Star Navy at GuadaComaCon

At GuadaComaCon two weeks ago, I ran a six-player game of 5150: Star Navy.  As my camera's battery was dying, I didn't get near as many photos as I would have liked.  My wife did take this pic of me setting up the game.

I ended up using pretty much every asteroid in my collection to help make the battle interesting.

I don't know why this photo appears sideways here, but you can see the half-dozen fleets taking part in this game.  Each side has the same number and type of ships.  Note the Firestorm Armada fleet that belongs to Maj. Diz Aster.  Go to his website for a whole lot more pics of this game.

The game became a free-for-all, with everybody attacking everybody else.  Here you can see five squadrons of fighters converging on a battleship.

The asteroids played a part in the game, with one player forgetting to watch where he was going and taking damage from drifting too close to the space rocks.

I had a good time refereeing this game and the players, some of whom had played SN before and some who hadn't, seemed to enjoy it as well.  Look for this game at Millennium Con in November.

Space Invaders

Once upon a time, video games were primitive.  But Space Invaders was a blast (pun intended) for the proto-nerd that I was when it came out.  I spent many a quarter and many an evening on this arcade game.  When I saw these erasers in the shape of the titular aliens at Half-Price Books, I couldn't resist buying a couple of  packages.  Here they are posing with a 30mm figure from Reaper's  Chronoscope line.

Now to figure out how to use them in a game: I could base them like I do my starships and use them (as Bugs?) in a space combat game like 5150: Star Navy; or I could stat them out for Song of Blades and Heroes; or I could use them as a surprise foe in a Dungeons & Dragons adventure; or I could mount them on 60mm bases to make a Hordes of the Things army ....  I think I need to go back and buy some more of these.

Axles & Alloys at GuadaComaCon

That's me on the right, playing Hot Wheels with all the other "grownups."

One of the games at GuadaComaCon was Axles & Alloys, a game of automotive combat based on the Full Thrust rules.  As you can see, there was a pretty good turnout.  Chip ran an arena combat scenario, with each player taking one vehicle.

I took the blue armored vehicle with the big gun on top.  I like the fact that the rules encourage you to name your car and your driver, so I christened the vehicle as the Over Bearing.  Another player took the Scooby Doo van.  I'm told that for some reason, that vehicle is always the first one that the other players shoot at in these games, no matter who plays it.

I didn't do so well this game.  I tried to ram a vehicle, and took enough damage that I had to roll for each component to see if it was destroyed.  Of course, I made all my rolls except for one--the driver.  That ended the game for (and the life of) driver Thrash Nordstrom, but it was a fun time.

Ebay brag blog post

Look what I got!  The Full Thrust Fleet Book: Volume 1 and the Full Thrust Fleet Book: Volume 2.  I snagged these on ebay for six bucks each plus shipping.  I already have them in electronic form for free, but I'm somewhat of a collector and I just like  hardcopies, so when I found these for sale with no bids, I took a chance.  Now I have all four FT books in the original print format (in addition to my rules compilation I had printed at a copy shop). 

The last of these rulebooks was published 13 years ago.  I'd like to see an updated version.  Any idea when they're gonna release a new edition of Full Thrust?

Capellan capital ships

When Don M, emperor of the Brazos Evil Empire (and all-around great guy), showed up for GuadaComaCon this year, he brought me gifts--namely, these two scratchbuilt spaceships, painted in the tiger stripe livery of the Capellan Raiders.

I'd seen Don's photos of these ships previously, and commented on how great they looked, especially compared to my own feeble offerings in the same vein.  So I was pleased and honored when Don took those minis out of the box and gave them to me.

"Miniature" might not be the most accurate term--these models are big, with one even dwarfing the Terran Super Galactic Dreadnought, probably the biggest ship in my collection.  The big ship is based on a plastic Zentredi spaceship model from Robotech, spruced up with some Battlefleet Gothic extras and what looks like wings from a 1/144 fighter jet.  The smaller one  includes more BFG parts on a plastic spaceship merged with parts from a Micromachines Star Wars Episode I pod racer.

I'm sure I'll find some way to work these models into my games of 5150: Star Navy--maybe as the core of a Free Company fleet.  Don suggested using the larger vessel as some sort of scenario objective.  Whatever I do, they will look good on the table.  My thanks again to Don for this wonderful, generous gift!

Wave 2 of OGRE minis released

Hey, treadheads!  Some more miniatures for OGRE/GEV have hit the virtual shelves of Steve Jackson Games' Warehouse 23.

Image from Steve Jackson Games.

This second wave of OGRE minis includes hardened command posts, radar, jammers, and laser towers and turrets--stuff that has been really hard to find since they stopped making it some time ago.  In addition, the long-out-of-production Panueropean missile crawler, along with a brand-new North American Combine version, are now for sale.

I might have to place an order ...

The Battle of Hoth

I saw this game at last year's MillenniumCon, but I didn't get an opportunity to play in it at the time.  So when Coach said he and his son were bringing the game here, I was excited, especially since they're retiring it to run other scenarios.  The setup is pretty huge: three 6x3 boards, plus additional scenery, as well as the various vehicles, including walkers and spaceships.

There were only four players--me, Der Kommandant, and the Coach and his son.  The board included some great details, like the Rebel command center--complete with working viewscreen (actually an old phone playing a clip of a Star Wars videogame taken from Youtube).

Just like in The Empire Strikes Back, the Rebels in this game were outgunned on the snowfields of Hoth.  Most of the figures, including the AT-ATs and gun turrets, came from the Star Wars minis game.

The Alliance spacecraft included AMC kits (the Millennium Falcon and Luke's X-wing) and an old Kenner action figure storage case (the transport).

True to life (or the movie, at any rate), the Imperial forces made short work of Alliance defenses.  My crappy activation rolls on behalf of the Rebels didn't help.  These figures drew several onlookers into the room, attendees at a charity function taking place across the hall.

The walkers needed to get close to knock out the shield generator.  The poor Rebels in the trenches weren't able to slow them down.

Meanwhile, Han and Chewie were having trouble getting the Falcon flightworthy.  Note the lighting in the hangar.  They had the entire setup wired for lights.

Maybe the snowspeeders, led by Luke and Wedge, could hold back the Imperials for a while.

No such luck.  An AT-AT took out the generator, collapsing the tunnel leading to the transport (and incidentally leaving Threepio and Artoo and the medical droid buried under tons of ice).  Fortunately, Leia and the general  made it out ahead of the blockage.

The Force was not with Luke (in the speeder at left), who took an Imperial blaster, and crashed off-board and out of the game.  Wedge died when his speeder was destroyed by another walker.

Imperial troops have entered the base! Imperia*******

Darth Vader and his elite snowtroopers headed toward the Falcon, which still hadn't been fixed.  Chewie was shot as he finished the last repair, allowing Han to escape.

Overall, it was a big victory for the Empire.  The Rebels lost five heroes, while the Imperials achieved most of their objectives.  However, in my script, Luke wanders back to the base after the battle, digs out the droids, and gets the medbot to revive Chewbacca.  So there.  :)

My thanks to Coach Kropp and his son for running this game, and Der Kommandant for playing in it.  See y'all at MillCon!