More Heroclix Repaints

Took a break from my usual stuff to paint up some more Heroclix for use with Supersystem 3.

First up: The Wrecking Crew. Thunderball, Piledriver, The Wrecker, and Bulldozer. Although they’re a bunch of losers, I’ve always like the Wrecking Crew. I have to say that the Piledriver miniature is one of the worst miniatures in the Heroclix line. He doesn’t even scale well with the other Crew members. I really like the sculpts on the other three, however.

Next up: the original Uncanny X-Men! Iceman, Marvel Girl, Angel, Cyclops, and Beast. I’m pretty happy with the team overall. Iceman’s base is the only one I made from scratch, the rest are modern urban and tech bases from various companies. I was reminded how much I hate painting yellow when I did this team, as yellow is notoriously difficult to shade without it looking like crap. I think Cyclops looks the worst, but I can live with it.

The Soul Survivors: A No More Room in Hell AAR Part 3

Well, I thought I had more pictures of the end of the game, but I guess we got pretty caught up in the excitement and forgot to take them. So, rather than go turn by turn, I’ll try to remember the general narrative for the rest of the game. First, Spartacus and Foxxy had a harrowing turn as the zombies swarmed the vehicle. But the windows withdtood their assault and Spartacus managed to get the Hummer started the second time around. He roared away, plowing though a group of three zombies on their way to the convenience store. The Anti-zombie rating isn’t very high on a vehicle ( I guess because zombies can easily survive being hit by a truck, as trauma isn’t much of an issue when you’re dead.) Despite this, Spartacus ran one zombie down and Foxxy shot another in the brain-pan as they drove by. They got to the convenience store, but couldn’t do anything else.

Honey Velvet, Ramses Magnum and Lorenzo fought their way through the zombie horde on the side of the gun shop, but poor Lorenzo’s shotgun picked a critical moment to run out of ammo and he was pulled down screaming.

Mr. Wisdom, Lady Chardonnay and the girls were pretty much free to act, as Mr. Wisdom had removed the threat of the spawn points in their immediate vicinity. They began to move towards their side of the board in search of more SURVIVE locations.

Braaaaaaaiiiiinnnnsssss.......

Meanwhile, with Spartacus and Foxxy gone, the big horde of zombies in the middle of the board now turned their attention towards Honey Velvet and Ramses Magnum, as they were the closest survivors. Honey Velvet ran across the street to a boarded-up diner and made her way inside, where she found a Lumberjack’s Chainsaw just lying on the table. Ramses Magnum stayed behind to cover her and fired off a few shots at an approaching zombie, killing it for good.

Mr. Wisdom and his crew fought off a few more zombies, continuing to move towards their table edge.

Spartacus Jones and Foxxy Dynamite jumped out of the Hummer. Spartacus ran into the convenience store and looted it for 5 Units of Food! Foxxy stayed outside to cover him as the zombies began to approach…

On their activation, the zombies all moved towards the closest survivors. Three of them followed Honey Velvet into the diner, but that was a mistake. Honey fired up her new toy, and the lumberjack’s chainsaw decapitated all three rotters just before it ran out of gas! Whew!

 

"Get back in the truck, Foxxy!"

The horde swarmed Foxxy Dynamite before she could get back in the truck. She fought poorly and ultimately went down beneath a mass of rotting zombie bodies.

 

Foxxxxyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!! NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

Spartacus Jones jumped in the Hummer through the sun roof and took off, leaving Foxxy to her fate. He sped towards Ramses Magnum and Honey Velvet, intent on picking them up. With only 7 survivors left, they had fulfilled the victory conditions of the scenario: we had one unit of food for each survivor. Time to get the FUNK out of here!

Ramses and Honey were able to enter the Hummer on their activation, and Mr. Wisdom and his crew were able to safely walk off their edge of the board, since no zombies were anywhere near them. The next turn, the Hummer sped off the board. Victory for the survivors!

My friends all expressed interest in campaigning NMRIH using these same characters, so there’s a chance you may see more adventures of the Soul Survivors in future posts! Stay tuned!

 

The Soul Survivors: A No More Room in Hell AAR Part 2

The zombies activate! We rolled 11 dice in the dice grave, scoring 7 zombies. They spawned at random points all over the board. None spawned close enough to Mr. Wisdom or his girls to threaten them this turn, and Honey Velvet and her group were far enough away from any spawning points that they only had to worry about the zombie that was still trying to eat B-Train this turn.

Feel the Fist of Funk!

A zombie spawned right next to Spartacus Jones and since he was within 6″, he charged right into Monstrous Melee! Spartacus could have Snap-fired at the charging zombie, but why bother? Instead he showed that dirty rotter what it means to meet the Fist of Funk! Ka-POW! One zombie down.

Meanwhile, the zombie on the truck with B-Train failed to do any damage, and so did B-Train. They remained in combat.

The Survivors won the activation next turn. Mr. Wisdom managed to get into base contact with a zombie spawn point and destroy it, which made his section of the board just a little bit safer.

Ramses Magnum fired at an approaching zombie not too far away, but failed to kill it. Lorenzo leveled his shotgun at the zombie and blew it into next week!  Honey Velvet joined the melee between B-Train and the zombie in the truck. With her machete, she made quick work of the zombie before he could sink his yellow, decayed teeth into B-Train.

Spartacus Jones was still trying to rally his group, considering Foxxy Dynamite was still suppressed. Not willing to move on without her, he consolidated the troops and waited it out this turn.

