BATTLEZONE: MWS 2025 Show Game

Stephen takes us through the creation of this year’s retro-futuristic show game.

For 2025 the MWS Show Game is a table-top version of the arcade classic from the early 80s, BATTLEZONE.

This used to be a favourite of mine and I would get through pocketfuls of 10p coins playing this. It featured a stark black landscape with wire-frame graphics. You took control of a tank and manoeuvred around geometric obstacles trying to shoot enemy tanks.

So when we started to think what our show game for 2025 should be I suggested we create a table-top version of Battlezone.

There are a few things to keep in mind for a show game. Yes, it should be playable and quick and easy to pick up. We aim for a game to last about 45 minutes – that gives players a good taster and also means they don’t have to commit too much time and can get back to enjoying the show. We also need to think about transport – getting the game in and out. Ideally it should disassemble so those attending can carry it in and out rather than get stuck in a queue to unload and load. And there’s also cost, especially for games like this which will have components with little use outside of the game.

The good thing about our Battlezone game is that it would tick all these boxes – there’s no intricate scenery or terrain (but what there is, is bespoke for this particular game), as such it all breaks down so it is easy to transport. And with Too Fat Lardies’ ‘What A Tanker’ rules (which we decided we would adapt) many gamers will already be familiar with the concepts behind the rules.

It was obvious that we would not be able to buy the tank models. Back in the day, that would have meant scratch building with plasticard. But in these days of 3D printing it was obvious what was needed. Fortunately, Phil and Tony of Brigade Models are both club members and both are very IT literate with a 3D printer. I’ll leave Tony to explain how they went about this:

Tank 4 (the ‘Brigade’) at design time in Wings3D. As you can see, the basic designs are suitably minimal.

We started by searching the internet for images of the original tanks in the game. Finding images was easy enough, although a bit more work went into finding ones that were directly head on or side on so that the dimensions weren’t too distorted. Eventually I found enough information to draw up the basic outlines of the two tanks that looked about right using a 3D modelling package called Wings3D. I also designed the UFO (which didn’t make it into the final version of our game) and missiles, although we drastically scaled these down from the tank-sized killers that they appear to be in the original. We went through several iterations of the designs with slightly different details until we were all finally happy. We toyed with the idea of making them wireframe models but in the end the consensus decision was that they’d be too fragile on the tabletop. So we went with slab-sided models with the wireframe outline etched into each side to help Stephen with the painting process. The tank hulls were one piece, with the guns printed separately (it made the print process easier). Phil then printed them on our Phrozen 8K resin printer in grey resin and handed them over to Stephen for painting.

Three tanks plus a bunch of missiles arranged in our printer software ready for printing.

The same collection of models coming out of the printer.

And finally, those three tanks after cleaning in isopropyl alcohol.

The basic tank – ‘Atari 1’ – printed, cleaned and ready for painting.

We wanted a four-player game. There were already two tank designs that featured in the original arcade (we designated them Atari 1 and Atari 2). Tony also uncovered an interesting bit of trivia – that the US army used the Battlezone game engine to train drivers for the (then) new Bradley IFV, so that was another natural choice (and we designated that one Bradley). The fourth tank was an original design by Tony, keeping to the Battlezone aesthetic – and this final one we called the Brigade (note from Tony – the basis for the fourth design came from a suitably old 1980 sci-fi book called “Tour of the Universe“).

Memory messed with me a little when it came to the missiles. I wasn’t sure the original Battlezone had missiles in it yet at the same time I do remember a tank game that had missiles, just unsure whether it was Battlezone or not.

But what the hell! It’d give an extra dimension to the game so missiles were in! As it turned out there were missiles in the game.

‘Atari 1’ with a coat of satin black and the painstakingly (not to say painfully) applied neon green outline.

Now on to terrain.

There’s not much of it, just pyramids and blocks. We did discuss 3D printing these as well. However, Brigade’s 3D printer was naturally busy with printing items needed for the business. So I decided that I’d purchase some 1.0mm thick plasticard and make them – not the world’s most complicated modelling job! I made squares, pyramids, and rectangles in various sizes to give some variety.

The whole thing about Battlezone is that stark, neon, vector graphic look. This was going to be the main appeal of the game and central to getting it right. Now, on the surface of it this looks like it couldn’t be simpler – spray black and then paint the lines.

And, yes, that is exactly what I did. All the tanks and terrain got a spray of satin black. Nice and easy. And then on to the lining. This was a real ball-buster. What didn’t help is that the lines had to be done twice. I first had to do them in white as an undercoat (the neon wouldn’t take being painted straight on to the black) and then go over that with the neon paint. This got very tiresome. Very, very, VERY tiresome. I don’t want to see neon paint again for a long time.

The simple geometric terrain blocks, true to the original game.

Another important part of the game is the background. The horizon in the game is an endless border of mountains. So it wouldn’t be enough to just plonk the models on a piece of black felt, I also wanted to create that field of distance. There’s also a practical element to it as well, since it defines the gaming area. These borders were made from some decking bought from Wickes with a simple slot to link them together and then painted. I thought about the height – it had to be tall enough so that it looked like a barrier but not so tall that it became a faff to lean over.

All the game components were complete, all that was left were the rules.

There was obviously only one contender – TFL’s ‘What A Tanker’. Now, this has been used in show games many times already so that was nothing new. One of our club members, Marcus, had created his own sci fi version which he called ‘What a Grav Tanker’. Since this had received some play testing I decided I’d adapt that. Truth be told, the rules we are using are not fully ‘What A Tanker’ but anyone familiar with that will see clearly where the inspiration came from and will immediately click with the logic behind the rules. This is our rough-housed version that is designed for show games that need to last a fixed amount of time.

With the kind permission of TFL, you can download the rules, battleboards and turn cards from the links below:

Rules

Battleboards

Turn Cards

Like all projects, there’s no way this could have been completed on my own. That’s the advantage of being in a club – you have the skills and abilities of gifted club members to help realise your original plan. For that reason I must express my thanks to club members Tony, Phil and Jeremey who all chipped in to help and without whose invaluable talent and knowledge the game could not have made it to the table. Thanks also go to Pete, Andy, and Eric who helped with the playtesting.

So this is our club game that we will be bringing to shows in the south east during 2025. Currently we are planning on being at Cavalier (Feb 23rd), Salute (Apr 12th), Broadside (Jun 14th) and RE-Play (Oct 25th) but we could also find ourselves attending other shows in the year. You’d be more than welcome to join us for a game.

France 1940 – The Bridges – Battle Report

Alan takes us through a big game of Chain of Command set in France 1940.

The purchase of a Cigar Box Battle river mat on eBay sparked thoughts about the interesting challenges of a game with one side having to make a strategic withdrawal across a river and the other trying to seize the crossings.

This led to the purchase of not just one, but two bridges from Sarissa Precision, a road and a rail bridge. The latter then led to building the track to go with it and then a station. To make the game work it needed to be big both physically (a 12 foot by 6 foot table) but also from a Chain of Command perspective; this meant at least a company a side. This was the result.

It saw a rag-tag French outfit as the defender facing a determined German company supported by a platoon of tanks. The French were made up of a platoon of Foreign Legion and a platoon of Tirailleurs Sénégalais on one side of the river, needing to withdraw across the bridges and a Motorcycle platoon holding those bridges. The French also had some support in the form of an anti-tank gun and some engineers in a truck – the latter to demolish the bridges before the Germans could capture them intact. Along with two Bouteilles Incendiaires, two roadblocks and a couple of full Chain of Command dice for the withdrawing troops, this was the defending force. The Germans, in addition to their infantry company and tank platoon, had an Adjutant, a Pioneer team in a Kubelwagen, a SdKfz 222 armoured car, an infantry gun and a truck with four rubber boats. It wouldn’t have been an early war game without a Shabby Nazi Trick – the German players selected a fifth column sniper (Jean-Claude). We played through the patrol phase which saw some interesting jockeying for positions around the buildings on the German side of the board. With jump off points then positioned we were ready for the meat of the game.

