As I noted in an earlier post, DBA (and the Baron) got me back into wargaming after a 10-year-plus hiatus. When I moved to the Twin Cities the first time, Jeff Bolton introduced me to HOTT (Hordes of the Things), and then convinced me to build an army in 28mm. At the time I was firmly entrenched in a DBA/DBM 15mm universe. To get to critical mass quickly with this "first" 28mm army, I traded some stuff to Lead Addict for some plastic GW skeletons (and some older metal) that were in various states of completion. I spruced up the Addict horde, added some odds and ends that I found myself and soon had this 24-point Undead army ready to go:
A closer look at the elements?
3 Elements of Knights at 2 points each:
4 Elements of Hordes at 1 point each:
1 Behemoth (evil treeman) at 4 points:
4 more Hordes at 1 point each, because an Undead army can never have too may Hordes:
An element of Beasts (rabid wolves) guards the other flank at 2 points:
A Magician General, in this case a "Vampire" Dominatrix (from Foundry) leads the army for the final 4 points:
And then there are some alternate elements for those "special" tactical needs.
2 elements of Flyers at 2 points each:
An element of Sneakers (Dwarf skeletons from Fenryll) at 1 point and 1 element of Shooters (Black Tree maybe?) at 2 points:
And Lurkers, of course (GW and Reaper), at 1 point apiece:
And last but not least, my favorite "Three-headed Undead Ogre" that I play as either a Hero or a Behemoth, at 4 points either way:
I think it's a Ral Partha figure. First time out we played with a house rule. When activated, the owner rolled a D6; on a 1 or 2, Larry was in control so any movement had to be away from enemy; on a 3 or 4 Curly was in control so movement had to be toward the enemy; on a 5 or 6 Moe was in control and the element could be moved as the owner wished. It was fun. . . once, but really too unpredictable for an expensive 4-point element.
One of the features I really like about HOTT is the Stronghold, an architectural feature that exists simply to be defended, and has its own intrinsic combat factor. The Stronghold lets you put a "castle" on the table and actually fight over it without a lot of complicated siege rules. It's quite abstract, but I like it. I have yet to be involved in a real siege game that I would want to repeat.
So I built a Stronghold for the Undead, designed to be set at the base edge of the playing surface. I was into HOTT enough now to be thinking about the "theme" for my Undead army. A fan of Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles at the time, I decided my Undead were led by vampires that had been driven out of ancient Egypt and lately taken up residence in Britain. There they could face off against all manner of Celts, Romans, "Britons," Saxons, Vikings and Normans, as well as the Elves and Trolls of Poul Anderson's The Broken Sword.
Then I moved to Tulsa, and introduced a group of the locals to Great Hordes! (GH!)*, our house-ruled big-battle version of HOTT. We played a lot of GH! in Tulsa, and I decided I wanted to "upgrade" my Undead army to better complement the Stronghold and be "truer" to the established theme. And since I am a notoriously slow painter, this decision pretty much made sure this would be my only HOTT army for awhile. . .
The upgrades are the vampiric Prince Kha-Ris, a Magician (actually GW's Zacharias):
An element of Knights (Confrontation minis):
3 elements of Beasts (from Reaper):
An Aerial Hero; Cruella, as she became known in Tulsa (more Reaper goodness):
2 Flyers, Cruella's aerial support:
3 Behemoths (a Zombie Wolfen from Confrontation; not sure where the skeletal ogres came from; and a GW Varghulf):
One lonely Lurker so far (the Undead Troll is from Reaper, and the magic user is an old, uh, I mean. . . classic GW mini from the original Addict score):
Artillery (bolt-shooter from Ral-Partha? vampire overseer from Reaper):
And some straight-up vampires (think Dracula and his warrior brides, from Ral-Partha and Reaper) that I field as a Hero or Blades depending on the need:
Where are all the undead hordes you ask? Next up on the painting table are lots of Celtos skeletons and zombies, along with a few more odds and ends, to fill out this army with the requisite Hordes. If anyone is interested, I could share the painting process on a few skeletons and zombies as I get into them. . .
See ya!
*for more on Great Hordes! you can check out the previous posts with the "Great Hordes" label
Tulsa TransNational Transport is my fictitious commercial airline company set within the Crimson Skies universe. Part of the official corporate lore:
Tulsa TNT was born in the wake of the Republic of Texas' secession from the United States. Texas annexed American Airways holdings in Oklahoma along with the entire state when Texas declared Oklahoma a "Protectorate." Its current Chief Executive, C. Christophe Cluche', originally a native of "French" Louisiana, was annexed as well, but has done his best to build a thriving aviation entity under the watchful eyes of The Republic. "I prefer a Republic to a Collective, even if it can be damned hard to tell the two apart some days," is a quote often attributed to Cluche' by his defenders, when his affinity for the Oklahoma Freedom Fighters (OFF) is mentioned by his detractors.
