The Battle At The Farm (On Tatooine)

I was thinking of subtitling this post - Dedicated to Our Wonderful Wives Who Indulge Their Husbands' Private Weirds.

  Earlier today I joined my darling wife out in the backyard.  "Oh Boy," she said excitedly, "you're coming to help with the gardening?" 

   "No," says I, "I was planning on re-playing The Battle Of Farm Scenario from Rogue Trader with vintage Star Wars action figures!"

   "Oh." 

And she smiled. 

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On a doubly sunny day on Tatooine, a young farm-boy decides it is time to leave his run-down farm and journey out into the galaxy in search of adventure.

"Nothing ever happens around here," he whines as he zooms off on his cool land-speeder.

It was a good thing too, because in a matter of minutes a group of tired Imperial Marines enters the farmyard. 

"Let us rest a bit in this farmhouse," rasps Marine Commander Lord Pedro Vader.

   "Sir?," requests Brother Marine Hoth, "May I have the honour of the first watch?"

   "Yes," says Brother Boba, "Me too."

   "And me too," adds Sister Leia.

"No, dear comrades," says Lord Pedro, "you have done enough for today.  Go get some rest and let me call a couple of Stormtroopers for Sentry duty."

As soon as everyone is tucked in, a sentry raises the alarm!

"ORKS!!!" he screams, "AND THEY'RE BEING LED BY JABBA THE THRUGG!!!"

"GET UP EVERYBODY!!!"

The Ork attack begins as one massive charge.

Casualities are heavy, but so is their leader.

Lord Pedro hops up on the farmyard wall and orders Brother Boba to fire his missile.

(The obligatory blast shot.)

The blast is horrible!

But this only renews the Orken determination!

 

Plus, a surprise random appearance of some Tusken Raiders helps in the attack....                           

 

 

Meanwhile, Lord Pedro and Jabba The Thrugg battle it out.  They are each down to one wound...

...when the rains come!  And it rains (as everyone knows) very hard on Tatooine!

Lucky a Hero arrives...

...and whisks a happily dazed Sister Leia away.

No one else is left standing.

P.S.  -   Thanks to Zhu for this!

True Retro-Gaming Is In Black And White!

I don't know what it is, but looking at pictures of Donald Featherstone just makes me happy!

 

I fantasize about one day stumbling upon a picture of Donald Featherstone and Gary Gygax playing a game of Chainmail together circa 1972.   Sigh. 

On a related note, I was happily surprised at the Time-Travel effects on Picasa...

Makes me curious to see what other Time-Travelling services they offer...

Rebel Assault!

When the Rebel High Command heard about an Imperial gathering on WoTc IV,

 

A Rebel Assault was ordered and dispatched...                                                                                        

 

But this planet seemed oddly familiar...

There were even Jawas!

And Jabba?

Spies and double-dealing.

And action!

Stormtroopers!

Yeah!  These are all WOTC Star Wars pre-painted minis.  I think they are really terrific.  And they are perfect for so many games - I have happily used them for Warzone, Imperial Commander, 40K, Star Grunt II, as well as the D20 games The Kid and I sometimes play.   But this weekend I asked The Kid if he wanted a game with the "little rubber Star War guys",  and was met with the reply, "no, I rather use the Rogue Trader ones".   This made me smile and then, made me vaguely sad.   Doesn't he see these fantastic figs as the Britain's Deetails of his generation?!

Oh well. 

But that's not all!  This post was also prompted by an enjoyable visit yesterday to the fine blog, Oldenhammer in Toronto.  After reading it I was all fired up to get out the WOTC minis.  And I'm glad I did.

Now I think I'm going to go out and play in the rain with these great guys...Bye for now.  

The Undeniable Utter Truth About Space Slann!!!

"I SEE SPACE SLANN EVERYWHERE AND IT IS DRIVING ME CRAZY!!!"

Yes, ever since Ari changed his name back to Aki, he has been seeing things clearer.  Perhaps too clearly.   The truth as he knew it began to wear heavily on Aki.

"Everybody thinks Space Slann are so cool, but they are shape-shifters from the 4th Dimension and they are controlling our world!" 

 

Aki paces back and forth in his tiny apartment muttering to himself, "If only I can make everyone aware of this Undeniable and Utter Truth.  Wait.  I must!  That's it!  I will make my message known,  I will gather followers and I will hunt down every last Space Slann!!" 

 

Unfortunately, while he was deep in thought, various objects began to manifest themselves into Aki's kitchen.

 

Objects that were in fact conduits and portals to the 4th Dimension!!!!

"Ah-ha", says the great Queen Mother, Lord K___,___,ger, a 33 and a third degree Slann of the High Council of Galactic Moulding and Manipulation.

"We have finally been discovered!"

Within moments the mighty Lord K___,___,ger had gathered a strike team of his finest agents.

"My dears, you will go to back to Earth and sort this out."

And in a flash they were in Aki's apartment.

"You!!!", said Aki, "You don't fool me!  I know what you are!  I know who you are!  You can't hide your identities from me!  I can even name you - William S., Johann Sebastian B., Anthony I., and don't think you get off the hook, Richard P.!!  You have been dominating us for much too long!"

"I know everything about you!!"

"Do you, Aki?" says a new voice, "Do you really?"

"NOOOOOOO!!!", wails Aki, "Not you too, Mabel..."

Re-doing the 100th post Part One - Private W. tries to figure out Picasa!

Oi, let's do this! 

 

Ahh, all the pictures are of me!  (O, these meddling Space Slann!)  

 

But what a handsome guy! 

Chainmailing in The New Year - The Battle of Snowy Mountain Pass

Happy New Year Everyone!

   The Major and I broke in 2015 with a game of Chainmail last night.  Glorious Chainmail! Unfortunately, I still had no batteries for my camera, but the Major kindly left his Dark Elves over so I could restage some of the action this afternoon.  Anyway, here now are some pics:

     The Dark Elves block the mountain pass!

But the Dwarves and their Human friends (and creatures) must get through!

"You shall not pass!!"

"Let loose the pets!"

No turning back.

Dragons charge and begin the first fight of the battle.

And Dwarves march resolutely on towards the deadly Dark Elf lines.  Actually, I was a little disappointed when The Major brought his Dark Elves over - I was expecting his beautiful Amazons.   But these Dark Elves are a treat too. 

Main event stuff now...

Combat with Fantastical creatures is done on the following chart.  One die roll is all that is needed!  No multiple wounds, no special rules, just instant action!

The Dark Elves watch in horror as their Manticore is torn to pieces by Grenadruch The Red Dragon.

Speaking of dragons in Chainmail, a Hero armed with a bow can shoot and kill a flying Dragon on 2D6 roll of a 10+!  This is exactly what Grendir Nevermiss did!  (Although it did take him three tries and the loss of most of his unit before he succeeded.)

The Dark Elf general challenges Fra-Na-Zorf, the friendly giant, to personal combat - and loses!

The Dark Elf lines begin to crumble.  The Dwarves raise the Blue Flag of Everlasting Victory!  Huzzah!!

More Chainmail tables.

Chainmail!  Hopefully this return to Chainmail will be the start of a whole series of gaming with classic rulesets for 2015!