The Redgrave War - Part 4

The next target of the Redgravian offensive was the port of Southcoast. Expecting an attack, Lester sent a contingent of Marines by ship to help the beleaguered Imperial garrison. Commodore Plotkin of the Redgravian navy, attempted to intercept Admiral Netherbottom’s relief force.

Plotkin had four ships: Mako, Barracuda, Narwhale, Moray (flag)

Likewise, Netherbottom had four ships: Tiramisu, Schnitzel, Escargot, Tarragon (flag)

The van of the Redgravian squadron descends on the Imperials

Once the squadrons were in sight, Plotkin raced forward to intercept his enemy. Netherbottom steered away, but the weather gage favored the Redgravians. Mako and Tiramisu engaged first and the Imperial vessel was subjected to a pounding broadside. Barracuda sailed up and added to Tiramisu’s misery. Soon, the Imperial vessel was a floating hulk. Other ships joined the fray and a general melee ensued.

As gun smoke obscured the battle and the warships swirled about each other, Netherbottom realized that he now had the wind advantage. He signaled to his fleet to break off the engagement.  His flagship, Tarragon, and Escargot managed to slip away. Schnitzel was not so lucky. The heavy pounding had taken down a mast; she could not outrun the Redgravian. Alone and outnumbered, Escargot had no option but to strike her colors.

Plotkin had won a significant tactical victory, taking two enemy ships while only sustaining minor damage to his fleet. However, Netherbottom managed to get reinforcements to Southcoast.

• Redgrave (Comm. Plotkin) – Mako, Barracuda, Narwhale, Moray*; minor damage to 2 ships
• Imperial (Adm Netherbottom) – Tiramisu, Schnitzel, Escargot, Tarragon*; Escargot heavily damaged, Tiramisu crippled

The Wizard's Tower

We decided to do Board Game Night last night so we pulled out an old favorite, Castle Panic, which I have described before. This time, we added the Wizard's Tower expansion (a recent addition to our inventory thanks to a Christmas gift card).

Box cover for Wizard's Tower

Wizard's Tower adds a slew of new and more powerful monsters (including a dragon) that replace the weaker goblins and orcs. The Dark Lord is really gunning for your castle this time! Of course, if you've got a dragon you also have to have flames, and the expansion includes tokens and rules for fires. How are you able to survive this onslaught? Never worry, you now have a wizard's tower!

Our castle taking a beating. A few walls are gone and a tower is in flames.
Note the wizard's tower (the tall one) on the far side of the castle.

 The wizard's tower grants you access to powerful magic (in the form of new cards) that can help stem the monster army's advance. Be careful, however, for if the wizard's tower is destroyed you can no longer use magic! You do get some new, amped-up castle cards to help as well.

The game plays similarly to the original Castle Panic. Hordes of monsters advance on your castle, intent on tearing down your towers (and presumably annihilating the inhabitants). The game is cooperative; you work together to stop the invasion. Nevertheless, there is a competitive component as each player tries to be the master slayer (by killing the most points of monsters).

Last night turned out to be a success. It looked dicey earlier, especially when we lost the wizard's tower. By then, however, we had managed to wipe out most of the really powerful monsters and just had to clean up a few stragglers. Ultimately, Elizabeth killed the last two monsters in one round, and we survived with three towers intact.

Our castle in the background with our trophies in front (Elizabeth, me, and Jimmy).
Can you guess who was the master slayer?

All in all, it's an interesting twist. It makes the game more challenging, although it seemed to take a bit longer to play (probably because the new monsters have special rules so I had to keep checking the rule book).

Year End Reflections

I planned to wait until the 1st anniversary of this blog to post some reflections on my experiences since I started blogging, but I have some time now.

If I had to describe this last year gaming-wise, it would be GADD (Gamer's Attention Deficit Disorder). At the beginning of the year, my plan was to resurrect my Francesia horse-and-musket campaign. I ordered figures (15mm Irregular) but never painted them. I picked up a couple of air war games (Down in Flames and Eindekker), which I haven't touched in months. Instead, I veered off in multiple directions. I did some solo role-playing. I went on a brief medieval kick before I ventured into sci fi. I kept getting sucked into video games (e.g. I started a new Skyrim character recently).

