Summer of Gaming, Part 1

While I haven't posted in a bit, I have been active. Summer, for me, is working at a private school's summer program. I "teach" classes such as Strategic Gaming, Toy Soldiers, Mythology, NERF Wars, and other fun camps. I use wargaming and gaming in general in most of my camps. None of these are part of my "regular" gaming, so I plan on breaking down what I did over a couple posts.

Toy Soldiers

I have three sections of Toy Soldiers: Medieval, WWII, and Sci-Fi. 

Medieval

Medieval battle rules came from Junior General. If you haven't perused that site, do yourself a favor. I selected the battles of Agincourt and Towton. The kids enjoyed the experience and I listened to them compare strategies outside of the actual battles. Win!

We also had a jousting tournament. I used Thomas Foss's Breaking Lances rules (unpublished as of yet). It's a quick, fun set of rules that really capture the essence of the joust and grand melee. Foss's web presence is found at http://skullandcrown.blogspot.com/. From there you can link to his store and FB pages. 

To make the jousts and battles more memorable, we discussed heraldry, livery, and what the symbols meant. I had the kids create their own heraldic devices. While not totally accurate, they liked making their "shields". I used the very easy and convenient site CoaMaker to convert their ideas into functioning devices. Seeing their designs on the knights as they jousted really made it fun for the boys. It also stymied the almost inevitable "He's got my knight!" arguments.

WWII

This one was trickier. I decided early on to use skirmish rules, as 54mm toy soldiers don't lend themselves to mass actions in this theater. I finally decided on Wiley Games Fistful of Lead (FoL) rules. Simple, but with enough "meat" to make it memorable and fun.

What I didn't anticipate was the most obvious obstacle: my campers' ages. 2nd to 6th grade, to be exact. The kids "got" the rules easily enough. What the younger ones didn't have was a long enough attention span. The campers that did had a great time. The ones that didn't wound up playing other games. I also had 16 campers, so it was difficult to keep them entertained. Live and learn.  The last pics of urban combats were separated into 4v4 engagements. It was much easier to manage than a full-blown 8v8!

The scenario was Western front, American GIs vs German Wehrmahct. Painting the figs was daunting due to sheer numbers, but fortunately, 54mm figs take paint easily.

A ruined farmhouse became the battlefront for three days!

Another angle of the battlefield

Urban combat #1

Urban combat #2

Sci-Fi

Same rules, half the kids. Same issues with youngsters not maintaining attention. I made this one more interactive for the players, in that they got to decide location, naming rights, etc.

The plot: Planet J34456, or "Jasper", was discovered to have rich deposits of Barstownium in a series of caverns and tunnels. Barstownium is used to power spaceship engines, so is valuable to Human expansion. 

Two companies, Lanayru Corporation and Temptania Labs, laid claim to the planet. Stopping short of waging war for the rights, they settled for splitting the planet in half, figuratively speaking. This is the setting in which the campers found themselves. 

Having learned that scenarios overstay their welcome quickly with youngsters, I told the boys that there would be four, linked scenarios for the week. 

The first took place on the perimeter of the shared border between the two companies. Border guards lazily eyed each other from built-up areas, as they had done for nearly six months. The land was barren, desolate, and boring, as terraforming efforts hadn't reached that far. The only cover were rock formations and hardy native scrub plants. 

Suddenly earpieces crackled with reports of an attack inside Lanayru space! Reports were minimal, but casualties were being taken. Attack!

Lanayru forces

Temptanian forces

I see you...

Eventually, Lanayru forces took too many casualties and were forced to retreat. Temptanian forces seized the opportunity and pushed into their rival's zone. 

Day 2 found Lanayru having set up a hasty defense outside a facility. Temptanian forces needed to force their way past the hill before reinforcements from the facility arrived.

Lanayru, set up

Temptania, on the attack

Reinforcements!

Perfect kill spot

Just as the two groups are really going at it, an alert sounds from the compound! The attackers aren't human, they're "bugs"! Cease hostilities and band together - or die!

The two groups do just that and kill the few "skitters" that had escaped the compound - but not before the sniper had his head removed by a sneak attack!

Day 3: Enter the compound and retrieve the bug research.

Banding together, the companies were tasked with finding the data Lanayru had compiled regarding the "bugs". evidently, mining and terraforming operations had awakened the indigenous apex species on the planet - and now they wanted to feast and breed. The data would go a long way toward understanding the threat, both to humans and the corporate bottom lines.

Bug factory

For more (and better) pics, go to The Penny Whistle on FB. Thanks, Ken!

Day 4: Get to the LZ!

Having acquired the data, it was now time to get to the LZ and off planet! I warned the kids that this one would be brutal, and it was. I switched the rules to a variant of the old Leading Edge Games Aliens rules. They simpler than FoL, but are proven to work very well. 

The kids wanted to "turtle" and take their time, but this was simply a "run and gun" mission. Nobody lived. The companies will have to figure out a way to manage this "issue". 

Contact!

There goes the pilot!

Last man standing

The co-pilot, after the pilot was dragged into the jungle by a skitter, wisely chose to hole up in the landing craft. Once radio contact with the withdrawing force was lost, he dusted off and swore he'd never return...

All in all, the kids loved the camp. Another win!

In honor of Bill Paxton...

It has been quite a while since I last blogged.  With the end of my pirate campaign, my Muse wasn't giving me any direction on what to play next.  I've been gaming, but it's been a hodge-podge of titles, genres and scales.  My gaming group started and is in the middle of a Blood Bowl season.  I originally thought to post about the game outcomes, but never seemed to get pictures or good recounts from the games I wasn't involved in playing.  Thus, not blogged.

