One Hour Wargames: Surprise Attack

Since my last post, I felt driven to play something before too much time passed. While listening to a podcast, the speaker brought up One Hour Wargames, by Neil Thomas. They mentioned the thirty scenarios included in the latter portion of the book. I remembered reading the rules once and knew I shouldn't need a whole lot to get on the table. It sounded perfect for restarting after such a dead stretch. So I worked at getting enough of the table cleared off that I could play a quick. Got out the Junior General micro-scale American Civil War paper cutouts I built a couple years ago. Then I set up a play area before choosing a scenario.

Here is a fork in the road with some green splotches for forest stands, a few buildings, fenced areas, and a couple hills. The top right area is out of bounds as I realized I made more of a 3x4 foot board, maybe it's a lake or something.

With the terrain set up, I rolled a d100 to get a random scenario (1-30) and my first cast got me an 11: Surprise Attack. This scenario states that red controls a crossroads with two units and blue makes a surprise attack with six units. Red gets reinforcements at Turn 3 and Turn 9. Whoever is in control of the crossroads after 15 turns is the winner.

Each side gets 6 units. There is a set of tables in the book that one can roll on to get unit assignments. For the red team (Confederates), I got 4 infantry, 1 artillery, and 1 zouave. Blue (Union) got 3 infantry, 2 cavalry, and 1 zouave. I have no counters for zouaves, so I replaced them with cavalry.

So, trying to be a good general for red, I started the cannon on the hill by the intersection. I figured its range would allow them a shot or two before blue's infantry got into range. The red infantry I put between the road and a forest blob, in case I wanted to retreat them to cover.

Here come the blue troops. Also trying to be a good general for the blue team, I place the cavalry units off to the sides so they are positioned to get around the field obstructions and slower infantry; two on the west and one on the east.

Red artillery starts inflicting damage to the first line of blue infantry. The added distance for troops travelling on the road only allowed one unopposed shot from red. The red infantry slides over to the protection of the woods.

The lead blue infantry unit and the red cannon exchange shots while the following two blue lines try to get around them. The lead blue infantry also takes fire from the reds in the woods. 

The east blue cavalry come into range and start firing into the trees, not doing much damage, but one of the blue infantry gets into position to fire into the trees as well. 

Better rolls for blue see the cannon unit taken from the field, and the red unit in the trees eliminated as the first set of red reinforcements arrive. Blue only loses two stands.

The layout after turn 4. Two red infantry units are on the east side of the hill, but they are taking fire from the blue infantry to the north and cavalry in the south.

The first red reinforcements make a good fight of it until turn 9, when the rest come out from the west. However, they lose one full unit and they lose control of the intersection; the second unit retreating into the larger clump of woods to the southeast.

The layout at turn 12. Blue infantry on the hill and behind the fence to the north, as well as an almost destroyed infantry (1hp left) east of the hill. Blue cavalry in the road junction, behind a fence facing red infantry to the west and the other facing the reds in the trees. A greatly reduced red cavalry taking fire from the hill and in bad shape. I don't think red has a chance at this point to regain the junction in 3 turns, and I called the game a blue victory.

 Someone experienced with the book, One Hour Wargames, will know, the actual combat rules are quite simple. I go, you go turn order (blue always playing first in this scenario). Units may move or attack. Attacks always hit, roll for casualties (modifiers increase or decrease this number), 15 hp per unit.

I like that play and keeping track of hp is quick and easy (in this case I used a die to keep track of damage, removing a stand for every 5 hp lost). I like the very limited turns (move or shoot) since it reinforces the image that a unit has to move to a position, then ready itself to fire, taking time that an opposing unit already in position can take advantage of and fire upon them. This forces decisions like do I move to cover, giving up speed but saving hp, or get there fast and risk taking severe losses.

However, it still felt like something was missing in the end. I wonder if 15 hp per unit is too even. What about rolling for morale? But then I figure that casualties don't necessarily mean soldiers downed, but could also represent lost morale and the resulting fleeing from the field by affected troops. If this was a campaign, one could set up an aftermath generator to see how each unit was affected, otherwise what difference is it if the unit is removed because they were mowed down or ran away? So I guess that wasn't really my issue.

