Monday 27 November 2017

Dominar Rigel vs Baron Greenback 1 RS 1980's Earth. South of Watford Gap.

Let me take you back to when the world was old and sore.

Parts of Old England abounded with alien presences.

Don't get me started, it was not a good time or place to be alive.

Deep breath and move on.

My mercurial mind came out with the idea that we've never had a supervillain face-off.


This will be the campaign to see us through the barren part of yule, when "normal life" imposes like a nosey shark into the smooth running of days.  But there is a shaft of bats piss in the form of "black friday" and winter sales.  These encourage the abandonment of friends and family pressies to the endulgence of self.  This is good, proper capatalist thought to be rewarded.

I'm sure we'll go large to Flying Lead later.  But we're starting with a basic premise:

1)  Baron Greenback is up to no good.
2) Dominar Rigel wants to take over.

The Game was rolled in the normal Rogue Stars way:
Mission 11, Control Terrain. I changed this slightly, identifying 6 specific "bits" of terrain in a cluttered landscape.  Plus Dominar's cousin is set up to rescue the walkers, so that they may feature in a future game.

Location 8  Defenders Home Planet.  Which sets the time and place, savvy?

Complications 17 The Rookie.  This went to Greenback.

I was thinking of London Docklands, but that was like an alien picklydickly circus back then.  In the shadows you have Daleks, Robomen, Police, Torchwood, UNIT,  MI5-.

Location that most suits a supposedly abandoned industrial unit (there were the odd few, before they all became out-of-town shopping destinations.  Loaded with the perfidious pilfering of the evil entrepreneurial Baron.

Baron Greenback  Theme Merchants  (all figures by Alternative Armies)
The Pet Difficult Target, Diminutive, Fast, Insectoid, Leader1, Reactive Armour2 -1 to hit -1 ranged 27
Force flail (built in weapon) Disarm (instead of damage), Clumsy (free counterattack if misses), Energy  9

Rupert Veteran, Leader 1, Martial Arts 2 Marksman 2,  Reactive, Tough  41
Legs, Arms Armour 2  Torso, Head 3
Laser Pistol (4), Light Combat Dress, SMG (4,)  36 = 18

Ekki Thump Minions.  Steve, Terry, Vince, Will. Martial Arts 1 Marksman 1, = 8
Legs, Arms Armour 2  Torso, Head 3
Laser Pistol, Light Combat Dress,SMG (4,)  36 = 18

Bob the Newbie Green, Laser Pistol, Light Combat Dress, Legs, Arms Armour 2  Torso, Head 3

All Crawl 1" Sneak 2" Walk 2" Run 4" Sprint 6"

Pet 36
Rupert 59
Brothers 4 104
Bob 0
Total 199


Dominar Rigel   Theme Mercenaries  (Cousin & Bodyguard AA, rest GZG)

Cousin Oriel  Big, Fast, Leader1 Robot tech1, Tech1 = 23  +1 ranged against.  +1 combat
Tangler  (entangle  8)

Bodyguard Agile 2, Fast, Marksman 3  Martial Arts 3 Reactive  = 37
Hi tech bow, reload, 2handed (3)  3

Grunt Agile 2, Insectoid, Marksman3  Martial Arts 2 Reactive = 47  Armour 2
Heavy Blaster Rifle (6) Heavy 2 Hand Energy  8

Handler Agile 2, Insectoid, Martial Arts 1 Reactive  = 23  Armour 2
Force Spear (3) Long, 2 hand, Energy  4

Prawn (Pinky & Perky) Agile 2, Insectoid, Extra legs 3, Martial Arts 2 Non reactive  = 19  Armour 2
Claws (1)  Microwire Scourge (2) Scorching, (flames lowest armour) 5

Prawns  Crawl 1" Sneak 2" Walk 2" Run 6" Sprint 8"
Cousin & Bodyguard Crawl 1" Sneak 2" Walk 2" Run 5" Sprint 7"
Grunt & Handler  Crawl 1" Sneak 2" Walk 2" Run 4" Sprint 6"

Cousin 31
Bodyguard 40
Grunt 55
Handler 27
2 Prawns 24

Total 201

I tried to make the scatter equal but not obviously so.  The blue & white cards represent the 6 "viable" targets.  There is a ramp way leading through the hull.