The zombies spawned at an alarming rate, due mostly to the sound of gunfire from Honey Velvet’s group. We rolled a whopping 17 dice for the dice grave and scored 12 zombies. That was enough to hit all remaining spawn points once, and one twice! It was beginning to get crowded…

To make matters worse, the zombies won the activation for the fourth round, which means they spawned AGAIN. Luckily, there were only 6 this time, but it didn’t help any, as there were now enough zombies on the board that they started to herd together. Many of them began to close on the park, where Spartacus Jones and his group had been stuck for the last two turns.

Yikes!

Both De’Andre and Cyrus Snap-fired on the approaching zombies, but didn’t do anything to slow them down, and they wound up in Monstrous Melee. Foxxy Dynamite finally came out of her stupor and shot one of them down. Spartacus fired his gun but missed. That’s a LOT of gunfire.

Mr. Wisdom got charged by a zombie, but made quick work of it with his sword-cane.

Don't mess with Mo'nique!

On the survivor’s activation, Mr. Wisdom got close to another zombie spawning point, and took that one out of play too.  His area was rapidly becoming the safest part of the board, as zombies weren’t moving towards him at all, really. All the spawning points left were closer to the other groups. However, just to be safe, Mo’nique and Lady Chardonnay moved around a car wreck to confront two shambling zombies. Mo’nique put one down permanently with her purse, while on the other side, Yu’nique made it to a car and looted it, finding 2 units of Food!!

Honey Velvet’s group began to move around the Gun Shop, staying away from the front as more zombies were heading there all the time. Ramses Magnum kicked open a nearby door to a SURVIVE! Location, and once inside, opened a fridge only to find it filled with disgusting zombie guts, which promptly coated his expensive, polyester powder-blue suit in gore! This had the unfortunate effect of raising the Zombie Threat Level by one for the rest of the game, ensuring that more and more zombies would be attracted each turn!

AAAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!

The zombies activated first AGAIN the next turn. Based on the amount of gunfire the previous turn, as well as the heightened threat level, we were rolling a truly horrendous amount of dice to spawn zombies. They seemed to come from everywhere at once! Poor B-Train lagged a little too far behind Honey Velvet’s group and wound up in Monstrous Melee as a zombie lunged at him. He was pulled down and eaten before our eyes! Honey Velvet could do nothing for him and turned her head away. Ramses Magnum, being Dead Inside, was calmly indifferent to the whole scene. It gave them some breathing room as all nearby zombies would be attracted to the feast next turn.

OM-NOM-NOM!!!!

But poor B-Train wouldn’t be the only one to become zombie chow this turn. In the park, both Cyrus and De’andre were pulled down and noshed on by zombies while Spartacus Jones and Foxxy Dynamite could only watch helplessly. Both passed their GUTS checks, so they could act freely when their time came.

Once again, Mo'nique ain't playin'!

Zombies charged at Mo’nique and Lady Chardonnay. Lady Chardonnay put one down with Snap-fire, while Mo’nique bludgeoned yet another zombie into final rest with her purse.

On the survivor’s activation, Mr. Wisdom moved to join his group, taking a shot at a zombie at long range and missing, while Yu’nique looted a nearby dumpster and scored a Big-Ass Knife!

They're breaking through!

Meanwhile, Honey Velvet’s group continued around the Gun Shop, only to find a hastily-erected barricade collapsing under the weight of half a dozen zeds. They would have to fight their way through next turn!

Let's get the FUNK out of here!

Spartacus and Foxxy ran into a nearby Hummer and locked the doors as the groaning zombies outside mobbed up and gave pursuit. He couldn’t get it started this turn, and would have to wait. Meanwhile, the zombies were getting closer, and a car door isn’t much protection…

To Be Continued!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Soul Survivors: A No More Room in Hell AAR Part 1

One of my friends has been pestering me to play a zombie game on my table for a while now, and I figured it was about time for some No More Room in Hell. The last time I played the game was also the first time I played it; and while I really loved the game, I didn’t like some of the mechanics. So I fiddled with the system, came up with some house rules (see below) and got familiar with the rulebook over the last week or so.

One of the big problems I had the first time around was that my survivors kept getting trapped in melee endlessly simply because they were too close to a zombie spawn point. By the time they dealt with whatever zombies they were fighting, they were unable to move away before they were instantly charged by a zombie and the whole cycle started over again. So, for example, my survivor ends his activation within 6″ of a spawn point. The zombies spawn, and because one spawns within 6″ of the survivor, it charges into melee. Next round the survivor activates first, but all he can do is melee with the zombie, he can’t move or shoot. Whether he beats the zombie or not, he’s effectively stuck in the same spot until the next zombie activation. If enough zombies are spawned, he may be facing the same situation next round. This becomes more and more likely as more and more zombies join the melee. Sooner or later there will be too many to defeat. But it’s just not fun to be stuck in one spot.

The rules have no way of getting out of melee once you’re in it aside from either getting killed or killing your opponent. You may retreat as you’re being charged, but who wants to do that? And even if you did, it wouldn’t prevent the above situation from happening, assuming you found yourself close enough to a spawn point again.

So I made a house rule. You can attempt to leave a melee assuming you have initiative. If you’re facing one zombie, you need only pass a FISTS check (one zombie isn’t hard to fake out). However, if you face more than one zombie or any number of survivors, you must succeed in a difficult SURVIVE check (2 successes), which is a lot harder to do. If you fail, you’re stuck in combat and can’t retaliate that turn. This also makes it pretty much impossible for Sheeple, who only have a SURVIVE score of 1, to ever voluntarily leave combat. But then again, they’re supposed to die.

