Five Parsecs from Home

 

Yes, this is an Historical Wargaming site. But I like Science Fiction especially Asimov, Heinlein and Bradbury. I have been looking for something to play solo here in Salem. Someone on our Wargaming Discord suggested Five Parsecs from Home. I had a look and said why not. I bought the rulebook, it is quite nice and detailed, but then I had to find some figures. 

For the crew, I decided to go with some retro figures and after a good look around with a lot of good advice from the members of the club, I decided on Hydra Miniatures. They had a lot of great figures but after a good look, I decided to go with the Retro Raygun Galacteers. 

For the enemy, I went with the Shasvastii from the Infinity Universe. I was hoping to buy them from the Abyss but they did not have this specific type in stock. They were a little difficult to assemble and paint in comparison to the Hydra Miniatures but it all ended up good.

And finally I needed some terrain. After a look around Battle Systems seem to have some nice kit so I bought Trader Encampment box set. The terrain is cardboard but was really of good quality and with that and the included map, I seem all set.

Here are some photos.

I have started my first adventure but more about that later.

What a Cowboy: High Noon

I recently put on a game of What a Cowboy at one of our club meetings. There does not appear to be a lot of interest in western skirmish games at our club although three of our members have put on regular games at our club as they have both the terrain and the figures. Several games of Deadman's Hand as well as What a Cowboy have been put on in the past.

I did feel fortunate to attract both William and Gavin to have a game, neither do I think have played this genre before. I put together 2 posses consisting of 2 characters each, Blondie led one posse while Tuco lead the second. I made the characters vanilla and there was one gunslinger with a Six Shooter and one Shootist with a Winchester per side. 

I just took a couple of photos, we played out in the desert and took the High Noon scenario. 

I think the game went pretty well, I was a bit rusty on the rules, as aside from one game which I was a participant in a couple of months ago, I had not put a game on in a couple of years. I am hoping Gavin and William had a good time they both said that they will play the ruleset again. I think with 2 players, I would go with 4 characters per side next time. I had a good read of the rules the day after the game and I had done better than I thought I would. Most mistakes were made with the dodging rules and I really did not have a good handle when characters are forced off the table.

 

Saga: Battle of Stamford Bridge

 

Last Thursday Korrigan put on a Saga Extraganza for our monthly tThursday Saga Night. We had 3 simultaneous games, two of which featured the final 2 battles of King Harold Godwinson, the last Anglo-Saxon king of England.

I played in the Battle of Stanford Bridge and commanded the king's Anglo-Saxon forces, I was assisted by William who commanded the Earl of Mercia's Anglo-Saxon forces and Michel who commanded the Earl of Northhumberland's Anglo-Danes. We faced off against Luis who commanded Harald Hardrada's Viking force assisted by Eric and François commanding Tostig's and Eystein Orre's Vikings. 

We played the Saga Epic rules at 16 points aside. The main Warlord had 6 point warbands and the ancilliary Commanders had 4 point warbands. The game was 8 turns, and at the same time while we were playing the Battle of Hastings took place with 6 other players. 

Harold Godwinson in the foreground with the Earl of Mercia on his left and the Earl of Northumberland on his right. Harald Haradada in the centre with Tostig on his left and Orre on his right.

I was quite confident that Luis would send in his Viking Hearthguard first. Mercia waited for Hardrada to attack and caused some damage with his Saxon levies...never underestimate the Saxon shieldwall. Harold's warriors were sent in and drove the Viking Hearthguard back.

The Viking made another attack but without much success, by turn 6 Tostig's force was demoralised and the Anglo-Saxon defence of the bridge remained solid.

The Earl of Northumberland's Anglo-Danes had a lot of back and forth at the ford of the River Derwent but was able to keep the Vikings on the far side of the river, news of Hardrada's defeat reached them and at turn 7 the Vikings withdrew.....an Anglo-Saxon victory.

This was a quite a lot of fun, It was actually the best game of Saga I have had for some time. I find Saga pretty gamey at times but this seemed like a true historical event. I should note that Harold Godwinson was able to defeat the Normans at Hastings so remained the King of England.......history was defied.

Battle of Hastings

Americans in Winter Uniforms

This will be it, I hope for 28mm WWII figures. These are again resin printed from the RKX kickstarter. I believe these came out of the soup a little sharper than the Volksgrenadiers. I needed a support unit for my upcoming Hürtgenwald scenario, while at the same time supplementing the figures of our Historical Wargaming Club's collection. 

1945 US Infantry squad with SMG armed leader with 2 team each with one BAR gunner.

A Volkgrenadier sniper and MMG team

Observation Posts to be used as objectives.

It has been interesting to paint 28mm figures for WWII, quite a different task from painting 20mm. I found these a bit more of a challenge but I believe this may be due to the nature of the resin prints that I produced. I just started painting some 28mm WWI Brits from Wargames Atlantic and these are much easier to paint and I suspect I will get a much better result. This is due to the much sharper detail on the hard plastic figures. I might get one of my friends to print some of the RKX figures, who is much more skilled than I with resin printing.