Let's take a look at the good, the bad, and the ugly of 2013.

Good

• Board Game Night - It has become a fairly regular feature in my household. We picked up some fun games (Castle Panic, Zombies!, and my wife's favorite - Ticket to Ride) and enjoy playing together.
• New genres - Last January, I did not even conceive of starting sci fi or rpg projects, but I have enjoyed them (even though I play so infrequently). This is the positive aspect of GADD.
• Discovering the History of Wargaming project - available on my nook are these reprints of classic wargaming books. Highly recommended.

Bad

• Unfinished Projects - From Francesia to Dux Brit, I have drifted away from numerous projects. This is the negative aspect of GADD.
• The Lure of Video Games - I still find myself getting sucked into video games, which takes away time from my other wargaming projects.

Ugly

• My Painting - I really stink at it.

So what does 2014 have in store? I think I will wait and post that in early January.

De-motivation

Yesterday, I toyed with the idea of running a sci fi rpg adventure. Unfortunately, I have no minis to take pictures and I'd really love to illustrate my adventures for my Tales of the Templars blog. I spent part of the day looking for a 15mm figure to serve as a Space Templar. Once I got frustrated, I played Skyrim instead.

One of the cool things about rpgs is that you don't need minis so I should not let my lack stop me. After all, I don't game for the benefit of my blogs; I blog for the benefit of my games.

3mm Experiment

I painted and based the 3mm Napoleonic infantry blocks ordered from Pico Armor and they look rather decent. Here is a shot next to some 2mm bases. The first thing you can notice (other than my horrible photography) is the size discrepancy. At this scale, 1mm is a huge difference. With the 3mm blocks, each soldier is distinct, rather than being all lumped together. This is a blessing (it looks nicer) and a curse (it seems harder to paint, although they still paint up pretty quickly). This will

Note that I still have some work on these stands. The base of the figure blocks and the edges of the cardboard stands need to be painted green to blend in with the ground.

This picture shows my 3mm infantry next to handmade 2mm terrain. The figures look OK compared to the hill (right) but seem a bit large for the wood (left) or farm (middle).

GADD-zooks! Another Project!

Yes, GADD strikes again.

I recently got the bug to re-start my horse and musket Francesia project, but in a new scale.  I've read about the Oddzial Osmy 3mm figures before but recently my interest was piqued to the point that I ordered a sample pack from Pico Armor.

Here is the sample pack. Sorry about the poor quality photo, however these guys are small!

Cannons with limbers (top row)
Artillery crew (2nd row)
Infantry (3rd-4th rows, with command stand on bottom row)
Cavalry (right hand column)

If you look at the photos on the Pico site, you can discern the distinct headgear. Well, those are super close ups. With the naked eye, I could not tell the difference. Nevertheless, they can look very nice en masse, as these pictures attest. I think I will order some more and build up some Francesian armies. I plan to mount 2 blocks of infantry to a 20mm x 10mm base. I hoped to distinguish between elite and regulars with their different headgear but I don't think that will be possible. I'll have to find another way. Anyway, before I place an order, I will test paint the sample figs to see what they are like to paint. I have them primed now and will paint them soon. More pics then.

Because I had my paints out, I worked a bit on my sci fi figures. Here are my space marines.

And here are the black widows. They still need their faces and hair painted (yes, one has blue hair - she'll be the punk one).

A Busy Day

After my complaint about gamer ennui yesterday, I roused myself and got a lot done.

Here we see some starships and space marines getting a coat of spray paint. I finished the fighters and made some additional progress on the space marines.

Once my starfighters were done, I wanted to see them in action so I played out a scenario (detailed below).

I also started thinking about my long delayed Francesia project. I suck so much at painting that I have dragged my feet on painting the 15mm figures I bought earlier this year. I've been toying with the idea of using a smaller scale (such as the 10mm Risk figures). As I pondered, I decided to check out this range of 3mm figures. I have been aware and interested in them for some while. When I saw that they have a sample pack, I decided to try them out by ordering a pack.