My other house rule has to do with zombie feasting and zombie movement. Normally, zombies move towards the closest survivor, period. My house rule states that zombies move towards either the closest survivor or the closest zombie feast, whichever is closer.  Once the feast is over, normal zombie movement is restored. So it really only affects one turn, as zombies only feast for one turn. It gives the survivors a little break every once in a while.

Next I threw together some Survivor Groups for me and my two friends. I decided to go with a 70’s Blaxploitation theme to the game, because I love those movies and because I have the miniatures. I wish I had the time to throw together an appropriate playlist before the game but I didn’t.  (the Pulp Fiction or Jackie Brown soundtracks would have worked well.) I decided to collectively call the Groups the Soul Survivors. Although Group on Group combat is accounted for in the NMRIH rules, we decided to play a cooperative game. Three different groups deploy separately, but with the shared goal of meeting the mission objectives and getting the hell out alive.

The Fist of FUNK!

First up was my group, led by Spartacus Jones, the Fist of Funk (Shot-Caller). He’s backed up by the lovely Foxxy Dynamite (Back-Up). Behind them is De’Andre and Cyrus (both Sheeple).

Cue the Curtis Mayfield...

Next is the group led by Mr. Wisdom, the Earl of 139th St. (Shot-Caller). Backing him up with her Colt Python is Lady Chardonnay (Back Up), and her two girls Mo’nique and Yu’nique (both Sheeple). Mo’nique is the big one.

They call me MISTER Magnum!

 

Lastly, we have the group led by Honey Velvet and her submachine gun (Shot-Caller). She’s supported by Rameses Magnum in his powder blue suit (Back Up), and B-Train and Lorenzo (both Sheeple).

The Board

 

The mission was a Supply Run, the goal of which is to obtain one unit of food or ammo or fuel per survivor. All the SURVIVE ocations are marked with a red glass counter. There are three unique locations: The Gun Shop, currently barricaded up (wonder what’s in there?); The Med Stop, and the Food Mart. All of them have a water bottle cap on them to denote their unique status. There are many vehicles scattered around the table; any that could possibly be used have a small key-shaped screw on them. And away we go!

Maybe we can get this started.....GAAAAH!

 

We deployed our Groups separately. Honey Velvet and her crew made a beeline for the closest vehicle, an old pickup. (Astute readers may notice the color of the pickup changed from blue to red. That’s because my friend wanted a pickup that looked like the one from Sanford and Son.) B-Train hopped in and tried to start it up, only to find a zombie inside! B Train found himself in Monstrous Melee on Turn 1! He managed to hold it off for this turn…

Elsewhere, Mr. Wisdom and his girls made his way around a building towards a spawn point. Mr. Wisdom has the special ability to destroy zombie spawn points, an ability he put to good use in this game. He didn’t make it this turn.

Meanwhile, Foxxy Dynamite moved quickly over to an abandoned tractor (a SURVIVE location). One quick exploration later, she discovered a battery operated television broadcasting the fateful last newscast of a doomed anchorman as he became zombie chow on camera! She rolled on the Fear Reaction table, and was so traumatized by what she saw that she collapsed and was suppressed for 2 turns! Spartacus Jones got into a good firing position, as it was time for the zombies to activate!

To be continued!

 

The Dwarves are Upon You!

I have found a cure for my painting blues. I’ve decided that rather than drive myself crazy painting things I don’t want to, I’ll take a break and get started on those Dwarfs I’ve been meaning to paint for a while. Here are the results.

It’s a modest start: one unit of Warriors, one unit of Miners, a small unit of Quarrelers (that’s crossbowmen, not argumentative dwarfs), and an organ gun. It should be noted that with the exception of the organ gun and its crew, none of these are GW models.  Like I give a shit. Both the Warriors and the Miners are from Black Tree Design, the Crossbowmen are from Mantic. I placed them around some Gale Force Nine Battlefield in a Box Rocky Outcroppings.

First up are the Miners. I love the look of Black Tree’s dwarfs, as they are all metal and chunky, reminiscent of that old Citadel Dwarf range, which I really like. The only criticism I have of them is that there isn’t enough variation in the packaging. Out of 20 figures, I got 5 of one sculpt and 4 of another, while conversely I got 1 each of two very cool sculpts. Oh well. I did my best to paint them with enough variation so that they are individualized, but I tied the unit together by using the same dirty colors across the board (they’re miners, after all). I used some leftover mat board from my Modular Roads project as movement trays.

Up next are the Warriors. Again, I like the look of Black Tree. These guys are doubly cool because they’re so armored up, I could easily use them as proxy Ironbreakers. (Quick Math: I get 20 of these metal dwarfs from Black Tree for about $40. The same unit of “official” GW Ironbreakers would cost me $100.  I’d say they’re likely to be Ironbreakers most of the time.)

I didn’t make any banners for either unit yet, because I kind of suck at scratch-building banners. Maybe one day I’ll get around to it.

Last are the Quarrelers and the organ gun. The organ gun is an old-school GW metal version. I actually like the newer version better, but this one is fine.  I have mixed feelings about the Mantic Dwarfs. They definitely have a look all their own, and you can’t beat the price at about $1.50 each. I really dislike the fact that in this pack of 10 dwarfs, you get a bunch of head variations but can only really use 5, as the other 5 dwarfs are all one piece. The one-piece dwarfs are the dwarfs that are firing the crossbows, pretty much the front rank. There is a noticeable lack of detail on these models as opposed to the ones with separate heads. In addition, they don’t really rank up well unless you want the back rank to be facing off to the side. A somewhat annoying design flaw.

