Sunday, December 11, 2011

More Beer and Pretzels Punch Ups

Here are some shots from our "home brew" big battle skirmish rules we have been working on.  It is coming along pretty well and hopefully we will have it sussed out in another couple of months.  We've been on this project for a while but I am determined to get it done.  As with many insane gamers, we have way more figures than we can actually use in normal rules sets and I want to see lots of toys on the table!  These rules are also designed to allow a pretty wide variation of adversaries which is something we like because we have no issues with putting up odd match ups.
This was a King of the Hill game we threw down just to test some mechanics.

My Samurai.  These are actually Heroscape minis.  I like them a lot; they look decent and I didn't have to paint them!

Mike's Vikings start to appear through the trees.

Jil brought skeletons and Goblins.

Nick (my 12 year old) came with Orcs and Demons.  More Heroscape stuff here as well.

Mike's Vikings are pretty darned cool looking.  Right away he grabbed some cover and formed a battle line to keep an eye on my Samurai.

I sent my Ashigaru and Ninjas into the woods to scout the Viking position.

Nick played like a girlie man and kept dancing around behind the hills.  He couldn't decide who to go after and so his guys just marched around like morons.

Jil's awesome dark minions didn't waste any time getting down to business.  He grabbed the high ground and started harassing everyone with his archery.

Here's Nick's Orcs working up for a charge, but he chickened out when he saw my Samurai form a battle line.

Jil's Goblins being very annoying with ranged attacks in the center.

Caught between Jil's ranged attacks and the threat of my Samurai, Mike decided to close up and fortify.

My Samu line advancing!

Jil managed to get some Goblins around the rear of the Viking position and makes a charge from the woods.

About the same time my Samus start to assault the Viking laager.

Here are my Samus taking it to the Vikings in a sudden charge.  The initial impact was going well for the Samus.

The Samus were kicking some Viking butt!

The Samus were handily thrashing the Vikings in the open but things started to change as they attempted to eject them from cover.  Here are my lads trying to go over the walls.  BANZAI!

Jil took this opportunity to bum rush the Viking laager from the other side with his Goblins.  Those nasty little guys were quite formidable as well.

My Samus did a lot of damage but the Vikings have finally stabilized the situation at the walls.  They've managed to throw my attack back and my lads are milling around trying to gather their courage for another go.

Nick is still trotting back and forth indecisvely.  All he's managed to do is fire a few arrows in Jil's direction.

Vikings and Goblins are still locked in combat at the laager.

The battle is locked and neither side is backing down.  The Vikings have proven to be some tough hombres.  They took the assault from both the Samurai and the Goblins and are still standing.

My Samus and the Vikings have both blown their wad and are now just milling about skirmishing.  At this point I retire to regroup which gives the Vikings a chance to do the same.

And now the Vikings are on the move!  I think they want some payback on the Goblin King.

While the Samu/Viking battle was cooling down, Jil's skeletons with Goblin archer support have gone on the offensive and are assaulting the Demons.

Skeletons fear nothing, and they are very nasty adversaries in our games for that reason.  Our rules put a lot of emphasis on morale and the mental state of the troops.  Skellies have a huge advantage here.

My Samus are back in good order and getting ready for another go at being King of the Hill.

The Viking horde makes a mad dash through the trees in the center.  Where are they going?

Yep, I was right.  Mike is after some payback on Jil.  While Jil's Goblins and skellies are taking it to the Demons, the Vikings make a mad charge to their rear!  At this point the Vikings, Goblins, and Demons were all mangled and my Samus arrived in good order.  We didn't bother finishing it.

9 comments:

  1. Great report, as a Heroscaper, it was great seeing all those units getting used, even if it wasn't in their own game. I really need to play some Scape.

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  2. Hey LTL Dad! What is the red symbol on the dice I see in to the right of the table in the first pic? The blue face appears to be a shield of some kind, but that red face -- looks like either Spawn or one of the Spider-man symbiotes, i.e. Venom, Carnage or one of their progeny.

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  3. Those are the standard Heroscape dice. They are used for both attacking and defending. When you are attacking, you want to red symbol, when you are defending, you want the blue. They cancel each other out. There is also a blank on the dice.

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  4. Looks like a right free for all, excellent stuff and a good read.

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  5. nice stuff... and tons of very nice prepainted!

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  6. Ambassador, Adam gave you the straight scoop.

    Adam, I use Heroscape minis for other game systems all the time. They had some pretty good stuff in there, and the really great thing is no painting!

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  7. So clearly magical creatures are a factor in your homebrew. What about magic itself? Any chance it will accommodate modern or sci-fi? I've been working on converting Star Wars figures to LoTR Strategy battle game rules and it's working very well, but it keeps tempting me to have Gandalf and Vader throw down.....

    Anyway, more and more intrigued about what you've come up with as you clearly are a 'feeling' gamer like myself.

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  8. We are working the system to be as universal as possible since we like to do outlandish games. We just started implementing some new concepts that I really like and I will try to start showing some games when I get a bit more time. My work has been absolutely crazy and I have been too tired to blog but I see some daylight and hopefully will be back soon.

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  9. I will wait patiently! In my dis-organized attempts I tend to narratively balance things, so Daredevil doesn't lose to a squad of stormtroopers simply because they have blaster. He can win because they are mooks and he is a hero. Sort of an "all realities have the same top and bottom power levels" bit. Anyhoo, just rambling...

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