Fistful of Lead: Gangsters

In early September, Bruce put on a game of Fistful of Lead with his 28mm gangsters. His table was amazing.

The coppers had learned Mr. Big was going to move out a large shipment of illicit hooch and were determined to send him a message. Mr. Big learned of the raid and decided to use it as a chance to send the coppers a message of his own.

The coppers set up on the far side of the table while the gangsters set up anywhere to about the halfway mark (roughly the bridge in the shot above). 

There was an early rush up the table and two cops went down. That pushed play (other than sniping) out to the wings. The right-hand wing saw some indeterminant gunplay and the cops beat a retreat.

 

The majority of the cops rushed the left wing, eventually pushing back the gangsters and searching one of the six potential spots where the booze was hidden.

The gangsters started to shift their remaining troops to stop this push. Granny with the shotty was first on the scene, wounding and suppressing cops and even KOing one in a fist fight.

In the end, the coppers, who had a very difficult tactical situation, just didn't have the weight to finish the job. Bruce thought maybe increasing the number or possibly the quality of the cops might have evened things up, which makes sense. Another option could be to have most of the gangster start on the boat so they would have to move into position, rather than just snipe under cover.

A different tactical approach might have been to have the cops set up (which was done in secret) to rush the left side of the board, which would have caught the gangster short on manpower, overwhelm them and hope for some lucky searching. Hard to say if that would have been effective.

Overall, the game was a ton of fun with a good narrative developing from the card play and tough decisions to make on the table.

Halloween thrills!

This week, Bruce and I played a movie-monster themed game in honour of Hallowe'en. Bruce has been adapting the gladiator module for Fistful of Lead to swashbucklers and now horror and this was our horror playtest.

Frankenstein's Monster, Dracula, and two wraiths start in the cemetery (left side) and Frankie has an appointment to throw a girl down the well just off the right side of the board. Doc. Frankenstein and various hangers on must prevent him from getting past them. Below is the shot from the "good" guy's starting position.

I pushed the good guys forward, trying to take up a blocking position without anyone getting too far away so they would be isolated. The bad guys moved under blinds until they were were within 12 inches (it's night time, of course). Below, you can see Dracula has just materialized on the far left side of the board, likely scaring the hell out of the guy armed with a rake (?!?).

Dracula and the peasant tangle. The combat system has a very sword-play vibe to it with moves and counter moves built into the simple mechanics.

Meanwhile, mid-board, Frau Blucher encounters a wraith and Frankenstein's location has been revealed. Play starts to gravitate towards Frankie.

It takes all three of the best good guys to put a pasting in this wraith while Frankie tries to slip around the left flank.

Dracula is a tough customer but is starting to take some damage in the three-on-one I had going. He disapparats and then reappears a couple of times but the beating is starting to tell.

Things then take a turn for the good guys as Frankie "Hulk smash's" three characters into pulp (ack!). But Dracula flees to fight another day and, in the end, Igor valiantly avenges Dr. Frankenstein's squishing.

 A super fun game on beautiful terrain with almost nothing to look up.

Congo Dinosaur Hunt!

In late summer, Bruce ran a game of Congo, which is always a hoot and offers very difficult decisions around what actions to select each turn. This game was a Lost World dinosaur hunt with room for up to four players: big game hunters, a film crew, a scientific expedition, and some new pulp spacefarers, each competing with all for the highest point totals. We had only two players so I took the big game hunters and Bruce took the spacefarers.

The big game hunters two groups of dinosaurs and engaged them. There were points for killing the dinos and further points for collecting scientific data about them. Getting two groups of dinosaurs right away was a big advantage.

The spacefarers also found dinos but they ran away. The spacefarers then worked their way towards the river, hoping to find some more dinos.

The Bob Murch figures Bruce painted were delightfully quirky.

The big game hunters ended up chasing one of their beasts to the edge of the river and a certain amount of shenanigans ensued as the two groups shot and at chased one another to try to secure the most points.

More dinos also appeared.

In the end, the big game hunters managed to win by a lot of points, but only by the narrowest margins on the board (one more turn and the spacefarers likely would have swung the game).

Overall, this was a hoot to play (because DINOSAURS!!!!). Bruce's table was amazing to see and the rule set offers endless pulpy fun. "You find an ancient bottle containing a dark, viscous liquid. do you drink it?"

