Battles and Brews 2025 (Backyard Edition)

 Battles and Brews is usually held yearly at our local brewery. This year I decided I wanted to change things up and design a wargame that could be played outside (more on that later). Thus Yardfighters! was created. St Louis based Basement General McMurray got onboard and designed a naval to play outside too. Wiley Games HQ became the venue.

I had some criteria for the outside game: no rulers, minimal record or status keeping, no dice because I didn't want the action to stop while players moved somewhere to roll the dice.

I decided on airplanes, but I wanted rockets and missiles involved so I moved it up to the early jet age. And because I wanted a mix of different jets I had it take place in a mythical Africa Imagi-Nation where all types of surplus aircraft were dumped.

Rather than build 8 different kits I designed and laser cut out all the planes out. Some quick spray paint with details from paint pens and those were done. I decided paper airplane size was good. For bases I use octagonal  bases. Why? face changes of 45 degrees would be easy as each face is 45 degrees. It also makes for a handy fire arc. I attached the planes to the stand with magnets for easy storage and facing changes.

Turns are divided into two phases: Movement Pahse and Shoot Phase. Players receive two cards each turn. One is for movement order, one is for shooting order (player's choice). Highest player goes first in each phase. Suit is only used to decide ties and aces are wild.

Maneuvers and movement are decided by strides and steps with facing turns made. Extra facing changes could be made at the expense of gaining G-shock.

When it comes to shooting we use Washers (a US backyard game similar to Horse Shoes or Cornhole). Distance was imply from jet to jet so players could chance it from a distance or get in close (where they still missed regularly). The box was divided into 9 squares which determined the damage location on the jet. Getting it in the center meant the attacker could choose. Every player had washers equal to their munitions load out. Whe they ran out, they were out of ammo. The washers were divided into missiles and machine guns each with a colored side and a white side. If you pilot is in G-shock, washers that come up white don't count. Simple!

Despite the heat and incredible humidity, we had a dozen folks come out to give it a try. It turned out really well. Many players said they couldn't wait to play again. That's why I'm leaving details of the game hazy so I can sell it!

We moved inside to the blessed A/C to cool off, have some pizza and run some more games. Steve ran a Terror Island game (using Fistful of Lead of course) while CluckAmok ran an Armored Storm game. 

I played in the Terror Island game and had two members of my elite team, the Howling Aces, taken out by enemy dogs first turn. I was down to my team leader by turn 3 and left with a sad amount of treasure. 

Then as the sun went mercifully down the backyard turn into the Pacific for a duel between British destroyers and Japanese ships. The Japanese had to run a guanlet and almost made it. It was brutal

Once again, hits were decided by tossing washers. 4 hits started a ship sinking. Torpedoes hits were decided by tossing a large foam die. If it landed touching the ship base, the face showing determined the number of hits. Great game. The only change that decided needed to happen was the addition of a bunch more ships! 

The whole thing has me excited to run another Yardfighters! game in the cooler Fall. This time with WW1 biplanes. I'm thinking I'll cut them out and send them out to players to paint their own plane designs like a real ace.

Full Steam on Dystopian Seas

I'm sure it's a common wargamer problem. You invested in a line of miniatures or period because they look cool, get about half done and quit either because the rules suck, there's not much interest anymore, or the company producing them gives up or goes under. I had the trifecta with Dystopian Wars.
I bought each of the starter sets: British, Prussian, Japanese and American sets of really cool steampunk ships. I got the Brits done and started on the German. Here's where my complete lack of love for naval games started kicking in in. Love the minis, hate to paint them, and for the most part, don't really like naval games.
About that time, Spartan Games went under. No more toys. I would have helped them out by dumping massive amounts of cash their way on the their Dystopian Legions minis, if they hadn't and gone and made them 35mm! Completely out of scale with my other VSF stuff.
Jump ahead a few years and I find out a fellow Basement General had also heavily invested in DW. His collection was bigger and better painted. Next obstacle: the rules, in my humble opinion, suck.
No problem. The venerable spaceship rules, Full Thrust came to the rescue. I've been playing them for years and adapted them to flying ships. It was easy to switch up a few thing for battles on the Dystopian Seas.

 The Brits: A Battleship, 3 frigates, 3 escorts and a couple of bombers.

 Admirals plot their moves. More rum is needed!

 Fighters hunt the skies

 Poor plotting leaves a ship aground.

This battle would see a new Revolutionary War between my British fleet (with some Hessian allies) and Other Jay's American forces.
The rules worked great. Pre-plotting moves proved a headscratcher for some. They ran aground, slammed into their own ships. The little ships died heroically while the massive capital ships blasted away at each other. The fighters and bombers proved either a nuisance at best, or a killer.
It ended with a minor American victory and me eager to paint more. Until I realize again, I hate painting ships.

A quick picture of a quick game

Last night I had the pleasure of trying out the soon to be released "Galleys, Guns and Glory" rules by Skull and Crown, that go with their great ships.
As I mentioned before, I was able to get a hold of the pre-release ships thanks to trade. I'm doing all the flags that will come with purchase of the ships, in return for a fleet of said ships.

The game was easy to pick up and fun to play. Something I need as most Game nights are essentially mini conventions. There was hasty gun fire, fabulous critical hits, desperate boarding actions and lots of blood in the water.
We didn't use alot of the extras like special Captains or national traits, just to let everyone get ahold of the rules, which they picked up within 2 turns. Victory went to the Turks this time.Now, back to painting ships...

And now for my holiday distraction

I was able to get my hot little hands on these pre-production beauties from Admiral Foss at Skull and Crown. They are samples of his upcoming Lepanto line of Mediterranean Galleys.
I'm not a fan of naval battles in general. Big, flat expanses with ships lined up up to hammer away just don't do it for me. However, I love all things Renaissance warfare, and these little guys are both fun to put together and will be a breeze to paint.
They are a nice scale. Not huge and not too small to paint all the lovely colors and stripes of the period. 6mm crew will be perfect.
I was also given a sneak peek at the rules and they're also right down my alley. Shooting and ramming and boarding actions. That's the kind of naval wargaming I like.