The Foreign Legion were covering the French left flank and the Tirailleurs Sénégalais on the right. The Germans began their advance with the platoon on their right flank making serious progress until they encountered the Legion. The other German platoons soon found that the Tirailleurs weren’t going to be easily dislodged and put them under heavy concentrated fire. The roadblock constrained the easiest route for their Panzers and so the main armoured advance was through the farmland to the right of the road.

Repeated exchanges of fire were telling on the French forces as they tried to hold the Germans long enough for their engineers to deploy and mine the bridges.

Eventually they began to fall back but not before taking serious casualties. Meanwhile Jean-Claude who had been placed in the church tower (it’s traditional!) was causing the French some unexpected problems.

With the French C-in-C desperate to blow the now mined bridges he ordered a full withdrawal but this was easier said than done with the Germans covering most of the routes to the bridges.

The Tirailleurs were aiming for the road bridge but when they got there the C-in-C ordered them to switch to the distant rail bridge so he could blow the former.

Meanwhile the German pioneers were making heavy weather of destroying the roadblock and the motorised elements of the German force were still held up as a result.

In the end only a single Legion section got to safety before the second bridge was blown and with neither side having been able to meet their victory conditions we declared the game a draw.

Battle at Blavatsky Station – August 1944 – Battle Report

Society member Stephen kicks of our posts for 2025 with a WW2 game of Crossfire.

During the Festive period I decided to have a non-Festive WW2 game using Crossfire rules.

It was a late-war Eastern Front game with the Russians on the attack. Each side had a company which comprised three platoons with a company HQ and machine gun. In addition, since the Russians were attacking, I gave the Russians an extra SMG platoon. I made these veterans (an NKVD unit, no doubt) and decided this platoon’s command bonus would help in both close combat as well as morale (obviously led by a commissar – usually Russian commanders only assist in close combat). Since it was a late-war game, to reflect the change in training and doctrine the Russian army went through, I also decided that Russian squads could end movement out of line of sight of platoon commanders but still had to start movement within LOS as usual (normally, Russian squads have to start and end movement in LOS). This reflects the Russian adoption of the British and American structure they went through when the Russian army went on the attack.

The battlefield was set up as follows:

The Germans deployed on table with all units deployed north of the east/west road. The two large barns and the railway station were big enough to accommodate three squads. The other houses and the chapel could only accommodate two squads.

The Germans put their first platoon in the easternmost barn. In the house looking south down the road was the German company command and machine gun – this would make it very risky for any Russian squad trying to cross that road. In the big barn in the middle went the second German platoon. The final German platoon deployed with one squad in the chapel and a squad in each of the wooded areas either side.

The Russians would deploy by activating from the southern edge.

Each side would gain 1 Victory Point for each enemy squad/machine gun killed. The first to 7 VP would be declared winner.

This was obviously going to be a difficult job for the Russians. The sides were more or less equal (Russians with four platoons and the Germans with three) but the Germans had the advantage of being in defence and set up in protective cover.

Right then, on with the game.

The Russians started activation by bringing on their first platoon and occupying the sunken ground on the extreme left. Second platoon came on and took position in the adjacent woods, and the third platoon came on and took cover behind the fence that ran alongside the wheat field. The plan was for the Russians to attack on one flank where they could concentrate their firepower and force the Germans to break cover or risk being rolled up. The Russians held the NKVD sub-machine gun platoon and the company HQ with HMG back – these were due to deploy on the right.

Initiative still lay with the Russians and so the platoon in the sunken ground made a group move to advance across the rail track and into the woods in front of them. At this point the Germans opened up with Reactive Fire. Using a coordinated crossfire, the German first platoon in the woods and chapel let rip – a series of Pinned results ensued but no Suppression, so the Russians maintained initiative. The Russian platoon decided to return the favour – they Pinned the German squad in the woods on the left but also failed to cause a Suppression. This meant they lost initiative and it switched to the Germans.

With all the action taking place on the western side of the battlefield the Germans decided to advance one of their platoons: those on the right, in the other barn, crossed the road and rail track and took up position in the woods. The German first platoon chose to keep up the pressure and poured more fire on the Russians in the woods. They caused a Suppression, so carried on firing, hoping for a kill on the Russians. But they failed to cause another Suppression which meant the initiative switched to the Russians.

The Russians did two things. Firstly, they brought on the NKVD platoon, which came on at the extreme right in the sunken ground there. They also decided to advance their third platoon across the wheatfield into cover behind the fence overlooking the rail track. At this point the German second platoon, in the barn opposite, engaged them with Reactive Fire. Not only that, but the machine gun also had line of sight and fire arc to the Russians in the field. This would be a lot of Reactive Fire. The machine gun was firing independently and fortunately scored a Suppression, meaning the Germans could carry on. The Germans in the barn shot as a firegroup but only caused Pinned results and so initiative went back to the Russians. But the Russian platoon had taken a lot of fire and all squads were either Pinned or Suppressed.

Both Russian platoons that had advanced found themselves with their heads down – all Pinned and Suppressed. So the Russians needed to start putting the pressure on elsewhere. They did this by bringing on the company HQ and machine gun. These took position on the edge of the fence by the farm. The German platoon in the woods on the right had line of sight and took Reactive Fire, but failed to score even a Pinned result – squads failing to score at least a Pin are marked No Fire (NF) and are unable to conduct any more Reactive Fire during that initiative. This gave the NKVD squad a chance – since they would receive no Reactive Fire they could charge forward and try to engage the German platoon in close combat! Being SMG armed and veterans would give them a bonus. So that is what they did. And it paid off very well indeed – the NKVD over-ran and eliminated the German platoon!

The Russian Company Command and machine gun moved into the first of the farm buildings. What they needed to do next, though, was try to rally some of their squads. However, failing a rally roll also means initiative is lost. As it happened the platoon in the wheatfield managed to rally all its squads, whilst the platoon in the woods on the left managed to rally one squad but failed the others. So initiative once more went over to the Germans.

The loss of the German platoon to the SMG platoon really blunted the German options. The other two platoons had little choice but to dig in and see what they could do. As such, both platoons were organised into firegroups and crossfires to make the most of what they had. The Germans in the barn once again Suppressed the Russians in the wheat field but the platoon in the woods and chapel could only cause Pins on the Russians in the wood so they lost initiative.

The Russian second platoon which, up to now, had remained ensconced in the woods behind the railway station were given the order to move up – by bringing the whole Russian company into line it would spread the German fire. As a group they moved into the railway station and took Reactive Fire from the Germans in front of them – the Germans causing Pins on each of the Russian squads!

Now, by causing a Pin a squad may continue Reactive Fire, but should they fail to cause a Pin then they may no longer do Reactive Fire during that initiative. So the Germans could carry on with their Reactive Fire, hoping to Suppress and steal initiative. But they’d seen what could happen if they get a No Fire marker and are charged. So rather than continue Reactive Fire they chose to hold back and allow the Russians to continue with their activations and maybe another opportunity to react may present itself.

The Russian company command and machine gun chose to move up to the next farm building which brought them directly opposite the German company command and machine gun. And these decided to do Reactive Fire against the Russians – causing a Suppression and taking initiative away from the Russians! So the German machine gun kept on chattering away, this time turning to the NKVD platoon in the woods in front of them – a kill! One of the NKVD squads was off. The Germans decided to make the most of their firing so the platoon in the barn resumed fire against the Russians in the wheat field – another kill!

Things were starting to improve for the Germans.

