Dirtside II in 15mm, my latest obsession!

So, for no special reason I seem to have embarked on a mass purchase and thankfully mass production of 15mm Sc-fi figures. So far I have been sourcing the figures from three companies; Ground Zero Games, Brigade Models and Alternative Armies. There has been a recent binge buying on my part that has seen the acquisition of a few hundred infantry and 50+ vehicles. All these augment the preexisting (and largely ignored) forces that I already have.

The plan, such as it is (and subject to change) is to be able to field 7 different forces. Each army will have from 12 to 28 vehicles (a mix of APCs and AFVs) as well as 75+ infantry. The tech level of each army will vary quite a bit from low tech track/wheeled vehicles to full repulsor lift high tech vehicles. One army will be the exception in that they are very low tech troops with few if any vehicles but armed with captured weapons and arms given to them by an alien race that is keen to disrupt the status quo.

The rule set, Dirtside II, is intended for micro scale figures but I am adapting it to a larger scale figure. I am keeping the basing a multiple figures on a base, using Flames of War size bases, but I am including some personality figures to add something extra to the game. So far I have been fielding 'native' armies 3 to a base and plan to have 4 to a base for the more regular army/marine type forces. 

A few years back a fellow gamer took the chit drawing system that Dirtside employs for combat damage resolution and converted it to a D10 system. I have adjusted this system slightly to reduce the frequency of 'BOOM' hits that automatically take out a vehicle, but otherwise the system remains intact. So far I have been thinking through other changes but I have yet to record any of them.

To date I have painted up 20 Hammers Slammers vehicles, and 91 Ikwen native freedom fighters. I have drawn inspiration from the three Fifth Foreign Legion books and to some extent the Hammers Slammer stories. 

Some photos; The Hammers Slammers, vehicles only so far

War of the Ring latest great game that we have played

 

So, on a dare and a whim we decided to play this game. We probably should not have tried this game without at least one of us having at least glanced at the rules... Well neither of us had played this before nor even opened the rule book so it was a slow slog of a game. First was the challenge of going through the rule book, then quite a lot of prep work to set up the game, then the actual trying to figure out what we should be doing with our faction. It took some time.

There are a lot of options in this game and a lot of variables, enough to wreak havoc on any plans that you might make. The dice determine what actions you can do. Each turn you role a certain amount of dice, the Good side starts with 4 while the Evil side has up to 7 dice but you are allowed to allocate dice towards the hunt (for the one ring) Each dice face has a unique action associated with it but the rub is that you may not always get the results you need right now. The dice actions are resolved one at a time and in alternating order. So even when resolving the dice actions there is a certain amount of strategy as you may want to delay some actions until you see what your opponent has done, but then again hesitate and they may do something that directly impacts on your side. Choices, choices.

Each player also draws 2 event cards each turn. These cards can trigger events, or allow you to recruit more forces or effect the game in some way. They also can be used in combat, the bottom part of the card grants a bonus to your forces when engaged with the enemy. So do you use the card for a special event or save it for battle? Between the cards and the dice we were presented with a wide array of options every turn. 

So it was a slow game as we carefully negotiated our way through the rules and tried to figure out a game plan. We set a time limit for the game (thankfully) as the time just rapidly ticked away. (We also interrupted play for dinner) In the end we called it a game around 12:30 AM. At that point we had a pretty good grasp of the rules and what we wanted to accomplish. 

So, I have said that it was a slow slog but, it was a fun slog too! This game has a very high replay factor going for it. It was always interesting always challenging and always fun!

Check out THIS review by Shut Up & Sit Down for more details, and opinions that I agree with, I think they covered it very well!

Undaunted Battle of Britain

 

So with two games under our I think it is fair to say, that this is a very fun, quick game! A simple deck building game creates challenges for the players when it comes to executing their plans. It also dictates how long a plane may stay in the air. If you decide not to draw extra plane cards into your hand(max of 3 cards per airplane) you may find your plane tumbling out of the sky all too quickly when they take damage. However sometimes you just get the perfect chance to go on the offensive and need to postpone adding plane cards to your hand in favour of quick action. Your choice. 