Fistful of Lead

In early May, Bruce hosted two games of Fistful of Lead. The first one was a pulpy 1930s adventure. Nazis have stolen a bomb from America and are trying to get it back to the Fatherland aboard a zeppelin. The US rocket corp must board and either grab the bomb or take control of the blimp and fly it home.

This game was fought in very close quarters on two levels (gondola and gas bag) and was extremely bloody, taking almost an hour. In the end, the rocketeers prevailed, grabbing both the control room and the bomb.

The second game was a 1920s/1930s gangster game. (Bruce may have run a version of this at the Trumpeter convention.) The cops need to arrest Mr Big. Both sides have an opportunity for reinforcements and there is a random end game (probably 9-11 turns until starts starts).

The paddy wagon rolled onto the table and disgorged five cops. There was a brief shoot out between the fellow son foot while the driver tried to run down a gangster (twice!).

Using the trolley car as cover, the cops managed to corner and arrest (posthumously) Mr. Big. This game took maybe 20 minutes and had all sorts of tension and hilarity.

Overall, this is such a flexible system that it is hard to find fault with it if you are looking for a light game.

Fistful of Dice: Deathstroke vs the Teen Titans

Bruce dropped by a few weeks back to try out Fistful of Dice with some superheroes. I put together the most asymmetrical game I could manage in order to really give the rules a test. The result was one hero and a bunch of goons versus four specialists.

Scenario
Deathstroke has been contracted to kill the Teen Titans. To lure the Titans into the open, he’s staged a jail break, killing the cops in the precinct, and releasing into the streets four of the most fearsome gangs Gotham has ever known.

Team Death Stroke (leader plus 4 groups grunts)

Deathstroke d12 shooting/melee

• sniper rifle 16/32”
• sword (+1 in close combat roll)
• dead eye (+1 to shoot rolls)
• ferocious (+1 to wound rolls in close combat)
• tough as nails (4 wounds)

Smith’s Grifters 3x grunts d8 shooting/melee

• pistol 6/12”

8th Street Ladies Club 3x grunts d8 shooting/melee

• pistol 6/12”

Father Mark’s Boys School Photography Club 5 x grunts d6 melee only

• club (-1 to wound roll but add additional shock marker)

Sister Mary’s Girls School Field Hockey Team 5 x grunts d6 melee only

• club (-1 to wound roll but add additional shock marker)

Team Titans (4 specialists)

Robin d10 shooting/melee

• batarang 6/12” (shock result only; 2 shocks = 1 wound)
• staff (may attack from 2” away in close combat)
• master (roll 1 additional die in close combat and select best result)
• fancy footwork (win ties in close combat)

Wondergirl d10 melee only +3” to movement

• magic lasso (may attack from 4” away; wins ties; add additional shock marker)
• tough as nails (4 wounds)
• impervious (ignore wound penalties on movement, attack and recovery rolls)

Speedy d10 shooting/melee

• long bow 11/20”
• fists (-1 to wound rolls)
• sniper (once per turn re-roll shooting)
• eagle-eyed (extra range already factored in)

Cyborg d10 shooting/melee +3” to jumping

• electric shock 6/12”
• power fist (-1 to wound roll but add additional shock marker)
• armoured (roll 1d10 per hit, on an 8-10 the hit is absorbed by the armour)
• brawler (reroll close combat roll once per turn)

Set-up

1. Deathstroke sets up four gangs within 1” of the police station; Deathstroke may be placed anywhere within 1" of the station, including on the roof.
2. Titans are positioned at least 9” from the police station.

Victory Points (highest total wins)

• Deathstroke gets 5VPs per Titan OOA, 10VPs if Titan dies in post-game resolution
• Deathstroke gets 0.5VP per grunt exiting the Board (max 8) and 2 VP per building burgled (no maximum, buildings take 3 wounds to enter).
• Titans get 1VP per grunt OOA or captured and 10 VPs if Deathstroke OOA

Coppers Arrive

Roll 1d6 at the end of each turn and adding the following:

• +1 for gunfire having occurred in the game
• +1 for each building being burgled in the game
• +1 for each figure OOA in the game

When the roll plus mods equals 12, 1d6 cops from other precincts arrive at a random board edge at the end of each turn. After all play is resolved, the cops make 2 moves towards (1) any visible bad guys or (2) the police station. Any grunts contacted by the cops are arrested. Cops will not attempt to arrest Deathstroke or the Titans. Team Deathstroke can attack cops but OOA cops just recycle.