But not for much longer – they attempted more fire against the Russians in the station but failed. Initiative went back to the Russians. There then followed an extended exchange of fire between the Russian and German machine guns – one side would fire, fail and initiative would switch, and this went on for several rounds, changing initiative after just a single activation. This ended up inconclusive. Occasionally one side or the other would be Pinned or Suppressed, but then rally this off and resume firing.

Something needed to be done.

Then during one activation the Russians Suppressed the German machine gun and decided to advance the NKVD platoon into the barn on the opposite side of the road on the right. But as they moved into the open crossing the road the German squads further down opened up with Reactive Fire. Being in the open was never going to go down well and one of the NKVD squads was killed and the other Suppressed! The Germans took initiative, rallied their machine gun, which opened fire on the Russian machine gun and…eliminated it!

Victory Points were now equal – 3 each. If the Russians were going to win they would have to think of something daring. For the time being, though, it was still with the Germans who continued with their fire against the Russians in the station, but a failure to Suppress soon meant it went back to the Russians.

Close Combat is very decisive in Crossfire – a simple win means the opposing squad/s are destroyed. So the Russians looked to bring things to close combat since they had advantage of numbers on the left. The Russian platoon in the woods on the left opened up on the solitary squad beside the chapel, causing a Suppression. With that, they decided to go for it and charged across the road with guns blazing.

As soon as they broke cover the Germans in the chapel opened up with Reactive Fire. They scored a Pin against the first squad meaning they could carry on, but failing to score any more hits meant they received a No Fire marker and the other two Russian squads charged the Germans with the inevitable result – one dead German squad. With their blood up, and a No Fire marker on the Germans in the chapel, they kept up the momentum and sought to charge the squad in the chapel. However, they could only get one squad against them (remember, the chapel has a capacity of two squads and there was already a German squad in there), which meant it was an even combat and on the dice roll. Which favoured the Russians! Another German squad gone.

The remaining German squad of this platoon, in the woods to the right of the chapel, used Reactive Fire on the Russian attackers and scored a Suppression. With initiative, what could the Germans do? Truth be told, they didn’t have many options. The machine gun opened up on the Suppressed NKVD squad and killed it. Victory Points were now 5 to the Russians and 5 to the Germans – still tight. The German machine gun then turned its attention to the Russian company command but failed to score a hit.

So what could the Russians do? They decided to see if they could Suppress the Germans in the barn. They did even better than that and killed one squad. With a platoon in the railway station and another moving up through the woods and chapel, they decided to bring things to a close. The platoon in the station opened up at the German squad in the woods and caused a Suppression – this was what they wanted and made a charge against the Germans. The platoon in the station fixed bayonets and moved out. They drew Reactive Fire from the Germans in the barn and found themselves Pinned down by the roadside! So the Russian squad in the chapel, under cover of the woods, made a final charge against the Suppressed German squad.

And that was that. The German squad was killed which meant the Russians had reached their Victory Points – 7 German squads eliminated.

It had been a very close game and a very enjoyable one, and the Russians had won.

Work in Progress Wednesday Special

It’s Wednesday but we’ve got something different for this week. Having completed the Dropship conversion I started last week, we present a step by step guide to how I converted the miniature from 15mm APC to 6mm (or 3mm) Dropship. You can see the finished model above with some 6mm tanks and powered infantry.

The project started when I was on the hunt for a real bulk dropship for my 6mm and 3mm forces. I went for the 15mm M58 Sugama APC from Brigade Models.

The main hull is resin and the grav engines are separate metal pieces, so I had a play around with those to see how I could make them into the dropships engines.

I used the ends of 8 wall plugs to act as the engine thrusters and cut the tops at an angle so the metal engine pieces would rest at a nice angle.

I then started removing some of the model detail and replacing and adding more that would be in keeping of a space going dropship. This included domes, bits of angled putty, some turrets and even bits of paper which work quite well to break up surfaces.

I then sprayed the whole thing with a grey primer.

And because I was going to use a Vallejo Xpres color over the model, I painted some areas a different colour to provide some contrast.

I didn’t actually have a black wash and so used Vallejo Xpress color Wicked Purple. This worked fine, but was a bit tricky to cover such a big model.

After that was dry I went over the whole model with a gun metal drybrush. I thought I was going to leave it at that but decided I wanted some more colour to the model. So I did a second dry brush using grey to dull down the metal, and then painted whole sections with Tank Drab. A little bit of white for various markings and some blue for the bridge completed the paintjob.

I wanted the dropship to work for both 6mm and 3mm miniatures, here we have the finished dropship lifting off after disembarking a 3mm force of tanks and mechs.

I’ll definitely be looking for some more miniatures I can convert into dropships for the smaller scales.

D DAY FOR WW2 RULES

Stephen presents a comparison of three different WW2 rules.

I’m only an occasional WW2 gamer. Probably not even that often. I often tussle with what rules to use because I’m not sure what kind of game I want. Generally, I’m more interested in the infantry experience, but WW2 is all about the tanks as well, isn’t it?

So what I’ve decided to do is have a game with the three sets of WW2 rules I have – Crossfire by Arty Conliffe, Battlegroup by Warwick Kincaid, and Fireball Forward by Mark Fastoso and Jonathan Miller. To test the games I have decided to play exactly the same scenario with the same forces to see how it goes.

Scenario

To give a true compare and contrast between the rules all games will use the same layout and the same forces (more or less), a German company with machine gun support and a Russian company with mortar support.

The games will be small ones, on a 3’x2’ board. To the south east is a farm with a road running north/south and a junction heading west. Wheat fields lie either side of the western road. To the north east and south west are areas of light woodland. In the north west there is an area of high ground.

It is August 1944 somewhere in east Europe. Stalin has launched Operation Bagration. The Germans are on a strategic withdrawal in the face of a Russian advance. The German armour is making its way south, down the road, so it can turn west back to Germany. The Russians are coming from the south east. Both sides need to capture the farm and the road junction – so the Germans can get their tanks to safety, and so the Russians can stop them! A German infantry platoon has been sent to capture the objective, just as a Russian scout platoon arrives on the scene…

Game #1: Battlegroup

As written, Battlegroup uses individually based figures. But mine are based in 3s. This is easily dealt with by adding wound markers. Each player’s battlegroup is composed of ‘units’ (e.g. a squad of infantry). Each unit will add to the Battlegroup’s Battle Rating. During the game a player will have to draw a token from a bag after certain events (e.g. a unit is destroyed, or you try to unpin units, plus other events). This token could have a numerical value (from 1 to 5) or be a special event. When the numbered tokens add up to the battlegroup’s Battle Rating it is game over.

The Russians went first. At the start of each turn the player rolls one or more D6s (depending on the size of the game) and adds one for each officer. This total is the number of units you can activate this turn. This means you won’t always be able to activate everything every turn. I like that – it creates tension and decision making.

The Russians advanced north along the road and west behind the wheat fields. In response the Germans advanced – one squad with MG34 went into the wheat fields and the other two squads advanced toward the two areas of woodland. To activate a unit you must choose from specific orders. These include moving and firing, firing and moving, double move, double fire, plus many others (e.g. calling in mortars). One such order is to put your unit on reactive movement or reactive fire, which occurs in your opponent’s turn.

The Russians moving behind the wheat field held in place and went on reactive fire (wondering what one of the German squads would do). The Russian Maxim gun attempted to open fire on the other German squad in the other piece of woodland. To open fire first you must roll to spot. This seems to be the case even if you have previously shot at a unit (the wording certainly implies this is the case), the rules highlighting how seldom opposing enemies saw each other, especially when trying to keep low and out of sight themselves. Once spotted you then total up all the figures firing – each weapon has a ROF and this is the number of dice rolled. Chance to hit is based on range and ROF. The target then makes a save roll (based on any cover). Remaining hits are then taken as casualties and a morale roll is taken which could be anything from OK, to Pinned, to Rout. Standard stuff.

