Colonial Adventures - Platoon Forward stats

Here are the actual Platoon Forward stats to compare with how I worked them into Collingsworth's letter home.

Position	Name	Personality	Motivation	Skill	Background
Platoon Leader	Lt. Richard Collingsworth	Idealistic	Wealth	Rep 4	Military Family
Platoon Sgt	Color Sgt Smythe	Obnoxious (-1)	Hedonism	Rep 3	Up from ranks
1st Squad Sgt.	“Pip” Torrens	Pleasant (+1)	Gluttony	Rep 3	Average
2nd Squad Sgt.	Andersion	Addict	Engineering	Rep 3	Up from Ranks
3rd Squad Sgt	Barclay	Aggressive	Avarice	Rep 3	Average
Company Cmdr. (NPC)	Brown	Pleasant (+1)	Avarice	Rep 3	Average

Colonial Adventures Letter Home #2

In this post, Lt. Collingsworth expounds upon his squad leaders.  They are all described in Platoon Forward terms-- for instance, Color Sergeant Smythe is obnoxious and a hedonist.  These terms come into play when characters interact with each other.  

As an example, Sergent Torrens is "amiable" and so gets a +1 on reaction rolls to other characters.  So if he decides to ask for an auxiliary Lewis machine gun for a mission there is more of a chance he will get it than Color Sergeant Smythe, whose obnoxious behavior earns him a -1 on the same roll.

August 13, 1889

Father,

A brief note before we land.  I expect we will be sent on patrols immediately so may not have much time to write for a while.  Luckily the dispatch boats are fairly regular to the part of Mars that we will be patrolling (I can say no more for government censors).

I've had my first spot of bother with the troops.  While Platoon Color Sergeant Smythe is a competent NCO, he is also obnoxious and a bit of a hedonist.  I caught him and Sergeant Pip Torrens, 1st Squad Leader, squireling away rations for themselves out of ship's stores.  While Sergeant Torrens is as amiable as Smythe is unpleasant, their hedonism and gluttony will get us into trouble with the company supply sergeant if we are not careful and they have been suitably reprimanded.

Second Squad Leader Sergeant Anderson is absolutely addicted to machinery.  He spends every waking moment prowling the ship and drives the crew to distraction with his incessant questioning of how things work on our aether ship.

And the last of my squad leaders is Sergeant Barclay, a tough old Scot.  I've watched him with the troops and his aggressive nature immediately led me to place  him as training Sergeant.  He will have to be watched in combat to ensure that his aggression towards the enemy does not lead to foolhardiness.  We can afford no cries of "It shall be glorious" like that unfortunate Caldwell fellow at the rescue of Gordon's column by the 5th Air Fleet.

Tomorrow we land!  Best to you and Mother,

Lt Richard Collingsworth

Colonial Adventures Campaign beginning

I've been working on setting up a Colonial Adventures campaign lately -- to wit, I've been painting the Parroom Station lead pile that I amassed several years ago.  I've based and painted a unit of city-dweller Martians, royal guard Martians and Hill Martians (which are actually the old Space 1889 RAFM miniatues) and even some evil minions.

I'll be using Two Hour Wargames' Colonial Adventures  - 2nd Edition for the ruleset along with Too Fat Lardies' Platoon Forward to run the campaign.  After a first playtest, I'm VERY pleased by how these rules and the campaign framework provided by Platoon Forward work together.

(There's an excellent review of Platoon Forward here -- it's what convinced me to buy it.)

Inspired by this post over at Elaine Patterson's website, I decided to write my own "letter to home" to kick off the campaign.  After all, since I'm running this as a solo campaign half of the fun is going to be seeing what happens to the characters of the 42nd Infantry Company.  Essentially, I'm writing their story using the rules to determine events.




August 1, 1889
Father,

I am in receipt of your letter dated the 24th.  It was in the last despatch of letters we received before leaving Earth and I write this reply while in transit to Parroom Station.

As you might imagine, on the day we left Portsmouth there was a considerable crowd gathered.  I thought that this purely because of our launch, with aether travel still being a relative novelty.  Apparently, however, to the proles of Portsmouth aether travel is quite "old hat"!  And I was astonished to learn that the actual reason for the great crowd was not the novelty of our aether ship but rather the novelty of the launch of the Pinafore on which sails none other than Cousin Caroline!  Truly this is an age of wonder!