Maybe it's missing the ranking of units and assigning them with different hp values to represent variations in fighting strength/morale/staying power. I do like that kind of thing. There is a form of ranking in the attack roll modifiers assigned to some unit types, but I still think that while most units would likely perform similarly, there could be an accounting for some who might be of a reduced staying power, even at full strength.

Of course I also like the addition of command units, in so many other games, whose proximity to troops affects their ability to carry out orders and/or withstand hp(morale) loss, because it sounds like an aspect that would add some interesting twists to this game.

Well, I guess I can jus go with the knowledge that OHW has left me with some things to think about and that's a good thing, right? Will have to try another session soon.

Also, I should probably make up some zouave units to add a bit of variety to my forces.

Renegade Legion: Leviathan - Planetary Defence

 To try out my scenario generator, I decided on three cards each for the belligerents. So here's what I drew:

Terran Overlord Government:

1 frigate (3 fighter flights)

1 destroyer

5 corvettes

5 missile platforms

4 fighter groups

Renegade Legion:

1 cruiser (1 fighter group)

1 carrier frigate (5 fighter groups)

1 destroyer (1 fighter squadron)

From scenario cards I pulled planetary defence and from special conditions it was asteroid belt.

So after some random and some deliberate placement of terrain and units, the map looked something like this:

Note: I don't use the stat sheets that come with the game. Instead, I favour the ones produced by Jape77 on Boardgamegeek (visible at top right). I like the changes the author made, but I also find them more visually pleasing than the originals. The fighter groups sheet comes from my own Excel tool (which I uploaded to BGG as well). Bottom right are some sheets I made up for small craft, like corvettes, based on some discussions I read in different forums that discussed this very thing (I'll likely post these to BGG as well).

My feeling was that the RL force would have a pretty easy go of things. The cruiser's stats alone look very intimidating compared to the entire TOG force. Then again, doesn't a commander want every possible advantage when they are attacking?

I fashioned the following narrative from my card picks. 

RL forces sent a decoy group through the TOG planet's sensor range. Having succeeded in drawing of a number of the vessels stationed there into a pursuit, the RL command sent a small carrier force to raid the planet with the mission of destroying the orbital defences - five missile platforms capable of firing 2 F-class missile salvos each - as a precursor to a full planetary invasion (or liberation, as the RL prefers to call it). 

The Legion ships approached the planet from behind the nearby asteroid belt to hide their signals. But the interference is a double edged sword and they will have to traverse the belt in order to target anything with the capital ships' weapons. This means they will be in range of TOG missiles from the orbital platforms.

Turn 1: 

Fighters deploy. Everyone closing. The first losses are to the fighters that met in the middle, both dishing out exactly what they received. I found a more planety-looking planet to replace the pail lid.

I had trouble trying to figure out how fighters were supposed to do damage to each other, I came up with a simplified process for dogfight attrition. Thinking on my younger days of playing Chuck Yeager's Air Combat on PC, my hit accuracy with that game's WWII fighters averaged around 20% (unless I was shooting down bombers). Based on that, I decided to roll a d3 for each group and multiply the result by 10 for a percentage (10%, 20%, 30%). Multiplied a group's CRA (or LRA) value by the percentage, using the result rounded down as how many boxes to cross off the enemy group's strength boxes, and vice-versa, treating it as simultaneous fire. 

Example: Red Group A (CRA 108) vs Blue Group B (CRA 122). 

Red rolls a 2. 108 x 0.2 = 21.6. Blue Group B crosses off 21 boxes.

Blue rolls a 3. 122 x 0.3 = 36.6. Red Group A crosses off 36 boxes.

Each side then crosses out CRA values if reduction thresholds were reached.

If fighters have a choice between fighter opposition or targets for their missiles, they could only chose one line of attack. In this case, if fighters wanted to target an orbital missile platform, they could not impose casualties on any attacking interceptors. Missile strength is also reduced in to CRA values as they decline with attrition.

