War of the Roses Playtest for Cold Wars

     At last Friday's club meeting I ran a 6 player War of the Roses game as a playtest for the upcoming Cold Wars Convention in Lancaster, PA.  I used the under-development Feudal Patrol rules, and 28mm figures.

      The scenario featured a trio of Yorkist supply wagons heading toward the main body of the army.  Upon hearing a Lancastrian force pursuing the Yorkist army is speeding up the road, the contracted civilian wagon drivers run off, abandoning the wagons.  The Yorkists have now dispatched a force to head back and retrieve the wagons, as the lead elements of the Lancastrians rush forward to snatch the wagons for themselves.

Lead Lancastrian elements advance towards the closest wagon, as others move off to flank on their left.

The Yorkists move forward, securing the closest wagon, and begin to take long range fire from the enemy archers.

Likewise, the Lancastrians secure their closest wagon, as their most forward elements come under fire from the Yorkist longbows.

After a desperate cavalry skirmish near the middle wagon, the Lancastrians briefly take control of it.  Then a heroic Yorkist knight rushes forward and clears the wagon if it's Lancastrian captors, and begins to drive off with it.  While he eventually falls to enemy longbow fire, he gets the wagon far enough behind the enemy lines to ensure its safety.

     In the end, the game was declared a Yorkist victory, as they had secured two of the three wagons.  Also, in the last turn of the game the Lancastrian commander fell, causing panic to sweep through their force (All units go pinned when an army commander dies), guaranteeing that any attempt at regaining the wagon was doomed.

     The game was a lot of fun, and there were a number of heroic actions and see-sawing fortunes.  As a GM, I was able to learn a lot about the scenario to help tweak it for the convention to make it even more enjoyable.

Swiss Pikemen Unit Joins War of the Roses Project.

     This past week I completed a 10 man unit of Swiss Pikemen for my growing War of the Roses Project.  These are plastic multi-part figures that I assembled and painted from the Perry "Mercenaries, European Infantry 1450-1500" boxed set.

  As I mentioned before, I am going to be running a 6 player game using the Feudal Patrol rules at Cold Wars in Lancaster PA this March; so I am frantically trying to get all he figures I need assembled and painted.   More pressingly though, this coming Friday I am going to be running a first playtest at our club meeting, so I'm trying to get as much finished as I can.

   I am currently working on a unit of French Crossbowmen from the same boxed set to also join the ranks of my armies.  I hope to have them done in time for my game on Friday!

Burgundian Handgunners Unit Join War of the Roses Project

     This past week I completed a 10 man unit of Burgundian Handgunners for my growing War of the Roses Project.  These are plastic multi-part figures that I assembled and painted from the Perry "Mercenaries, European Infantry 1450-1500" boxed set.

      I am going to be running a 6 player game using the Feudal Patrol rules at Cold Wars in Lancaster PA this March; so I am frantically trying to get all he figures I need assembled and painted.

      I'm a fan of multipart plastics for the amount of variety and conversion one can accomplish with the many pieces, though I have to say it is rather time consuming to have to build each figure you need.
     I am currently working on a unit of Swiss Pikemen from the same boxed set to also join the ranks of my armies.  I hope to have them done later this week.

My Fall-In Game: Escape the Dungeon using "Feudal Patrol" Rules.

    At the Fall In gaming convention, held back on November 8th-11th, Buck Surdu, Greg Priebe, and I all conspired to run a trio of games on the new Secret Weapon "Tablescapes Dungeons: Mines" terrain that Buck and I had purchased earlier in the year via a Kickstarter: Tablescape Dungeons: Mines.  Between Buck and I, we had purchased 5 of the base sets, 5 of the mine track sets, and 4 of the walkway sets.  I also had bought some of the riser pieces.   We frantically got it all painted, with the goal of running games with it at Fall-In.

The players hear the rules brief, as Buck (on the left) helps a player with a question. 

     We picked Saturday to run our games, so we could set up Friday night.  Saturday afternoon, Buck would run a GASLIGHT game set in a secret Nazi laboratory, hidden in an abandoned mine, that GI's were attempting to raid to steal scientific secrets. In the evening, Greg would run a Dr Who game, also using GASLIGHT; that would be set immediately after Buck's scenario, with Dr Who arriving to stop an even greater menace that would appear in the Nazi Lab.   And I was set to start things off with the morning game.

The Dwarves are surprised by the appearance of a dirty trick generated Ogre, bursting through a door on their right. 