Sailing aboard an aether vessel is both like and unlike sailing in the water navy.  Conditions are crowded, of course - we are here to serve, not to lollygag!  And the vessels creak and moan upon the aether waves just as they do the ocean.  The principal difference is that everything is dry -- and you know from your days in the Army what a blessing a dry ship is to a poor bloody infantryman!

Please wish Mother all my love and let her know that her son will shirk no danger while in the Queen's service.  I wish to bring only honor to the family in my service and someday, Father, hope to follow your footsteps to Parliament itself.  Wish your son well and know that I shall come home "with my shield or on it."

Your son,

Lieutenant Richard Collingsworth

Red Sand, Black Moon AAR 1

My first AAR for Red Sand, Black Moon.  Technically this is fantasy, not sci-fi, but then any sufficiently advanced technology....you know the rest of the quote.  Somewhere on the fringes of Colony 13 there must be some pretty high-tech/magic zones or else the following could never have taken place. 

(And yes, Squire Bob and Squire Jim are nods of the hat to Bob and Jim of Blood Bowl fame).

A Bear in New Hope City -- Long Rifle AAR

With thanks to Sean of Sean's Wargame Corner

I was the lucky recipient of a copy of Long Rifle from Sean of Sean's Wargame Corner -- and I won the raffle on my birthday!  This is the tale of my first attempt at using the rules.  Please note that I made a critical error, which is noted in the AAR.  I decided to post it as is since making mistakes is part of learning the game.  So without further ado, Colony 13 presents:

A Bear in New Hope City

Presenting Mary Ann and Gorgo - two brave Irregulars who are about to go hunting in the wilds outside New Hope...errrrr....that is, Colony 13. :-)   (Several people have asked -- the miniatures are from Excalibur Miniaturen from Germany.  Expensive but they look like nothing else on the market!)

Setup

My group starts in the middle of the table.  The PEF layout is randomly generated to be sections 4, 5 and 6! (The blue dice in the picture at left)

A solid line of PEFs directly in front of my intrepid hunters -- this could get interesting if any of them are Mountain Lions or (gulp) Bears!

TURN ONE
Activation Rolls.  Humans: 3 Animals 6

Mary Ann and Gorgo move through the long grass and enter the jungle proper. 








TURN TWO
H: 5 A: 1

Oh dear!  PEFs move first and all 3 PEFS charge forward.  The PEFs from Section 4 and 5 charge and the PEF from Section 6 moves toward the nearest PEF, leaving it just out of sight.  Time to resolve PEF 4 and 5!

PEF 4 is a stampede of Brain Worms! (Small Animals)  Something has them spooked!





 

Oh, no -- it's a Dread Baralanth!  Errr, Bear-alanth!

In-sight tests are taken.  Mary Ann and the Bearalanth score 4, the Brain Worms score 3 and Gorgo, obviously stunned by the psionic static discharge as the Brain Worms go by, scores zero!


OK, pay attention here because here is where I make a critical mistake that was later sussed out on the Two Hour Wargame Yahoo group.  The Bearalanth and Mary Ann take their actions simultaneously because they have scored identical In-Sight scores.  Mary Ann fires and wounds the Bearalanth, reducing him to Rep 3. . This SHOULD ALSO have knocked him down.  The Bearalanth's charge test result then becomes irrelevant because as soon as he starts to charge he gets knocked down by Mary-Ann's shot.  

HOWEVER, the way that I played it at the time left the Bearalanth wounded but standing and able to charge.   Here is how it happened:

Mary Ann fires and wounds the Bearalanth.  Uh-oh! That only made him mad!  The Bearalanth easily passes the Charge test.  Mary Ann scores well enough on the Charge test to have a chance to fire but is unloaded.  (Note: Next time I will use the Radium Rifle rules from the John Carter rules Ed released for free recently) 

The Bearalanth swipes at Mary Ann with one huge claw and hits with one success.  The blow is to the chest -- ripping out her heart!  Mary Ann is Obviously Dead. 

The Brain Worms scatter.

And SOMETHING is attracted by Mary Ann's musket shot -- a new PEF appears in Section 1.  And it's NOT an animal....


TURN THREE
The psionic residue of the Brain Worms causes Gorgo to catch a glimpse of some alternate universe where he fails his Man Down and Cohesion tests and runs away.  He shakes his great head -- that result would make a lousy AAR!  Instead he stays put and rolls In-Sight against the Bearalanth.  :-D (Yep, I cheated)

With the Bearalanth wounded, its on even footing with Gorgo's Rep 3.  Gorgo manages to score 1 more and charges.  He inflicts a second wound on the Bearalanth, which I rule kills the beast. 


