88. Not-Star Wars, in 15mm

Hello, beautiful people!  Long time no see.  The blog, as usual, has been quiet, but the activity behind the scenes has been on-going.

I started watching The Joy of Wargaming's YouTube channel late last year, and señor Mollison there inspired me to revisit my 15mm sci-fi interests.  (I do have a 15mm sci-fi blog, as well, but it's even less-updated than this one.  Orbital Barrage if you care to take a look.)  To than end, I received my ruleset of choice at Christmas, and then spent several months searching, mostly in vain, for 15mm not-Star Wars miniatures.  Yes, there are some, but mostly there are not.  (Maybe here, not sure if they're still being sold, but the price was a bit too high for my wallet.)  You want 25mm?  There are tons.  Plus, 3D-printing out the wazoo, but I'm not there yet.

I just wanted some 15mm not-Star Wars figures.

Khurasan Miniatures came the closest to having anything that could stand in.  And their "Curious Chaps" are legit Troopers of the Storm, but for everything else I was going to have to improvise.  Which is part of what makes 15mm so fun.

At any rate, what follows is what I came up with.

Speaking of my ruleset of choice, it's Blasters & Bulkheads 2nd Edition by Four-Color Studios.  The Joy of Wargaming had been using another of FCS's rules, called Void Pirates, but that one didn't interest me as much (based on the fact it was not more aligned with the Star Wars vibe I was looking for, as well as I didn't really like the single die-roll mechanic; but I have not played it myself, it's just from watching TJoW's channel.)  However, I did like the overall "goal-roll" mechanics (just like in FCS's "Goalsystem Delves" [which I helped Kickstart], and their "Chaos in...." series too), so after digging deeper into their catalog, I settled on "Blasters & Bulkheads," especially since it was advertised as being good for not-Star Wars-style gameplay.  I mean, just look at the cover illustration:  a droid with a lightsaber!

The only thing I'm not happy with regarding the rules, is I was hoping for a more-robust campaign system.  But FCS acknowledges that deficiency in other forum posts, and so I've now bought both their Techno-Fantasy Adventure rules as well as their Farthest Star rules, both of which promise more of that (I have only just purchased them and so I cannot comment).  I also like supporting small businesses when I can.

On a side note, another rule set that I think would work well is Buck Surdu's forth-coming Star Patrol:  Genesis, which uses the Combat Patrol mechanics.  You can actually use Combat Patrol for Star Wars with the free Star Wars supplements, but I don't have Combat Patrol, so I've been sort of waiting for Star Patrol to finish.  The playtest rules for Star Patrol are currently free, I just haven't had time to give them a try.

Anyway, on to the pictures!  All of these are from Khurasan Miniatures, mainly because I didn't want to buy one model here and one model there, and pay big $$$ for shipping one figure.  I ended up buying more models than I need ("need," that's a funny word for this hobby!) but they'll be used eventually.  Most of these were in packs of 3 or more, so there are a lot currently un-used.

First, let's meet Our Heroes:  from L to R:  Jedi Knight 'Zar Bee,' human, from "Yayoi Japanese warrior with spear;" Bounty Hunter 'Fofa Bett,' human, from "Alien Bounty Hunter;" the Wookiee 'Buchakka,' from "Ursid Bearman;" and Gloob the Rodian, from "Alien Bounty Hunter."

For the lightsabers, they were originally spears that I carefully cut the bottoms off of, and filed the spearpoint flush with the rest of the pole.  Yes, they do look thick like pool noodles, but at 15mm they're fragile enough as it is, I didn't want to file them any thinner than they already are.  And I realize they both have shields.  Just deal with it!  There was no way to remove them.

Now, the Bad Guys:  from L to R:  that's Sith Master 'Pon Farr,' human, from "Yayoi Japanese warrior with spear;" the assassin droid A55A551N, from the "Small Spaceship Crew;" Murg, the devaronian, also from the "Small Spaceship Crew;" and 'Leeloo' the Twi'lek, from the "Female Auxiliaries in Light Armor with energy weapons" pack.

Those are supposed to be head-tails on the Twi'lek girl on the right.  Just painting them on was the best I could do.  I am not skilled enough to carve out her modeled hair, especially in 15mm scale!

The following pictures are just some other 15mm sci-fi miniatures I was working on, not necessarily Star Wars.  These are from the Laserburn range at 15mm.co.uk, aka Alternative-Armies.  They were in a sample pack from years ago, that I painted up just to get back in the mindset of painting 15mm scale.  It's a different animal than 28mm+ size!  Much faster.

From L to R:  119 Law Officer (Standing), 114 Adventurer (Laser Rifle), 206 Spacesuit (Rifle), 322 Guard (Power Armor), 300 Imperial Trooper (Bolt Gun).

They were not painted up with any particular plan in mind.  Blue just seemed like a good color.  Perhaps they're all on the same team.

From L to R:  501 Mercenary (Assault Rifle), 108 Thug (Knife), 602 Law Module MkIII, 111 Female Civilian, 118 Guard Dog (whom I named "Bullseye").

