A New Vegas Distraction

I had a few free hours this morning so I planned to get some miniatures-related stuff done. I wasn't feeling a game so I thought about doing a little painting.

However, as I sat down for a little breakfast, Onyx our video-addicted cat started scratching at the TV. That's his way of telling me he wanted it on. All right, maybe a little of my current gaming craze - Fallout: New Vegas (yes, I know it is a bit old).

As I was playing, one of my other cats jumped in my lap, curled up, and went to sleep. OK, I wasn't going anywhere soon. I just kept playing. Two hours later I finally got free, and am jotting this down before I begin my errands for the day.

Of course, I need to keep the TV on for Onyx. Right now I have it tuned to Fallout Radio on YouTube.

Click HERE to listen

If you like 40s-50s music, give it a listen.

Roaming the Rodent Wasteland

While on vacation last week I took the opportunity to try out some simple rules for adventuring in a post-apocalyptic wasteland (see my previous post for some background).

Here is a picture of the campaign map.

And the encounters:

1. Old Folks' Home - Red shoots down 1 decrepit zombie before it reaches them
2. Mall - Red and Dog are both wounded in a fight against 2 raiders
3. Old Fort - Red is badly wounded as they are driven off by mutants
4. The Fountain of Youth - very timely discovery allowing both to recover their full health
5. Swamp - They fight off 2 razormouths (radiated alligators) and find a stimpack
6. Mall - Dog is wounded as they defeat 2 zombies. Red uses the stimpack on Dog and finds armor
7. Wasteland - Dog takes more wounds, this time against two radguanas (radiated iguanas)
8. Swamp - Another bloody battle against 2 razormouths. Red uses the last 2 bandages and finds a gun
9. Settlement - relief! The settlers provide aid to our heroes, who heal 1 wound each
10. Old Folks' Home - Our hero retrace their steps through the Old Folks' Home, killing another zombie
11. Mall - fortunately they previously cleared this out
12. Wasteland - They defeat 2 raiders but take more wounds. Red upgrades to a heavy gun
13. The Magic Castle! - After much wandering, they find it at last. There is an epic battle against 3 rodent warriors. They take more wounds and both Red and Dog are on their last hit point. They kill 2 of the warriors before the third flees.

All in all, a fun diversion. Although I used a different combat mechanism, it felt very similar to Four Against Darkness; essentially it was a random dungeon crawl. I'm debating just using 4AD's combat mechanisms.

Rodent Warriors

Introduction
Generations after the Conflagration, the survivors’ descendants have formed scattered settlements and are rebuilding civilization, sometimes using the technology of the Old Ones. Your village is one of those, filtering out the glowing waters with the Cleansifier.

Yesterday, the Cleansifier broke, leaving the village with a limited supply of clean water. The village elders have met and have decreed that one of the village must go forth into the wastes, searching for the fabled Magic Castle, where we can find another Cleansifier. They have selected YOU to take on this quest. With your bow, knife, and trusty dog, you set off to find the Cleansifier and save your village.

The Concept

My wife and I have been playing a lot of Fallout lately, prompting a desire to play some post-apocalyptic skirmishing. I had a spark of inspiration and am jotting down ideas. Above is my intro to the game.

Ever since I started playing Fallout I wondered what a Florida setting would look like. I just have visions of mouse-eared minions dominating the peninsula from their castle in the middle of the state (hence the name Rodent Warriors).

So far I have a bunch of Florida-themed locations - radiated swamps, an old Spanish fort, a rocket center, shopping malls, retirement homes, the Fountain of Youth, and finally the Magic Castle, home of the Mouse King!

Rules

I'm creating the rules on the fly. So far, I have a table to generate the location / encounter. In my first experiment, I used my latest 2D6 sci fi skirmish rules. I need to make some loot tables, so the hero can upgrade armor and weapons.

Experiments

For my initial foray, the hero Red and his dog set out from the village and ran into some zombies in the wasteland.

The zombies (black tokens) started at long range. Red (green token) tried to shoot them down with his bow, but he missed.

Red's failure allowed the zombies to rush into close combat. 

Red took a wound, but after a short scuffle he and his dog eliminate the zombies.

Searching the rotting corpses, Red discovered that one was wearing light armor. Red donned the prize!

Red then found the Old Fort. However, it was inhabited by mutants. After a long battle, Red and his dog emerged battered but victorious.

Thoughts
The battle with the mutants dragged a bit. Red and his dog kept missing but they kept making their saving throws. I'm looking for ways to speed up combat.

