One Page Kill Team - 9/28/15

I finally got around to trying out one of the One Page Rules games.  This was a straight skirmish of One Page Kill Team, using my Deadzone minis.  The Enforcers I used as proxies of Space Marines and the Marauders were Orks of course.

The Enforcer Space Marines.  Led by a Terminator Captain, three Tactical Marines (Assault Rifles), two Tactical Marines (Jump Packs, pistol/power weapons, Veteran Training), and one Tactical Marine (Machine Gun).  Total points was 275.

The Marauder Orks.  Led by a Warboss (in front with Powerfist/pistol, 'Eavy Armor), two groups of 3 Ork Boyz (pistols, hand weapons), two Lootas (Deffguns), and a Nob (pistol/powerfist).  Total points was 275.

The Tactical Marines with Assault Rifles and the Machine Gun deployed in cover.  The Terminator Captain and two Marines with Jump Packs were held in reserve to Deep Strike later.

A Deffgun Boy hides in one building as the Warboss and mob of Boyz wait in cover.

The other corner is guarded by a Deffgun boy and the Nob along with other mob of Boyz.

Typical Ork fashion, charge!  Not sure why I didn't bother to use Waaagh!

Following turn saw the Deep Striking Marines arrive.  This corner I had planned on taking the Deffgun Boy out, but the Nob has turned to counter attack.

The other Jump Pack Marine I dropped behind cover with the intention to strike at the Warboss behind that crate.

The Terminator Captain popped in on the other corner to attack the other Deffgun Boy.

Fourth and final round, the Machine Gun Marine and a Tactical Marine were killed.  But they were able to finish off one mob of Boyz and complete stun the other mob.

This assault happy Marine slayed the Nob and stunned the Deffgun Boy.  The Terminator Captain murdered the other Deffgun Boy.

With the Marauder Orks at half-strength it was time to roll for morale.  The Warboss was the only non-Stunned model, so I rolled his Quality.  I failed, even with Fearless.  It would mean the Stunned models are killed and the warband Routed.  But the Warboss is a Hero and Fearless, so I could re-roll failed Rout tests and choose the highest of two dice rolls.  Here was my result, a 2 and a 1.  Thanks Warboss.  Thus the Stunned models are slain and the Warboss is Routed.

I really enjoyed One Page Kill Team.  From start to finish; setting up terrain, writing up warband rosters, and playing, it took maybe an hour, and thats with looking back at rules and taking pictures throughout.  Its not difficult by any means, just had to re-verify weapons stats and special rules every so often.

I think I like this set of rules better than FUBAR so far, but having only played one game of each that decision might be a bit premature.  I'll have to try them both out again to be sure which I prefer.

Grimdark Racing on the horizon

As I scour the web for more interesting tabletop gaming rules, I came across the fantastic series of One Page Rules (https://onepagerules.wordpress.com/).  I've since downloaded all of them with every intention of trying some of them out in the near future.  I've already given the playtest of Double Tap a try (http://jeffsgamingpage.blogspot.com/2015/09/one-page-rules-double-tap-playtest-91415.html).

Another One Page Rules I'm eyeing is called Grimdark Racing (https://onepagerules.wordpress.com/portfolio/grimdark-racing/).  I know the cover looks to be aiming for Gorkamorka fans, but in reality its gameplay is more like Mario Kart.  Naturally I turn to my kids and say, "Do you have any Hot Wheels or Matchbox cars?"

Look for a game review to appear very soon.

Love one page rules!  And here are some sample racers, including a favorite from the Ghostbusters.

FUBAR 40k with Mantic minis - 9/24/15

Since I have all these Deadzone/Warpath miniatures now, and I'm extremely slow painting anyways, I figured I might as well play a game with them.  As I contemplate my sci-fi skirmish rules, I decided to try some other rules out there.  One of the rules I downloaded was FUBAR (https://fubarwargames.wordpress.com/downloads/).  It seemed simple enough, fitting on one page too.  Then I found the 40k variant, which seemed to fit in with the Mantic figures I have.  So without further ado, I give you FUBAR 40k with Mantic miniatures....

So nice to have rules that fit on one page.

Here is my latest addition; Deadzone scenery.  I tried to stretch out as many 'buildings' that I could from what was provided.  Its at least a start to my collection.

The Veer-myn hold the front lines while the Marauder Orx cover the rear.  There are three objectives, those little crates.

After the first couple turns, the Enforcers move in and clean house with authority.  I gave the Veer-myn no armor, so their lives were wasted.  Then again, I had put them out in the open, no cover.  Brilliant thinking....

The Enforcer Captain and Assault guys, all with jump-packs and power weapons, versus three regular Veer-myn.

Veer-myn just about wiped out....

Marauders charge out.

An Orx 'nob with powerklaw' leads an assault.

First objective captured as the Enforcer Captain clashes with another Orx 'nob with powerklaw'.

The heavy weapon Enforcer were decimated.  The lone sniper would not survive much longer.  The Enforcer Captain handles the other Marauders.  The Assault Enforcer was laid down to show Suppression, but I forgot that close combat failed saves are casualties not Suppression.

