Fistful of Lead: Reloaded - Kickstarter Review

April has been pretty good to me so far. Not only have I received my copy of the Open Combat rules, but I also found my reward for the Fistful of Lead: Reloaded Kickstarter in my mailbox a couple days later. 

I've considered dabbling in Western games in the past, and even played Wild West Exodus for a little while. But WWX leaned too heavily in the sci-fi realm - I wanted something more like the old spaghetti westerns, John Wayne's movies, or the newer, grittier western movies we've been seeing in recent years. I looked around and found games like Gutshot or Dead Man's Hand, but the Kickstarter based relaunch of Fistful of Lead got my attention. So I took a gamble and put myself down for a physical copy pledge. 

The author, Jaye Wiley, made an interesting choice and had the rules printed out in the form of a comic book. I'm a little worried about the long term survivability of the rules because of this. But, in the worst-case scenario of the book falling apart, I'm sure I'll be able to scan the book and keep it as a PDF. 

I'll be honest - the rulebook is not pretty. Last week, I talked about Open Combat's rulebook as coffee-table quality. Fistful of Lead's book is not that. It's black and white throughout, and has some problems where some of the italics in the text are choppy. The book is, however, is cheap, economical, and provides players with exactly what it says on the tin. 

The rules take up about a quarter of the pages. Everything is pretty straight forward - there's no real difference in gang members, so everyone shoots the same, moves the same, and fights the same. 

The game has an interesting activation mechanic in the form of a deck of cards. Each player is dealt a number of cards equal to the amount of models they have on the table. One player acts as the "Caller" and calls out the symbols, starting with Kings and ending with Deuces. A player throws down a card if they have it, and can use that card to activate a model, once per turn, and can take two actions. If two or more players have the same card, then they use the suit to determine who goes first; Spades, then Hearts, Diamonds, and Clubs last. Some cards have special qualities. A model activated with the Queen of Hearts, for example, can heal one Wound. Any model activated with a Deuce can fire twice per action. And Aces can count as any card - but are beaten in priority by the "real" version of the card, if played at the same time.

The game says it should be scenario-based, and provides some basic scenarios, along with others to be used in the campaign rules. There are plenty of classics covered, from train robberies to cattle rustling. My favorite was the Bar Room Brawl, where players can only use their fists - no guns allowed - and takes place all in once building. Things can get a little crowded in games with more than two players!

Gang Building is also pretty simple. A starting gang gets 15 Build Points. Each gang member costs 1 BP, and can be given a weapon, which costs either 1 or 2 BP. Additionally, two members of a new gang can be given up to two positive and negative Traits (for a total of 4). A positive Trait costs a point, while a negative Trait gives back an additional Build Point for use elsewhere. To keep players from min-maxing negative and positive Traits, they're assigned randomly by drawing a card from the deck.

As I said earlier, the game comes with rules for campaign, so you can take your gang across the wild west, improving or losing members along the way. Eventually you'll stock up enough Renown Points to call for a Showdown scenario - a straight up fight to the death at noon.

Along with the rulebook, I also received some other physical rewards from the Kickstarter. Two quick reference sheets will help cut down on the amount of times that I'll have to check the rulebook, and I'll probably get them laminated pretty quick. The kickstarter also provided a free pair of d10s for backers, as well as a nifty MDF badge. A stretch goal gave each backer some free MDF tokens, and I ordered some more, just in case. And the themed poker deck is pretty cool, especially since the cards that have special affects in the game have the text printed on them as a useful reminder.

I'm excited to try out the game, and have already put in an order with Knuckleduster Miniatures for a couple gangs to paint up and play with.

Open Combat - Kickstarter Review

It's said that good things come to those who wait. I've gotten a little proof of that truism with the arrival of my copy of the Open Combat rules for miniature skirmish games. 

This updated release of the previous version, authored by Carl Brown, originally funded through Kickstarter at the end of March, 2015,. The physical copies of the rulebook were planned to be released mid-summer in the same year. Unfortunately, a series of unfortunate events, including the bankruptcy of the printers that Second Thunder had originally chosen, meant that delay followed delay. Now, a year after the Kickstarter originally ended, the books have finally gone out to backers.