Now can Gorgo pack the carcass for transport before the other PEF arrives?


TURN FOUR
H: 5 A: 6  - no activity from anyone.

TURN FIVE
H: 2 A: 4
4 more turns of work for Gorgo.  It's not easy to skin a Bearalanth while wearing power gloves!

TURN SIX
H: 2 A: 4 again.  3 more turns.  Is that native drumming in the distance?

TURN SEVEN
H: 1 A: 3 PEF 6 moves up.  Remember PEF 6?  It resolves to Elk tracks.  No way is Gorgo going hunting Elk at this point!. 

The new PEF from section 1 moves forward -- Gorgo hears native drums.  2 more turns

TURN EIGHT
H:3 A:4
1 more turn!

TURN NINE
H:2 A:3
Gorgo is done!  And those are DEFINITELY native drums growing closer.  The last PEF is just out of Gorgo's sight.

TURN TEN
H:1 A:5
Gorgo grabs Mary Ann's Body in one great hand, grabs the packed Bearalanth carcass in the other, and books it toward civilization!

Behind him, 3 pairs of eyes stare out from the jungle undergrowth and then silently disappear back into the jungle.  (I rolled for the PEF and it was Enemy Indians!  That would have been Gorgo's doom)

So Gorgo makes it back to New Hope....errrr.....Colony 13 with 12 fur bundles and 10 Fame Points.  Maybe he can get Mary Ann's clone out of the freezer for the next game!

The Greys

Rebel Miniatures excellent 15mm Alien Greys are finally photographed.  I wanted to highlight the retro 50s sci-fi look so I went for garish metallic cloth for the leaders.

And there are actually two skin tones here - most clearly seen in the group shot.  One has a slightly bluish tinge.   I did this so that I could have civil war scenarios between the aliens.

You know -- the Blues and the Greys.   <groan>

The Christmas War: Scenario One - Breakthrough AAR

Initial Deployment

INITIAL DEPLOYMENT AND TURN ONE 

(Note: I was so frustrated with my first attempt at playing this scenario with 5150:Star Army that I decided to replay it after changing up some stats.  I'll discuss all that in another post.  For now, this scenario was fought with two PDF squads (Assault Rifles and SAW, SB armor, PDF QRS) against Cylons (Assault Rifle, HB Armor but using BTA Penetration Chart, Custom QRS).  All were Rep 4.   I "reset" the game from Turn Two of the initial game since the flanking manuever the PEFs pulled off (in their table driven movement) was a cool maneuver. )

As we join the action in progress, Green Squad has sent a fireteam (2 figures with ARs) forward to see what PEF Alpha is.  The rest of Green and the entirety of Blue remain behind the defensive line about halfway down the board.  A severe thunderstorm has cut ranges down to 12cm.


Green Fireteam A moves through cover until it can spot PEF Alpha.  The PEF resolves into two squads, Cylon Alpha and Cylon Beta (with leader) placed in line one behind the other (using some chart I found somewhere on the Yahoo group - there's no guidance in the rules for this).  (Oh, and according to the PEF resolution they were supposed to be in defensive positions -- but I've made it a house rule that PEFs on the attack can't be in prepared defensive positions!)

Green Fireteam A uses its two inch move to drop down out of sight.  Fireteam B holds position, hoping that A can Fast Move back to join them in cover and bolster the line.

The Feds roll an initial intervention roll of 5 (see the scenario, but basically they will intervene in the next linked scenario if the PDF can hold out until this total reaches 35)

So -- TURN TWO:
Activation
Cylon:1 Human:5 (Fed Intervention Total:5)
 

Cylon Alpha moves forward to cover to fire.  Green Fireteam A (GFTA) is the only element able to see this due to the rain.  Insight test results in them firing - and knocking down one Cylon who resolves to OOF!  A good start for the PDF boys!

Red stones are OOF; blue are stunned

Cylon Alpha snap fires back, resulting in stunning one member of fireteam A. 

Cylon Beta moves up to cover to fire.  The remaining figure in Green Fireteam A passes zero on his Insight -- uh-oh!  Beta easily puts him OOF but only stuns the already stunned survivor of GFTA. 

PEF Beta moves up to cover just out of sight of PDF Blue Squad.  PEF Theta moves up as well.

