Necromunda Campaign: Lower Wacker Hive, Session #1

Last Thursday marked the kickoff of Chicago Skirmish Wargames' first Necromunda campaign, tentatively titled "Lower Wacker Hive." (Chicago residents and regular visitors will recognize the inspiration for the name, which comes from Lower Wacker Drive, a mostly underground stretch of roadway that runs right through the guts of downtown Chicago.)

The campaign will be sporadic, with games every month or so, but we'll add updates as it progresses. We've happened to starting our campaign in the auspicious 20th anniversary year of Necromunda, which hit the stores in 1995. Yes, those of you having nostalgic feelings right now are indeed older than you thought

 
Anyhow, my battle was against Mike C., who brought his Goliath gang "The Juggernauts." I brought "Fjord's Folly," a Van Saar gang. We met near a nearly abandoned transit center for a classic Gang Fight scenario.

The Van Saar entered the field from the south and cautiously advanced.

While the Goliaths quickly rushed in from the north to take strong positions.

Some sporadic fire was exchanged, but no casualties were reported for the first couple turns. First blood was drawn when the Van Saar Ganger Gunborg hit Lago with a hunting rifle. The Goliath fighter went out of action a few turns later.

What had mostly been a two-dimensional game began to grow a bit in the third turn, when a couple combatants moved up onto the train tracks.

On the eastern flank, Bjorn unleashed a torrent of fire at the Goliath line, but suffered a failed ammo roll. Without a backup firearm, he decided to save himself and his beloved heavy stubber and opted to head for home. The second casualty of the evening came for Fjord's Folly when a Jaarl took down Spike with a blast from his plasma gun. One good turn deserves another, and Juggernaut Ganger Lefty shot down Hjalmar, a Van Saar juve.

On the east end of the battle, Iver and Kjeld took up flank positions, which discouraged Goliath movement, but they failed to do any damage for the entire game.

Shortly afterwards Stark, the Juggernaut leader, fired his grenade launcher. His aim was brutally accurate and took down the bolter-toting Erikki.

Fjord eventually climbed up onto the tracks, where he unloaded his plasma pistol at Shore on the stairs but completely missed the swift Goliath juve.

To make matters worse, Gunborg's hunting rifle also failed an ammo roll, and he began his retreat as well, stripping Fjord's Folly of the last of their long-range firepower.

Sensing an opportunity, the Goliaths regrouped and began a determined advance on the Van Saar positions.

Unfortunately a pair of failed ammo rolls for Stark and Mad Dog blunted the Juggernaut momentum significantly.

Frustrated with his inability to hit his target...

...Fjord rushed into contact with Shore, but the plucky Juve proved very resilient. Fjord failed to wound and they remained locked in combat. Lefty tried to flank the Van Saar positions on the west end, but was cut down.

A turn later, he went out-of-action and the Juggernauts bottled out. The game was over, but the after-game sequence had some surprises left. Necromunda requires that all gangers who are presently "down" on the table roll at the end of the game to see if they are just fine or if they go "out of action," which will then require a roll on the injury table. None of my gang had gone out and the members who were down all recovered successfully.

Unfortunately, Mike already had two members of his gang out of action, and his downed ganger rolled poorly and went out-of action as well. This put him at three out-of-action members compared to none for me, which meant I was able to seize one of his territories. Luckily all of Mike's guys all recovered, though Spike has suffered a head wound which leaves him susceptible to bouts of Frenzy or Stupidity.

Necromunda proved to be a very enjoyable game. The IGOUGO structure and use of to-hit and to-wound charts is a bit dated, but the game has a natural flow and nicely written scenarios that have held up very well for a two-decade-old ruleset.

I already feel that I've learned some important lessons. For starters, I definitely need to start giving some backup weapons to my gangers. We are using the Necromunda Community Edition (NCE) which is from the Yaktribe online community. It is a clarification the Living Rulebook (LRB), which was itself an online update to the Underhive edition of the Necromunda rules.

