The Sword and the Flame - Butiwanto Desert Action!

     The never ending search for the perfect set of rules continues.  This time Kevin, Mike and I tried out The Sword and the Flame.  The rules have been around for some 40+ odd years, but this was our first real outing with them.  The system uses a standard deck of playing cards to resolve Movement and Firing order along with wound resolution, but I purchased from The Virtual Armchair General web store the generic TSATF Action deck.  It adds some Colonial flavor to the look of the game and simplifies the combat resolution.  It also contains 8 "Event" cards to add even more uncertainty to the game.  The deck also contains two "HALT!" cards which immediately ends whatever phase you are in.  The deck is 62 cards thick, and we were amazed how many times the two HALT! cards ruined someones plans....

 

   The action occurred in my Africian Imagi-nation of Colonial Butiwanto.  This time the British were looking into reports of a growing rebellion in the Itzadri Desert.  Mike and Kevin took the "Native" forces, each receiving a Cavalry unit, a Close Combat unit and a unit armed with rifles.  They also each received a "Leader" to help motivate their units.  They gave me the British forces because, well, I wanted to wear my pith helmet.  I marched onto the board with two Infantry units, a Cavalry unit and an artillery unit.

We had a great time and learned some lessons.  I learned that my artillery CAN shoot 48" (not the 24" I thought when I first looked at the chart) so there is no reason to move them WAY out in front of the rest of my forces and into Mike's Cavalry charge range.  

Mike learned that a Leader on foot cannot run faster then a Cavalry charge.  Q. What is the gooey stuff between my Cavalry unit's horses toes?  A. Mike's Leader.....

And Kevin learned not to start your Cavalry unit WAY far away at the far end of the board with no Leaders around...  'cause you just KNOW they will fail activation after activation.... 

Fun was had all around and Mike and Kevin said they wanted to play again sometime.  We ended up playing 12 turns (some shortened by the HALT! cards) and in the end I probably could have / would have won, but we just called it a rules learning experience.*

* I told my wife I won.... 😉

Here are some pictures of our 19th Century battle on the Dark Continent...

Our first turn.  My Artillery moved 17 out of a possible 18 inches and got way out front.  Another of my units advanced in open order.  I forgot to scout the ruins to my right.  Good thing there was nothing there.  Mike on the left measuring out a Cavalry move.  Kevin on the right waiting his turn and "Doing the Dew".

 

Kevin's Shooters sneaking along an oasis

Mike's Cavalry forming up to charge my Artillery.  The random movement distances were soon about to rear it's ugly head...

I see Kevin and am about to deliver a devastating barrage of fire but...

 

Mike rolls 16 out of a possible 30" of movement.  His charge sputters out right in front of my artillery.  I got all excited knowing I was going to blast Mike's Cav.....however....

On that turn's fire phase the first card came up a HALT!  No shooting for me....!!  My Cavalry stands ready to counter charge Mike and save the Artillery.  Kevin's Natives had charged and beat up one of my units who took many casualties and fell back shaken.  I moved my second unit that was in Close Order and faced off to maybe fire and receive Kevin's charge...

Kevin's Cavalry who started way on the opposite end of the board and failed a number of movement activations....

Soon all Hell broke loose...

This is what it looks like when two Cavalry units BOTH fail their Charge Rolls....RUN AWAY!!

Kevin's Cavalry finally get into the game.  One of my unit's Leaders has become a causality...

We all had a really good time playing.  As I said the HALT! cards and the Event cards really added to our game.  And it wasn't just a game, it was an adventure.

Thanks for looking!

 Space Weirdos Solo AAR - "Tyranid Rampage..."

"Space Weirdos" is a man to man (or whatever you want) skirmish set of rules from Garske Games.  It is available for download from various places on the internet.  Easy to pick up but with some mechanics that take a little bit to master the use of.  When you buy the rules you also get a 4 page Solo module that is a breeze to use and gives a really good solo game.  They will tell you what each opposing figure is going to do, and there are a few guidelines as to how the figures should act, but you may have to decide exactly how it executes the order.  The solo rules gave me a really tough game that didn't go so well for me...

