Fistful of Lead Bigger Battles: Night of Rivets and Steam...

...and sometimes no steam.

About 6 weeks out from the release of Fistful of Lead: Bigger Battles (yes, that's the newest title). It's all about last minute playtesting. This time getting fresh eyes on some newer aspects like Vehicles, Heroes and Commanders. The last two we tried out a couple of weeks ago with an ACW game between me and my son, but I wanted some of my gaming group who have a more critical eye to take a gander.

This time, each of the 4 players had a 4 units or 10 miniatures, a small vehicle or mechanical suit, a larger vehicle, a Hero and a Commander. Three objectives on the board. Each turn holding one earned a point. After 8 turns, count up the victory points.

The Allies got the jump and moved the Spider Tank (L'Arachne?) astride the bridge holding one objective. There it would sit most of the game pouring fire into the German-Nightshade troops.

Meanwhile, Prof. Nightshade's (most infamous inventor of his age) patented X-11 Land Monitor wouldn't start. I sat in the corner 90% of the game taking long range pot shots at the Allies.

 When your cantankerous tanks won't start, send in the unicycle lancers!

 The Luftmarines, fresh off the boat from Venus, move into position aided by an armored steam tractor and the commander, Baron Von Bummtikkler himself.

 The lancers moved into the town but were stopped cold by the Spider Tank and some pesky Americans. Meanwhile, the Spider's little sister fired rockets and rounds into the Land Monitor and Nightshade's clockwork soldiers. Being "soulless" they ignored any Shock and trudged forward unfazed by the broken remains of their brothers.

 The lancers charge into combat! With 2 Shock, they only fight with 6 of their 8 members. But, being "brawlers" they reroll any misses in Close Combat. They manage to kill 2 Americans and add a Shock marker to them.
Unfortunately, the Americans have George Armstrong Custer (hero of Little Bighorn. He brought steam tanks this time) attached to them. Attached Heroes and Commanders give the units they're attached to any traits they themselves have. In this case the d12s of a Veteran, plus the 3 dice Custer has. Miraculously, the Americans didn't kill any lancers, but did deliver enough Shocks to give the lancers more than they had troops. This triggers a Regroup.

 "Yeah! Best keep running!"

 Clockwork soldiers march steadily on. Only the Naval troops stand in their way.

and here's what they rolled....

Any time you roll more 1s than hits in Bigger Battles, something bad happens. In the case of Close Combat, troops get a Shock and fall back. The Sailors fall back under the bayonets of the Clankers.

By turn 6, it was clear the Allies had this one. I had trouble getting my vehicles started and moving, despite having an 80% chance of doing so. The British right wing was almost wiped out by a German squad led by their Bloodthirsty Hero.

A great game. Once again, the correct use of Heroes and Commanders can turn the tide if used at the right moment, but they can be vulnerable too. Two were lost when the units they were attached to ran off or took casualties. Said one of my play testers, "Man, some people are going to hate the Heroes, but I love them". And he was the one getting beaten.

It all felt very cinematic. And that's what I want. Plenty of good rules out there to play large scale skirmish out there, but they don't make me laugh quite as much.

Fantastical night of Fistful of Lead

Taking a break from Big Battles play testing (or is it Bigger Battles?) to play some Fantasy FfoL.
The small village of Little Tugwaddle sits between the rivers Tug and Waddle. It's quiet green fields perfect pickings for the dark creatures that lurk beyond the forest.

Word has reached Sir Roderick of an eminent attack. He calls upon the good folk of the neighboring lands to come to the defense of his lands. The Good guys:

 Sir Roderick and his retinue. Loyal men all!

 Korgoth the Slayer. Old adventuring buddy of Roderick. Ferocious barbarians form the hills.

Lord Aelaroth from the forest. It is he who alerted Roderick to the impeding threat. Rangers all.

Finally, Jarl Borg, armed to the teeth from the Murican Hills. Steady dwarves for a fight.

The Bad guys:

 Muldar Gravestone and his Soulless Undead horde...

 Bill and the Bugbears boys. Large beasts, for sure.

 Bloodthirsty Orcs lead by Blarg the Seer.

The Foul Lord Valdamyr and his Fearless Chaos brethren.

Seven players. The Good guys got Renown for protecting the village, while the Baddies got points for burning, killing and looting.

 "Run!" yelled Jimmy Pickles. "Run, the monsters are coming!" A cruel bolt from a Chaos Dwarf crossbow silenced him.

 Sir Roderick gallantly charges across the bridge. "I'm here to save you, lowly peasants!"

 "I say, what's all the ruckus about. Get back to toiling!"

 The forces of Chaos, Death and Destruction approach. The Necromancer chose the Horde trait for his retinue. Lots of troops at poor quality. Brian the bugbear spots the "Bloke on the purty 'orse. 'Orses is good eating'."

 "You should get inside ma'am. Things are going to get loud and messy." The Dwarves have the firepower, but have to take time to reload. Meanwhile the barbarians have no ranged abilities but will certainly kill anyone they beat in combat.

 Brain gets skewered by Sir Roderick. But soon attracts the attention of the skeleton crossbows. His armor saves him from certain death, but the Shock piles up. Just in time to be ensorcelled by Gravestone. His accumulated Shock makes makes it hard for him to resist the Necromancer's gaze. He is soon Helpless...

 A lot going on. (markers on the field to show the level of violence. They would normally be kept on the player's character cards). Spellcasters must rest between spells. This is just like the Reload rules.

 All his bugbear brothers are dead. Killed by gunfire or dirty elvish trickery. Bill goes on a rampage. His great mace is soon covered in gore.

