River of Terror! One Hour Skirmish Wargame

I had a day of hobby-ing last weekend while my wife finished her Yoga instructor certification.  She passed with flying colors and put a lot of work into this, I am very proud of her!

I did quit a bit of painting and checked off several boxes on my Hobby Bingo card, more on that in a future post.  I also managed to get in a game of One Hour Skirmish Wargames, I played a scenario I put together called River of Terror, you can find the detail here on my One Hour Skirmish Wargames page.

Here is a summary of the fight...

The cultists have blocked the river with canoes chained together so they can ambush the Miskatonic Queen.   

Soon Deep Ones begin emerging from the murky depths to attack the expedition.

Dr. Morgan faces off with a Deep One, this is worse than when he had to teach Freshman level Demonoloy. It does not turn out well for him.

Meanwhile on the other side of the boat, one of the crewmen shoot deep ones in a barrel with his trusty Chicago piano

Dr. Morgan managed to kill one of the Deep Ones, but fell prey to another, who began to rampage along the deck, even gravely wounding Captain Stuebing!

The abomination was finally stopped by two plucky sailors, who wounded the beast and then dispatched it in close combat.

While all of this was going on, the cultists on the shore and the expedition members on the top deck traded completely in effective fire (and that went on the entire game.)  Meanwhile, Professor Rice jumps on the barricade and makes his way to the shore, under a hail of fire, to free the boat. A cultist levels a MP-18 at him just as he gets to the end... but a lucky turn of the Joker saves him. 

He manages to free loosen the chain and sprint back to the Queen, which starts to chug forward.

The party is not wholly out of danger, as a few more Deep Ones jup on the deck. 

But the next draw of the Joker sees the cultists morale fail miserably... the deep ones slink back to the depths and the cultists try to figure out how they will explain their failure to their boss.

A very fun game, I am still hooked on the rules.  You should give them a shot!

next time, I will provide some hobby bingo update, meanwhile off to the beach this weekend with the kids and grandkids.  Good gaming!

OHSW Task system, thoughts?

Non-combat tasks are cropping up in my One Hour Skirmish Wargames, and I need a fast way to resolve them.  Some may be defined in the scenarios and some may need to be worked out on the fly.  here are some proposed rules, what do you think?  

One Hour Skirmish Wargames

Task System

This quick resolution system is designed for figures performing any non-combat task or

covering anything that crops up during a game that is not defined in the scenario. 

Resolving a task uses action points just like other actions and ends a figure’s turn just like firing. 

Skill levels, task difficulty, and consequences may be defined as part of the scenario.

The most important rule is be a good sport and if you are not having fun, you are doing it wrong!

To resolve any non-combat task, agree with your opponent:

1. How difficult is the task? (Easy, Medium, Hard)

2. Unless the figure is specified by the scenario to have this skill, how competent is the figure

            at the task? (Novice, Ok, Expert)

        3. What is the consequence if the task fails? (None, Down, Instantly Killed, Something else…)

Now draw to resolve the action.  The player performing the action draws the number of cards indicated

below based on their skill:

Skill Level	Cards Drawn
Low	1
Medium	2
Expert	3

The opposing player draws the number of cards indicated below based on the task difficulty.

Difficulty	Cards Drawn
Easy	1
Moderate	2
Hard	3

Compare the highest card for each:

• If the active player performing the task beats the opposing player, the task succeeds

• Otherwise the task fails and the figure immediately sufferers the agreed upon consequence

• If either player draws a Joker, the task is not attempted and the turn ends as usual.

Examples:

Diffuse a bomb

Ralph and Bob are trying to rescue some hostages from the bad guys / freedom fighters, but there is a

bomb that must be defused first. 

In the scenario, the following has been defined:

• Bob is an EOD expert

• The bomb has been rated a medium difficulty.  

• If the task succeeds the bomb is defused.  

• If the task fails, look at the highest card drawn for the attempt for the active player.  If Red, then

            the bomb explodes as a grenade from the rules.  If black then the bomb does not explode and it

            can be attempted again.

Bob attempts to diffuse the bomb. As he is an expert he draws 3 cards: 3♥ , 7♦, K♠.

His opponent draws 2 cards for the medium difficulty bomb: J♣ , 6♠

As Bob’s K♠ beats the opponent’s J♣, the bomb is diffused!