The Germans were starting to encircle the Russians, holding both areas of woodland and also the wheat fields in the centre. Then, on the Russian turn, the Russian officer called in some mortars. This caused two German casualties and the Germans failed their morale and went pinned. A pinned unit can take no action at all and stays pinned until rallied. To rally a player must draw a token from the bag. For each token 1D6 pinned markers can be removed. I drew a token and pulled out a 3 – a significant number for a game as small as this. The German MG34 decided to return the favour and opened up. The Russians took casualties and also got a Pin result. But on the Russian turn I decided to leave them pinned (you don’t have to rally) for fear of drawing a bad token.

The Russians in the fenced field have taken casualties and one unit is pinned.

The Germans had taken more pinned markers, which I had to try and rally or else they’d sit there doing nothing.

Germans have taken casualties and are Pinned, but they drew a “Beyond the Call of Duty” token.

But this time I drew a special marker: Beyond the Call of Duty. Not only did the pin marker come off, but it came off without any harm to their Battle Rating. The Beyond the Call of Duty marker allowed them to make a roll to see if they could take an extra activation. They failed. But at least they were no longer pinned.

Ultimately, it would be a Russian victory. The Germans found themselves taking shelter in the woods and with Russian mortars falling they soon took enough casualties for game end.

Game #2: Crossfire

A confession: I’ve played Crossfire quite a few times. Models in Crossfire are based in multiples, with 3 on a base for a squad. It’s pitched at company level infantry actions, which is precisely what I’m interested in.

Russias occupy the farm, but some are Suppressed.

So Crossfire has some key concepts – no fixed turns (units can keep activating, multiple times), no ranges (if you can see it, you can shoot at it), no move distances (I’ll say a bit more about this). The core mechanics are very simple though – when shooting you’ll roll a few D6 and need a 5 or 6. One hit is a Pin, two hits a Suppression, 3 hits a Kill. Not rocket science.

The game started with the Germans on the high ground. The Russians came on by activating. You can either move them by individual squads or you can do a group move. So I brought the first Russian platoon on, behind the barn. I put the mortar observer in the barn where he’d have a good view. And so on. In Crossfire units move in straight lines. Players have to indicate to their opponent the route they are taking and if an enemy squad can draw LOS it can make a reactive fire. If the reactive fire fails to Suppress then the active player can carry on. If it does Suppress then initiative switches. Units move from terrain piece to terrain piece (or into the open). All the time they have initiative they can activate again, even with the same unit.

The Russians moved up to the western road with two of their platoons whilst the Germans came off the hills to take cover behind the wheat fields. The Russian FO then called in smoke to obscure the Russian advance and the Russian squads moved up behind it. The Russian Maxim MG took up position in one of the farm buildings to prevent a German flank attack, it opened fire on the Germans but failed to score a hit.

Over to the Germans.

With little to stop them the Germans made their way along the top of the battlefield and into the woods, where they engaged the Russian Maxim. The MG crew attempted reactive fire but failed to score a hit which means they would be unable to do any more reactive fire until after initiative switches, so they are marked with a No Fire counter. The Germans opened up.

Russian Maxim gun team are Pinned, and may Not Fire until initiative changes hands

Things were a bit slower along the western road, with neither side daring to break cover. One of the Russian platoons dug-in and the German machine guns repositioned. Meanwhile the attack on the farm buildings was going well for the Germans – they destroyed the Russian MG and moved up to occupy the buildings. To counter this a Russian platoon moved into one of the wheat fields and a prolonged firefight broke out, but the Russians finally managed to dislodge the Germans from the farm.

The game would end as another Russian victory! This game had been a lot more dynamic and fast-paced – one of the advantages of Crossfire. It had been more tactical as well (compared to the line ‘em up, face each other, and start shooting affair of Battlegroup). This is the real advantage of Crossfire – you start to think like an infantry commander – laying down smoke for cover, trying to organise squads in to firegroups or the eponymous crossfires, when to react, when to rally…lots of decision points. That’s where the complexity lies in the game, in the tactics. Very enjoyable.

Game #3: Fireball Forward

OK, let’s deal with the elephant in the room. The dice. If you know anything about Fireball Forward it’s the whole dice thing. So here’s how it works. To shoot you will be rolling some white D6 and some red D6 (for infantry squads it’s actually one of each). And you will also be rolling a range dice (a D20 for infantry). The red dice hits on a 6. Only a 6, and it’s never modified. The white dice can be modified and will hit on either a 4, 5, or 6. Then we come to the range dice. A weapon has an effective range (e.g. 10”) PLUS what you roll on the range dice – so for infantry squads it could be up to 30” (10” plus you roll a 20 on the D20). You do not pre-measure! So after rolling, if the range is higher than the effective range plus the range dice you have missed regardless of what you roll on the white/red dice and if the target is within the effective range plus range dice then there’s the chance of a hit – check the white/red dice. If the actual range is less than the D20 roll you get a +1 on the white dice.

Russians open up, if the range to their target is <=13″ they’ll score a hit with the 5 on the white die.

That sounds more complicated than it actually is. It only gets messy when you are dealing with weapons with range dice like D20D20D8.

You are either going to get on with this or you aren’t. It’s a marmite thing. Like I just said, it’s not as bad as it sounds like it could be, so long as you restrict yourself to predominantly infantry actions with just a few different armoured vehicles.

Movement is also a bit novel. Infantry can, in theory, have an unlimited move. But what they can’t do is finish their move, nor can any part of their move, take them more than 12” from where they started. The player must trace the movement route so the opposing player can announce if and where he can make an opportunity shot.

These are the two big Fireball Forward things and I wanted to get them out in the air at the beginning.

For initiative you need a pack of playing cards. You draw a card and keep drawing until a different colour comes up – you put that card back on top of the deck. You check how many cards you have and then you mark your units with a number and activate them in that order – lowest first. So let’s say I draw 3 red cards and the fourth is black. The black card is put back. I have three red cards which means I can now activate three Allied units. Once all units, of both sides, have activated a new turn begins. What’s really good about this is that both players are involved at all times and there’s always a chance you can salvage a bad situation.

I realise I’ve spent more time discussing mechanics than actual game play, but that’s OK – after all, this is about letting you know about these very different sets of rules. I bet those of you who are into rules writing and game design will enjoy reading Fireball Forward.

So let’s deal with the actual game. This one turned into a much harder fought encounter. Both sides used more or less the same tactics as previous games – the Germans moved along the northern edge into the woods and then tried to force their way south, down the road, into the farmyard. Meanwhile, the Russians advanced along the southern edge, behind the wheat fields, hoping to outflank the Germans.

This time the Germans were more successful. They eliminated the Russian platoon occupying the farm and then moved in themselves. The German machine guns halted the Russian advance down the western road and brought up a platoon through the fields to outflank the guns. Meanwhile, the Germans in the farm pressed the attack and came round behind the Russians to launch an attack against the Russian company command and Maxim gun. The Germans finally achieved a win!

Conclusion

I’m not going to offer scores or say which is best and that kind of thing. Instead I am going to say how they suit me and my gaming – in a club setting with multiple players on a Saturday.

Battlegroup is a very ‘traditional’ game. By that I mean it is an IGOUGO system with nothing particularly ground-breaking mechanics wise. I don’t mean that negatively. If you have several players, none of whom have played Battlegroup before (or even WW2), then they will pick it up soon enough. Which is what you need in a club. It’s also aimed at being a ‘big’ game – with combined arms. Battlegroup, as the name suggests, is about lots of infantry and armoured columns having at each other. The simplicity of the rules does mean it has less subtlety or tactical finesse and I imagine it could get a bit vanilla, but that also suits group play.

