Catastrophic Morale:

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In a Galaxy Far Far Away, I wrote an article about using the kids game Snakes & Ladders as a unique and different morale table for skirmish games.

Thanks to Bob Cordery (Wargaming Miscellany) I've been exploring the abandoned warehouse of wargaming ideas and even full blown games that have been locked away in my head from a different time in my life and I'm going to spring a few on you. So be warned.

Maff (Master Chef) has also been prompting me to blog up some of our mini games. These are generally a set of scribbles on the back of an old envelope or in a notebook that never get written up or fully developed but often provide an evening or two's fun. As an example, the usual sort of thing would be say, a Gears of War (Xbox360) urban game.  The whole thing being light on rules but with the right mechanisms, that encourage fast and furious play reflecting the style of action in Gears of War.

Back to the Snakes & Ladders Morale Engine.  The concept very basically at this time in the morning, is that character morale starts high - can be 100 or lower, 60, 40 etc and then works backwards, as combat saps their combat energy, fear and tension increases etc. Using a D6 each turn, you work backwards. If the character lands on a snake - he has a catastrophic morale failure and slides down the snake. Conversely, you know the game, lands on a ladder, he has a sudden burst of courage...... If any character reaches 1, he is out of the game - runs away screaming, sulks off unnoticed or curls into a ball to hide.

Not convinced? Think of the ladder on square 28 which ascends to square 84 being the result that turns Hudson from zero to hero in the movie ALIENS.

You can imagine that this brings an edge of chaos to the game and I thought it would be particularly good at representing human's first contact with hideous or well tooled aliens.

Of course there are several ways of improving on the basic idea to reflect differences in training and experience, maybe different bands have an effect on combat ability. Of course you may also want to create your own more martial looking table for use in public. But I just wanted to get the idea out there.

Cheers

Mark

LIVING INSIDE! A Preview of UNDEAD States of America

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UNDEAD STATES OF AMERICA: The Zombie War Miniature Game from the unlikely sounding UBER GOOBER GAMES is simply outstanding!

You, yes You! are responsible for leading the surviving living from the cities. You must feed them, arm them and fight off the Zombie hordes.

UNDEAD STATES OF AMERICA is different to other Zombie games in that this not 1-to-1 skirmish, it's a full blown tabletop wargame.

If Zombies are your thang, and even if they are not, buy these rules! Whilst I love the premise behind the game itself, I have to admit, it's the campaign games that blow me away!

You feel like some kind of John Connor, mapping the spread of infection, organising the survivors and leading the fight back against the undead.

John Connor? Yes, can you see where I'm going! The day I received my set of the rules, I was so wired with inspiration that I was still pouring over them at 2a.m. in the morning, at which time I fired off a congratualtory note to author Steve Metze. Here in my hands was not just an awesome Zombie game, but the perfect vehicle to organise the resistance against Skynet, to fight back against the Alien Grey Tripods or make my stand against the Commies in Red Dawn.

UNDEAD STATES OF AMERICA includes 40 pages of content divided into Game Rules, Short Campaign, Continental Campaign and cut-out Zombie/Living unit counters for $20. Check out the webpage for sample pages and more information.

WWW.UNDEADSTATESOFAMERICA.COM

Cheers
Mark

Master Chef Plays By The Rules

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5150, We Can Be Heroes II
& Mutants and Death Ray Guns -

A Rules Comparison

Master Chef here; Take a knee and listen up.....

Over the last few weeks, inspired by finishing West Wing, I have been thinking of rules to use for small skirmish games (the WW influence was in terms of FBI or Secret Service details taking on bad guys in Vince Flynn style action) - this of course mutated into a force march through the above rules. Here are my highly subjective thoughts:

5150

Ed Texiera has created a system with its own internal logic and Universe - not a mean feat. This means I'll be tempted to plunder the Star Army etc for ideas for my own squads; I love the brutal simplicity of the shooting system and the squad creation. I'm not sold on the term "star" for the main figure (then again, I toyed with the terms Tier 1, 2 & 3 so who am I to judge?) but thats minor; the reaction system is comprehensive - and there is the problem. Frederick The Great said - if you defend eveywhere you defend nowhere; by covering all the bases in a series of tables, I found 5150 lost flow and became a matter of moving from one test to another.