Yep.

And finally, a short battle report of my first play-through of Blasters & Bulkheads.

The lay of the land.  This is pretty well all of my 15mm-scale terrain.  I am going to need more.  Our Heroes enter on the lower right, and the villains enter from the middle left.  They both want to retrieve the Gooberspongemelf for themselves (it's the little fuzzy purple thing in the center).  What does it do?  Who knows!  But it must be theirs!

After several turns of moving closer together, we see Pon Farr & Murg closing from the left, with A55A551N providing cover (and Leeloo was getting into position atop a building).  On the right, Buchakka is looming, while Zar Bee & Gloob take cover.  Fofa Bett is on top of a building out of view.

A fierce battle:  Murg made it to the Gooberspongemelf first, but before he could grab it Zar Bee accosted him.  Murg is pretty tough, and for the moment Zar Bee was stymied.

Escaping!:  Several things happened between this photo and the previous one.  First, Buchakka arrived and assisted in taking down Murg, but at the same time, Pon Farr was able to slip in and steal the Gooberspongemelf.  Here he is, running away; while A55A551N and Fofa Bett & Gloob trade ineffective shots.

In order to help her boss, Leeloo (atop a building off screen to the left) took a shot with her rifle at Zar Bee.  Zar Bee was able to deflect it with his lightsaber, and rolled enough goals to re-direct it at someone else close by.  Naturally, he chose Pon Farr (who had been wounded during the scrap before he stole the Gooberspongemelf), and this new damage was enough to take him out of the fight!

I like rolling lots of dice.  I thought it was hilarious, and appropriate, that in my first game, I got to use a Force power to take out the bad guy.

Of course, in Blasters & Bulkheads, they don't use The Force.  It's called Essence.  And they're not Jedi and Sith, they're Essence Wielders, and Dark Essence Wielders.  Zar Bee is an Essence Wielder, Fofa Bett is a Star Stalker (a bounty hunter), Buchakka is a Primitive Warrior, and Gloob is a Techno Savant / Ship Captain.  Wookiees are Yetoids, Rodians are Aquans, Twi'leks are Aethons and Devaronians are Shivans.  Or at least, that's how I'm playing them.  They don't fit exactly but that's O.K.

The most difficult part of the game is learning and remembering all of the abilities each character has.  There is a boatload of Special Traits and Essence Powers to choose from, and just recalling what each can do slowed me down some.  But like anything else, the more you play, the easier it gets.

I'm currently finishing up my Stormtroopers and Rebels, so that will be next, hopefully soon.  What I really need is more scenario ideas, so I'm looking forward to the campaign rules in Farthest Star.

Thanks for reading!

87. Feudal Patrol - Wrap up

Here is the second half of the game of Feudal Patrol I recently played.  Lots of pictures again.  You should probably read that one first to know what's going on here.

You may recall, at the end of the previous blog post, that a dragon suddenly arrived.  Not just any dragon, but THE dragon, so named Stench.  I randomly determined the board edge he would enter from, drew 3 cards for movement, and determined he would fly in a straight line.  This is where he ended up.

Bob the Bone Wizard is looking a trifle nervous, but fortunately for him, Stench was still settling in from his landing.

The Knights in Shining Armor activated...

 ...and easily dispatched the one Gnoll who had made it to their line.

Bob the Bone Wizard had a right to be nervous, because Stench activated before Bob was able to, attacked him from behind and...

...killed and ate him.  You could hear Bernie's aggrieved cry from across the battlefield, "Noooo!"  They may have really disliked each other (I mean, no one really seemed to like Bob), but he never wanted to see him eaten by a dragon.

Having eaten his foe, Stench advances a bit closer to some more tasty treats.  (The dragon won the roll-off for a tied activation.)

And he eats another crunchy-on-the-outside-chewy-on-the-inside human.

The Constabulary activated next, and one wise fellow promptly ran away.  "Fighting a dragon was never in the job description!" he shouted.  The Chief Constable was stunned, both at having his man eaten and at how quickly it all happened.

All he could do was un-stun, and his other man backed away from the monster.  The two crossbowmen reloaded, probably thinking, "What good will these pea-shooters do against that?"

Over on the other side of the battlefield, the Bugbears felt they had a challenge more to their bestial liking than puny humans (especially puny humans who killed 4 in one spell-blow).

Via the vagaries of fate, the Constables activated first on the 4s.  The Chief Constable, recognizing that discretion really was the better part of valor, advanced to the rear.  As he passed the crossbowmen, he ordered them to shoot.  "Hey, keep that thing away from me, would'ja?"

They shot very well, indeed, causing a total of 8 points of damage (to a creature with 15 points total).  "Hey, maybe these pea-shooters aren't so bad, after all!"

The Gnolls won the dice-off to see which 4 went next.  You may be wondering how they were able to attack the dragon when they still have all of those morale check markers.  The next pic will explain all.

