Gruntz: Nova Cisterna

Last week, Maurice and I sat down for a little Gruntz action. One of the takeaways from the con was a re-interest in narrative games, so Maurice threw together a scenario for the battle of Cisterna (based on this article he was reading.)

The EHTC launched Operation Laser Shingle as an attempt to dislodge the Kontrol Battalions from Nova Cisterna before Kontrol could completely secure the planet. Kent's "Power" Rangers dropped in before dawn, behind the Kontrol bulkhead for a nighttime raid. Unfortunately, the drop put them farther behind the front lines than they intended, so taking stock of their location, they chose to seize the relay station to disrupt communications and sow havoc.

Kontrol troopers man the defenses. The game started with nighttime conditions, dramatically limiting range. The beginning of every turn, we rolled to see when dawn would arrive.

The map layout, which my esteemed opponent took right from the historical battle. The outmanned elite Rangers were marching up the drainage ditch in the center of the board towards the relay station in the upper northeast corner. Kontrol forces, more numerous but less well-trained and less well-equipped, took up defensive positions on the north side. On the east side, the "Chocodile" APC took up a flanking position near a field. It would accomplish... very little all day.

We actually randomized the Kontrol deployment to a certain extent, to show their lack of preparation for a stand-up fight. This lead to a couple turns of running around in the hopes of being ready for the coming Ranger assault.

The Rangers made good time while the darkness held out, seizing the initiative and moving north quickly, inflicting decent casualties on the closest Kontrol troops, while only taking light incoming fire.

Due to the randomization, the Kontrol leader ended up in the northeast corner, far from the bulk of his squads. However, he was in the same area as the Mantid mercenaries, aliens employed by Kontrol as shock troopers, notorious for their vicious assaults. As dawn arrived, the Kontrol leader ordered the Mantids to bounce into combat, and away they flew. The initial charge didn't inflict many casualties on the Rangers...

...But the Mantids' melee prowess was matched by their stamina and determination. They tied up and bloodied the Rangers, wearing them out with a protracted fight and slowly but surely taking the upper hand.

(Not pictured: the APC in the backfield, which after multiple turns of misses, finally makes a single hit, taking out the Rangers heavy weapons soldier.)

The Rangers eventually defeated the Mantids, but between those losses and the Kontrol support weapons picking off stragglers, only two Rangers were left standing. The Kontrol troops lined up and opened fire, putting an end to the surprise attack.

Excellent game, definitely could have gone either way. The first few turns were all him, and then initiative and the dice swung things towards Kontrol.

Cold Wars 2013

A couple weekends back, we made the trek to Pennsylvania for Cold Wars 2013 for some gaming, shopping, and selling.

Promptly on arriving (and after an inauspicious 90-minute detour) at the con, I signed in and headed straight to my first game, "Duke Morrison and the Mounties." Nothing like pulp action first thing in the morning. I played some dastardly French trappers allied with the alien invaders and some bootlegging gangsters, facing off against the noble Duke Morrisson ("I hate that guy.") and his backup from the Royal Canadian Mounted.

GASLIGHT is very popular with the HMGS convention crowd. It's not my favorite ruleset, but it works well, and the players seem to have a lot of experience with it. And I'm an easy sell, so give me a French trapper named "Rattler Ralph" and I'm good.

Mounties make their way across the ice. Minis were primarily from Pulp Figures, and man, great stuff.

One of my favorite parts of the game: the Mounties had their brave canine companion, Yukon King, along for the ride. Any time a baddie targeted King with an attack, everyone, good guys and bad, spontaneously went 'BOO!' And when King won the roll and was fine, everyone went 'YAY!' It was fifty shades of awesome.

Evil French trappers hide in ambush in the woods, taking (ineffective) shots at the Mounties.

In a moment of ill-planned aggression, the trappers charge out to engage in fisticuffs with the good guys. This... doesn't end well for our foul henchmen.

The aliens' subterranean lair awaits!


After the game, picked up a couple hot items at the dealers' hall, mostly things I thought might sell out by the second day. Sadly, I put off a couple purchases from Acheson, and true to form, they sold out by the time I made it back with my cash on Saturday. Next time.

