Modern Imagi-Nations

 

Working on some more modern games for Fistful of Lead, but I wanted to be more in line with Imagi-Nations. What's Imagi-Nations?

It's using historical troops in a fictional setting. It really started with wargamers using early 18th century troops in made up campaigns taking place in small fictional (usually Germanic) countries. Players could use their painted armies and fight other opponents regardless of whether those armies fought in "real life". My own campaign in Unkerlant was a blast to come up with and play.

It's since spread to other periods like Napoleonics and Medieval, but I've always been fascinated with the Inter War period. So why not do it?

I'm not tied to historical OOBs and there's no one to tell me "that's not the right Feldgrau color".

For one of my factions, the Northern Conclave, I wanted a German-ish feel but not use German Army minis. These Finns from Kyoushuneko Miniatures I printed worked great. There are so many Inter War vehicle minis out there, I can't wait to bring in some weird armor.

I can start with just a handful of minis a side with Fistful of Lead Core and build to larger and larger Bigger Battles game.

Using Airships! for naval battles.

 

Anybody that knows me knows I don't like naval games. Little terrain if any, unfun to paint minis and tactics are generally "line up and blaze away."

But designing Airships! for Glorious Adventures in the Age of Steam got me thinking people could use the same rules for water based fleets. So I dug out my favorite Dark Elves from Man-O-War and some Dystopian Wars ships (the original line, the new ones suck) and started thinking.

In Airships! there are altitude mechanics so airships can bomb and attack ground based targets so just use naval ships as being at ground level altitude. All the other traits and gun battery sizes should work the same.

For my Man-O-War ships (in this case dragons) I gave them d12s for Close Quarters dice to represent the sea serpents attacking the enemy ship and crew, and a light battery to represent their fiery breath. Easy enough to figure out the other fantasy fleets. Dwarves would have heavier armor. Their submersibles could used by adding another altitude "underwater". Underwater vessels can attack other vessel underwater but must be at the surface to use torpedoes or other weapons.

 Coming up with some of Orcy and Skaven weapons will be fun.

Wind rules (blech) for sailing ships will have to be added, but luckily Man-O-War has a nice simple system, with a Joker being a nice trigger for wind change.

I'm excited to give both these fleets a try.

 

 

Each year we gather round the old Snowbrawl tree for another Snowbrawl tournament. What's Snowbrawl you say?

It's a snowball fight mixed with dodgeball, based on the massive neighborhood snowball fights of our youth.

This game can be played with any miniatures you have, and for the most part use the standard Fistful of Lead Core rules. You can have fights between evil snowmen and elves, Vikings and trolls, anything you can think of! The game can be played with 2, 3 or 4 players. Four player games can by 2 versus 2 or 4 way brawls.

For the holidays Wiley Games is making Snowbrawl absolutely free so you can make it a holiday tradition.

Wiley Wargame Weekeend

 Last weekend was was our annual Wiley Wargame Weekend. We had a about a dozen people and played several games over the course of the day even with a mid afternnon taco/burrito break.

First off was a group favorite: Flower of Chivalry. Although over the last couple of decades I've modified it enough it's kinda it's own game now. Everyone just calls it Battlelust now even though that name is already taken.

This was a 4v4 affair. As usual, it looked pretty one sided until it wasn't. It ended up being a tie.

Moving along chronologically through our games, NotJay ran a game of What a Tanker. Again it started one sided and quickly swung over into an Allied victory. My Stug was the only survivor and quickly beat it.

Our final game was Battelsuit Alpha but with a twist. It was mech vs Bioengineered titans using the old VOR miniatures. Fun game, but I was busy cleaning up and didn't get proper pictures. Joel promised to run it aggain so I can get pics.

Sunday my son came over to video an Airships! battle from our latest rule book Glorious Adventures in the Age of Steam. I'll be posting that next.