Snake Eyes July 2016 Issue

GARAGE GAMERS GROUP
ISSUE # 29
JULY 2016
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GARAGE
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Garage Gamers Group (GGG)
Cover: First look at a
WereWeevil Ork,
created and painted
by Marcus Blackman
Hello everybody, (Hi Dr Nick), and
welcome to another issue of Snake Eyes.
Games, games and more games.
Editorial
Reviews on the Run
Playing for a Reason
Warlord has Konflikt ’47 releasing in August, as well as their soon to be released
Bolt Action 2nd Edition rules. Project Z with
expansion material and Gates of Antares are
available as well. Dr. Who the board game is
now available for pre-orders.
As usual, anything that you want to share or
promote, be it club news, tournaments,
stories, your games and/or your miniatures,
please send it on to us here at Snake Eyes. As
long as it is miniature gaming orientated, (and
appropriate), then we will show it off for you.
Send it to;
[email protected]
The Collector
Misfire Comics
RiverHorse, has a board game based on the
Labyrinth (a movie of the same name that
starred David Bowie), and The Hunger
Games board games are also being created
by the same games design company.
Member Spotlight
Special Features:
Terminator Genisys
Sharps Practice Finnish War 1808
Mantic have more races for Kings of War
and Deadzone, as well as their futuristic
sports game Dreadball 2. Their Walking
Dead miniatures game will be at GenCon in
August also.
Perry Miniatures have figures available for
the Cape Frontier Wars as well as Boer
miniatures now available.
And it’s only just over half way through the
year. What a great time to be a gamer, as
both new and old to the hobby have a huge
range of gaming systems and board games
to pick from.
Sometimes I wish I was a new gamer, but
scratch that. I would go broke.
Happy gaming, and enjoy the read.
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If you are a merchant and would like to advertise with us it is a free service. What I
would ask is that you submit a one page advert, or we can make it up for you, that can
appear in Snake Eyes as a full page advert.
These ideally will be rotated through each
issue, to maximize exposure for all of our
stores and suppliers.
SEE YOU THERE
ISSUE
29
PAGE
Playing for a reason
How old do you have to be to
game with miniatures?
Well yes there is a recommended minimum age, but think about
how old you were when you
started, and what miniatures did
you play with?
With GGG Member Nick Chase
A good friend of mine enjoys
teasing me about my hobby,
referring to my miniatures as
‘Nick’s Barbie dolls’. I just tell
him that he is jealous because he
doesn’t have a hobby.
I know my choice was mainly
one colour 1:32 soldiers and 1:72
multi-coloured cowboys and Indians. Any metal figures were
lead or perhaps made of tin.
You can come into this hobby
at any age, and catch the bug.
There are that many gaming
manufacturers out there that
almost any (if not all) historical
gaming period is covered.
Outside of the above mentioned age, there really isn’t an
age group.
In fact historical gaming has
become fun, with Bolt Action
and Flames of War, as examples.
Games Workshop used to target boys 13-18 years old with
their marketing strategies, and
quite often they forgot about the
older gamers.
SAGA has bought the middle
ages to the table, in an easy to
learn rule set.
The groups that did cater to the
older gamer, were more often
than not, purely historical gamers, with little interest in anything else.
4
The thing I love about Historical wargaming is that it makes
you want to know more about
that period in history, and will
have gamers searching online for
the correct uniform colour
scheme, or names of Regiments
so that their army can be as au-
thentic as possible. Along this
journey, not only can they
begin to develop some expertise in this area, but they also
learn more about the darker
side to wars, and understand
both the necessity at the time
and the atrocities committed
in the name of war.
Perhaps therein lies the only
bad side of most miniature
gaming and that is in nearly all
of the games, both sides try to
kill each other. Better then on
a board or table top, rather
than in real life.
One day the human race
might be civilised enough to
fight any battles on a game
simulator with the understanding that the two or more
sides remain unmolested
whatever the outcome.
Sorry I got a bit carried
away. But you know what I
mean.
If it comes to kids, they will
possibly want to play with
you, and depending on their
age, will want to start a collection of ’Their’ miniatures,
at some stage. As long as
you are happy to provide
some of your collection, or
pay for theirs, understanding that some are going to
get broken, be lost, and
have lots of sprue lines still
showing, then it is your call
when your child is ready.
There is no age to start playing any game. There is no
age to stop playing games.
There is no social group
worth belonging to, that
tells you when you’re too
old to play with little toy
men. If you decide to stop,
or start for that matter, well
then that’s up to you.
This is a hobby of doing
something that you enjoy,
and if it makes you
happy...keep doing it.
From the Collector’s Vault
Collecting from scratch. Have
I covered this before? I don’t
know as I am getting too old,
but bear with me, some nuggets of information may be
helpful if you’re just starting a
collection.
There are a lot of game systems to choose from. Pick one
that suits you either aesthetically, or because of it’s complexity, or both.
Whatever system you choose
to collect, see if it comes with
a starter set. Most games do,
and these are a good place to
start. Even better if you have a
friend that wants to start gaming too, as these boxes will
have elements from different
factions, and you can go halves
in the purchase. But even so,
the value in these starter sets
is nearly always a better bargain then buying it piecemeal.
You might even manage to
get a cheaper set second hand,
so look around the swap and
trading sites as the hobby can
be an expensive one if you are
not careful.
After the assembly of the
miniatures (usually a phase
you cannot avoid), learn to
play the game. I mean this as
getting to know your force.
You have hopefully already
explored the game from a general perspective before the
purchase of your starter set.