So, what next? Well, I have all the dwarfs from the Battle for Skull Pass boxed set awaiting painting: 12 Warriors, 10 Thunderers, 8 Miners, a cannon and crew, a Thane and 1 Slayer. (I’ve always thought Dwarf Slayers are stupid.) I have an unbuilt unit of Mantic Shieldbreakers that seem to have the same annoying lack of detail on the one-piece models as the Crossbowmen. And I have another regiment of GW dwarf Miners (making that 15 more miners in total, minus my unneeded second command group). I have another dwarf cannon and crew, and a proxy Flame cannon to paint, plus a few lords and heroes…So the army is a long way from complete, but I need to get back to my other projects for now.

When does painting = work?

Lately I have a problem: I can’t seem to get excited about painting. The reason is simple: it feels like it’s something I have to do, not something I want to do. In other words, it’s a lot like work.

I run an ongoing AD&D campaign, and I use miniatures for that. Which means that in addition to the normal prep work of getting an adventure together, I need to find time to paint miniatures in time for when they will be needed. So far, my method has been to paint up a bunch of stuff for a good story arc or two, then take a brief hiatus while one of my friends runs something for a while. In the meantime, I paint more miniatures to be used the next time I run my campaign. So far it’s worked pretty well. But now it’s starting to get on my nerves.

With all the miniature gaming I’ve been doing lately (and all the miniature gaming I want to do) there are a whole lot of things I would rather be painting than the miniatures required for my AD&D game. And they’re all just sitting there in the insanity pile. So, although I’d love to get my Dreadball teams painted; or start that new proxy Imperial Guard army with Wargames Factory Greatcoats; or paint those damn WFB High Elves and Dwarfs that are still mostly unpainted; or paint any of the (many) Clan War miniatures I have; or repaint some Heroclix for a SS3 scenario or two; or build and paint some scenery (for anything); or paint those Terminators and Genestealers for Space Hulk; or paint some Hydra Retro Raygun or Bob Murch’s Pulp Figures; or dive head first into Western miniatures for some Wild West skirmish; or even paint some fantasy miniatures that I’m in no hurry to use for an upcoming game…I can’t. (And those are just the examples I can think of off the top of my head. If I was home, where my miniatures are, I could list a lot more.)

I can’t because I need 20 kobolds, a female cleric, a griffon and a gelatinous cube by next week. (Note: I don’t actually need any of this stuff, but my players read this, so I’m wary of giving anything away.)

It’s kind of like all those books I never appreciated when I was forced to read them for school, but loved when I reread them later in life. If I feel obligated to do something, it kind of sucks the joy out of it.

Don’t get me wrong: I’d love to paint any miniature as opposed to, say, shovel snow or rake leaves. But I find I spend less time per session at the painting table, because I just can’t get into it. Which of course makes the overall job that much longer.

I’d be interested to hear some thoughts on this from other gamers and miniature enthusiasts. I’m curious to know if any of you experience the same thing from time to time, or if it’s just me finding problems with everything, including my hobbies. I’m particularly interested in any professional painters out there, considering that for you, it actually IS work. What happens if someone commissions you to paint something that you hate painting ? How do you get motivated to do it (aside from the fact that you’re getting paid)? When do you ever have time to paint your own stuff?

The Chase: A .45 Adventure AAR

This could easily be the bloodiest game I have ever played in all my years of wargaming. It was like a Sam Peckinpah film on my gaming table.

With all the Super System 3 I’ve been playing lately, my Pulp gaming has been neglected.  So I had a couple of friends over for some .45 Adventure. (I have since bought the 2nd Edition, but we used 1st ed. the other night.) We started off with the scenario included in the rulebook, “Shootout in the Park”.  It’s designed for two players, but I modified it a bit to include three different teams. Basically, with the heroes in pursuit, a mob boss and his goons flee across a park (the battlefield), dropping two halves of an incriminating ledger listing all the bribed city officials the mob boss has under his thumb. Both sides are trying to find the ledgers and leave the park with them.

The two teams are .45 Adventure’s resident vigilante The Gargoyle and his ally, Ace Reporter Bridgit O’Rourke; and Mob Boss “Little” Paulie Wolinsky and his two goons, “Full Count” Nocerino and Tommy “Gun” Miller. I added a third team: corrupt cops! These cops know that if the ledgers get out, their crooked activities will be revealed. So why not just grab the ledgers and eliminate the mob boss while they’re at it?

The scenario ended with “Little” Paulie recovering both halves of the ledger and fleeing the park, leaving all three cops dead, and Bridgit O’Rourke out of action, pummeled mercilessly into unconsciousness by “Full Count” Nocerino.

Which set us up for the second (and bloodiest) scenario of the night…The Chase!

The Scenario

.45 Adventure is designed to be played on a 2’x 2′ surface, which isn’t a whole lot of room where vehicles are concerned. So I set up a 4′ x 4′ board as you see here. “Little” Paulie is in his car, fleeing from the Gargoyle, who is in hot pursuit. He has to make it all the way around the board and exit off the top near the construction yard. But a lot can happen before then. There are encounter markers along the road as well as in the city. To make matters worse, the streets are lit, but the rest of the board is dark, limiting models’ visibility to 12″.

The big dump truck in the construction yard contains a load of junk. Any model can take an action to dump the load if they are in base contact with the truck. This will block the road. It’s not a good idea to do that until the last possible second, however, as you never know who might be in the lead and you don’t want to prevent your own team from making their escape with the ledgers!

