AIRFIX TOY SOLDIERS AND ME: THE BEGINNING.

My first two packs of Airfix soldiers were the old style German Infantry and 8th Army.

These were gifts from my gran and my dad. Over the years, a pattern developed that when my gran was looking after me, when my parents went out at the weekend, I got a kit or a box of soldiers to see me through the weekend. Needless to say, these were great days.

The first 'toy soldier' games that I played involved these. I remember my friend Iain  and I would set up the opposing sides in his lobby using wooden farm buildings built by his grandad. We would then set about each others forces by rolling marbles or firing matches from Iain's Dinky field gun.

I still have fond memories of those games. They really locked me in to a lifelong passion for gaming with toy soldiers.

Below are links to let you see the basic style of the contents.

http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/Review.aspx?id=54
http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/Review.aspx?id=55

MY FIRST AIRFIX KIT.

My father came home from work one Friday evening in late 1968 with something new: An Airfix kit!

My first kit was the Hawker Typhoon. In those days my father also worked as a nightclub doorman on Friday and Saturday nights. He would spend some time with me before going out. He bought the kit to allow us to do something together. With his help with the pilot and undercarriage (it went on the stand, so wheels up) I managed to complete the kit. The first colour scheme was gluey fingerprints and opaque canopy!

And so it began!

THURSDAY GAME: PURSUIT INTO KLINGON SPACE.

This past Thursday, I put on a game of Star Trek: Attack Wing. Although not running a campaign, the scenario for each game is influenced by the outcome of the previous scenario.

 

With the Klingons having taken DS9 in the last game, they are agressively patroling the surrounding space. At the same time, A Romulan Science vessel came across a concentration of Dominion ships in the region of Cardassia Prime. A pursuit force has been dispatched and they catch up with the ship just as it enters Klingon space.

 

After some early manoeuvering, the Dominion and Klingon ships began to engage each other.

This allowed the Romulans to slip through unmolested.

The Klingon commander was so confused that he took a wrong turn and headed away from combat.

This left the two Vor'Cha class to take on the two Breen and one Jem' Hadar ship.

Breen battlecruiser and Jem'Hadar patrol ship almost come together.

The other Breen battlecruiser manages to overhaul the Romulan ship and destroy it

The Dominion forces, having achieved their objective, bug out of Klingon space, but not before the triumphant Breen battlecruiser is destroyed.

This was the first outing for the Breen and the Jem'Hadar ships. They were a bit brittle compared to the Klingon ships, but I am sure that if  Rick's attack rolls had been better, the Klingons would have suffered more damage as their shields are disabled whilst cloaked, though they roll four extra defence dice. I did make a big mistake with my Nekh'Var class ship, choosing the wrong arrow on the dial, sending my commander in the wrong direction. He did redeem himself later, by using one of his upgrades to take an extra manouver and heavily damage a Dominion ship.

The next scenario is taking shape as I write this. Klingon raid as they consider the Dominion ships weak or the bringing forward of the Dominion attack as it has been compromised? Watch this space.  

THURSDAY GAME: X-WING: MINING A RICH SEAM.

Getting a bit behind with my posts. Two Thursdays ago, Rick hosted a game of X-Wing.

The game follows on from our previous try at X-Wing http://jjs413-thegen.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/X-Wing. , the scenario being an empire attack on the now located rebel base.

One detatchment of the Empire force, two TIE Bombers, escorted by Three TIE Fighters was intercepted by two X-Wing and one Y-Wing fighter.

Soon a confused general combat ensued. The Y-Wing took hits from Empire vessels, but the shields did their job.

Soon the X-Wings got in among the TIE Fighters. One was destroyed outright with two others heavilly damaged.

They did not get it all their own way, with a rare hit being scored on an X-Wing.

Having dealt with the escort, the X-Wings set about the TIE Bombers.

As well as destroying one of the remaining escorts.

The Y-Wing even got into the act.

The TIE Bombers managed to extract a measure of revenge.

Not least by damaging the Y-Fighter by leaving a mine behind.

The TIE bombers made their escape despite loosing all their escorts and the attentions of the Rebel fighters.

This was an enjoyable game. It took a couple of hours, allowing for photos, and shows that we are getting used to the game engine, which is the same for X-Wing and Star Trek: Attack Wing.

The TIE vessels have no shields but have greater agility than the Rebels. They also have the roll ability (a '1' ruler move left or right as an action after movement). The Rebel fighters as well as having shields had droid enhancements that allowed them to remove damage.

Perhaps my best tactic would be to concentrate all the Empire fighters on one Rebel fighter at a time. Worth a try next time.

HEXBUG SPIDER.