Fed intervention roll: 3  The distant sounds of gunfire are barely heard above the rumble of the monsoon.


TURN THREE
Activation
Cylon: 5 Human:3 (Fed Intervention Total:8)
 
Blue Squad activates first and sends a single figure up to scout PEF Beta on the right flank.   If that's another Cylon squad, Blue needs to stay put.  Otherwise they can move to the center to flank Cylons Alpha and Beta.  

And indeed the PEF resolves to reinforcements....Strafing Run!  Hmmm...my first thought is that I didn't think about what happens to the intervention roll if the Feds get strafed! However, the run proceeds from section 3 through section 1 -- the top third of the table so no humans are at risk.  Phew!   (And geez those rules are hard to figure out -- I mark them to be re-written in clearer language)

I decide to detach a second scout from Blue Squad to go check out PEF Theta while the rest of the squad moves to attack Cylons Alpha and Beta.  The SAW can't quite make it into the 12cm sight range so the squad holds back -- discretion being the better part of valor and all that jazz.   Green squad will suffer slightly but that's better than putting Blue squad in the thick of things without all their firepower.

The remnant of Green Fireteam A recovers from being stunned but stays prone behind cover.

The rest of Green squad shuffles left, staying in cover and putting the SAW in the middle of the line, waiting for the rush from the Cylons.

Fed intervention roll: 7!  The strafing run was duly noted by shipboard sensors and causes some concern.  Mr. Spork and Dr. Hatfield get into a heated argument over the Prime Directive. 












TURN FOUR
Activation
C: 3 H:6 (Feds: 15 - halfway to intervention)

With the cylons gaining the initiative, Cylon Alpha leads the attack and with the 2 inch move all 4 advance far enough to bring the last figure of Green Fireteam A into sight.  Green A snap fires and misses (due to it being snap fire - dang! - that could have been a glorious last stand).  Cylon Alpha takes a  received fire check and....kills, kills, kills Green Fireteam A oviously, obviously, obviously dead.

Cylon Alpha continues their move (only the first figure had moved into sight of Green A.  The rest moved up under the 2 inch move rule).  This brings them immediately into sight of the rest of Green Squad and the entire Cylon fireteam is able to advance under the 2 inch move rule to being in-sight.  This is going to be bloody! 

Green Fireteam B passes in-sight and knocks down 2 Cylons -- 1 stunned and 1 OOF!
The Cylon received fire OOFs a single figure -- but it's the SAW!  The leader and squaddie remnants of Green B duck back.

Cylon Beta squad passes zero dice on its (non player) movement roll, causing them to "advance to cover".  Hmm.  They are already in cover.  And they did pass zero dice so -- they pause.  (Again this was a judgment call -- there was no one in-sight due to the inclement weather so they couldn't fire.  They could have advanced toward the next piece of cover, but I judged there should be some penalty for passing zero dice.)

Fed intervention roll: 6
Dr Hatfield, losing the logic battle to Mr. Spork, turns to appeal to Captain Quirk.  "Dammit, Jim, I'm a doctor, not a politician!  We can't let these machines commit genocide!"





TURN FIVE
Activation 
C:1 H4 (Feds: 21)




With the Cylon advance stalled due to the bad movement roll, the PDF get a chance to regain initiative in the fight -- and boy, do they!

The situation after Blue Squad's "Mad Minute"!

Green squad advances back through the woods to fire at Cylon Alpha.  In retrospect, this was a bad move but it turned out well as the cylons missed both shots and on the received fire check Green Squad manages to stun both.  Green then active fires and stuns both again.

Blue squad advances to fire on the flank of Cylon Beta.  The leader, SAW and one squaddie manage to find cover while the other two squaddies go prone in the open. 

Cylon Beta fires on the In-Sight check and takes one of the squaddies in the open OOF.
But on the received fire check -- omg!  Blue Squad opens up with a mad minute of firing which results in THREE OD results, including the leader.  And they follow this with active fire, hitting the last remaining Cylon twice.  The damage roll comes up snake eyes and Beta is _dead_.

Fed intervention roll: 4
"He's right, Spork.  These people are potential new conquests of the United Confederation of Planets.  Those robots will never accept our rule and more importantly they won't buy our trade goods.  Besides this won't be the first time we've flushed the Prime Directive when it's convenient to a plot point.  Take us back to the Apathy and we'll see what Starfleet Command has to say about it."