     My game was something of a reverse Dungeon Crawl, using the under-development Feudal Patrol rules. The scenario was called "Hunting Evil in Small Places".  Players would each control a team of adventurers; but they would be starting at the back end of the dungeon, already loaded with treasure, and need to escape with the treasure they had found.   Each player also had a half dozen "dirty trick" cards that they could play on their opponents in an attempt to slow them down and make them lose their treasure.  These were things like making monsters appear, or springing traps.   Also, on turn three, a trio of big bad evil monsters would appear at the back of the dungeon, spurring the adventuring parties to move even faster towards the entrances, or face an uncertain future.  Whoever got out the quickest with the most treasure, won.

The Dwarf Cleric, separated from her party, narrowly escapes some pursing Halflings.  

     I was pleasantly surprised when I had all 6 ticketed players show up; though I sadly had to turn two stand-by players away.    The players selected from a  half dozen themed parties, including: Dwarves, Elves, Humans, Halflings, Drow, and Barbarians.

A dirty-trick generated Large Boulder drops from the ceiling and begins rolling towards the Dwarf Wizard.  In the end he was able to outrun it, even with his short legs!

     The players were quick to pick up the rules, and soon they were racing through the tunnels, and throwing monsters and traps in the paths of their opponents.  It was a great crew of players, and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, including myself.

The Dwarf Cleric finds herself squeezed between the Ogre, and one of the quickly approaching big bad evil monsters.  Again, she somehow escaped!

     A highlight for me was a big three-way brawl that broke out between the Humans, Elves, and Barbarians.  All the players had a lot of fun skirmishing in the tunnels.  Also enjoyable was following the course of the Dwarf Cleric, who got separated from her party, and took a rather circuitous route through the mine, facing all sorts of perils, but somehow coming out mostly unscathed.

The big three-way fight develops between the Humans, Elves, and Barbarians.   The white rocks spread around on the track are the Barbarian Wizard's "Ice Blast" spell which created a 2"x3" section of rough icy terrain that halved movement. 

          In the end, the Halflings won, by not only being the first out, but also managing to get their whole crew safely out, and recovering 6 treasures.  Somehow they passed through much of the dungeon being left relatively alone, as is true to their Halfling nature.   :)

We loved the Halfling Wizards surprised look as he came face to face with the towering Drow Sorceress.

The three-way fight continues!

Just as the game was ending, the big bad evil monster, Flame Elemental reached the Elf Ranger, and the Ranger actually managed to damage the Elemental without taking any damage herself! 

The winning Halfling party

A look at Buck's Nazi Lab game, as GI's rush into the main room.

Greg, seated, running his Doctor Who game for a group of enthusiastic players..

Fall-In Playtest Day: Into the Abandoned Mine...

    This past weekend we playtested a couple of of our games for the upcoming Fall-In convention that we will be running in the HAWKs room on Saturday.  They both used all my, and Buck Surdu's, Tablescapes Dungeon Mines terrain from the recent Kickstarter. (Tablescape Dungeon: Mines)  There were 5 Core Sets and a a bunch of extras in play. 

An overview of the set-up before the first game.

   I ran the first game, using the under-development Feudal Patrol rules.  This was a twist of a regular Dungeon Crawl type of game, with each player controlling a conventional party of adventurers.  Players started with their packs full of treasure at the back of the abandoned mine dungeon, and had to make it out alive; all the while being pursued by a very big monster they have disturbed.   Along the way, each player had a hand of a half dozen cards they could play on their fellow adventuring parties. These cards sprung traps, summoned monsters, and caused other mishaps to occur; all in an attempt to slow the other guys down, and make them drop the treasure they were carrying.  Whoever made it out fastest with the most treasure was the winner.

A Dwarf Cleric prepares to welcome two skeletal interlopers.

A pair of Goblins block the path of the Barbarians.

A group of Humans negotiate a rickety wood walkway.

The second game, run by Buck, was a Weird War II outing featuring GIs investigating a secret Nazi lab hidden in an abandoned mine. The rules used were GASLIGHT.  Each player commanded a squad of American soldiers, while Giant Ants, Robots, , Nazis, and all sorts of other nasties awaited them.   The goal was to retrieve certain lab equipment and get it back out of the mine to safety.  Like the previous game, players had a handful of cards they could play on their fellow players in an attempt to slow them down.   

A group of GIs stumble into a group of Giant Ants

Another group of Soldiers meet a Giant Crab.

A Sergeant and a rescued captive faces off against an evil Robot.

     Both games were a whole lot of fun with much laughter, good natured back-stabbing, and corny movie quotes.  We're really looking forward to running these on the Saturday at the convention in November.    There will also be a third game in this series Saturday night, featuring Doctor Who, and helmed by Greg Priebe.