Escape to the Country - Part 2

Having your own gaming space does have it's advantages, it means you can keep the table set up to continue where you left off. So part 2 of our walk in the Worcester countryside.
I am sure those sneaking dead fella's had crept forward since last week....

As we saw in part one as the dead increased their grip on the urban areas, the living were forced into the countryside for supplies and protection from the risen. But nothing brings the dead shambling your way than loud noises. So you can imagine what the blast of a shotgun will do.

Things start badly for the cops, stuck in a fight to the death the Sarge yells for help and is joined by his unit including little Timmy who clearly got carried away swinging his crowbar into the cadavers unfortunately he is brought down by the rotting mass.
The Sarge gets away dragging an unconscious comrade as the dead munch down on poor Timmy.... Welcome to turn one. Gulp....

Meanwhile whilst the forces of law and order look to restore law and order the nasty bikers continue to rob the place.

Whilst Timmy is being served up as a starter, the Mercia Boys fall back grabbing their breath for a few moments, when up pops a silly little girl was a pea shooter who lets off a round at the police.
No respect some people.

A volley of shotgun blasts sends the bikers for cover ducking behind the burnt out wreaks. But not before the detective catches one square in the chest and as he lies on the floor another round strikes him through the skull....
We went all last week with no casualties then two in less than an 20 minutes.

Now at this point we should have perhaps took stock and turned on the dead but no, we had to get into a gun fight and as both sides blazed away the dead increased in number appearing from doorways and alleys.

The tide of death reached us both. The boys in blue stood in the street as the walkers clawed at their body armour. Whilst the Bikers tried to slip past the garages to head back to their car but were chased by yet more walkers.

Now we may be knee deep in the dead, but we both still found time to fire off a shot or two at the only living on the board. It seems that old habits are hard to shake off. The Sarge takes a blast to his flak jacket which knocks him to the floor, he lashes out kicking the dead away.

Bow girl finally runs out of arrows and becomes the main course. The dead rip at her flesh and she is consumed by the risen.

Whilst the dead feast, the police make a break for it and what better way to distract the dead than with a few fresh meals, blasting away at the fleeing bikers who are knocked to the ground by the close range shot. 

Unable to recover from their wounded and shaken status they are caught by the walkers who tear into them. Brainzzzzz…..

Both sides decide that enough is enough and headed back to their vehicles far fewer in number than at the start of the day. Low on ammo and a little battered. but on a brighter note the supplies that they had picked up would last that little bit longer with fewer mouths to feed.

A cracking game
With us all itching for more.

Zombieland meets Countryfile - Part 1

A cracking zombie outing and something a little different for this weeks midweek game, two teams of survivors seeking out supplies of food, water and a safe place to rest.
The setting our own backyard and the village of Stoulton in Worcestershire.

Background and Timeline.

2018

African states have the largest outbreak of Ebola ever seen.

Top medical consultants around the world advise Governments to close their borders and ground all aircraft.

Governments refuse due to the economic situation, fearing a fall back towards the market crashes in recent years.

Governments push through untested drug trials designed to stop the Ebola outbreak.

Initially the trials worked and patients began to recover. After 48 hours of starting the treatment a minority of patients began suffering from total organ failure resulting in death.

Once dead the body would appear to re animate with a lust for human flesh. 

The epidemic quickly spread with International flights easily spreading the infected to all corners of the earth.

2019

The United Kingdom, like other Western Countries, quickly became over run by the walking dead. Society quickly broke down starting in major cities around the Country.

London and Manchester were the first cities to fall and all communication was lost. 

The Government was abolished with those few members surviving going underground to safe zones believed to be old cold war bunkers.

Small communities have survived by retreating behind walled towns or hamlets.

The few that remain face a day to day uphill struggle to survive.

All major populated areas have as best that you can tell been over run by the undead.

Worcester can be seen from the distance and appears to be burning, big thick plumes of smoke billow out from that direction.

It is believed that the undead horde will be at its worst in the cities.

As law and order breakdown different factions look to carve out a safe place to survive the outbreak. Heading into the less populated areas a detachment of Police head into the village outskirts. Meanwhile a biker gang coming out of Birmingham approach the village from the North.

A mean looking bunch armed with clubs, crowbars and a loose collection of firearms. The roar of the engine of the GT brings the dead shambling forwards. The perfect start for a day in the country.

Meanwhile after quietly entering the village the boom of the shotgun blasts brings the dead to the fence line, their fingers clawed at the wooden fence seeking human flesh.

Having escaped the clutches of the dead the PC's ran down the road towards the petrol station looking to grab a car or dive into a building. The dead start to fill the street.

What a time to lose your initiative :-(.
Swamped by walkers, shotgun blasts and swinging batons brought more of the dead out of the their dark corners. Will they survive stay tuned for Part 2.

A great game and looking forward to seeing if the PC's can survive the rising dead.

Russo Japanese Village clash.

A little behind on my postings.

With the latest Cossack releases by Tsuba Miniatures it got me thinking about going back to the RJW project and converting it to Sharp Practice 2, but more on that later..

It was high time the Japs and the Russians got an outing.

A small hamlet in Northern Korea, the Russian have sent a section of Infantry to the village of hyjinx to secure provisions for the regiment. Japanese scouts spot the small Russian force and pull together a raiding force to launch a raid.

The Russian's are thinly spread throughout the village unsure of direction of the Japanese attack. The Japanese have around 30 men but the village is strongly defended.

Choosing the right hand side of the village the Japanese rush down the main road looking to swamp the pickets before the rest of the Russians can react, bursting into the courtyard they fire into the defenders manning the outer wall.

The Russians rush forward to block the road, whilst others fired from the windows facing the road.

