Five Minute Fights

I completed the next chapter of my 5K campaign; stay tuned for an AAR.

In addition, I've been toying around with the Five Minute Fights idea since the weekend. I decided to try a quick experiment.

Set Up

I decided to try it on a smaller board, appropriately enough a 5 x 5. I used my 4 heroes (red) and randomly rolled 6 enemies.

I used my Micro Battle table to determine the terrain.

I don't have any specific scenario goals other than kill the enemy.

The Play Test

I'm using a version of my Quick Play Micro Battle rules. In these, a hit means you are wounded or dead. There is no "no effect" result. This greatly speeds up play, albeit making for a bloody experience.

I cut down ranges from the 5K rules. The 5K military rifle shoots 4 spaces in this version.

In this case, all figures have equal stats. I assume them to be average fighters. I'll need to decide how to apply bonuses.

Anyway, after 6 minutes and 51 seconds, here is the result. The enemy is pressing the 2 remaining heroes. But the bad guys lose their nerve after reaching 50% casualties.

CONSIDERATIONS

I think the rules will work. I just need to consider how to apply bonuses,

The big debate in my mind is basing and scale. Do I want individual fighters, as in this experiment, or do I want units? The units could be squads, companies, or what have you. I think units would better fit the ground scale, but I do like having individual characters.

Random Thoughts

While sitting on my couch before church last Sunday, I was having some random thoughts.

Five Minute Fights

While my Five Klicks battle was enjoyable and quick (under 30 minutes including set up), I'd also like something I could do in 5-10 minutes. Thinking again about 3 x 3 Portable Wargame and if I can use something similar for skirmishes.

Icespire Stinks

I've been struggling to play the next chapter of my Icespire Peak campaign. I was pondering why that's the case.

• In general, the adventures are pretty lackluster. Also, they don't translate well to solo play. I have to make some tweaks for them to interest me.
• I am stuck on one adventure - the Woodland Manse. I struggle to transform it into a solo module.
• I finally thought up a plan. I'm just going to make it a linear series of encounters - outdoors, first floor, and upper floor, or something similar.
• I want to get this campaign over with so I need to start simplifying the adventures. Perhaps I'll just create a series of five minute fights?

Scrag Skirmish

The Emberville Five Klicks Campaign - Turn 2

The settlement needs more resources so our heroes must set out into the wasteland to look for salvage.

Preliminaries

• Event - Personal Improvement - I roll randomly and Rosy gets an XP
• Actions - Train - Ash, Rock, and Spike train and get an XP.
• Trade - I skipped this step. I assumed that you only get Trade Points in the first turn. Turns out I was wrong, but I messed up trade in the first turn so it evens out.
• Explore - out they go into the wasteland. I decide to leave Rosy at home.

The Expedition

This turn, our heroes venture out into the wastes and discover a couple of abandoned buildings. But as they approach, they see that a party of scrags, "poorly armed fools trying to make a name for themselves in the dust," are exploring the site as well.

Set Up

Rather than wait until I get proper counters or figures, I decided to use Meeples. They are way out of scale with the terrain. Oh well.

The party starts at the bottom of the board. The members are (from left to right) 

• Jazz the scavenger (yellow)
• Spike the soldier (green)
• Rock the hunter (blue)
• Ash the merchant (red)

I'm using stacks of wooden rectangles to represent buildings. The sticks represent fences.

The Skirmish

Seeing the building, Ash's greed gets the better of him. He rushes forward.

Rock joins him in the building. Ash tries to negotiate with the scrags, but they unleash a fusillade of shots. One bullet ricochets off Spike's armor.

Jazz and Spike return fire, taking out one of the scrags.

Ash takes out another while Jazz and Spike advance to the fence line.

A shot strikes Ash. He retires into a safe part of the building. Meanwhile, Spikes covers Jazz as she assaults the other building. She manages to take out the scrag there.

With so many dead scrags, will the lone survivor flee? No! He decides to seek revenge. He wounds Rock. But Jazz and Spike flank him and take him out.

Aftermath

All in all, a successful outing. Our heroes gain experience, loot a musket from the dead, and manage to bring back enough salvage to improve Emberville's resources.

