Wargaming in Action Figure Scale

If you would like to play war games with action figures, I have some recommendations. What you're going to need is an interest in bringing to life your action figures in a scaled down version of a skirmish war game.

So the materials you will need will be

• action figures, 
• a table to play on, 
• some terrain to move around, 
• and some dice and 
• measuring devices.

These are the best dice ever made.  I am using a 6 sided die game mechanic because this will be written for the figure collector new to wargames.  There are a lot of multi-faceted die out there but we will keep it simple. 

I am very interested in the Lanard CORPS collectible action figures. They currently have two sides available in their line. The good guys are represented by the CORPS. 

They fight against the Marauders/Curse Nanotechnology bad guys.

 In my collection I have enough figures to put together a small squad from both sides. The rules that I like to use are published by a game company called Ganesha Games and use what is referred to as Song of Blades game mechanics.  This is a line of themed wargames rules and I will focus on using Mutants and Death Ray Guns.  This is a great versatile set of ballistic capable war game rules.

 The publishing company is Ganesha games. They are available online. A simple Google search will get you in touch with a fantastic set of miniatures wargames rules to be played with any type of miniatures in almost any scale imaginable.

 Highly recommended! Click this link.. 

Anyways without giving away all of their content, I will be using and demonstrating some of the play mechanics with the figures you see in the photos. So currently I have a table set up to represent a scenario wherein the CORPS has discovered a base of the Marauders. 

The CORPS send in their reservists to strike the base and see what nefarious activities are taking place. 

The marauders will defend the base and at a point make a break for it to escape.

 The action will be governed by dice and a measuring device. In Mutants and Death Ray Guns, the rule set by "Song of" mechanics, there is a short medium and long distance used for measuring moves and shooting distnces. I find this particularly handy for 90 mm gaming.

The attributes of the playing pieces are built using the mechanics of Mutants and Death Ray Guns. Each trooper has a combat score and a quality score. They may also have various attributions or skills that give them special abilities in game situations. On a turn you activate a character by rolling versus his quality. In combat you roll in a comparison roll using his weapon stats and his combat stats. Opposed rolls resolve the conflict.

 Thanks for looking in on the blog check back for part II Kicking in the Door.

Car-Nage!

Got to play two back to back games that featured Car-Nage!!

The first game drew me in with a very appealing table on a printed commercial map called "The Junk Yard."  The rules were GASLAND.  

The two images show my cars that I picked to drive in the game.  There was some objective markers that were added to the map and we were to drive over them and "arcade style" pick them up and add the weapon system to our car instantly and get to utilize them in the game.

The big picture.

I liked the layout and the vehicles a lot and thought the movement templates were a good idea.  I did not like the rules.  My car did not move over 12" in the entire event.  I did get to shoot the weapons and involve myself in some of the mayhem but it was not a satisfying game if I were to be driving a car.

Here is another vehicle from the game.  Super cool and enticing but I will not become a Gasland gamer.

AXLES AND ALLOYS

This is the second game I played and I have a lot of experience with this one so I am a little biased.

In this tabletop smash 'em up car game I got to drive a super fast car with a machine gun on top.  I drove in a series of turns that appeared to be a car driving an obstacle course. Many many feet of distance were covered on the table.  

I do like this game and will continue to play.  I do not like the loss of control rules in this game and if I ever umpired a game would make several changes to the rules.

1. Movement templates.

2. Cars mounted to 1.5 x 3" cardstock.

3. Better reaction to loss of control direction die.

4. Better Chance to hit based on comparative speed not just speed.

Axles and Alloys is the better game for me.

LEGO Star Wars

Summer camp fun in LEGO Star Wars.

Card driven turn order and D6 based Clone Wars action.  

Droids advance through a clone held town.

Ancient droid technology is hidden in the ruins.

Commander Grievous leads his troops down the main street.

Blue squad took a right flank position in some ruins and sniped at the droids.  The base that the minifig is attached to also contained their hit points. Blue is armor, green is mobility, and red is firepower.  Once all three are pipped off then the minifig is dead.

Battle droids turnn attention to the right flank and send a large reaction force.

The battle of the "lone clone", dying in a forsaken dirt clod in the universe.  Overpowered by droids and down to his last hit point.

Earlier in the action you can see the medibot with extra hit points in the lowest foreground.

Summer means LEGOS for me.

Thanks for looking in on the blog.

Such a Beautiful Child

Torin Prime is a planet in the Outer Rim, colonized early in the 22nd century and location of the Torin Prime Civil War from 2106 to 2108.

History

In 2106, a group of terrorist rebels, called the J'har, openly opposed the United Americas' local government placed over the colonies on the planet. That same year the J'har attacked the capital, taking the planet and killing all governmental functionaries of the United Americas or otherwise incarcerating them in concentration camps. The United Americas Allied Command feared such actions would encourage rebellions in other colonies, and launched an invasion on Torin Prime to liberate the planet. The UAAC had the advantage as some UA loyalist remained on the planet and started rebelling against the J'har.