By contrast, Crossfire is a game for the gamer. It may be the oldest of the three but it’s also the most innovative. It’s really aimed at infantry-only games. Yes, there are armoured vehicle rules, but they do seem a bit tacked on and the rules writer himself admits they aren’t the best. And they aren’t. Fortunately for me, infantry actions are what I’m most interested in, so I don’t play Crossfire with vehicles. Although it’s a simple game, the novelty of some of the processes will take a bit of getting used to for a newcomer. The game mechanics are very simple, but the tactical choices and options are what make it complex – the mark of a good game! A one-on-one game with someone new would be a good way of introducing the rules and be a real pleasure. Crossfire is my go-to WW2 rules. If you are inclined to the tactics and experience of the infantry commander then you could do a lot worse.

This leaves us with Fireball Forward. Like Crossfire, it has some innovative components, particularly the dice mechanism. Like Battlegroup, it is also about combined arms and integrates vehicles into the rules in a better way than Crossfire. But I have to underline the dice mechanism. It reads worse than it plays. In practice, you roll the hit dice and range dice at the same time, and I found myself looking at the hit dice first to see if there was even a chance of hit. This made it playable and you will pick it up in just a couple of turns of combat. This is OK so long as you aren’t dealing with too many varieties of range dice. Infantry will, generally, be using a D20. Though some vehicles will use a tortured combination such as D20D20D8D8. No. Just no. As such, for my money Fireball Forward works somewhere between Battlegroup and Crossfire – mainly infantry actions with two or three vehicles in support. Which is what I’m looking for.

There’s a place for all these rules. What you go for will depend on what you are looking for. They all provide a different kind of game and they all provide a good game. You won’t go wrong with any of them, but I think I will mostly be sticking with Crossfire (with the odd game of Fireball Forward).

Oh, one last thing. Yes, I have heard of Chain of Command. Yes, it is a very good game. But I don’t own a copy.

Wars of the Roses – Battle of Bosworth – Battle Report

After 11 battles our Wars of the Roses campaign has finally reached the defining battle of Bosworth Field. With the Yorkist having an unassailable lead of 8 victories to 2, the Lancastrians (now Tudor) forces were fighting for pride. Given the significance of the battle we decided to go big and have 1000 points per side, with each side divided up into three commands. Stephen commanded the Tudor forces as Henry himself, with Andy as the Earl of Oxford and simply because he was the last player to arrive Tony F played the part of the Stanleys already declaring support for the Tudor cause.
As usual I commanded the Yorkists with a new player to the campaign Mark W acting as the Earl of Northumberland. Our other player couldn’t make it so as well as commanding Richards forces I also took charge of the Duke of Norfolk.

The Yorkists are on the left with Northumberland facing the marshland. Henry Tudor is on the right of the picture facing the farm building

As with the other games in the campaign we looked for anything of historical note that influenced the battle. For Bosworth we decided both players must have at least four mounted units and some artillery. As for the battlefield we had a set of hills for the Yorkist forces to start on with some marshland on the Yorkist right.

I divided the Yorkist army so that Northumberland and Norfolk had equal amounts of archers, billmen and mounted men at arms to guard the flanks.
As per history Northumberland was on the Yorkist left with Norfolk on the right. With Richard in the centre I went for a very mixed force of artillery, cavalry, pikemen and dismounted men at arms.
Stephen had done something similar with his Tudor forces with Stanley and Oxford having similar forces while Henry had only cavalry. Stephen also placed Henry on the Tudor left, Oxford in the middle and Stanley on the right.

The battle got underway and the Yorkists won the first initiative. In a change to Northumberland’s inaction historically Mark immediately advanced his archers into the marshland to take the fight to Tony and the Stanley forces.

With Norfolk on the Yorkist right flank I started with a steady advance as well rather than wait for the inevitable cavalry charge. Stephen had mounted men at arms in a front rank and currours behind, I wanted to try and get a few volleys from my archers to try and soften them up.

I don’t think I needed to provoke the Tudor cavalry, Stephen took the first opportunity to close the distance. I rapidly advanced some dismounted men at arms and my cavalry to threaten the Tudor cavalry in the flank if it charged the archers. A volley from the archers had little effect.

With the Tudor cavalry on the move, King Richard rode to the artillery to get them into action but the first shots failed to cause any damage.

After a run of bad activation dice, Tony finally managed to advance his archers. This delay allowed Mark the chance to charge in on the far left flank and managed to rout some of Tony’s archers.

Back on the Tudor left flank and Stephen’s cavalry charged against Norfolk. The first charge actually went in against the Yorkist men at arms and came close to routing them. Seeing the danger I took the unusual step of charging some archers into the melee, but failed in turn to rout the cavalry.

In the Tudor centre Andy began to advance his archers and men at arms. Andy also had some artillery that began to creep forward.

Despite managing to get a few shots off the Yorkist artillery was charged and routed by Henry Tudors knights.

After another round of melee Stephen’s cavalry managed to rout some of Norfolk’s archers putting the flank in danger. The Yorkist men at arms would have to do their best as the rest of Nofolk’s units were also locked in combat with the Tudor forces.

On the Yorkist left flank Mark and Tony were beginning to exchange volleys but neither were causing much damage. Mark’s cavalry had continued on pass the Tudor flank forcing Tony to act. In the centre King Richards forces were also starting to trade volleys, I’d brought my mercenary crossbows to make up the number but they had never really done very well for me.

Although they did give a good account of themselves this time, they were the only missile troops in the centre, leaving Andy unopposed attacks against the my infantry. They had managed to dispatch a unit of men at arms so I had no choice but to charge my other dismounted knights forward.

Tudor cavalry in the centre had routed the artillery and in their pursuit also routed a unit of knights, I still had a unit of mounted men at arms. Rather than try and turn them round to counter Stephens cavalry I chose to have King Richard accompany them on a charge straight down the centre against Andy’s archers.

The charge swept the archers aside and to my horror I found history repeating its self, I had forgotten about the pursuit rule. Richard continued charging across the field and into some Tudor billmen. This charge however did not manage to defeat the billmen and so Richard was deep in the enemy’s side of the battlefield, with other Tudor forces closing in.

Meanwhile Stephen’s cavalry in the centre had found its self in melee with a large unit of mercenary pikemen and some militia billmen. Normally this would have spelt doom for the cavalry but the knights were going to prove almost impossible to dislodge.

Things had gone better for Norfolk out on the right flank. A number of Stephen’s cavalry had been destroyed. This freed up some archers who were in a position to fire on the second line of Tudor cavalry making an approach.

I also (with much ridicule from the enemy) moved King Richard from the stricken cavalry charge, back to the centre to support the attack against Andy’s archers. Tactically this also brought Richards forces back into command range.

On the Tudor left flank Stephen managed to get part of his second line of cavalry to charge some billmen who were supported by Norfolk himself. The charge didn’t manage to rout the billmen but also didn’t result in the destruction of the cavalry. But the move did mean I suddenly found my last unit of mounted men at arms facing the flank of Stephens second line of cavalry that had yet to charge.

On the far left flank of the Yorkists Mark had managed to cause Tony’s forces some damage but had eventually come off worse, even the flanking cavalry had succumbed to Tony’s billmen. Mark took the decision to consolidate his infantry and move towards the centre of the field in support of King Richard.

Despite getting a volley off Norfolk’s archers were still charged by the Tudor currours, but unlike the previous charges they failed to rout the archers. They had some billmen in support but they were not needed and the melee was locked in stalemate. However elsewhere on the field the Tudor loses were enough to push them to their first morale test.

Stephen finally managed to get his last unit of mounted knights into combat by charging the mercenary pikemen in the rear. But it wasn’t enough to destroy them and the counter from the pikemen managed to rout the cavalry. But in a close game it was the turn of the Yorkists to also test their morale.

King Richard was once again in the fray supporting his billmen against Andy’s archers in the centre, and remarkably the mercenary crossbows managed to score some good hits on Andy’s dismounted men at arms.