Turn 2:

The heavies are still too far away to do much of anything. Fighters meet and start start duking it out with each other. I should have had the RL fighters (red) attack the platforms right away... Also, I didn't realize the RL cruiser is in range of one of the platforms (both to fire missiles and to be fired on).

Turn 3:

The RL cruiser is now in range to fire missiles at the platforms, but they are in range to fire on her as well, so she takes some damage, losing a large portion of her fore and forward right armour sections. Lucky missile placement destroys her silos so the cruiser's second salvo cannot be fired. The two left-most platforms were hit and destroyed by the RL cruiser and destroyer salvos. We start to see some fighter groups go missing. The RL destroyer races in to launch missiles at the topmost platforms.

I couldn't find any info on orbital installations having missiles, so I made up my own stats: shield factor 3, 50 armour, 8 systems that could get damaged (rolled a d10 for each hit past the armour to damage systems, no systems hit on 9 or 0). 

Turn 4:

Realizing her vulnerability to the platform attacks, the cruiser slows and turns to stay out of missile range and just try to weaken their shields for fighter attacks. The bottom platform's reactor is hit; I decide it can explode if I roll a 1 and it does! I roll a d3 to take out percentages of the near-by fighters. Red fighters also take out the right-most platform. The RL Ajax destroyer (sitting between the cruiser and the planet) is crippled, having lost its left-side thrusters last turn, she is also now out of missiles. Only the top-most platform remains and it's up to the fighters beside it to take it down next turn.

Turn 5:

More red fighter groups are eliminated as they try to make their way back to the carrier. The cruiser is flipped around to put armour on the side of the TOG destroyer bearing down. The small TOG ship fires its spinal mount and does a little damage to armour, same as the Ajax destroyer aiming at the TOG frigate. Most importantly, the RL fighters can send just enough missiles into the final platform (already weakened by the cruiser's long range shots) to put it out of commission.

Unfortunately, I cleaned everything up after that turn, figuring there couldn't be much more done to the RL force, totally forgetting about the fact that the TOG fighters that remained all had missiles. It's possible that some of them might have been able to get close enough to retaliate somewhat effectively, and the RL ships could have come away a little worse off than they were. Even so, I think they took more damage than I was expecting, having lost practically all their fighters and two salvos hitting the cruiser with enough punch to damage systems.

The two most heavily damaged ships of the game.

Leviathan is perhaps the most complex game of any type that I own and while I do like it, it takes a lot out of me to play it solo. This was the largest number of units I've fielded in a game. The turns averaged an hour each, setup was a couple of hours (including making the corvette sheets and statting missile platforms).

Take-aways:

1) Check better for firing opportunities - a missed chance at firing could be crucial

2) Stay on target with fighters - RL wasted a turn dogfighting when they could have been firing missiles at the platforms and getting out of Dodge.

3) More spinal mount attacks? - I played with the thinking that only one spinal weapon attack was possible in a game, but can't find that limitation in the book. If more can be fired, one might use maneuverability of destroyers to stay in front or rear arcs of larger ships and come at them with spinal mount attacks (and missiles, of course). 

4) I really should try getting Full Thrust to the table.

Summer Summary

Computer problems and then summer business kept me from posting since May. But I did get a couple of games in and do a couple of crafts. 

Full Sail

I made up a scenario for Full Sail involving three pirate hunters pouncing on five pirate ships anchored in a small bay; again using ships from the Pirates of the Spanish Main game. I'm experimenting with translating thrust and movement rules written for spaceships to suit sailing ships. Haven't quite hit something that I feel works, but I think I'm on the right track.

Anyway, the pirate hunters consisted of a single-mast, a two-mast, and a three-mast headed to the mouth of the bay with the wind advantage (entry side, wind direction and speed was set randomly). Pirates were arranged at random with random facings inside the bay, all starting at anchor (4 two-mast and one single-mast). I rolled for each to see if they notice the hunters coming in, three succeed and try to get underway. Hunters have to capture or sink as many ships as possible. Pirates just have to get away.

Mid-game (the only picture I took). The three-mast hunter is about to fully engage and board one of the pirates (background). During the previous turn, the small hunter in the middle had just dropped off a boarding party to that capsized ship behind it, which was immediately sunk by the dark-sailed schooner making its getaway.

