FfoL Galactic Heroes - Jawa Hunting

Andy and I had a great fun game of Star Wars Galactic Heroes recently. We are still using my 20mm Micromachines minis and (sadly still largely unpainted) terrain.

We came up with a quick scenario, both sides were hunting Jawas in a small Tatooine town. Perhaps one of them has a stolen power converter?  Maybe a certain Sith wanted to recreate his glory days on the pod-racing circuit?  Regardless of the reasons, victory would go to the side who had escorted the most Jawas off the board.

Both sides deploy, eying up the Jawas. The Imps are just off the shot, to the left of the sand dune 

Vader surges ahead, as does Luke. The rest of the troops lag somewhat behind. 

(We both made use of the extra action for our heroes on the relevant colour card).

The Rebel leader 'persuades' a Jawa to accompany him.

Behind the large building Luke has befriended one Jawa, and uses the power of The Force to bring another one to him off the roof of the building

The Rebel M25 (heavy blaster) wounds Lord Vader, then a sandstorm hits the area, preventing further shooting

The Sith Lord tries to use The Force against the Rebel M25, but his injury is too distracting. He ducks back into cover

The wounded Vader falls over, releasing the Jawa he had captured

The Stormtrooper's BlasTech DLT - 20 runs out of ammo, that Rebel M25 is safe for now

The Heavy Stormtrooper takes two wounds from the Rebel.  He is just able to crawl to safety where he reloads (I used a Joker to Reload, but this triggered anther sandstorm, if I'd used it earlier I'd have lost the Reload, but he wouldn't have been a target)

A Rebel wounds a Stormtrooper.  He hopes that Lord Vader will Heal him.  No such luck.  Meanwhile, another Stormtrooper captures a Jawa, and in the distance another Jawa is tempted by a Rebel

Stepping up to the Rebel trooper, Lord Vader slices him in half with his light sabre.  (Vader used the Queen of Hearts to remove his wound)

Vader charges his son, it ends badly for Luke

Vader moves to try and intercept more Rebels, but it's too late, the Rebels have taken the bulk of the Jawas to safety

The final tally. The Rebels have lost two men, including Luke, but have captured five Jawas, giving them the victory

This was a great fun game. We were pretty much making the scenario up as we went, for instance, deciding that a model with a captured Jawa would have to release it if wounded, and the Jawa would randomly scatter.  It didn't matter as we both had a lot of fun.  Vader cutting down Luke was very dramatic.  I rolled a 12 for Vader's melee roll, and given that he had a Light Sabre (a Deadly weapon), that was it for Luke, but he has the Nine Lives trait, allowing him to ignore his first Out of Action result and take a Wound instead.  
Sadly, Vader had another two actions, and rolled a natural 12 again, so it was off to the Bacta tanks for young Skywalker.

This was our second game with Heroes, and as before, we thought the rules worked very well.  I struggled to use any effective Force Powers with Vader, he routinely failed his Force Choke, and the few times that he was shot at and missed, he failed to deflect the shot back.  He was, however, a monster with his Light Sabre, attacking three times, and rolling a 12 each time.  Luke, on the other hand, used his Force Powers very intelligently to Grab a Jawa and bring it close.  Shame he fell to his father's blade.  I'm sure that he has simply lost another appendage and will be back, more bionic than before.

If there's any interest I'll post up the details of the scenario separately.

FfoL Galactic Heroes: A Family Quarrel

**WARNING** This post contains images of unpainted and unfinished terrain which some hobbyists may find distressing.  

There were only two of us for a recent Monday evening game, so we decided to play Fistful of Lead: Galactic Heroes. We used my 20mm Star Wars stuff and quickly came up with a storyline where Luke, aware that Vader *Spoilers* was his father, was trying to find one of his uncle's friends to discover more. Unfortunately Vader learnt about this and set a trap. Maybe not the best background, and it doesn't quite fit canon, but it worked for us.

We each had a crew of Leader, Specialist and three Regulars, plus the relevant Galactic Hero

This was the first time we'd tried using Heroes, how well would they work for Star Wars?

Brave Rebel heroes (or scum)

Imperial forces no doubt giving the residents a hard time 

Luke leads his Rebel crew in from the dunes, while Darth Vader and his Stormtroopers occupy the town 

The Rebels cautiously advance, trying to make the most of the cover.  The Imps are even more hesitant, Lord Vader directs them from atop one of the buildings.

Early Imperial shooting takes out one of the Rebels!

Luke uses the Force to heal his companion's wound 

Vader (near centre) uses The Force to shield himself and 'Force chokes' the recently healed rebel trooper 

Luke charges in to fight Vader. Vader is Shaken by his assault, then Luke cuts him down

Another great fun game, and an interesting experiment using two iconic characters.   Shooting was a bit lack-lustre on both sides, though the Imps got the first kill.  There were a couple of times the Rebs took wounds or were shaken, but I was able to use the relevant cards to remove these conditions, or have Luke use his Healing.  The only successful Rebel shooting was the PLX - 1 which took out two Stormtroopers with one rocket in the same turn as Luke's heroic charge against his father.