The unit charged the dragon.  I suppose, technically, the KiSA might have been the slightest bit closer, but again, I kind of felt that the Gnolls would respond to the dragon the same way as the Bugbears:  a challenge not to be missed.  Think of the bragging rights at killing a dragon!

Their attack was marginally successful:  they wounded Stench and stunned him, but the new leader Gnoll dropped his weapon.  "That dragon hide is tough!" he growled in Gnoll-speech.

The last of the 4s were the Bugbears, who edged closer.  Not particularly fast.  Apparently Bugbears are not as stupid as some might think.  Stench was only able to remove the single stun marker this turn.

With a cry of, "For Bob!", Bernie entered the magical fray.  Knowing his most powerful spell, Fireball, would be useless against a fire-breathing dragon, the Fire Wizard opted for Web.  Meanwhile, the KiSA reformed their line.  Just in case.

Bernie was successful in casting Web, thereby stunning Stench for two full turns.

The Turn ended.

The Bugbears continued their cautious advance, perhaps waiting to see how the Gnolls fared.  (Really small numbers on the move part of the cards.)

The KiSA did nothing, but Bernie decided to get behind the hedge of armor they provided.  "I can only slow him down, I can't stop him," he rationalized.

Stench, having lost over half of his life points (dragons, I'm told, are very aware of that sort of thing), had pretty much decided he'd eaten enough and would be leaving soon, if only he could rid himself of this dratted web....  (He removed one stun token.)

The Bugbears continued their cautious approach.

The Gnolls finally activated on a 6 and became unPinned and attacked again.  (Sorry, but I don't recall on which turn they were Pinned; sometime during the previous game, I think.  Gameplay is very fluid and I'm writing this a long time after playing.)

However, the Gnolls succeeded in doing nothing other than distributing morale check markers to themselves and the dragon.

The crossbowmen fired to small effect.  I think everyone had decided the dragon was the bigger threat.  Stench wasn't feeling so "big threat-like" now, however.  His inner dragonsense was telling him he only had 4 life points remaining!

The turn ended.  I decided to include this because it helps me remember the sequence of events.  I never write it down as I play, that would slow the game waaaay too much.  But I do wish I had thought of this sooner.

The Bugbears finally worked up the courage to tackle the dragon...

...to no real effect.  Stench took one more morale check marker, and Gronk somehow managed to break his weapon, the big dummy.

The KiSA did completely nothing, waiting to see the outcome of the battle between the various monsters.

The Constables re-grouped and the crossbowmen reloaded...just in case.

The Constables activated again, and the crossbowmen decided to shoot after all...missing completely.

Stench finally got rid of his last Stunned marker.  He was beginning to regret his "snacking between meals" habit and was hoping to escape soon.

The first morale check caused a Gnoll to charge.

The result was inconclusive.

But after clearing the last morale check marker, the Gnolls charged anyhow!  The could smell blood and really wanted to claim the kill before the Bugbears!

But they achieved nothing more than a morale check on themselves.  That darned crater, um, er, I mean, broken ground made it difficult to land a substantive blow.

Seizing their chance, the Bugbears rushed in to steal the kill away from the Gnolls!

They did manage to wound the mighty beast, but couldn't seal the deal.  Both sides took more morale check markers, Stench was Stunned and one of the Bugbears dropped his weapon.  Stench was getting pretty desperate to fly away now.

But before he could activate again, the turn ended.

And then Stench's luck returned.  He activated, and rather than breathe his deadly breath weapon on the monsters in front of him, or try to eat anyone else, he took off like a scalded cat and flew away across the table, in the direction from which he had originally come, in order to nurse his many wounds.  That was one expensive snack!

The Bugbears followed rather desultorily, just in case the dragon came back.  One Bug-gy stopped to pick up his weapon.

The Gnolls got Pinned when they cleared their morale check marker.  Then the KiSA activated but did nothing, continuing to watch; and the same with the Constables.  And then the turn ended.

Stench was again the first to activate, and flew away, with his one life point clutched securely in his great paw (metaphorically speaking).  The Bugbears were on the wrong side of the table, with a lot of terrain between them and their human foes, so they just decided to call it a day.  The Gnolls, severely reduced in numbers and strength, and a bit tired from fighting dragons and whatnot, also decided to exercise the caution for which they are not well known, and withdrew.

This left the field of battle, and the victory, firmly in the grasp of the humans.  Other than the casualties caused by the dragon, the human side was intact.  A few folks would mourn Bob the Bone Wizard, but probably not that many.  No one could actually remember the soldier's name who got eaten, but the Chief Constable vowed to erect a marker to honor him, someday.  Eventually.  He'd at least propose a toast to him at the feast next week.  Oh, and one Knight in Shining Armor was wounded, but the more grievous wounds were the jeers and snide remarks behind his back by the other Knights.  "Ha ha, you got stabbed by a Gnoll!  A Gnoll of all things!  What a maroon!"  Yeah, some of those KiSA are PitA's.

Hey, anyway, that wraps up this battle report.  Thanks for reading, and have a Happy New Year!