That belongs in a museum!

Finally got round to testing the 7TV rules for Cinematic Skirmish games.  The rules have been around for a while and the second edition was revised this year.  I had played a lot of hero and villain games during Covid lockdowns using the Perilous Tales solo ruleset and it looked like 7TV would be a good step to take to play with others using all the figures I'd painted in recent years.  So I backed the Kickstarter and have since also backed the Kickstarter for the 80s Genre Guide, expected Feb/March next year.

7TV uses profile cards providing 100+ generic characters for a range of genres including spy, action, fantasy, thriller, and horror.  Profiles can be generated too but the idea is to spend more time playing and less time creating cards!  The concept is that players are making a TV episode, so characters are stars, co-stars or extras, activation and special actions are done using "plot points" that your cast earns each turn, and the episode is moved along by event cards happening in three acts.

For this first game, we didn't use Props or the special abilities on the character cards.  The game isn't too complicated but there is a lot to learn initially.  I acted as gamesmaster for Andy and Stuart to play the game.

Our scenario was Indiana Jones trying to beat the Nazis to the Holy Grail.  The good guys cast comprised:

The baddies were:

Both casts cost 28 points, and started at opposite edges of a 2x2 feet area with six objective tokens along the central line of a ruined Egyptian temple.

Stuart brought on Indy and friends first, keeping to cover and using Henry Jones Sr ranged weapon to pick off Andy's cultist archers early on.

Marion and Brady picked up a couple of objective markers with Brady getting poisoned as a result.  Andy had better luck at the top of playing area and was able to revive one of his archers, and found the Holy Grail.

Indiana lasso-ed the Nazi capturing him and reducing Andy's plot points for the next round.

A Skeleton then made a surprise cameo, creating a bit of uncertainty and then hilarity as it bolted through several figures knocking them over.

The skeleton did benefit Andy by killing Salah, the only loss to Stuart's cast.  The Nazi managed to escape and started running towards the top edge of the mat.  In his final turn, Andy drew a blast Script Card setting three of Stuart's characters on fire.  Stuart extinguished Indy and Marion, leaving the already poisoned Marcus Brody to take his chances... he survived.  However, another bullseye from Dr Jones Sr saw the Nazi shot in the back and taken out in the last turn of the game, giving a Minor Victory to Stuart overall.

By the end, we were getting familiar with the rules and where to find things in the book when we needed them.  Next time we will play with Props, and the Special Ability and Special Effects available to the characters, which will provide even more variety (and mayhem) and perhaps balance up teams more effectively.

The key thing we learned was (obvious in retrospect) to play it like a TV episode!  An extra isn't really going to do much damage to a star so you really need to lead with your stars and co-stars and engage their counterparts, and let the extras fight it out when you have the opportunity and plot points.

With larger casts, I think this will work well with two players a side looking after a few characters each.

30th Anniversary Rivals Weekend

Somehow three decades have past since the formation of Rivals games nights.  Last weekend we got together to mark this and play a load of games.  Sadly Adrian couldn't make it, he was much missed.

We played a range of games, figures and board, old favourites and new.  We started with a "Bearers' Steeplechase" - a simple race game James had been planning for a while with some of the figures he had been collecting:

The figures were (from left to right, starting with the back row) Captain Scott on his Husky Sled, Lady Tsukiyama in a Palanquin, Sir Henry Pottinger in a Sedan Chair, Wilfred Owen on a WW1 Stretcher, Chief El Dorado the Muisca Chief, and Mrs Mavis Pike on her bicycle.

After looking for suitable rules for some time, James came across a game called Stage Chaser in a charity shop, a card based game simulating cycle races, with counters and tiles.  The tiles were reproduced as strips the figures could be placed along side.  The game uses three colours of poker chips to represent the energy a player has for attacking uphill, downhill and on the flat.  

Unfortunately this energy is depleted not by effort but by other players landing on your space and nicking your tokens.  This was quite fun but makes it tough to catch up, particularly if your hand of cards doesn't help your current position.  A good little filler game but if we play again, we'll use David's suggestions of allowing players the option of missing a turn in order to discard and replenish their hand in full.

The second game was a Dad's Army scenario - full write in this blog post.