Of the five pirate ships, one is captured, one is sunk, three get away. One of the escaped ships loses almost all of its crew while repelling boarders, before breaking away from the grapple.

5 Parsecs: Bug Hunt (2nd mission)

Nik and Gwisom (Treen is in the infirmary) led a fire team and science team out to investigate an abandoned cargo ship and an alien plant causing problems in a storage compound. Nothing incredible happened, the mission was low priority so razor lizards came at the troopers in easily manageable intervals and numbers. Only near the end did one one of the fire team soldiers fall prey to the aliens.

Some razor lizards eye up the party of troopers and scientists trying to get to the extraction zone.

Full Thrust: Star Wars fighter craft

I got to introduce my two brothers to Full Thrust via the Star Wars fighters modification. They enjoyed it. They took Imperial TIE fighters (2 each) and I had an X-wing and a B-wing. Scattered a bunch of asteroids to make things interesting. They slaughtered me in 5 rounds.

ACW gaming

I used the paper American Civil War soldier stands I made for a simple battle using rules found in One Hour Wargames. The battle over a bridge ended in a stalemate after heavy casualties on both sides. I still want to try playing using more detailed rules. I'll get there.

Miniatures

My D&D group is starting a new adventure and I'm trying a halfling cleric. Modded a Heroclix Puck sculpt to represent the character.

Painted some more Tyranids and a Tusken raider I located after a couple years of being lost. Also started painting some computer kiosks for terrain/objective markers. Also there were some other minis prepped for painting. Pictures likely to show up later.

Not game related

I volunteered my time to make a wooden sign for our local village-owned ice cream parlour. Used a found piece of plywood. It had two coats of paint on it; a kind of cream over a really light blue. Sanding revealed some of the bottom coat.

First Play: Five Parsecs: Bug Hunt

During early pandemic days, I purchased the Five Parsecs From Home rules (2nd Edition?). It's been upgraded and is now available as a hardcover. Either way it's worth checking out. I played set up a crew and played one battle, wrote up an AAR and haven't played again.

Last month, I bought the spin-off Five Parsecs: Bug Hunt. This game is a little more similar to the Vanguard title I wrote so many AAR's for; try and get something done before the alien threat gets too great. Only this title adds that higher level of off-table crew management I enjoyed in Five Parsecs From Home. I rolled up a team (you get a team of three to keep track of in Bug Hunt, but they have a chance at pulling in special teams or weapons to assist in each battle).

I started a spreadsheet file to keep track of everything happening off-table. Will it help me get more games in? I don't know.

So the first mission is on an Earth-like planet and takes place at a historical commemoration site where a couple of old buildings are preserved along with a working lumber yard. Reports come in stating a disturbance in the area. The Anti-Xenomorph Extermination Squad (A.X.E.S.) is sent in to investigate. They are Nik, a space fleet marine; and Treen and Gwisom, two infantry soldiers. 

Our sleepy little out of the way museum of olden-days construction and forest exploitation. Image is pre-generation of objectives (secure west building and hack museum kiosk on south side of display enclosure).

What a good scenario I had: over the course of the game I must have rolled in a grand total of over thirty aliens (used my trusty Tyranids). I rolled well to set up a team of my three heroes, the customary fire team of 4 soldiers, a sergeant, and a team of two engineers (high Tech score for hacking). Also got an incinerator, which I gave to one of the soldiers.

I didn't keep track of turns nor did I get any pictures until it was almost over.

The team encountered aliens right away as they came in on the south east and crossed the road toward the kiosk and the large building. Two blips located among the buildings turned out to be around 11 aliens (I rolled razor lizards). Treen did an outstanding job holding them off while Nik tested a tactical location that opened up a force shield and he and the engineer team got in it. Treen was wounded and put out of play.

Gwisom went for a tactical location among the lumber piles. All he found was a device to distract the six aliens he found for a while. But it gave him time to make his way back to the fire team. They decide to run to the museum courtyard to help clear a path for the engineers to get to the kiosk (a vital objective). 

