A kick in the Urals

In the summer of 1919, somewhere in the foothills of the Ural mountains, the Reds and Whites clash over a small farmstead.  

This was a quick game to refresh ourselves with the Fistful of Lead: Bigger Battles rules.  We kept things very simple to re-learn the rules and try to get the game finished in the evening despite our rusty remembrances.

The scenario was an engagement battle to seize a farm before nightfall. The game would last 8+ turns using the mechanism from scenario 4 in the Bigger Battles rulebook. 

The Reds advanced from the West.  They had a commander on foot, 5 companies of ten regular riflemen, and a machine gun team.  Three companies had a Lewis gun, which we counted as an Assault Rifle.

The Whites met them from the East.  They had a mounted commander, four companies of ten regular riflemen, a machine gun team, and a light field gun.  All their rifle companies had a Lewis gun.  No units on either side had any other traits.

 

I won't do a blow by blow account but essentially the Red Army rushed the farm and the White Guards advanced more cautiously under covering fire.  

There was a furious and bloody firefight followed by some fierce close combat around the farm.  Commissar Trevsky and several of the Bolo companies  ran away regrouped to the rear.  While the Whites were generally left battered but still in the fight.  

We played the rules, to the best of our understanding, as written.  Commanders are very useful, providing a bonus to rallies and allowing re-rolls when attached to a charging unit.  There is a risk to them but with three wounds it is not a massive one, unless the whole unit is destroyed.  Both commanders were hit in the game but did not die. 

The game ended after 9 turns with the Whites' enveloping attack having winkled the Reds out of the large barn but the courtyard and house were still held by the Bolsheviks.

 

The rules certainly give a lot of drama and action.  The cards add plenty of chaos and some difficult game choices.  The fighting is very bloody but we did have all regular units.  Probably we should be using far more Green units and other negative traits.  Green troops use a d8 instead of d10, stripping them of the 9+ double wound results, which would tone things down a fair bit.  Elite units can conversely use a d12, which would potentially allow small numbers of White Officers to see off hordes of Red Conscripts.

I think the only house-rule we used was to increase the MG teams from 3 dice to 6 when shooting.  3 dice for the three figures of an MG team is no better than riflemen would get and seemed anemic, especially given they must spend a turn breaking down and a turn setting up if they move.  The Reds brought their MG up to the house, from where they got in one good round of shooting that inflicted 5 wounds and several shock on a White company advancing in the open.  The White MG was set up on the edge of a wooded ridge and dominated the fields north of the farm preventing a red company from attacking across the open ground.  They also pinned some reds in the courtyard and saw off a fleeing Bolo company late in the game.  They would certainly have been a prime target if the Reds had any artillery or air support.  None of that seemed unreasonable. 

I think we'll play these again soon. 

Gunfight in Alanville

This was a game of Fistful of Lead we played recently.  Fast, furious and great fun as always we used the core rules for a western themed showdown.

Wichita Red Robinson and his ruthless band of killers entered Alanville from the north intent on robbing the Scanes Company bank.  

Unfortunately for them, instead of only timid townspeople, they were met by the formidable Dooley Brothers, gamblers, entrepreneurs and sometimes lawmen.

With his Winchester rifle Deuce Davis keeps Virgil pinned down behind the station while the rest of the gang make short work of the other Dooley Brothers.  

In a few short minutes of butal firefight Frank, Morgan and James Dooley are out of action for the loss of only Bronco Sally.  With the main street cleared the gang press on to the bank but one Dooley brother remains.

Virgil Dooley's fame as a skilled and dangerous pistolero is well founded, and the with just two shots he dispatches the outlaws Deuce Davis and Stoke Row Bill. 

Virgil moves quickly down main street to catch Lone Pine McGraw and Wichita Red Robinson in the act of robbing the bank, but he is caught by a hail of lead as they emerge with the money.  With the Marshal down bleeding and alone the frightened townspeople think it's all over.  

Red Robinson walks slowly towards the wounded lawman and fires a shot as Lone Pine takes his chance to run for it.  

However, hubris has gotten the better of this Kansas desperado.  As he shoots, Virgil uses his lightening fast reflexes to dodge the bullet from Red's gun.  Recovering instantly, the Marshal rises to his feet and blasts Red from short range.  The viscious outlaw stares in dsibelief at the spreading red stain on his shirt and crumples to the floor.

We couldn't believe the end, it was straight out of a Hollywood movie, and a fitting finale to another great fun game of FFOL.

Wild West Gangs

I've painted up some gangs of western miniatures for the Fistful of Lead rules by Wiley games. 