Finally, I played Ticket to Ride with my wife and brother-in-law last night and secured a victory!

Aquians Attack (Part 1) - A Starfighter Game

Previously, I recounted the exploits of Lts. Ray Gunn and Ty Rowe of the 501st Starfighter Squadron (the Blue Genies). Yesterday, I gamed another encounter.

The devious Aquians have been eyeing the Omicron system. Aware of their interest, the Federation has sent a flotilla, including a carrier with the famed 501st Blue Genie starfighter squadron, to the system to resist any incursions. Previously, Lts. Gunn and Rowe encountered and destroyed a scouting party sent by the Aquians.

As our heroes were out on another patrol, the Aquians tried to slip a small force into the system. Consisting of a torpedo boat and two escorts, the attackers hope to surprise and cripple the Federation carrier, thereby taking the Blue Genies out of the fight. As luck would have it, Gunn and Rowe crossed paths with the attacking party as it approached the carrier.

Gunn and Rowe spot the Aquians. Attack!

Note: Today was the first outing of the star field hex board (using black foam core and a lot of dots!) I made last month. The star field is a little misaligned in areas, but it worked.

Lt. Gunn hits the afterburners in pursuit of the enemy torpedo boat (the flying saucer). It leaves him vulnerable to the enemy escorts and he takes some damage.

 Note: The red and orange flame markers indicate the throttle setting of the spacecraft. Red = afterburners, orange = normal speed, none = slow speed. The gray "asteroids" indicate the initiative order of the craft (rolled on a D6).

Gunn catches up with the torpedo boat but it manages to slip to the side. Meanwhile, an escort has taken a bead on Lt. Rowe, who suffers minor damage.

 Note: I painted the noses of the Federation fighters blue to indicate their squadron. I also painted a couple of red nosed fighters. I keep track of the pilot by colored dots on the wings. You can somewhat make out the 2 dots on Lt Rowe's ship in this picture.

One of the Aquian escorts rushes to the defense of the torpedo boat, but Lt. Gunn takes it out with a heavy burst of blaster fire.

Gunn pours fire into the torpedo boat, but it continues its run toward the Federation carrier.

Oops! Lt. Gunn overruns the torpedo boat. Fortunately, no collision this time.

A Federation interceptor joins the battle. Meanwhile, Lt. Gunn has fixated on the torpedo boat and does not notice the enemy fighter taking aim at him. The accurate fire breaches his hull; Gunn has no choice but to eject. His escape pod is jettisoned just before his ship explodes.

 Note: I wasn't sure if the heroes would be able to catch the TB so at the beginning of the scenario I decided that an interceptor would arrive on a roll of 6. In this turn, it finally arrived. After the destruction of his ship, I allowed Lt. Gunn a survival roll. Because he was my "star" (an idea borrowed from 5150), I decided he would survive unless he rolled really low. He rolled a 3 so I decided it was sufficient.

The interceptor gets some shots on the enemy TB but it maintains course for the carrier.

The enemy torpedo boat flies within range of the carrier's anti-craft guns, which open up. The fighters break away from the barrage. Will the torpedo boat manage to launch its payload or will the anti-craft guns finish it off? Stay tuned for more.

The goal of the game was to prevent the enemy TB from leaving the far edge of the board. Obviously, Gunn and Rowe failed their mission. Still, the TB was pretty beat up and probably would not be able to withstand the anti-craft fire. I'm thinking of gaming out the torpedo run - I just need a carrier stand in!

The Redgrave War - Part 3

I have previously reported on an old campaign, called the Redgrave War, fought in my Imagi-nation continent of Francesia.

The Redgravians invaded the Empire, seized Blancport, and defeated the Emperor Lester at the Battle of Shallow Stream in Middle March.

