Incident Near Al Shain

Al Shain is a city in Monokeros near the border with Kaelum and Musca.  Along the border there are several small forts and villages.  The following game took place near one of them.

The8.5x11 inch political map for the Vela campaign that I ran years ago.   There is a more detailed two foot by three foot hex map of the region.

I invited some friends over for a game day and bar-b-que on May 25th.  The first game used the Fistful of Lead rules and was a diplomatic mission..  An emissary was travelling from Kaelum to Monokeros with an important message.  He and his escort were trying to reach the safety of the border fort.   Agents from Musca were attempting to intercept them before they reached the fort as they passed near a local village.   A group of Dwarves from the nearby mountains were on a mission to retrieve a pair of gems that had been taken from them and used to adorn a statue in the village square.  There was also a group of bandits from the Ancha desert out for loot and hostages to ransom.  The scenario is intended for about six players, though it can be played with as few as three.   The villagers could also send for assistance from the fort garrison.   Gary Bitters commanded the villagers and the diplomatic Escort.   Mike O'Brien had the desert raiders and dwarves,  While I had the rangers from Musca.

 The calm before the storm  Over view of the table from the north on the evening before the game

 View from the west

 The local fort.   The buildings and fort are from the Desert village and Desert fort sets on Wargame Vault

View from the south

 View from the east.  The village militia asleep in their homes.

 The raiders arrive at the edge of the village.

The rangers and the escort spot each other

The rangers block the path in front of the diplomat and his escort.   I was able to take down their escort leader and wound the second in command with bow fire.  One of the village militia attempted to take out the hero with the rangers by sneaking up and attacking her from the flank only to be knocked dead by a backhand slap.  (rolled a twelve to hit on a d12 for a +2 to the wound roll added to the hero's additional two +1 to wound traits and a high die roll on the wound table)

The dwarves (top center) advance gets bogged down in an exchange of missile fire with a village archer

 Fighting near the town square.  Two of the raiders have been taken down to the left of center by bow fire from the elf..  Mike's raiders and dwarves eliminated most of the village militia.   Leaving only the village chieftain, his henchman, the wounded elf, and one or two of the militia grunts still alive.

 Another view of the action between the rangers and escort.

 The dwarves reach the edge of town.  One of them would get into the building to the left, then climb to the roof where he slew the archer.   He would then exit from the front of the building to attack the elven archer from behind.  The other dwarves at the center of the picture fighting the villager.   This combat went a number of rounds with the villager (who was a grunt) being able to hold off the dwarf hero and clan leader in hand-to-hand combat.  The melee ended when the elf shot at the group with her bow killing the villager and putting shock markers on the three dwarves.  The Dwarf crossbowmen are busy reloading after missing the archer on the building roof to the left.

Dwarf on the building roof on the left. the elven archer between the building and market stall facing the angry dwarves after shooting at them.  Several of the raiders are down with wounds.  Their hero has reached the statue and was able to pry one of the jeweled eyes loose.  We ended the game after this turn with Mike being declared the victor.  The archer laying on his side on the right indicates that he is inside the building.   The green markers indicate figures that have acted during the turn.

After lunch we played a game of Red Alert.   Mike jumped out to an early lead in the game mauling several of our fleet units.   We were playing scenario three from the rule book..  Gary and I took out his heavy battleship squadron and led for a brief time.   Mike regained the lead as he continued to heavily damage our units with great use of his combat and command cards.   Gary and I were finally able to win after being able to use our cards to advance our four center units over the course of two turns and take out Mikes fleet commander.   Two of our four units were eliminated in the process.  We all made a few mistakes as we haven't memorized all the rules yet.

Thanks to both Mike and Gary for a fun day of food and gaming.

Galactic Heroes: Hostage Rescue.Game at the South Bay Game Club on May 11th.

Played a game of FfoL:  Galactic Heroes at the South Bay Game Club on May 11th.  The scenario had Doctor Plancktohn, assisted by Karen and his minions, holding Princess Pearl prisoner in castle Bas de Bikini.   The rescue force was to be airdropped on the castle.