 

Dracula's America-Shadows of the Colonies

I had my first game of Dracula's America for several months last Friday with Luis. It was the first game in Luis's Canada version of DA. He has put an enormous amount of work into this with different items and several new entities and creatures. It is set in the 18th century. 

I had very little time to put together an idea for a posse (less than 24 hours). I had painted several figures for another ruleset The Devil in the Wilderness and felt it might be cool to use these. This game is focussed on the Salem Witch Trials in the 17th century but with a bit of thought I put together a backstory where I could move them to the 18th century.

After the Salem Witch Trials several of the accused fled north into the remote forests of Maine and the Maritimes, beyond the reach of Puritan courts. Living quietly near communities of the Wabanaki Confederacy, their descendants preserved a darker and more secret tradition recorded in a hidden grimoire begun by the original fugitives. Passed from generation to generation, the book contained cryptic symbols, forbidden rites, and whispered accounts of ancient powers tied to the wilderness, including stories drawn from Wabanaki mythology of spirits and shapeshifting beings that could move between human and animal form in the deep northern forests.

I called the posse the Darkwoods Occultists and based them on the Skinwalkers faction but if I had given it more thought I believe the Salem Sisterhood would have been a better fit. I sent my posse list to Luis Friday morning and amazingly enough he generated some beautiful cards for the posse.

Burroughs was the Hero and the Archanist, with Puljinskews, Skadegamute and Alten were the Veterans. Lovecraft cognoscenti will recognise the names of Curwen, Hutchinson, Oren and Nadek. Alden and Pukjinskews are skin walkers and can shapeshift into a Werewolf and a Werebear. The Flying Head (Wendigo) was converted into a Medium Flying Entity. When I vsualise the Wendigo I think of Algernon Blackwood's novella. 

Anyway on to the game, it was a lot of fun. Essentially it was quite simple with the only goal having as many figures as possible within 4" of the centre marker. I thought I had it but in the last move Luis was able to get 2 figures in place so we ended up with a tie. 

I have had some reservations about Dracula's America but I really enjoyed this game. I think that I liked this game as the figures were not complicated with a lot of skills and weapons. This made it much smoother to play. I think I would be happy to play one-off games but maybe less so campaigns.

Scouts Out: Rescue Operation

Myself and Gabriel got together for our 2nd game of Scouts Out!, a WWI skirmish game. We had a lot of fun with it the last time so I was happy to have second go. Gabriel provided all the figures and the central terrain, we found the rest on the shelves at the abyss. 

We decided to play the rescue scenario, a French officer is marooned in the ruins of a villa in No Man's Land and the Brits (me) have to rescue him before the Germans (Gabriel) capture him. We played on a 4x4' terrain with the Frenchman in the middle and the forces lined up on the edges. 

Forces

Germans

NCO

LMG

Flamethrower

Sniper

4 Grunts

Brits

NCO

LMG

Pointman

Sniper

4 Grunts

Game

I got into position pretty quickly and was able to contact the French Officer and start to escort him to the British edge. I thought things were going well and wondered why the Germans were holding back but they cleverly moved quickly to both flanks (they have a bonus movement rate) and before I knew it my force was wiped out and the Officer was captured.

It was quite a fun game with very simple mechanics but with a variable initiative. 

Hengist and Vortigern

Last Sunday, myself and Robbie got together for our long delayed game to cap our Limes campaign. The campaign was won by Robbie's Britons but we had planned to put together a final battle which included the two Heroes of the Britons and Saxons. 

We decided to play the Fight around the Fire scenario from the Age of Invasions sourcebook which we felt would be historically plausible. As we all know, Hengist and his brother Horsa were invited by the Vortigern, King of the Britons, as mercenary fighters in his battles with the Picts and the Scots. 

We also know that the Saxons betrayed the Britons in the Treachery of the Long Knives. The Fight around the Fire fit this history. 

I was surprised that Robbie showed up with an army of levies accompanied by Saxon mercenaries, he usually selects a hearthguard heavy mounted warband.

Britons

Vortigern

2 units of Saxon Mercenaries

1 unit of Levy Archers

2 unit of Levy 

Saxons

Hengist and Horsa

3 units of Hearthguards

2 units of Warriors

Here are some photos of the game.

Starting Positions with the Saxons to the left

The Saxons split their forces to wipe out the Briton's levy archers

Hmmm! The archers are still there 3 turns later

The Saxons furiously hit the Briton's shieldwall 

Hengist's blood rage gets the best of himself and he throws himself against the shieldwall, supported only by his brother Horsa....unfortunately he fell in battle.

It was a fun game with the Britons winning, I think the score was 20-15 which was closer than I thought before we did the calculations. I had lost all my Hearthguard as well as Hengist. Thanks for the game Robbie, it was lot of fun.