Revolution Gone Awry

For a few years now, I've wanted to game a Revolutionary War scenario for the USA's Independence Day. I just never got past the planning stage because I could not decide what battle to do. This year I decided to do a fictitious battle in a fictitious invasion of my home state - Florida.

Just a little background. During the Revolution, Florida was a British colony (actually 2 - East and West Florida) with a heavy Tory population. Prior to the British capture of Savannah, the Patriots (or rebels if you prefer) staged a few unsuccessful attempts to conquer East Florida. The Spanish were more successful in West Florida, capturing Pensacola in 1781.

Now on to the fictitious part.

EAST FLORIDA - November 1777

Empowered by the Georgia legislature, Col. James Endicott has launched an invasion of East Florida in an effort to liberate the colony from Tory tyranny. As he advances towards St. Augustine, his artillery becomes mired in some swampy ground. He sends the bulk of his infantry forward to capture and hold a strategic hill.

Major Heyward, with 3 companies of regulars from the British garrison of St. Augustine and a company of Ranger, marches to meet Endicott's invasion force.

Two companies of regulars advance on the British right.

Company B of the Georgia militia drives the British back. In their excitement, the militiamen recklessly pursue.

And then get routed by a counterattack.

The sharpshooting of the Rangers force the militia off the hill. The Rangers gain a foothold.

But Company A holds firm.

A company of Continentals arrives and drives off the British right.

More British advance on the hill and stop the Continentals.

Finally driving them off.

A unit of Overmountain Men rush from the woods upon the rear of a British company,

But they are also routed.

With only one effective company and some artillery, Endicott realizes that he cannot retake the hill. He calls for a general retreat. Heyward is quite pleased with the day's work

Game Notes

• Rather than work up a historical scenario, I used a random one from Neil Thomas's One Hour Wargames. I rolled for scenario 29 - Shambolic Command. Sounds about right for the Patriots.
• In this scenario, the blue side (Patriots) can only activate 2 units per turn while the red (British) can activate all 4. Because I like random activation, I modified the rules a bit. The Patriots can roll for 3 units per turn while the British can roll for all 4. In general, the less experienced Patriots need to roll 4+ while the British need 3+.
• In a nod to American mythology, the Patriots shoot further. However, the British get a bonus in close combat.
• As for rules, I used the same ad hoc rules as for my Waterloo scenario last month. I think I need to write them down.
• I find that I rather enjoy playing quasi-historical battles in my home state (such as today's battle and this one). Now I'm thinking of extending this battle into a complete campaign.

I Survived!

The zombie apocalypse, that is.

On a whim, we pulled out Zombies!!! Saturday night. Now I usually do poorly in this game because it relies heavily on good dice rolling, which is not my forte. This game began true to form as my first character succumbed to the zombie horde.

My second character, however, got on a roll and was a zombie-killing machine. I managed to take down 22 of them. I then realized that there is an alternate victory condition - kill 25 and win the game! I was sooo close, but then my luck ran out. My second character went down.

So I went back to the start, but this time the helipad had been played. I steadily made my way to it. My wife was closer to the helipad, but her dice rolling had cooled. She rolled a 1 twice in a row. Then I rolled a 6, enough to make it to the waiting helicopter. Three zombies stood in my way. Not for long as my luck returned. I mowed them down and made it to the helicopter, which lifted me off to safety (sorry dear).

My path of victory in red
My wife circled in yellow

A Raider Runs Through It

Recently Ganesha Games announced that Star Eagle, its space fighter ruleset, is available as a PDF for $10. The price seemed reasonable so I picked up a copy. I've only glanced at the rules but they inspired me to pull out my latest space fighter rules.

Two Federation fighters scramble to intercept an Imperial raider. It is escorted by a pair of Imperial fighters (Note: I ran this as a fairly vanilla scenario. All fighters have the same agility and are experienced pilots).

Blue 2 gets a shot at the raider. Lasers scorch the raider's armor but have no lasting effect.

Both Federation fighters line up for a firing pass but only score superficial damage.

Blue 2 makes a firing pass along the length of the raider. Its shots penetrate, damaging the raider.

Blue 1 tries a pass, but one of the escorts destroys it. Meanwhile, Blue 2 takes damage from the raider's defensive guns.

Blue 2 tries one more shot but misses.

It then breaks off the fight. It will be up to anti-rocket artillery to drive off the raider.

Alas, not a particularly auspicious outing for the Federation.