Alternating with games of old favourites Ra and Pelopennes (and a picnic-style lunch and pizzas for dinner), we also had a couple of games of Hare and Tortoise that James had bought specially having recently discovered it was the first Spiel des Jahres winner back in 1979.  It was actually first published in 1974 but the German edition came out in 1978.

This 2010 edition from Gibson Games comes in an uninspiring box with an almost Victorian style board, suggesting a game of ludo-like simplicity.  But it's much more complex and devious than that - a race game that doesn't use any dice and (unless you take a chance card) has little luck element at all.  Suggested for ages 7 and up, we could imagine some very unhappy families trying to play this together - no doubt the reason there are so many copies under a tenner on eBay.

Each player starts with 65 carrots and 3 cabbages.  You move by paying carrots in triangle numbers for the number of spaces i.e. 1, 3, 6, 10, 15 etc carrots for 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 etc spaces, and have to visit limited and busy locations to drop off your cabbages.  The added challenge is passing the finishing line with 10 or less carrots (or 20 or less if in 2nd place, etc).  You can collect a lot more carrots by going backwards and taking a tortoise approach, resulting in some large moves e.g. 20 spaces costing 210 carrots!

We really enjoyed it and played it twice.  The first game especially had much hilarity as we struggled to get over the finishing line with the right number of carrots remaining.

We next played the bidding game Medici followed by a 6 Nimmt, a Board Game Arena favourite from the COVID lockdowns.

After David left, we had a game of St Petersburg with James' new copy recently acquired from a Board Game Geek seller for a reasonable price.  This rare but excellent game attracts some very high prices on most selling sites.

In the morning, we had a hearty full English breakfast before a very close game of Airlines Europe.

A great weekend, missing only Adrian, in both senses of the word.  Our last games weekend was just before the first COVID lockdown, so over three and a half years ago now.  We felt we should try and do this more often!

Episode 302: High Stakes for Captain Mainwaring

Another game of Perilous Tales with the rules adapted for four players, with one Hero each.  The changes were:

• each Hero had the leader stats of 3 Actions, Skill 4 and 12 Wounds but only 1 trait
• a Hero could only perform one Hand-to-Hand or Shooting action per turn
• an activated Hero stopped their turn whenever getting within 6 inches of a threat marker but the other Heroes could continue their turns.  All threat markers within 6 inches of any Hero were then revealed simultaneously

The briefing for the game:

It's mid-evening in the church hall at Walmington-on-Sea.  The Home Guard are settling down to another lecture from Corporal Jones about his exploits under Lord Kitchener but are waiting for the arrival of their commanding officer.

"Uncle Arthur, Uncle Arthur", Frank Pike wails.  "We can’t start the lecture without Captain Mainwaring.  I don't know where he is!"

"Now, now Frank, there's no need to carry on like that", replies Sergeant Wilson.  "I know he was going to take some flowers to his mother's grave this afternoon, perhaps he lost track of time."

"But he wouldn’t miss another one of Jonesy’s tales about the Sudan!"

Sergeant Wilson stands up, puts on his cap and clears his throat.

"Ok men, I’m terribly sorry but the lecture is cancelled. Your orders this evening are to scour the graveyard and find Captain Mainwaring and if you wouldn’t mind awfully, do deal with any miscreants you encounter."

The table layout:

Our Heroes and their Traits were Sergeant Wilson (Lucky), Lance Corporal Jones (Tough Guy), Private Pike (Discretion) and Private Godfrey (Medic).

The villains were an assortment of vampyres and their acolytes (more details on earlier blog):

The episode was filmed by a unit from Perilous Pictures:

The Home Guard entered the graveyard and Jones revealed the first threat marker to be Bats!  Unfortunately this permanent cloud of bats was located very centrally and a number of the Heroes were bitten in this and subsequent turns.  The next threat marker was the Bride of Dracula but Jones despatched her in double quick time.

Pike revealed the next threat marker and promptly fell into an open grave taking several wounds as he cried for his teddy.

After climbing out of the grave, Pike killed Count Ruthven who had been revealed and softened up by Jones.  Wilson continued to lead the group in the search for Captain Mainwaring and Godfrey applied a number of much-needed bandages.

