Random Thoughts and a Skirmish

Although this blog has been silent for a while, I haven't disappeared. Life's been hectic and I haven't had the opportunity to play any wargames.

Family Game Night still occurs. We got a late start last night, so we wanted something we could set up and play quickly. So we pulled out Zombies!!! It got a little cutthroat as I kept playing cards in a vain attempt to thwart my wife's progress. She responded in kind, with much greater effect, as you can see from the picture below.

The board at the end.
Elizabeth (red) makes it to the heliport

I mention this game for reasons other than giving an update. Over the past couple of weeks I've been contemplating the ideal game. One crucial aspect is ease of set-up. We have a bunch of great games (like these) that we don't play often because of long set-up times. Similarly, I haven't been playing miniature wargames because I've been too lazy to set them up. During lazy times, I think a skirmish would be ideal. To that end, I began an experiment a couple of weeks ago.

Since then, I pondered the results and increasingly feel that the basic Mice and Mystics mechanics work very well. It seems that the long set-up and special rules bog it down. Strip the game down to the core and it moves quickly. This morning, I tried another experiment, this time using M&M core rules.

Battle Report

In this adventure, Carstairs and the lovely Jenny Love are exploring Mars. They run afoul of some hostile Martians.

Carstairs attacks with 3 dice and defends with 2. His pistol has a range of 3 spaces.

Jenny attacks with 2 dice and defends with 2. Her lighting gun has a range of 4 spaces and requires a 5+ to save (normal saves are 4+)

The 3 Martians attack with 2 dice (range 6) and defend with 1.

As Carstairs and Jenny march across the wild deserts of Mars, a Martian scout spots them. He steps out behind a large rock and fires, hitting Carstairs.

I assumed the rocks were very large boulders that blocked line of sight. I should have allowed figures to crouch behind them and fire.

As in M&M, the player's characters (in this case Carstairs and Jenny) can take 3 hits. Mooks can only take 1. All figures get a saving roll. Carstairs failed his roll.

Carstairs rushes forward with Jenny right behind him. Both fire and miss. The Martian scout also misses, but he has support coming to his aid!

Carstairs misses but Jenny's lightning gun blasts the scout into oblivion. The remaining Martians get into line of sight and fire. Our heroes are able to dodge the shots. They made their saving rolls.

The Martians fire again. This time, Carstairs is struck and is knocked unconscious.
He took 2 hits and failed to save. However, player characters are not killed outright. If they take 3 hits, they are considered unconscious.

Jenny took a hit but she dodged behind a large boulder and blasted a second Martian.

Then she rushed forward, oblivious of the fusillade of shot that whistled by her very prim coiffure. She leveled her gun and blasted the last enemy.

After the last Martian fell, she rushed back to Carstairs. Gently cradling his head in her lap, she bathed his forehead with water and tended to his wound. He stirred, and weakly spoke.

"Did I get them?"

"Yes dear," she responded, with an ironic smile on her face. "They've been dealt with."

Notes

• M&M rules work. I am going to continue experimenting with them.
• Other than the fact that I had to make the virtual board on the spot, set-up was easy. Only a handful of figures on the board. That's a plus.
• My original intention was for skirmishes in my pulp-era imagi-world of Aetheria. However, I found some great Space 1889 paper miniatures online and have been using those. I found them with a this Google image search. I wish I could find some pulp-themed paper miniatures like these.