End of the game.  Only the two Marauder heavy weapons remained.  I was certain this would end in clear victory.

All in all, FUBAR is a quick simple game.  Fairly straight forward with no convoluted rules to worry about.  I believe its geared to slightly larger warbands than I have.  Perhaps closer to 30+ models per side.  I'll try FUBAR out again in the near future.

Sci-fi collection grows!

I have collected a handful of sci-fi miniatures from Mantic's Warpath.  Starting with 10 Marauder Grunts and from Project Pandora; 10 Corporation Marines and 10 Veer-myn Night Crawlers.

I am planning on backing the Warpath Kickstarter, which will be live tomorrow.  Hoping for a good deal to significantly increase my sci-fi collection.  Then I'll have a wider selection of playtest applicants as I continue to work on Song of Tomorrow, or whatever it will be called when I'm done with it.

Here are the Veer-myn.  One is Master Reekish (ray-gun and knife), Exterminator (chem-thrower), and the other eight have ray-guns.  Assembly wasn't too bad.  There were two body types for the eight regular Veer-myn while Master Reekish and the Exterminator had a third body type.  No bases were included in Project Pandora, so I had to improvise using the last of my Reaper Bones 2 kickstarter bases and a Sedition Wars base for Master Reekish.

Here are the Corporation Marines.  One is Sgt. Cruise (powerfist and pistol, though I strapped a rifle to his back for 'close encounters') and nine regular marines.  I strapped 'special weapons' to two of the marines, in case I ever want to include a plasma gun or flamer to the squad.  Apparently I would have had to carve up the included arms to install the special weapons, so opted for the lazy-man-strap-to-the-marine's-back method.  Assembling the arms was a pain in the butt, real fiddly in their design.  

Here are the Marauder Grunts.  I've made two of these guys Nobs (40k lingo for bigger orx with powerclaws and pistols).  There are two support weapons, one is the included heavy weapon and the other is a bastardized weapon from cobbled together bits; so a plasma cannon or a laser cannon.  The other six Grunts have pistols and melee weapons.  One of them is carrying some sort of tech gadget, like a scanner or something.  Assembly wasn't difficult for these guys.  The only problem was in deciding who got which arm/weapon.  So many choices, lots of mix-matching went on with the available sprues.  I've still got lots of random bits left-over and I was trying to use it all up.

One Page Rules - Double Tap playtest - 9/14/15

I came across One Page Rules many months ago.  Never tried any of their rules out...until now!  In my hunt for a simplified version of Infinity I tried a playtest copy of One Page Rules' Double Tap (https://onepagerules.wordpress.com/misc/).  Its free, so I grabbed a copy and dived right in.

Gotta love rules that fit on one page.

Here is the 'battlefield'.  I like how quick and easy it is to set up and break down later.

Here are the Infinity Haqqislam minis.  They are in a state of undress, more painting still needed.  But I have a Hero (Knife/SMG), Sniper, 3 Rifle troops, and a Shotgun troop (its a flamethrower but option not available currently).

Here are the Sedition Wars troops.  There is a Hero (pistol/knife), HMG troop, Sniper, and 3 Rifle troops.

Sedition Wars set-up.  Sniper in a key location, with HMG troop about to fill the alleyway.

Haqqislam's Sniper is ready on the rooftop as the Hero and Shotgun (flamethrower) prepare a sprint to the enemy's side of the battlefield.

Haqqislam advance!

HMG wipes out the Sniper.

Near the end, a lone Sedition trooper takes on the Haqqislam Hero and Shotgun troop.  Lucky rolls and the Sedition troop is the clear victor.

The Sedition Sniper got two confirmed kills this match.

These two gunners traded bullets throughout the game.  Eventually the Sedition trooper prevailed.

Double Tap has some potential.  I have some questions I'll be posting up on the One Page Rules forum (http://onepagerules.proboards.com/).  I'm hoping they'll flesh this ruleset out some more; special rules, upgrades, weapons, etc.  All in all I like what they have done with Double Tap.

Song of Tomorrow - Playtest 1 - 9/12/15

Well...hm...going back to the drawing board.  Song of Blades and Heroes is a great ruleset, which I'll be using for fantasy skirmish.  But something about sci-fi skirmish is just not working right.  The only thing I added to the base rules were lots of ranged weapons.

Lots of blocking terrain, forces you to find open firing lanes and invokes the need to hug walls and duck into cover.  I want tactical movement, which is the plan in Song of Tomorrow.

Here are the power-armored super soldiers.  They have stronger rifles and power armor and better Quality/Combat.

Here are the Intergalactic Marines.  They have standard rifles, regular armor, and stats.  Along with a hovering drone. 

Marines move out!

Super soldiers advance!

After some Reactions, shooting attempts, etc.

 Currently the rules are based on standard SoBH.  Making ranged weapons the primary source of combat has changed the game fundamentals.  I might implement a 'rolling to shoot' rule, using the model's Quality.  Then if successful, the model rolls d6 adding weapon C versus target d6 plus C.  Range modifiers will worsen the shooter's Quality to a max of 6.  Just some ideas.