In the courtyard the defenders attempt to block the gateway as the Japanese pour in, into the grounds.

Meanwhile as the Russians pull extra men to defend the right flank, the Japanese rush forward a third section on the left. The Russian defenders man the windows looking to keep the attackers out.

On the left, the Japanese capture the house on the right and look to force the door on the second house as the fight for the courtyard continues. Casualties are heavy on both sides but the Japanese are slowly gaining the upper hand.

On the right the attackers are pinned against the fence, but they had drawn in enough defenders for the attackers to capture the buildings on the far side of the village.

Great to get the figures on the table.

There have been a number of new releases since I last added anything to the collection, it will be an interesting exercise to see if I can move Sharp Practice along 100 years to include MG's and magazine fed rifles.

That should keep me busy for a while.

Hammerhead 2018 - Flash Gordon

Back from Hammerhead what is perhaps the best show on the circuit.

We opted for something a little easier to pick up and play largely due to the boot being filled with stuff for the table sale.

A simple four way fight between Flash, Vultan, Ming and the Aborians....

Having been moved back to the 28th April due to the snow. The show seemed really busy this year. For the first time we moved out of the main hall to the Gamers Lounge across the car park. It did not seem to effect footfall despite having to risk getting a soaking on the way over.

We had the benefit of carpet and proper sitting and a bar...

  

The show seems to hold peoples attention for far longer than most shows there was still plenty of activity past 3.00pm, I can only assume this is due to the amount of people that come to play or the chance to win £75 worth of gaming goodies with a raffle ticket issue for every game you play.

Great to see so many kids and families getting involved with gamers engaging with everyone who stopped by.

 

The game was well recieved by those who took a seat to play, with each session taking no more than 30-40 minutes it was fast and bloody. We were using the playtest version of the Star Eagle rules by Ganesha Games

They are somewhat behind on the launch date as they are releasing their own range of ships but the rules work for any range including Flash Gordon....

The War Rocket ships look great and with the rules having a simple rule mechanism we could rattle through the games pretty quickly holding peoples attention for each outing even when they did not know the rules.

Vultan and his Hawkmen pilots came out on top by the close of play due largely due to 'Rebecca' the fighter ace who beat us all soundly in every game.
Knocking up an impressive 5 kills.

A fun days gaming with plans afoot for next year.
Will Ming be back?

Star Eagles Play Test - Flash Gordon Style

Having recently backed Star Eagles the latest offering from Ganesha Games I was pleased to receive a copy of the beta rules to run through while the real deal arrives in September.

Star Eagles is a science fiction action game of futuristic space fighter combat. The rules are designed for players to control a squadron of 4-12 ships. Great because that is my entire Flash Gordon collection.

These have been in cold storage for several years.

The rule are mechanics are very comfortable for those of you familar with the Songs of Blades and Heroes rule stable. Each ship has a minimum move, with succesful rolls allowing you to carry out special moves or firing. Too many special moves and you find yourself quickly running out of actions as the nippy fighters wizz round the back of you....

In our first game I drew up some basic stats for Flash, 3 Frigian Fighters - fast and lightly armoured and some slower but heavier armed Arborian Medium Fighters vs Ming's fighters and medium attack craft.

Mings Medium attack craft had a longer range then the rest but were slower. However even long range laser fire can inflict damage and the Arborians took a hit on round one - A sign of things to come.

You have the option to use sustained fire but it does leave you vunerable as it takes an action to recharge.

Flash and his rebel forces rush to engage Mings fighters, players have the option of  "evading" which can help with your defence rolls.

Ming plays a blinder moving up fast and switching to evade mode which results in many of the opening rebel salvo missing. The formations start to break up as fighters look to get in on the tail of the enemy as this gives you a substantial bonus. 

Flash gets into real trouble with enemy craft to his front and rear, but able to take 4 hits and a good quality pilot he manages to hold off a number of laser blasts.

Hits start to mount up, one of the great things about the rules is that fighters stick around without them going straight back in the box. they are fast and we had a number of instances where they would sweep in fire a blast and be out of arc before the larger ships could react.... Just what I wanted for a rule set.

 

Two hours in and it was all over 2 of Mings ships were lost to 5 of the rebels, Mongo would have to be liberated another day.

Flash limps home....

A great addition to the SBH family, simple mechanics and within the first turn we had the rules largely committed to memory... Given this was our first outing the rules handled over 20 ships and we acheived a conclusion in two hours.

There is plenty of scope to make the pilots and ships your own with separate traits and characteristics.

A great new rule set - but watch your six...

Ganesha Games - Star Eagle Kickstarter

Ever since picking up some of War Rockets space fighters several years ago I have been on the lookout for a decent set of Space Combat rules - Well Ganesha Games latest offering on Kickstarter just might do the trick.

Star Eagles is a science fiction action game of futuristic space fighter combat that allows you to play out the battles from your favourite books, movies, and TV shows. In a standard game, each player controls a squadron of 4-12 ships competing in exciting, objective-based missions in space, on moons, and in the atmosphere of planets. The game is easy to learn, yet tactically rich with many options that provide variety without bogging down the pace. 

Players build their squadron from a variety of small craft ranging from nimble, yet fragile, light fighters all the way up to larger gunboats and corvettes.

With what appears to be a standalone ship building element I should be able to draw up stats for the Flash Gordon Fleets, although Ganesha will be producing two full sets of miniatures representing the two main adversaries, the mysterious and technologically advanced S’Sekai, and the loosely aligned Confederate Stars, made up of former earth colonies and a few independent alien homeworlds. 

The Kickstarter campaign is already fully funded and has a planned shipping date of September 2017. You can back it Here.

Ming's Fighter Squadrons.

Class II War Rockets

Flash Gordon and Fighters from Frigia

Arborian Fighters