At this point the battle was reaching it’s final stages and both sides were trying their hardest to push the other to breaking point. Mark had advanced his dismounted men at arms into the centre and immediately came under fire from the Tudor artillery. Andy had done quite a lot of damage with his guns but despite having a two bonus dice failed to cause any damage to Marks knights on this occasion.

It was at this point that I managed to get Norfolk’s knights charging against the flank of Stephens remaining currours. The luck of the dice had changed (literally, because after a few bad rolls I swapped my dice), destroying the first currours for no loses and dispatched the second unit pushing the Tudors to their breaking point and handing a close fought victory to King Richard and the Yorkist cause.

This battle ended up being quite close, the score don’t show it but we’ve not had many battle where both sides passed their first morale checks. Stephen did much better in this battle with his cavalry, but that also put them in a position of being outflanked. For Richards command I should not have had such a variation in unit types. Between the guns, cavalry billmen and archers it was hard to co-ordinate things. North sides had some good and bad luck with the dice, but what was noticeable were the amount of failed activation dice in the game.

Although the Yorkists have changed history and won the campaign we will be visiting Stoke for the last battle of this period, just for completeness and to give the Tudor forces one last attempt for glory.

Yorkist Loses
3 Units of Mounted Men at Arms (12 points)
5 Units of Longbows (15 points)
2 Units of Artillery (4 points)
3 Units of Dismounted Men at Arms (12 points)
Total loses 39 points (Army break point 56)

Lancastrian Loses
2 Units of Northern Boarder Horse (6 points)
4 Units of Currours (16 points)
4 Units of Mounted Men at Arms (16 points)
6 Units of Longbows (18 points)
1 Unit of Militia Longbows (3 points)
1 Unit of Dismounted Men at Arms (4 points)
Total loses 59 points (Army break point 57)

Drums… Drums in the Deep

Pete M describes an underground encounter in Middle-Earth.

Background

The scenario is based on the encounter at the dwarf king Balin’s tomb, where the nine members of The Fellowship are trapped while making their way through the old underground Dwarven Kingdom known as the ‘Mines of Moria’, a massive complex of caves, tunnels & chambers, hewn out of the living rock itself!!! Sorry, slipping into Pythonesque ‘Tim The Enchanter’ mode again there…. Unfortunately, soon after discovering the tomb the party is discovered by the new tenants, namely a shed load of Goblins/Orcs & orcs, assisted by the odd mountain troll and a very, very grumpy Balrog. The objective is simply to hold-off the hordes until Gandalf secures a means of escape – to the fateful Bridge at Khazad-Dum…

The Game System

As with the previous outings (see credits), the home-grown system is partly based on the excellent but now sadly difficult to find Hasbro boardgame “Star Wars Epic Duels” (see links at the end). The key features of this design are that each player controls a small team, with one main character (say, Darth Vader), plus one or two little helpers (Stormtroopers in Vader’s case). Normal movement is fairly standard, although some variability is introduced by means of a die roll. However, the design really scores because teams also get a dedicated pack of cards which are used for both combat and any unique ‘special abilities’ – such an elegant, simple way to reflect widely varying attributes, and without resorting to thick books of charts and +/- tables!

The use of the dedicated card packs adds so much to the ‘period flavour’ of the game, hopefully reflecting the different combat options and other unique actions of the various Fellowship, Goblins/Orcs & the Troll. For example, the Goblins/Orcs can gain advantage by deliberately sacrificing figures in massed attacks or simply ‘shoving’ (the ‘active’ group drags one or more adjacent ones with it); whilst the Fellowship archery and spear-throwing are deadly. And whilst your immediate choice of tactics may be affected by the cards in your hand, like any ‘real’ historical combat, victory will go to the side which can maximise their peculiar advantages whilst exploiting the weaknesses of the enemy.

“Mines of Moria” was perfect for a straight adaptation of this team-based, low-figure count approach, with the four main players each handling one main character (Aragorn, Legolas, Boromir or Gimli) plus one Hobbit (Frodo, Sam, Merry or Pippin). As with previous games, having no cards at all left in your hand if confronted by a bunch of Goblins/Orcs etc could be bad news – but the Hobbits could also prove useful given their special abilities. And unlike previous games, the action this time is very claustrophobic, taking place within the confines of the tomb chamber. But this this does not mean it is any less intense, as nuanced tactical considerations of blocking, retreating, counter-attacking are just as vital as any big battle.

Each turn consists of two phases per player, movement then two actions (Fellowship can do in any order, Bad guys must move then do one action). Normal movement uses a modified die roll to generate movement points, albeit with new variations to account for the slow-moving and incredibly dim but tough Mountain Troll. However some ‘special moves’ are also possible, such as Hobbits ducking between groups etc! Play alternates in a random manner between one Fellowship then one goblin group, so it can be that not everyone is quite in the right place at the right time…

But what about Gandalf, I hear you ask? Well, the basis of the scenario is that the four main players must buy time for Big G to work his magic on the (only) exit from the tomb. By placing some of their ‘special action’ cards in the Gandalf ‘pot’, at the end of each turn these can be converted (via die-roll) to magical protection points.

The game ends when either:

The party think there’s enough to try and make a run for it (dicing for survival against the total less distance or any intervening groups of Goblins/Orcs) OR
Bernard the Balrog turns up at the entrance to the tomb (said Balrog makes it’s way along the outer passage in a slow but inexorable manner; makes a great ‘turn counter!)

How Did It Go ?

Well, despite only one player ever having used the system before, we actually managed two games on the day. In the first, the group did well taking out the fearsome troll by ‘suckering’ it further into the tomb so it could be attacked from it’s vulnerable rear. The waves of Goblins/Orcs came and went, but in the end only Aragorn caused some concern, having been left somewhat behind when the bug-out started with the summons of Boromir’s ‘Horn of Gondor’ (a special move which shuffles all friends a bit closer to him)!

In the second game the group tried a new tactic with the troll, namely letting it trundle forward then knock seven bells out of Legolas, Merry and Boromir (well, anyone in range), whilst Gimli tried not to attract undue attention – at least, that’s what seemed to be the plan…… 🙂 ). It was a good idea for Gimli to dart behind, just the Troll didn’t get the memo leading to several anxious turns of Gimli ducking and weaving (and cutting chunks off said troll), before the massive brute was finally finished-off – by a ranged slingshot stone from a Hobbit!!

My tremendous thanks, as ever, to a fabulous bunch of guys at the Maidstone club.

Credits

Rules and Card Decks
As with almost all my games the rules are home-grown stuff and, as such, possible to extend or amend as you wish (the mark of a good product/system in my view). Hopefully these will appear on the blog site ‘real soon now’. If not, come along to the club and try it some time!

Original game
Details of the original HASBRO “Star Wars Epic Duels” by Craig Van Ness (with assistance from Rob Daviau) can be found here.

Figures
The basic figures all from the fabulous “Armies of Middle Earth” (AOME) range by PlayAlong Toys and ToyBiz. This vast range of 1/24th scale (3.5” or 75mm), multi-pose figures covered everything from the RingWraiths (fabulous sculpts) and Fellowship, and includes no less than three different sets of Orcs/Uruks, five different Wargs and numerous Rohirrim (foot and mounted), as well as a number of special sets (like the great Uruk-Hai siege crew – the battering ram crew were the source of the ‘pikemen’, among others) and even siege towers! As they are semi-animated, it is possible to create different poses and even mix body-parts, Timpo-style! I have to say that, at this scale, a couple of hundred Orcs or 30-ish charging Rohan cavalry are quite impressive…

Unfortunately, as with many of my games their availability seems to diminish the closer I get to putting them on show! However, if you want to risk it a quick browse on eBay still pulls up a fair number of hits, which is OK to provide all you would need for a normal skirmish. Of course, you could also use those tiny 32mm ones some people prefer… 😊

The 7” Mountain Troll was a fantasy figure from PAPO toy range, suitably based and painted by Kevin Dallimore. Actually, AOME does a troll, but it’s the up-armoured one from Return of the King which is used to push the 16”-high siege towers in ‘Pelennor Fields’…

The large ‘Bernard The Balrog’ was another cross-range recruit from the extensive ‘MacFarlane SWARM’ range of fearsome, wonderful monsters – do scan this lot if you need any 8”-10” villains.