At this point, Treen, the sergeant, and a fire team soldier are out. The engineers (bottom-left) succeeded in hacking the kiosk and the fire team are about to secure the west building. The dark circle is the marker for the triggered force shield that kept everyone alive while they cleared away all the aliens that were hanging out among the buildings. So many more blips coming from the north!

West building secured! Evac called in! It's a race to the jump ship!

That incinerator is a welcome addition to this mission.

Post action line-up: (left to right) Engineers, surviving Fire Team, Nik, Gwisom, and casualties Treen, sarge and trooper.

In the post-mission phase Nik and Gwisom got their XP and Treen rolled up a torso injury landing her three days in recovery, but I awarded her the bonus XP for her mighty stand against overwhelming odds. Can two agents accomplish get through the next few tasks? We'll see next time on Five Parsecs: Bug Hunt!

This was a great and engaging game! The blip system keeps a person on their toes, I didn't dare approach them because I kept rolling high numbers on contact. The only thing I can think of at the moment that is lacking is a battle area generation system like one sees in Five Klicks from the Zone (which I've yet to play) as I find it hard to just come up with a battle map.

First Play: Pulp Alley with Solo Deck (Part 1)

As sometimes tends to happen here, I'm going to ramble about how I came to actually play this game before I actually show anything about the game. To see the game, skip until you see pictures.

During the Christmas break, I downloaded and put together a bunch of stands of American Civil War figures from Junior General to try out one of those types of games. Had it all set up on the table, watched videos on how to play the rules I had chosen, moved some of the Union soldiers forward, and quit because I just felt confused by what I thought should happen next compared to what the rules said I should do compared again with how the person in the video did it (in exactly the same scenario, no less). I just felt dense. 

I hope to revisit ACW gaming in the future, perhaps with a different ruleset. But as I put the soldiers up and out of the way, the old blue Pringles can beckoned once again to be brought out to play.

"Why a Pringles can?" you may ask. Well, that's where all the figures and cards I printed and put together to play Pulp Alley have been sitting since I made them back before we moved into our current residence 4 or 5 years ago.

I purchased the rules for Pulp Alley about seven years ago because I thought it looked cool: rolling different dice types, custom characters, pulp stories theme, easy to learn and play, and more. Got cards and figures put together and it all went into a Pringles can and sat. All this time, the can has sat, begging me to play. The one time I did take it down was to add the Solo deck after purchasing that PDF and printing it out.

Well, it's finally happened! I finally played Pulp Alley. Did it with the solo deck, which comes as part of an add-on package sold separately from the core rules. 

What I quickly found is that this game is as much about the story around a scenario as it is about playing it. The solo deck comes with a campaign to use, complete with ready-made leagues for you to use, but I went about starting my own story.

My first move was to put together some leagues. A couple of leagues came together nicely using the paper figures in the can. A couple others needed some additional figures and I went on a hunt for the same ones that I printed out so long ago. Well, a person can no longer get those figures. At least not in the same image quality. I could only find a link to the archived pages of the now defunct website. So the additions I made look fuzzy compared to their friends. I might have the files I downloaded so long ago, but they'd be on one of my external drives, which I cannot conveniently access since my laptop died and we are only running on a Mac right now (wrong format). Oh well, we must go on. So yeah, the leagues. Well, I got four completely assembled (the Leader being the left-most character followed by the Sidekick, then Allies and Followers):

The Shadow's Agents - Cranston and Miss Lane head up Moe, two agents from the '90s movie, and Trixie is a Follower I made up to fill the spot.

Anastasia's Heroes - as in the surviving Romanov girl, now in her mid-30s, with a band of displaced Tzarist troops hiding from the Bolsheviks and making their way in the world as mercenary adventurers. A Russian A-Team.

Military Occultists - The ones we all love to hate. They're bent on seizing something that will help them achieve world domination, even if it means waking some ancient horror.

The Fortune Hunters - Most comfortable in a cockpit and raiding some luxury zeppelin, but there's more than one way to make a fortune and sometimes it doesn't require a plane.

There are other leagues in the works, just not fully assembled yet. Each league also has a League Perk.

