Ogre UAVs

Here are a couple of unmanned aerial vehicles I plan to use for sci-fi armor gaming in general, and for Ogre/GEV in particular.

These castings started life as Kikyu gunships from Reaper's CAV line of science fiction combat vehicles, but for my games they will make great unarmed recon drones. I can see them scouting in the skies around Monopolis.

They fit in fine with the existing Ogre miniatures, as seen here, and I've come up with some simple spotting rules: All attacks on enemy targets within two hexes of the UAV get a +1 to their rolls. The downside? Any enemy attack automatically destroys it.

Here are the Ogre/GEV stats for the pilotless reconnaissance aircraft:

Attack: --
Range: --
Defense: 0
Move: 4-3 (as GEV)
Special: +1 to other units' attack rolls on targets within two hexes of UAV.

What do y'all think? Is this something you'd allow in your Ogre games?

Zentradi vs. Space Invaders: Only in HotT

I had a chance to play Hordes of the Things on Wednesday, and when I told my opponent I was bringing my Space Invaders army, he responded that he would bring something suitable; he just wasn't yet sure what that would be.

So as a longtime Robotech fan, imagine my delight when he arrived at the game store with these Zentradi models from the Robotech RPG Tactics game. The seven battle pods were Riders, based on their mobility in the cartoon; the three missile pods were Shooters; and the officer's pod was a Hero general, true to the series.

The arcade aliens (15 stands of Hordes, two elements of Sneaker ghosts crossing over from Pac-Man, and the Airboat general saucer) advanced from their video game cabinet stronghold to meet the anime aliens, the two lines crashing into each other. After chewing through the Hordes, the Zentradi officer sent both Sneakers fleeing.

True to the electronic game, the space invaders quickly respawned, but the Zentradi kept advancing. Meanwhile, I could not get enough pips to get my Sneakers and Airboat in position to take out the enemy leader as I had planned.

Soon after, the opposing Hero general initiated combat with my Airboat general. While it survived a couple of rounds, the odds were against it, and the saucer finally was shot down (for variable bonus points), giving my opponent the victory.

Although I never destroyed a single enemy element, it was still a close game; and my opponent and I had a great time playing with our unconventional armies. That's the great thing about HotT--it gives you a chance to get creative (and even a little silly) while still having a competitive match.

The FBI and TSR

In case you missed it, here is an FBI report mentioning TSR, Inc. from 1995. Long story short: Agents interviewed someone at the company about any connection between TSR and Fresno Gaming Association and Company--and that person slung some mud on Gary Gygax.

According to this blog post at Save Versus All Wands, the Feds were running down possible leads on the American terrorist known as the Unabomber. For some reason, they went to the Dungeons & Dragons publisher's headquarters, where they spoke to a company official (name redacted), who told the investigators "that the typical war gaming enthusiast is overweight and not neat in appearance." While there might be a grain of truth to that, the source provided a lot of inaccurate information regarding wargames.

There's more on TSR, wargamers in general, and D&D co-creator Gary Gygax in particular. All in all, the company honcho was dishing dirt on Gygax and expressing her disdain for gamers. As the Save Versus All Wands author states in this message board post, it sounds like the source was Lorraine Williams, the person infamous for ousting Gygax from the company he helped found.

Interesting tidbit from back in the day.

Ogre minis game

As usual, I'm late in posting this game from last month. Jeff, another Ogre player who took part in my Monopolis scenario last fall, met me at Dragon's Lair for some Ogre minis action.

Jeff brought his nicely painted miniatures, both Combine and Paneuro. He also brought some wonderful city terrain from Japan, that goes by the name GEOcraper.

I played the city's defenders, and Jeff brought in an attacking force twice as strong. We got into a destructive battle here where the road passed by a lake.

But the attacking GEVs outnumbered my defenders, and they began to close in. Not pictured are the several Ogres approaching down the road (sorry, the photo came out too blurry to post).

I had to leave soon after this picture. But with the additional forces coming in, the defenders were sure to take a beating. I hope to play again soon.

As the Wheel Turns (Frostgrave catch-up post)

Another game of Frostrgave, this time the Bone Wheel. Note the fancy paving for the gaming surface. One of our players, Yosef, cut and painted some blue insulation foam to make a nice cityscape.

He also constructed the bone wheel that gives this scenario its name: A rotating circular device with six bodies hanging from it.

There was also a couple of banshees that ended up not causing too much trouble for me or for Yosef. Of course, we could concentrate on the undead since we were not trying to kill each other this game.

Since this was a two-player scenario and we had four players show up, the other two participants played on another board with a second bone wheel. They might have beat up on each other a bit.

With this scenario complete, it's time to take on the Lich Lord itself!

The cauldron and the cultists

Time for another Frostgrave battle report. This time, in our Lich Lord campaign, my wizard stumbled across a group of death cultists atop a hill, performing an unholy rite around a dark cauldron filled with vile necromancy.

Of course, there was plenty of treasure laying around, and apprentice Vega Brewer sent Stout, Frick, Bowman, and Smith to secure a nearby pile of loot.

The Frozen City has many features, including this waterfall locked into ice.

Meanwhile, the wizard Spica "Spike" Brewer, sent her apothecary, Gertrude, to quickly get another treasure off the battlefield.

The apprentice ended up leading her soldiers close to the cultists' ceremony, then used a wall to isolate many of them as another wizard's party took them on in hand-to-hand combat while Smith fought a zombie summoned from the cauldron.

On the other side, a third wizard's group fought the death cultists as well, while my troops fired missiles or cast spells from a short distance away.

Soon after, the other wizard tipped over the cauldron (and got the experience points), with the cultists all out of commission.

Again, I managed not to lose any soldiers, as we marched on toward the penultimate scenario in the Lich Lord campaign.

Catching up with Frostgrave

I've been neglecting to document my Frostgrave gaming, so allow me to present this update from the Frozen City filled with fantastic treasure: 

As our Lich Lord campaign takes place on alternating Thursdays, a few weeks ago we played generic. non-LL Frostgrave scenario. I like the look of the table with all the ruins; it really conveys the feel of a fallen city.

There was a light of fighting over treasure in this game, and the fact that there were several multi-level structures gave us all a chance to try new tactics.

This was a three-player game, with a chance for treasure or random creatures when we took an action to search certain locations on the board, such as this dragon skull (that concealed a werewolf).

These large crystals also held monsters, posing a problem for my opponent (and keeping him distracted from me).

In the end, my wizard's band escaped relatively unscathed, with several more treasures and a lot more experience. More updates to come ...