First move, the bodyguard goes forward to good cover allowing Oriel to get to the first walker a 20 tech roll!  It's up and moving towards the door- but that leaves him exposed.


Sneaky pet.


Steve takes a risk, but gets away with it.


No archer could resist this shot.


Crap, even with 3 activations allowing 2 aims that's an embarrasing miss.  She's given her position away now-.


Following Steve's poor move young Bob tries the same-.


And pays the price, down and bleeding out in the open.


Will takes a long and risky run to get close to the bodyguard.


My Grunt moves up in support and shoots Will's arm off.



Attracted by the smell of death, Perky the Prawn goes to investigate but gets blown away by Terry who was stalking the bodyguard.




The handler tries to encourage Pinky over the top against Steve and the veteran.  But 3 fails and they've given their position away.




Steve lines himself up and takes out poor Pinky.  2 deaths and my teams pins are building up, slowing me down.



Home ground advantage


Steve comes around SMG blazing, the handler is down seriously wounded and the grunt takes multible hits that knock him back.  He's becoming a pin magnet, ended up with 5 and he's lost his gun.


Covering fire from above


Unable to get to more, and having succeeded with a second walker, Oriel starts a careful retreat, forcing his bodyguard to do same.





My grunt has no choice but to make a dash for the door, pursued by Steve all the way!






Vince is out-of-angle and cannot support.


My depleted team slam the blast doors and get away with their spoils.



Fun game.  Everything turned on Pinkys' refusal to leap into action.  If he had, taken out one, giving that side some pins instead of me?  There wasn't much in it, Tony won by killing 2 of mine and retaining 4 objectives.  I seriously wounded 2 and regained 2.

Now there's a problem.  The Baron has 2 walkers but he's got a seriously wounded handler who's DNA profile will unlock them.  I feel a Daring Raid coming on!

Watch this space.




One part of Germy's 2mm supertank, other I cannot remember.  In painting queue, honest.


Sunday 26 November 2017

OAAH Beta Waco Island Final - The Forest

Final one!  I've split the units down to mostly 6's with 8's for the hoards.

As usual worked out different than expected.  I'd foreseen a battle for monster control between the cat-spirit and the Shugenja.

I should have given the cat spirit a growing bodyguard of undead.

Second Game Forces. 

Waco Pirates
Dread Pirate Lord 3 2 6 Shoot 3 General 34
Armoured waco with bow 4 1 6 Shoot3, bodyguard  4 x 25 = 100  
Bosun 3 2 6 shoot3 27

Armoured waco 4 3 6 8 x 19 =  152 
Followers 4 3 4  36 x 11 = 396
Cat spirit 3 3 6 Monster L2 Beast Lord, Necromancer, Fast, 3lives 85
(Sub total 794, new total 1,043)
Lightly armed rabble waco seamen 4 2 2 Horde 38 x 7  = 245
Total 1,039

Bakemono Locals
Local Goblin lord 3 2 5 Sh1 Fast, Difficult tgt, General 2lives  43
Champion 3 3 6 Hero, 3lives  52
Samurai Goblin 4 3 6 4 x 19 76
Bows 4 2 4 Shoot2, 18  x 26 = 468
Polearms 4 3 4, Devastating chg, 18 x 13 = 234

Fox spirit 3 2 4 Difficult tgt, Beast lord, 2lives  25
Shamen  3 2 6 Sub commander, Alter terrain, Windstorm, Summon monsters, 4 lives about 100
Total 998


Game 3 Alone in the dark. The winner of the last game again has choice of edge and turn. Village or woods not chosen above.  So woods this time.  I'm also combining the 4th game and ditching the 5th.

