One Hour Fun. 

When my Wednesday group is not meeting, I have been going to the WARG group, which meets at the Oldmachar British Legion, Balgownie Road, Aberdeen. Meetings are now held on Mondays from 1830.   

In February we tested whether we could get two games from the ‘One Hour’ stable played in a session.

Rick put on One Hour Wargames scenario 16 which saw me take a Theban force against Rick’s Athenians. 

My plan came unstuck, faced by Rick’s attack and I ended up stuck behind the river in the centre and my left flank attack was countered.                                       

                                           The right flank was isolated and destroyed. 

                Rick manged to complete the victory conditions in the nail biting final turn, destroying my                      unit on the bridge.  

                     Rick manged to complete the victory condition in the nail biting final turn.  

I put on a test game of One Hour Skirmish Wargames using my Royal West Kents and BUF forces from my Very British Civil War collection. 

The BUF hold a hamlet unaware that the residents have  hidden a religious relic.  

The Anglian League forces have to find the relic within six turns. 

They failed, but it was close.

We managed to play both games in 2 ½ hours, including set up. 

                                                               DOMINION v BORG.

My latest game with my Wednesday gaming group saw me pit my Dominion force against Del’s Borg. Knowing that Del would be using his Borg, I planned my force accordingly: Jem‘Hadar Battleship and Patrol Ship with a Breen Battlecruiser. Del had the Borg Queen’s ship and Borg Sphere.  

I had to get used to my ships’ capabilities quickly. It started well as damaging hits were scored on the Borg Sphere. However, the Borg ships combined to destroy my ships, one by one, using a tractor beam to hold my ship in place and the other using a slicer weapon doing 10 damage dice. I had a few near misses in getting my special weapons into optimum position, which may have made a difference, but I was decisively defeated. An enjoyable game. 

 

                                                           

                                                         FINAL FRONTIER.

My gaming group tend to plan a year ahead which games are played. We are currently ¾ of the way through a tranche of Star Trek Attack Wing. David has consistently played Romulan, Del Klingon and, more recently, Borg. I played Kazon, Vulcan and Independent.

Here are photos from previous games.       

FIRST TRY OF AVP.

Our last Wednesday game saw our first try of AVP. I took the Colonial Marines, Derek the Aliens and David had a party of three Predators.

We set up the first scenario, where each faction had separate mission objectives.

The initial set up. Ping counters are used until within line of sight. They are then replaced with figures. 

Each turn begins with initiative. The player with initiative turns over the environment card for the turn. This card details something good or bad that affects all factions for the turn. The player with initiative then activates a figure. The figure has two actions. The next faction activates a figure and so on until all figures have acted. During the turn, a payer can play up to two strategy cards from his hand.

My Colonial Marine squad.

Models have skills, detailed on their stat card. each faction also has some unique active and passive skills to use throughout the game.

An Alien breaks through the door (using the 'force the doors open' skill) and all in line of sight become visible. 

My objective was to go to the Computer Room at the opposite end of the table. and override the controls to open a bulkhead, then board an elevator to go down a level.

A Predator appears. He causes carnage in the Marines with his Plasma Caster.

The two remaining Marines duck back into cover.

The Marine with the Smart Gun hits the Predator, causing a wound.

In the end all my marines perished to a combination of Alien and Predator attacks without getting far into the ship.

The Aliens surround and kill one of the Predators.

The remaining Predator finishes off the last two Aliens.

The Predators then made quick work of the Aliens.

For a first game, it was fast and bloody. Unfamiliarity with the skills and effects meant a few tactical mistakes were made by us all. Lessons we will take into the next game!

STAR WARS ARMADA: LEARNING CURVE.

No Wednesday game this week. The previous two Wednesday night games have seen Derek and David being introduced to Star Wars Armada.

The first game was a simple battle between an Imperial Raider and a Rebel Nebulon B frigate, to get used to the rules. David took the Imperials and Del the Rebels. This game was played without upgrades, so we could concentrate on the basics. This ended up being a simple battle, with lots of combat and not too much manoeuvring. 

The Imperial Raider in combat with a Nebulon B frigate. Big fighter dogfight going on in the foreground.

The Imperial Raider having been destroyed, the Imperial fighters are out for revenge on the remaining rebel ships. 

The second game saw David taking a Victory class star destroyer with screening fighters against Del's Rebel force consisting of a Nebulon frigate and a Corellian corvette, with a force of fighter bombers. I added some upgrades to show how they can change the game. There was a bit more tactical use of fighters and more manoeuvring. There was plenty of ship to ship combat. The Nebulon Frigate was destroyed and the other ships were down to one hull box.

The rebel ships manage to co-ordinate an attack and cause heavy damage. The Nebulon frigate is destroyed in the exchange.

The fighter battle around the star destroyer.

The star destroyer limps away, crippled, after the battle.

The boys enjoyed the game. I found that adjudicating the rules, without having to concentrate on playing, allowed me to pick up little things that I had been missing or doing wrong. Highly enjoyable. Hopefully we can use the Corellian Campaign, when it comes out, to play games.

A FISTFUL OF KUNG FU: THIEVING DEMONS!

This Wednesday's game saw Derek's Demons having to break into a guarded building to steal a dangerous piece of treasure. The Demons, of course, attacked at night. 

Initial deployment. A flying demon has managed to avoid the guards in the surrounding area and stands at the door of the inn, where the artefact is stored.

The flying demon is joined by an ape and a hopping vampire. A SWAT trooper and a veteran cop are on the scene.

The ape works to pry loose the artifact,while the cops and the supernatural investigator close in. 

The Taoist Sorcerer fires a fireball at the investigator and two SWAT troopers, killing the troopers and recoiling the investigator, who used his acrobat trait to jump clear.

The ape frees the artefact and starts to make his way off the table. The other demons prepare to run interference.

The investigator attempts to exorcise the flying demon and get through to the ape, but he loses the melee and is recoiled.

A flying demon is taken out by a SWAT trooper. Note the zombie that has appeared, attracted by the concentration of supernatural power.

With the investigator at bay, the veteran cop and SWAT trooper pursue the ape.

The ape manages to evade it's pursuers and escapes, protected by the sorcerer and three cultists.

The flying demon attacks the SWAT trooper, who is distracted by the sight of  the zombie greedily feasting on one of his colleagues.

This was a fairly quick game. Derek managed to get his protagonist, the sorcerer, to make an early breakthrough by making a hole in my cordon. The scenario dictated that my team was spread out, therefore vulnerable to such an attack. My protagonist failed to take full advantage of the activation dice failures as he kept failing his rolls! This left him standing around for long periods, the first time this has happened in any of the games we have played. Still, the game told another good filmic story.

A FISTFUL OF KUNG FU: COPS AGAINST YAKUZA.

Our last Wednesday game saw my Cops take on David's newly put together Yakuza. The scenario was 'Challenge' the location was the city streets (in monsoon conditions, again!).

David's Yakuza protagonist was thirsting for revenge after my Supernatural Investigator had helped the cops exorcise some of his demon allies.

The opening stages of the game. My investigator is looking a little isolated away from his Cop escort.

The cops rush to protect their ward, as the Yakuza forces draw close.

On the other flank, no Yakuza in sight.

My veteran cop bruiser gets in the way of the Yakuza protagonist. My protagonist has been disarmed after being shot at.

The Yakuza manages to avoid the bruiser and leaps on the investigator. After a battle lasting several game turns, he was victorious, first by humbling and then knocking out my protagonist. 

The narrative quality of the game is really exciting. The action concentrates on the protagonists as they benefit from failed activation rolls from others. Even though I lost, I enjoyed the game. Just like watching a movie!