Do this with a few games to
master your troops before you
move on to adding the box
sets that will expand your collection. Not only will this give
you time to paint your miniatures,
but also give you a better idea if
they are really the collection that
you want.
A person I know, was told that a
certain system was very identical
to another that he used to play,
years before and loved. Without
trying the game out this person
then spent a good sum, buying
several box sets of a game that
ended up being nothing like his
old game. Said miniatures were
repacked back into their boxes
and shelved. Don’t let this happen
to you. Better to re sell or swap
your small collection, than try to
recover your purchase price.
In summary, pre play the game
system, look for the starter sets,
learn your force and what it can
do. Good luck.
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The Collector is a
gamer with many
years in collectable
games and wargaming...
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REVIEWS ON THE RUN With GGG Member Tim Prenzler
(Mech's build heat for moving/firing energy weapons).
BattleTech
Now in it’s 30th year, BattleTech rates
as one of the long lasting giants, so
there must be something great about it,
right? This online review might shed
some more light for those of you who
haven’t yet taken the plunge, and rekindle some memories of those who have
stomped across the game board in a 30
foot mech.
Few wargames have lasted as long as
Battletech, which is currently celebrating
its 30th anniversary. It is one of the
longest running science-fiction IPs based
on a wargame with several successful
video games, an animated series, hundreds of novels, and countless source
books to its name. To quote a comedian
from the same vintage as BT: "What's
the deal with that?"
Battletech is a game about warfare in
the 31st and 32nd centuries, set in a
universe where 30 foot bipedal robotic
suits are the current kings of the battlefield. I'd go into the back story, but its
extremely, extremely thick and loaded
with setting specific jargon. If you're
someone that likes an immersive
setting, this is a game that's up your
alley.
Mechanically, its a game that utilizes
15mm scale miniatures on a hex-grid,
(that's right, you're playing on a board,
not a table). You're typically moving
around 8-12 models, most of which are
Battle Mechs (the big robots). While the
game's model count is low, the record
keeping system is extremely detailed
and belies a system that's attempting to
be more stimulatory than "gamey".
To that end, the core mechanic of
shooting/moving is very basic, but with
modifiers akimbo based upon terrain
(broadly defined on the board) and
mech position. That said, less effort is
placed on complicated mechanics for
rolling dice (almost everything is 2D6 +
stat +/- modifier based) and a strong
emphasis is placed on tactical positioning and ammo/heat conservation
If you like Warjacks in Warmachine, but wish
their interactions were more involved, Battletech
might be worth a look.
Interestingly, the core game is somewhat
"gamey" and constitutes Catalyst Lab's tournament ruleset. There's a large list of "advanced"
rules that are advised against for tournament play,
but allow massive modification of the core game,
including but not limited to: interstellar warfare,
Battle Mech customization, "ace" Mechwarrior
rules, etc etc etc.
Lastly, the game requires each player have several Mechs, a hex board to play on, and some core
rules. The 25th anniversary boxset, the large
"Total Warfare" (which contains all the standard
rules), and the first technical manual (3050) will let
players play with a large amount of replay via
switching Mechs, and scenarios.
The Good
Wolf Clan: "We're 'good guys' but didn't have the budget
for a logo. Here's some clip art."
Battletech is an affordable game with a unique
science-fiction setting that attempts to mimic
some realities of modern warfare. Its main attraction is Mech vs Mech combat and all the detailed
record keeping that takes place (as strange as that
sounds). There's something very charming about
hitting an opponent's left arm and seeing the armour damage, then system damage, etc.
For fans of the Mechwarrior video games, the
tabletop game is almost identical to the electronic
version (at least the Mechwarrior 2 and 3 video
games). While doing some of the crazier things
people did in the video games (e.g. - loading up a
light mech with PPCs, firing with knowledge that
you'd overheat but with a nigh guarantee of killing
a heavy mech) still works on the table. If you dig
the video games, you'll probably dig the table incarnation.
Oddly, there's a lot in Battletech that was lovingly
borrowed by Warmachine (Matt Wilson was an
artist at FASA [creator of Battletech], so this isn't
too surprising). Mech's get damaged in grids, like
Warjacks. Underlying systems get damaged, similar to the "system" boxes in WarMachine.
Battlemechs are kings of the battlefield (just as
Warjacks are nominally in Warmachine; however
Battletech stays truer to this in the game).
The system is 2D6 + stat +/- modifiers in a very
similar manner to Warmachine
(Warmachine involves defensive statistics whereas
Battletech focuses on modifiers).
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Not new news for the players of War Machine,
the game recently had a revamp. CEO Matthew
D. Wilson, had this this to say about the new
version.
Since mankind began creating machines, we
have endeavored to make them better. Instinctively, we seek out the imperfections and vulnerabilities of our creations, and we strive to improve them. We tune them and we tinker and
refine. Even a machine that functions as intended
isn’t safe from our desire to make it faster or
more powerful. We augment, we supercharge,
we overclock in our never-ending yet impossible
quest to perfect the machine. It’s our instinct, our
nature. We can’t help it.
And so it goes with our games. An immersive
miniatures game is a complex machine, made up
of countless interconnected parts, that as a
whole attempts to strike a balance between a
true-to-life mass combat simulation and an enjoyable recreational pastime.
Somewhere between the realism and the entertainment is the sweet spot, or what we refer to as
“the fun.” With too many components, the machine becomes cumbersome and grinds to a halt.