Tulsa TNT was basically created to provide plunder and cannon fodder for the pirate gangs and militias of our Crimson Skies games. I have succeeded brilliantly as my dismal record of protecting corporate assets, as well as escort flyers, can attest. TNT's most prized possession, the luxury liner "Jewel in the Crown" has been shot down and resurrected twice already, mainly due to the corporate escorts' inability to protect it.
Following are photos of all of TNT's aircraft assets, with a brief description of each. Enjoy!
The Jewel in the Crown is currently the largest passenger liner in operation out of Oklahoma. Her two main routes are between Tulsa and Austin in the Republic of Texas, and Tulsa to Chicago in the Industrial States of America. The Chicago run is the most hazardous of the two, as the borderland between Dixie and the Collective is fraught with peril, and not just the piratical kind.
(Model note: The Jewel is a stock build of the 1976 Testors HAWK model of the Graf Zeppelin in 1/245 scale. This same kit allows you to model the U.S.S. Los Angeles at 1/200 scale. FYI I reckon the Crimson Skies models to be 1/200 scale and this zep model works well with the Crimson Skies models. I added gun turrets to the Jewel from a WW2-era destroyer model. The Testors HAWK kit has recently been re-tooled and re-released with a "hard" plastic body instead of the soft plastic of the original. I picked up two awhile back at half-price on ebay with the idea of building a military version and maybe a pirate, as well. Some day. . .)
4 Kingfishers provide escort for the Jewel and are physically carried on board, ready at all times to launch in her defense. The Kingfisher is a hardy plane that was designed specifically for zeppelin escort duty. I find it to be slightly under-gunned (that must be why I can't defend the Jewel properly), but it is a great looking aircraft.
The "eyes" of the Escort Wings are provided by the 2 Seers, nimble, lightly armored airplanes with long range and great speed. The Seer makes a great courier, too.
An Albatross float plane provides security in river and lake country.
TNT also boasts an impressive fleet of autogyros. The Bird Dog was designed for standard police and security service.
Short-hop commuter service is provided by the pair of Liberte'.
And finally we have a more upscale passenger autogyro, the Metroliner.
Next up for Crimson Skies? The People's Collective militia, the Wichita Windstorm. I'll share when I finish painting.
See ya!
Crimson Skies is a blast. We're talking about FASA's 1998 boardgame, not the Clix version. A simple aerial skirmish game with lite Roleplay aspects, and a great Alternate History of the United States leading up to 1937 as a backdrop for the action, Boardgamegeek describes Crimson Skies thus:
Crimson Skies is a character-based board game of
dogfighting and dive bombing in an aviation-dominated world; a simple,
fast-playing game of pulp-fiction-style air combat. It is a game about
the men and women who pilot flying nightmares, the metal-sheathed birds
of prey that spit death from the sky.
In Crimson Skies, you are at the top of the aviation
food chain - a fighter pilot, one of the fearless men and women who
take to the skies each day for honor or profit. Each player generates a
minimum of two characters, a pilot and his or her wingman. If your
characters survive from mission to mission, they gain experience that
can translate into better skills, and thus even better chances for
future survival and success. While this is a combat board game, not a
roleplaying game, telling tales about your characters will invest the
game with action, drama and humor, making the game-playing experience
even more enjoyable.
This is a fun game that I haven't played for a couple of years; since I moved from Tulsa to the Twin Cities. In Tulsa, we played every couple of months or so, alternating Crimson Skies with other favorite games. In place of the printed map boards and paper counters, we used Hotz Hex mats and the metal models originally from Ral Partha, now available from Ironwind Metals.
We played a campaign of sorts . . . I would generally bring a couple of rough scenario outlines to game day, and then try to adapt one to the players and Militias that showed up to play. Afterward, I would create a narrative based on the actual game we played, adding some back story and intrigue, then publish an episode of "Air Action Weekly," which helped to set up the next scenario.
The casualness of the campaign - such as it was - really fit our style of play and made the games a lot more fun. Another fun aspect for us is that we based our Militias on local history and geography, so we centered our ongoing narrative on Oklahoma.
If you want to follow our campaign, you can download each edition of "Air Action Weekly" below. You'll get a sampling of our toys, too.