WE CAN BE HEROES II

Well Gordon Roach has created the most accesible rules I have ever seen - as someone who recoils in disorder at rules overkill, I loved the layout - its not often you get to drool at great paintjobs, smile at humour and learn rules at the same time. The game itself is slick and runs well - the generic nature means its adaptable to all and sundry. I just personally don't get on well with card driven rules - I have a nagging fear of bad shuffling and card counting - a subconcious tendency to "know" that the hero has all his activations left......

MUTANTS & DEATH RAY GUNS

Andrea Sfiligoi at Ganesha has adapted the Song of.... system for post apocalypse mayhem, as well as pretty much anything else. This is not Star Wars - more Triffids meets Mad Max. But with rules for power armour, lasers etc it can be used for sci fi oh so easily. My first game saw Vargr Scouts (ie canine mutants) play Locust Horde (errr mutants) after about 5 minutes of pen chewing. There's a nice little campaign system which can probably be adapted for a SF background. No cards, just dice roll to activate - which can back fire. Oh yes it can.

So, what's the verdict? Frankly, they are all gorram good, very good and we are lucky to have three fine sets just begging to be bought as PDFs. I will be using MDRG because it doesn't have cards, has a vicious activation system and well, I just like it. If someone said "Master Chef, we're playing 5150" I'd pull up a chair and jump right in - the same with WCBH2.

So, all I need is to get my Foundry Figs and Agent Casper's DC TaskForce will be swooping onto those armed crazies of all persuasions. No, I'll be refighting Gears of War in 15mm. No, its going to be smugglers in the 'Verse taking on the Federation.....But hang on! The sub-ether is alive with chatter about Popular Front activity on Tooting Broadway Orbital Station ....."Saddle up! Let's dust-off this dirtball. We gonna conquer, and we gonna kick some!"

Cheers
Master Chef

FREE TRADERS: Part 1 - Characters & Stats

The crew of DROPSHIP HORIZON present the first installment of our Quick and Dirty (QuaD) character based Sci Fi rules:

FREE TRADERS & SPACE COWBOYS

Over the coming Easter Weekend we will be posting Characters, Stats, Patrons, Combat rules and Missions. Enjoy! A pdf with the consolidated rules will be available in the near future.

BACKGROUND

Five beat-up but lived-in crew and four passengers of the MSV Upland Goose form an uneasy alliance as they attempt to find their way in the cosmos in a dented Free Trader they call home until a better one comes along.

CHARACTERS

Captain Evan"Mal" Evans

Big Goram Hero - 4 dice to do anything (not tech stuff), strong, tough, brawler

Formerly a Colour Sergeant in 45 Drop Commando. Served in the Patagonia Campaign until the Centralist Coalition withdrew it's support - for which he blames the NAC. Fought on alongside the Colonists until the Battle of Overrun. Now owns MSV Upland Goose a Migration Class Free Trader. Armed with a MilSpec-NewTech pistol; his loyal sidekick is......

Zooey

Big Goram Hero - 4 dice to do anything ( ditto Evans) , tough, dexterity

She served as a Corporal with Evans in 45 Drop Commando and shares both his politics and morale compass; originated from The Bay Arcology in New Cardiff. Her weapon of choice is a cut down MilSpec shotgun carbine. Married to......



Dino

3 dice but 2 with guns, 4 with pilot/computers/vehicles

A Hawaii shirt salesman, conscripted into the Star Marine Fighter Corps and bribed his way into Flight School, emerging as Top Gun with a dinosaur fixation. On acquisition trips, he dresses and acts like a C18th sea pirate! ArrRRR! He's armed but only just, with a Mauser 5.56 recoiless minigun which thinks sounds cool.


Sue

3 Dice - 4 with guns / melee - Big Goram Hero, tough, brawler

A man called Sue may not surprisingly have a chip on his shoulder. Sue is fixated by guns; his current favourite is a .48 Tornado VI NewTech assault sniper carbine with Rail Extension V and explosive flechette rounds. Despite being a hard man, he hopes for a kindly smile, a soft word and understanding, so every now and then just watches......



Kylie

3 dice, 2 with guns, 4 with engines or to distract guards/bouncers/henchmen

An innocent, sweet looking ship's engineer with a taste for engines, engine oil and engineers (in that order); she can get anything moving at any time. She has a "LadyCommando" autopistol but prefers to get uo close and personal with a monkey wrench. She is sweet on......