Game Note

How did I come up with the events of the aftermath? Following 5K's post-battle sequence, I determine:

1. Casualties - Ash and Rock will be able to recover from their wounds.
2. Durability - no check needed this time
3. Experience - Each character gains 1 XP. I give Jazz another XP as the MVP of the day. She managed to kill 2 of the 4 scrags. No one levels up yet.
4. Improve Home - since the party held the field, I roll to improve the settlement. I succeed so I can raise a stat by 1 point. I choose Resources, assuming that the party finds some good salvage in the buildings.
5. Loot - I roll a musket. Seems reasonable because that's what the scrags had.

The Campaign Begins

The Emberville Five Klicks Campaign - Turn 1

Now that I have my heroes ready, time to start adventuring.

Preliminaries

In 5K, you don't just rush into the wasteland. You have to prepare!

There are a series of pre-battle steps. Here is what happened this turn.

• Event - scrap find. I use it to improve their trade.
• Trade - the party acquires sturdy binoculars, a fine pistol, and military armor. I give the armor to Spike
• Actions - Send out a patrol - this will reduce the number of enemies in any subsequent battle
• Explore - out they go into the wasteland.

Note: I was only supposed to keep 2 trade items but I forgot that rule until after the second campaign turn. Oh well, I'll let it stand.

The Wanderer

The party meets a wandering freelancer. Ash, with the speech skill, negotiates with the stranger.  Ash does well, and the newcomer, Rosy, joins the party.

Aftermath

There was no battle so nothing going on afterwards.

A little disappointing, but it is nice to have reinforcements.

Five Klicks Campaign

As I mentioned last time, I've taken an interest in the campaign system found in Nordic Weasel's Five Klicks from the Zone (5K).

The Setting

In 5K, your party has a home base, a settlement, that it tries to improve. You do that by sending the party into the wasteland, hunting for salvage.*

My party's home will be a settlement named Emberville.

The Party

In 5K, you start with a party of 8 adventurers. That seems like a bit much for me to juggle, so I decided to cut the party in half. I'll do the same with enemies when the time comes.

I proceeded to use the 5K rules to stat out the party members. Here they are:

• Ash, a merchant (34031) with survival and speech skills. Armed with a civilian carbine.
• Jazz, a scavenger (34052) with the leader skill. Armed with a civilian carbine.
• Rock, a hunter (26032) with the survival skill. Armed with a military rifle and scout armor.
• Spike, a soldier (34332) with the leader skill. Armed with a military rifle and scout armor.

The numbers represent the character's stats - Initiative, Speed, Combat Skill, Toughness, and Nerve.

They're now ready to venture into the wasteland!

Created with Gencraft
Ash, Rock, Jazz, and Spike

* A Note on Morality

For most RPG or RPG-style wargames, I am not fond of acquisition as a motive. It feels so mercenary. I generally prefer my heroes to fight for a greater cause - defeat the dark lord, preserve law and order, stop an invasion - that sort of thing. That's why I never really got into 5K's sister game, Five Parsecs from Home. But for post-apocalyptic, acquisition seems to be a greater cause. It is necessary to rebuild civilization. So I'm going to stick with it for this campaign.

Fallout Follies

It's been quiet on this blog. I just haven't had any gaming inspiration.

But that may be changing because of this.

I watched the first two episodes this week and now I'm in the mood for some post apocalyptic skirmishing. But, I have a couple of problems...

Rules

I've been looking for rules. Not that I'm going to use them as is. I will likely use a modified version of my Micro Battles for the actual game. I'm really looking for a campaign mechanism, otherwise games feel kind of stale after a while.

Right now, I'm focused on Five Klicks from the Zone.

Figures

I don't have any miniatures to play the game. I thought about getting some, but then I quickly realized that they would end up sitting unpainted on a shelf.

I could use Meeples. Even the smallest ones, however, seem a bit large for the small boards I use. I'd like something more in a 6mm scale.

Now I am pondering homemade, top-down counters. These will be easy to create, easy to store, and I can make them generic so they can do duty in other genres.

Stay tuned for more!