 My wife was out of town and I had a Friday night to kill...so I made up a squad for me, put together stats for my opposition and off to the planet Lewis 8814 I went.....

The setting for tonight's struggle of Man vs. Tyranid.  The red poker chips mark the boundaries of the 3x3 board.  The MDF disks represent the 3 "Areas of Interest" my Squad has been tasked with checking out.  I forgot that Space Weirdos comes with objective markers, hence the disks.  They will soon be replaced with the appropriate markers.  The game is supposed to last 4 maybe 5 turns.  The large d6 is my turn marker.

 
Once I had the board set the scenario calls for a pair of "Goons" to set up near each marker.  Since I was using Tyranids for the bad guys the "Goons" were Termagants.  The set up also called for a "Big Shooter" to be 5 inches from the middle, top edge.  The role of "Big Shooter" will be played by a Tyranid Warrior.  Notice the proper objective markers.

Two more Termagants are placed by the 3rd objective as my tracked transport rolls to a halt.

As the track comes to a halt my Squad exits the rear hatch.

Sgt. Wigglesworth, armed with a Laser Pistol.

Riflemen Mike, armed with a Laser Rifle.

Radioman Rutherford ("Arr-Arr" to his Squadies), armed with a Heavy Rifle.

"Scott the Knife", armed with an Auto-Pistol, but he prefers his Combat Knife.

Turn One

Arr-Arr advance and lays down effective rifle fire killing a Termagant in the upper right corner.  Rifleman Mike advances, aims, but only staggers the remaining one.  (I forgot to put down his movement marker).   Scott the Knife moves around the rocks and since he could not engage in close combat opens fire, staggering one (left corner). Sarge advances and with more accurate shooting kills one.  (Again, I forgot to put down their movement markers...)

 

In the Tyranids move the forces that were out of the previous picture move to get positions (top of this picture).  The other two termagants shake off their staggers and move into contact; but lose the combats for no effects.  (Notice everyone now has movement markers 😀)

It was at this point that I realized that I had made a tactical mistake.  Sergeant Wigglesworth had moved to a position more than 5" away from Arr-Arr.  This meant that in the next turn Arr-Arr would move AFTER the Tyranids activate and not with the rest of his Squad....

Turn Two

Scott The Knife kills the Termagant he is fighting, then moves to cover the objective and returns to Sarge. Sergeant Wigglesworth shoots forcing a Termagant down. Rifleman MIke disengages and shoots forcing the Termagant back. Before Arr-Arr can act the Tyranids go.  The  Tyranid Warrior blasts him with his Bio-Cannon (Yes, it is as nasty as it sounds) knocking him down and staggering him. A Genestealer appears behind my Squad but does not activate this turn. (Whew!)  The off screen staggered and down Termagants recover.  Arr-Arr was severely stunned (I rolled really badly to recover) and it takes the entire turn to shake it off so he is still down. 

Turn Three

Scott the Knife moves and engages a Termagant in hand to hand, killing it.  He then makes another move and uses a "Command Point" to take a shot.  His fire goes wild, missing a staggered Termagant. Sergeant Wigglesworth takes a shot at the staggered Termagant, also missing.  He moves and takes another shot at Tyranid Warrior but misses again.  Rifleman Mike moves, aims and shoots at the looming Tyranid Warrior, but he misses too.  Arr-Arr starting his turn out of command range doesn't get to active yet.  Not a good turn for me...

On the Tyranids turn the Tyranid Warrior shoots at Rifleman Mike hitting him in the chest and knocking him down. It adjusts it's aim to shoot at Sergeant Wigglesworth but it's fire goes wild and misses.  The Genestealer moves into contact with Arr-Arr but it used all it's actions and cannot attack. One Termagant cowers; the other Termagant moves behind trees trying to flank the group of humans.