The Living Rulebook was the last version of Necromunda released by Games Workshop before they dropped the game, and the NCE seems to be a nice improvement. It's not a major overhaul, but does seem to clarify a number of vague rules situations, balance the factions, gear and scenarios a bit better and also add a few pieces of equipment.

It's only been one game, but the rules do seem to be well written and I think anyone considering trying Necromunda owes it to themselves to give NCE real consideration. Additionally, we're also using Yaktribe's online gang and campaign management tools. There are a few non-intuitive things about the programs, but overall I find them easy to use and especially useful for keeping track of how other gangs are progressing and keeping the names of gang members close-at-hand for writing battle reports.

Hope you enjoyed this, but it is just the beginning. Keep an eye on the blog for a writeup of Tim and Mattias' game, some Necromunda terrain I'm working on, and further campaign events.

-- Karl, Chicago Skirmish Wargames club member

Small-Scale Building Commissions

I recently completed my first small-scale commission work. Two different customers both requested 6mm buildings. The finished structures below borrow shamelessly from Sean Patten's inspiring Gundam terrain, and like his, they are based around cassette tape cases with a variety of added bits.

As I don't have any 6mm miniatures, I've used 10mm rebased Mechwarrior units for scale purposes. Except for a few very small ground doors, I think these pieces will work equally well in either scale.

These first two are a pair of Mars Colony themed buildings. The quonset-style roofs were a surprise resale find and are from the "Robotix" line of toys.

I only got one picture of this one, but it's pretty symmetrical anyway.

These next three are more traditional urban-industrial style buildings. These are more directly based on the Ironhands style of Gundam buildings. This customer is working on a Gundam game project of his own.

Small Warehouse 

Medium Factory 

Large Repair Center 

Small-scale building was a bit of a switch for me from the 28mm stuff that I usually make. Extensive fine detail at this scale isn't really doable without a massive investment of time and bits, so it becomes a matter of viewing the building at arms length and deciding what details will make the structure "pop" on the table. I'm still working on the balance between contrasting colors, but I think I'm getting to a method that produces pretty solid results.

I'm fairly new to commission work, but I can build/paint more of these on request. The starting price is $15 + shipping for a building the size of the white structure and goes up from there based on size and individual requests. Of course larger and other scale buildings (28mm, etc…) can be done as well.

-- Karl, Chicago Skirmish Wargames club member

Fully Painted: Barbarians of Frostvale

I'm slowly developing bits and pieces of Frostvale, my homebrew fantasy setting, which will exist alongside our club campaign world to create fun options for scenarios and crossover games. The setting represents my fantasy ideal -- a windswept, Scandinavian-inspired land of teetering mountains, dark forests, mysterious runestones, benighted dungeons, tumbledown ruins, overgrown altars, lonely watchtowers, hardscrabble villages and plenty of unexplored wilderness.

This is the land of Frostvale. Most of my existing warbands will figure into this setting -- some, like the Cursed Riders of Frostvale, hail from these hard lands and wear their allegiance like a badge of honor. Others are merely exploring Frostvale to plunder the abandoned keeps and ancient barrows that dot the hilly uplands.

My newest addition to the world of Frostvale is not really a warband per se ,.. rather, it is a collection of barbarians from the countless hill tribes that occupy the foothills of the Blue-Rime Mountains. They can ally with other warbands seeking additional muscle, or occasionally they will sweep down from the foothills and raid the frontier villages in the valleys below.

I have been wanting to try painting up some ridiculously muscled dudes for quite some time, and half-naked barbarians seemed like the perfect excuse to do so.

I tried some blending and shading techniques with these guys to really accentuate the insane muscle sculpting. I'm pretty pleased with how it came out, but of course there's always room for improvement.

