Ambush! - X-Wing AAR

When FFG released their X-Wing miniatures game, I was mildly interested. I've always had an interest in the Star Wars universe, especially with the fightercraft. I enjoyed Michael Stackpole's X-Wing series (and am in the process of reacquiring the books to reread them), and I spent hours playing Rogue Squadron in my Nintendo 64 as a kid. 

Recently, Target (a discount retailer in the United States) had a clearance sale on the core set. At 50% off, I couldn't help but pick up a couple sets. Feeling slightly guilty, I also picked up the X-Wing and TIE fighter expansions from 7th Dimension Games. Feeling pretty satisfied with my purchases, I managed to wrangle Rob, a coworker that I recently found out plays 40k and is always interested in trying out new games, for a demo. 

I set up two 50 point flights. Rob choose the Rebels, and had 2 X-Wings - a rookie pilot, and a Red Squadron pilot with a Proton Torpedo. I played the Imperials with 4 TIE fighters - two Obsidian Squadron Pilots and two Academy Pilots. The story behind the scenario was an Imperial ambush that had occurred during a training flight between a rookie pilot and his mentor.

 

The two opposing flights deployed in straight lines across the table from each other. Since this was a demo game, I decided against using any terrain. This would be a straight-up dogfight. 

 

First turn didn't see a whole lot of anything happen. Both flights approached each others with the eager Academy pilots screaming forward. 

 

The Red Squadron pilot scored a quick kill in the second turn, locking onto and vaping an Obsidian Squadron pilot with a single burst of lasers. 

 

The fighters screamed towards one another, trading laser fire. Unfortunately for Rob, by the time he remembered the Proton Torpedo that the Red Squadron pilot had, we were too close for him to use it. 

Oh boy. Somehow Rob and I got into a massive Charlie Foxtrot, which kept all of our starfighters from using any of their abilities - so no Focusing, Locking On, Evading, or Barrel Rolls this turn. Laser fire flew through the aether.

The fighters pulled apart after their little scrap and flew off in different directions to lick their wounds. 

That didn't do the second Obsidian pilot any good, however, when the Rookie blew him out of the sky, 

The game went against the Rebels fairly quickly, however. Over the course of the game the X-Wings had lost their shields and taken hull damage. The Red Squadron pilot bought the moisture farm soon after the Obsidian pilot. The Rookie pilot was vaped soon afterwards, with the Academy-trained TIE pilots getting off without a scratch. 

Rob conceded the game in good spirits, and even mentioned that he was interested in picking up a core set or two himself. Looks like I've got another game to enjoy in the new year!

A Pirate's Life for Me! - Pirate Skirmish AAR

My first post of the New Year! 

Every few months, Bob Fanelli runs events at 7th Dimension Games. I've missed a few of these, regrettably, and so I made sure to make time for his Pirates game.

The rules are Bob's adaption of another ruleset, called Pieces of Eight, with additional rules from Bob's Revolutionary War rules used for ship damage (more on that in a bit). 

A big feature of these rules were the use of 'event cards', which could be played to various outcomes - special events and turn cancellations were perhaps the most influential. Additionally, Bob made great use of Paizo Publishing's GameMastery Plot Twist cards, which made for some pretty memorable, well, twists in the game. 

Each player was given a choice of 5-man crews to take - these ranged from pirate gangs, to town guards, and even the port's Governor himself!  

The little port consisted of a few buildings surrounding a small market, with a church up on a hill. One corner of the table was engulfed by a large swamp, and the other corner was dominated by a fortification that bristled with cannons and muskets. 

I decided to take a crew of Dutch pirates, led by Captain Balthassar and assisted by his first mate, 'Lucky' 'Blind' 'Pegged' Dirk. 

If I remember correctly, I started the game off with a bang, firing a blunderbuss into a small merchant ship I had been eyeing since seeing the table. The blast knocked down the ship's captain and one of the crew. One of my swabbies took advantage of the situation and leapt aboard, only to be skewered by one of the ships's crew, and he fell down. The commotion alerted the Governor's men who had been relaxing at the nearby cafe, and this started a little war in the town. 