Both Dennis Parker and Arthur Dallas fought for the United Americas. Dallas served in United Americas Outer Rim Defense Fleet as a pilot on the UAS Leviathan (out of Liberty Echo) and received the Sunburst Medal of Honor. Parker was captured by J'har rebels during the conflict and imprisoned at Concentration Camp GR-161 on August 1, 2107. He escaped on February 21, 2108 during the liberation of Torin Prime by constructing an EEV out of scrap. Following the liberation, Dallas was promoted to Captain, and Parker received an honorable discharge and returned to Earth.

The United Americas Allied Command (UAAC) was the union of all the military organizations of the nations that were part of the United Americas, which included the United States Army and the United States Colonial Marine Corps. The UAAC led the United Americas Outer Rim Defense Fleet forces during the Torin Prime Civil War and maintained a close watch on the Three World Empire's political, economical and military movements.

Structure

Within the UAAC, the USCM was tasked with maintaining the collective security of all UA signatories and their recognized interstellar colonies within the frontiers of the Network. Operating in tandem with local forces, the USCM was often the first line of defense and the vanguard of any counterattack.

United Americas

The United Americas was a country formed by the merging of North, Central and South America into one socioeconomic block. Created in 2104, the United Americas largely emerged as a response to the formation and growth of the Three World Empire, which was at the time pioneering space exploration and extra-planetary colonization. Aside from its terrestrial presence, the UA also oversaw several extra-planetary colonies, including that of Olympia on Luna.

The United States of America position as a starfaring, colonizing power has ensured it a leading role in the structure of the United Americas, as evidence from the name of the United States Colonial Marine Corps. The USCM is fully integrated into the joint command structure of the United Americas Allied Command and forms the major striking element of the UA forces.

http://avp.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page

All background text is credited to the above website.  A long time ago I researched the background material in the world of the Alien, Aliens, movie franchise and came up with a notion of what a battle in that universe would look like and what the captain of the Nostromo would have done in his previous military career.  I don't remember the websites I used and I am pretty sure this isn't the one I used but a google search for some of the common mythos vocabulary produced much of the same material I do recall.

Seeing this game again after 12 years was delightful.  What I was presenting when I designed and built the collection of ships for this game, was a combination of a sky full of space ships, and the ability to build your own fleet that had a choice of weaponry.  I used to play a Steve Jackson game called WARPWAR and that had a lot to do with the design aspect of this game.  I kind of remember the Honor Harrington series also and the fact that there were a lot of ships in the big battles.   I also didn't want to get down to marking hull damage and individual turret shooting it was supposed to be on a much grander scale.  Each of the bases in the above photos is a fleet of starship cruisers, battleships, tugs, transports etc.  A set of three of these bases is coalesced into a command structure and is given a capital ship or "flag" ship for a player to control.

A unique aspect of this game was a technology tree or matrix of weaponry that you could build into your fleet to personalize the force and also for a fun event against an opponent as you were not supposed to know what the other player had decided to build onto their ships. (The black 1" chits are the weapon arrays.)

It was a resource acquisition game in one scenario but that was not all it could do.  This game's format had a lot of "legs" in that you could replay planetary bombardment games.  You could deep space deploy mechs.  You could have orbital mines defending the approach vectors to your planet.  I used the old push-pull campaign map for the Torin Prime War scenarios but there was a lot that this beautifully written game was capable of.

So I got to play it again after a long absence of  years of it just sitting on my shelf gathering dust.  My friend Ted hosted a game night in which  this game was tabled for our entertainment.  I had given the entire game to Ted.  All the ships, control sheets, background fluff, design notebook the whole shebang.  Ted had always commented that he liked the game and always mentioned that we should play it again as it was good.  Well like many things in this hobby there are too many games and not enough time so now this game will live on in Ted's collection.  Regrets? No.  It served it's purpose for me and I could make another copy in an afternoon.

Thanks for looking in.

Alien Day LV-426

Begin transmission:

The planet LV-426 Atmospheric processor was infested by xenomorphs.  United Americas Colonial Marine Taskforce Sulaco was detailed for a dcut cleaning excercise on planet.

The insertion team would be 1st platoon sqauds 1, 2, 3 (heavy weapons detail with two sentry guns.)

The xeno spawn sites were identified through scanner processing and the place was thick with bugs.  Each spawn site would have to be neutralized to keep the aliens back enough to reach the central control computer.

It was a slog fest of G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T.-ESQUE marine firepower and alien insurgence.

First contact with the xenos was aggressive and 1st squad began to take casualties.

The marine in contact would not survive the encounter from the flaming alien that burst through the wall of fire.

Wave attacks of aliens just keep pouring into the facility.

The atmospheric control center computer needed to be restarted and was in the thickest part of the hive nest.

The Secondhand Lion's wargame club had three members present this year for Alien day.

A massive playset collection was used for the event.

Proving terrain is wysiwyg!

Closing in on the objective.

The queens chamber guard bugs were a little more deliberate in their approach and attack.  But they showed their hand too soon and the final wave attack was shot down with withering fire from the marines.

Last wave attack.

Marines punch through for a win.

"Windows cannot shut down because you have open files.  Would you like to save this data before you restart?"

Thanks for looking in on the blog and Happy Alien Day April 26, 2018.