Battles and Brews is usually held yearly at our local brewery. This year I decided I wanted to change things up and design a wargame that could be played outside (more on that later). Thus Yardfighters! was created. St Louis based Basement General McMurray got onboard and designed a naval to play outside too. Wiley Games HQ became the venue.
I had some criteria for the outside game: no rulers, minimal record or status keeping, no dice because I didn't want the action to stop while players moved somewhere to roll the dice.
I decided on airplanes, but I wanted rockets and missiles involved so I moved it up to the early jet age. And because I wanted a mix of different jets I had it take place in a mythical Africa Imagi-Nation where all types of surplus aircraft were dumped.
Rather than build 8 different kits I designed and laser cut out all the planes out. Some quick spray paint with details from paint pens and those were done. I decided paper airplane size was good. For bases I use octagonal bases. Why? face changes of 45 degrees would be easy as each face is 45 degrees. It also makes for a handy fire arc. I attached the planes to the stand with magnets for easy storage and facing changes.
Turns are divided into two phases: Movement Pahse and Shoot Phase. Players receive two cards each turn. One is for movement order, one is for shooting order (player's choice). Highest player goes first in each phase. Suit is only used to decide ties and aces are wild.
Maneuvers and movement are decided by strides and steps with facing turns made. Extra facing changes could be made at the expense of gaining G-shock.
When it comes to shooting we use Washers (a US backyard game similar to Horse Shoes or Cornhole). Distance was imply from jet to jet so players could chance it from a distance or get in close (where they still missed regularly). The box was divided into 9 squares which determined the damage location on the jet. Getting it in the center meant the attacker could choose. Every player had washers equal to their munitions load out. Whe they ran out, they were out of ammo. The washers were divided into missiles and machine guns each with a colored side and a white side. If you pilot is in G-shock, washers that come up white don't count. Simple!
Despite the heat and incredible humidity, we had a dozen folks come out to give it a try. It turned out really well. Many players said they couldn't wait to play again. That's why I'm leaving details of the game hazy so I can sell it!
We moved inside to the blessed A/C to cool off, have some pizza and run some more games. Steve ran a Terror Island game (using Fistful of Lead of course) while CluckAmok ran an Armored Storm game.
I played in the Terror Island game and had two members of my elite team, the Howling Aces, taken out by enemy dogs first turn. I was down to my team leader by turn 3 and left with a sad amount of treasure.
Then as the sun went mercifully down the backyard turn into the Pacific for a duel between British destroyers and Japanese ships. The Japanese had to run a guanlet and almost made it. It was brutal
Once again, hits were decided by tossing washers. 4 hits started a ship sinking. Torpedoes hits were decided by tossing a large foam die. If it landed touching the ship base, the face showing determined the number of hits. Great game. The only change that decided needed to happen was the addition of a bunch more ships!
The whole thing has me excited to run another Yardfighters! game in the cooler Fall. This time with WW1 biplanes. I'm thinking I'll cut them out and send them out to players to paint their own plane designs like a real ace.