Jewel Shot Down Over Ozarks!
Governor "Alfalfa Bill" Murray outruns "Thievin' Savages!"
German Chancellor Hitler Gives Speech on Foreign Policy
Victorinox Payroll Object of Ferocious Dogfight over Dixie!
Blood Feud Lures Patrols into "Thirty Seconds of Fiery Death!"
Renegades Deliver Response to "Thirty Seconds of Fiery Death!"
Texas Fliers Spank Collective Raiders - But Lose New Oil Well.
RAF Earns Collective's Wrath!
More Like Sour Grapes of Wrath!
Mick "Movie Star" Mannock is Hero in Reel - and Real - Life!
Pirates Have Tulsa TransNational "On the Ropes" After Latest Attack!
Texas Threatens War; Collective Denies all Republic Allegations.
Will Texas and the Collective actually go to war? Not sure we'll ever know. . .
And if reading these makes you want to play Crimson Skies, but you can't find the OOP game, despair not, because you can download PDFs of all the original rules and background books from the game below. You'll still need to provide your own hex maps.
Book 1 - The Rules of Air Combat
Book 2 - Warriors of the Air
Book 3 - Aircraft of North America
Counters
Record Sheets
And two supplements you should have (there are several book supplements available, too, but you're on your own for those):
National Air Races
Zeppelins and Bombers
You're welcome!
Last week at my FLGS I picked up some new rulebooks. Saga has been all the rage lately and since I love me some Dark Ages, particularly the Norman Conquest kind, I decided to give it a closer look. Since we know the French and Indian War has some appeal for me, Muskets & Tomahawks, from Studio Tomahawk, the creators of Saga, seemed a natural pick-up, too. And since I like my current French and Indian War rules of choice so much, This Very Ground by Iron Ivan Games, I bought their World War Two skirmish set, Disposable Heroes & Coffin for Seven Brothers.
So if I like This Very Ground (TVG) so much, why bother with Muskets & Tomahawks (M&T)? Shiny object - I couldn't resist. And I have an ultimate plan. . .
A campaign, of course. I want to use GMT's boardgame, Wilderness War, as the basis of the campaign.
I have been building my 10-man units with the John Jenkins miniatures to each represent 1 Strength Point from the boardgame. TVG perfectly handles the army level battles generated by the boardgame, but there's a "frontier ravaging" sub-game that is happening simultaneously with the army level that feels like it needs a more intimate scale than the army level. Hence I keep looking at rules. . .
After reading through M&T, I think it could easily fit the bill. In fact, it reads (disclaimer: I haven't played, yet) a lot like TVG. Both games are unit-based; each unit comprised of 4 to 12 soldiers in M&T, 5 to 20 in TVG. Both games activate a unit at a time, and alternate activations. TVG has a more interesting activation system, based on Initiative and player choice; M&T is card-driven, with an option to build hands instead of relying on the draw (I like the option). Again, in both games, each unit moves, shoots and fights before another unit activates. In TVG the soldiers are required to be in a formation and all take the same action. In M&T the soldiers can do different actions, which means that some can fire while others reload, and individual figures have to be marked for reloading. TVG uses a "Volume of Fire" mechanism that allows a single marker to be used for a unit, which I like.
In both games, each combatant has 3 defining characteristics. TVG bases these characteristics on a D10, M&T on a D6. This permits TVG to differentiate unit quality with numbers to a greater extent, M&T relies a bit more on "traits."
Shooting is handled the same in both games; each figure gets a die, rolling to hit and then rolling each hit to wound. Morale tests are taken by unit each time casualties are incurred. Both games handle morale degradation with 3 levels of decreasing effectiveness.
Officers are treated as individual units in both games; unit leaders are handled differently. In M&T, each unit has a leader who by virtue of being a leader is the last casualty in the unit. In TVG, each unit has one or more leaders (non-coms) that can become casualties as part of normal combat, and their loss can have a detrimental effect on unit performance. As officer mortality was quite high in the French and Indian War, I think TVG gets this right.
TVG provides some sample scenarios that can be strung together to form a mini-campaign and encourages the reader to devise their own scenarios, while M&T provides a neat scenario-generation system. M&T also has a system for random events and for "Side Plots" that add some fun and fanciful elements into the canned scenarios.
I like M&T enough to play a few games to get the feel of it, but I am not convinced I will switch from TVG. I may just be able to switch to smaller 5-man units to get the more intimate feel I want for the "frontier war".
I'll get to Saga and Disposable Heroes later.
See ya.