I started up a spreadsheet to keep track of things. So using the resources I had at hand and the scenario-building tables in the core rules, my first scenario was born. I randomly chose the contestants and it ended up being me playing the Fortune Hunters against the Military Occultists and this short narrative came to mind:

Nathan Zachary receives a telegram from an old army buddy he knew during the war. The telegram begs for him to come to Casa Blanca with friends. Once there, Nathan learns that his friend had recently returned from a trip, part of his return was aboard a zeppelin crossing the Sahara Desert, during which he saw strange ruins uncovered by raging winds. He marked the location and noticed a shady-looking man in strange military attire doing the same. Sitting close enough to overhear the soldier whisper to his female travel companion, he deduced that they are part of an occult relic-hunting team and they were obviously planning to return there. 

Feeling that he couldn't trust anyone else with the potential importance of whatever the occultists could be interested in, Buddy turned to his old squadron-mate. Nathan's response: "I learned to always trust your instincts during the war. If you feel like something's fishy, we'll go investigate. At the very least, we'll make sure there's nothing for your creepy couple to find."

Pulp Alley uses objective markers, called plot points, to drive the game. It's a contest of who can grab the most plot points before game end (turn 6, under normal circumstances). There's always a main plot point. The main plot point here was the Purple Death Receptor. The location of this objective would be revealed at random in one of three possible locations after someone acquired the plot point "exhaust valve". Two plot points were treasure ("smuggled diamonds" and "booby-trapped diamonds"). The final plot point was a torn letter. I think the letter and/or the receptor could lead whoever possesses it at the end of the game into another scenario.

To be continued...

Or desktop computer crashed and it's a doozy. Symptoms point to motherboard fault. So I'll just stop this write up here and tell the game story a little later on.

Review: 6x6 Tales

Scrolling through my list of blog posts, published and otherwise, I realized that there's a very enjoyable game I have yet to write something up for. Now:

Do you like rolling dice? Do you like mapmaking? Do you like following a hero along on their adventure? Do you like free stuff? If you answered yes to one or more of these questions, then do I have a deal for you!

I browse Wargamevault and DrivethruRPG quite a lot now, looking for deals on things I'm interested in. Some of the things I've purchased have been sitting in my library, unused but waiting for the day the print button comes for them. Not so for 6x6 Tales!

6x6 tales has been played often enough that I cannot label this write-up as a First Play. Heck, just thinking of writing about it, I've printed another to play again (though truthfully, it's been a few weeks since the last time).

What You Need to Play

- The PDF downloaded from DrivethruRPG (maybe available elsewhere?)

- Pencil

- Eraser

- 2 d6 that are distinguishable from each other (different colours; one with pips, the other numerals; whatever)

The Downloaded Package

The download provides three game sheets that can be printed differently depending on your preferences, standard and "pocketmod". I elected to print the pocketmod version. Maybe a reader is familiar with this layout, but I was not. The pocketmod essentially results in three tiny booklets that could fit in most pockets, making this is a very portable game. Both print options have tiny print, so if that's a problem, add "magnifying glass" to the list of necessities.

The first booklet is the Rules. Pretty straightforward, written in a way that you can just follow the steps as you play.

Second booklet is called the Events Booklet. This contains bits and pieces of the story all mixed up so you can't quite read ahead. Also, the there are multiple paths with multiple endings, so it's unlikely that you play the same story twice.

Third booklet is called the Journal Booklet. This is where you keep track of your hero and the story. there's the hero's stats, a map, quest log, day tracker, spells, fight tracker, dungeon tracker, and game-end scoring. This is the booklet where all of your writing goes as the story plays out.

All you need to play!

The Hook and Playing the Game

The hook is very simple. From the front page of the Rules Booklet: The King approaches you, "Welcome to our small island. We need your help, hero. Our island is terrorized by monsters, please help us..." 

I mean, what more do you need? You're gonna play the game, right?

First you build your character. Four peoples are available with a special, innate quality about them. You might be a human and start with extra gold. A dwarf or elf to start with stronger hits or more accuracy, respectively. Or be a hobbit and start with a pie. Give your character a name, draw their portrait, and fill in their stats. 