Perhaps most importantly, I didn't use the magic dip on these guys (as I typically do for figures with lots of skin and earth tones). I also based them on 30mm round lipped bases to set them apart from most of the rest of  my fantasy stuff, which is based on 25mm round bases.

The terrain piece is a small rocky forest that I completed recently. It represents a pretty good aesthetic for Frostvale ... lots of exposed boulders and scrubby vegetation.

I have a few more barbarians to paint before the warband is complete. Keep your eyes peeled for a future installment!

-- Patrick, Chicago Skirmish Wargames club member

Adepticon 2015: Fistful of Seamen and the Adventure of HMS Titan's Uranus

At Adepticon Tim and I participated in the Saturday night edition of this massive, colorfully-named "Fistful of Seamen" (FoS) swashbuckling and sailing game.

Easily the largest game I've ever been a part of, this massive game spanned a half-dozen tables, a few dozen ships and what appeared to be 50-plus participants.

We had spoken with some of the gamemasters (all of whom appeared in suitable pirate garb) and looked at the terrain ahead of time, but our participation nearly didn't happen. Tickets were sold out, so we hung around the table as the event began and learned what we could. Nations in the game included the French, Dutch, English and Spanish. Players might be military, traders, privateers or pirates depending on what boat they selected. The number of ships available was dizzying.

Luckily, captains who had participated the previous evening were allowed to select "First Mates" from the unwashed masses. Admiral D. was kind enough to pick Tim and me, and we joined him as crew on the HMS Titan's Uranus (I kid you not) hereafter referred to as the Titan. This massive 5-master was the crown of the English fleet and the largest ship in the game.

To attempt to report on the entire game would have been madness, but the beauty of FoS is that each ship essentially plays out its own adventure as it interacts with the other players and the various features of the game. So we'll just follow the Titan's adventures.

As soon as the game began, we left the English port and began to sail across the board escorting a trio of smaller schooners and traders. No sooner had we reached the open sea then we were set upon by the Marseille. The vessel was the pride of the French navy and nearly matched our own size.

We bravely placed ourselves between the raider and our charges, allowing them to slip away. Despite it being a time of peace, the brash French captain declared that we mush strike colors, raise the French flag and join his fleet. We replied with appropriate scorn and righteous indignation.

The ships closed quickly and brutal deck-to-deck combat ensued. After taking a significant casualties, our crew surrendered. Admiral D. was taken onto the Marseille, and the first mate of the Marseille became our new captain. Under her command, we sailed on to the French island for repairs and re-crewing, but upon arrival a surprise was waiting for us.

As we sailed into the port, the French Governor immediately stated his intention to seize or destroy our ship. As we had been taken in a time of peace, its seizure was considered an act of piracy. Seeking to avoid a diplomatic incident, the Governor was prepared to try the entire crew as pirates.

We begged the Governor's favor and explained that we had been brought under duress and would willingly hand over the rebel French captain. The Governor agreed. I dueled our French captain for command and she was defeated. We handed her over to the Governor to be hung for piracy and bringing dishonor to the name of France. Though given no refit, we were encouraged to raise our original English flag and leave the island post-haste.

Thus we found ourselves somehow in command of one of the most fearsome ships on the sea. We set off again across the sea, heading back toward the English island. Spain had recently declared war on the English and on the way, we briefly skirmished with a Spanish galleon.

However, our swifter craft safely made it home in time to leisurely watch the papist galleon be mercilessly raked by the English island's artillery.

Having feared us lost, the Governor listened with rapt attention to our tale of battle, capture and return. After hearing our tale he heartily congratulated us and awarded us promotions in honor (the currency of the game for military units) and titles to lands.

Following a full refit and with a full crew we set out again on the open sea. A minor skirmish with some pirates ensued. We were not capable of pursuing them into rocky shoals, so after a blistering broadside to demonstrate the seriousness of our position, we extorted a minor fee and let them go.

