Friday 22 April 2016

Aces Up! WW 1 Aircraft AAR - Step by Step Part 2


In Aces Up! we use Campaign Morale to track how well each side is doing. Both sides start with 5, the best possible Campaign Morale. After each Mission each side rolls 2d6 versus their Morale. Depending upon how many d6 they pass, their Morale can stay the same or go down - it can never go up. 

Fitch rolled after his first Mission and passed 1d6 - Campaign Morale drops to 4 due to the Mission being a failure. The Germans also rolled, but passed 2d6 - Campaign Morale stays the same - 5.

We use three Missions - each needing 3 PEFs to be resolved to be complete. These are not slam dunk Missions as the challenge is  Bonus Dice - representing ammo and fuel - are not replaced during the Mission!

The Missions are Patrol, Attack, and Defend. Which Mission you have depends upon your Campaign Morale and how many d6 you pass on the Mission Types Table.

How many Missions can you go on? That's totally up to you as we don't track time in the traditional way.  Here's Fitch's second Mission - another Patrol



Wednesday 20 April 2016

Aces Up! - World War I Fighter Combat Bat Bep



Aces Up is a card based minis game for World War I fighter game. As the rules say...

If you like:
·        Plotting how you’re going to move every turn.
·        Measuring and moving your minis.
·        Using templates to manage turns.
·        Reading lots of tables.

Then this is NOT for you. J

More coming soon!


Saturday 16 April 2016

Warrior Heroes: Armies and Adventures - Updating a Classic



Warrior Heroes: Armies and Adventures has recently returned to the Two Hour Wargames line up as a straight reissue of the original game. So just what is in the book?

Warrior Heroes: Armies and Adventures or simply WHAA moving forward, is your key to adventure in the sprawling fantasy world of Talomir. Inside you will find rules for small and larger skirmishes, dungeon crawls, and even mass battles. Your adventures will take you to some fifteen countries where you will encounter friends and foes - mostly foes - from thirty-one army lists.

As if that were not enough the rules provide a complete adventure generation system including random enemy forces (PEF's in game parlance), a lair generator for when you bring the fight to your foes, and an AI, or Artificial Intelligence, that breathes life, or in some cases un-life, into your non-player enemies. All you have to do is roll the dice.

In fact this was the first Two Hour Wargame to introduce PEF's and AI, making it our first truly solo and co-op play friendly game.

So with all of that between the covers what's not to like? The layout and presentation!

Back in 2008 when the game was first released, THW's was in a state of transition from  cult publisher of unique and innovative rules with old school charm, to the more professional and streamlined presentation of today's games. 

In terms of both presentation and mechanics, WHAA, is showing its age but still has plenty to offer.

With that in mind it is my intention to re-visit the rules and updated them significantly. I've no idea if THW will publish a new edition but I think they should. There is a great system in here that just needs a lick of paint and a bit of organization. In any event I will try to get the updated mechanics into the hands of verified purchasers of the current version if all else fails.

First up is a  simple open air encounter to try out my new take on the Adventurer combat mechanics.


Altengard knight, Sir Adelbert is out patrolling the countryside for marauders.  Sir Adelbert is a Rep 5 knight with heavy amour , acompanied by his bannerman, also a Rep 5 knight, and four mercenary, unaroured horse crossbowmen, each Rep 4.



Heading towards a distant dust cloud they have come upon a party of  8 orc riders out for a bit of a pillage. The riders are Rep 5, unarmoured, and have the Terror trait.

 

The orcs immediately closed on our hero, but were unable to come to grips on the first turn.


The crossbowman let fly and one orc dropped from his mount and one retired.


Sir Adelbert ordered a charge, but his men hesitated, clearly not sure of their chances.


For their part the orcs feinted a charge hoping to rout the humans by the mere threat of a charge.


In this they were unsuccessful and the orcs retired to regroup for another go.


The humans followed up at a stately pace, firing as they came. No losses resulted but one orc was goaded into a charge. Sir Adelbert took up the challenge and met the foe head on.


The combat was inconclusive and both opponents remained locked in combat.


Perhaps encouraged or even shamed,by their comrades display the rest of the orcs charged!


This time two bolts found their marks and the orcs now found themselves out numbered, six to five. Which was just as well considering that the mounted crossbowmen were individually no match for the terrifying orcs.


Both knights won their combats, and two mercenaries lost theirs. The remaining two mercenaries managed not to be killed by the orc facing them.


Another volley of bolts saw one orc down. Victory seemed near at hand with only two orcs left to face five humans.


The mercenaries moved to the flanks to try another round of shooting to no avail. 
Sir Adelbert and his bannerman charged and put down the last two orcs.\


After the battle any still living orcs were dispatched and the wounded mercenaries seen to.
Both would live but were to severely wounded to stay in the field and the party retired.

There you have it. Just a first blush at the update, but it went well.

Thanks for stopping by and look forward to more reports as the updating progresses.

Sir Adelbert is an Old Glory figure and his band are all Citadel figures painted by the author.
The orcs are from Alternative Armies and painted by their fabulous in house studio.

Bob

Friday 15 April 2016

PDR - Professional Dinosaur Riders





Coming soon! PDR - Professional Dinosaur Riders.

The 1st in a series of Cards & Dice games. Great little games for friends and family.

"Sometimes I just want a fun,  easy game."

What's been Going On at THW

Been awhile since posting. Here's what's going on:

Legends of Araby - Should be out next week. Has some ground-breaking new Interaction with NPCs mechanics. Great for story building. LOA is compatible with WHAA, WHL, and 2HDC.



Future Tales - Stand alone Pulp Sci. Think LTL meets Fringe Space. If lucky, should be out later this month.




World War 1 Aircraft - This is a card game playable with minis. Each players runs 1 or more aircraft.

More to come!