Another thing that caught my eye was test models for All Quiet on the Martian Front, a new 15mm War of the Worlds game. Definitely will be checking that out more later.


Friday evening was playing Songs of Our Ancestors, the Quar ruleset from Ganesha Games. I'd played some Ganesha rules previously, so I knew what to expect, and I have to admit, they worked pretty well for a large con game. Measuring sticks aren't my thing in general, but really speed things up. (And card activation really is faster than dice.)

Basic layout. Road runs from south to north. To the east of the crossroads, a tavern that we Crusaders had to 'pacify.' North on the road is the brewery that the Partisans had taken over. A supply depot was located on the road leading west.

I admit I am a sucker for blind movement. Each player had a couple chips to assign their troops to, plus a couple blanks to move around. Chips remained until encountered by an enemy and successfully spotted. So the game started with a game of cat-and-mouse, as players positioned, angled, and tried to ID what was real and what was a decoy.

Two brave Quar. Those trees were also pretty nifty, and theoretically easy to make (and shockingly sturdy.)

The tavern! The terrain was very cool.

My job with the Crusade was to protect the caravan, which came in on the south of the road, and needed to make it to the supply depot. I was particularly bad at it. My first encounter with the enemy was when my leader was killed in an ambush in the forest. The forest in which we were hiding, to ambush the partisans.

The brewery, which the partisans decided they would blow up instead of seize. Those fiends.

Half the caravan gone, my surviving troops lead the survivors through the relative safety of the forest to  reach the depot. Fun game, even if it did really cement my not-winning streak for the day.


Maurice and Aaron spent their Friday doing up the Flames of War doubles tournament. You can check out Maurice's full report here.

Their first game, which by all accounts went splendidly for them.

Their second game, on a nifty desert board.

Friday night was spent playing Zombicide and Lords of Waterdeep, both highly worthy board games.

Following are a few table setups I observed while wandering the con. I love wandering the con, so much eye candy. As a renter, I don't have a huge amount of space for terrain storage, so I am often impressed by some of the layouts I see at conventions.

I believe this was for the big Resident Evil game, and wow. The rooms were covered until they were encountered during the scenario, so the players really didn't know what they were getting into. Lots of narrative potential there.

The bluffs here were massive. So cool.

Old West table setup. Simple, but highly playable. We'll be trying out Blackwater Gulch in the near future, and one day I am eager to try out 7tv for a Wild Wild West game.

Saturday morning was up early for the Wally's Basement flea market deal. Didn't make quite as much as at Historicon, nor did my Imperial Guard sell as well as I'd hoped. Nevertheless, took in enough cash to cover most of my purchases in the dealers' hall (mostly Rebel, Acheson, and Old Glory.) So, success. Took notes for what to bring to Historicon come summer.

This is what happened to my Saturday night. Good times.

And when I finally made it home Sunday, this was greeting me on the front door. Note my daughter took the time to not only illustrate our bad cat knocking my minis off the table, but also the other cat scowling at him.

For more reading, Maurice gives us his con coverage here, plus some great tables by O My Ruritania! and gaming by the inimitable Doctor Merkury. I also missed the Santa Claus vs. the Nazis GASLIGHT game, but wow.

but first, zombies

Viva el Cholo!

Before I dump the Cold Wars reports, let me cover gaming from this past Wednesday night. I completely regret missing the first Zombicide kickstarter, so when they announced the expansion in the new kickstarter can be a stand-alone version, I knew I would want to buy in, and then some. In addition to something I can play with the gaming crowd, it's a good board game for the non-minis set as well, and as noted earlier, My wife Maia and I play a lot of board games. Wednesday also happened to be the eighth anniversary of when we started dating, so what better way to celebrate than killin' zombies and rolling dice?

I said Maurice should wear a tie, since he was running the demo on our anniversary. He did!

Joey, do you like movies about gladiators?

When we got there (slightly late) they were running through Spartacus. Aaron talked us through the anatomy of a turn, and gave us some tips on how the game works. Definitely looked interesting, I appreciate how it appears to work on a couple different levels at once, angling for influence, wagering on the arena, etc. Will likely check it out more thoroughly in the near future.