Then you roll the dice to randomly place the castle (your start point) and draw it on the map. You are now ready to adventure! 

Following the same roll and write process, you move from square to square to reveal the roads and terrain of the map. As you go along you'll discover villages, meet monsters to fight (or run from), take on side quests, level up your abilities, make a name for yourself, and find clues to progress in the main quest: learning the secret of the great evil that holds the island in its grasp and halting its terrible work.

Maps at the end of these games. Top is the one my son drew as I helped him play. Bottom left: my lesser decorated map. Bottom right: a more detailed map of the island (and completed too).

When you fulfill your destiny, whatever your fate, you add up your score and discover your ranking. Points are earned for quest completion (main and side quests), gold collected, fame earned during your travels. The total dictates your hero status; does your name take its place with the heroes of legend or will it join the legions of the forgotten. Either way, there is a space to write in the Title of your hero's journey.

Some more details from Journal Booklets.

My Take

Whether it was The Incredibly Underwhelming Adventure and Death of Jankah, a Dwarf or the famous Elfis, Slayer of the Bone Dragon, I have had a blast with this little game. Honestly, drawing up the map and coming up with a fun title at the end are my favourite parts. But all the parts work really well together for a simple, fast-paced story-telling adventure. Well, it's fast if you don't spend time illustrating extra detail into the map.

My first three character journals.

I can see the results of 6x6 Tales being some good material for an RPG game master, play the game a few times and you now have some legends with which to spice up your world-building or base a side quest on, heck one might even build a whole campaign on one of these (how about The Disappearance of Luke into the Unknown). Even something like Clara the Mango Delivery Girl is Killed by a Giant Rat, my most recent adventure, can be imagined into something to add flavour; perhaps it is a tale of warning told to children to dissuade them from venturing into the woods alone.

I've kept each Journal Booklet in a drawer, it's how I've had these titles to bring up as I write. Reading the titles brings back memories and maybe I will incorporate them into some future gaming endeavor as an inside joke for myself. As for right now, perhaps I can enlist Clara's twin sister Sara to take on the adventure and perhaps drive the evils scourge from this island! Because who's completely satisfied by only having played two turns before dying?

Vanguard: Seeking Sanctuary - Chapter 8: Sanctuary

End of the road. The small band approaches inn that marks the trail to safety, as one of Ivor's scouts has reported that a large army lies just beyond and over a rise. What they had not counted on was a horde of monsters lies between. Among the horde; the biggest of any monsters seen to date. Surely, such a discovery is rare. It seems to wield some form of magic. Perhaps this is a chance to deal the blow to stop the monster problem for good...

Another oddity the group had come across - a strange duo living in the forest. The first, a man named Byron, explained that he and a large wolf had been the subjects of a crazed wizard's experiment. He is human in every way but his appearance, his skin being covered in short reddish hair and having claws and beast-like fangs. The wolf had grown, as a result of the experiment, to the size of a person, though it hunched over as though it would just as easily take to all fours as it fancied. Unseen was a mental connection between the two, where Byron could issue a few basic commands and the man-wolf would obey, however Byron would also experience any physical sensations the man-wolf felt. (Having lost my Rogue last chapter, I'm trying out Beastmaster, a mercenary class Kai posted to the Vanguard facebook group).

Byron and his companion had been safe from the monsters thus far, staying hidden in the deep forest. He had also seen the destruction they left in their wake. It took very little to convince him to join with the mercenaries. He was most welcome as the band had lost seven citizen warriors at the monastery (I decided on two per monster that got out).

Setup:

Game set-up. Rolled a random 20 monsters: 1 boss, 6 elites, 13 grunts. Rolled random placement for all but what I'll call the megaboss.

The megaboss: I figured that he, as the commander, should be near the inn (though why would he care?).

Turn 1:

Wizard William managed to knock down on grunt. Byron sends the man-wolf in to finish it off, after which it moves on to knock down another grunt.

A grunt hidden in the bushes gets a bead on Ivor and knocks him down!

Ranged grunts fire enough times to overwhelm Tombstone and knock him down.

Turn 2:

Man-wolf continues to rage in charge mode, killing the boss in a rush of claws and fang!