Wichita Red Robinson and his gang of vicious Outlaws.

The Dooley Brother are what passes for Lawmen in these parts

Some Mexican Desperadoes come over the Rio Grande

A band of Renegade Indians on the warpath

Fast paced and lots of fun FFOL rules are perfect for all sorts of skirmish games and 28mm Wild West gaming is what they do best.  Miniatures are a mix of Foundry, Artizan and Gringo 40.

Battle for Hougoumont

To try out the Fistful of Lead: Bigger Battles rules for Napoleonics we used our new Hougoment castle terrain, recently aquired from Sarissa Precision. 

The nicely painted figures were British and French, including Grenadiers, Light Infantry, Marines and Riflemen from the collection of my club mate Dean. 

The stats were modified from the suggested Horse and Musket era examples in the rule book. 

I made the French army trait Quick, to represent the rapid French maneuovre and the British had Deadeyes to represent their famed prowess in shooting.

Lost French units were replaced with fresh units to represent the waves of attacks throughout the day.  We were only trying the rules, so played to the time we had but if this were a scenario I would set a limit.  Maybe 12 turns.

 Our game was not really historical but the redcoats held the castle as they did in 1815.  

Although there were some dicey moments.  An attack on the side gate was only just held by the rifles and the French Marines twice drove back the British fron the front wall.

 

The remnants of the French Grenadiers run from the Riflemen after a very bloody melee.

The FFOL reload rule works nicely in Bigger Battles to represent the first volley and making use of 'sixes' to reload can be vital.  You can't always wait long enough to play the six on the right unit though and the difficult turn decisions ramp up the tension.

The game was lots of fun and I expect we will try another, perhaps with cavalry next time.

Dog Soldiers

This was a quick game we squeezed in before lockdown.  Werewolves versus 1980s British army, that classic match up.   

The game used the Fistful of Lead Core Rules with the Tales of Horror supplement and nicely demonstrated the flexibility and ease of using these rules for just about anything.

The game was inspired by the 2002 B-movie Dog Soldiers starring Sean Pertwee and Kevin McKidd.  In a remote part of Scotland a patrol of British soldiers on excercise get a much tougher experience than they expected.
 

 

The scenario was a simple farmhouse defended by three soldiers and two more coming from reserve. The soldiers must survive until dawn. It was based on the Under the Blood Moon scenario in the supplement but played on a bigger table and without the farmers.

The Werewolves are truly dangerous under the rules being fast, strong and very difficult to kill without silver bullets.

The squaddies shot well, racking up the shock markers to slow the monsters down.  The seargent even manged to bring down one werewolf in close combat. 

It wasn't enough though as a well timed Queen of Spades card saw a werewolf leap back to action and slice his way through the patrol just as the sun started to rise.

It was a fun game and we'll probably try another along these lines in the furture. 

A Fistful of Lead

While looking at rule sets to use with my 'Back of Beyond' armies I came across Wiley Games Fistful of Lead series.

These rules have been around for ages but hadn't regisetered with me before, or I had forgotten about them if they had.  Originally a set for Wild West games they have a neat set of core mechanics that can be easily adapted to any period and Wiley Games have been publishing expansions and period tailored sets for a while.  This link to a Werewolve v Legionaries game on YouTube should illustrate the scope. The most recent format is a set of core rules with expansions, although they are still in a transition to this approach with some older sets, and some newer more diverse sets, being stand-alone. The books are all available in PDF for pretty low prices though, so you can dip your toe in for a minimal investment.

A4 hard copies are available in the UK from Oshiro.  I got mine on a super fast turn around, so have no complaints with the service there.

The set we tried first was not actually the core rules but the Bigger Battles expansion.  This is a stand alone game that takes the core rules mechanics and applies them in modified form to units instead of individuals.  Players typically control five or six units with multiple players possible, up to the limit of cards. The turn is card-diven with players having a hand of cards dealt and playing them in sequence and choosing a unit to activate.  Some cards give special bonuses and aces are wild.  Units can vary in size and stats, with the dice used (d10 usually but d8 for green troops and d12 for veterans) and a list of traits to give flavour.

I won't go into details as there is plenty of play description here but they gave us a fast and furious game.  Bigger units and more players slowed things down as is to be expected but the rules coped.  The approach is very much providing a toolkit and rules can easily be mixed from one set to another.  They will not be to everyone's taste and take an admittedly 'hollywood' approach but we had lots of fun.

We now have plans for more games of both Russian Civil War and other more esoteric projects.