The Teams

 

The heroes are The Gargoyle (center), ex-prize fighter Moe Shrevnitz (right), and eccentric, driven District Attorney Roland N Seguin (left), who is determined to rid New Commerce of crime! The Gargoyle is in his car, which is a bit better than your average buggy. The Gargoyle is Rank 3, while the other two are Rank 2. If Bridgit didn’t get creamed in the first scenario, she would have been here too.

The hoods( from left to right) are Jimmy Gumballs, “Full Count” Nocerino, “Little” Paulie Wolinsky, Rocco Fortunato (nods to Frank Sinatra), Tommy “Gun” Miller, and around the back of the car, Jack Sacco, the driver. Jack and “Little” Paulie are in the mob boss’s roadster, fleeing from the Gargoyle. The rest of the goons are all on guard duty in the construction yard. Paulie is a Grade 3 Mob Boss, Rocco a Grade 2 Enforcer, and the rest are Grade 1.

The cops are Sgt. Danny Burke (center), a Grade 3 Police Sergeant, and 4 Grade 1 cops: (L-R) Officer James Haggerty, Officer Enoch Conlon, Officer Rory Landry, and Officer Nick Dearcy. And a fine top o’ the mornin’ to ya!

Any surprise the cops or heroes might have enjoyed was pretty much lost on the first turn of the game, when Officer Conlon opened up on DA Seguin with his rifle, scoring a head wound that the DA miraculously survived. From there it went south pretty fast in the construction yard. Within a few turns it looked like this. That’s “Full Count” Nocerino, Moe Shrevnitz, Officer Dearcy, Officer Landry, Officer Conlon and Jimmy Gumballs, all dead. Moe and “Full Count” learned the hard way not to show up with your fists to a gun fight. The star of the show was Officer Landry, who caved in Jimmy Gumballs’s skull with the butt of his shotgun and then, on his next activation, walked up and put a full blast straight into “Full Count’s” chest.

Meanwhile, with Jack Sacco driving, “Little” Paulie was free to fire at the pursuing Gargoyle with abandon. Despite having a faster and more maneuverable car, The Gargoyle was unable to catch “Little” Paulie before he lost control of the roadster after being wounded several times. He swerved off the road, running over and killing Officer Haggerty in the process.

Eventually, The Gargoyle got his car back on the road and once again in pursuit. In the meantime, Sgt. Burke, after spending two turns climbing out of an open manhole he fell into (damn encounter markers!) shot and wounded Jack Sacco, who lost control of the car. It flipped over and landed on Sgt. Burke, who survived long enough to put a few more rounds into “Little” Paulie, wounding him in the arms. Neither Sacco nor “Little” Paulie could use their arms any more, they were so badly shot up. Which of course meant they couldn’t drive. Or shoot. They could just stand there and wait for Sgt. Burke to finish them off.

The Gargoyle had other plans. He swerved around the corner in his sweet ride, pausing long enough to shoot Sgt. Burke between the eyes before running down Rocco Fortunato, killing him. That’s 2 people the Gargoyle had murdered with his car. Over the course of the game, the Gargoyle had been shot so many times that he could barely use his arms and legs. Tommy “Gun” Miller ventilated The Gargoyle and his car a bit more, killing him.

Hedging his bets, DA Seguin managed to get close enough to the truck to dump the junk in the road just in case Tommy “Gun” managed to get to the mob boss’s car and get it running again. Then he hunted Miller down like a dog, killing him. But not before Miller cut him off at the knees with a spray of .45 bullets from his Thompson!

So the end of the game looked like this: All cops: dead. The Gargoyle and Moe: dead. Tommy “Gun” Miller, “Full Count” Nocerino, Rocco Fortunato, and Jimmy Gumballs: dead. DA Seguin: crippled and crawling towards the car wherein Jack Sacco and “Little” Paulie waited, unable to do anything but look sadly at where their arms used to be.

Just another night in New Commerce!

 

Night of the Sentinels: A Super System 3 Scenario and AAR

I recently picked up four Heroclix Sentinels from some Craigslist sellers, and decided I needed to use them for Super System 3. I came up with the following scenario, and played through it with some friends the other night.

The Scenario

A young mutant’s powers have just manifested for the first time. Cerebro ranks this unknown as potentially one of the most powerful beings on the planet.  The X-Men are sent to recover him and bring him back to the Xavier Institute for his own safety and security.

Unfortunately, S.H.I.E.L.D. has learned of this mutant and is taking no chances. Acting Director Maria Hill quickly dispatches two of her best recovery teams to the area, hoping to bring the mutant in as quickly as possible. When she learns of the X-Men’s involvement, she authorizes the use of Mark VII Sentinels. It is imperative that the mutant in question be brought under S.H.I.E.L.D.’s control, to be used and/or terminated if necessary, and Maria Hill isn’t one for leaving things to chance.

Meanwhile, the mutant in question, Reggie Bowers, is cold, hungry and scared out of his mind of his new powers.

Forces: One player controls the X-Men: A team of 6-10 would be best (about 750-800 points), depending on the power levels of the heroes chosen. The other player controls two recovery teams of 6 S.H.I.E.L.D. agents each (henchmen), led by one agent in Mandroid armor. One recovery team is made up of veterans, giving them double Vitality. The S.H.I.E.L.D. player will also control the Sentinels, but there are special rules for them.

Setup: The game is played on a 4’x6’ table, divided into sextants of 2’x2’.  Each side deploys their forces on either of the short sides. The X-Men player may deploy all his models at the start of the game. The S.H.I.E.L.D. player may only deploy his Recovery Teams and the Mandroids at the start of the game.