Now if Ralph tried to diffuse the bomb, he would only draw a single card, as he does not have any EOD

skill.  Ralph draws a 3♥

His opponent draws 2 cards for the medium difficulty bomb: J♣ , 6♠

As Ralph does not beat his opponent's high card, he fails.  As his own card is Red, the bomb explodes!

Batter down a door

Olaf is pillaging a Saxon village with his Viking buddies.  He wants to batter down the door of a cottage

in order to plunder it and capture the farmers cowering inside.  There is nothing in the scenario

specifying how to batter a door down, so the two players quickly decide:

• The door is pretty stout, so it is a moderate difficulty.

• Olaf is a healthy viking, but not larger than average, and has a sword and not an axe, so he is

            rated as having medium skill. (If he had a two handed axe, you might rate him expert)

• There is no consequence if he fails, other than standing there using up action points.  He may

            try again at any time.

Olaf draws: J♣ , 6♠

His opponent draws: 7♦, K♠

Olaf may try again using more AP this turn or wait until the next one.

One Hour Skirmish Wargames Shootout with my wife!

 This was a replay of last week's game but with my wife.  The rules were a HUGE hit she likes them a lot and finds them very intuitive.  Her only complaints were my terrible QRS that only I can understand and "I really hate it when you just start making up rules."

She played the cops and I played the gangsters.  Ended in a resounding victory for law and order, although 2 police officers were killed in the action.

She is keen to play again, I am working on my next scenario, which may involve ships and Deep Ones.

Here are some poor quality pictures:

One Hour Skirmish Wargames: Wife Approved!

One Hour Skirmish Wargames Gangster Shootout

 I had a quick opportunity to get some stuff on the table and played a game of One Hour Skirmish Wargames.  I cannot over state how much I recommend these rules. They provided a fast game, with a lot of tension with the card draws.  Even though they are simple compared to many other rules, I felt they gave a good game and what felt like a realistic result.

The scenario was a group of cops led by two Treasury Agents (Agent Black and Agent Grey) raiding the illegal liquor storage facility of the infamous Bugsy and Bunny gang.  I kept it simple, the goal is to break the opponent's morale.  If the forces of Law and Order break, they will fall back to regroup and the gangsters will be able to escape.  If the gangsters break, they will surrender and face a lot of prison time.

Only special rule I made up on the fly was, police contacting any "down" gangster are considered to have cuffed them and taken them prisoner.  Prisoners require a guards (at some ratio I never defined)  I played the game solo, twice, so that was not an issue.  Both games the Police scored a win.

Here are some pictures, click to enlarge:

The table set up.  Cops block both roads exiting the booze warehouse.  They had to borrow a truck from the local university.  The cars parked about are Bugsy's covert distribution network for hootch. 

This is all the prep I had to do!

Agent Black ducks for cover and thinks about delicious Ovaltine.

Lots of moving about and shooting...

Don't be a hero, Johnny!

End fo the first game, Johnny is nicked, and Bugsy lay in a pool of his own blood.  Live by the sword, die by 00 Buck delivered at close range, as they say.

I will be playing more of this, it is becoming my go to for fast man to man skirmishes.

Good gaming!

Darkest Africa mini-campaign Part 4: Attack the fort!

 The final installment, see Part 1 (details rules), Part 2, and Part 3

I am running behind in posting, finally catching up.  Here is the final installment from the solo campaign I did before I went on vacation last month.

We ended last episode with Lt. Barnaby receiving assistance from the eminent missionary Dr. Bravestone, leading the expedition to the gates of the slaver's fort.

Lt. Baraby's plan of attack is to split his force into 2 groups, one under himself and one under Sgt. Singh.  Using improvised ladders, the askaris will mount the walls and deal with the slavers.

Sgt Singh leads his men from the front, attacking from the river side.  His men manage to get to the wall and prop up the ladder in the dead zone between the firing slits (this is NOT a Vauban style fortress!)  But, two of the Askari are out of the fight in the process plus the redoubtable Sgt. Singh.

Lt. Barnaby's troops also manage to get their ladder set up and start firing directly into the firing slits at the Arabs.

Lt Barnaby and a coupel of Askari make it over the wall.

And they manage to clear out most of the slavers.  But... once again Lt Barnaby is knocked down by a bullet and is out of the fight!

