More IHMN figures and a ghost!

It's been a wee while since the last update and I actually had someone complain about that (you know who you are!), but I haven't been completely idle. I've finished the Dragon Lady figure from the Black Dragon Tong set, although I haven't come up with a name or backstory to fit into the Brotherhood of the LOST yet, so she's currently under the working title of The Mother. I also finished a Chinese ghost figure for the Mr. Vampire game that I am working out. That's the cast complete and I have most of the rules and stats done, so it's just down to terrain making now. I also attended the Claymore show in Edinburgh yesterday and picked up all the figures for the other half of the LOST crime syndicate. If you look back a few posts you should be able to get some idea of what that might be! :) I also got another carry case and sort of impulse bought a rules set and a starter box that I will be looking at soon! But that's enough for now. Here's the pictures!

The Mother - I went with the theme of red here to fit in with Lo Chan Fu himself and was a little inspired by the wedding dresses in Big Trouble In Little China. If you look closely, I even did green eyes! I think that's the first time I've ever painted coloured eyes and not just black dots. I think she's suitable as alternative boss figure, or perhaps his actual wife or something. She's pretty formidable looking, don't you think?

The Yeti - Thought I'd post an official portrait of this one, as we only saw him in some blurry shots in the last battle report!

The Ghost - The capricious spirit that will (hopefully) be entwined with the fates of the hapless Vampire Hunters! 

The Fists of Lo Chan Fu

Played my first game of In Her Majesty's Name tonight and it was really fun! I'll talk a bit about the rules in a while, but first, here's how Dr. Lo Chan Fu's first appearance went.

It is the turn on the century and the Brotherhood of the Fist has found an enigmatic and shadowy new leader, known as Lo Chan Fu. Rumours abound that this sinister figure is far older than he appears and, in fact, there is truth behind them. However, it is dependent on a very rare and expensive herb, which he has been having difficulty in getting. The reason behind the shortage is the activities of an organised criminal gang that has been controlling shipping out of Alexandria. 

From his lair, deep in the deserts of Egypt, the reincarnated spirit of the ancient pharaoh Akhenaton has been leading the cult known as the Servant of Ra on a campaign to reclaim Egypt's ancient glory. Their gangs have descended on all the major ports in Egypt and have been extorting the merchants and sea captains for all they can get. The effect of this has to dramatically raise the price of the herbs needed by Lo Chan Fu, so he has personally arrived in Egypt with his daughter and a cadre of Fists from the Brotherhood to deal with the bothersome cultists. And with him has come a crate that the dock workers are afraid to approach due to the grunting and thumping coming from within...!

The mission we picked was a simple Last Man Standing one, where the two factions simply try to eliminate each other. George and I felt that was the easiest way to get to grips with the rules. So, without further ado, roll credits...!

The Fists lead the way towards Akhenaton's lair.

But the reincarnated Pharoah is not alone within!

As they spot movement in the temple, the Fists take cover. Lo Chan Fu leads his pet Yeti forwards!

And Akhenaton sends his Servants of Ra surging out to face the enemy.

But the Dragon Warrior skulks in the shadows to pounce on any unsuspecting cultists.

A swirling melee ensues, but the Yeti's appearance sends one cultist scurrying away (seen in the distance). Akhenaton strides forward unphased, though.

Meanwhile, as Xiufang approaches the temple, a deep moaning is the first sign of danger as a hideous mummy attacks!

But she has some Brothers on hand to help out!

The cultists are no match for the Yeti and the Dragon Warrior and, sensing victory, battle is joined with the pharoah himself. He would prove a far tougher nut to crack, though!

While the action was going on in front of the temple, the mystical Professor Abir levitates to the roofs to get a better view of targets for his mesmerism. However, a bullseye from a lurking Fist with a musket catches him full in the chest and he falls to his death on the temple floors!

And with that, all defence collapses! The Yeti pounds on Akhenaton's head and he succumbs to the onslaught. His body crumbles to dust and his enraged spirit flees to the safety of a sanctuary from where he will surely rise again! 

This was a really fun game and had a really strong narrative, despite the simplicity of the mission. The rules themselves are really simple to get to grips with and within a few turns we were rarely looking at the book or even the QRS! But, being simple doesn't mean shallow and there are plenty of tactical decisions to be made, particularly with the alternating activations. I'll not go into detail on the rules as a Google search will throw up all the info you need, but essentially, what you have in IHMN, is a pretty elegant ruleset that provides you with a framework to create whatever factions you want and is easily adapted to the figures you have and the concepts you want to convey. In a time of huge, hardback books that cost a small fortune, In Her Majesty's Name is an absolute bargain for the price and I would highly recommend it if Victorian Steampunk skirmish gaming is an itch you have to scratch! I'll certainly be playing it again!

