Critters and Beasties.

 I've had these critters on my painting table for quite a while, but it's taken a long time to get the confidence to figure out how best to paint them.  Anyway, after a bit of faffing about I guess I'm satisfied with these.

A cockatoo and an owl from Pulp Figures.

And a penguin and a raven.

Originally from the Honorable Lead Boiler Suit Company but now available from North Star.  I fussed with this for a while trying to get water effects to work before finally giving up, but there is a bit of water effect left at the base of the rocks.

Doug gave me this 3D print of an animal skull.  It will likely be a useful marker in a game sometime!

Pulp Figures fox, bobcat and otter.  These took me a while to figure out how to paint, but I'm content with how they turned out.

Rabbit, squirrel and two beavers.  Mostly Pulp, but the middle beaver is one of the missing from the HLBS colony I painted up a while ago.

And three werewolves and a regular wolf.  The werewolves are 3D prints that were a gift from Fletch, and should fit into a future horror game.

Fistfuls of fun (three different games)

Arthur and I have had a few games of Fistful of Lead, and are learning some key things from each venture.

We tried the WWII sample scenario from the core rulebook, which features a two five-man teams of soldiers who have been tasked to destroy a bridge while a five-man team of Germans try to stop them.  The scenario as written assigns the task to 1944 US soldiers, but we substituted 1940 British Highlanders. The scenario rules allow for the gradual arrival of reinforcements, randomly rolled for so they could be either German or British.

Here is the table.  Germans arrive from the top left, Brits from the lower right, and the target bridge is just to the right of the manor house.

Highlanders led by their tommygun-toting sergeant.

And the second team, bringing up the explosives.

Germans arriving on the opposite table edge.

Highlanders take up defensive posture around the manor.

Highland soldier goes down wounded.

Explosives get placed.

Soldier plays a Queen of Hearts to recover from his wound, and then shoots a German!

German sergeant and Highland soldier inflict shock (smoke puffs) on each other.

Whoops, ran out of photos.  Quick summary:  the Germans generally had the advantage in the fight, but the Highlanders succeeded in setting off the explosives on the bridge. Unfortunately for the Highlanders, about half of them were too close to the bridge and were wounded by the blast!

Key takeaways from this game:  each of the soldiers had special traits.  We mostly forgot about them!  Be certain to have cards written up for each figure on the table, and it's ok for mooks to just be mooks, no need for everyone to have traits.

So we tried another game, this time one that Arthur made up based on Koschei the Deathless, a notorious villain from Russian folklore.  Koschei is basically the prototype for the Lich from D&D, an immortal creature who used foul magic to hide his death away in a needle, inside an egg, which is hidden in a duck, which is in a rabbit, and so on.  He's also a mighty warrior in his own right.  He is supported by Marya Morevna, and a lesser servant. Leading the battle against Koschei was the priest of a small village, plus the local noble and a collection of warriors.  Just in case this small force is inadequate to take on Koschei, we decided that once the second joker was played, the famous Three Bogatyrs (Ilya Muromets, Dobrynya Nikivitch and Aloysha Popovich), would enter the fray.  As it turned out, waiting for the second joker took quite a long time!  Next time we need a delayed action to occur, we'll let it happen on the first joker.

The village is to the left, and Koschei lives in the ruined castle on the right.

Character sheets for the three groups.

The villagers set out to find Koschei.

Koschei and his minions emerge to counter the villagers.

Three warriors take on Marya...

But she drives them off.

Next, the priest steps in and finishes off Marya.  Koschei is wounded but recovers at the end of the turn.

Koschei kills the priest but his minion is taken out.

Koschei faces the remaining villagers.

The second joker finally appears, so the Three Bogatyrs come onto the table.

But long before they reach the battle, the nobleman gets a lucky strike in and dispatches Koschei!  However, this victory will only be temporary, as Koschei's death is hidden far away, so his corporeal body will regenerate and he will return to terrorise the town again!

 And today we played a WWI game.  Arthur's friend Oliver came over and this was a chance to teach a new player about Fistful of Lead!  In this scenario, 6 Canadian soldiers took on 5 Germans in a bloody struggle for some ruins in the middle of no man's land.

German force of officer, SMG and three riflemen.

Canucks with officer and 5 riflemen.

Germans occupy the ruins.

Canadians advance.

Germans win the race to the ruins!

Firefight develops.  Smoke puffs represent shock.

Germans inside the ruins.

German officer kicks the Canadian sergeant while he is down.  Turns out, this is an effective way to finish off an opponent!

After a vicious, drawn out battle, the Germans retain control of the ruins!

All in all three great games of Fistful of Lead.  This ruleset will be our main small skirmish set for at least the next little while.

A failed hijacking

 Our Mad Dogs With Guns gangster campaign kicked off on the weekend.  We gathered at Lisa's home to figure out our monthly activities, determine our revenue and take care of other campaign admin.  We also played out a couple versions of the Rumble scenario.  In the Rumble, street toughs fight with others to show they are tough enough to be recruited to the gang.  It's a great way to get started, as all figures are initially NPCs, so low stakes.  The winner of the game gets to recruit some of the winners into his/her gang.  I didn't take any photos, so no real game report.  My own Waterfront Gang was completely unsuccessful.  Craig's gang waited while Lisa and I beat each other up, then he strolled in to clean up what was left.  On the other table, Arthur's candidates pounded Gord's, so he was able to increase his own gang with half a dozen new members.