After a couple of attempts, the men managed to break down the door of the mausoleum to discover a confused and weakened Mainwaring inside.

As they started to escort him to safety, Private Pike encountered Count Dracula.  

Contemplating that the Count was already dead, Godfrey put aside his pacifism and seriously wounded him.  Pike finished him off.

The Home Guard decided it was now time to exit and headed for the gates.  But the increasing threat level meant that the unrevealed threat markers caught them up, and the Heroes found themselves harassed by Renfied, Nosferatu and a spectre.

With a little GM discretion, the spectre headed them off at the gate.

By this time Pike had already exited with almost all his wounds taken, so he watched through the railings as his friends killed the spectre and joined him outside.

Nosferatu moaned as the games were slammed shut and the Home Guard helped Mainwaring to Corporal Jones' butcher's van.

The Home Guard put in a truly heroic performance having killed the Master, hunted the fiends and, most importantly, rescued the prisoner.

Ambush! Mission 4: D-Day Night Drop to Destiny

With just the two of us for games night, David and I returned to the old-school counters and hex-grid charm of Ambush! which we last played a few weeks before the the first COVID lockdown three and a half years ago.

Our previous squad record was waiting for us as was our recollection of playing this scenario before.  That time, the parachute drops saw our squad so spread out, one drowned in the river and others panicking and being picked off before they had even packed their parachutes away.  Fortunately that was just an exercise...

This time the squad all landed safely.  Still spread out but with some grouping and with two soldiers even landing together.

One squad member landed in the same square as the weapons cache containing our bazooka.  Sadly he was wounded before he was able to open it but he survived the game.  Less fortunate was Ely-St.John who landed on a crossroads surrounded by German-occupied buildings.  He was swiftly incapacitated.

The others fared better with some effective close assaulting by Randleman (soldier H) and Winters (soldier A).  An SS General and his aide-de-camp were encountered but they raced away in their Kubelwagen before they could be captured.  As the Germans were whittled down, the squad proceeded to the road and railway bridges over the river and defused the explosives.  Luz (soldier F) scouted the exfil route and the squad safely exited West off the map.

The squad acquired 10 victory points for securing both bridges, a further seven for the Germans who were activated, and lost two since the incapacitated soldier could not be moved to safety in this scenario.  A grand total of 15 exceeding the 10 required for victory.

Mars Attacks scenario 2: The Front Line

Andy and I played the second scenario in the rulebook yesterday.  "The Front Line" introduces a couple of hero characters with additional abilities.  Two of them start in one corner of the playing area with seven marines in another, and the Human player has to exit one or both from the Martians deployment edge, earning more victory points the further away they exited.

Unfortunately, there were 16 Martian Grunts with disintegration rifles in the way.

This was the first game since I finally got round to painting the scenery.  So much scenery came in the original Kickstarter pack I bought, so I painted around half of the items, following a great YouTube tutorial from Pete The Wargamer.  Here's a before and after shot.

My Humans started ok picking off Martians from range but began to get overwhelmed by Andy's greater numbers.  My card attacks kept just missing the Martian figures although I did successfully vaporise one of the civilians I was trying to rescue - another was captured by Andy, and one managed to escape.

Deciding to leave hero Troy to his fate, I pushed up the board with hero Eva, who encountered some resistance.

Luckily, she managed to make it to the far left of the gaming area as Andy picked off the other hero and most of the marines, leaving just the Sergeant cowering in a ruined building.

I had just one figure left on the board in the final round with Andy having lost half a dozen Martians, with another singed by a herd of flaming cows.

In total, Andy scored 4 points for killing Troy, 3 for collecting 4 critters for experimentation, and 1 for capturing a civilian, reaching the winning target of 8 points.  However, in the same round, Eva escaped getting 8 points plus a further point for collecting 2 alien artefacts, so a very close game won by James with 9 points to 8.

Super Seleucids

Yesterday I finished basing the Seleucid DBA army (Book II, army 19a) that Andy bought me a while back.