The scene of the fighting then turned to Southcoast. Expecting an attack, the Empire rushed reinforcements to the city, including a contingent of Marines aboard a squadron of ships commanded by Admiral Netherbottom. The Redgravian Navy attempted to intercept. Commodore Plotkin of the Redgravian squadron held the weather gauge and was able to swoop upon the Imperialists. The Imperial ships Tiramisu and Escargot took on the brunt of the attack and both were forced to strike their colors. Nevertheless, Netherbottom's flagship and another ship managed to escape, delivering the Marines to the beleaguered city.

Despite the efforts of the Marines, Southcoast fell to the Redgravians (the Marines managed to withdraw). As the siege dragged on, however, Emperor Lester organized a force to relieve the city. As it approached, Southcoast fell, but the Imperials were determined to regain it.

Seeing the Imperials advance, the Redgravian general, Schwarzwelder, decided to meet the enemy in the open field. It was a disastrous decision as he was outnumbered 2-1. The Imperial attack, led by the remaining Marines, smashed the Redgravians and the city returned to Imperial hands.

Laziness

It is Saturday morning and I have no chores for the day. What should I do with myself?

I feel that I should shake off my gamer ennui and work on one of my projects. So far today, I have thought about:

• painting my space marines and space fighters
• pulling out my 2mm medieval blocks (for my Dux Brit project from the summer)
• running my 2nd Space Templars adventure
• Basing more Risk figures for my Francesia horse and musket campaign

Yet it all seems, as I wrote above, like "work." This hobby should be fun, not work. Hence my sense of ennui.

Lately, I have been primarily playing video games. My wife and I have been playing Halo 3 (which we beat last night with some help with her brother) and I started a new character in Skyrim. Despite their drawbacks, video games make it very easy for us lazy gamers.

Tonight's Game

Halo Night with Elizabeth

Oops

I goofed up with my tiles.

I came up with a simple idea to determine the direction of any new tile placed. I drew a little black dot in one of the doorways of each tile. When a tile is drawn, the Space Marines enter through the marked doorway. Simple!

I then dived the tiles into 3 piles and marked the same doorway for each tile in a pile. That way, there is an even distribution among the doorways. I then tried it out and had a straight shot to the the objective room. It then dawned on me that for each tile there was a 2/3 chance of having a doorway straight ahead. Well that blew my goal of forcing a meandering path. For a second, I thought I'd have to redo the tiles!

I then came up with a simple solution. I blocked of the doorway across from the entrance for the air lock tiles. Now, the Space Marines will need to turn left or right after entering the derelict. Problem solved (I think).

A Little Progress

I mentioned that I have embarked on a Space Marine project. Here is a progress update.

 I have completed the enemies from Khurasan Miniatures (obviously not painted as nicely as on the Khurasan website). plus some basic modular tiles.

Here is a shot of a few of the enemies and tiles.

The little green creatures are Furry Mini-Hellions. I went with a really alien green. Now I wish I had done a more subdued job because they look like shrubberies. Oh well.

Next up are the Space Demon (the black creature) and the Plutonian (a lobster man creature). I know that the paint jobs are bad, but they are identifiable, and that's all I need.

The tiles themselves are gray foam mats cut into 3 inch squares. Each tile has a 1 inch square grid inked on it. I made 4 different types of tiles.

1. Objective Room - a 4-door room with an X in the center square. This represents the objective of the Space Marines.
2. Air Lock Room - a 4-door room with a black arrow in one of the doorways. The Space Marines will enter the space derelict through this lock.
3. T corridor
4. Room - with 3 doors.

I made 1 objective and 4 air locks. The rest of the tiles (approximately 34) are split evenly between corridors and rooms.

I purposely only made rooms and corridors with 3 doors in order to created a meandering pathway. I envision the players randomly picking and placing down tiles (the direction will be determined by a die roll). If the tiles had 4 doors, the players would have a straight shot to the objective room. With only 3 doors, they should now run into dead ends and have to zig zag a bit through the derelict.

Although it's not pretty, the set up is functional, and the project is making headway. I just need some Space Marines and the battle can begin!

Quick Update

Gaming
I haven't been playing any space games since I last posted, but I have been playing games.

