Gaslands demo on Ducosim

 

Spectre Demo at PolderCon 2022

 My oil rig project finally saw gameplay at #Poldercon 2022 in Utrecht. Several games of Spectre Operations resulted in lots of fun and happy players. 

The table

Seal Team Six

Team Gruber (the Terrorists) with hostage

Arnold weathering machinegun fire from the Blackhawk (for now)

Yours truly explaining the rules (in under 10 minutes)

Lots of fun and skyships at Impact in Eindhoven.

A pictorial review :)

Here's me in typical explanatory mode :)

Batman!

Last Saturday I enjoyed a demo of Batman The Miniatures Game hosted by Henrik in my FLGS Subcultures in Utrecht.

Batman TMG is produced by Knight Models from Spain, known for their earlier superhero licences. Now they have produced a ruleset, free to download on the Interweb, for their line of stunning superhero miniatures.

BTMG is a tactical skirmish game featuring a handful of models per side. Villains and their goons usually make up the more numerous gangs, while heroes and their sidekicks will be fewer (but STRONGER!). So I played the Penguin accompanied by three Goons (amongst them the giant Killer Croc) and as opposed by Batman and Nightwing. Mission objective was getting the Penguins illegal weapon crates to your table edge.

The most interesting aspect of the game (besides playing with superheroes!) is that it is an IGO-UGO game where the players plan their actions more or less beforehand by allocating counters/dice (every figure has a given number of them) to several activities like moving, attacking, defending etc. These dice give you extra actions on top of movement and the option to attack another player or defend against his attacks. So you get to boost some actions while being incapable to perform others.

So while some of my Goons made a run for the crates, the Penguin and Killer Croc attacked, the latter by sneaking through the sewers and emerging in turn 2 right behind Nightwing!























The rest of the game is straightforward and plays fast, just like the action movies it is supposed to represent. Table size can be small, despite the fact that firing ranges for firearms are unlimited. Gotham is dark and Gothic, so visibility is no more than 30cm (yep, the game is metric). So the action is close and personal. The Penguin got battered by the Bat, Nightwing got beaten up by Killer Croc.


The players alternately draw dice from a box, the colour of which determines who may start. Once all the dice are drawn, the game is over. SO we played six turns and in turn 6 one Goon dragged a crate to my table edge, winning the game!

The figures are stunning pieces of sculpting art and are priced accordingly. However, since an "army" in Batman will only be about 2-6 figures, starting a Batman team will still cost you significantly less than a standard wargaming army.

Until, I must warn you, greed sets in. I predict many of you, once hooked on these magnificent miniatures, will want to collect them all!

Many thanks to Henrik for providing me with a good game and an enjoyable afternoon and to Subcultures for hosting us!

Escape from Amersfoort: Snake strikes again!

 Today I hosted another participation game at Ducosim in Amersfoort. Using my  Pijlie's Everyman's Wargames Protocol for Every War  (PEW PEW!) rules we played a game inspired by Escape from New York.

Commando Snake Plisskens landed by parachute in gang-infested Amersfoort to retrieve the diaries of the Prime Minister.

On the right the Gangsta gang, below Snake and his commandos.

To the right the local Cyborg club, below the Scraper Gang, who didn't get out much due to a slight shortage of players. Visitors were somewhat scarce today, perhaps due to a Fantasty fair on the same day.

On the right the Cannibals, below the Bikers

Here Snake's ride out of town hovers above the Amersfoort Red Zone, a gang-ridden radioactive hotzone crawling with zombies, radioactove monsters and debris.

Below some impressions of the games we played.

The event card calling forth the radioactive T-Rex didn't miss a single game. He ate quite a few gangers and even a Cyborg!

And when you leave a post-apoc helmet and goggles lying around, someone is bound to put it on....

By request here are the rules I use for demos like this: 

Pijlie's Everymans Wargaming Protocol for Every War! (PEW PEW!)

Figures walk the maximum distance between your thumb and little finger (small children get extra points for cover) or multitudes thereof for cars and fast monsters. You can evade 1 hit per turn by a succesful Stunta which gets you a free (re)action to seek cover or stage a counterattack. Most teams are made up of a main character, a second (these two have the best stats) and four Extras.
Weapons are either close combat wapens (various bonus on Fighta) and shooting weapons (Rifle 1D6, pistol 1 or 2 D6, MG 3D6 and -1 Shoota for every extra die). Shooting rangers are unlimited. Roll the Shoota number to hit. Cover means either -1 or -2 on the roll.
Activation is card-driven. Every team has two cards. Every team member may perform one action of choice on a card.
When rolling a 1 when shooting you draw a Trouble card. 3 out of 10 is no effect. The rest is assorted misery like shooting yourself, running out of ammo or a giant monster bursting from the nearest building, usually depending on the game theme.

Best used for action packed skirmish games with teams up to 6 figures. Every figure has six stats: Shoota (roll a D6), Fighta (roll a D6), Balls (roll a D6 to do something scary), Stunta (roll a D6 to do something hard, Hit points (2 for the main characters, 1 for Extras) and Oneliner (main characters only to save yourself out of a tight spot with some wisecrack oneliner to impress the GM or roll a D6 for the less confident).

These rules are heavily inspired by several other rulesets and inventions by others and myself over the years. The credit list should include people like Howard Whitehouse, Buck Surdu and Chris Palmer, Peter Schulein and Larry Brom.

On the left you see me throwing the paratroopers on the table. Plisskens men were equipped very well, but landed all over the place!

Many thanks for Sander for these last photos. As always I was too busy to take many pictures and missed some memorable moments.

We had a lovely day, some great games and a lot of response from passers-by, even if they didnt have the time to dive in and play. Thanks everyone for participating and making this a succesful day!