Pulp Figures Sci-Fi Spacers

 Bob Murch of Pulp Figures has started a new line of figures based on the Golden Age of Science Fiction storytelling.  I resisted for a while, but then I decided to jump on the bandwagon for the pre-order deal.  Well, the figures have arrived and here are the first of them!

I'm not sure exactly where I will go with these.  My thoughts are along the lines of Firefly/Serenity or The Expanse, or Traveller for that matter, where independent spacers struggle to keep flying alongside more powerful entities, such as governments and large corporations.

Also, after years of painting dull colours for 20th Century or colonial warfare, I'm taking a different approach for these figures.  My theory is that in space, out in the Black, spacers place a big emphasis on being as visible as possible.  If a spacer gets separated from their ship, they want to be as easy to find as possible because otherwise they risk being lost forever in the darkness of space.  When I described this to Arthur, he made another point:  with their faces covered by their helmets, the spacers will be pretty anonymous, so they will also look to personalising their suits in order to be distinct from each other.

That said, here are the first four spacers.

These include my first attempts at using Vallejo fluorescent paints.  Not too bad for a start, I am learning about through trial and error.  First up, I need to get a similar colour as a base, then paint the appropriate fluorescent over it to get the right effect!

Johnny Law

As our gangster campaign proceeds, public outrage grows.  That means that there will be a call for the City Police to intervene!  Fortunately, fresh off the painting table, here come the boys (and one lady!) in blue!

Cops with nightsticks, walking the beat.

These three have pulled their sidearms to investigate some suspicious activity. 

As things get more serious, they can call in support from colleagues armed with rifle and tommygun.

Back at the precinct, the sergeant supervises as old Mike the town drunk gets booked, while Matron keeps an eye on sweet-talkin' Sally.

The cops came with a fire hydrant and an old-timey police call box (notably different from the UK version favoured by time- and space- travelling timelords).

And here are a few shots against a lighter background.

A few comments.  I was going to paint the Matron to match Queen Latifah from Chicago, but that didn't end up happening.  

The police uniforms have red stripes on the trousers and red cap bands.  This is more of a Canadian police thing than American, but I like it as it gives a touch of colour to the otherwise monochrome uniforms.  Similarly, white shirts offer a better contrast than dark blue shirts!

Sally was inspired by Anita from West Side Story.  I didn't have the mauve required for Rita Morena's version in the 1961 movie, so instead I went with a yellow dress based on the 2021 version.

Wolf Cull

 I hosted a game at last week's last meeting of the Trumpeters for 2024.  I called it 'The Wolf Cull', with two of the players taking on the role of northern trappers, seeking to cull the wolves they held responsible for stripping their trap lines.  The other two players got to be the beasties of the woods who fought back against the trappers.  I must confess that I didn't put as much thought into the scenario as I should have.  It was (deliberately) biased towards the critters, so wasn't as much fun for the trappers.  My apologies to Craig and Walter, and thanks to them for being good sports!  And thanks also to Fletch and Legion who played the beasties.

Inspiration for the scenario came from a few sources.  The most recent Wargames Soldiers and Strategies has a beer and pretzels boar hunt game, with medieaval nobles on a boar hunt.  I considered just playing that, but the game seemed a bit too simple, even for me!  I was also eager to put my new beasties and critters on the table, so I looked to move the setting from Europe to the Yukon.  

Here's the setting, somewhere in the North.  A small beaver colony is present in a marsh beside the creek, and there are woods in each quadrant of the table.

A small pack of wolves are spotted in the woods, as a cute little bunny tries to remain inconspicuous.

Trapper Calamity Jane moves up and shoots one of the wolves,

And then the rest of the pack attacks and ravages her!

It was at this point that the trappers found out that the wolf pack included werewolves.

A sharpshooter trapper tried to shoot one of the werewolves, but ended up out of ammo at a crucial moment!

Meanwhile at the other end of the table, a big moose charged the other group of trappers.

And was then coldcocked, a la Mongo from Blazing Saddles, to the great amusement of all.

Wolves and werewolves battle the trappers.

Is this bear baiting?  Dog pack harasses a bear.

Bigfoot tentatively enters the fray but is discouraged (as per the shock marker), as the wolf pack battles the trappers.  The trappers managed to knock one of the werewolves out of the fight but were ultimately defeated.

Four shock markers and a wound marker on the bear as the dogs wear him down.

Having finished off the first group of trappers, the werewolves push to the other side of the table to challenge the other trappers.

Bigfoot stalks Beardie MacBeardface.

Wolves finish off the dog pack.  Beardie, finding himself the last trapper on the table, decides to exercise the better part of valour and retreats.

I was pretty careless in how I set up the scenario.  A few lessons to remember for next time will include:

- The trappers are stronger at shooting, while the critters work best in close combat.  However, with all the cover and also the fast movement, the trappers barely had a chance to get a shot off before getting swarmed.  I'll need to make sure there is at least a chance for the trappers to use their weapons.  For starters, there will need to be more open corridors between cover to allow the trappers to get a chance to shoot.  

- I'd like a better way for the critters to start out hidden. The trappers will need to find them, which allows for ambushes.  This contradicts the point I just made above about giving the trappers a chance to engage from a distance!  So I'll have to also figure out how to balance those ideas.  

- The trappers were really overpowered.  It would be better to have both groups of trappers together, to take on the single pack of werewolves, and then keep the fourth group (bigfoot, bear and moose) as a slightly random group that could show up to swing the balance one way or the other.

- I had an idea of including some leghold traps.  The idea would be that any figure (beast or trapper) moving near the trap marker (say, 3") would be "attacked". If the trap 'wins' the roll, it rolls to 'wound' with a -1.  No matter what, the figure is immobilised, and will have a shock or wound in addition depending on the wound roll.  Once immobilised, the figure can try to roll off against the trap each turn.  If the trap rolls higher, the figure remains immobile.  If the figure wins, it can then act as normal in the following turn. 

So I will give this some thought and hopefully get a chance to present an improved version of this scenario again before too long.

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.