As we have seen before, the FfoL Galactic Heroes rules certainly work well for run-of-the-mill Star Wars style skirmishes, but how did they work with Luke, Vader and the Force? 

The Heroes rules essentially build another Leader. We added Psychic (Force) Powers as well (so one more Trait than strictly allowed, but we wanted really impressive heroes). The Psychic Powers did feel like the Force, and we saw them used to good effect. Luke Healed one of the Rebels and Vader used Force Choke on the same poor Reb. Vader also Shielded himself to dissuade the Rebels from shooting at him and goad Luke into fighting him. We didn't get any deflection of blaster bolts, largely because any firing against the heroes was from too far away; once we got closer, neither of us wanted to risk it.

The game was quickly put together, given more time I'd adjust the traits slightly, but they seemed to work fine.  Also, unpainted terrain.  This was some stuff I threw together last time we were playing, and it never got finished.  I should complete it, but I've been thinking about doing some 28mm stuff to use the greater variety of the old WotC pre-painted stuff.

Rebel Fleet Troopers for Fistful of Lead/Galactic Heroes

 My next mini project is another Star Wars crew for Galactic Heroes.  This time I've gone straight for the original trilogy and a crew of the Rebel Fleet Troopers as seen most famously in the battle in the corridors of the 'Tantive IV' trying to defend Princess Leia.

Internet image from Star Wars a New Hope.

The minis have actually taken rather a long time for such a simple colour scheme. I've been busy on other things, amongst which was finally getting my garage set up with a work space for terrain building and other messy hobby stuff. The other reason was my repainting them part way through as I didn't like the colours I originally picked. 

The minis are pretty standard for the WotC.  There was quite a bit of flash, and some awkward fill between the arms of a couple of the troopers.   I deliberately chose a slightly different colour scheme for the uniforms, khaki trousers and light blue grey shirts.  There are lots of images online, and the colours range from grey shirts and trousers, as per the photo above, or white or blue shirts and black or khaki trousers. The mini with the blaster pistol had a different colour scheme anyway, and I wanted them all to match.

Painting wise, the trousers were all basecoated VGC Khaki, washed with a 50:50 mix of Army Painter Strong and Soft tone washes, and highlighted with Vallejo Game Colour Bonewhite.

The shirts were basecoated with a mix of VGC Steelgrey and VGC Wolf Grey, washed with watered down VGC Sombre Grey and highlighted with a drybrush of VGC Wolf Grey.

The jackets and boots were basecoated with a mix of VEO Heavy Charcoal and VGC Black, washed with VGC Black wash and drybrushed with a mix of Charcoal and VGC Cold Grey.

The helmets had the various lines painted VGC Wold Grey then the 'plates' were painted white, the visor black.

A few extra details were added, such as the holsters and belts in VMC Mahogany and silver for buckles and parts of the blasters.  

After varnishing the helmets were given a coat of Vallejo Silk Varnish and the visor was given a gloss varnish coat.  The matt varnish came out much more matt than usual, I don't know why.  It seems to have obscured some of the highlights.

Another mini project I'm pleased with.  They should make a good crew for Galactic Heroes.  I hope they last longer than they did at the beginning of 'A New Hope' or indeed the end of 'Rogue One'.  There are some nice additional minis I'll look out for, such as the officer in khaki uniform and sleeved jacket who gets aggressively 'questioned' by Darth Vader in the film, but these will do for now.

If you're interested, my first paint job had darker blue shirts from a basecoat of VGC Sombre Grey and the trousers were more brown. The original WotC painting had khaki trousers and the blue shirts seem common in the Star Wars: Legion community.

I've got at least a crew's worth of Hoth troopers as well, and I'm trying to get enough of the Rebel Commandoes, as seen on Endor, to make a crew of those too. 

Fistful of Lead: Might and Melee

I had a great game of the fantasy version of Fistful of Lead with some of Bodvoc's gaming group. He and I have played some games of Galactic Heroes before, and the other chaps had a little experience with the original Western ruleset, but it was the first time any of us had tried the actual fantasy set.

I provided two human retinues using my Frostgrave collection and Bodvoc made up an Elven group for himself (of course) and a goblin group.  You can read his account here.

The scenario was the first one in the book, where the aim was simply to put as many of the opposition out of action as possible and gain Renown for doing so.

At the end of the first turn my Sons of Empire are skirting the wood held by the elves. A long range crossbow shot from Heinrich Shutz has Shaken one of the goblins who are making their way over the hill. The Norse carefully move round, keeping out of the action for now.