My blunderbuss-wielding crewmember was shot in the back and was downed, but my Captain retaliated and neatly capped the Governor's man. He then skewered the Governor's assistant (who had charged in a drunken rage), but only after the man had negotiated a deal with a French pirate crew - 25 gold coins for every Dutch head taken. The French first mate and Captain proceeded to mix things up with my crew for most of the game. 

One thing that everyone had there eye on was the arrival of a crew of British pirates, replete with pirate ship, which every other crew had apparently misplaced. For the most part, the boat floated past the town, but there were a few standout moments in the game.

Another skirmish broke out between Spanish and American Colonial pirates. Swords were swung and pistols were fired before peace broke out - one of the players used their plot twist card and the two captains discovered they were long lost cousins. 

Remember those British pirates from earlier? They decided to pull up alongside the ship I was trying to steal. One of their crew jumped down and after searching the ship found a keg of gunpowder. This was quickly lit and, even before the British ship could pull away, the keg exploded. Remarkably the small vessel was unharmed (except for a couple of her crew), and the larger ship was the one to sustain damage! The Brits slunk away in their now-slower-moving ship before anyone could retaliate. 

On the other side of town, another crew of pirates was having their own little adventure. An attempt to rob a 'lady of the night' ended poorly when the woman's booty turned out to be cocked and loaded. A missed shot was repaid by a deadly ball through the heart. Spying a ladder, the crew's player decided to assault the walls of the Governors building, thinking he could get a good bit of plundering done. Things went downhill from there. The whorehouse (I did mention that building was a whorehouse, correct?) produced not only the enraged lover of the murdered wench, but another two men driven to a killing frenzy by the French pox. 

Meanwhile the Governor had his hands full after a couple of ladies scaled his walls and avoided the cannon he had set up as a trap. A few heated words even led to a bit of infighting amongst the Governor's men!

The stalemate between family members was soon over thanks to a bit of gold one crew had picked up from a townie. Freshly loaded pistols barked and chipped swords sparked as the fighting restarted. 

A group of Spanish pirates that had found some buried treasure in the swamp fell into a bit of bad luck. The crews were activated by the drawing of player cards - when your number was drawn, you could activate a crew member. Bob had both aces - which represented the various townsfolk and guards - and jokers. To the dismay of the Spanish pirates, Jokers saw crocodiles crawling out of the swamp - but the two that attacked where quickly turned into boots. 

While my pirates were forcibly attempting to take their ship, another crew and coerced/boozed/hired the adjacent ship. Deciding to cause a little mayhem of their own, that crew fired their front cannon, which had been loaded with canister, through the deck of my eventual ride! The blast chummed one of my swabbies and two of the ship's previous crew. 

The British crew, in what can only be described as a piratical drive-by, blew past the two crews fighting it out on the other docks. A hastily loaded cannon fired its canister directly at the pirate Captain who had just regained his feet on the dock - and missed! Realizing that discretion in the better part of valor, the Brits once again quickly made their way past the skirmish before anyone else could fire back. 

One of the highlight moments of the game came from the Spanish player who had been dealing with the crocs. One of his crew members went to the nearby church for aid, which the (decidedly swashbuckler-esque) priest provided. The newly converted pirate repaid the holy man by chucking a rock at his head, which missed. What didn't miss was the jaws of the rabid dog that had gotten into the church, which killed the priest faster than he could yell, "Ay! Dios mio!"

Finally clearing the ship of most of its resisting crew, my own remaining pirates clambered aboard and were about to give chase to the fleeing scalawags in the other boat. The French Captain, realizing his gold was about to float away, leapt aboard, killed my last swabbie, and put a round in my Captain's chest that pushed him off the boat. Knowing I was done for (and realizing that I run out of time and needed to head out), I used my own Plot Twist card. My Captain, unseen after falling overboard, dissipated without a trace, living for another day and harboring a grudge against a certain orange-coated Frenchman. 

