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.

Dwarves vs. Forces of the Abyss - Kings of War AAR

Only Gary, Dave and I managed to get together to play some Kings of War this past weekend. I forgot to record my game against Gary, where his Dwarves won a minor victory against my League of Rhordia in a Domination scenario. Not wanting to leave completely empty handed, I decided to stick around and watch the game between Gary and Dave. It would also be my first chance to see how a Forces of the Abyss army played. 

The scenario was Pillage, with five objectives placed on the table (one began under a Dwarf unit). Dave's Abyssal army was on the left, and included a few Abyssal Dwarf allies. Gary's Dwarves arrayed themselves on the right.

During the first turn, the Abyssals surged forward, the Succubi and Gargoyles taking the lead. The Dwarves shuffled their lines forward, firing off a few volleys in the hopes of knocking out a few of the weaker troop units. This failed, unfortunately, and the hellish monstrosities quickly regenerated their wounds.

The Abyssals then went to work on the Dwarven lines, quickly shredding Gary's left flank until only the Steel Behemoth remained. Dave began to swing his own left flank around, wary of Gary's cavalry units hidden behind the woods.

Another round of combat saw the Abyssals bounce off the stout Dwarven lines. The Steel Behemoth was keeping Gary's left flank protected from the Gargoyles, who couldn't see past the massive machine to be able to charge the units in the center of the line. The opposing cavalry units still held off, neither commanding willing to commit their units into the fight to only be charged by the enemy.

Unfortunately, the devilish strength of the Abyssal units wiped out Gary's Bulwarker horde, opening a gap in his line that needed to be plugged with the Brock Riders and other units. Another gap opened on Gary's left flank, with the distance between the main Dwarven line and the Steel Behemoth increasing, although the warmachine continued to hold on against constant attacks.

At this point, at the beginning of Turn 5, Gary decided to concede and pull his battered forces from the field. He knew that he couldn't beat back the Abyssals and move onto the objectives in two turns, while Dave only had to shred the remaining Dwarf units before moving back and winning the game.

Gary has had consistent problems with the Dwarves - while they can take a punch, their slow movement speed and relatively pillow-fist attacks means that, in objective based games, the stunties are always on the back foot. A future Forces of Nature army might give Gary the maneuverability he desires, however.

Also, a brief comment on my part during the game led to Dave revealing an apparently massive collection of Warmaster miniatures. If everything works out, I'll hopefully have an after-action report for next week.

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.

Painting Update - Wargods of Aegyptus

This week's post is a quick painting update, as I unfortunately didn't get the chance to play any games during the last week.

I finally finished the last of the Asar miniatures I have for Wargods of Aegyptus; a Harbinger, who is the leader of the warband and the chosen of one of the gods; a Priestess, who brings certain tokens of favor depending on what god the Harbinger serves along with some minor magic; a Hero, who is more capable in combat that the rank and file soldiers; and a Master of Words, the Aegyptus equivalent of a wizard.

With these finished, I have a small 750 point force, which is about half of what is needed for a full sized game. Hopefully I'll get to use with with the collections that some of the other local players have, and I'm still considering what units to buy to at least get to 1500 points.

Defector - Heroes of the Aturi Cluster AAR

Once again, Raider Squadron has been tasked with a new mission.

Rebel Command: "One of the test pilots for the Empire's new space superiority fighter, the TIE Defender, is a Rebel sympathizer. She's been in contact with our operatives and wishes to defect with a stolen prototype."

Rebel Command: "The best opportunity for us to help her escape intact will be during one of her squadron's training exercises in the Parein system.

We'll jump in, make contact and provide cover while she escapes. However, she won't know we're here to cover her, and we won't know which of the prototypes is hers, until we can make visual contact."

Raider Squadron
Raider One: X-Wing
Pilot: Kevyn
Callsign: Idol

Raider Two: X-Wing
Pilot: Brian
Callsign: Starfish

Raider Three: Y-Wing
Pilot: Bob
Callsign: Screwball

Raider One: "We're heading right into the middle of a training exercise, so we'll have the element of surprise for a short period of time. All we need to do is cover the defector until she hits lightspeed and jumps back to safety. We go in fast, hit hard, and get out before the Imps realize what's happening."

Raider Three: "Hutt's balls, Idol, you weren't kidding about getting stuck in, were you?"

Raider One: "Okay, so maybe things got a little more heated than we expected. Scanning now..."

Defector: "Are you the ones who are supposed to get me out of here?"

Raider Two: "Supposed to, yeah. We've got you covered, get your hyperdrive started and get out of here."

Defender Pilot: "You're working with these rebel scum? Traitor!"

Defector: "Hyperdrive is still warming up, and I'm taking a lot of hits. What are you idiots doing out there?"

Raider One: "We're working on it, lady. Give us some slack and focus on escaping!"

Raider Three: "She's out! I repeat, she's out!"

Raider Two: "And not a moment too soon. We've got a shuttle coming in with reinforcements!"

Raider One: "Raider Squadron, retreat and go to lightspeed. Let's make sure the newest addition to the Rebellion made it back base in one piece."

Rebel Command: "Pilots, today has been a great victory over the Empire. We've captured a TIE Defender! We may be able to adapt some of this ship's advanced weapons technology."