Place at least 4 counters in cover in the two middle sextants of the board. The counters should be numbered in some way to distinguish each from the others. These represent possible hiding places where Reggie has gone to ground.

Special Rules

Reggie: Reggie has the following stats: Strength : 3 Agility: 4 Mind: 2 Resolve: 2 Vitality 5 AP: 6. His powers play no part in the scenario, as he can’t control them yet and is too scared to try.  He begins the game in hiding. The four counters represent possible hiding places. At the start of the game, assign Reggie one of the numbers on the back of the counters. At any point during a model’s turn, if that model is within 6” of a counter, it can try to spot Reggie. Make an opposed Mind vs. Reggie’s Agility contest. If the model wins, flip the counter over and look at the number. If it doesn’t match Reggie’s number, it’s not him. If it does, the model has spotted Reggie. Remove all the counters and place the miniature representing Reggie on that spot.

At the start of every subsequent turn, if Reggie is not in base contact with another model, he will move away from any model towards cover at his full AP (6).  If he is in base contact with a model, he will move with that model up to that model’s AP total or Reggie’s, whichever is less. This represents Reggie being herded along by either side. If the model herding Reggie is KO’ed, Reggie will move randomly again at the start of the next turn until he is in base contact with another model.

Reggie cannot be attacked by either side (they want him alive), and he will not fight. He will move with any model that gets into base contact with him, but can only move as described above. He may be grabbed and moved along faster;, however, he will actively resist any attempts to grab him, and may be hurt unintentionally during a rescue attempt (see below).

Sentinels: At the start of the turn, beginning on Turn 2, the S.H.I.E.L.D. player may deploy a Sentinel in any sextant he wishes. It can activate as normal on the turn it comes into play. Every second turn thereafter (i.e. turn 4, 6, 8, etc), and/or any turn immediately following the destruction of a Sentinel, the S.H.I.E.L.D. player may deploy another Sentinel in the same manner.

The following exceptions apply:  if Reggie has been revealed, the S.H.I.E.L.D. player must deploy his Sentinel in the same sextant that Reggie currently occupies.

Sentinel Grab: If a Sentinel successfully grabs Reggie, he is rendered unconscious immediately and will not resist on subsequent turns. Reggie will regain consciousness if freed (see below).

Rescuing Reggie:
If any model (other than a Sentinel) successfully grabs Reggie, Reggie will resist to the best of his ability each turn until he either gets away or is carried off the board. Note that if Reggie breaks free from a flying model he will suffer falling damage. If a model carrying Reggie is attacked and missed, there is a chance Reggie will be hit (same as firing into close combat). If a model carrying Reggie is hit for at least 2 Vitality, the model drops Reggie and Reggie is free to move on the next turn.

If a Sentinel drops Reggie, he will suffer falling damage (3D) unless a model catches him. A model attempting to catch Reggie must be in base contact with the Sentinel or possess the Bodyguard power, and must pass a Difficult-2 Agility Roll or Reggie hits the ground. If he’s not killed by the fall, Reggie will regain consciousness immediately and can act normally on his next turn, but he will be prone (2AP to stand up).

Winning the Game: A player wins the game either by wiping out the enemy team or by getting Reggie off of their side of the board. If this happens, the game ends immediately, regardless of any remaining models on the board. If Reggie dies during a rescue attempt, the player attempting the rescue loses immediately.

How it all played out:

In my game, the X-Men were controlled by four of my friends in teams of two heroes each, while I controlled S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Sentinels. The X-Men consisted of Storm, Cyclops, Rogue, Wolverine, Colossus, Iceman, Gambit and Longshot.

While the game was too long to detail turn by turn, I’ll share some highlights. I assumed that the hunt for Reggie would take a while, as there are four places he could be. In the meantime, S.H.I.E.L.D. might get a couple of shots off at an X-Man or two, and vice-versa. Turns out Reggie was discovered by Turn 2, thanks to Iceman’s ability to move pretty fast and take Longshot along with him. This duo approached a random marker and was able to make the opposed Mind vs. Agility check to spot Reggie, thanks in part to Longshot’s Fortune power. By Turn 2, Reggie was being herded along towards the X-Men’s side of the board, far, far away from S.H.I.E.L.D.

Thankfully, with Reggie now revealed, I was able to deploy a Sentinel right where he needed to be on Turn 2. This was able to delay the X-Men, hopefully long enough for S.H.I.E.L.D. to catch up. That didn’t happen, but the Sentinel made quick work of Longshot (which was a good strategy for me, as Fortune is a power that can really hose your opponent) and caused Reggie to run away randomly for a turn.

Unfortunately for me, on Turn 3, Wolverine and Rogue took out the sentinel in spectacular fashion. Wolverine is the best he is at what he does, which is shred robots like wet tissue. His Soul Fire ability makes it so that instead of resisting damage with their Physical Resistance (which is formidable), the Sentinels had to resist with their Mind (which is far less impressive). Wolvie took the Sentinel from 11 Vitality down to 1 in one shot, whereupon Rogue finished it off with a Power Dive.

Turn 4 allowed me to deploy another Sentinel, so I wasted no time in doing so. Over the course of the next few turns, I would get all 4 Sentinels on the board, the X-Men would get Reggie to within 1″ of their table edge, only to have a Sentinel rip him from their grasp and high-tail it across the board with the hapless Reggie in his fist. My S.H.I.E.L.D. guys would do absolutely nothing of consequence. They failed at every opportunity to inflict damage, and they were so slow, they barely got anywhere near the action for most of the game.

