Futbowel: The Christmas Truce...

"Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse..." because we were down Bristol Independent Gaming playing the WWI version of Futbowel we tried out last year...

This year Andy and Stephanie played the British against Phil and Jenny who managed the Germans (though Phil wandered off to look at Dark Ages figures with Jim for On Bloody Ground!)

The first half ended goalless after the British goalie made a couple of easy saves, though one British player was sent off for a bad tackle on a German player...

The second half kicked off with the Germans grabbing a quick goal, soon followed by another... As the British got one back the Germans resorted to some dirty tackles with three of their players being sent off, but their compatriots held on for a famous 2-1 victory, avenging last year's defeat!

Futbowel: On Christmas Day...

With Christmas on the horizon last week I ref'd a game of Futbowel for Andy, Jack and Phil with a slight twist - the Orcs and Dwarves were replaced with their historical counterparts, converted from Wargames Atlantic WWI plastics...

The rules we played were pretty much 'as is' in the rulebook, though bad 'fowls' were not punished by a firing squad, but the offender made to sit it out until the next time a Joker was pulled out the card deck.

I think the lads enjoyed the game, the score was 1-1 at full time so we played extra-time were, in an uncanny preview of events in 1966, the English team scored the winner! Futbowels coming home...

Hope everyone had a great Christmas, and one of my New Year's resolutions will be to update the blog a bit more often!

Futbowel: BIG Demo Day

As part of their fundraising activities to raise money for disabled facilities at their new venue, Bristol Independent Gaming ran a 'Demo Day' yesterday to introduce local gamers to a plethora of new games and systems. I was "volunteered" to run some games of Futbowel...

For those of you unfamiliar with the game it is a fantasy football one but, unlike others, actually involves the kicking of a ball with a foot and not holding an egg with your hands (sometimes in armour). The first edition came out in 2007 and featured Orc 'civilian' futbowel teams. 2016 saw a second edition arrive set in the Panzerfäuste world and inspired by the WWI Christmas Truce games, games played between Orcs and Dwarves in No Man's Land.

The second edition rules are a complete re-write and a completely playing card driven game. Consequently it moves along a cracking pace, can be pretty random and on occasion quite brutal with moving players sometimes blown up by unexploded bombs and others executed by firing squad for committing bad fouls.

I managed to get through four games yesterday and a lot of fun was had, all being pretty close won affairs with the odd goal in it. Nine players were shot for fouling their opponents and three Dwarves blown up by UXB's. It was interesting that the female gamers had a better grasp of tactics, passing the ball and moving miniatures up to support, whilst most of the men would charge one player down the pitch in the hope of scoring a solo goal. You can guess which approach was more successful! :D

The teams were the old Hysterical Games figures, 3D printed especially for the game and painted up by me last week. 

I am hoping the game and figures will be available for purchase again very soon as it is a lot of fun and an ideal beer & pretzels game, made even better if consuming alcohol whilst playing!

Panzerfäuste Futbowel: Orc Team

Having finished the Dwarf Panzerfäuste Futbowel team, I cracked on with the Orcs. The set I received was a pre-production set that contained one duplicated figure. Production sets will contain eleven unique Orc futbowelers.

Like the Dwarves they are in 1940's kit to maximise usage, though the goalie is in LOV (Local Orc Volunteer) uniform rather than the standard battle dress the outfield players are in.

Attackers:

Defenders:

Goalie (with "goal posts"):

Panzerfäuste Futbowel: Dwarf Team

I finished the Dwarf team for Panzerfäuste Futbowel yesterday and managed to take some in focus photos today!

Whilst the game is inspired by the 1914 Christmas Truce, the figures are sculpted in WW2 uniforms to tie in with the Panzerfäuste background and have use beyond the game as POW's, heavy weapons crews etc.

Attackers:

Defenders:

Goalie with "goal posts":

Panzerfäuste Futbowel: DIY Shell Craters

Yes, I am still alive! :-) Life, the universe and real work getting in the way.

Anyway, hopefully you are aware that Hysterical Games are releasing a beer and pretzels game very, very soon called Panzerfäuste Futbowel, "recreating" the games of futtie played during the unofficial Hognachtswatch truce.

Matthew Hartley has completely revisited the old Wessex Games Futbowel rules and come up with a playing card driven game that is really quite cute and a lot of fun. As befitting a game set in No-Man's Land, the playing surface is broken up by shell caters, the rules stipulating you need 18 with a 50cm diameter (you don't use all these at the start, there are unexploded bombs that may create new ones).

Now you could just cut out some card circles but I felt creative and decide to make my own.

The process is very simple and cheap. I used some brown air drying clay I bough from Hobbycraft, broke some off and rolled into a ball. I pressed this onto a 50mm slottabase (not necessary but it does help tie in with the figures and not sit proud of any rocks on my playing surface).

I then pressed my thumb down in the middle and wiggled it about to make the crater. The edges were then pressed down and smoothed to the base edge. I then stippled the inside of the crater with an old  toothbrush to give a fine earth effect.

Once dry (don't rush in an overly warm oven!) I then coated the outsides with some builders sand and then painted the same colours as the figure bases and board.

A couple I tried a gungy greenish water effect in (I think I still need to add some resin to these).

And two others had a damaged barbed wire post added made from paper clips and some "barbed wire" bought off SnM Scenics on eBay.

And that was that. Tomorrow should see some photos of the Dwarf team (hopefully in focus unlike today's effort!)