{As an aside, the hard-plastic figures have some advantages over their metal cousins, in that it is easy to make some bits transparent – there’s a version of Frodo with ring on, plus the MacFarlane monster is drooling clear yellow bile…..}

Other Previous Outings

‘One Ring’ (Weathertop or Amon Sul): 4+ Ring Wraiths vs pre-Fellowship
‘Fords of Isen’: ambush of Prince Theodred by massed Orcs & Wargs
‘Pelennor Fields’: the charge of the Rohan cavalry vs besiegers, including 1/24th Mumakil!

For more pics and other rules, see here.

There is a great fan-following on the net as well (for this and the original Star Trek game), with lots of suggestions for other card deck, scenarios etc.

BTW, I am also in the process of using the wonderful character-specific card system for such diverse topics as:

‘Seven Samurai’ (final battle in the village); objective for the bandits is to kill as many as possible (especially peasants), thus making it a challenge for the deadly, professional samurai to protect them!
‘The (Roman) Empire Strikes Back’; a massed skirmish somewhere on the 1st/2ndC frontiers of empire between a mixed Roman expeditionary force/patrol and loads of Celts. This uses a base (I have 4-6 28mm figures) as the granular unit rather than individual figures, but the structure of the system will allow for both, or even 6mm. But then, as the sides are defined by their specific decks, the more devious umpires out there could introduce something much more weird in the woods as per Call ofCthulhu… You could even be tempted to adapt it to that fabulous David Drake book, ‘Ranks of Bronze’, in which a defeated Roman Legion is sold into slavery to – some aliens! All you need are the troop-specific cards and you’re away…

Stay tuned to this blog……

Maidstone Rampant

Tony F reports on the club’s first encounter with an alien ruleset.

The club has played a lot of Daniel Mersey’s Rampant rules, both the original Lion and the fantasy Dragon spinoff. So there was a lot of interest when a sci-fi variant, Xenos Rampant was announced. We wanted to see how well the game engine would translate to the new setting with (presumably) more emphasis on shooting than close combat. And to be fair, not everyone thought it would work.

Recently, four of us managed to finally get ourselves organised and gave the rules a try (yes, we know that the book came out months ago – the wheels sometimes turn slowly in Maidstone). Eric and Mike had 30mm armies derived from WH40K forces, while Marcus had a 15mm force of mainly Khurasan miniatures and I cobbled together a force in the same scale from my Hammer’s Slammers armies (you can see those in the header photo).

Mike and Eric ran each other very close in their game, with just a handful of figures left on table at the end (although I’m not sure who actually won!) – sadly I didn’t get any photos. Marcus on the other hand had some dreadful luck with the dice and got a bit of a thumping.

My command team (Brigade Models’ power armour) prepare to unleash all sorts of pain into Marcus’ tank (GZG).

We then switched round and I took on Mike, while Eric switched to a 15mm force of Brigade Models miniatures. Mike and I fought a very tight game, I just prevailed but with very little of my force left on the table.

Mike’s heavy infantry (Khurasan) prepare to close asasult

While my infantry (Brigade) dig in on the hill.

Halftrack and supporting infantry take shelter

Marcus’ luck improved a little but he still went down to Eric eventually.

Overview – Eric’s tank takes a pot shop at Marcus’ ornithopter

Eric’s Rapier tank and infantry (all Brigade Models)

Closeup of Marcus’ ornithopter (Khurasan Miniatures)

So our conclusions? We felt the game worked well, there are plenty of options to customise units to give your army a unique feel. The familiar game mechanics helped for those who have played other games in the series.

All of our games were 24 points, and we managed two each with plenty of time to spare. Units, especially vehicles, are relatively expensive so none of our forces had more than 5-6 units, and the game ran pretty quickly. So we felt that 36 point games would be perfectly manageable. One thing we found odd was the limit of only one vehicle – none of us could see an obvious reason for this.

We’ve penciled in another session for later in the year, some sort of mini-campaign or tournament. These will be 36 point games, and we’ll ignore the one vehicle rule so expect to see a bit more heavy armour. We seem to have won over a couple of previous refuseniks to give the game a go, so look out for another report in a few months, along with plenty of work-in-progress reports as people build up their armies.

Stargrave: A New Hope?

Marcus fesses up to his Stargrave woes and how he’s gone about recruiting a new crew.

I’ve had some problems playing Stargrave. It’s not the game. I am sure it isn’t perfect, but we love playing it at the club. It’s not even my club-mates, who keep shooting me. It’s my crew. Well, that’s not fair. I do like my crew. But they look quite…similar. Too similar. And it hasn’t helped that I used the original Stargrave roster from the book, downloading it from the Osprey site. In the middle of a game I would find myself shuffling and flipping over sheets trying to work out which character was being fired at, or acting, and not exactly sure which one I was looking out without checking.

The concept of that crew was something like the Bynars from Star Trek: The Next Generation (the episode 1.15 “11001001”) with an added dose of psionics. The crew comprised some small Copplestone Grey’s, the brains, and the mean looking, vat-grown “Big Greys”, which were from the now defunct Griffin Miniatures. I had never managed to get around to using these before. It took me long enough to get around to painting the mean Greys, although I really like them.

The Old Crew. Left to Right: 101, or is that 110..?

I might use them in Xenos Rampant in the future, although we have been using 15mm figures for that so far. But I digress.

In an effort to solve the problems in my personal organizational abilities I needed two things:
Firstly, a one page roster so that all that stats were right in front of me. I had tried looking at creating roster cards, but they just didn’t seem to work for me. I wanted everything, the whole crew, on one side of A4. Fortunately club members, noticing my travails, kindly offered me a selection.

Stargrave Roster

(Editor’s note: If you print this roster, make sure you open the “More Settings” option in the print preview screen and have “Fit to Printable Area” selected.)

Secondly, I needed to recruit a new crew. A more individual crew of characters.

And it really isn’t that hard to stat a crew up, at least not if you can be decisive about it! In a nutshell, recruit a Captain and First Mate from the various specialities (akin to schools of magic in Frostgrave) available and spend 400 Cr. on recruiting the rest of your eight crew.

The specialities I referred to are “abilities”. The Captain chooses five, with three of four from the characters background e.g. psionics as i referred to for my first crew, or veteran. There is quite a range with new backgrounds being added in the inevitable supplements to the core rules. It makes for an interesting comparison with Five Parsecs from Home, which regular readers of the blog will know I have also been playing solo (I should really complete another episode soon!) However, in Five Parsecs the choice of crew characteristics is all based on random rolls reminiscent of the old school Traveller RPG. It’s much more about the whole crew even if the Captain is the first among equals. In Stargrave it is very much about the Captain and a little about the First Mate. In truth, everyone else is disposable to a greater or lesser extent. The First Mate chooses four abilities, with two or three from their background. Previously I chose two Psionicists, but this time I chose a Cyborg Captain and a Veteran First Mate.

Why did I make this choice? I am not entirely sure. I was looking through the core rules on character creation with the intent of choosing a new crew but the process became influenced by the models I had available or fancied using and the narrative that began to create in my head. I think that is a good thing!

I initially had the idea that I would use figures from a Kick-Starter project that I had received: Star-Schlock. This at least started out rooted in influences of the pulpy Sci-Fi TV of the 80’s. Buck Rogers in the 25th Century crossed with Star Trek and maybe a dose of Star Wars and 80’s Flash Gordon, in particular.