My other activity was to attempt a hijacking of a truck carrying contraband.  I went after a truck associated with an NPC gang, again as we are just starting out and I am not ready to rock the boat with the other PC gangs just yet.  Arthur and I played out the scenario last night.  Things didn't go so well for the Waterfronters!

On a remote road out in the countryside, the Waterfront Gang has sent hoodlums Crazy Ivan and Chun Lee (the tommygunner), supported by three sluggers, Sailor Bob, Longshore Luke and Peacoat Pete.  The hijackers have rolled a convenient tractor across the road to stop the truck belonging to a rival, but anonymous, gang.  Unknown to them, the truck has an escort! The truck is driven by a slugger with a hoodlum riding with him, but behind the truck is a car containing another 6 gang members.  Was there a tipoff?

Seeing the road blocked, the truck driver accelerated into it!  He wasn't able to push the tractor out of the way, but it was badly smashed.  The truck took only minor damage.

A general melee quickly erupts as Sailor Bob and Peacoat Pete begin fisticuffs with the truck crew, while Chun Lee starts to hose down the following car with his tommy gun. 

Crazy Ivan joins in the scuffle.

The fight goes back and forth, and the Waterfront Gang members finally pummelled into submission.

A bad result for my Waterfront Gang, and an important lesson learned!  If you're going to do something, it's best to overdo it.  Next time (if my gang gets an opportunity for a next time) I will remember that nothing exceeds like excess, and send a big enough group to completely overwhelm the opposition!

Fistful of Lead playtest

 After reading on various wargaming forums/forae singing the praises of Wiley Games' Fistful of Lead, I decided to try it out as an option for small scale skirmish.  I was particularly attracted by the idea that FfoL has been used for diverse settings, from the original Wild West setting through 1920s/30s gangsters, future/sci-fi settings and medieval and fantasy.  The core ruleset is a refreshingly thin 52 pages, with no wasted space.  Wiley Games has a Youtube channel with a collection of short videos that explain each of the core concepts.

I was going to order just the core rules, but balked at the shipping cost.  So I added extra scenario books to rationalise shipping fees!  In addition to the core rules, I also got the Mexican Revolution scenario pack and the Tales of Horror supplement, plus a pack of cards.

A quick note about the cards:  FfoL is designed around a normal 52-card deck.  Some of the cards have special effects, such as the Queen of Hearts which will cure wounds on a figure.  The custom deck is nice to have as the 'special' cards have their effects printed on them.  This is very helpful, as it's going to be easy to forget or miss special rules, especially as a newbie.

For our introductory game, Arthur and I kept things simple.  Each of us took three western figures, each armed with a sixgun.  No one had any special traits.

Here is our basic little western town.  You can see that Wiley Games sent the 'Tales of Horror' game deck instead of the 'Core' deck, but the only difference is the artwork, both decks have the same information.

My three cowboys, intent on causing a ruckus in the town!

Arthur's lawmen, who are going to put a lid on the rowdy cowboys.

Gameplay is fast.  Each player gets dealt one card for each figure in the game.  These are played in order from Kings down to 2s.  Aces are wild, and can be played as any card.  We didn't get this quite right, as there were a few times that we missed the chance to use an ace as a Queen of Hearts to remove wounds, or to take another advantage.  Next time!

We started off on opposite sides of the table, so it took a couple of turns to get close enough for action.  This was helpful as it allowed us to get familiar with the activation process.  Soon enough, however, we had a lawman and a cowboy facing off on either side of the cabin.

A quick check shows that they are within close range.

The cowboy hits, inflicting a shock on the lawman!

Bowler hat lawman takes aim and shoots, but rolls a 1.  This means he is out of ammo and must reload!

Lawman decides to forgo shooting and charges into close combat.  The cowboy fights back, inflicting another shock on the lawman.

Both the lawman and the cowboy get a friend to support them.  The cowboys team up to take out the second lawman, while the first lawman retreats to the cabin porch.

My third cowboy, having wounded bowler hat, then sneaks up behind lawman one.

The wounded bowler hat takes a long shot at cowboy three, but gets another out of ammo!

Lawman one retreats inside the cabin, dragging his shock with him

Cowboys pile on to Lawman one.  He takes down the first cowboy through the door (inflicting a wound and knocking him down) but the next cowboy takes the lawman out of the fight.

Bowler hat decides to exercise the better part of valour, and limps away from the fight.

We enjoyed the game.  It's fast and cinematic in style.  Next time, we will remember about the wild aces, so that figures will have a better chance to recover from wounds or shock or to reload.  That will probably have a big effect on how the game goes.  We'll also add more traits - Arthur is busy assembling a couple of horror teams to try out the special rules for undead and other beasties!