Except for these guys.

First, I must confess to a certain bias. I hate Gambit. I always have. I find him to be a stupid character with a stupid premise. I hate his costume. I hate his powers. I hate his stupid Cajun accent and his stupid telescoping quarterstaff. In short, I hate Gambit. A lot.

Which is why I found it so vexing that despite shooting at his stupid Cajun ass EVERY TURN with EVERY AVAILABLE MODEL, I was unable to wound him enough to kill him. I even resorted to swarming him en masse, thinking that sheer weight of numbers would overwhelm him. Well, not even 6 highly trained S.H.I.E.L.D agents, one Mandroid, and a fire team of S.H.I.E.L.D. veterans taking intermittent potshots at the melee could drop Gambit. The fact that my friend provided smack-talk in Gambit’s Cajun-accented voice after every failed attempt (Honh Honh Honh, mon ami!) only added to my misery.

The most dramatic moment came at the end of the game, when a Sentinel carrying Reggie made a beeline to the other side of the board, with Iceman and Wolverine in hot pursuit. Iceman tried in vain to entangle the Sentinel in ice so that Wolverine could get close enough to do what he does best, but he was unable to entangle the Sentinel successfully. Also, on the last turn, out of sheer spite, I had my remaining Sentinel charge Gambit hoping to smear him across the pavement.

It didn’t work. Gambit survived.

So although I won the game, I still feel like I lost.

Making Construction Materials

Recently, I made some stacked pipes and I-beams for use in my modern games, such as Super System 3 and No More Room in Hell. I figured I’d share it with you.  It’s not hard to do and I’m pretty happy with the results.

First, you’ll need some plastic rods, like the ones shown here. I picked mine up at a model railroad shop, but they’re available at most hobby stores, too. I chose a size compatible with my chosen gaming scale, 28mm. They cost me a little over a buck apiece.

The rods I bought are about 15″ long. You’ll also need a ruler and a small hobby saw, shown above.

Measure out the length you want for the pipes and I-beams. I chose 5″ pipes and 4″ girders.

Once you’ve made your mark, cut the pipes to the desired length. Remember that you’ll likely have pipes of slightly different sizes when you’re done, as the saw blade is probably thinner that the mark you made. You may need to trim a bit when you’re done so they all measure up.

Once they’re cut, stack them up however you want and glue them together.

Base them on whatever you want. I chose cork tile, but Masonite would probably be better. I just didn’t feel like messing around with a jigsaw if I didn’t have to.

I primed mine black. Remember to get inside the tubes, or it will look weird from the front when you paint it.

Here are the results after painting and basing. I used some O Scale Railroad scenery  (the tools, cones and wheelbarrow) to spiff up the final presentation.  Since I cut them shorter than the pipes, I was able to make a smaller stack of I-beams with what I had left over. You could make these in a day or so, allowing  for priming and painting.

Games Workshop: WTF?

Like many FLGS’s, one of the local stores I patronize regularly has had to come up with inventive ways of competing with online discounters. This place has loads of old lead, including lots of GW stuff from the past 10 years or so, still new in the box. His compete strategy is simple: if you buy anything other than GW, he gives you a gift certificate for 30% of the purchase value towards anything in the store aside from GW stuff. For GW stuff, he gives you a $20 gift certificate for every $100 you spend.

That’s a pretty good deal, I would say. Or is it? It sure is as far as the non-GW stuff goes. But for the GW stuff, I’m not so sure.

Let me explain.

I recently accrued $100 worth of GW purchases at the store, so I had a $20 credit burning a hole in my pocket. I don’t buy any of the new stuff, since I never play the games anymore. What did I buy? Lots of individual regiment boxes for armies I don’t play, mainly for use in skirmish games and as cannon fodder for my AD&D game. For example, I bought a unit box of Empire Swordsmen for $30 there (I told you he has a lot of stuff still new in box, priced according to when he ordered them…in this case I’d say about 8 years ago or so.) I also bought a bunch of metal miniatures considering he sells all his old metal GW stuff for half price.

Well, I now have a gaming table that I’m hoping gets a lot of use. I have a couple of armies  for both their games, but like many gamers I always consider more. So yesterday I went to the store, thinking I might plop down a decent chunk of change on a battalion box, either for 40K or WFB. Why not? He has some battalion boxes from 8-9 years ago still on the shelf, and they’re priced accordingly as low as $90. Take $20 off that, and it’s starting to look like a deal, depending on the army you pick.

I looked at all the battalion boxes he had for sale for both games, and let me tell you, there’s a huge difference in what you get for what you spend, both across armies and across time.

He had two versions of the Empire Battalion box. (Since I already bought a box of swordsmen, I considered getting a battalion and having an Empire army ready to go.) Both versions contained 20 State Troops, 10 Handgunners, and 8 Reiksguard Knights. One also came with a Cannon and crew, the other came with 10 Greatswords instead. The Cannon was the cheaper choice: it was $90. The Greatswords cost $105. (This is the current version available on the GW website.) Maybe a little expensive, but not a terrible deal, considering you get over 40 miniatures per box.

The best deal I found was a Skaven Battalion, which contained 40 Clanrats, 20 Plague Monks, 2 Rat Ogres with Handler, and 2 Rat Swarms with Handlers for $115. These are the old syle Skaven, not the new ones. But with over 60 miniatures, it’s not a bad deal.

But these are either old WFB Battalions, or they’re the exception. The newer ones have fewer figures. and they cost more. And they changed the game itself to favor more miniatures and bigger units.