The second game sees us at Dunkirk where the Germans are presented with many ship targets to fulfill their victory condition; they must sink 4 of the 6 ships. It was a tight game with the Germans eking out a victory despite being down to just  one stuka.

Some pictures from the first game:

Couple of never played by us games, Race to Adventure & Zeppelin Attack!

 

I have the role playing game Spirit of the Century, and these two games more or less build upon the theme of the RPG.  The RPG is an anything goes game of pulp adventure where you run into lost empires, talking Apes and crazy inventions, not to mention mad scientists.

Boardgames day, this time, Camelot the court, Star Trek deck building, Flash Point and of course Undaunted Normandy

 

 So we squeezed in 5 game plays this past Thursday. 

Another board game day, Dungeon Lords, Spectre 007 and Undaunted Normandy

 

 

A three game day that did not last too far into the wee hours of the night! 

A four board game day! Spectre the boardgame, Run Fight or Die, Last night on Earth and Sentinels of the Multiverse

So we managed to play a few new to us games plus an old favorite the other day. We wound up playing two zombie games, the semi cooperative Run, fight or die and the competitive Last night on Earth. Much preferred the latter game as it offered a bit more involvement as Run, fight, die tends to just be a simple random lightweight game. I really do like the Flying Frog games, they look great, they typically are very thematic and are easy to play.

 

Terraforming Mars

 

So, I played a two player version of this game last week and well it went on for a long time, a very long time, and upon reflection, well, I think we broke the game. So the game is supposed to last maybe 2 hours, ours lasted closer to 7 hours! It was the first time that I had played the game, not certain how many times my opponent had played. The game is actually a fairly straightforward game, the rules are not complex and the game play is fairly intuitive. There is a large degree of randomness as the game is driven by a deck of 208. Every turn you receive 4 cards which you may keep by paying for them or discard if you do not want some or all of them. These cards do offer up ideas on how your corporation will develop in the game what point gathering strategies you can employ, what attacks you can make on your opponent etc. There are also 2 tracks (temperature & oxygen) and 9 ocean tiles, that once the tracks are completed and the ocean tiles depleted the game will end. Part of the problem with the game is the game ending conditions.

You see, there is not a strong incentive to end the game (beyond the insanity of a 7 hour game), nor does the game force you to meet the game ending conditions. Yes you advance along a chart that gives you money and victory points, but you can also get those items from the cards you draw. Also, while the game has a turn tracker, the turn tracker only applies to the solo game forcing an end after 14 turns. In the regular game there is no such mechanic. The mini game of building money/VP engines is terribly tempting and can supplant the whole terraforming theme of the game. 

This is a problem. 

It is also exacerbated by the fact that some cards have victory points on them and many of these cards once played will be hidden so only the owner will know how many victory points they have. Thus one is further incentivized to gather as many victory points as you can and since you have no way of knowing you opponents total you are de-incentivized to end the game as you may not know how well you are doing.

Despite all this the game was entertaining (newness factor) but I am not certain if the game will work for me and my regular player(s).

This weeks played baord games Dead of Winter, Sentinels of the Multiverse, Eminent Domain

 

 So a couple of nights spent playing boardgames this week saw a new game for us played and the return of an old favorite. 

Pulp Alley AAR June 11th Trail of Clues

In order to get ready for our new campaign, we figured we should maybe try out the rules again as it has been a long time since we last played this game. Also this game was a way of introducing a new player to the game.

In the trail of clues scenario four plot points are placed 12" in from the corners, then each of the leagues are deployed within 12" of a corner (more than 6" away from a plot point) The major plot point is only placed on the table when one of the leagues has completed a minor plot point. 

 The set up

 

Blast from the past, Rogue Trooper

From the late 1980's it came, never played by me back then but I did see it at the club a lot. Well I picked up this copy cheap at a bring and buy a few years back just cause. Well, now I have played it and, well, it was not that bad (not that great either)