Without a reasonable amount of complexity, the
machine can’t achieve the desired level of immersion and the experience is reduced to something
abstract and fleeting. But we want our machine
to engage you. We want to give you an experience that keeps you coming back for more.
Some machines are intriguing because of their
intricacy. Others inspire excitement because of
their power and potential. With WARMACHINE,
we seek to capture all this inside a 4´× 4´ swath of
battlefield spread across your tabletop. In the
end, it comes down to the machines.
The vision for WARMACHINE is one of fantastic
battles waged by nations that exist in a world
liberated by machines. In the Iron Kingdoms, man
and machine share a symbiotic relationship that
shapes both society and its dynamic conflicts. So
it is that we have finally achieved the prominence
of the machine we’ve always imagined. Every
aspect of WARMACHINE has been analysed during the three-year process of designing the game
REVIEWS ON THE RUN Continued
you see before you. Every rule on every
model in existence has been scrutinized,
tuned, re-evaluated, and refined in order to optimize performance, eliminate
overlap, and make the model a viable
choice within the context of the army
you choose to assemble.
But the most substantial upgrade
made to WARMACHINE is at its core.
Warlord’s latest offering before the release of
their Bolt Action 2 rules, is an alternate future
game system, using the Bolt Action rules for a
completely different set of miniatures. More from
Chris Hale, author of Konflikt’47.
not just make new units for Bolt Action? We
looked at both options, but whilst Bolt Action
is an excellent and fast paced game, its very
simplicity started to work against it when
introducing new units that were very close
quarters focussed. The existing Close Quarters
rules just did not have enough depth for manipulation. So we changed them.
This is the culmination of nearly 2 years of
collaboration between Warlord Games and
Clockwork Goblin Miniatures, with plenty of hard
work and long nights to ensure we were delivering a game that both lived up to the Bolt Action pedigree and added a new wargaming franchise to the Warlord stable of games.
The world and game defining relationship between the Warcaster and her
Warjacks has been supercharged, making those machines more independent
and versatile while at the same time
ensuring they are an even more essential part of the Warcaster’s arsenal than
ever.
In every aspect of this game, we’ve
endeavoured to retain what worked
with the original machine while rebuilding it in a form that represents the original vision. We’ve endeavoured to develop that vision to support the elusive
target between realism and recreation
and create the most perfectly immersive
experience that can be achieved on the
tabletop. And while we know perfection
is a quality that can never be achieved,
you must know that we will never stop
trying.
We can’t help it. WARMACHINE now
represents the best of everything we
know and have learned over thirteen
years of creating the world and the
game. We hope you enjoy it as much as
we do.
Let’s fire up the fun!
Konflikt ’47 is designed to be a standalone
game, not a supplement to Bolt Action, although
we were also keen to ensure that the core
mechanics were as close as possible, and that units
and vehicles could be interchangeable between
the two games. This would maximise player’s
existing collections and allow lots of variety of
forces that would be beyond the scope of the
initial rulebook (with a page count limit, it was
clear we weren’t going to fit in every nation at
launch). Within these parameters, we had some
other clear principles:
1. No magic or supernatural stuff. Although often
a staple in this genre, we were keen to remove this
aspect to allow for a mechanical ‘diesel punk’ feel
that promoted strange tech rather than magic. We
recognise the popularity of such creatures as werewolves and zombies, but set ourselves the goal of
achieving these without recourse to spells or similar.
2. Diesel Punk not Sci-Fi. Another issue we discussed at length and agreed that the ‘look’ of the
game should fit the period, regardless of the
changes we were making. The added tech would
be clunky and in keeping with many of the engineering restrictions and principles of the time.
Whether we have stuck to this is subjective, but it
remains a principle of our design.
3. New Tech should complement not replace
existing tech. This is another hard principle to follow, the temptation to make new tech all-powerful
is real, but we wanted to ensure that the game
could be played with entirely historical forces at no
detriment. The reasoning was twofold, firstly to
maximise peoples existing collections, thereby
increasing the likelihood of buy-in to the game and
secondly to speed up the ability to deliver the
game with a vast range of available models from
the word go.
With these principles firmly in the back of our
heads, we pitched the game to Warlord, who to
our excitement gave us a firm Yes, and here we
are. So what is different about Konflikt ’47, why
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CLOSE QUARTERS
The Close Quarter process remains similar, orders, declarations and defensive fire are all still
there (slightly modified – see Reactions below),
but the actual assault now contains two steps.
Having made contact the combatants can fire
with weapons at point blank range, or resort to
hand-to-hand combat in a later step. Dependant
on the unit they may excel at one or other of
these steps, but rarely both, and shooting comes
before hand-to-hand. The result is that hand-tohand monsters will normally have to brave point
blank fire before getting their chance, possibly
reducing them in number before they attack. It’s
a brave unit that charges an un-pinned, non activated target – as it should be in the real world.
Unlike Bolt Action, combat is not automatically
fatal for one side, both can potentially retire from
the clash, and pin markers aren’t removed in the
process, suppressing a target before assaulting it
is now a really good idea.
REACTIONS
The next biggest change was the introduction of
Reactions, first seen in Gates of Antares, but
modified to fit the Bolt Action core rules. In essence, if a unit has yet to be given an order, it
may choose from several reactions in response to
a threat. So if shot at it could return fire, if assaulted it could move to cover and so on. This is
not automatic and failure to execute the reaction
could leave the unit worse off, but the options
exist. Ambush and Recce also fall into this revised
structure. The reasoning? We were keen to add
some tactical depth and decision making, activating a unit gives you the initiative for that
REVIEWS ON THE RUN Continued
moment, but leaving them un-activated
gives them flexibility. Whilst this change
is not revolutionary it adds more consequence to decisions and we feel it adds
to the feeling of being a commander.