As far as old 40K Battalions went, the ones with the most miniatures for the money were the Tyranids and the Tau. I don’t want or need more Tyranids, and I don’t know anything about the Tau. Maybe if he had one of the older Tau codices there I would have considered buying it since it was priced at $90 and included 10 Fire Warriors, 3 Stealth Suits, 1 Battlesuit, 1 Devilfish Tank, and 12 Kroots. But I’m not buying a new codex for $45, and I don’t even own the latest version of the game.

This month GW released the new Eldar models, and everyone is outraged at the price hike. The Eldar Battalion is especially egregious. You get a total of 17 miniatures: 10 Guardians, 5 Dire Avengers, a Viper Jetbike, and a Wave Serpent tank. For $115. Now, GW will have its fanboys who think this is “really a good deal for what you’re getting, especially given the quality of the models”, but that’s just bullshit. And yeah, you get a tank. Big fucking deal. See the Tau above. 15 troops does not a Battalion make. They used to sell WFB regiments of 20 miniatures for 30 bucks! I know: I just bought some!

So, back to my original question: is $20 off already inflated prices actually a good deal? Or has GW’s pricing plan pretty much invalidated what this poor store owner is trying to do? By anyone’s estimation, 20 bucks off is a pretty good deal. Unless you’re paying way too much for what you’re getting to begin with. Not the owner’s fault, but he’s the one who stocks the items and has to deal with the crap from people who hate GW’s prices, who then buy from someone online. As he put it to me yesterday, “People only come to me if I’m their last resort. They need it tomorrow or something like that.”

Despite what you may think, this isn’t really a rant on GW’s prices, although any discussion about GW is bound to get around to pricing eventually (and it’s not hard to see why). It’s a speculation about what the fuck GW is really doing. Let me repeat that: this is pure speculation. I have no real knowledge of GW’s business plan or goals.

For retailers, there are already a ton of restrictions when it comes to selling GW stuff, even online. Recently, I have heard that the War Store has had to stop selling GW bits or risk losing the ability to sell GW at all, which they do for 20% off already, although they are forbidden to show any prices and/or merchandise on the site. How long do you think that will continue? And if the War Store and online sellers are having problems with the restrictions, how much trouble do you think the FLGS owner in his brick and mortar place can ever begin to compete? He can’t, really. Unless he’s a GW store.

Which makes me wonder if GW is actually trying to price the retailer out of the market, so that anyone who wants to buy GW stuff will have to buy directly from GW. it seems like a dumb idea, but is it really? No more wholesale sales to retailers, and they can charge what they want. While they can’t control the secondary market, they can make all the new stuff impossible to get for less than whatever they want to charge. While it cuts their third-party distribution network and limits exposure to their games, they have enough money to open new stores. Seems like a shitty business practice to me, but what do I know? All I know is FLGS owners everywhere aren’t moving GW stuff as much as they should, because most people consider retail too expensive and get it online for cheaper. What if that suddenly went away? Who would benefit?

I’m really trying to figure out GW’s game plan here. It reminds me of something that happened in the mid-90’s, when I was working in a comic book store. Anyone familiar with the crash of the comics market in the 90’s knows there were plenty of bad marketing ideas that capitalized on collectors’-especially new collectors’-unrealistic expectations of the “guaranteed” value of comics increasing over time. Thus there were gimmicky covers, multiple covers of the same issue (buy them all to have a complete collection!), price hikes, gratuitous cameos of “hot” characters and crossover storylines intended to dive sales of shitty books. That, coupled with the decision of Marvel Comics to distribute their own stuff exclusively, meant that Joe Retailer no longer enjoyed the big wholesale discount he got from buying all his Marvel and everything else from a third-party distributor. DC soon followed suit and became exclusive to one distributor, so now Joe Retailer had to order from more places, which means he ordered less from each, which means he paid more overall. To make matters worse, eventually the collectors stopped buying into the crap, and a lot of comic shops went out of business when they couldn’t move the merchandise they ordered two months previously in anticipation of collector demand that was suddenly no longer there.

Shortly before the big crash, though, Marvel started advertising something called “Marvel Mart” in their comics, which was a way for the individual collector to order from Marvel directly. As I recall, it was packaged in a way that implied the comic shop was an unreliable way to get your comics on time and in good condition. Plus, if you ordered directly, you saved money, since it was cheaper than Joe Retailer. Well, comic store owners went ballistic, since it seemed that Marvel was trying to drive them out of business. If I remember correctly, Marvel relented and Marvel Mart went away, mainly because Marvel didn’t expect the backlash from retailers. After all, Marvel comics accounted for something like 70% of comic sales at the time. Take that away, and how can an owner survive? Most didn’t. The store I worked at survived for a time on Magic: the Gathering card sales. Then it went out of business, too.

Much as I love playing other games, for most people GW is synonymous with miniatures gaming, for better or worse.  I have to think that this will hit the wall at some point, but that wall just keeps getting pushed back.

I didn’t buy anything yesterday after all, although I am considering the older Empire Battalion and/or maybe the Tau, if I can find the older codex. I still have two WFB armies I’m working on (which means I haven’t made much progress). I just feel bad for this store owner and others like him, who are really struggling and fighting an uphill battle. To be fair, it’s not just GW’s fault; they just have the worst prices. Amazon sells X-Wing stuff for a lot less than retail, for example. It wasn’t too long ago I considered opening a store of my own. With the current state of the market, I’d be rolling some heavily-loaded dice if I did. I just think it’s sad that the little guy might not be around too much longer.