Turn Four - the End comes...

Back in command range, Arr-Arr stands and disengages from the Genestealer.  He moves away from the Creature to a position behind his Squad-mates.  Sergeant Wigglesworth takes three shots at the Genestealer. The first shot forces it back a move, second and third shots bounce harmlessly off of its exoskeleton.  Rifleman Mike stands.  Readying his Laser Rifle and taking aim he fires and horribly misses the Tyranid Warrior. The Alien Creature levels it's Bio-Cannon and fires.  One of the plasma bolts strikes Rifleman Mike square in the face plate, blasting through it and blowing his head apart and it's shower of blood and brains. 

Scott the Knife screams out "HE OWED ME FIVE BUCKS!!" as he sees Rifleman Mike's head disappear in a red mist.  He charges across the field of fire dodging plasma bullets left and right.  Leaping into the air off of a rock in a manner not seen since Achilles fought Hector outside the walls of Troy he buries his knife deep into the armored Cranium of the Genestealer. Twisting the knife it splits the Skull open; the brain spilling out in a deluge of blood and ickor. 

 

An almost perfect attack roll...

Walking back into command range of Sergeant Wigglesworth, Scott the Knife wipes the gore off his combat weapon.

The Tyranid Warrior takes shots at Sergeant Wigglesworth, the plasma bolts going wild right and left. The Termagant that flanked the group has a clear line of sight at the Arr-Arr.  It takes three shots, the hail of bullets strike all around Arr-Arr, but he dodges and goes to one knee. The Termagant that has been cowering steps out from his hiding spot throwing two shots at the back of the fleeing Scott the Knife. The shots bounce harmlessly off of his armor leaving him unscathed.

At this point Sergeant Wigglesworth grabs a hold of the body of the dead Rifleman Mike and he orders his team back to the safety of their Rhino.  "Let's get out of here..."

What a GREAT game and set of rules.  I highly recommend them for solo or competitive play.

A War was coming...a Great Rail War!!

Back in 1997 Pinnacle Entertainment released one of the best miniatures games to ever grace our horizons, Deadlands: The Great Rail Wars.  The club I that was a full-time member of fell in love with it and we played at least once a week.  Mike and I were the painters and we went "great guns" in buying and painting.  But... since we are Gamers who (like most Gamers) suffer from "oh, shiny" it eventually fell to the side.

Mike and I found ourselves the only two available last Wednesday so we threw together some Posses and  had a good-old-fashioned Rail War!!  We chose 350 points as our force totals and went to rounding up our armies.

Mike showed up with a force from the Iron Dragon Railroad:

2 Posses of Ronin

2 Posses of Tong Gang

2 Pryomancers

1 Sorcerer

And little did I know that the Town's "Saw Bones" was on the Iron Dragon payroll....

-----

I put together a group of "Concerned Citizens" who were none to pleased that the Iron Dragons were taking over the town.  To put things right I brought:

1 Gunslinger

3 Posses of Gunman

1 Posse of Buffalo oHunters

and someone found a 6 lb. Cannon

-----

HELL COMES TO CATTLE BEND

The sleepy little Cow Town of "Cattle Bend"

 

"Hey guys, someone left the gate open!  Let's mooove out...."

 

Mike's Tong Gangs begin to pour into the streets....

Alerted to the upcoming fight. Mike's Saw Bones comes running.  You can tell by this clothes he's not too good at his job....

The "Concerned Citizens" move to join in to fight the Iron Dragons...

My 6lb. cannon deploys.  The Buffalo Hunters provide security for it...

Mike's Sorcerer, Fu Wang Chung

When the battle was joined it got really bloody.  Mike very shrewdly used a tactic of run and go prone, run and go prone.  Since his figures didn't have firearms going prone made them harder for me to hit.  His two Pyromancers did carry exploding rockets that gave me some trouble, but once they got into range of my Buffalo Hunters and Cannon, problem solved....