NEW UNITS
Finally we had to fold in the new units
we wanted to bring to the game.
Konflikt ’47 is an infantry game, but the
introduction of heavily armoured
squads, fast fighting troops and jump
pack infantry all needed to be blended
with the existing rules. Hopefully we
have achieved this without making the
good old basic infantry squad obsolete.
Armoured walkers and Mechs are not so
different to use than vehicles in Bolt
Action, they were conceived as urban
combatants originally and carry the
same armour all around their chassis, no
outflanking for better penetration. The
trade-off is that their armour is a point
lower than the comparable sized tank.
At range, early game – advantage tank,
late game, in the mix – advantage
walker.
BOLT ACTION 2
Does Bolt Action Edition 2 change anything? Not really, Konflikt ’47 is its own
game, but recognising the overlap of
players, the changes in Bolt Action 2
may add to the quality of the Konflikt
game as well. Unavailable to us at time
of going to print, a full consideration of
the changes will be carried out, it may
be that a set of optional changes to Konflikt ’47 are worth producing to ensure
the ‘Bolt Action Family’ of rules stay as
close to each other as possible.
nent’s turn. However, both combatants have a
chance to win in hand-to-hand combat, and any
figure removed by shooting is allowed to fire in
the following turn.
Fire combat is resolved on a figure-by-figure
basis. Any model scoring a (modified) 10 or more
or a D10 hits his target. Saving throws are allowed in some circumstances, but generally any
‘hit’ is incapacitating or fatal. Various missile
weapons impart different effects, such as being
able to fire twice, reduce saving throws, etc.
THE FUTURE
There is more, but it’s less obvious, the result is a
game that plays as swiftly and as easily as its Bolt
Action roots, but may require a little more thought
when activating units in order to maintain the
initiative. The range of miniatures supporting this
game is looking great and there are plenty to come
over the next year, hopefully the next step is a look
at the Pacific Theatre in more depth as the first full
Konflikt supplement……
Osprey Wargames release, On The Seven Seas a
couple of years ago, was a set of Pirate rules, printed up in a nicely presented softcover rule book.
We haven’t reviewed it here in Snake Eyes, so we
bring it to you now, with Cedric of House of Pancakes.
“On the Seven Seas” is one of Osprey’s budget
paperback rules series. The book is filled with
images of North Star Miniatures’ new Pirate range,
and pictures culled from Osprey’s various pirate
titles.
On the Seven Seas is designed for games between two or more ‘factions’ of 15-30 miniatures
each. A specific scale is not given, but there is a
clear bias in favour of 28mm figures.
The sequence of play follows an Igo-Ugo format
with four phases: morale, shooting, movement,
and hand-to hand combat. The other player(s)
receive no opportunity to respond during an oppo-
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Unlike shooting, hand-to-hand combat is resolved as a contest between combatants. Each
player rolls a die and modifies his score according
to situational factors. The figure with the highest
modified score wins the combat. The difference
between the two player’s scores determines how
unpleasant the results of defeat are.
There are no rules for measuring a figure’s individual skill. While special abilities may great
modifiers to either shooting or hand-to-hand
combat, fundamentally every single figure has
identical martial potential. This makes weapons
of prime importance as a figure with a sword
enjoys a notable advantage over one with a club
or knife.
Central to the piratical theme of the rules factional psychology is governed by two metrics:
Fear and Greed. Rated on a scale of 1-10 these
represent the internal struggle between the lust
for plunder and the desire to survive. The faction
with the highest greed goes first. If a faction’s
fear reaches 10 it withdraws from the table. Both
of these scores are highly mutable and players
may attempt to alter his faction’s ratings and
those of his opponent during the course of a turn.
Also included are a set of simple rules for shipto-ship actions that primarily serve as a prelude
to boarding actions. OtSS clearly intends much, if
not most, of the action to take place on the high
seas. Scale model ships are mentioned, but the
rules are usable with paper cut outs of deck
plans.
One thing that should be said right off the bat is
that these are a simple set of rules. The author
struggles to fill 63 pages, and you could probably
write a detailed summary in a page. When I first
read through them my initial thought was ‘well, I
could’ve written this in an afternoon’, and I
haven’t really chanced that assessment. This
goes for anyone, you probably haven’t written a
set of skirmish-level pirate rules, but if you did
OtSS isn’t going to be a notable improvement.
www.riverhorse.eu
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BUT...the Swedish littoral landing takes place behind the
Swedish main army due to bad weather so instead to get the Russians surrounded the Swedes get reinforcements to their main
army that are on the retreat…
Sharps Practice AAR - Finnish War 1808
The Russians of course, try to cut of the Swedish way of retreat
but the Heroic Swedish General von Döbeln managed to stop the
Russians, at the Battle of Jutas 13 September 1808, and by that
deed kept the line of retreat open for some more time. But not all
Swedish officers were that heroic, and Colonel Fiandt did at the
same time unthinkingly blow up the vital bridge at Himanko, stopping the retreat line for the main Swedish army as the bridge had
to be restored to get the supply train over it.
To buy time for the rebuild of the bridge and the supply train to
get away the Swedish C-in-C Adlercreutz decided to give battle
near the village of Oravais.
The Russian Commander Kamensky realises that his attempts to
threaten the Swedish have been too weak and that he would
have to win a major engagement to continue the Russian advance.