And then there was Zombicide. Maia and Heather got a quick rundown of how the game worked, and then we all walked through an easy scenario. No trouble at all. Buoyed by that performance, we tackled the first scenario, which has proven deadly in previous attempts...
 

Fearless zombie killers Maia, Heather, and King Maurice

...And through a combination of teamwork, good dice rolls, and benevolent card draws, we won! Heather played Nick, and camped out at an intersection, killing everything as it came in range (while making plenty of noise to draw in more.) Maia took el Cholo, and I took Amy, and we were a whirlwind of blades to anything that got closer. Good searches early and some liberal swapping of equipment paved our way. Teamwork!


Maia liked the game, but was looking forward to some scenarios with more tactical depth. Which sounds pretty wargamey, if you ask me, heh. Definitely a good night of gaming.

February is weird

 In case you missed it, Beasts of War is running Mercs Week. Check it out. They do good work, and Mercs totally deserves the coverage.

So yes, February is all but behind us. Not much actual gaming for me, but things happening in the backfield. 

Spent a few nights recently getting stuff ready to sell at Cold Wars next week. Looking forward to the show! My to-buy list is already as long as my arm, and I know I will wander into awesome surprises there as well. A little Gaslight on Friday; evening game up in the air. Selling stuff Saturday morning, then more gaming, Catching up with a friend who lives up near there Saturday night, too. Action packed!

Will be selling off some of my Imperial Guard there as well. I haven't played 40k for a couple years now, and it's just taking up space in the basement. (And selling it will fund more purchases, heh.) I kind of wish I hadn't checked eBay prices ahead of time, because wow. But really, the plan for the past couple years has been to eBay them, and it hasn't happened. And pricing them to move at Cold Wars will get them out faster and I won't have to fiddle with the post office. So there's that.

My compatriot Imam is also asking me to sell off his Flames of War British while I am at the con. Yep, the army he loaned me while I (slowly) got my Cobra together.

Not pictured: the other large infantry platoon.

But in exchange, he's loaned me an even-larger Hungarian army. Switcheroo! Will have to schedule some time to play with lists in EasyArmy.com.

When he was over, we also played more Gloom (which my wife won) and then some Ticket to Ride (which my wife won. She's good.) I actually met Imam on Usenet back when such a thing was vaguely relevant. We don't do as much toy soldier gaming as we used to, but make up for it with the board games, and apparently, loaning me armies. He's a prince among men.

Next update likely to be the post-Cold Wars report.

checking out Infinity and Dark Age, and more

Just throwing up a few quick pics. Last week, hit up my Friendly Local Game Store to check out a couple games. They're starting up an Infinity campaign, and Infinity is popular enough online to be on my radar, but a game with which I was at best vaguely acquainted.

This is a TAG. They are apparently scary.

Primarily, was watching Aaron take his Yu Jing to face off against Mike's Ariadna. The game itself is similar to other games I play, alternating unit activation, point builds, etc. I do like the reaction system better than Mercs (which is a little awkward.) The rules are definitely on the more believable side of scifi, with a lot of details, but does not feel overly strict. The setting has a lot of charm. Currently thinking Nomads or Haqqislam, if/when I buy in, but that's a while off either way.

The game also demands a high level of terrain, and I am a big fan of that. The above table, which I know I took pics of before, continues to impress. Doubly so in that it's more modular and transportable than it looks.

The other table featured some Morat on Morat action. I didn't check who won, but I presume Marc acquitted himself well in battle.

The surprise game of the night was when a game of Brushfire broke out! Usually it's my crew that's playing the game no one else has heard of. Lovely figs, too.

The other reason I showed up was to get a run-through of Dark Age. Again, a game I know a lot of people play, including in my own circle, but I never sat down to really check out. We didn't play through a full game, but ran through a turn and a demo of combat. Very brutal and fast-paced, it has a great action vibe that a lot of games miss out. Much like Infinity, every faction has some really lovely figs. I guess I'd look at Skaard or the Forsaken, but the Kukulkani are pretty fancy too.