This was fine by me, as one of Open Combat's biggest strengths is its relative openness when it comes to miniature use. Games that I played in the meantime, like Saga and Frostgrave, all provide miniatures that can be used in Open Combat, as it's a set of rules for low-fantasy and pre-gunpowder historical games. 

As for the physical product, it's a very high quality book, and would look fantastic out on the coffee table. A matte cover with varnished images catches the eyes, and the colored glossy pages throughout the book look fantastic. It's not a very long rulebook, but that's fine; the rules don't need to be excruciatingly detailed, and there's no background or world to build up. 

The majority of the book is taken up by the rules, which are relatively straightforward. Open Combat is a skirmish game in which players will create small forces of 3-12 miniatures and play on a 24"x24" playing area. And when I say "create," I'm serious. Players fill out the profiles of their miniatures from the ground up, from their characteristics to their equipment and skills.

A profile is made up of the following characteristics:

• Speed
• Attack
• Defense
• Fortitude
• Mind

Increasing these costs a point of Renown, and new warbands usually start with 150 Renown to work with. So a model with 4 Speed, 3 Attack, 4 Defense, 4 Fortitude, 2 Mind, and equipped with a Spear and a Shield will cost 19 Renown. These characteristics can be decreased over the course of a game, and will negatively affect a model accordingly. So a model with 0 Speed will be unable to move, while a model with 0 Mind will have its Attack and Defense values cut in half. And any model that hits 0 Fortitude is killed. 

It should be noted that, while the rules can be used for fantasy games, there is no obvious magic system. The rules suggest that "magic" simply be skinned over certain skills and weapons. Future supplements will address this hole that may bother some potential players. But the rules should work for those players looking to play in worlds akin to those found in the Song of Ice and Fire books, or other series that deal with fantasy worlds with little to no magic.

Another large chunk of the rules are dedicated to the campaign system, which was added thanks to the success of the Kickstarter. These allow players to create and retain warbands over the course of a number of games, with rules that can help even the playing field between two warbands of greatly unequal Renown (the resource spent to create miniature's profiles). I'm looking forward to trying these out with my Dark Ages miniatures. 

For those of you who might be worried that trying to build your own profiles might be difficult, Open Combat provides plenty of examples that players can work with. The campaign sections has mercenary profiles for hired hands, and an additional "Sample Profiles" gives even more examples, including such staples in Fantasy as dwarves, elves, orcs, goblins, and trolls. It even demonstrates how certain abilities can be treated like magic to create profiles for vampires and wizards. 

Additionally, Carl has talked about additional supplements, both digital and print, that will expand on both certain historical periods and more fantasy elements. 

As for now, I'm certainly excited to dive in and give these rules a try. Expect an after-action report on the blog soon.

Airborne Commander - Kickstarter Review

Back in March, I found a Kickstarter for a solitaire card game called "Airborne Commander." Interested by both the theme of the game, and the idea of a solo deck-building game, I jumped in on the project and pledged for copy of the game. 

After a couple (understandable) delays, I was happy to find my copy of the game in my mailbox. 

The box contains a small rule booklet and two decks - the Allied deck containing the paratrooper units the player controls, and the Mission deck containing the Axis units, terrain, and objectives that the paratroopers will have to face over the course of the game.

The Mission deck is even numbered for introductory games, so new players will have some chance to remember whats coming up in following games. Possible cards include infantry units, machine guns, mortars, road blocks, pill boxes, armored vehicles, and historical objectives. 

The Allied deck is made up of units from the 101st Airborne Division (the same that was featured in the "Band of Brothers" book and series). You've got paratroopers, bazookas, commanders, anti-tank guns, jeeps, planes, and more.

Did I mention how awesome the art on these cards are?

