I'm getting ready to varnish a unit of John Jenkins Connecticut Provincials, and so needed to paint new uniform colors onto a pair of Sergeants and Officer. Thought I'd take the opportunity to share these, and a couple others who've gotten new uniforms.
On the far left is an officer of the Virginia Provincials, in his original uniform scheme of blue coat with red facings, in the process of getting his new base. To his right is the same officer in the uniform of the New York Provincials, drab coat with buckskin waistcoat and trousers. To his right is the most recent addition to the Connecticut Provincials, in red coat with yellow facings.
On the far right is the original Sergeant of the 60th Royal Americans (a unit with a fascinating history) in red coat with blue facings. To his left is a Sergeant of the Virginia Provincials (his officer is on the far left) in opposite colors: blue cost with red facings. And to his right is one of the new Connecticut Provincial Sergeants, in red and yellow.
Here is the Connecticut unit with its new officers, awaiting their protective varnish. . .
And now some Romulans for my 1/2500-scale Star Trek: Attack Wing project. I bought a Waclawski model of an Enterprise-era Romulan Bird-of-Prey, then after a bit of research discovered the Eaglemoss models were the same scale.
So I added two to my small but growing collection of 1/2500 scale Star Trek: Attack Wing models.
Here is one of the models set up for play on a Cor-Sec flight stand I configured to work with the Star Trek: Attack Wing stands that support the Ship ID and Captain tokens from the game, next to an actual model from the game.
Bigger is cooler : )
See ya!
Game Three started right after lunch on Saturday. In typical Fistful of Lead fashion, a "blood alley" formed in a contested and congested area. In fact, two blood alleys formed consistently in all four games: one was along the wall behind the main house, and the second was at the dogtrot barn, which often saw two of the warbands converge on it. This game saw the main house and the barn burned, with colonists fleeing the burning buildings only to be cut down outside - or in the case of 4 of them - captured. Game Three goes to the Indians.
Game Four fired up after dinner, and I was too tired to run the game AND take photos. This game was interesting in that it featured several repeat players from earlier games, mostly taking the "other side" to see how well they could do having seen the situation already. Just like the earlier games, the Indians won.
As The Baron noted in his post, there was a lot of whooping and hollering at our table during our games. Everyone had fun, and said so, whether winning or losing. Why do I think the games were so much fun, especially as the results were so lopsided?
Fistful of Lead is a fun set of rules. Cinematic in feel, but not unrealistic. It allows for dramatic moments, like an unlikely bow shot through a barn window with the slimmest chance of success. The Horse and Musket variant adds the "reload" action and another decision point to the game, and increases the potential for hand-to-hand combat. Tense and dramatic!
The scenario was fun, too, but not quite in the way I anticipated. I expected that play would prove it to be at least nominally balanced; but play proved it to be unbalanced, and I think that was part of the fun! The Indian players all felt a great sense of accomplishment in burning the settlement, and the militia players all engaged in great heroics attempting to save it in the face of great odds. Readers: if you played in one of these games at Recruits I would like to hear what you think of this observation.
See ya at Recruits next year!
Here's the first of two posts about our games at last weekend's Recruits. We played 4 French and Indian War-era games of Fistful of Lead: Horse and Musket. The scenario (map above, changed a little from the map I posted last week) featured two units of 5 colonial militia defending an abandoned farmstead from an Indian war party of 3 units of 5 warriors.
The goal of the Indians was to burn the settlements. An Indian could start a fire by using two actions in the same turn while next to a building. 6 Fires would burn down a building and each burned building was worth 10 victory points. The militia was outnumbered but each Indian killed was worth 2 victory points while each militia man killed was worth 1 to the Indians.
In addition, Indians could capture a militia man that failed his rally roll within 12" of a warrior - both men leave the field but the captured militia man is worth 2 victory points.
Each unit leader had a randomly chosen trait, 3 to 2 odds it would be positive! The woods and the low stone wall were light cover while the buildings were heavy. The Indians started in the 3 wooded corners, the militia in the open between the buildings. I may have unbalanced an ostensibly balanced scenario by starting the militia outside the heavy cover of the buildings, but I presumed that players would want to maneuver some and mebbe pick their own cover. . . but more on that later.
Views of the table; you can relate them to the map above.
Game One was Friday night. We had 7 players - the scenario was built for five - so we added a unit of French Marines to the Indian side and Rangers to the Colonials. The game turned a bit chaotic as I let everyone but the militia choose their entry points within the woods, but out of visibility (6") of enemy units.
No fires happened but the French and Indians won Game One by killing all their opposition!
Game Two kicked off bright and early Saturday morning and featured 5 players that all knew the rules already. The militia did a good job of using the heavy cover of the buildings. Note the removable roofs that make for some funky photos, but are great for game play. However, the game ended in dramatic fashion when the main house collapsed in a blazing inferno with the last three militia inside! The Indians win again.
Games Three and Four in the next post : )