The army comprises (right to left) a Knight general, Cavalry companion and Light Horse:

...two Elephants and a Scythed Chariot:

...four Pike:

...and two Psiloi, plus two variants of Auxilia either of which can replace the Scythed Chariot:

I took the army over to Andy's this afternoon where he had identified five historical opponents that were selected in rolling a die.

First up was the very similarly-constituted Ptolemaic (II/20a) army:

My Scythed Chariot successfully mowed down Andy's General and a lucky roll saw my Light Horse take out Andy's.  

Andy's Auxilia killed one of my Psiloi on the hill, but my mounted troops managed to surround Andy's last Knight and kill it for the win.  Final score 4-1.

Next up were the Classical Indians (II/3a).

I tried to close up quickly as Andy had three Bow in this army, and I managed to take out a Bow and Knight on the left flank.  A couple of 6-1 rolls saw Andy kill my Light Horse and one of my Elephants.

After another loss each, I managed to break through and get my General on the rear of a Bow being attacked from the front, to scrape a 4-3 win despite a final roll of snake's eyes.

The final match was against Arabo-Aramaean (II/22f), a very different army with half of it Bow.

This was a surprisingly fluid game.  Andy's Light Horse made a dash for my Elephants but were cut off - and cut up - by my other mounted troops, who were subsequently killed by Andy's bowfire.  My Scythed Chariot made it all the way to other table edge and sacked the camp.  The final kill came by my Pike surrounding a wayward Bow, giving a final score of 4-2 for the Seleucids.

Tempting as it to now retire the Seleucids as Champions of the Ancient World, I am prepared to submit them to a potential reversal of fortune the next time I bring them to the DBA table.

Mars Attacks playtest

Last year I bought the Mars Attacks game and then painted up all the miniatures.  I still haven't got round to painting all the scenery but I thought it was about time I actually tried the game.  An attraction of buying it during lockdown was the Solo Rules (AI cards drive the Martian behaviour) but I wanted to try a proper game with Andy first.

The game is a good blend of simplified wargaming mechanisms with card-driven events.  There is no measuring as the two playing mats are both discretely marked into an 8x8 board.  Figures can position anywhere in a square to get the benefit of cover but moving and shooting is simply between adjacent squares, including diagonals.  The cards provide bonuses to die rolls or moves, or build up into sets of support cards (like artillery attacks) that can be called upon when needed.  The game uses a set of D8s to resolve everything, for example, three dice when shooting with the shooter getting an extra die or two depending on whether they aimed or the target is fully in the open.  The defender gets three dice and typically rolls against a higher "Survive" figure, so shooting proved pretty deadly, especially since there are no wounds to record - a figure either survives or is removed from play.

It has a You Go, I Go turn order but this is split up over a number of rounds with each round providing an opportunity to activate two figures, or one figure and play a card.  Activated figures are marked with yellow counters and the first player to have activated all their figures can still play cards or pass whilst the other player continues using figures, but the former then has the initiative in the next turn.

There are also eight counters randomly distributed which are initially face down and then revealed as either "critters" (which the Martians want to take away to examine) or "alien technology" (benefit for the Humans).

The first scenario has just 8 US marines taking on 5 Martians, with none of the Hero figures and their special abilities taking part.  All scenarios are won by getting to 8 Victory Points and in this game were earned by killing by shooting (1VP), by hand-to-hand (2VP) and discovering critters or tech (1VP each after the first one).

Andy's Martians used a pretty devastating heat ray early on (highlighting the risk of having more than one figure in a square) and then a couple of random attacks that flattened some of the already ruined buildings, significantly opening up lines of sight.  It then became a shooting match until very near the end when we thought Andy had won 8-7, but we then noticed the first critter didn't count for VPs, so the score was really 7-6.  Since we hadn't yet had any close combat and James needed the 2VPs to win, he encouraged a fight which Andy gamely took on.

The final dice roll saw the last Martian bite the dust and give James the victory.

It's a fun, good-looking game.  Certainly not complex and there are random factors but that seems to fit well with the comic book theme.  The second scenario requires many more figures so we thought this should work well with more players at a future games night.

I subsequently rediscovered some fan-made cards I'd downloaded for this game which I've now printed out ready for next time, so the stats are accessible and the Hero special abilities can be more easily used and tracked.