So, how does the game play? Well, the above picture shows the base set-up for a game. Four cards are drawn from the Mission deck and laid out in a row, creating the Battlefield. Below the Mission deck is the Disorganized deck and the Player deck. Five cards are drawn from the Player deck to be used in this turn. On the other side of the playing area is the Allied deck and the Drop Zone, where new units can be recruited.

Play continues in turns until 4 Static Defenses cards are on the table, if the Disorganized deck has been emptied into the Player deck, or if either the Mission or the Allied deck has been depleted. 

To begin the game, I played an Officer card into the Support area (behind the Player Battlefield area), which allowed me to either discard a Disorganized and draw a new card, or use to gain 2 Recruitment points. I decided to go with the former. 

I then drew another Paratrooper card, who had the Support ability to suppress a single enemy unit. Any enemy unit that isn't suppressed or engaged at the end of the turn adds a Disorganized card to the player's discard pile, so I chose to suppress the mortar unit.

Finally, I had my other Paratrooper engage the infantry unit. Neither unit was capable of destroying each other (their attack value needs to exceed the other cards defense value). It should be noted that destroyed Allied cards are removed from the game rather than being sent to the discard pile. So pick and choose your fights!

With no cards destroyed on either side, the Mission cards went into the Mission discard pile - except for the Static Defense card, which stays on the table - and the Allied cards went into the Allied discard pile, which will get reshuffled into the Allied deck when the Allied deck runs out. The remaining Allied card in my hand (which should have been placed in the Support Area earlier) allowed me two spend two recruitment points twice. Unfortunately, I was only able to recruit a single BAR-equipped Paratrooper.

With that, the second turn began. The Battlefield was filled back up. Since there were three cards in the Drop Zone, I had to discard one, and then drew two more cards to fill it back up to four. I then drew four new cards. Note that I should I drawn five, as Disorganized cards are discarded at the end of the turn, something I did not realize until a couple turns in. I think this hurt me in the long run, as Disorganized cards only take up space in the player's hand.

The game continued for several more turns, during which time I did manage to destroy a few Axis units, but also took a couple more Disorganized cards. The game ended when I drew another Static Defense and realized between the Allied cards I had drawn and the Mission cards on the Battlefield, there was no way I was going to destroy any of them. And as having four Static Defense cards on the table at the beginning of the turn ends the game, I called it then. It's only now, as I write this, I realized I should have played the turn through, if only to score more VP's. My total for the game was -2.5 Victory points, which got me a Campaign Ribbon, the lowest score level. Ouch!

Despite my poor first performance, I found myself wanting to play more. My second game ended with all ten Disorganized cards in my player deck, and I scored 0 total points for a Victory Medal.

It's definitely a challenging game. You have to balance using cards in the Battlefield and Support areas. If you use the cards to buy more powerful Allied cards, you'll have more resources later, but also more Disorganized cards clogging up your deck. Or you can decide to fight it out on the Battlefield, but you'll be losing Allied cards each turn, and a bad round of draws from the Mission deck can force you into a fight you can't win.

I'm definitely going to have to play a few more games to get a hang of the rules, but my initial hope - a great solo game that doesn't take up a lot of space, but has plenty of replay value - seems to have been fulfilled. If you're looking for a challenging solitaire card game, I definitely recommend Airborne Commander.

Strange Aeons - Kickstarter Review

Back in October of last year, I put money into a Kickstarter for the Second Edition of Strange Aeons, a set of rules for Lovecraftian skirmish games. A year later, the Kickstarter has finally been completed, and I received my pledge.

Since I didn't have a lot of money to spend a year ago, I went in with a basic pledge - enough to get m the rulebook in both physicial and digital format, the starter set, and a token set. I also received some Kickstarter-only bonuses.

The rulebook is spiral bound, which is extremely useful when reading or playing, as the book will sit flat. It's filled with both fantastic art of Lovecraftian horrors and pictures of the miniatures that the Kickstarter helped to produce.

I can't say much to the quality of the rules themselves, although the previous edition always received high praise. Hopefully I'll get a game in soon enough.