Hold Your Breath - Black Hat Hopping Vampire and Hunters

A couple of posts back I showed some photos of the figures I had bought from Black Hat Miniatures' Tales of the Dragon Kings range and compared them against the North Star In Her Majesty's Name figures. Seeing as we've now seen the latter with some paint splashed on I think it's only fair we see the Vampire Hunters likewise pigmented! So without further ado...

The assembled gang!

I. Love. These. Figures!! I think that some people might find them perhaps a little caricatured, but I just reckon they are bursting with character and were an absolute joy to paint. The detail is just right for my style of painting: not too detailed but not too bland either. All told, I'm delighted with these and will definitely be painting up more. I actually have the Chinese Ghosts pack to do next and then I'll be trying a wee adaptation of 7th Voyage to play a 'Mr. Vampire' game. So stay tuned for that and rest assured that holding your breath will feature heavily! :)

Fireball Forward - initial impression

I think it's safe to say that we live in a world of rules overload these days, with new books and systems appearing all over the place, and on Kickstarter almost daily, but every now and again a little gem pops up. The latest of these, for me, is Fireball Forward, which is a company level set of WW2 rules. I bought the rules on the strength of recommendations made by fellow G3 club members and, upon reading them, I was really taken by some of the mechanics presented, in particular the ranged fire and the opportunity fire rules.

Now, I'm not going to go into an in-depth review just yet, as I've only just managed to play it last night, but I was so impressed I though I'd post up some initial thoughts about it. The game we played was the first scenario in the book, the assault on the gun battery at Brecourt Manor by Easy Company, made famous by Band of Brothers. This scenario is an excellent introduction to the game as it is quite small in scale but plays to the strengths of the rules system. As the Americans you are under real time pressure to destroy the guns and must use effective fire and maneouver. As the Germans you are really trying hard to interrupt the paras movement and stall them long enough for the guns to rack up enough VP. It's also easily playable both ways in a club night, so I go to play both sides. In both games the Americans won by a whisker (1 or 2 VPs away from losing) and in my go as the Americans the day was actually saved by Lt. Spiers charging across open ground, under MG fire, and destroying the last gun! Couldn't have asked for more!

So what is the game like? First off, the rules are pretty lightweight, although at first glance they may seem a bit clunky with you needing to roll different coloured dice, but once you've played a couple of turns it all becomes second nature. So the games were very smooth, with almost no referencing of the book (although I acknowledge that my opponent was already quite familiar with the rules). They were also incredibly interesting in terms of the tactical situation. You have to pay close attention to the activation order and think about what you're doing or else it becomes all too easy for the enemy to derail your plans. For example, there are MGs putting down grazing fire to deny avenues of approach, so you have to try and suppress them first before moving the fire teams down the trenches. But you only have one activation and you need to destroy that gun before it fires! What do you do? It's these decisions that make a game brilliant fun to play and Fireball Forward definitely delivered! I'm really looking forward to playing it again and once I have a few more games under my belt I'll post a proper review, as I haven't tried the armour rules yet. However, I had enough of a good time to recommend it. If you're searching for a WW2 game using elements as squads (FoW bases are perfect) that is a bit different and a bit fun, the FF is worth checking out and won't break the bank to acquire the book.

The Brotherhood of the L.O.S.T assembles!

Finished over half of the Brotherhood of the LOST and I thought I'd show and review the figures from North Star Miniatures. Overall, I really like the look of all the miniatures in the In Her Majesty's Name range. I have seen the Servants of Ra in the flesh (or should that be metal), and I am using the Black Dragon Tong for my Brotherhood figures, and the casts have been pretty clean and easy to clean up. There was some flash and mould lines but nothing worse than you'd see elsewhere and it was all removed easily enough.

Dr. Lo Chan Fu leads the Brothers on their latest nefarious mission!

As for the sculpts, they are all pretty well posed. Plenty of action in the figures, but nothing ridiculous. The folds in the clothes are nicely sculpted, not too deep and not too shallow, and the paint went on no problems. Basically there's plenty of detail to guide the brush, but there's also a lot of leeway for some creative brushwork. The faces are nicely expressive and the weapons are all pretty hefty looking. I particularly like the muskets carried by the Boxers. They are very pleasingly proportioned.

