Buccaneers and Cavaliers: a supplement in progress for Fisrtful of Lead

I've been tinkering with a supplement for Fistful of Lead: Horse and Musket for a while now. As soon as H&M came out, I got asked if it would work with Pirates. It does, but I wanted a more nuanced game befitting the swashbuckling combat of the era. Thus was born Buccaneers & Cavaliers.
To test it out, we played a 4 player game, the Cardinal's Guard vs the gentlemen of the King's Musketeers.

Each player controlled a "Troop". A Troop is made up of a Leader who has 3 Traits, a Second who has 2 and rest are filled out but Regulars and a new class: Dregs.
 The Musketeers had to get the Dutch ambassador to the Inn of the Crown and Cock. There they would await instructions.
The Cardinal's Guards had to intercept and steal any information.

The game started with Anton, leader of the troop of Musketeers escorting the Ambassador, making straight for the Inn while the White Mask, leader of the other troop moving down the hill to help.
Meanwhile the Cardinals men tried to take the high ground.
A musket armed trooper of the Mask's group quickly dropped one of the Cardinal's men. Sgt. Francois detached his dregs to take care of him.
The hill overlooking the Inn soon became known as "Murder Hill" as flashing blades soon became wet with blood.

Anton carved his way through the fray and delivered the Ambassador to the Inn, only to find his lady love, Claudette, waiting for him. Claudette is a lady-in-waiting to the Queen. She exchanged a package with Ambassador and announced Anton needed to get her back across the river!
For most of the battle, the Cardinal's men had taken a beating, but as Anton and Claudette emerged, things swung back in the favor of the men in red.
Enemies all around, Anton hacked his way to freedom, saving the day.
It was a close game. At one point only on of my Cardinal's men could get to Anton. I attacked but it was a tie, locking up Anton until next round and hopefully gettiing more of our crew in the fight. But

I got greedy. I used my second action to attack again, and this time Anton smashed me to the ground. He was free.
I felt really good about the game and will be be releasing it soon!

Down but not out

Too many relatives, too small a space= a sick Baron.
I've been out of it since last weekend, but was able to get a few thins done.
Here's some picks from a lovely ACW Black Powder game hosted by Jon. You can read the full AAR over at his blog. It was close, but my Boys in Gray just couldn't hold the line.

Also had time to paint some Federales for all my Mexican Revolution scenario playtests.

I chose to portray them in a hodge-podge of khaki and summer dress. Most period photos show a mix of uniforms spanning a decade of fighting.
Waiting in the wings are Federal Cavalry, artillery, mounted and dismounted Villistas, and a film crew to document Pancho.

Central City Supers: The Gauntlet of Infinite Power

What could the villains of the International Crime Syndicate be up to now? They've set up some sort of Super Weapon atop the Veridian Dynamics building, guarded by menacing looking robots.

It's up to the Galant Guardians to save the day!
But what's this? The bad guys seemed to be after something besides blowing up the city. They're searching for something....

Veterans A.J.A.X and Goldar hit the streets.

Newcomer Shock (missing his buddy Awe) shows off wth a blast.

One Eyed Jack takes to the skies and spots Doc Titan.

Hellbent is among the evil-doers.

 The heroes should have brought along Surgeon General...

 Green Ghost blasts Goldar with a volley from his ghoulish gun.

                                             Korgoth of Barbaria pummels Doc Titan.

        The Crimson Cowl's incredible mental powers are wasted on searching buildings...

Hellbent finishes Doc Titan off with punch from 8 stories up!

The heroes became bogged down searching for whatever the villains were looking for instead of pounding heads while they had the advantage. With the arrival of Korgoth and Behemoth the heroes were done. Little did they know, that in an unassuming comic shop, hidden on a dusty shelf, was the Gauntlet of Infinite Power. The ownwer had picked it up at a garage sale not knowing its true power.

In the hands of the Crime Syndicate, what terror they could unleash!

Viva Revolucion! Playtest II, the Battle of Tijuana

I've been working on a scenario book supplement for Fistful of Lead centering on the Mexican Revolution. Part of that is making sure all the scenarios actually work.
We've done the Battle of Casas Grande, and it worked really well. Following the timeline of the war, we tried the second one, the Battle of Tijuana.

The game involved a rebel Maderista force attacking the Federal troops inside Tijuana. We just centered on a small section of the town, with the railroad defining the US border.
The special rules this time were fires burning around the town. Models could light or fight these fires and any model caught in a burning building at the end of the turn was forced to roll on the Wound chart.

There was also a turn limit and barricade rules. All in all, it felt balanced. The turn limit forced the attackers to move forward, rather than sit back and pound the out numbered defenders. The result followed history, with the attackers (including some American Foreign Legion troops) taking the city just in time.
There were some miniature substitutions. Most of the Federales were dressed 40 years out of date, but ordering some appropriate miniatures.

TMWWBK: Operation Gravestone

I've been wanting to try out The Men Who Would Be Kings ever since I bought them. I've been a fan of all of Dan Mersey's rules, and even though I'm not a colonial gamer per se (I love VSF), I had to try them some how.

Enter last week's game and the utter failure of the Royal Society to stop the Undead horde. I don't have any Zulus, but between me and Brett, I have a lot of Zeds. Why not just use the Zulu stats?

The mission for the British was to hold the last line of defense, and protect the the road to London and the famous Graveston Wall built in 1807 to keep out the Revenant menace.
The object for the Undead was to cross the river and exit the board.

Though wave after wave threw themselves at the Redcoats, the firepower proved too much. It didn't help old Uncle Zed that the random qualities rolled up for the Officers proved a huge benefit. No laggards here!

The Cavalry, in this case unicycles because horses are too easily spooked by the zombies, proved overwhelming. They took at two groups single-handedly before being dropped to one lone peddler.
Did it work? Yes and no. Yes, it was fun. The zombies had a 2-1 advantage points-wise, but it probably should have been 4-1. As suggested by Mr Mersey, we used the recycling rules in the "Playing Mr Babbage" section. It allowed for 3 new units to enter, but that wasn't enough. Rifle fire was too much.
We kept the pinning rules. I explained it as the dead being so shot up, they needed a chance to reform and climb over their "dead" buddies. Without the pin rules, the zombies would have rolled right over the Redcoats.
This was a last minute game I threw together with more enthusiasm then sense. We're going to try a "proper" game soon with Britsh vs Pathans.

The 3rd Annual All Hallows Eve Revenant Hunt and Social

The best of London Society showed up Thursday for the Annual Hunt. The first year it was held, the participants barely survived the evening, only just destroying the Undead Spawn points before becoming overwhelmed.

The second year, the hunters coordinated their attacks and crushed the horde almost too easily.
This year, however went much differently. The Hunters split up, attempting to hit all the Spawn points at once, guns blazing. This had the effect of creating overwhelming numbers of Revenants (so much so, the host was obliged to dig out extra zombies from an old game). The Huners were swamped in waves of the Dead. Many couldn't move, and watched helplessly as first servants and then friends succumbed to infected bites and scratches.

Far too soon, it was over. A company of Her Majesty's Special Service Troopers have been dispatched to the infected area to search for survivors and deal with Undead lurking about.