RPGs, Wargames, and Everything In-Between
The remaining Battletech Clan Invasion stuff came in, along with Car Wars 6th Edition and High Noon, an Old West skirmish game.
So, lots to keep me busy.
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The second shipment of Battletech stuff came with a challenge coin for Wolf’s Dragoons, a mech mercenary company that I was somewhat familiar with from the old days (1980s) of Battletech.
Or so I thought.
I had no idea how much of the Clan Invasion revolved around the Dragoons. And now that I know the full story (Clan recon!), I’m more intrigued with the Dragoons, especially after learning that Barnes & Noble has a preorder for a Wolf’s Dragoons Assault Star Force Pack.
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Car Wars 6th Edition is a welcome update of one of my favorite games from way back in the day. Autoduel remains one of the few computer games that I played all the way through.
Quite an ordeal getting my copy of the game, having the core box sit at a FedEx facility for almost 2 weeks, and then only a couple of days wait for the second shipment.
The game plays much like the original, without a lot of the bookkeeping since the cars are built from cards representing crew/gear/weapons/armor.
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High Noon is a fairly easy game to learn and play, as I was able to get through the rules and try a scenario within a couple hours of picking up the game. Game play is simplified compared to other similar games, but I’m a fan of Westerns, and game play feels somewhat cinematic, in the Western sense. I can’t wait until the Man With No Name inspired supplement comes out.
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Hoping to play these games with others soon, if not I’m content playing solitaire.
That’s a lot of mechs. All the white/primed stuff on the right is from the Clan Invasion Kickstarter.
New paint scheme that for some reason I never considered: blue and orange, but not Mets blue or royal or navy.
This lance is the 7th Coloradian Gunslingers.
Mechwarriors/mechs, left to right:
Jason Elam/Warhammer
John Elway/Rifleman (command)
Shannon Sharpe/Phoenix Hawk
Terrell Davis/Wasp
The Kickstarter pledge rewards for the Battletech Clan Invasion campaign finally arrived about a week ago.
Behold!
Five Parsecs From Home: I really need to get back into this one, the crew has yet to make planetfall on a new world. They had just escaped from a world that was undergoing a planetary invasion.
Stargrave: I’m probably not going to play this one anytime soon because it’s similarity to Five Parsecs From Home, and it’s more geared toward 2 players.
Marvel Crisis Protocol: Haven’t finished going over the rules, but at least I stopped printing/buying terrain.
Fire Team: newly released baby brother to the newest Kill Team release (huh?). It’s like how Blitz Bowl was for Blood Bowl, an ‘entry level’ self contained game.
Kill Team: the latest flavor of the month, rules have been read, miniatures painted, terrain prepped. Just need to find time to set up and play, which is not going to be soon because…
Battletech: Clan Invasion Kickstarter pledge is waiting to be picked up. That oughta keep me distracted for the next few days/weeks.
Black Ops: Need to do some painting: Russian soldiers, insurgents, and my own Black Ops team that I’m basing off The Unit TV show. Which means I gotta come up with some cool call signs for my 5-man team.
Gaslands Refueled: I have lots of slightly modified matchbox cars, plus templates and tokens, waiting to be played with.
Necromunda: all the above games have been keeping me busy with no time to delve back into this one, as much as I would love to do so.
And this list doesn’t even include the tabletop sports games that I’ve been neglecting.
I reviewed my Clan Invasion Kickstarter pledge, and found that I had already locked in my order, consisting of even more Inner Sphere stuff.
So I went and ordered a lower tier late pledge and added some Clan Stars to it. It also allowed me to get a PDF copy of the House Davion handbook for much less than it’s offered on Wargame Vault.
I also took a dive into some of the Clan lore, and saw that there’s a lone green Mad Cat mech piloted by a mechwarrior named The Bounty Hunter.
So I’ve decided to take that lone Mad Cat that I have and make a similar unit, with mechwarrior Dyn Djarin of Clan Mudhorn. He named his mech the Razor Crest. I might paint his green, too.
This is the Way.
In the handful of games of Memoir 44 that I’ve played, I’ve had the opportunity to use the ‘Air Power’ card only a couple of times, and usually as the Axis, which is a weaker (1 battle die) attack than an Allied attack (2 battle dice). So for the most part I’ve thought of this game as primarily a ground assault game.
A few years back and long before I plunged into this game there was an Air Pack expansion that expanded the air combat rules for the game.
At first glance I believed that it was not necessary, since there was an ‘Air Power’ card in the game already. Many players appeared to feel the same, but others felt it was a necessary addition.
The Air Pack is out of print (like most expansions for this 15 year old game) but Days of Wonder is now planning to release the New Flight Plan expansion.
The rules are posted on the site, and after reviewing them, I decided to preorder a copy of the expansion.
It comes with plane miniatures, like my beloved B-17 Flying Fortress.
Looks like the ‘G’ variant.
Stand by.
The Pacific Theater of Operations has always been a favorite subject of mine for as long as I can remember.
Today I finally got a copy of the Pacific Theater expansion for Memoir 44. I managed to find a copy from a seller in Belgium.
I pulled out my old point-and-shoot camera for these pictures. Behold!
I’m still waiting on a couple of Memoir 44 items to arrive in the mail, but yesterday I bought the last expansion that I intend to for now.
This has much larger maps, for much larger scenarios, which I saw in the Winter Wars expansion.
I’m a completest, but even I gotta hold off on some stuff, like the Operation Overlord expansion, which bumps up the game to up to 8 players, and requires a SECOND core set in order to play. I like the concept, though: team of up to 4, with 3 field generals and one commander who gives the combat cards drawn to the generals, who play them as they see fit to do.
My gaming group is less than 8, and we’re not ready for something like that, I think.
For now, I’ll just enjoy solo or 2 player games.