Anyway, here it is...March!  One of my favorite character actors, Bill Paxton, recently and unexpectedly died.  I absolutely love the movie Aliens.  It's in my top five of all-time movies.  Mr. Paxton played the role of Pvt. Hudson in said movie and had some very memorable and quotable lines.  On another note, Mr. Paxton and Lance Henriksen are the only two actors that were "killed" by aliens, predators and terminators.  Some would argue that the character of Bishop was an android and wasn't technically 'killed' (he was shut down in Aliens 3), but that's splitting hairs.

To honor Bill Paxton, the group (Terry, Jon Mark, Jared and myself) played the board game adaptation of Aliens Thursday evening.  The plot was slightly different than the movie's...consider it a "what if?" scenario.

THE PLOT

The Colonial Marines engaged the aliens in the reactor room and got whooped.  Sgt. Apone, Pvt. Dietrich and Pvt. Hudson were grabbed by aliens before Lt. Gorman, who didn't panic, ordered an immediate evacuation.  The dropship didn't get waylaid and was able to deliver an arsenal of weapons to the marines.  Burke's self-preservation overrode his desire to save the colony, so he went along with nuking the site from orbit.  There was only one problem: Marines don't leave anyone behind.

The marine section proceeded to arm themselves and took an elevator into, literally and figuratively, the "belly of the beast".  Their mission was simple: Find their teammates, get them out and kill any bugs in their way.

This scenario takes place adjacent to the nuclear reactor which powers the colony.  Weapons fire weakens the protection around said reactor and eventually will make it go BOOM.  If your marines are still present when this happens, game over, man.  Game over.  Flame units don't count toward causing this catastrophe.  The placement of the captured marines is randomized.  Of course, the die roll placed them in what was considered the hardest location to reach.  That should've given us a clue as to what the night had in store for us.

The captured marines

THE GAME

Things started smoothly for the marines.  Not wanting to unnecessarily draw attention to themselves, they didn't enter any rooms.  This meant taking a circuitous route around the entire map.   The squad made it relatively far, with Ripley and Hicks in the lead.  That's when the motion tracker started to ping...

The crew is ready...or are they?

Taking the lead

We've got motion!

One thing about aliens...they're fast!  The leading wave met with Hicks and Ripley in moments.

Good thing there's a wall!

Blocking the doorway with fire

 As the point marines took care of their mess, another wave crept up from the rear.  Only by the grace of Drake's machine gun were the marines able to get out of the jam.

I think we're outnumbered...

Things continued to be dicey, but with controlled flamethrower usage and withering fire, the marines slogged on.  Unfortunately, Drake was grabbed and taken away.

Finally clear of aliens, Hicks entered the room.  Aliens poured up and out of the giant stairwell, nearly overrunning the marines.  It was here that Ripley was taken.

Her sacrifice wasn't in vain.  Hicks was able to pull a wounded, but groggy Hudson out of the 'ick' and hand him a pulse rifle.

Again, the marines cleared out the area and proceeded to free Dietrich and Apone.  Although wounded, they both carried their trusty flamers, which were proving to be indispensable.  

Another wave of aliens!!!  In the resulting scrum, Dietrich fell to another wound.  Gorman was grabbed, but Apone knocked the alien to the floor before torching it.  It was at this point that gunfire had critically damaged the reactor, starting the countdown sequence.

Hold them off with fire

I see 'em...

The end of Apone

Apone and Gorman, lagging behind the rest of the group, were surrounded.  Gorman ran (of course), leaving Apone in a tough spot.  Crowe, trying to help. killed a bug, but its acidic blood spray in turn killed Apone.  Gorman's reprieve was short-lived as he was killed instantly by the next alien that attacked him.

Meanwhile, Crowe, Frost and Wierzbowski had their own problems.  Frost and Wierz had flamers.  They used them effectively to keep the bugs off of them while Crowe shot them dead.

Hicks and Hudson, well in advance of the group, were faring little better.  Eventually, Hudson became incapacitated and Hicks had to sling him over his shoulder and make a mad dash for the elevator.  They made it, eventually.

With the reactor heating up, Crowe, Wierz and Frost applied a steady diet of pain on the aliens.  They finally broke clear; the map was empty of bugs...

...and then it wasn't.  Wierz and Crowe were wounded, meaning they could neither shoot as far nor as effectively.  With 17 turns left on the reactor clock, things were looking bleak.

It's feeling a bit overwhelming...

It went right around the fire!

Frost was grabbed and taken away, leaving Wierz and Crowe.  Wierz was the next to go, with an alien pouncing on him.

Game over, man!  Game over!

Finally, Crowe was incapacitated and taken away.  Truly game over.  There were seven ticks on the reactor countdown, so it wasn't too much longer before the whole place blew up anyway.  Even if there weren't any more aliens to stop them, Crowe, Wierz and Frost would've been hard-pressed to make it to the elevator in time.

FINAL SCORE

Seven marines and one civilian went in.  Two marines escaped.  One of those was Pvt. Hudson. It was a great night of edge-of-seat die rolls, cheers and groans. 

While I'm sorry to say he's gone in real life, Bill Paxton will live to fight as Pvt. Hudson on many gaming tables and in many gamers' imaginations.  I hope Mr. Paxton's family finds peace and realize that they aren't alone in their mourning.