What better way to celebrate my birthday then to post a AAR
from my and Jonas latest Sharps Practice game:)
It is all set during the Finnish War 1808, The Russian Forces have
invaded the Finnish part of the Swedish Kingdom and the Swedish
main army are on the retreat and are hoping that the Swedish King
will send reinforcements by a littoral landing behind the Russian
main army.
The scene is set for the largest battle of the entire campaign
involving about 5500 Swedes and 7000 Russians, The battle starts
in the early morning hours on the 14 September 1808 with a vanand rear guard action evolving in to a main battle that ends after
about 16 hours when the Russians manage to make an full assault
on the Swedish defences forcing the Swedish army to make a
hasty retreat. The Russians were so exhausted that they did not
manage to follow the Swedes that managed to get away via the
newly repaired bridge. The total amount of casualties on both
sides was about 2500 men dead and wounded, 2/3 of them from
the Swedish army.
As the rules, Sharp Practice from Too Fat Lardies, are a small
scale set of rules I used to divide a major engagement like this in
to several smaller scenarios like a mini campaign. In this game I
focused on the event that occurred along the main road about
11:30 when the Swedish rear guards were on the retreat after
their first 4 hours of fighting.
The area that the gaming board should depict is the small blue
rectangle in the middle of the historical battle map. On the
historical battle map, you can also see where the van- and rear
guard were fighting during the morning hours of the 14 September 1808.
I used Scenario Three in the Sharps Practice rules "Defence in
Depth" for this game. Both the Swedes and the Russians had their
Primary Deployment Point set in advance by the road, their
Secondary Deployment Points they were allowed to place
according to the scenario rules.
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experience for the infantry. The psychological impact of this is
reflected by Rolling 1D6 for each of the man in the attacking cavalry unit, causing one point of chock on the enemy for each 5 or 6
rolled if at the Gallop or each 6 rolled if at the Canter. This Shock is
applied before Fisticuffs take place.
Please feel free to use it if you have had the same experience of
to stoic infantry…
Both forces rolled for Force Morale and both managed an 11
from start. The terrain was open if not Forest or March, that was
Heavy Going, Fields that were Broken Ground and the stream that
was a Wide Obstacle, except for the bridge of course.
Swedish OOB
1st Battalion of Uppland Regiment
4 Groups of Regular Line Infantry with Muskets.
Leader, Status III
Leader, Status I
Colours
Musician
2 companies of 1st Battalion of Hälsingland Regiment
2 Groups of Regular Line Infantry with Muskets.
Leader, Status II
1 Squadron of Nyland Dragoons (should have been Carelian
Dragoons but I haven’t got any minis for them)
1 Group of Dragoons
Leader, Status I
For the scale of the game I decided that one group per the rules
would be a about a Company of Infantry or a Squadron of Horse,
the unit names are troops that were involved in the battle but
might not have been at this exact spot but I hope you cope anyway,
after all its a game inspired by the actual battle.
Russian OOB
1st Battalion of Sievska Regiment
3 Groups of Regular Line Grenadiers with Muskets.
Leader, Status III
Colours
Musician
In our earlier games we have felt that the cavalry aren´t that
frightening, at least not so we have felt that the infantry needs to
form squares as they probably should by the Napoleonic era, we
might of course have misunderstood some rules. So for this game
we tested out an additional Cavalry Chock rule, that all cavalry unit
was able to use.
2nd Battalion of Sievska Regiment
3 Groups of Regular Line Infantry with Muskets.
Leader, Status III
Colours
Musician
Cavalry chock: Cavalry attacking infantry in open ground, that
haven't managed to form a square formation, are a fearsome
1 Company of the 3rd Jäger regiment
1 Group of Line Jäger Skirmishers with Muskets
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Leader, Status I
even had managed to get in to a proper line formation...
2 Squadrons of Grodno Hussars
2 Groups of Scouting Cavalry
Leader, Status I
Leader, Status I
At the same time some Swedish Dragoons appeared in the deep
forest on a flanking mission. The Russian response was to send in
their Jägers to protect the flank of the Grenadiers that were
advancing over the field to engage the Hälsingland Regiment...
I Commanded the Russians and Jonas commanded the Swedes.
The AAR are of course influenced by the Russian perspective of the
battle. Included are pictures of the battle.
As the game started I felt that I needed to get my Russian troops
on the table ASAP to get them over to the other side and capture
the vital Swedish Primary Deployment Point. So as soon as a Leader
came up I deployed him and his troops on the table and started to
move as swiftly as possible against the Swedish line... The Swedish
had a more hold back tactic and only deployed their troops in the
last minute to stop or harass the Russian Advance.
After receiving several devastating volleys, the Russian Line Infantry broke and started to retreat.
The Russian Commander feels he is losing the battle as the
Grenadiers struggle to form a proper line formation to attack the
Hälsingland Regiment in front of them. In a desperate action he
decides to send in the last group of Grodno Hussars in to the
Swedish Uppland Regiment as at the moment they stand unloaded...
The following fisticuffs ends in a disaster for the Grodno Hussars, who break and flee with their tails between their legs...
After that humiliating defeat the Russians Force Morale was
down to 3 and the Swedes still had 11. So the Russian Commander decides to withdraw and await reinforcements...
As a coup de grace I thought to exploit the open road to the
Swedish Primary Deployment Point by using a group of fast moving
Grodno Hussars...they turned out not to be as fast and ended up
on a hill half way to the bridge, and the Swedish response came
quick by 2 groups from the Hälsingland regiment that were
deployed in the tree line opposite to the hill who opened fire...