Some similarity occurred to me between the Star Trek: TNG era and Buck Rogers slightly more campy second season. Something akin to the rescued Borg Seven Of Nine in Star Trek Voyager. I had the idea of using some unused cyborg miniatures which I had from the old Scotia Grendel Urban War range, the VOID Syntha biomechs, making them a kind of Star Trek Borg analogue.

I had already started painting some of these after a long time in the lead pile. I was intending to put them to use in Spy-Fi games as some kind of, well, Fembot for want of a better word. Yeah Baby!

Then I hit a problem.

It was only when I compared the completed Syntha miniatures to the Star Schlock figures I noticed a considerable size discrepancy! That was pretty much the deal breaker although at this point I realized that I was in some danger of repeating the same folly using some Star Schlock rank and file figures; a lack of clear characterisation.

Repeating the same problem. Do they look a bit similar?

I was now fixed on using the Syntha as Borg analogues but the sizing discrepancy made me think about using at least some more old school miniatures. Hence a look at EM-4’s range of early Grenadier sculpts. It was a chance to pick up some older, characterful miniatures that I had regularly seen pictures of, or seen new versions of older sculpts, but had never quite managed to add to my collection. Since i was basing this crew around the escaped cyborgs I wanted a crew that at least in part were themed around interconnection, robotics and coordinated firepower. At least that was the plan.

The Black Rat

Also known as Six of Seven, Black Rat is to be my captain. She had somehow managed to escape some Authority “black-ops” experiment as government broke down. She has very little knowledge of her origins, but is on a quest to know more.

I chose to give her:

Camouflage (she is wearing a stealth suit)
Target lock (allowing her or another member of the crew to automatically hit the target of a grenade/grenade launcher attack, even if not in line of sight.)
An energy shield (absorbing some shooting damage)
Control robot (interface with a robot and take control)
Drone. I am rather partial to using drones, not that they have done me much good so far. (Draw line of sight from the drone)

She also has a carbine (2 spaces), a pistol, light armour, a deck for hacking and a filter mask.

Harriet “Harry” Barber

I originally had a figure in a beret picked out for this role, but Harry has grown on me. I first saw the figure many years ago. It normally has a truncheon and I think is supposed to be a “space police” figure. I removed the truncheon and added a small pouch in its place. In my mind there is a similarity to Glynis Barber in the 80’s series “Dempsey and Makepeace” where her character was called Harriet Makepeace. She is some kind of ex-security figure (the kind of security that doesn’t use a truncheon or wear a uniform) who along the way helped the Black Rat escape from her captors.

Fortune. (She is a bit of a Han Solo and you might call her lucky, or perhaps it is her roguish charm?)
Armoury (Harry has a way with weapons and can field power armour without the upkeep cost or increase the damage on one standard firearm)
Remote Firing (Can select a robot in the crew to make a +3 line of sight shooting attack)
Repair Robot (Yes, Harry is good with robots too)

Harry also has a filter mask (always handy), light armour, a carbine taking up two spaces and picks for breaking into physical objects.

Moving on to the Standard and Specialist figures, these are much easier to select as they are very much modular, “plug in” selections.

The “White Rat” (Three of Seven) – Commando

Naturally, also being a cyborg and a comrade of Six (or part of the same hive mind), the White Rat needed to pack a bit of a punch. They were specialist operatives after all.

Ratchet the Robot

Picked up from some abandoned facility and reprogrammed by Harriet, Ratchet is an armoured trooper. Thanks to Harry’s Armoury skill she can offset the upkeep cost. Originally I costed out Ratchet as a grenadier, making that rather large gun a grenade launcher of some kind. I changed to admittedly costly power armour as a result of choosing the armoury skill for the First Mate.

Troopers (3)

There have been various iterations of this crew, but they always seemed to revolve around having three troopers. These are Viridian, (with the green skin and yellow jacket), Sal Buco (long green coat and pistol) and Cy An (Blue skinned alien). At the outset they all have a carbine, heavy armour and a knife. Yes, I know Sal appears to have a pistol. Does anyone remember the pistols in the original “Man From Uncle”? Well Sal has picked up something like one of those. He can attach an extended barrel, long magazine and collapsible stock. Hey presto: a carbine. Originally Sal was going to be a simple recruit, but I had another idea…

Hacker – Zero One

A nod to my old crew. Zero One now stands out in a crowd. It is my hacker equipped with a pistol, light armour, a deck for hacking (of course) and a knife.

Recruits (2)

Finally, my two recruits. Originally I was going to fit in a guard dog, but the dog cost 10 credits and frankly can do less. I am not a min/maxer, but when you want to fit in certain options the free figures give more flexibility. And a bit of colour. These miniatures came from the Hydra “Retro Ray-Gun” range. It is a nice range although the figures tend to be a little larger overall. But these two are I think teenagers. I painted them up with no clear objective for using them. I watched Firefly again recently and it occurred to me that these two, the “Citrus Kids” could be analogues to Simon and River Tam (except he isn’t a doctor and she isn’t a psychic killing machine). That points to the one thing which might be slightly dissatisfying with the rules. As I pointed out earlier, if you aren’t a Captain or First Mate, there isn’t going to be much progression, beyond adding a better bit of kit. That said, I don’t think that is what this game is for and is why I like a bit of solo Five Parsecs.

Recruits have a pistol, light armour and a knife.

So that is the crew of the “Dirty Rat”. I’m looking forward to seeing how they do in an outing at the club mysteriously entitled “Oubliette”, very soon. I am sure there will be a report.

Quest Round 2

Tony F reports on the further adventures of Frodo and the rest of the Hobbits as he and Phil, along with guests Jon and Andy, play through the Quest of the Ringbearer. You can read his report of the first two scenarios here.

Scenario 3 – Buckleberry Ferry
“Two steps on the water”

Scenario three saw the Hobbits attempting to cross the Brandywine at the Buckleberry Ferry. They had to race three ringwraiths to the ferry to cross the river. The game went encouragingly well for the Good side initially, with one wraith despatched in short order (we were discovering that at this point in the Quest they were, if not feeble, then certainly not as frightening as we expected in combat, even to hobbits).

But then our game took a rather odd twist. In a move probably not foreseen by the scenario writer, Andy had one of the ringwraiths jump on the ferry before the hobbits reached it and take it to the other bank, leaving them stranded. The four hobbits managed to gang up and take down the remaining wraith on their side of the river, but we were left with a bit of a standoff. The hobbits were on the wrong side of the river, with the vital ferry on the other bank guarded by the single remaining ringwraith. Their only option would be to swim, but the swimming rules and the hobbits’ fear of water meant doing that would probably allow the wraith to pick them off one at a time as they emerged. So in the end we called it a draw, as neither side could see a way ahead.

The hobbits find themselves on the wrong side of the Brandywine facing a lone ringwraith – but with no way across apart from swimming…

Scenario 4 – The Old Forest
“See those trees, bend in the wind, I feel they’ve got a lot more sense than me”

The final scenario of our first session was a bit unusual, with the hobbits trying to cross the Old Forest in the face of – er – nothing. Just trees. Instead of orcs or wraiths, the trees of the Old Forest came alive and tried to hem them in and trap them – the trees couldn’t kill the hobbits, merely capture them.

Our game ended quite quickly, with all four hobbits rapidly overwhelmed, and hoping desperately for rescue. In hindsight, the scenario setup wasn’t particularly specific about how many trees should be placed on table, and we we may have overdone it, leaving the hobbits little chance of getting to safety – Jon and I barely made it halfway across the table.

So this one went evil’s way, leaving the score at

Good 2-1 Evil

The Quest will resume at the club’s Christmas meeting, where we hope to get through another 3-4 scenarios.

Category: Periods

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