So now that I've taken a closer look at both, I will read up voraciously on both online for the next few weeks, checking out websites and blogs and forums and galleries and the like. I have opponents available in the area, so I won't have to win anyone over, and can even borrow a force to try out first, which is always a benefit. If interest sticks around, I will pick up the rules, and then start shopping around for an intro force or pretty figs I've had my eye on.

This typical schedule will be slightly put off as the next couple weeks will be spent putting together stuff to sell at Cold Wars. And not too long after the con, I should start getting the toys from a couple Kickstarters from last fall (Reaper Bones, Relic Knights, and more.) So loads of treasure rolling up in the near future. It's not like I didn't already have plenty of figs I should be painting, but really, it's a great complaint to have.

Caen: Germans vs. Canadians

To date, I don't quite get why I enjoy Flames of War. I don't typically like games with multibase models. I don't do any other historical games. The rules are simple, yes, but not that simple, nor that elegant. Some people compare it to 40k, but there's no essence of "codex-itis" that really, for me, defines the Games Workshop Experience.

Well, whatever the reason, I have found a certain charm in it. While my not-Germans slowly get assembled, I've borrowed a bevy of Canadian tanks from my cohort Imam, and last week, sat down to face off against Maurice's Germans.

I set up bottom right, Maurice on the top left.

On the outskirts of Caen, his German Panzer Lehr force took on my Canadian Armored Squadron. 1700 points (because that's how much I had assembled; turned out I was wrong after all, and had to borrow a couple stands. Heh.) Rolled for the scenario, and we got Dust Up. Two objectives in our own table corner to defend, with reserves coming in on the other side of the board to try and dislodge the enemy from their objectives. Rough! I won the roll to set up first, and took the ruins, hoping that I could use the cover and keep the Germans out in the open and harried by my tanks. That was the theory, anyways.

The German side of things. Panzers, Panthers, Howitzers, and something called a Königstiger. Eep.

I came loaded for bear with many, many Shermans, Fireflies to back them up, some reece, and a random Motor Platoon to sit around near the objectives and not get anything done. Oh, and all under the watchful eye of a Typhoon to provide air support.

The forests ran with the maple syrup of my fallen heroes.

I didn't take great notes, but that was really for the best. I sent out some tanks, and the Germans showed me exactly how tough they were. Four tanks sallied forth, four tanks got shot up for their trouble. Yow. Veteran German armor is a tough nut to crack. Luckily, I inadvertently brought along one nutcracker.

"15% of all proceeds go to the continuing fight against foo."

Pictured above, my "Typhoon" does a number on the Königstiger. Yes, the model I used for the Typhoon was in fact a UFO ('captured foo fighter') from Monsterpocalypse. I did mention I really don't play historical games, right? Heh. But yeah, thanks to some dynamite rolls, the Typhoon was one of my two MVPs for the day. Took out the Königstiger and remained a thorn in the Germans' side all day long.

German armor taking up position to defend the road.

Brave Canadian reinforcements rush the dug-in Germans.

After repeately smashing myself headlong into the fortified enemy, the Germans finally got their own reinforcements, and came in to town to dig us out of our beaver holes. Pictured above is my other MVP f the game. At this point, things were definitely pointing to a German rout. A kraut rout, if you will. Turns earlier in the game, my second-in-command was shut down, and took over a Staghound armored car from the reece platoon. And just when the hour was darkest, the 2iC floors the gas pedal and takes out a couple of the German reinforcements closing in on our objectives! Not enough to turn things around, mind you, but it definitely put the fire back in things.

A last-ditch effort to dig out the German artillery in the backfield, and seize the rear objective. It... didn't work. The Germans took the field and the day.

What did I learn? Aircraft, rolled well, is super scary. I think the biggest lesson is that Veteran is much stronger than Trained. I think I will be going Vet until I have the rules and tactics down better. And yeah. More Flames is definitely on the docket, especially if I can push to get some Germans of my own on the table before a coupe Kickstarter rewards get shipped. We'll see.