It was a devastating Swedish Victory... 34 Russians minis dead
and just 3 Swedish...
We can conclude that if Jonas had been in command of the
Swedish army in 1808 Finland would still be a part of the Swedish
Kingdom
I continued to deploy the Russian Line Infantry and the Grenadiers both in Open March column to get them speed up their
pace... The Line infantry was very keen to get in to the fray so they
swiftly moved past the two hills and ended up in front of the just
deployed Swedish Uppland regiment that was covering the Bridge.
The Upplanders were lucky and managed to get away two or
even three close range Volleys before the Russian Line infantry
By Dalauppror
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Gameplay Review by Nick Chase
I had planned to present this article to you several
issues ago, but between losing data and pictures and
moving, I now have a whole slew of information and pics
to back me up, on what this game by Alessio Calvatore of
RiverHorse Games, is really about...well at least from our
perspective. We found it very entertaining. Hope you
enjoy and if you don’t...well there’s no pleasing everyone, is there.
I did cover an article about unboxing this game
some time back, so I won’t revisit that. The miniatures were clipped and assembled for the original review, but had not been glued.
After the terrain was set up according to the
scenario chosen, (Hold Your Ground), we rolled
off to see who would play what force. Steven
won the roll, and chose to play the Resistance.
The nice thing about the miniatures in this
box, is that they have very negligible sprue lines
on the miniature, and they are mostly assembled, leaving you to clip the one piece gun and
arms, onto markers on the torso of both the
Endoskeletons and the Resistance models. I
must mention that I did glue the Endoskeletons
as they all have the same weapons, however
their poses are varied. You can also add more
variety by twisting the upper torso in the direction of movement. The hard plastic is a silvery
colour so you could get away with not even
painting them, but it is always nicer when they
are painted. As opposed to the Resistance models, who have only 4 poses but a good variety of
weapons.
Terminator Genisys The Miniatures Game
has a set of Fast Play rules and a Rules Reference Card, that contain most of the rules
and stats that you will need for the game...
Be careful here when clipping the Resistance
miniatures from the sprue, as the weapons have
letters on the sprue to match to the different
poses, so don’t clip them all off and then try to
work out what goes with what. The Resistance
miniatures are a bit more flimsy with the arms
and I suggest that once you have the weapon
combinations that match the requirement of
the scenarios in the book, that you then glue the
arms in place.
So, on to the game. The rulebook provides
several scenarios, but we went with scenario
two, mainly because it allowed most of the miniatures to be used. The box set comes with a
double sided play mat, and it is of a size that we
were able to set up a game on the kitchen
bench, (very handy for the cups of coffee). I had
two opponents for the game, Steven and Kellie.
Steven had to leave mid game and Kellie took
over, so it was a learning experience for all.
Play began with us both rolling to see who
won the Tactical Edge. Steven won, and now
rolled on the Impulses Phase, rolling a Fate dice
to see how many of his force could be activated.
He rolled a 2, being the maximum.
After placing green side up activation markers
near the troops he wanted to activate (Plan
activation phase), he went on to Execute Activations by moving the Troops forward, one of
them running towards the enemy and taking
cover behind a barricade, the other walking
over to nearby ruins and setting up his rocket
launcher. He then flipped the activation markers over to show a red side up, indicating that
his troops had finished their activation.
I only managed a 1 on the fate roll, so after
activating an Endoskeleton, it moved forward
toward the cowering female trooper, hiding in
the barricade. It opened fire, for the successful
shot only to be deflected by the cover, protecting the human. First blood would have to
wait.
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The game uses range markers, with
movement on one side and weapon
ranges on the other. The reference
sheet displays the troop and weapon
capabilities and any special rules...
The fate roll gave Steven another 2
activations, for which he promptly ran
another two troopers into the face of
the enemy, desperate to close the distance and allow the range of their
weapons to have greater effect. Again,
the Endoskeletons rolled a 1 on the
fate dice, but the machine moved forward, firing on one of the troopers
who this time could not make their
cover save, and fell dead to the rocky
ground, the dry earth suckling the spilt
blood like a hungry baby suckling
milk...well that’s how it went in my
imagination anyway...first blood to the
Terminators.
Several activation phases later, as
most of the turns seemed to be similar,
with Steven rolling a 2 on the fate dice,
and me rolling a 1. Troopers ran forward and into cover, the Terminator
Endoskeletons moved forward, firing as they
went, with the troopers either passing their cover saves, or the machines simply missing their
shots.
Finally when the Resistance Commander was
activated, we found that his special abilities
could be vastly beneficial to the Resistance if
used tactically.
Commander have various abilities and depending on their rank, and vary these abilities
even more. As long as they have not been activated, any commander can use these abilities in
an activation phase. Most allow the use of more
activation markers in a turn, and even if Fate
comes up on the dice roll, which would normally
indicate that you have no activation markers
this round, the Commander (provided that he/
she has not already been activated this turn),
can still gain markers equal to the rank that is
held. Steven had a Commander with a rank of 2,
allowing him (after rolling a 2 on the Fate dice),
to activate a trooper anywhere on the battlefield with one, activate the Commander with
one, who could then use his ability and rank to
immediately activate another 2 troops however
they had to be within his command range,
which was represented by the smallest range
marker, the hand to hand one.
In the round when this ability with the commander was first activated, Steven, using his
four activations managed to activate a rocket
launcher, and two troopers with grenade
launchers as well as the commander. The Rocket
Launcher missed, the first grenade launcher hits
but failed to wound. This caused the Endoskeleton to roll a Resolution roll, of which it passed.
