The Raid at the Crossroads-Fistful of Lead

I'm hoping to release a Fistful of Lead Core rulebook first of the year. This is a stripped down "generic" set of rules that's a distillation of everything we've done before (don't worry, if you bought Galactic Heroes, you're covered). The reason? Well, I got a lot of places to go with Fistful of Lead, and rather than release completely new books every quarter that are 75% the same, I decided to make a core book, then release supplements and cards for genres/periods. I can keep those supplements shorter and cheaper by having the "guts" of the rules covered in the core book and use the supplements to deep dive into the period.

With that in mind, I have a few ideas that need play testing. In this case, how armor works in a game. I chose a small encounter between raiding Vikings against Normans. In this case, armor acts essentially as mobile cover, making it harder to land an effective blow. This is how it works in Galactic Heroes, but I wanted to see how it works on a larger scale.
The fight started with a Viking bowmen loosing a arrow at a charging mounted Norman lord. He needed a 10 with the armor minus, and got one. The wound result was "shock", sending the lord riding back the way he came, shaken.

The barbarians are all dead, time for some BBQ!

Most of shooting was ineffective at long range, and once the troops got close, it played out how you would think. Heavier, more experience troops wiped the floor with the lesser armored troops.
Although we a case where a lowly spearman kept getting wounded. He repeatedly played Queen of Hearts to heal. This made everyone suspect he was faking his wounds to get out of fighting....
The Vikings were outclassed and rolled truly abysmal dice, while the Normans didn't seem to roll anything but 10s.
Next week, I'll be trying another idea, the age old rule: armor as saves.

The Royal Revenant Hunting Society's Annual Hunt....

...or Thanks-killing!

As usual, the Ladies and Gentlemen of the RRHS went out confidently, blasting away, untl they realized the gunfire was only attracting more of the undead. Then they quickly switched to close combat. This led only to their ranks being depleted quicker.

With things looking grim, they finally went after the real goal: destroying the spawn points.

The Society lost half their ranks, but ended the Revenant threat.....for now.
Great fun. I ran the Undead and their evil masters. We got to try out some ideas for upcoming Gothic Horror supplement.

Video review of Galactic Hereoes

Right here!

Fistful of Lead meets the Age of Steam

Last night the Basement Generals gathered in, you guessed it, the basement to try out some rules I've been piddling around with on and off for years. It combines ideas from all over, but mostly from my own Fistful of Lead family. These are meant to fight larger battles with units of 10-12 miniatures and vehicles but still have the ease and fun of a FfoL game.
The Battle of the St. Thoreau Swamp:
We had 6 players each controlling 4 units, including large and small steam powered contraptions. Most will recognize them from earlier GASLIGHT battles. Players got one card for each unit they control, just like in FfoL where you get one for each miniature. The special abilities of each card work the same or similar, so a unit with shock (which halves your shooting dice) could pass a Recovery check automatically with a Queen of Spades, etc.
Each leader also got a special (mostly awful) ability.

 Sir Nigel Tufnell, 4th Earl of Spindeltapp leads his men into battle.

 The battlefield. Swamps prohibited movement in the middle.

 Gentlemen, start your coal fired engines!

 Rokkitruppen advance. They had the ability to jump, using their rocket powered packs 20", but each mini had to roll a die. On a "1" they were lost, flying off like a bottle rocket to explode.

 L'Spyder moments before it brewed up and collapsed like a dead spider.

The Germans won the day by taking out all the Allied contraptions. The rules went really well. They work for straight up colonial battles too. Some great moments:
The Zouaves, led by a near sighted leader, could only shoot close range. They kept hoping a lucky bullet would drop him.
The crew of a perfectly good steam tank bailed after rolling a "1" on Recovery.
The list goes on. We had 24 units on the table and fought to conclusion in 2 hours. I'm really liking where these are headed.

GALACTIC HEROES now available

Kickstarter was a success, now we're opening it up to the rest of the world!

Fistful of Lead: Galactic Heroes is designed as a quick set of tabletop wargame rules for skirmishes in the worlds of Science Fiction. The rules are easy to learn and still keep the flavor of the genre.

What separates Galactic Heroes from most tabletop miniature games on the market, is the unique card driven turn mechanism. This leads to snap decisions and tense moments where all the players are involved.

For Galactic Heroes, we wanted the play to be fast and furious, with a Hollywood flair to it. For that reason, record keeping is kept to a bare minimum.

In most games, each player can control up to 5-6 miniatures without much trouble. Games can have up to 8 players without slowing down the game. Now, you can dig out all your old Sci-Fi miniatures gathering dust and have a game set in a galaxy far, far away or a grim, dark future. Or BOTH!

Experienced wargamers and new players alike will enjoy this game. It's perfect for convention games and just one on one skirmishes.

To play Galactic Heroes you’ll need: this rule book (or, after a few games just the Quick Reference sheet), several 10-sided-dice, an ordinary deck of playing cards, a place to play, a measuring tape, and the miniatures representing your favorite troops. Markers to represent whether your models are Shaken, Wounded or need to Reload can be found in this rule book.

Eight-sided and 12-sided dice may also be needed for some of the advanced optional rules.

Fistful of Lead: Galactic Heroes was written with 28mm figures in mind, but you can easily use models ranging from 15mm to 54mm without any changes.

So check the seals on your vac-suit. Have your blaster at the ready. It’s time to see if you’re a Galactic Hero!
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