ahead of it. In the meantime, the wizard, played by Elysia, cut down a Necromancer, meeting one half of our objective. Change of plan! Now we wanted to find that Dragon Bile, kill the Abomination, and win!

   Two turns later, we found some. I already had a torch to light the stuff, so off we went, through the subterranean vault to get near the monster. Elysia gave me the Bile, and we lured the Abomination closer. Just as it got close, I threw the bile and touched it off with the flaming brand in my hand! With a roar, the intense flames flashed up, instantly burning the Abomination to ash, and ending the game.

   At this point we called it a day. The game is lots of fun, and I have already been given three expansions to it, including the Deadeye Walkers (zombie archers!) and two of the Guest Star packs of heroes (Joven Nerd and Paolo Somethingorother). Maybe we will try to work some of those into the next Quest.

PLA v. Terminators: Gruntz!

The Battlefield: An Industrial Sector. Preparatory bombardment has damaged several buildings and vehicles. PLA troop transport vehicles are immobilized (no points value).

Turn 1: PLA troops stoically await the advancing mechanical murderers.

Turn 2: a flurry of surprisingly effective rifle fire and some good work by the mortar crews have thinned the T-800 ranks a bit.

Three Termies down. The remainder of the soulless killers ignore their losses.

Turn 3: After taking the brunt of a pair of T-800s' plasma fire, a much reduced squad goes into Condition Brown and fall back to regroup and change their shorts.

Note the yellow chicken token. I love that token.

Each skull represents a former PLA trooper in the squad that fled.

Turn 4: The T-800s manage to hack the electronic brains of the security robots at the plant, who turn on their human masters!

We handled this as a test of Skill versus Mental.

 Turn 4: Autocannon fire from the PLA Type 95 mecha chews up two more Termies.

Turn 5: One mortar team destroyed (Skull marker) on the PLA right flank. The hover support team advances at a walk.

Turn 5: PLA NCOs re-establish the control link over the security bots and move them against the T-800s. The combined fire of an entire squad takes down another T-800.

Turn 6: Rifle Team Two concentrates its fire on a robot in the ruins. The support team will take out the T-800 advancing under cover beyond the ruined structure.

Turn 7: The Type 95 corners another Terminator, and savages it with automatic fire, bringing down the last of the dreadful things.

   So, another outpost of humanity saved, though I think Zach is getting far too comfortable with his T-800s for my peace of mind. Only massive overwhelming numbers saved the day for the People's Liberation Army.

Second Gruntz Game

The Defense of Garmin Farm on Tau Ceti IV

Initial T-800 Deployment

Terminator Objective: Kill all Humans!

Initial Deployment of FedArms Forces

Objective: Defend the Farm

First turn: Terminators advance. 

Taken under fire by Havelock suit and mortar, killing two.

Brave FedArms troopers advance and fire - to little effect.

 In return, T-800s cause three critical damages to the armoured car with only one hit.

Armoured Car pops smoke canisters to protect itself 

from the T-800s lurking by the bridge.

Sheep in foreground.

Armoured Car Brews Up under intense fire on the FedArms right; 

one squad of infantry also wiped out in a single turn on the flank by concentrated

fire from 40W phased plasma rifles.

   In the end, the Terminators were again defeated. It was much closer this time. I lost an entire sad of infantry in one blaze of plasma fire, and half of another, plus my armoured car blown to bits. My infantry rifles just can't do much to them at long range. Area of effect was far less powerful in this game, as the T-800s were spread more widely and we used the 2" diameter, not radius, like we should have done the first time (my bad). Also, the fusillade of fire that each T-800 now produces is really scary. You want to fight Termies? Use heavy weapons. It was luck that the rifles and SAWs took down any. May need to upgrade with some missile teams in place of SAWs.

First Gruntz Game!

   Well, Zach came over yesterday and we had a little game of Gruntz - our first official 15mm sci-fi game. I only have a few pictures, and the game was very short, but I'll still share.

The Forces:

ZM: Terminators (Rebel Minis, I think). We worked them up as if each individual T-800 was a 4-man infantry squad. I put four squads on a card, and that made each card a 4x T-800 'squad'. Each T-800 was worth 14 points. He took three squads of four, for a total of 12, making it (12x14) 168 points for his forces.

T-800 card, using Barracks

JW: FedArms (Khurasan and Ion Age)  I chose a well-rounded selection of differing units because I wanted to try them all out. I had a commander, three squads of rifle infantry, a mortar, a mecha, and an armored car. Total 171 points, so a slight point advantage.

Setup:

The table was pretty simple, about 3x4. The FedArms were protecting a fenced in area, and the T-800s were doing what they do - seeking to eradicate human life! As the attackers, the T-800s took the first turn.

The valiant defenders facing the road down which marches doom!

TURN 1:

T-800: Each unit activated and took two Move actions. This allowed them to reach the bridge over the stream, in a tight clump.

A blurry shot of a heck of a target.

