Axles & Alloys - 5-person game

I had another game of Axles & Alloys yesterday, this time with five people. I was driving the school bus, Bryan was driving the van with the buzz saws, Dave had the fire truck (which he equipped with a flame thrower... fire truck indeed), Mattie had her little convertible with the bat wings, and Ryan had his crazy evil hot rod.

The game took a lot longer with this many people, but it was still fun and it didn't feel like it was dragging at any point. Mattie had never played any sort of miniatures game before, and she was the last one to die. There were some epic and exciting moments, with multiple crashes, cars zooming around on fire, people machine-gunning each other left and right, and traps laid all over the table.

One turn in, everybody has just left their starting positions.

Ryan's hot rod faces down Bryan's buzzsaw van.

The School Bus, delivering a load of hot napalm to the townspeople.

Things start to heat up in the centre of the table

The buzzsaw van takes a bad hit and is the first to break down.

Dave's firetruck is next, but not before he manages to lay a path of spikes. Above you can see the napalm I sprayed on the ground to trap Ryan, but he managed to put out the fire with no damage done.

The end of the game. I rammed the hot rod to death, and at the end of the same turn Mattie's convertible finally succumbed to the fire started by one of my napalm traps.

Axles And Alloys: first vehicle

My game buddy Brian found a free set of rules for post-apocalyptic car battles called Axles And Alloys. We had two games a couple of weekends ago, and it is really fun, with lots of high-speed mayhem, guns, rams, and drifting around the table. I bought a few Matchbox cars to convert, and Bryan gave me a school bus. Last night I had a go at converting the bus, and here's the result:

It still needs some work - more dirt, spikes, armor plates, and some guns - but I think it's a good start.

Trumpeter Salute 2014

Last weekend I attended the yearly game convention of the Trumpeter Society in Burnaby. I attended Friday night and all day Saturday, but skipped out on the Sunday session.

Attendance at the games I hosted was disappointing: I had one player for my Quar game on Friday, and none for my Clay Havoc game on Saturday. Even so, I was able to get in some fun games throughout the weekend.

Quar: Double Cross

We played the Double-Cross scenario from the book, which has the game start with an exchange of pigs for weapons, and ends up in a full-blown firefight.

The Partisans show up with a couple of pigs to trade

The Crusaders appear with a crate of guns. Let's hope nobody loses their nerve and starts something!

Shortly after someone starts something, the Crusader sniper climbs atop a rock promontory to trade shots with the Partisan sniper.

The Crusader Heavy Shotgun team sets up in the woods.

The Partisans escape off the board with their crate of guns while the Partisan Wagon sets up for some machine-gunning.

Crusaders advance down the right flank while one of their number takes off with a pig.

Escaping with the pig.

Crusaders advancing, shortly before getting torn up by Partisan rifle fire. I pushed the Crusaders pretty hard, which was probably unwise, but I also didn't want to play a whole game where we just sat and traded shots from across the board.

Prone (not injured) Partisans lurking in the woods.

The Crusader sniper, now in some cover, gets the only Crusader kill of the game when he takes out the Partisan sniper.

The Partisan wagon, happily decimating the Crusader HSG team.

The crusader assault on the left flank falls apart when the lead rhyflers are butchered.

A few right-flank Crusaders are forced into cover and never make it into the assault.

The Crusader assault on the right flank meets the same fate, and that's pretty much the end of the game.

Pulp Figures

The good chaps from Pulp Figures hosted a game  that started late on Saturday morning, which worked perfectly for me, since I arrived late. The scenario featured an archaeological party on Venus besieged by rampaging lizard people, and a detachment of British colonial troops and Canadian militia sent out to relieve them.

The archaeologists barricade themselves within their camp.

The Brits and Canadians arrive by boat.

The archaeologists hunker down under the fire from the lizard folk.

The Brit tank and limbered Gatling gun begin to make their way onshore, while my Canadians still flounder in the river.

The British troops disembark...

... and Lizard folk emerge from the undergrowth to meet them!

...while my Canadians still struggle to get ashore on their crappy boat.

Landed at last, the Canadians form a firing line.

The Lizards retreat back into the jungle under a hail of fire.

Brit troops pass behind the Canadians to secure the ford for their tank.

The Brits and their tank press on while the Canadians give covering fire.

The Lizards set up a bombard cannon to shell the archaeologists!

At that point I had to pack it in and get ready for the Clay Havoc game I was set to host, so I left the battle unresolved - but things were looking good for the humans.

Ran - Ronin Skirmish

Nobody (except my wife) had signed up for Clay Havoc, so after a few minutes of waiting I went looking for something else to do. David from Kingsford Miniatures was running games of Ronin, with miniatures from his company and a scenario based on the movie Ran, and I was able to jump in on that.

I was playing the defenders, and I had two groups of enemies to contend with. I played a fighting retreat and by the end of the game things were looking grim, but despite being outnumbered the enemy still hadn't made it into the castle.

My troops (with black bases) beat up on the elder son's attacking troops. I was outnumbered, but my men acquitted themselves well and caused a lot of damage.

On the other side, the younger son's troops surround my lone defender and kill him - but not before he takes one of them out.

My 2nd in command and arquebusier defending the castle staircase.

A small force holds the castle gate against more of the younger son's troops. I expected them all to die, but they slowed up the advance and went out covered in glory.

Cannae - White Rock Gamers

The White Rock Gamers always put on some amazing games, and I was excited to play in their version of Cannae, the famous one-sided slaughter of a Roman legion by Hannibal in the 2nd Punic War.

I played as the Romans, with the center of the line my area of responsibility.

After some maneuvering, we finally come to grips with the Carthaginians. My Triarii are stuck behind the line, and the unit on the left never actually sees battle.

On the right flank, and against all odds, the Roman cavalry actually holds off the Carthaginian cavalry and keeps that flank intact.

On the left flank things are much messier, but only one detachment of Carthaginian cavalry manages to sneak around our flank.

After a couple of rounds of fighting, the Carthaginian line is pretty much wrecked. The Carthaginian troops are not as tough as the Roman ones, and historically the Carthaginians fell back before the Roman advance, giving their cavalry wings time to sweep around and completely encircle the Romans. I was facing a young player in the center of the Carthaginian line, and he probably didn't know about that, so he got stuck in with his infantry and paid for it.

On the right side, the Romans are about to be flanked by a band of screaming Gauls, but those Gauls in turn are about to be smashed by my Triarii.

The end of the battle. My Roman legion has crunched through the Carthaginian front line and caught Hannibal, ending the game.