Pulp Fantasy

With the delivery of a pile of Dwarven Forge dungeon tiles, it was time start messing with rules. Pulp Alley is a favorite of mine. The rules are tight and designed for small groups or Leagues, why not warbands?
I built them using standard rules. Worked great!
The scenario: The Dark Lord has slumbered in the Broken Valley for centuries, locked in a tomb by a powerful spell. Now, the forces of Evil have come to set him free, hoping to curry his favor by freeing him. Meanwhile, the Forces of Good have come to destroy the tomb once and for all.

Drax the Despoiler and his Chaos Crew

Aeloroth and the Elves

Gort the Cruel and his greenskin warband

Hrothgar the Mighty

An adventuring band led by Sir Barnstable

There were 4 minor Plot Points. One had to be captured before the Tomb could be opened.

The board

The Elves are first to capture a plot point. 

Drax tries repeatedly to open the Chaos Champions gravestone to capture a Plot Point.

An elf is caught in fireball from the Adventurer's Wizard

Forces converge on the tomb

Are the barbarians fighting for good or evil?

A clash of Leaders outside the tomb.

In the end, the forces of Good, led by Elves manage to destroy the tomb of the Dark One, sealing him forever in the Other Realm.

A good time. The rules work great as a Fantasy Warband game. I could see them working even better in a dungeon setting, using Fortune cards to trigger traps, etc. Make some wandering monsters and BOOM!, perfect dungeon crawl. 

We'll also be trying some other rules but for now I liked how they worked.

On another note you may notice a break in the action here at the Baron's Blog. I was recently laid off from my job of 20+ years. As you can imagine this is a time of uncertainty and worry for me and mine, so gaming and painting may take a back seat for awhile. This, however, may turn into an opportunity too. A chance to dive deeper into a hobby I love. I've always wanted to start my own gaming company....

Elves done

I was able to finish my Elves/Melniboneans this weekend. They are ready for battle.
Is was in a fantasy mood so started on another stand of their enemies.

Update

As you may have noticed, no new game AARs. A particularly brutal work and practice schedule has left me having cancel game night a few times, but I thought I'd show what I'm working on.
These are older High Elves doing double duty as Melniboneans. Since GW blatantly ripped off Michael Moorcock's books to create their history and design for High Elves, I thought it only fitting.
In Elric, the Melniboneans are described with "yellow" armor. You can take this as really yellow, or gold. Being alchemists, real yellow is a possibility so I tried true yellow on a test figure and though it looked cool, it was too much for a unit. Gold it is.
These guys still need another coat to their shields to make them opaque. Then, pop them off their slots and "green stuff" them to a base.
They will be fielded alongside my troops for the Campaign for the Kingdom. Orcs and Trolls have already shown their ugly mugs there, time for the good guys to get backup.
I also want to try them in Mayhem, Fantasy Mass Battle system. This little set shows some potential and I'll probably playtest some weekend before trying it with the Basement Generals. Or they get a couple extra stands and get used in Hail Caesar Fantasy.
You might also have noticed some Gendarmes hiding back there. Yes, they taunt me....

44!

Forty four years old today. Probably 40 spent playing with soldiers and 32 painting them. Thanks to everybody that has made them good years. I have a great gang to do battle with every Thursday (Wednesdays lately), and great space to battle in (thanks to my lovely wife).
Last night was campaign battle #2 for Longstreet. We had an odd number so I sat this one out to let somebody else play. I felt like drinkin' anyway.
The scenario was a hilltop defense. The Union won the scouting roll but decided to be the Attackers. They got to add 4 extra pieces of terrain. Most of their choices ended up helping the Rebs. To make matters worse, one of the Reb generals had as his personality trait "Engineer" which allowed his troops to spend several turns reinforcing their position. This would make them a tough nut to crack.

Terrain favors the defender.