Ivor recovers and issues commands to Katya and Red Hulk. Katya joins Tombstone and Val to meet the monsters on the right flank. Red hulk moves forward. Emeralda creates an armour buff for Byron.

Tombstone falls to the onslaught of two elites.

Turn 3:

Man-wolf strikes again at some approaching elites, ripping one to shreds.

Ivor joins Red Hulk in battling the approaching megaboss. In the background, William has conjured a fireball and drops a grunt. Emeralda casts an armour buff on Ivor.

Just another shot of facing off with the megaboss.

Megaboss kills Red Hulk and an elite kills Ivor (megaboss had cut through the magic defence)!

Turn 4:

Emeralda rushes to Ivor's side and takes Springblade. As she lifts the enchanted sword, magic swirls from it, reviving Ivor to full health. Red Hulk is less fortunate and will not rise again.

An elite successfully blocks the man-wolf and knocks it down while the grunt behind it kills Byron.

Val comes to help Ivor. Emeralda fails to cast any protection spells. William is killed by incoming projectiles from the right flank (image left). Elan manages to a hit on megaboss, as does Val.

Turn 5:

Emeralda takes Springblade back to William and he is revived. He stands up to cast a fireball at the megaboss, managing to kill the grunt beside it. With his connection killed, the man-wolf goes into "guard mode"; staying near Byron's body, but that megaboss happened to be just within the 5" radius of the guard attack circle. Megaboss revives one of his own.

After he and Val each manage to wound the megaboss, Ivor is knocked down again.

Turn 6:

Off in Katya's corner, her defence re-roll is keeping her on her feet and she kills a grunt finally.

The team-up of Val, Ivor, and man-wolf wears megaboss down to one action die.

But he's still got fight left in him, keeping Ivor busy. Some grunts manage to knock down the man-wolf.

Then William is shot again and killed. (Lucky that Springblade is still close-by.)

Turn 7:

William is (barely) revived by the Springblade and casts a fireball at megaboss, managing to knock down an elite. But the combined efforts of man-wolf, Ivor and Val wear down the megaboss. Val strikes the killing blow! The day is won!

Afterword:

Their leader killed, the monsters immediately burrow down into the earth. For many years they are not seen and this chapter of the Svartvalt passes into legend and then into myth. Could something like this ever happen again? Stories of the brave mercenaries and citizens of Ivor's Company grow more incredible through the ages.

William and Emeralda continue the work William was doing before the monsters came. They make a startling discovery linking the monsters to a large and strange device that appeared to have crashed into the ground from the sky. They also marry and raise three children.

Katya uses her share of the king's reward to buy the inn. Occasionally, she contributes her services to near-by sheriffs needing help to keep the peace.

Elan refuses her share of the reward, giving it to some citizens who had started an orphanage to take care of those children who survived the monster invasion, but lost their parents. Elan returns to her people and is never seen again.

Ivor retires from the life of a sword-for-hire, buys a mansion and vineyard near the capital and settles down with a local widow.

Immediately after the battle, man-wolf picks up the body of his "twin" and disappears back into the forest. For many years the locals claim to hear him howling in his grief to a full moon.

The incredibly lucky Val, having her whole life ahead of her, travels the continent in search of monsters. While she battles some terrible beasts - and uncovers some elaborate hoaxes - she never sees the likes of those she cut her teeth on. It is rumoured that she married a pirate and sailed to far off places in search of adventure.

Some other words:

A full disclosure here, this scenario was tough. I had to replay it as I lost badly the first play, then lost again. In those, I had forgotten about the Springblade from Chapter 7! As you can see, having it in this scenario made all the difference for me!

As I hang this one up to try out some other titles; this game has been a pleasure to play and fun to write up these reports for. Thanks to Kai for his help and input as he followed my reports, it was fun to tell people I was talking with the game's author!

I know my blog is not frequented by very many, but I'll still say thanks to any and all who read my reports from playing this game over the last few months! If you are a solo skirmish wargamer or would like to be, I encourage you to try out these rules (hey, they're free).  I found them easy to learn and to play and I found the story engaging as well.