I definitely had a great time - Bob put on a great session as he refereed the game. Plenty of laughs were had as we attempted, in out best buccaneering fashion, to loot, plunder, and gather as much glory as possible!

Painting Update - SAGA

I hope everyone had a enjoyable Turkey Day last week. I know I did - a sore stomach the next day attested to that!

Not much happened over my break, however.

I was slightly more productive with my painting, however, and I managed to get two units of Norman Hearthguard painted, flocked, and varnished.

Painting Update - SAGA (and a Warning)

I managed to finish the 4 point Anglo-Danish Warband today. I'm also starting to get a little tired of hand painting shields. Those LBMS transfers are starting to look like a good purchase...

The Warlord.

Hearthguard with Dane-Axes.

Regular Hearthguard.

Warriors. 

The second unit of Warriors. 

I also managed to get my hands on a few Norman knights, and I finished the Warlord last night:

And for the Warning. When transporting certain miniatures (as a hypothetical example, let's say they're spaceship miniatures on flight stands) from one area to another, be aware that these certain miniatures may or may not be relatively unstable, which may lead to them falling from whatever you're using to carry them. Which would lead to them smashing on the ground and possibly breaking into multiple pieces that may or may not have snapped off within one another. 

Painting Update - Full Thrust

Last December I ordered a couple of intro fleets for Full Thrust from Ground Zero Games. I haven't gotten around to playing the game very often - a definite shame - but I've finally gotten around to painting the miniatures.

They aren't works of art, but my thinking behind them was more RTS focused then miniature wargaming. In most spaceship-based wargames, distances are going to be so large that anything in scale would be smaller than a grain of rice. So the miniatures are more representative of where the ships would be instead of the actual ships themselves. With that in mind I painted them to be visually recognizable - you'd know whose ships are whose with a glance, no matter how mixed in they are.

By the way, the descriptions for the Full Thrust factions come from Wikipedia, which cites the first Full Thrust: Fleet Book as a source.

 

"The "Federal Stats Europa" (aka "Federated States of Europe") was formed in 2101 after the split of the European Space Force. Their colonies fall under a democratic council core government. Their official language is French and their space navy is known as L'Astromarine des FSE. "

The intro fleet consists of:
Lemnos class Frigate x2
Thetis class Destroyer x2
Ardennes class Light Cruiser x2
Tourville class Heavy Cruiser x1

Duquesne class Battlecruiser x1

  

"The "Neu Swabian League" was formed in 2101 after the split of the European Space Force. Their official language is German and their navy is known as the Kriegsraumflotte. Their capital is located on the planet Neu Salzburg."

The intro fleet consists of:

Pola class Frigate x2

Lützow class Destroyer x2

Emden class Light Cruiser x2

Helgoland class Heavy Cruiser

Von Der Tann class Battlecruiser

I should mention that Jon Tuffey, the owner of GZG, included a Battleship and 2 additional Destroyers for each fleet in my order. Really excellent service all around from Jon. 

The stands are GZG's bog standard bases spruced up with magnetic adapters from Ninja Magic. I've really got to get some more - they're awesome!

I'm hoping to get some games in with Full Thrust in the future. 

Anglo-Danes vs. Vikings - SAGA AAR, Part 2

For our second game, Curt and I modified the scenario 'The Challenge' into a knockdown, slobber-knocker slugfest between our two warbands.

(When I say 'modified', I mean that we didn't realize that the Warlords could break off from their duel in the center of the field, and that some of the Warlord's rules, like Resilience, still applied. So when Curt realized that his Warlord killing mine would end the game, we decided to keep going until one side was completely wiped out.)

Curt once again had the Vikings, and I the Anglo-Danes.

I placed the terrain myself, as I wanted the scenery to be a little nicer than our last game.