4 Infiltrate the camp. The winner from above will discovere the opponents camp (on the baseline) in a lightly wooded area by a stream. The defender sets the terrain and deploys. 

Objectives are the new leaders and one other target unit escaped from the last game. 

Action takes place from dusk, action 1-5 -1 shooting, 6-10 -2, 11-15 -3. After 15 turns it's pitch black and each side will melt away.  By my calculation, the general died on the last round.

Last Game Forces. 

Waco Pirates
Dread Pirate Lord 3 2 6 Shoot 3 General 34
Armoured waco with bow 4 1 6 Shoot3, bodyguard  4 x 25 = 100  
Bosun 3 2 6 shoot3 27

Armoured waco 4 3 6 8 x 19 =  152 
Followers 4 3 4  30 x 11 = 330
Cat spirit 3 3 6 Monster L2 Beast Lord, Necromancer, Fast, 3lives 85
Lightly armed rabble waco seamen 4 2 2 Horde 24 x 7  =
Total 896

Bakemono Locals
New Goblin lord 3 3 6  General 2lives  43 (from the armoured unit that escaped last game)
New Champion 3 3 6 Hero, 3 lives  52
Bows 4 2 4 Shoot2, 12  x 26 = 312
Polearms 4 3 4, Devastating chg, 12 x 13 = 156

Fox spirit 3 2 4 Difficult tgt, Beast lord, 2lives  25
Shamen  3 2 6 Sub commander, Alter terrain, Windstorm, Summon monsters, 4 lives about 100
Giant centepedes 4 2 7 Monster L2, Resilient, Poison, Forester 3 x 40 = 120
Giant Spider 4 3 5 Moster L2, Stealth, Poison, Borrower, Forester 26.

Total 895

Set up.  I started by tossing CD bases on the table, green for denser woods and brown for ruins.  The square are my chariot sabot bases upside down.  I then used a lid to sprinkle my unit markers over the table.  I don't know why I didn't add a few dummies.


I then used 6 dice to determine Tony's entry points.  A more random set-up is hard to imagine!  Gives a nice feel to the game, made it easy to imagine large shapes in the gloom.  Crashes, screams, roars in the dark.






First Contact!  The cat-spirit runs into a unit of archers.




The followers wipe out the archers, but lose half.  The survivors are now Tony's right flank.
 But not for long.



The Wako general (single figure ) is isolated  at 4.


I don't get a chance for superiority so I just keep chipping away at units.



On the other flank I'm trying to cover up the fact that my general, champion and fox spirit are all in a lose bunch in the centre, ripe for destruction in detail.


To do this I use the creepies to hit flanks and cause a change of direction.  They die, but their job's done all 3 of my vulnerables get away.





My last full unit goes in towards the centre.



Now imagine it's dark-.



 The general moves towards the centre, but the archers move up to protect the flank.   The spider succumbs to their arrows, but the -1 that leaves them in their fighting plus some crap rolls allows the Shugenja to kill one and push them back.



The "2" should be "4"
One man and his dog last stands or last fling of the dice do happen, but they rarely work!  The Shugenja gets a further string of good rolls, raises another monster that strikes and kills the general!






 That broke the pirates will and ability to continue.  They could not assault the camp across rough terrain without significant losses. 

The locals sort of win.  Glad I used these scenarios, they fitted the rules very well and gave us some interesting games.  The last one allowed me to use some different figures whilst still getting the attrition that I felt was required.  The pirates went down in numbers, but the hordes reduced so the overall quality went up.

The Forest Camp.  We want to thank Mrs Ethel Quatts of Pewters Lodge, Mons., for her, and the childrens, guest appearance as a civilian.  Other camp bits are from Museum Miniatures a few, um, years ago and still not painted.  Tut.