FedArms: Infantry squads fired at long range, to no effect. What few hits were generated did only minor damage (one point of damage to a single T-800). Then I fired the mortar. Direct hit on front center T-800. He vanished (Waxed, in Gruntz parlance). Then the blast of the Area of Effect took over. Damaged (but did not Wax) five more Termies. Activated my commander, who moved to the gate and used his second action to raise the gate. Then the armored car, an Ion Age Red Adder Lifter, moved forward and fired it's gatling gun, also an area of effect weapon. It missed, and deviation of the beaten zone meant no hits. Finally I activated my last unit, the Havelock Suit. He fired his Missile Pod (yet another area weapon) and scored a direct hit on the T-800 right in the center of the entire force. This meant the blast would get every other Termie. The results were three more dead machines and several damaged to one degree or another. The follow-up shot with the railgun proved an anti-climatic miss.

TURN 2:

T-800: Having passed all required Mental tests, the T-800s were unfazed in their mechanical hearts. Onward they strode! This time they paused and fired. And this is where we made waht was probably the biggest rules error which made it virtually impossible for Zach to win. We only gave each of the Termies a single shot as if they were single humans. He had paid points as if each was a squad of four - after battle analysis concluded that he should have been firing four times each. As it was, his fire was light and ineffectual, managing only a single point of damage on the Red Adder, barely scratching the paint.

FedArms: Again, everyone lit up the T-800s, starting with the area effect weapons on a still very compact body of robots. All three weapons hit, and casualties were heavy. One squad was eliminated totally, while the other two were reduced to a total of five (damaged) machines. Directed fire from the infantry added a bit more damage to the reeling (and now suppressed) foe.

TURN 3: 

T-800: With only five units remaining, Zach began to unclump them. One unit could only move and not fire, as they had been suppressed. The other fired two shots, to missing both.

FedArms: Area effect again. The mortar missed, but the deviation put the shell directly on top of another T-800 - blasting it to bits. The blast damaged two others, now down to only one hit remaining on each. The Adder's gatling fired next, finishing off those two. The missile pod of the Havelock missed completely, but the railgun took down one. The infantry fire began to take a toll, taking down the last two of the soulless killing machines.

It was an overwhelming victory for humanity, but after-battle analysis shows that the T-800s were severely hampered in their return fire, and had underestimated the effectiveness of area effect weapons. We both enjoyed ourselves, though, so that's the main thing!

We plan on fighting a re-match next week, with adjusted firing for the T-800s. I also think that there will not be as tightly packed a group of targets for my blast weapons, either.

Win or Go Home!

   Last Saturday was the regular third Saturday meeting for my local games group. While we tend to concentrate on historical games like Flames of War, or Koenig Krieg, or Fields of Glory, or something like that. Occasionally we branch out from that. I have brought a VSF game on a couple of Saturdays over the years, for example.

   This week, Brian Weathersby (is that right Brian? I always forget names...) brought a playtest set of rules for a racing game that he is helping to develop. Rather than join in on the Hungarian/Bulgarian midwar deathmatch being played by some of the others, I sat in on this game, called Win or Go Home.

   Part of the reason I chose to do this is that my son Dane had played the game at OwlCon a few weeks ago and had told me how much fun he had. I thought it sounded like a nice change of pace, and found that it was.

   The rules have a sort of base set and then modifications for different types of racing. We played NASCAR, but I know he has developed Formula I for two eras - "classic" from 1950s to 1980, and "modern" from 1980 to present. They are in playtest, so we (Buddy Brewer and I) made a couple of suggestions during the course of the game that may be in the final rules. So pretty neat, too.

   We each took two cars. I had the #17 DeWalt car and the #44 Corn Flakes car. I know that Brian is on the lookout for a Laughing Clown Malt Liquor car, so if you know where one can be located at a reasonable price... let me know.

   I took a few pictures and a short video...

 That last car in the row... the one that is burning?

Yeah, that's my #17.

   Long story short... I really enjoyed the game. As my son said, it was sort of like watching the highlight reel of a race.

[EDIT: Corrected Brian's last name. Sorry, Brian!]

Dystopian Wars: Prussia vs. FSA #1

   So my buddy Zach came over this afternoon and we played some Dystopian Wars with my Prussians and my new Federated States of America. 720 points per side. We used the 1.1 version of the rules, because that's what we have.

Prussian fleet at the start.

FSA fleet at the start.

Today's Beverage. Quite tasty.

The Aftermath. The FSA battleship is sinking.

Lots of smoke pouring out of the damaged ships and aircraft...

   I didn't record everything for the blow-by-blow report, so this report is mostly the score. I rolled very well; Zach did not. The game lasted all of two full turns. Very bloody.

   FSA Forces (and disposition)

     1x Independence-class BB (sunk)

     3x Lexington-class CL (1 damaged, 2 unharmed)

     2x A-17 Bomber (1 shot down, 1 damaged)

     3x Augusta-class FF (all sunk)

     3x Augusta-class FF (all sunk)

     4x Augusta-class FF (3 sunk, 1 unharmed)

     1x wing, dive bombers (3 shot down)

     1x wing, torpedo bombers (shot down)

   Prussian Empire forces (and disposition)

     1x Emperor-class BB (heavily damaged)

     3x Riever-class CN (unharmed)

     2x Geiger-class bomber (1 damaged)

     3x Speerwurf-class airship (unharmed)

     3x Arminius-class FF (two sunk, 1 damaged)

     4x Arminius-class FF (unharmed)

     1 wing, fighters (unharmed)

     1 wing, dive bombers (1 shot down)