The terrain I placed was some fields on the left surrounded by small stone walls, a couple rocky ground formations in the middle, a small marsh to the right, and a road running down the middle.

  

The two sides lined up (Curt's Vikings have their backs to the camera). The Rocky formation broke my line, forcing my Dane-axe Hearthguard to advance separately. 

 

While our two warlords clobbered each other in the center of the table, we found ourselves spending most of our SAGA dice getting our warbands across the field. The position of the rocky terrain forced me to hold a unit of Warriors back from the melee (which turned out to be a blessing in disguise).

 

My old Warlord wasn't so lucky, and his younger, faster Viking counterpart eventually cut him down. However, he was left with only two wounds left (down from a beginning total of 12!) and the rest of my Warband performed spectacularly, ripping into Curt's shieldwall like a sharp sword through wet paper. 

 

After a few more rounds of fighting, I was definitely in the lead when it came to troops - Curt had lost his Berserkers, and both his Warlord and a unit of Warriors had taken a lot of hits. I had lost a unit of Hearthguard, and a unit of Warriors on the right had been bloodied, but I still had two units fresh and ready to fight. 

To my left my Dane-axe Hearthguard faced off against Curt's last untouched unit. 

A couple turns later, tit had been given for tat and both units were down to half-strength, but my Hearthguard had consistently been able to push Curt's warriors back. 

Back on the right, my two Warrior units faced of against Curt's bloodied Warlord and the last of his Hearthguard. 

 

A lone Danish Hearthguard stands, with the rest of his comrades killed. At least they took out Curt's Warriors!

And finally, Curt's Warlord falls. It was a bloody fight, with Curt's warband staying until the last man - I only had 5 men left myself! 

This was a fun game, and although we strayed from the rules a bit, it was definitely a better learning experience as we practiced the various Movement, Combat, and Fatigue mechanics that make SAGA an enjoyable, tight ruleset. 

Vikings vs. Anglo-Danes - SAGA AAR, Part 1

Wait! Don't go just yet!

Yes, I understand that seeing the same two factions play against each other time and time again might be a bit boring - remember that I have to play these games. I've got Normans coming as soon as possible, and I'll try to mix things up a little with another game (Full Thrust? FoW? Something else?).

Regardless, I finally got Curt to cut his teeth on a couple of games of SAGA. Curt, of course, took the Viking starter warband, and I had the Anglo-Danes.

We decided to play Clash of Warlords, as I find it the best 'vanilla' scenario without any special rules or terrain to get in the way.

Terrain was a forest in the middle of the table, and a marsh to the side (which was promptly ignored). I find that a problem is smaller games of SAGA - terrain placement can force a game to be played on only a single side of the table if a player doesn't have the ability to traverse Uneven Ground quickly. In our game, you'll notice that we only played on a single side of the field.

Viking deployment.

Anglo-Dane deployment.

The first couple turns of the game saw the two shieldwalls advancing towards each other until one of us could have to charge into combat. Knowing my advantage was in the Anglo-Danes ability to take a charge (and that the Vikings would want to be the ones charging), I advanced only a little further in my turn and used my SAGA dice to ready a few Battleboard abilities. 

And the plan worked, although I have to admit it was definitely aided by Curt's terrible luck with his dice. I managed to wiped out a unit of Hearthguard while losing a single Warrior, and I almost took out a unit of Warriors at the cost of one of my Hearthguard. I then cancelled the activation of the Berserkers with the Anglo-Dane's 'Intimidation' ability. 

 

The game ended a couple turns later. Curt's Berserkers chewed up my Warriors, and he pulled back his Warriors back so he could keep using the SAGA die they produced. In return I beat back his Warriors that were protecting his Warlord over by the forest. Curt decided to trust his Warlord's hardiness in combat and threw him against my Warriors, but Lady Luck proved herself to be on my side tonight and Curt's Warlord went down with half-a-dozen spears in his chest.