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.

Episode 301: Another Shabby Nazi Trick

Captain Mainwaring of the Local Defence Volunteers rushed out of his office waving a telegram.

"Listen to this, Wilson.  I've just received orders from Colonel Pritchard... An unidentified flying object has crashed just outside Walmington-on-Sea. The top brass think this could this be a new Nazi superweapon.  I'm to take my men and investigate as soon as possible.  There's no time to lose.  Don't worry about uniforms.  Gather the platoon and we'll meet near the woods.  Come with me Pike."

"I say, would you chaps mind awfully coming out for a bit of a manoeuvre?", asked Wilson, as he found Jones, Walker and Frazer sinking a few pints in the Red Lion.

The platoon quickly reached the saucer-shaped object and found a way in.

Mainwaring split the platoon and led (from safely in the middle) Walker and Frazer up the staircase.

Wilson did similarly on the other side through a strange smelling area with Pike leading the way waving his trusty cricket bat, with which he had once scored 23.

Sadly this time he was out for a duck as he encountered a strange grey hairless homunculus with large black eyes at the top of the stairs who promptly incapacitated him, and Pike fell from the stairs calling for his mother.

"Whatever will I tell Mavis", wondered Sergeant Wilson as he swiftly despatched the creature in revenge.

Mainwaring's men encountered similar beings who struck and then ran away into the bowels of the ship.  "They don't like it up 'em", cried Corporal Jones, chasing them down the gantry.

Then Frazer was set upon by a skeleton in a very strange costume.  "It's not like any diving suit I witnessed in the Navy", he exclaimed.

Recalling the tradition of parley, Frazer somehow managed to subdue the skeleton who then started fighting the grey creatures alongside the Home Guard.  Its help was vital as they were beginning to get outnumbered.

Mainwaring punctured a grey with his umbrella before turning to help Walker finish off another.  "Take that, you monochrome marauder!"

One by one the enemies were defeated providing some respite for the Home Guard to search some of the container boxes for technologies to take back to Army Headquarters.  They made their way back to the entrance, fighting off the last stragglers, before emerging blinking back into the sunlight of their seaside town.

After a minute's silence for Private Frank Pike, Captain Mainwaring turned towards his men and the strange skeletal creature who had joined them.  He tucked his thumbs under his lapels, drew himself up to his full 5ft 4 ½ and addressed the group: 

"Let us brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that if Walmington-on-Sea last for a thousand years, men will still say, ‘This was our Finest Hour.’"

[James and Andy were playing Perilous Tales, with figures by Bolt Action and Copplestone Castings. Scenery was the Galactic Core System from Battlesystems.  The Perils were Putrid Strench, Utterly Horrible and The Captain.  Villains were a lurking Master with 7 Wounds and 7 Skill, an aggressive Minion with the same, and a group of pack hunters with 5 Wounds and 5 Skill.  10 Victory Points were achieved for a "truly heroic performance".]