Before last Wednesday's game, we had a bit of a show and tell of our Xmas presents. Del took along his Hexbug Spider.

 

 

                                                                It is remote controlled.

We had a discussion about the gaming possibilities, but nothing definite emerged.

CARCASSONNE: SOUTH SEAS.

After a break of a few weeks our Wednesday game this week was Carcassonne: South Seas. Chosen to get us back into the routine gently, and to allow preparations for the next project (In Her Majesty's Name) to be completed. 

 

In common with the original, this game involves laying tiles to complete, in this case, Islands, Bridges and Fishing Grounds. There are also Markets, which are equivalent to Cloisters, which require to be completed by having all nine adjacent tiles completed 

 

Instead of points, completion of an Island gives you a number of bananas; a Bridge gives you Shells and a fishing ground Fish. These commodities are then used to stock one of four available ships, which require various combinations of commodites. If you are able to stock a ship at the end of your turn, it earns you a number of points and leaves, to be replaced by anothe ship. Completion of Markets are different. On completion of a Market, you claim the ship with the highest points value of the four available.

The game continues until all the tiles are laid or all the ships have been stocked. The highest points total wins. There is one other twist: when a sea area tile with a fishing boat is laid, it scores incomplete sea areas. Once fishermen have been removed, a fishing boat token covers the highest denomination fish symbol on a tile from the completed area. Thus it is possible to fish the same area again, but with a reduced return due to overfishing.

One other rule, which was first seen in Carcassonne Discovery game, is that you may remove a meeple to your pool instead of playing on. This allows a bit of flexibility: you can abandon lost causes and move to another sector.

We managed two games in the evening. Both ended with Del winning. The photos are from the first game.

 

The two games were very tight. It was never very clear who was ahead, as there is no points track and acquired ships are held faced down till the final scoring. Flexible thinking was the order of the day as one tried to decide whether to spend one's stockpile on a few lower value ships or wait for the bigger value ship.

 

Great game. Simple rules but deep strategically. We will be playing this again.

FIRST LAST NIGHT OF THE NEW YEAR.

Illness and injury meant that my first Wednesday game of the year was called off.

 

My first game of 2014, therefore was another game of Last Night On Earth.

The scenario was 'Search For Survivors'. The Heroes (Rick & Aidan) started in the centre of the town, in the truck. Six numbered markers were randomly distributed in buildings. The heroes had to investigate all six and get at least two heroes, with the truck keys, back to the centre within 16 turns.

 The starting positions. The objectives were concentrated at the top and bottom of the table. Easy for the heroes? Certainly convenient for my zombies: close to the spawning pits.

 Fairly early in the game, Rick's heroes manage to search the buildings.  Here they find a zombie hero! A character gives up their search action to identify what a number counter is. They roll a D6: higher than the number means nothing found; less than the number means they find a random townsfolk counter that they have to escort back to the truck. If they equal the number, they roll again 1-3 means a zombie hero is found and 4-6 means a new hero joins the team.
The red ring around the character represents the truck keys.

 The heroes managed to investigate the counters fairly quickly and with little effective intervention from my zombies (especially after the heroes started finding firearms!). Here only one counter remains.Yes, you can make out 5 heroes. As luck would have it, a surviving hero was found.

It was over pretty soon after. One of Aidan's characters escorted the only townsfolk survivor found back to the truck. She was supported by one of Rick's characters, on a horse!

Another enjoyable game, with lots of opportunities to rationalise die rolls and card draws/effects in a narrative manner.

We are playing a loose campaign. Characters that die are not added to the mix for the next game. Good job that the heroes didn't lose any characters this game.

The next scenario has already been chosen. It will be 'Escape In The Truck'.

GETTING WILDER!

Not posted for a few days. Here is a photo of some more of the goodies that came my way, these from Aidan, at Xmas. A Sarrissa shop and some painted western figures, including a couple of civilians. I hope to get a game of Dead Man's Hand in later this month.

Back to normal gaming wise this week, so I should have something to write about this weekend.

FIRST PROJECT FOR 2014.

The first project for 2014 is actually something that I have been making preparing for for some months. I have been inspired by 'Dead Man's Hand' and have been building up the terrain and figures.

 

These are the Outlaws and Lawmen figures from the Great Escape Games sets. Painted by Haley at http://www.turbilminiatures.co.uk/ .  I now have enough buildings for a small settlement, with more 4Ground buildings to be constructed. As well as Dead Man's Hand, the figures and terrain can also be used for games using 'Flying Lead' rules.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

 HAPPY NEW YEAR!

 

All the best for 2014.

 

Here are photos of the Lancaster and M35, as promised in my last post.