The earthworks

Yankee troops await the order to assault the ridge

Rebel left flank

I really thought the Union would stack their troops on one side and overwhelm the dug in Rebs with sheer numbers. Instead, the assault was spread out and uncoordinated. The outcome was expected.

Of course, it's easy to sit back, drinking really good beer and armchair general. 

Longstreet provided another entertaining game. The campaign mechanics are brilliant, especially the after battle sequence. Camp fever took it's toll!

Pike and Shot playtest

The era of big pointy sticks and crappy black powder muskets has always been mine favorite for some reason. Yet, I have never found a ruleset that completely satisfies me. Blackpowder Pike & Shotte comes close, but is pretty vanilla.
Flower of Chivalry has always given a great game over the many years we've played it, and the same company that made it, make's ECW rules God, King & Country. But, it's not that good. I will combine my favorite era, with one of my favorite rules sets for the middle ages.
The result? Mixed for me. I always hate having to play with paper stuff, for despite my love of the period I haven't painted that much. The mechanics worked fine and with fewer troops to command it was over in less than an hour. Just didn't give me that "Eureka!" sensation I wanted. Maybe back to Victory Without Quarter for awhile.

Longstreet got me painting 15s again

I have very few collections I consider "complete". That is to say I feel I have enough miniatures to put on battle, both sides. I have had my ACW 15mm collection for a couple of decades. They were some of the first historical miniatures I ever did. I've mentioned I've been playing Fire & Fury since it first came out and it is my "go to" rules for ACW, but Longstreet came along and breathed new life into my love for the period.
We have started a campaign using LS quick and lovely campaign system. And LS required a few more bits I didn't have: more dismounted cav (F&F requires 1 out of every 3 or 4 mounted get horse holders vs straight conversion in LS of mtd to dismtd) and a few "markers'.
So, for the first time in years I painted 15mm ACW. A few more dismounted cavalry for my 20th Virgina (the unit great great grand daddy rode with before fighting with Quantrill) and some sharpshooter markers (if I ever get them)
All figs Blue Moon.

Super System episode 13: The Null Ray

With Emperor Ape behind bars, the criminal Syndicate is leaderless. Cackling with glee, Eggsterminator leaps into the role and hatches a plan to steal the newest potential super weapon from Veridian Dynamics. Along with Razorwing they break in late at night.

Their break in does not go unnoticed, and soon members of the New Olympians, Manticore & Cyclops arrive with back up from the Crimson Cowl, Flea, Mr Wonderful and the other worldly Galaxina.
Now outnumbered, Eggsterminator is forced to call in his own support in the form of Mecha-Gor, She-Wolf, Captain Cryo and Killshot.

Captain Cryo immediately uses his freeze ray to form a solid block of ice in front of Cyclops. This blocks any shot he might have. Meanwhile the Crimson Cowl appeared from the shadows to seize the mighty Mecha-Gor's mind with a mental blast. Forced from hiding the Cowl is easy prey for Killshot, who riddles the Cowl with bullets.

Sensing an easy target, Mr Wonderful streaks from the sky and hammers Mecha-Gor, but still the giant cyborg stands. Even flea, bounces in and attacks, but Mecha-Gor won't go down.
While in Veridian, Eggsterminator finally breaks down the safe guards and captures the Null-Ray. He tries to hand it to Razorwing to fly it to safety, but the flier is gone to attack heros below.
Cyclops then moved around the ice wall and blasts Captain Cryo with his deadly eye beams. The Captain manages to blast the flying Manticore overhead and bring him done in a block of solid ice, before the Flea takes the Captain down.

The enraged Mecha-Gor had had enough. He pummeled Mr Wonderful into the ground. Then Killshot blasted Mr Wonderful. One hero down. Seeing the distraction, the Crimson Cowl gave one last effort and fried the brain of Mecha-Gor. With loud crash of metal, the giant went down.
It was then that Eggsterminator  got Razorwing to finally fly the Null-Ray to safety. The rest of the battle wound down into smaller skirmishes, but in the end, the bad-guys had their weapon...