The second grenade launcher and the Commander both missed their long range shots.
The Ranged shot marker, indicates that any
target under the distance indicated by the
marker is hit on a D6 roll of 5+, however you
can take a chance on a long distance shot,
provided that you have a long range weapon,
and hit on a 6+
Two activation rounds later, another Trooper
dies, and after that the Commander is threatened, but the shot missed. Interestingly, the
Commander apart from their command abilities,
and better weapon, are no more special than
the common trooper, and are just as able to die
as easily.
Also Steven had to leave at this time and Kellie
took over, immediately asking why her troops
had casualties and the Endoskeletons had none.
After a quick brief of rules of play, Kellie continued from where Steven had left.
The last round of Turn 1, had the Terminators
scoring one more kill. As the last of the activations had been completed, the red markers
could now be removed from the game mat, to
allow for a new turn of play. Kellie and I rolled
again for Tactical Edge, with Kellie’s Resistance
fighters winning the roll, and the killing begins
again.
When a hit is caused but the roll to wound
fails to take out the target, a Resolution Roll is
made for the target. This indicates whether
the Target will flee, and is removed as a casualty, or that the target is Reeling from the fire
effect, or it simply is not effected...
Now that the distance was reduced between
the two forces, we realised that a lot of Kellie’s
weapons, a mix of assault rifles, rifles and shotguns, did not have the power to wound the Endoskeletons. In fact anything short of a Plasma
rifle, as carried by the Commander, or a heavy
weapon was not going to do much at all. Short
range was a 4+ to hit, but hand to hand was a
3+ but it did mean taking the chance that the
Resistance fighter was going to get smeared by
the Endoskeleton. The Resistance could not
wound the Endoskeletons as they used a D6 to
roll a wound, and the Endoskeletons armour is
8.If they waited, the Endoskeletons could move
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into hand to hand combat by their next
activation anyway, assaulting the humans with a power claw, still needing
the 3+ to hit, wounding on 4+ (the
troopers armour) but doing it on a
D10.
The benefit of the Resistance fighters
closing into hand to hand combat was
to use every 3+ to hit, forced the Endoskeletons to make a Resolution Roll. A
roll as a human was on a D6, and on a
2-5 makes the target REEL. On a 1 it
retreated and was removed as a casualty, and on a 6 nothing happened. The
better the Resistance fighter the higher
dice they rolled. Kellie’s Commander
rolled a D10.
The down side of this was that every
Endoskeleton had a Resolution of D20,
so that meant Kellie would need me to
roll a 1-5 on a D20, for her plan to
work.
Now, why this is worth the risk, is
that for every Resolution rolled the
Endoskeletons are forced to make, the
greater the chances are of causing
them to REEL. When an Endoskeleton
fails their Resolution roll, by rolling a 25 result on a D20 and is classed as
REELING if they haven’t retreated, that
is; having rolled a 1, they become very
vulnerable to a follow up attack.
When a target is REELING, it has another red token placed near it if it
has already been activated. If it is
yet to be activated, it gets 2 tokens
straight away. When at the end of
the turn, all red tokens are removed,
only 1 token is taken from those that
are REELING, leaving them unable to
be activated in the next turn.
So what Kellie needed her Resistance fighters
to do, was move into Hand to Hand combat, as
indicated on the smallest range ruler. She would
then need 3+ on the roll to hit, and for me to fail
my Resolution roll and at least be Reeling. The
second Resistance fighter who then moves into
combat with a target that is Reeling, uses no
combat roll at all, but wounds using a D20, easily overcoming the Endoskeletons armour of 8+,
well hopefully anyway.
When this was successful, and it required a
few lucky rolls, Kellie’s Resistance fighters took
down their first Terminator Endoskeleton.
In game terms this is called (believe it or not),
“The Hasta La Vista, baby”.
But was it too little too late, when using the
same tactic and moving into combat on a reeling
target, the Endoskeleton moved in to smite the
hapless Human, and rolled a 2 on a D20, leaving
the human still reeling, but also still alive.
The Commander of the Resistance fighters
managed himself to force a Resolution roll on an
Endoskeleton. (See last picture on previous
page). The machine failed, and as the target was
Reeling, a lone resistance fighter with a grenade
launcher moved in to complete the kill, only to
fail to wound, rolling a 7 on the D20. In retaliation a close by Terminator attacked the Trooper
in hand to hand combat, killing him.
The two endoskeltons had just taken out the
last resistance fighter behind the barricade,
leaving the lone resistance fighter awaiting activation. Another endoskeleton close by has also
not yet been activated.
The rocket launcher failed his shot, and the
last grenade launcher moved in to fire successfully, but as the weapon special rule is that it
has an area effect, meaning that any targets
close to the original target will also be hit. As I
enjoyed the spectacle of Kellie maybe taking
out her own Commander, a further inspection
of the rules stated that if the shot affected any
friendly troops, then it could not be made.
launcher fires but misses his target.
The grenade launcher is taken down in
hand to hand combat.
In the final battle, both remaining
Rocket Launchers are killed, one by fire
and the other by combat. The
Machines have won the day.
‘Curses’.
Unfortunately it also meant that Kellie’s grenade launcher trooper had to hold his fire.
With only a few moves left to activate, the last
Resistance fighter moved forward to the barricade, one Endoskeleton moved through the
ruins to take care of the Grenade Launcher
trooper, and the last Endoskeleton moved into
combat with the Commander. The Endoskeleton targeting the Grenade Launcher hit but
failed to wound. Forced to a Resolution roll the
Resistance fighter failed it, and was left Reeling.