The slaver leader is has been dispatched and both Lt. Barnaby and Sgt Singh are both hor de combat.  The redoubtable askari keep up the attack and in an exciting finale, both sides fail morale on the same draw of the card.  I have them redraw and the remaining slavers scamper off while the Askari hold firm.

The expedition was a success!

Lt. Barnaby is mentioned in dispatches for his sterling work and so is Sgt Singh for his bravery during the attack on the camp.  Lt Barnaby returns to his home in Midsomer county to recuperate from his many, many wounds and is ultimately invalided out of the army on half pay.  At loose ends, he and Sgt Singh partner to form a detective agency specializing in discretely handling cases for wealthy clients as well as HM government.  This leads to a tradition of detecting in the Barnaby family that last until this day (or at least the end of season 22)

Reflection

A very satisfying little solo campaign.  The Snakes and Ladders approach has proven to be a very nice mechanism that provides narrative with very low overhead.

One Hour Skirmish Wargames also worked very well.  I urge you to get a copy, it is very extendable and feels "Open Source" like One Hour Wargames.  The card mechanism adds a lot of tension.  It is very fast play but gives as good a result as more complicated systems and has some subtle mechanisms.  I plan eventually (once I paint the models) to fiddle with a version for the Dark Ages.  More Stabby than Shooty.  

Ok, off to work, I hope you enjoyed this.  Next up, my game with Tom and some newly painted figures.

Darkest Africa mini-campaign Part 3:Defend the Camp!

Back from our cruise and started new job on Monday.  Cruise was ok, service not as good as the ship we were on in July, had a weird vibe, but it happens some time.  Lots of sun, beach, and steam room so I have no room to complain.

See also Part 1 and Part 2

Meanwhile, here is the next battle in the campaign.  Return with me to Darkest Africa and DEFEND THE CAMP!

Here we see the camp, the attackers are Rugga Rugga mercenaries allied with the slavers

The attack on tone end of the camp was quickly driven off (Upper right corner in the picture above.  There was some sterling bayonet work by one Askari in particular.

The other side of camp saw a brisk firefight...

Lt. Barnaby was once again rendered hors de combat, but Sgt. Singh ran through a hail of fire to take out the Rugga Rugga leader.

Under another hail of musket fire, he scurries back to organize the few Aksaris still in the fight.

The Rugga Rugga morale breaks and the survivors flee in to the jungle.  Lt Barnaby is bandaged up yet again and the column gets a boost from winning the battle. 

In a clearing, Lt Barnaby meets Dr. Bravestone who provides a shortcut through the jungle.

And some hard marching finally brings the column to the slaver's stronghold.

The fort is a small trading station with solid mid walls.  Will Lt. Barnaby complete his mission?

Stay tuned for the next installment!

Darkest Africa mini-campaign Part 2: Anzique Ambush! Twice!

 See previous post for Part 1...

Lt. Barnaby's column was now entering the territory of the fierce Anzique cannibals, allies of the slavers. They would love a chance to plunder (and maybe munch on) the column's bearers.

Left to right, the Anzique Chief, an elite White Shield warrior, and a normal tribesman.

The column moves along the trail, unaware that they are about to be ambushed.

This initial Anzique attack falters, as a warrior rushes the rear of the column, but his mates are not as eager. Game mechanic-wise, what happened is the Anzique's pulled a card for their activation points, and when engaging in melee drew a Joker, which immediately stops the turn. I think this makes for a great narrative, as the the unfortunate warrior will be mobbed and bayonetted while his mates hide in the undergrowth.

Later in the game, Lt. Barnaby and an Askari are charged by the chief and the white shields.

Another example of the game play, the chief gets 2 cards for being the charger and an additional one for being a Brute, yet Lt. Barnaby draws well and wins the melee.  Unloaded his revolver at close range?

Eventually, though, the column was cut up by the warriors who gleefully looted the supplies after the porters fled.  A wounded Lt. Barnaby orders the column to fall back.

More porters are recruited and the column treks on...

...until a flooded river crossing forces them to take another oute, still in Anzique territory.

The column is yet again attacked by the Anzique and yet again are forced to abandon supplies, barely getting away.

The column once again regroups and continues its journey. 

A new river crossing is found and the party makes it across.  Camp is pitched, but the undergrowth is alive with noise.  Suddenly it gets quiet... too quiet.

Ok, no more updates for a week plus as we cruise and I start my new job.  I have the rest of the mini-campaign in the can, so stay tuned!