TURN SIX
C:4 H:2 (Feds 25)

I fudged this one. :-)  With only two Cylons left on the board, I decided to charge them into combat.  I didn't know what might happen, but it would be glorious!   Or not.  The PDF manage to stand their ground and fire at the approaching toasters, knocking both down and sending them out of the fight (no doubt some circuitry was knocked loose).

And PEF Theta turned out to be reinforcements, limited to the Pass 1d6 column of the table due to the strafing run earlier -- and with a 6 on the roll it turned out there was nothing there at all. 



Analysis
With no PEFS and no ememy left, the PDF are the victors!  They've managed to slow down the Cylon advance, and more importantly have shown their potential Confederation allies the danger of the Cylon menace.  (Might the Cylons be the distant ancestors of the Borg???)

I'm pretty satisfied now with the play balance of the two sides, so I'm going to up the numbers on the Cylon squads to 5 members.  (Clearly the 4-man squads used here were simply recon units.)  Nevertheless, this battle easily could have gone either way.  The resolution of the second PEF was critical -- had that been another squad or if the strafing run had done damage then the result would have been different.  Or if the devastating fusillade from Blue Squad on turn 5 had been just slightly less devastating.  Or if the weather hadn't reduced visibility....

A good game leaves you wanting to try it again.  I'm sorely tempted to set this up and play it again from Turn Two just to see what happens. 

The Christmas War: Scenario One - Breakthrough

Mr. Spork raised an eyebrow.  "Your ancestors did, of course, build them in accordance with the Three Laws of Robotics?"

"The what?" replied Balsa Guitar.

Mr. Spork turned away and flipped open his communicator.  "Spork to Apathy.  Spork to
Apathy.  Tell Captain Quirk that we may have a problem --"

Story
The brains of the citizens of Capricious were having a rough day.  And the reason that the brains were having a rough day was this -- they were trying to believe two impossible -- or at least highly improbable -- things at once.

One, that the 13th Colony had returned (Oh, they called themselves the United Confederation of Planets and said they were from "Colony 13" but clearly they were the 13th Colony returned).

And two -- that the Cylons had returned.  Violently. 

By necessity this second revelation became the most pressing issue on the minds of the brains (so to speak) of the citizens of Capricous as the Cylon forces marched inexorably toward Capricious City.

Elements of the 3rd Caprician Militia were rushed into a blocking position to try and slow down the Cylon attackers.  Heavy equipment was pushed into place as hasty defensive positions.  And nearby a small group of oddly dressed humans watched as silent observers -- one in gold, two in blue and two...in red shirts.

Setup
Cylons will be run as PEFs per the 5150: Attack scenario.   See Appendix for Cylon rules.
3rd Planetary Milita are PDF. 

Confederation forces are merely observers for this fight and will remain in cover.  They are never "active".  If an In-Sight test is triggered they will retire.   Each turn, roll 2 dice for the Confederation group and keep a running total.  If the total reaches 35 before the end of the game the Confederation observers are convinced that the Capricians need their help to repel the Cylon menace.

Red shirt rule: If a Gold or Blue shirt goes OOF/OD within 4", then the Red Shirt is OOF/OD instead.  Man Down tests are taken as normal.


Cylons for 5150: Star Army
Use Bugs reaction except substitute Fire for Charge.
Exo armor but use BTA penetration table.

Christmas War Notes

http://dropshiphorizon.blogspot.com/2011/12/christmas-war-15mm-sci-fi-campaign.html

I decided to take up Chris K's challenge and play the Christmas War along with the other readers of Dropship Horizon (you ARE taking part, aren't you?).  I put my own quirky spin on it, of course. 

When this started, I thought playing the Assassination scenario made a better start to the campaign, and I was just starting out with 5150: Star Army so I wanted a small scenario to start with.  But now I think I have a neat idea for the Assasination scenario that will really bring the Colony 13 mythos into full play, so I think this first game will turn out to be a bit of a prequel.  We'll see.

Scenarios will center around Colony 13, the unluckiest colony in the galaxy.  Poor thing is set at the EXACT point where every sci-fi movie/tv universe intersects -- creating a pocket universe.  That's why it's 15mm -- everything gets shrunk in the pocket universe.  (Told ya it was quirky)

In this case, the scenario at start features a scenario that you might recognize from the Battlestar Galactica reboot pilot -- the representatives of mankind and the Cylons meet for the first time in decades.  The war starts when the Cylons kill the human ambassador. 