The Commander of the Resistance forces, after
facing combat again, was killed by the
Endoskeleton, leaving the Resistance without a
leader.
Steven: I liked the way that everything
was provided for the game in the box.
An illustrated game mat, terrain for the
mat, dice that any role player would
love, lots of miniatures, and a huge
rulebook with a painting guide. It’s
definitely good value.
Kellie: At first the game turns were
difficult to get my head around, but
the more turns I played, the easier the
game became, and the faster the
turns, although that may have been as
my miniatures were being reduced
very quickly. I enjoyed it, except for the
loss.
Nick: Once the sequence of events,
and how this rule worked with that,
was established, the game flowed
much better. The Endoskeletons are
very tough, and the Resistance has to
work out very quickly the best way to
bring them down, which they did, but
not soon enough for them.
This picture of the battlefield shows the game
towards the end of turn 2. On the far right, two
resistance troopers had moved in on one Endoskeleton to try and take it down. Both failed as
the first one failed to hit and the second did hit,
but the endoskeleton made it’s resolution roll.
The second machine then moved into the fight.
The rocket launcher in the ruined building
fired at the Endoskeleton nearby who then
turned its attention to him, successfully firing at
the resistance fighter, but the trooper made his
cover save.
At the start of Round 4, the battleground
shows a rapidly diminishing Resistance Force.
Because we had agreed to fight to the last outcome, we continued the battle.
The Trooper in the centre is killed by one Endoskeleton. The Rocket Launcher in the ruins
fires point blank at the Endoskeleton approaching and annihilates it. The other Terminator
from the centre fires at him but misses. Two
resistance fighters battle unsuccessfully against
two of the Endoskeletons. The other rocket
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In summary, the game design is quite
clever, and certainly created enough
interest for me to collect more sets for
this game. I am definitely interested to
see how vehicles and other characters
will play in the game. The Endoskeletons are tough enough, so how bad will
the Terminator vehicles and characters
be?
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MEMBER SPOTLIGHT - Justin Keyes
As a young child with plastic green and grey army men I would spend
hours creating various imaginary battle scenarios amongst the rocks and
plants in the backyard where I grew up. From those humble beginnings
the passion that has become the largest constant in my life was born.
During my time at High School in the 80’s I discovered the joys of role
playing with other likeminded individuals and the amount of time spent
creating backgrounds and characters for games like D&D, Dragonlance
and Robotech made me the perfect candidate to become a tabletop
gamer when I acquired a copy of Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader on a
trip to the UK when I was 15.
I spent hundreds of hours reading the background and imagining what
it would be like to own an entire army of the then “Beaky” Space Marines
and to play in scenarios like the “Battle at the Farm”. I very rarely played
games as I had very few miniatures and even fewer people to play with,
my main opponents being my brother and our best mate where stand in
miniatures (mainly green and grey army men) were the norm.
The very first model I ever painted was a Dark Angel, as black was the
only coloured paint I had after forking out what was a small fortune on
the Imperial Space Marines box set. Interestingly enough I still collect
Dark Angels to this day with the most recent army I have been working
on being my fourth Dark Angel army.
Fast forward a few more years and a small fortune later and I was the
owner of an entire army of Dark Angels when the first Games Workshop
stores opened in Australia. I was lucky enough to be at the opening of the
Chatswood store and I felt my life was complete, I worked a few nights a
week as a Doorman and now had somewhere to game. I was able to
spend time with other gamers and was introduced to other armies, I was
predominantly still playing Warhammer 40,000, but Titan Legions and a
few of the other systems also got a look in. I expanded my army tastes
and started collecting Chaos, Orks and Tyranids. Still remembering my
formative years as a role player, the story was always the most important
part of why I was playing. I didn’t care if I won or lost as long as I stayed
true to the background or narrative I had created.
In 1996 after getting bored of working as a Doorman in some of the
rougher areas of Sydney and after much encouragement from my local
GW Store Manager (who I am sure just wanted me to stop coming to the
store each day) I applied for a job at GW Head Office as a Mail Order
Troll. I was lucky enough to get the job and spent quite a few years living
my dream of getting paid to play with toy soldiers. Whilst working at
Games Workshop I was privileged enough to work on and eventually
become the Editor of the Australasian White Dwarf as well as being
involved in or running Rogue Trader Tournaments, Grand Tournaments,
Games Day and got to travel Australia and the world meeting and playing
games with people that I am still friends with today.
During my time with Games Workshop I expanded my gaming tastes
and my armies, there isn’t a GW system I do not have at least two armies
for (in some cases even more).
My favourite game is Warhammer 40,000 (especially since Apocalypse
rules came out), but Epic, Bloodbowl and Battfleet Gothic are fairly close
behind.
I am a complete GW fanboy and always will be. Having said that, I do
have an Australian Army for Flames of War and bought the
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MEMBER SPOTLIGHT - Justin Keyes
Gates of Antares box set when it was released. And, whilst I am yet
to commit I can see X-Wing becoming part of my collection in the very
near future.
At the moment I am working on a Dark Angels army consisting of
the Fifth Company and half each of the Deathwing and the Ravenwing
companies. After that I plan to do a Horus Heresy Dark Angels army.
I have become a huge fan of the Black Library Horus Heresy novels
and all the associated releases.
Whilst I do not spend as much time gaming as I used to, building and
painting armies is still an aspect that is, as important, and I cannot see
a period on my life where I will not be participating in an aspect of the
tabletop hobby.
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