Cattle are a curious critters.  "Hey guys, what 'cha doing?"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 When Mike got close I had real trouble.  I didn't realize how deadly his Ronin and Tong gang guys were.  When it came to Fight'n, my Gunman were completely outmatched....

 Great Rail Wars has a variable end game rule.  The game lasts 4 turns, then you roll a d6.  On a 6, game over.  Not a 6, play another turn.  Then roll again, 5-6, game over.  If not, play another turn...etc.  We played 4 turns and (I don't remember who) one of us rolled a 6.  Game over.  We totaled up our causalities and I barely won, 104-100.  To be honest, I was shocked.  But Mike and I decided to play one more turn anyway.  It was almost my undoing.....

Fu Wang Chung doing a "Matrix move"...

 On turn 4 my Gunslinger had hit Mike's Sorcerer in the groin and made him "Eat Dirt".  He failed his Vigor roll and wasn't able to stand up.  On turn 5 I moved my Gunslinger up close enough to negate the fact that Fu Wang was prone and I missed.  I took another shot before Mike went...and missed again!!!!  It became Mike's turn and he rolled so well on his Vigor check that not only did his Sorcerer recover from the groin hit, he was able to move and attack!!  AND he had a spell on him that made him fight as well as his Ronin and Tong Gang Posses!! 😟

If Mike was able to put my Gunslinger down, I would have lost. As luck would have it, Mike's luck ran out and he wiffed on his attack rolls...WHEW!!

What a great game, so fun, so many great memories.  We need to get this out more often....

Thanks for playing Mike. 

Gunfight in Sapp's Hole

Gunfight in Sapp's Hole

Colorado Territory

1875

Wednesday night my brother Danny, my friend Mike and I got together to slap some leather in the fictional western town of Sapp's Hole in the Colorado Territory.  Young Daniel had found a set of rules on RPGNow.com called "Shootin Iron".  They are simple 2 page rules that were a lot of fun to play.  Dan must have had these rules for a bit because we used the 1st edition rules as opposed to the 2nd edition that are currently available on RPGNow.  We used 1st Edition because they looked more suited for a "campaign" as opposed to just a one-off gunfight.

Danny painted all the miniatures, they are from the Monday Knight Productions "Desperado" range.  They are true 25mm and full of life.  As a matter of fact, the 5 figures I used were based on the movie, "The Magnificent Seven".  He used Contrast paints and got them painted in a hurry.  Mike and I thought they looked outstanding!!

I did the buildings, the town buildings are from TT Combat, but looking at the TT Combat website I don't think they are available anymore. The barn, the shack and the outhouse are from days gone by.....

We played a simple game, we all just grabbed a 5 man posse and went at it.  Danny had 5 Mexican Banditos, Mike had 5 mixed Bandito / Cowboys and I had the Magnificent Five; Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, Robert Vaughan, Charles Bronson and Brad Dexter.

The action was fast and the lead was flying.  The Banditos threw LOTS of 6s, Steve McQueen held off Mike's posse single-handedly for a number of turns and I did badly....below are a number of pictures in no particular order of the action.  We recommend the rules, they are great for a fun, fast game of old west movie shootout.

 

Sapp's Hole, Colorado Territory 1875

Things begin to happen as the 3 Posses get sight of one another....

Mike's posse moves in from between the town buildings

Charles Bronson takes the first shot at Danny's posse near the graveyard and the gunfire erupts!!

Red tokens means the figure has been hit, another and they are out of the fight!

Tough to wound someone who won't stop rolling 6s to save.....Bronson and Robert Vaughn threw up a wall of lead, but the Banditos refused to get hit...

Yul Brynner gets into a knife fight behind the outhouse

He gave a good showing (I think he got 2 of the Banditos) but a third sneaky "Bastardo" shot him in the back...

In the end, it was the Vultures that came out on top....