Dr Hugh

2 dice but 4 for medical/computers

A brilliant surgeon in a sharp suit, he is scared of guns, girls and government agents. Armed with a .25 pocket pistol which he can't use, he is probably quite dangerous with a scalpel if cornered. His sister is......


Brooke

2 dice until she "switches on" via a quality roll then shes a Big Goram Hero for any combat skill.

A waif like, sexually enigmatic teenager who is barking mad, a walking encyclopdeia and lethal weapon rolled into one! Sought after by government agents she is protected by her brother and......

Samuel J "Preacher" Johnson

3 dice but 4 with bluffing or computers

An itinerant priest, "Dont mistake me for your usual kind of 'preach'. For mine is a jealous god. The Good Book says that thou shalt not kill; but i say, if you really, absolutely have to, then you kill every gorram mofo in the cockpit". He has a compact combat shotgun and is concerned for the soul of......

Imascara

2 dice but 4 for diplomatic stuff, 3 in melee, bow is 4 dice within a handspan

A former high class call girl on Central, she now runs a holistic massage service and nail bar in the B Shuttle. She is armed with an Artemis PointGrosseBlank mini crossbow and several easily concealed stilleto fighting knives. Given her knowledge of anatomy she rolls 3 dice in melee!


DROPSHIP HORIZON 2009©


Miniatures are GZG SG15-X04: Free Trader Crew and Passengers 9 individual character sculpts £3.50

Ambush Alley: Force on Force

I thought Ambush Alley was THE most innovative set of warging rules since Arty Conliffe's CROSSFIRE.

I was wrong. AMBUSH ALLEY: FORCE ON FORCE has just blown me away!

Force on Force by Shawn Carpenter is a stand on it's own game that utilises the core mechanics from Ambush Alley to play engagements between regular forces rather than regulars vs. insurgents battles. Reading through Force on Force, OMG! OMG! OMG! kept repeating in my head. This could well be my personal holy grail of wargaming.

I particularly like the initiative system that has a more considered approach than Crossfire yet still manages to capture a fluid combat environment. This is not a set of mechanics that have been threaded together to bake a set of rules. Rather, Force on Force is a thoughfully designed, well oiled and balanced machine.

The focus is on platoon / reinforced platoon sized actions played on 2 foot by 2 foot or 2 foot by 3 foot tables from WW2, through Post-War, Modern and into the Near Future. No Panzer Korps here! Which make's it all so immensely 'do-able' by the average gamer. A Sci Fi supplement is being developed.

I'm going to be shaking the rules down over the coming weeks, playing several games with a Near Future or Sci Fi twist as the situation in Hyboria deteriorates into border clashes. I'll post these games on the Blog, so keep watching.

For more information on Force on Force go to Ambush Alley Games website: (Click here). I thoroughly recommend a visit if just to pinch the scenarios and mini-campaigns!

Cheers
Mark

The Master Chef on eC3 in Future War Commander

OK Marines, Listen UP! The Master Chef here with a few words on any true Marine's least popular word: Command. Now any of you who have served with me know that there is only one command - Do What The Master Chef Tells Me To!

As we all know, however, there are also officers and worst still officers who think they know what they are doing. If that is not enough, they think that they give the orders........

So, over to Technical Sgt Name Deleted For Security Reasons to explain the wonders of the INTEGRATED COMMAND NET.......take it away Sgt, a long way away.....

ICN enables HQs and COs to exercise command functions without being on the battlefield; instead they are in orbit, in deep bunkers, anywhere where the battle ain't. Comms are presumed to be via satellite, computer net, microwave signal or similar technologies.

Only forces comprised of Advanced Tech can use it but only if the entire force is of the same tech level, otherwise the buffers wont interface the subwave on the same ghz. ;-)

You still pay for the command elements as normal plus an extra 20pts per unit (infantry base/vehicle) because they are all Independant. No, not Independants, Mr Reynolds.

Usual rules then apply except that all units can act as FO or make a recce roll - but can't do anything else that turn (non recce units do not get recce cover bonuses).

Net Overload - the chances of a command blunder can be increased to a double 5.

OK thats all for now, I'll leave it to CoB Hannam to try to explain how to jam signals on the ICN.

Stand......EASY !