Returning to the French port again in peacetime, we paid some coin to learn the local news (the game allows for "buying" a random game event) and discovered that the Kraken had been sighted! With this disturbing news, we returned to blue water only to be set upon the feared and neigh-invincible Ghost Ship.

We reluctantly paid the Ghost Ship's tax and gave a tithe of his crew as souls to the feed the spectral vessel's terrible appetites. There was not time to ruminate on the fate of those poor devils, however. No sooner had we left the unholy vessel than we came across the Kraken!

Fortunately for us, the legendary beast proved to not be as fearsome as its reputation. A few volleys set the monster back on its heels long enough for the Titan to sail away.

With our tour coming to an end (the game was nearing it's completion), the Titan at last returned to the English island to exchange the last of our deeds and gold into honor and lands.

Our experience with FoS was a real pleasure. The ruleset was concise, and a dozen GMs were present to assist in combat resolution and clear up whatever complications might arise. I'm not usually a fan of systems that require writing down one's commands in advance, but I greatly enjoyed FoS's mechanics which required each captain to make two moves ahead during each turn. Tim thinks we could play it out with his small scale Uncharted Seas ships.

The ruleset as a whole seems to target fun as the highest priority, and it paid off handsomely. Though we supposedly had the most fearsome ship on the sea, brief contact with other captains showed that every ship seemed to be made to excel in a specific manner, such that no player's fun was handicapped by their vessel and some rather unassuming vessels were quite fearsome.

If the cheers at the post-game debrief were any indication, I suspect that every captain in the game could tell a tale as dramatic as ours.

All in all, an excellent participation game and one that I would be pleased to play again. Most interestingly, this has created a small spark of interest in swashbuckling games, a genre I've never been interested in before. Definitely not something on my immediate radar, and certainly not an undertaking of this size, but maybe someday when I'm in need of a new gaming project I'll turn my eyes to the high seas.

-- Karl, Chicago Skirmish Wargames club member

Mech Attack Playtest: Flyers, Jump Jets and Fisticuffs!

Recently we gathered at Karl’s house to for our regular gaming session. While Karl and Tim spent the evening learning Saga, Mattias, Michael, and I chose Mech Attack. Unlike the 28mm monster game we typically run at conventions, this game was set at 10mm and took up considerably less space. We also tried out a playtest version of the latest ruleset which includes aircraft, melee combat, and jump-jet mechs.

Michael picked a force of just three big, powerful mechs. I took two mechs and three tanks, while Mattias grabbed a bit of everything, including a plane and a jump-jet mech with fists for punching.

The first turn was mostly spent getting into position as we dodged through a modern city. We had no real objectives beyond the destruction of our foes. The long-range firing proved relatively ineffective as we jockeyed for position.

While Mattias and Michael exchanged long-range fire with their two heavies, I ran most of my mechs and tanks straight at Mattias. One of my tanks held off Michael on my flank, but proved completely
outmatched against his small mech.

What happens when a plane fights a mech at close range? We found out a few turns in, when both the airplane and the close combat mech with jump jets got to prove themselves.

The plane dropped down to attack one of Michael’s heavy mechs in the rear, but did not accomplish much more than scratching the paint. All the mech had to do was turn around and blast away for two turns before the plane was gone. The close combat mech also proved relatively useless, spending the entire game punching one of my tanks. We all agreed that if that mech had been a medium or a heavy it would have done far more damage.

As the game continued, Mattias’s force crumbled between Michael and me. He was forced into a fighting withdrawal and probably would have made it off the board if the game hadn’t ended when it did.

My medium mech survived an incredible amount of punishment and by the end had only three boxes of armor left out of the 50 or 60 it started with. My heavy mech was battered by Michael's two big mechs and ended up a burning wreck. My tanks proved fairly useless and I don’t think I’ll use them very often in the future. We all had fun trying out the new, revised playtest rules for Mech Attack and I will certainly purchase them when they become available.

-- Mike C., Chicago Skirmish Wargames club member