Three of the four teams landed in the courtyard while the fourth team landed outside the back side of the castle.  The teams inside the courtyard immediately came under fire from minions stationed on the balcony overlooking the courtyard and the upper floor of the gatehouse.  Return fire had little effect.  One of the rescuers raced up the stairs leading to the upper floor of the main part of the keep while this was happening.  The team outside the castle attempted to get a grappling hook onto the top of the castle wall, but failed to do so.

On the ;second turn he opened the door only to be fired upon by three minions stationed behind it as they chanted "All hail Plancktohn.", taking two wounds  A team member with a rocket launcher fired a missile into the doorway from the courtyard scoring a direct hit taking out two of the minions, but also causing a shock hit on the guy outside the doorway.  Other team members rushed up the stairway, while the second team headed for the gatehouse.  The third team came under fire from more minions who had moved out of the tower onto the south wall of the castle.  Return fire killed two and put a chock marker on the third.

The third turn saw the surviving minion on the wall run into the main part of the keep.  The team that had fired on him broke into the lower part of the main keep.  Outside the castle the team was attempting to scale the walls, but was failing miserably with the first two guys loosing their grips and falling resulting in one being wounded and one being killed.  By the end of the fourth turn the surviving team members had managed to scale the wall and were preparing to break into the upper level of the keep.  The team leader of the group that was climbing the stairs took out his chain sword and proceeded to slice and dice the remaining minion who was blocking the door.  As the other team members entered the keep they came under fire from the far end of the hall from the minion who had run into the keep.  The minion's fire had no effect and return fire left him dead.

Meanwhile at the gatehouse the lead team member broke down the door leading into the corner half of the gatehouse, but as he broke down the door three minions inside the building opened fire killing him.  The other team members came up and fired upon them killing two.  On the following turn minions in the other half of the gatehouse opened their door and fired at the back of that team, killing another team member.  (we had been forgetting to do the new armor save rule which may have prevented some of the losses).. The rest of the team fought their way into the corner part of the gatehouse as the minions from the upper floor came down the stairs.  After several rounds of fierce hand-to-hand combat the team was able to eliminate the minions inside and outside the gatehouse while taking a wound and some shock markers.  The combat saw several fumbles on both sides.

Inside the middle level of the keep the team leader rushed out onto the balcony with his chainsword killing two of the three minions.  The third minion would turn out to be much tougher as poor die rolls by the commander saw the minion winning several rounds of combat before finally being dispatched.  On the lower level that team advanced through the rooms and eventually became engaged with the minions guarding the kitchen in the northwest corner of the keep.   On the upper level of the keep the team that had scaled the walls was clearing the rooms finding they were unoccupied.   The team on the middle level found more minions in the dining hall.

After clearing the keep and gatehouse the teams prepared to descend into the cellars of the castle.   They had been fortunate to acquire some aces on the previous two turns and had used them as Queens of Hearts to heal the wounds that some of the team members had received.  However, Dr. Plancktohn, Karen, the prisoner, and the three surviving minions had fled through the escape tunnel.  Overall the mission had been a failure.  While 21 of the minions had been killed, the rescuers had lost six out of 20 men and failed to free the captive.

Several pictures of the castle taken the day before the game.  The castle was constructed of cardboard and mailing tubes with paper overlays glued to the walls and floors.  Some 28mm  figures for scale.   Each floor is four inches tall.

The east side of the castle showing the gatehouse 

 An overall view of from the east.

 The south wall of the castle

 The northwest corner of the castle

 The courtyard with the balcony overlooking it on the right. and the stairway just below it.

 Lower level of the keep as one of the teams attempts to fight its way into the kitchen.  The minions have the yellow armor and the rescue teams are in blue-grey camo armor.

 Fighting inside the corner of the gatehouse.

 The team who had scaled the outer wall of the castle.  The green markers indicate figures who have completed their actions for the turn.

Clearing the middle levels of the keep..  All the round towers had stairs leading to the different levels of the castle.