The Sons of Empire wade the stream and take on the goblins in the small wood,

while the Norse assess the situation,

and the elves advance through their wood

Goblins are falling like chaff before the mighty Empire. I even took out the goblin leader.

The elves turn nasty, with unprovoked archery against my men.

The Norse look on, trying to decide where to wet their steel.

Heinrich wounds an elf, purely in self defence. More elves attack my Empire chaps (you'd think they'd welcome my helping rid the woods of goblins), forcing me to decide which was the greater threat

After failing to hit the Norse archer, elf bowman Emyn Lockharn is Shaken in response.

My leader, Heinrich Issacs Balthazar Resinarius turns his back on the remaining goblin to face the elves

The Norse finally decide that the elves present a threat and march forwards

The wounded lady elf charges Heinrich and a long combat begins

Heinrich Issacs is attacked by elves in the front and a goblin to the rear and the Norse move in.

Shutz and the elf continue their fight, in the background the rest of his team slowly fall to the elves and goblins

With the death of Issacs, the elves are whittled down by the Norse

Who also pitch in against the lady elf

Night fell at the end of turn eight, by which time I had one soldier left, Heinrich Shultz.  i think only one or two elves were left standing.  Two goblin rabble and one spear armed goblin slunk off, the latter had taken down Issacs.  All the Norse survived, the benefit of their cautious behaviour early on in the game.

Fistful of lead provided another great fun game, with lots of tense moments and changes of fortune.  I played a '6' several times allowing Shultz to reload and fire in the same turn, and use the relevant queen cards to remove his shock, and one of Issac's  wounds as well.

I'm looking forward to another game, though most of our retinues are a bit weakened, with several troops having to miss the next game, and more than a few have developed unfortunate negative traits.

Having played Frostgrave I do find the post battle injuries a little more punishing, and the cost of replacing lost troops seems high.  Still, it's the same for all of us.  I'll have to think of ways to spend my 9 points of Renown.

28mm Dwarf Berserker and Ironbreaker

I've been painting up a couple more dwarves to go with the crossbowman I painted here. These could be part of a Fistful of Lead fantasy retinue, or perhaps just a collection of older models, cos I like dwarves.

First is a 1985 C06 dwarf, number 16 delightfully named 'utter loony'.  At some point he lost his original axe, so I've replaced it with an impressive greatax from my box of plastic bits from old GW dwarf sprues (this box also provided the shields for the gables of the Stone Cabin here). 

C06/16 primed in Vallejo German Green Brown

The painting was pretty straight forward. Looking at him I thought he looked like quite an old dwarf, so I gave him greying hair. I used a similar technique to the blond hair on the earlier dwarf crossbow. A base of Vallejo Extra Opaque Charcoal with highlights of Vallejo Game Color Cold Grey. Then a wash of thinned black and another highlight of the Cold Grey followed by finer highlights of a VGC Stonewall Grey and Cold Grey mix and finishing with just the Stonewall Grey.

I did want to try a tartan, but the folds in his tunic are so deep I decided I'm not up to that yet. 

Base colours

Next is a 5081 Ironbreaker from the early 2000s.  Since he's much better armoured than the rest of the band, he will probably be the leader.

I got him mostly painted some time ago, but never got round to adding a shield. 

Ironbreaker sporting his paint job from a few years ago

I've done a bit more to the painting. I thought that the grey beard was lost slightly against the armour, and I'd already got a grey bearded dwarf with the berserker, so I've redone it as a red/orange beard.  I looked at a few YouTube tutorials, but  none of them quite did what I wanted.  In the end I gave the beard a basecoat of Vallejo Model Color Mahogany Brown, then a highlight with VGC Fiery Orange and finally a wash of sepia.  It is a bit garish, but I think it works on a dwarf (and is nowhere near as vivid as the GW Trollslayers of later editions)

I also repainted what I decided was an ornate belt visible on the rear of the mini.  I went for a nice rich purple with golden plates.  Finally I gave the gold detailing a sepia wash and an extra highlight with VGC Glorious Gold.

The shield is simply one of the more recent plastic infantry shields.  The helmeted dwarven head is gold on a blue field.  The various runes around the rim are also gold.

Oops, a bit of gold paint on the axe blade, I'll have to go over that with silver

Both minis were based using Geek Gaming Base Ready mix with some grass tufts added.

Both models were fun to do.  The older berserker was, perhaps, not as good a sculpt.  The fingers in particular, were very crude.  However, the ironbreaker was a bit dull by comparison.  Even adding the purple belt and changing the colour of the beard he looks very 'grey'.

So that's three dwarves for my retinue, just a couple more to go.  I'll see what I can dig up in the lead piles tomorrow.  I'm sure they'll look good defending the various mine buildings from the SITC, or trying to retake them from greenskins or ratmen.

The dwarf retinue so far.  I've already got a couple more dwarves ready to paint.

PS I used the Lost Minis Wiki to identify the minis, it's great, especially for the older stuff.