Hey, Don't Have To Paint This...

There are times when all one can think of is Panzer Leader...

What a game!  And such a beautiful box!  The colours, the design, everything is so brilliant!

And how can anyone resist this write-up?

The rules and the scenario pack...

The moveable boards in my favourite configuration.

The Combat Results Table.

King Tigers over-running Stuarts!

The Stuarts get their revenge!

And the wonderful smell of Avalon Hill!

I love these games!

A Tzeentchian Sunday With Wood Elves

Warhammer fun with The Kid earlier this afternoon.  A mishmash of 7th Edition Special Characters, 3rd Ed. Wood Elf stats and selection, with 4th Ed. magic cards using 6th edition casting rules.   Seemed to fit with the Tzeentchian theme of  the game. 

    Kairos Fateweaver, the Oracle of Tzeentch, sweet-talks Thuril Elf Stone and his fun-loving band of Wood Elves into the deserts of Araby... 

 

"Oh", says Thuril Elf Stone, "I will never listen to another Sweet-Talking Two-Headed Tzeentchian Trickster ever again!"

 

Ronin among The Cherry Blossoms...

The Easter Weekend moved our regular Sunday night game to Monday.  And if that was not upheaval enough, the Major announced that he would be supplying both the rules and all the figures for the game!  All I had to do would be to set up a small table with a slight Japanese theme.  Luckily the cherry blossoms are out so that solved one part of the table...

The ruleset that The Major brought over turned out to be Ronin from Osprey.  Which was great because I have been very curious about these rules and had almost ordered them twice.  But it was the figs that stole the show!  The Major had recently won a bunch of painted 1/35 scale Samurai, Ashigaru and retainers from ebay and was eager to show them off.  And they are fabulous!   So toylike and wonderful.  They are a little smaller than Britains toy soldiers, roughly about the size of Lego Mini-figs.  But what pleasure holding and moving them!  (I had sudden mad thoughts of selling my collection of 25/28s in order to plunge and stay in the land of 1/35!)  Anyway, enough blather...

  The local Daimyo had approved the petition of two Buntais of Bushi to settle their dispute in his courtyard under his watchful gaze.

The Major's Buntai.

The Private's Buntai.

To keep everything simple as we broke in these new rules, we both used the Bushi list and had the same force:  one Bushou, one Hatamoto, three Samurai, two Ashigaru with bows and three other Ashigaru.

The Buntais meet.

First blood!

Combat is very cool, and at times, very tense and exciting.  Each player has a set number of combat counters and secretly allocates whether they will be used for Defence or Attack or any combination of the two.

There are four different categories of wounds:  Stun, Light, Grievous and Critical.  Each affects the performance of the warriors in different ways.

The Major takes me out!!!

But my Buntai bravely and resolutely carries on.  "Honour!  Revenge!"

The marker beside the Samurai shows that he is suffering from a Grievous wound, which greatly reduces his combat effectiveness.

The machine that was the Major's Bushou!

"No, no, no.  You can't come in here!"

The spiral counters are Stun markers.  With the heady scent of all the Giant Fallen Cherry Blossoms, everyone was getting a little giddy.  (Or was it the Sapporo?)

My Last Samurai (Tom) finally gets the drop on the Major's Bushou and takes him down!   "Rear attacks are not shameful." Toms tells himself.

My Oni roar in approval!

At that, we stop.  Ronin proved to be a very enjoyable game.  I look forward to playing it again and trying out the various Attributes and Abilities that are available. 

Now to watch some Kurosawa!

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. 

                         ------------------------------------------------------------------------

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...