 The Orc shaman discards his spells for some hand to hand combat (he has to since he's Bloodthirsty). Red Tonya never had a chance. Her armored bikini was no match for Orc ferocity.

The Elves never seemed to make it past the "Cabbage Pack of Death". Many would fall. Lord Aelaroth must of forgot his folk could ignore terrain, and became mired in a melee they were doomed to lose.

Sir Roderick, helpless, fell to the blows of Skeleton halberds (technically he ran off). Leaderless his men died under black bolts from undead archers.

Dwarven marksmanship (Marksdwarfship?) left much to be desired. Jarl Borg himself dead from a cloud of goblins grunts. 

Meanwhile, the Barbarians showed so much promise. On paper they would almost always kill whatever they hit. The problem was the hitting, which they almost never did. Soon the village was ablaze. Corpses were raised to join the Undead legions while no one wants to know what happened to the villagers under the Chaos horde.

Great game. The poor good guys had truly abysmal die rolling. It just wasn't their day. Some nice moments in the game. We used the "Gruesome Kill" rule where any wound result of 10+ means any friends with 6" of the victim take a Shock marker. And to speed things up, any miniature with MORE shock than remaining wounds retreats.

Other than that, no real changes to rules people already had. Retinues were built like any time period. The follow up battle will see if Our Heroes can stop the evil tide.

Star Wars mega battle using FfoL: Big Battles

Sometimes you have to push a game to it's limits to see if it breaks (like we tried with 45 spaceships a couple of weeks ago). So last night we packed my 8' x 6' table with miniatures until it was veritably groaning under the weight of terrain and miniatures to play test some more Fistful of Lead: Big Battles. We used Steve's huge Star Wars collection and included a fair number of vehicles, making an exception this time on unpainted minis to get as much as we could for the 6 players.

As a reminder, Big Battles uses the same mechanics as standard FfoL, just switching out single minis for units. In this case, we made units of 5 men, speeder bikes, whatever. Then added in some Heroes, like Jedis and Villains, like Sith Lords as single figure units. We just used the cards for these single from our Galactic Heroes games.

Lord Gribbit: "Follow me to victory! Burrr-rop!

 No trees on the table to hide in, so Greg finds the next best thing.

 Rebels forces quickly move forward to capture on of the objectives.

 The Imps try to make best use of cover. A Rebel land speeder, outflanked them and poured blaster and missile fire into them. 

 When units shoot, you roll a die (or two in case of this heavy blaster) for each miniature. Shock reduces the number of dice. The above unit would get 6 dice (4 blasters and 2 for the heavy) needed what you always need to hit (5+ at short, 8+ at long). If the unit had 2 Shock, it would only get 4 dice. We tried to keep the mechanics seamless between this game and the others.

 Innocent? Bystander.

 Death Troopers take position.

 Rebels let the Imps have it! 2 Shock and 2 wounds (figure removal) send the Imps packing.

 Darth Maul force leaps to the top a building to duel with the Jedi master. Single heroes use their number of wounds as they're dice (in this case each has 3).

 Vader drew a lot of fire. He managed to send most of it back with lightsaber deflections. But he was finally forced to withdraw. When the number of shock is more than the number miniature, or in this case wounds, the unit retreats.

 All the noise woke the Sarlacc

 "What's that Baby? I should fire my Disentagrator into that Close Combat?"

Poof! Bye Jen

The goal for these rules has been to take the game you know and hopefully love, and just play with more stuff! It also has to work for most every period. We done Colonial games, with and without VSF elements, Fantasy and getting ready for a 15mm Samurai game at SALUTE this year. For that, stands of miniatures just replace single figures in a unit.

How do you do it? Once again, it's about how assign traits to miniature, or in this case, unit. We had speeder bikes duking it out (unsuccessfully) with a Rebel Airspeeder, AT-STs stalking about the table reigning fire on the troops below until Rebel missile launchers brought it down. The week before, Trolls and Ogres. I don't think either of the those games felt generic.

Will everyone like these rules. Oh hell no. Button counters and rules lawyers will hate this game, but I firmly believe if you are a Fistful fan, you'll really like these.

The game fueled by bourbon. Need a big bottle in preparation for the real Big Game. GO CHIEFS!!!

Once Upon a Time in Mexico...Fistful of Lead Big Battles

Last night we had a small battle by Basement General standards, but it was another play test of "Big Battles".
Revolutionary forces were trying to capture a government gold shipment stowed away at the local leader's hacienda. They were also looking for a local priest to save him form Federal custody.
The Federales needed to reinforce the lightly guarded gold and capture the priest who had been preaching insurrection to the locals.
For this game, all troops were the same grade with no unit traits other than the mounted troops and a machine gun. Officers had traits.

 The sleepy village San Pedro

 Villistas mass on the edge of town.

 Federales in really old uniforms...

 "Vive Villa!"

 Federals cautiously advances.

 Closing to shooting range. Federales pack the hacienda and await the assault.

 Gunfire down the village road. The Federales lose 3 men right away.

 The Machine gun rains death on the exposed Villistas in the fields.

Te Fedrales went straight for the hacienda. It would prove to be their tomb. The Villistas assualted the house once but got the worst of it and spent the game blasting away at the occupants. In the rest of the village, some mercenaries were cut down before they really had a chance to impact the game. As with most games in modern times: Stay in cover!
Relatively quick, fun game. Each side had 6 squads of 6 miniatures. Both players commented it was like playing a normal sized Fistful of Lead game, just with more figures. Which is a good thing.