The starter set comes with four Threshold agents (the protagonists of the game, who stand in the way of the cultists and monsters), and I received an additional miniature as a Kickstarter bonus - an Exorcist.  

The resin used for the miniatures is of high quality, with plenty of detail and little flash that only required a short cleaning time to clear away. There are some places where detail gets a little mushed, and I've found a couple holes, but for the most part these are great sculpts.  

Opposing the Threshold agents are the servants of all the insane deities of the cosmos, and the vast majority of them are cultists. The starter set comes with five - a leader, and two each of a knife and gun wielding variety. Additionally, I received a midget cultist and a Maniac.

These sculpts were even better than the Threshold agents, and I can't wait to get them painted up.

It should be noted that UMW have decided to cast the miniatures in two different colored resin - blue for the Threshold, and green for the Lurkers. It helps distinguish the two sides if you don't feel like painting the miniatures.

Of course, it wouldn't be a Lovecraftian game if there weren't any horrors included, so the starter set also includes a Formless Thing and a Fishman. 

When the rest of the miniatures are released, I'll probably be picking up some Innsmouth-themed minis to go along with the Fishman.

Finally, the starter set also comes with four objective markers (three crates and a chest). Kickstarter backers also received a couple extra bonuses - a tombstone with the name "Pickman" on it to be used as a grave marker for certain kinds of Lurkers, and some pumpkins. 

I'm glad that I've finally gotten my pledge after the wait, and now I'm watching UMW's store page for more of the kickstarter miniatures to be released. Hopefully I'll be able to get a game in with Carl, another Lovecraft fan. 

Big Box Terrain - Kickstarter Review

A month or so ago I received my reward for supporting Angry Mojo Games' Big Box Terrain kickstarter. The small mountain of mdf terrain sat in its box for some time before I decided to sit down and get some work done, mostly in response to the second Empire of the Dead campaign day coming up. 

So I cleared my hobby table, unpacked the box, readied my wood glue and got down to business. 

The terrain went together over the course of a couple days. I needed to take a break to allow the glue in the first kits I had assembled to dry. 

When I finished, I found myself with enough terrain to satisfactorily cover a 4'x4' paying area. If one were to treat the sarcophagi and gravestones as linear terrain that provides cover, it makes for a decent cemetery to have a shootout in, as there are plenty of places to hide.  

The entrance fence is more decorative than anything else, but it still has plenty of detail, like the individual tips of each fence-post. 

The large mausoleums have removable roofs, making them the perfect place to hide secret rites and rituals from the prying eyes of the public.  

The smaller mausoleums don't have removable roofs, unfortunately. They can still provide cover, however, or be spawning points for hordes of skeletons, ghouls and zombies. 

These spooky trees were pretty easy to assemble. The smaller trees came in two parts that slotted into each other, while the larger tree was eight individual sides that were individually slotted into three circular pieces that held the sides together.

Providing a nice place to relax (if relaxing in cemeteries is your kind of thing) is the gazebo set. The gazebo was probably the most effort intensive pieces to put together in the entire kit. It took two base pieces, fifteen individual posts and fence parts, and seventeen pieces for the roof! But it came together quite easily, providing a great (and potential malevolent to anyone named Eric) centerpiece. 

The fountain and floral-patterned benches accentuate the area. These pieces of terrain would probably work well in other settings, like a Victorian estate or American town. 

A collection of sarcophagi came with the kickstarter set, each (like the mausoleums) imprinted by a name chosen by one of the higher level backers. 

And it wouldn't be a cemetery without plenty of gravestones, and Angry Mojo didn't disappoint. Each stand has five slots, and there were plenty of headstones to chose from. Three types were both common and more numerous, but there were enough individualized headstones to make each stand different looking.

For a $50 pledge, I got enough terrain for a Empire of the Dead table, and even more for games that take place on smaller tables. While the Cemetery Set on Angry Mojo's website isn't quite as extensive, it does provide a good place to start, and could easily accentuate a table with some buildings or forests on it already.

I'm very glad to have gotten all this terrain for such a great price, and I'm looking forward to using it!