Last weekend Elizabeth and I served a Halloween meal for some family members. Here is our handiwork:

 Mummy loaf with "moldy" potatos

Witch Hats for dessert

We followed dinner with a game of Space Hulk: Death Angel. We finally won, although that's largely because I was doing it wrong. I accidentally used the Void Lock card for 6 Space Marines rather than 6 players. As a result, we encountered far fewer Genestealers than normal. I rectified the mistake about halfway through and we proceeded to lose 9 of our 12 Marines!

I recently picked up a copy of Zombies!, which we played on Halloween as we were giving out candy. My brother-in-law picked a card to move 10 spaces in one turn. He made a dash for the heliport, killed a zombie in the way, and flew to safety (Elizabeth and I watched him as the zombies closed in on us).

I also picked up a copy of the Scandinavia version of Ticket to Ride. I completed 2 routes and steamed away with the victory. We followed with Forbidden Island, but it sank to the depths with the last treasure.

NOTE: We played both Zombies and Ticket to Ride for the first time last week, and enjoyed them both. I foresee many replays.

Space Project

I received the miniatures I had ordered and have started painting. I really suck at painting so I'm not doing anything fancy; just enough to get them on the table. My camera battery died so I don't have pics yet.

Space Templars Adventure 2

While I wait for my Space Marines and enemies, I decided to plot out the next Space Templar adventure. Once again, I pulled out the Space Opera Adventure Generator and came up with:

Retrieve a secret located on an alien world while dealing with a disaster and while opposed by an Empire.

This reminded me of a Star Wars: The Old Republic quest where a Jedi character has to investigate a cavern on Tython. I also took inspiration from the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Who Watches the Watchers."

A Federation scientific expedition doing research on a primitive planet has met with disaster. A massive meteor shower struck the the expedition's outpost in the hilly region. The scientists barely escaped, but they accidentally left behind some prized research. Our heroes will have to explore the ruined outpost and find the expedition's database. Unfortunately, an Imperial force has found the site.

The adventure will have two stages - the Caverns and the Laboratories. Like my previous adventure, I do not have a map; instead I randomly roll for encounters every time I move into a new "room." Here are the first draft of the encounter charts.

Caverns

1. Cave Men - indigenous hominids are investigating the caves
2. Cave In - a section of the roof, weakened by the meteor shower, falls upon the group
3. Giant Spider - a native spider like creature has taken residence in the caverns
4. Trap - the scientists left a non lethal trap to discourage the natives from investigating
5. Imperial Troopers - they're here!
6. A boon - some good fortune befalls the group
7. Security door - once opened, proceed to the next section

Laboratories

1. Security Bot - left by the scientists
2. Cave In
3. Carnivorous Plant - a specimen collected by the scientists
4. Dangerous Predator - another specimen, which has escaped its cage
5. More Imperial Troopers
6. Another boon
7. The Control Chamber - location of the database. An Imperial trooper in full battlesuit is here. He has just defeated the expedition's security bot. The heroes need to defeat him to retrieve the database.

A New Project - Space Marines

Elizabeth has been wanting to play a scary game (for Halloween) and I've been in a sci fi mood. The answer? Space Hulk!

I have a copy of the Space Hulk: Death Angel card game so we brought that out last night. We actually did pretty well - making to the 3rd of 4 levels before we got swarmed.

Here is our last position before we called it a night. We were pretty much assured of losing at least two more Marines in the next turn.

It is a fun albeit frightening game but the cards aren't as cool as minis. I've toyed with picking up a copy of the re-released Space Hulk game but the price puts me off (since it is OOP, copies are going for over $200!). So I decided to create my own version.

I just placed an order for some minis.

First up, the Space Marines:

Photo from Rebel Miniatures web page

Next, for Elizabeth, some kick-ass female mercenaries:

Photo from Rebel Miniatures web page

These figures are from Rebel Miniatures.

The enemies come from Khurasan Miniatures:

All photos from the Khurasan Miniatures web page.