Game ends

• All Titans are OOA or off board or
• All Deathstroke grunts are off board, OOA, or captured.

Outcome

I ran through the scenario three times (Deathstroke won twice) and it poses some difficult choices. Deathstroke (with a d12)  is super powerful and can easily take out a Titan. But he's also vulnerable to bad rolls. The grunts are almost useless but, again, a bad wound roll can take out a Titan. and there are so many grunts.

Some Gaming

I've been doing bit of afternoon gaming with Bruce lately.

We playtested a campaign mechanic for generating miniature battles for his 1920s gangsters. The mechanics entail tough decisions and should give players reasons to interact as well as fight.

We also play tested a grand strategy game called Swords Around the Throne. Basically point-to-point movement, 22 locations, card-driven, and super hard choices (made worse by only getting half of you card deck (at random) for the first half of each turn (a turn is a year and you have six actions per year). I would love to play this again now that I understand the rules!

Pulp terrain

I finished another of the rehabbed HO-scale buildings I got at the spring model train swap meet. I missed this fall's swap meet but, honestly, do I need more buildings?

This model was really beaten up when I go it. It needs some decals to pop, probably signage in the windows. I don't have nay rub on decals left but maybe I could print out some reversed text (white on black) and glue it into the panes? Some posters hung on the walls might also help. That might be a winter project.

Up next: Maybe a Star Wars figure for Xenos Rampant?

Fistful of Dice Endgame Mechanic

For the past couple of weeks, Bruce and I have been playing some Gangster scenarios using the Fist of Dice rules. The rules work very well for skirmish games and I played a short superhero campaign with them the spring.

One of the mechanics Bruce has been experiencing with is a turn limit one. Instead of a fixed turn limit or the game ending when an objective is achieved, he's been rolling 1d6 at the end of each turn and adding the following:

• +1 for gunfire having occurred in the game
• +1 for machine-gun fire having occurred in the game
• +1 for each figure KIA'd in the game

(Each modifier reflects how player behaviour increases the priority the police would give to responding to game events.) When the roll plus mods equals 12, we enter the end-game staged.

At this point, a random number of cops appears at a random board edge and play continues. At the end of each subsequent turn, the cops on the board take two moves towards (1) any visible figure or (2) towards the objective. If they make contact with a figure, then the figure is arrested and removed from play. A random number of new cops also arrives at another random board edge. Players can shoot the cops but the cop figures just recycle. 

The effect of this is pretty cool. The game plays on but there is much more pressure on the players to take action (i.e., chances) to win before the cops nab all of their figures. Basically, it feels like sudden death overtime. The random arrival also make its hard to plan and adds to the sense of pressure.

This mechanic could probably be used in almost anytime there is some kind of authority structure. For example, a shoot out in a space port could trigger the arrival of stormtroopers who detain everyone, including maybe any Imperials they run into (you never know who is secretly Rebel scum).

Overall, a pretty neat mechanic to change the tempo of the game at the end. It also encourages players to think about when they want to shoot and kill. In a hostage rescue, sooner may be better. In a search-and-rescue game, players (or some players) may want to avoid gunfire.

In a bloody game, the average point at which the end phase would be triggered is likely turn 6. But it could happen as early as turn 3 and as late as turn 9. You can, of course, fiddle the target number to shorten or extend play. Anyhow, a fun little add-on idea.

HO-scale buildings

Today, I finished some of the beat-up HO-scale buildings I got at the model railway swap meet in April. 

These required some significant work to salvage and, I see now, that I should have taken them apart entirely to adjust the joins. Oh well. A box of buildings for $10 means you get what you get.

Up next: Some 28mm furnishings and 15mm mounted.

HO-scale pulp buildings

In the spring, I picked up a bunch of model buildings at the railway swap meet. One box was 10 or 12 badly beat up buildings for like $10. I fixed up four of them.

Three I painted using full strength colours over a black primer. The fourth (the orange one) I primed back, dry brushed white, and washed. They got similar detailing. Honestly, there isn't much to choose between approaches.

The buildings required a lot of rehab, including being disassembled entirely in two cases. They all needed roofs, and window glass. I also had to fabricate a front door (and then hide the fabrication with an awning). 

For like $5, this was a helluva a deal! I have no shortage off buildings but more is always better. They could use some decaling when I get a chance.

Up next: I'm going to take August off from posting to enjoy the summer. I'll be back in September with some more 15mm medievals and HO-scale buildings.