To start the scenario, the representatives and their bodyguards are meeting in front of the sacred square.  Squad A (the Red Hats) (a Star Army force in 5150 terms, Rep 4) are playing honor guard and are lined up 18" south blocking the path up to the sacred square.  Just south of them are where the Cylons have just landed their shuttle.    Squad B (Rep 3) is off to the west.  Since I rolled them up as Rep 3 I decided that they were a militia unit and were off  playing a little Pyramid.  After all, the Cylons never actually show up for these meetings....
So for this first game, again to learn the rules, I incorporated a very simple Wild West style gunfight at the beginning.  The Cylon Ambassador orders his centurions to kill the humans.  Do the humans have time to react?   I decreed the Cylon active and let the human bodyguard take an In-Sight test.  They passed!  Clearly on the ball, these Secret Service types.  Unfortunately, they missed completely and the Received Fire resulted in an Obviously Dead result.

Ok, I think I get the reaction test.  On to the rest of the game!  Normal activation rolls result in the Cylons (Rep 4) going first -- a 4 man unit  disembarks and trigger an In-Sight from the Red-hats.  The rest of the game flows as the comic indicates -- the Red Hats manage to put a couple of Cylons stunned but never quite out and are slowly whittled down and driven into cover.

At that point the Milita get involved, though, and their fire combined with the Red Hats manages to kill off a Cylon.  Unfortunately by that time Gold Leader and his bodyguards had returned from the meeting and in a pincer move annhilated the Red Hats.  The Milita fired a few more shots before being massacred, and the Cylons escaped with 1 Obviously Dead and 3 OOF.  (Out of the fight means the suits are damaged but reparable -- I need to come up with a recovery chart for the Cylons).

System Notes
I used the Bugs QRS for the Cylons, unchanged except where the bugs charge the Cylons fire instead.

I used BTA armor for the Cylons.  Way overpowered.  I'm moving that down to Hard armor BUT keeping the roll on the BTA penetration chart.  It seems to make sense for autonomous soldiers.  We'll see in the next scenario -- Breakthrough!

Chapter IV: A Newbie Hope -- Designer's Notes

Designer Notes and Comments

Basically I needed a MacGuffin to get the campaign rolling.  And what better macguffin to use than the original -- little lost robot just trying to accomplish his mission. What is Luc (Luc Skywalker -- pronounced as John Cleese doing a French accent) doing in that shuttle and what is the droid carrying?  Ah, that's what the campaign will seek to discover! So after the crash, the Rebel contingent has to get the bot off the board and to civilization -- such as it is on Colony 13.

My first idea for this scenario was to massacre the Rebels so that the droid could be sold by the tribesmen into New Hope City -- there to be fought over by all the colony's factions.  So it was going to be a bit of Rorke's Drift.  But then I realized that it didn't matter to me who won -- and the results were more interesting than I could have hoped for!

I didn't use Stars -- the Rep 5 Rebel is referred to as Luc.  I wanted the miniatures to tell me who the stars were.  Certainly the way things turned out Luc should get the Cheating Death rule!  (Note this changed in the comic writeup to Luke Starpower)

Since this was an outdoor scenario I used the Colonial Adventures for PEF movmement and resolution.  However I reversed the resolution list so that the main body was more likely to occur later -- this worked well in this small scenario to build up the tension as the game progressed.
Sigh -- it has to be said -- there was the usual struggle with understanding the THW rules and applying them.  I love the spirit of the games and the reaction system is great (especially for these solo games!)  but for me the rules explanations are lacking and the writing style just really throws me.  Luckily I've been playing the game since Legends of Araby that I usually can figure out what is meant -- and if I can't I make my own rule.  It's solo gaming after all.  Still it's very frustrating and I will be working on some game aids to assist -- because despite the frustrations the games are worth the effort.

Very fun and a surprise ending with Luc and Biclighter injured and being treated by the village shaman while the tribal elder contacts his trading partners in the city to see what they will give for a little lost robot....

I enjoyed that aspect as well -- seeing the game through the eyes of both parties.  I mean these tribesmen were just trying to quietly worship when these hu'mans barge into the sacred circle waving guns about....

Heh...thing like that could start a war....

Christmas War: Prologue - Assassination

I decided to kick my Christmas War off with the assassination scenario to give a political impetus to the rest of the fight.  Other than lifting scenario three and playing it as a kind of prequel I'll be following the rest of the Christmas War guidelines.

(Best read by double-clicking on an image for full size)