I wrote up some very basic rules for the game and I'll be working on some sci fi themed tiles to represent the space hulk.

Starfighter Set Up and Rules

I haven't had a chance to run another mission yet, but I have been updating my set up. Here's a peek:

The Board
I picked up a black, 3' x 4' foamcore board from Michael's. Two of the sides fold inward; in this configuration, the board is 2' x 3'.

I used an idea from Terragenesis to create a hex template from cardboard. The hex corners are marked in white, which look like stars to me. My plan was not entirely successful, as my hex template was slightly askew. This caused problems as I neared the end. I finished by using a Memoir '44 hex as a template. Anyway, it seems to be useable.

Initiative Markers
The gray "meteors" act as initiative markers. The idea is to display each fighter's initiative roll. This makes it easier to remember whose turn it is without cluttering the board with unsightly dice.

Throttle Markers
In my rules, fighters select a throttle setting, which determines speed and impacts combat rolls. I realized that I needed to indicate the setting in some manner, so I created rocket exhaust from foam. Orange indicates regular throttle while red indicates afterburners. No marker indicates low throttle.

Laser and Explosion Markers
Not needed for the game itself, I created these for blog pictures. They illustrate the action.

RULES
For rules, I picked up a copy of Two Hour Wargames 5150: Fighter Command. It was a bit more detailed than I wanted, so I wrote up my own rules:

Turn Sequence

1.       Initiative – D6

a.       Move tailed ships first

b.      Then move low to high

2.       Set throttle

3.       Move

4.       Shoot

5.       Damage

Set Throttle

Roll	Throttle	MPs	Mods
1-2	L	3	+1
3-5	H	4	0
6	AB	5	-1

[Note: For solo games, I randomly roll for the throttle setting for all fighters except for my personal "Star"]

Move

Action	MPs
Move forward 1 space	1
Turn 60 degrees	2
Turn 120 degrees	3

·         Must move forward 1 space before making a turn

·         Can only make 1 turn before moving forward again

Shoot

1.       Target must be directly ahead of shooter

2.       Maximum range = 6 spaces

3.       Roll 1D6 per functioning cannon

Hit on 4-6

Mods:

·         Speed mod                         -1 to +1

·         Target speed mod           -1 to +1

·         “Star” pilot                          +1

·         Target hull damage         +?

Damage

Roll	Area	Effect
1-2	Hull	Lose 1 hull Enemy get +1 to hit
3	Engine	-1 mp 0 mp if 2 hits
4	Weapon	Lose 1 cannon
5	Hull	Lose 2 hull Enemy gets +2 to hit
6	Destroyed	Eliminated

Star Fighter Stats

Hull               3

Weapon       2

Engine          2

I like the 5150 concept of "Stars," which are the main characters of each player. Stars get certain advantages. In my practice game, Ray Gunn was the Star (although Ty Rowe performed better; Ray could not hit the broad side of the moon!). I selected the throttle setting for the Star before randomly rolling for the other fighters. This gave a nice element of unpredictability.

Star Fighters

It's been a long time since I actually posted pictures of miniatures on this blog. I'd like to do some pics for my RP sessions, but I don't have the minis. However, the escape from the Temple of Zircon got me thinking about getting some spaceship models. I then remembered an interesting blog post about cheap plastic spaceships. I decided to order some.

The ships came in a bag of 144 for under $8. Here is the lot of them.

There are 7 varieties of ships as shown below.

I'm planning to paint some of them up for space battles. I think they can do double duty - as cruisers for fleet actions and as fighters for smaller scale dogfights.

I've been dying to experiment with them, so I decided to run a solo game with the materials at hand. I picked out 4 of the ships, marking 2 of them with a pen to designate the flight leaders. I didn't have anything black for the battle board so I used a gray foam mat instead. Finally, I tossed down a wooden circle to represent an asteroid.

I wrote up some quick rules for the game. The "good guys" of the battle are two pilots from the Federation Star Fleet Fighter Command. They are in the 501st Squadron (nicknamed the "Genies") and have been sent on a patrol of the Omicron system. The battle report follows.