Battles and Brews 2025 (Backyard Edition)

 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.

The Wolves of St Augustine: A WW2 Tale of Horror

It’s the early hours  of June 6 th, Allied paratroopers are dropping all over Normandy. They are tasked with capturing important crossroads and bridges, blowing up bridges and generally causing panic to the enemy.

But Task Force 13 has a very special mission. Resistance contacts have reported strange goings on at the ruins of the Church of St. Augustine. Local villagers have disappeared and weird lights have been seen at night. But most importantly, the German scientist, Dr Rudolf Seltsam has been spotted in the area. Task Force 13 has tangled with Selfsame and some of his experiments before. Task Force 13 is to investigate, and capture the vile scientist if possible.

In honor of D-Day, we ran our own weird little tribute. This was a Fistful of Lead: Tales of Horror WW2 crossover. The Allied paratroopers led by Sgt Stone (a super soldier with Rock like Skin) were trying to capture his old nemesis the evil Dr Seltsam to prevent him from unleashing his latest experiments on the invading Allies.

We had 3 German players who set up first. The 4 American players would parachute in by standing a few feet away from the table a tossing a cotton ball at their desired landing point. This lead to a lot of blowing by the Germans. Two players dropped their troops right on top the Germans, while the other two landed in the woods. There was also a box of experimental weapons the paratroopers had to find just in case their weapons couldn't handle whatever the mad doctor had waiting.

By the end of the "Kings" round of the first turn, half the paratroopers that landed close were cut to pieces. By the end of the entire first turn, it looked like the Americans were doomed, especially when a German soldier let out  howl and transformed into a werewolf.

Allied bullets seemed no use against the beasts. One flank started to fall back in terror while the other side looked frantically for their care package. Lucky Pierre, the French resistance fighter, found and cracked open the box. Among the goodies: Silver bullets.

One of the werwolves left forward, rending the the paratroopers until one brave soul charged forward. The eviscerated the werewolf. Bayonets work!

The tide started to turn. Silver bullets and bayonets brought down the wolves. The mad doctor was surrounded and surrendered. Now the troopers had to get him to safely through enemy lines.

Little did they know a distress call had been made.

Great game. 7 players. Done in 2 hours. Lots of twists and turns.

The scenario is available at our webstore

Galactic Heroes: WW2 Pulp Horror crossover!

Last night I attempted to show the diversity of the Fistful of Lead: Galactic Heroes rules by running a 7 player Weird War 2 Pulp Horror game.
Four Allied players led by Major Victory and the Liberty League had to assault a Nazi research base located in the castle of the mysterious Count Orlock, a noble who had somehow ruled the local area for four centuries.
The Nazi players new the Allies would attack, but not how or where. They had secret reinforcements ready to go in case of just such an attack.
Each player had a Leader with four regular troops. The only special rules were that Leaders had to sustain 3 wounds to be put out of action, even if an out of action result was rolled.

The baddies got a surprise when the Liberty League attacked. I had the allied players stand at the opposite end of the 8' table and throw a cotton ball. Where it landed was where their deployment zone was. This simulated the irregularity of their airbourne drop.
Two groups landed in the castle, two out side.

 Kreigsaffen, Count Orlock and Elsa

 Taking the gate

 The Sentinel and Lucky land and are immediately under fire

 

Major Victory blasts those below

Liberty Belle led one of the outside groups. She was able to use her sonic Liberty Belle ring to knock a hole in the wall (she had the Damaging Aura trait). Sgt. Stone rushed the open drawbridge. Major Victory and the Sentinel of Justice dropped inside, but were quickly attacked from all sides.

In the chaos, Count Orlock opened the door to the underground facility. Out poured undead troops, victims of experiments with the vampires blood.

 Zombies!

 Blood Alley, always one in FfoL.

Totenkopf sees the tide turn.

Each turn, a new horde of zombies lurched threw the open door. They would attack the first living creature they saw, including Germans. Luckily, Count Orlock and robot soldiers weren't alive.

A pile of dead in wounded filled the gatehouse due to Sgt Stone's tommy gun and Major Victory unleashing his "Star-Spangled Vision" from the tower above (he has the Flier trait).

Meanwhile, Count Orlock was able to mesmerize the Sentinel, using him as a puppet to attack his own troops! The Sentinel was able to break the spell, only after killing his own sidekick, Lucky. I can picture the cover to the comic in my head...

After only 2 hours it was clear the Allies had won. Out of the Nazi Leaders, only Count Orlock survived. He was last seen slinking into the caverns beneath the castle.

Great game, and really showed off what I asked it for: robots, zombies, super heroes, vampires...

Mission accomplished!

Galactic Heroes: World War II?

Yes, but with a little Weird War 2 in it....
I wanted to see how ell GH could stretch into other genres, and I've always like WW2 on a small scale skirmish. Enter some of my Golden Age heroes and a few borrowed German miniatures.

"Recently, rare photos have been obtained from the secretive Section 13 of the DoD through the Freedom of Information Act. They show accounts of a raid on a top secret German facility by few members of the now famous Liberty Legion."

 "Major Victory, in a rare pose with some G.I.s."

 The Sentinel of Liberty.

 A sleepy village hides a dark experiment.

 The guards are alerted to the US forces. One goes down wounded.

 Major Victory prepares to take to the skies.

 The price of victory. The Yanks are caught in the open trying to reach their late dropped explosives.

 Kreighunde bursts from a nearby house and attacks the Major! A brawl between titans!

 Sgt. Stone, the human rock, opens up on group of German defenders.

 Professor Klumpf is found, but not before his vile experiments are unleashed.

 The village is slowly cleared.

The Sentinel leads the way.

Totenkopf is cornered!

It turned out to be great game. There were 8! players. It was a dawn attack. The Germans were only allowed one squad to stand guard, the rest were barracked inside. The Allies were able to "Creep" and were undetected until they got within 12" of a guard, An overanxious private fired early at a guard and started the fight. 

The Allies had three objectives: blow up the radio tower, capture Von Klumpf and take out the General. Before they could blow the tower, they had to grab their explosives from a parachute drop. The drop happened when an Allied player played a Joker. Then I made them stand at the other end of the table and toss a wad of cotton where they wanted it. It of course went off course.

It landed in an open field covered by German soldiers in the nearby windows.

The Germans had to finish the Experiment using a Joker, which didn't happen, until the game was nearly over, radio out the secret transmission and get the General off the table.

Both sides had "super powered" leaders. For instance, Major Victory had "Leader" for free, "Flier", "Veteran" and "Energy Beams" (his Star Spangled Vision).

They weren't overly powerful. Krieghunde pummeled Major Victory into the dirt and charged forward to stomp a terrified GI. The frightened private popped off a shot and brought the mighty war dog down.

Uberman sat out most of the game for some reason. When he finally emerged, he racked up  a massive body count of 7 defending the radio tower. The Allies finally blew it, a lone GI sacrificing himself. 

The game ended with the General dispatched, the tower blown, but the deadly "Iron Soldiers" loosed upon the world. It was a lot of fun if I do say so myself.