These are two Tongs. I think they look a bit more senior than the other two.
I tried to do the kanji for 'brother' on their coats to indicate this.

Here we have the other two Tongs. Excellent figures!

The two Boxers. Again, very nicely scultped figures, particularly the guns.

I still have the more special characters from the set to do, including the Yeti which is a beast of a figure, and I'll post them when done, but if you're interested in IHMN, or any pulp/VSF game, then I'd definitely recommend looking at the North Star figures.

The Guns of Gettysburg

I was unashamedly overexcited late last week when a big box arrived in the post. Inside it was the brand new game from Bowen Simmons, the designer of Napoleon's Triumph, one of the best historical boardgames I have. This time, he has turned his attention to the American Civil War and the ubiquitous battle of Gettysburg. Now, this game has been in development for ages, but due to health issues, Mr. Simmons never managed to get it into production (he actually produced, packaged and shipped Napoleon's Triumph himself!). So I was always concerned that The Guns of Gettysburg would never see the light of day...but then...enter Mercury Games! They took on the design of the game and used Kickstarter  in the US to get it into production. Thankfully, they struck a deal with a German games distributor, Histogame, which meant that they opened up preorders for European customers, so we could get access to the game along with the KS pledgers. This was a great move by these two companies, as the shipping from the US would have been completely prohibitive. Anyone that preordered also received one of the KS stretch goals which is an actual bullet from the American Civil War!

So, I now have what looks like being another superb effort from the Simmons stable! I haven't had time to really digest the rules, but there are variable reinforcements and moving objective markers, so it looks a lot of fun! The components are also top notch, with the red and blue blocks being of good quality and the stickers are very...well...sticky! As per Napoleon's Triumph, there is a lot of consideration for the gamer, with a good few spare blocks, zip lock bags for all the blocks and counters, a duplicate sticker sheet and two rule books. The board is easily as sumptuous as the Napoleon's Triumph board (although noticeably smaller, which is a good thing if you only have a wee dining table!) and the rule book is full colour and chock full of diagrams. All in all, I can't wait to give this a try and I'll be sure to let you all know what the actual game play is like.

The box is nice and sturdy! That's the bullet on top.

The board and all the blocks and counters. 

Full colour rule book...

...and lots of examples!

Memoir '44 - Pacific

Despite it sitting on my shelf since Christmas, I only managed to get a game of the Pacific Expansion for Memoir '44 last week and I have to say I liked it a lot. Well...I like Memoir'44, so that's no surprise, so what is in this expansion that gives it the flavour of the Far East campaigns?

Well, mainly, it's the special rules for the combatants. The Japanese simply must ignore the first flag rolled against them no matter their position. If they happen to be dug in, then they actually must ignore two flags. Quite often it's in your interest to take a flag and retreat away, but the Japanese cannot do that, so they are a little inflexible but damned hard to budge. They also have some quite nasty surprises in the form of the Banzai charge. Basically, they can move two hexes and still battle in close assault and if at full strength they roll an extra die. So decent fields of fire against them is vital! As for the US Marines, they get one rule, but a big one! To model their 'Gung Ho' mentality, the Americans get to order one more unit than the card says. Huge!

Other than the special rules there are a few new terrain types, tunnel complexes and some extra bits like offshore bombardment. The scenarios also feature plenty of dense jungle and beach landings, so there is plenty there to give the flavour of the theatre in question. I definitely found the game was different to the Normandy missions from the base game with much more aggression dispalye by the Japanese as that plays to their strengths. Lots of fun! So here's how the games played out! We played the first Guadalcanal mission (I forget the name) both ways. The Japanese could get victory points for moving units off the American board edge between the two counters visible in the first pic below:

The battle lines are drawn! The Japanese hordes are ready to advance from the left!

They have an armoured reserve, too!

Game 1 - US Marines: Me; Imperial Japanese: Carl

Carl launches a ferocious attack across the river in the center.

The Americans are overwhelmed, but they bring their reserves up.

The Japanese casualties mount, but they are close to breaking through.

The Americans pour it on, though, and a huge artillery bombardment finishes off the Japanese. It was a close shave, though.

Result: US Marines - 5; Imperial Japanese - 4.

Game 2 - US Marines: Carl; Imperial Japanese: Me

I get a few good cards for my strong right flank which I quickly use to envelop the Americans to their front.

The American centre is soon facing a tide of Banzai charges!

The American flank and centre collapses. Japanese forces break through the US lines and seize a clear cut victory!

Result: US Marines - 1; Imperial Japanese - 5.