Tuesday and Wednesday Game Reports Plus a Little Bit More

This previous week was a mixture of limited gaming on Tuesday, and a TON of gaming on Wednesday.

Tuesday was a little Solace on my iMac with Starfury, MagicDrew, and 9IN followed up by some Three Dragon Ante. Solace is basically a medieval version of Axis & Allies, albeit one with no air units and with a vastly improved balance between the two sides. We played it as a free for all, with me winning, taking MagicDrew out with some devastating cavalry unit attacks and running roughshod through an AI player and Starfury. Three Dragon Ante was a pair of games with me getting utterly demolished in the first game, and winning solidly in the next one.

Wednesday was the feast day. A late start, but the trip to Sarge's included myself, 9IN, and Pico, with Starfury meeting us there. A nice game of Necromunda was started up, but called with my Van Saar gang holding a tenuous lead. With it being a holiday week, comics come in a day late. Meaning the store had to close an hour early so the books could be picked up in the morning the next day. We did meet some interested people who might join into the Necromunda games while we were there though.

A dinner run and then it was back to my house for the old ICE Hobbit Adventure Boardgame. Its a rather simple and modestly fun boardgame based heavily around drawing cards to boost your Hobbit or give you monsters and events to deal with where you then try to take out the Dragon who is totally not Smaug. *Snicker* Pico won and I bailed out towards the end game. See there is actual player vs player opposition. But its done with riddle cards. You play a riddle card and the opponent has to have a riddle card with the answer on it. I had one card in my hand. EVERYONE took this to mean it was time to gang up on me and get the victory perks from winning. One of my items, money, or these special amulet type items.

Needless to say, there was no need for me to keep playing. My gaming rules include NOT PICKING ON THE WEAKEST PLAYER, so having this rule broken took what enjoyment I may have had out of the game. Its not cool. Whoever is on the losing end just feels belittled and has almost all their chances of winning removed to boot. While everyone should try to win, there comes a point where it should not happen.

After this was a 3 lap race of Formula De using 1 lap car sheets. It was a fair match, though most of us made some mistakes or hit some bad luck during the race. Pico ended up winning, 9IN came in second, Starfury third, and me fourth. I probably wasn't thinking all that clearly because of the last game and took too many risks. And once things got bad, I had to take more risks. Which meant I tended to screw up more. Usually given be being me I would have been lapped multiple times, but I actually pulled back into second place for a short time so for me that was pretty good. It was an early gearshift rules confusion that hurt me. 9IN read the rules to us as I had forgotten most of them (I waited for ThoughtHammer to get the game back in stock for at least 6 months. We have played it once in the near year I have owned it until now. Yeah.) and forgot to mention there were bad penalties for multiple downshifting. Oh well, its only a game and I learned from it. I can tell I played it MUCH better than the first game oh so many months ago.

Starfury is looking into a store that has more tracks for sale which are getting tough to come by so we might get a nice league going sometime. He also had some car issues and has gotten my old Ford Escort off of me. I now had money for a Warstore order to all but finish what I need for my AT-43 Therian forces, and some extra UNA forces, with the UNAs doing double duty as my Necromunda Van Saar gang, the Raiders of Sherwood. I ordered it Monday. It will arrive on Tuesday. WOAH.

Thanks to Ebay I have gotten a hold of 7 more of the old 2nd edition 40K Ork Stormboyz I need, bringing my mob up to 12. I just love those old WW2 German outfit inspired Orks with Rokkit Packs over the current Mad Max Orks we seem to be stuck with. The big green clown Orks were more fun somehow.

On that note this week is a Tuesday only gaming week unless I decide to schlep down to Sarge's even with the ever increasing gas prices. I've been playing 3 times a week and not doing anything but gaming and Internet. Very few projects are getting done, very few chores are being completed, and my DVR, DVD, and Videogame queue has gotten to the point I don't get much new. (Though with my current Saturday and Sunday no Internet sabbaticals I did FINALLY get through my DVR list and even a DVD disk.) Pico and 9IN are off to a Yankees game this week. This also delays our Warhammer Fantasy game another 7 days giving me more time to at least get all my Gobbos painted up in two colors and with flocked bases. Ok. I have around 50 Gobbos to paint their skin and do their bases so I might not reach my main goal. Painting is such a boring chore! It is a big reason I want AT 43 to do well. No painting, yet no collectible blind buy nonsense. But compared to how many Gobbos I had ready when I called Pico to war I have made MASSIVE inroads. Army built, figures assembled and organized, models assembled and base colors thanks to Krylon Fusion applied. Beats a bunch of unpainted plastics and metals in a bunch of big Ziploc baggies!

40K Necromunda. Enjoy my creation as it is.

Did this puppy back in 03-04 thereabouts and never finished playtesting it. Sharing it with y'all seems like a nice thing to do. If there is ever enough interest I will go back and add in my last 2 playtest session fixes to it or maybe even continue to work on it.

http://www.mediafire.com/?tn4nemzv9yl File one.
http://www.mediafire.com/?mdgzej39x1m File two.
http://www.mediafire.com/?3bjmiut0ejp File three. (Gangsheet page 1.)
http://www.mediafire.com/?gn1no9kfxam File four. (Gangsheet page 2.)

Aliens Necromunda, Part 3

Mostly just brainstorming and inspirational reading for this update.

Deciding on my switch to squares/hex based play means a few changes. For example, the Necromunda template weapons will need to be modified. For Flamers, I think I will keep things simple. Like the miniatures play rules, except the amount of fuel used (1, 3, or 5) equals the distance hit. Given my initial statline idea for the Alien Drone/Warrior (M6 WS4, BS 2, S4, T4, W1, I4, A3, LD10, Armor 4+, Leap Skill), I may either increase the fuel carried per Flamer, or improve the Strength of the Flamer. In the Leading Edge boardgame the Flamer was THE weapon, outside of the short range and inability to shoot through friendlies. I want to keep the basic "feel" of the original game intact. I most likely will go with the improved Strength and remove the burning effect Necromunda Flamers have. Using the 40K Hit/Wound/Armor Save/Damage Amount/Ganger Effect roll setup is MORE than enough die rolls as is. I am probably gonna try to streamline it to keep the tension up though.

For now, I am thinking 1 point fuel = 1 adjacent square, S4, D3 wounds. 3 points of fuel = 3 squares in a row, S5, D3 wounds. 5 points of fuel = 5 squares in a row or a 4 block (2 out, 2 wide to simulate a heavy sweeping motion), S6, D3 wounds.

Ill keep the utterly low and cruel 10 points of fuel per canister with 1 reload on hand though. The Flamer carrying Marines just became the biggest asset yet most fragile one at the same time.

Calculating range is easy: 4" = 1 square. Up to 2" more? Still one square. From 2.1-3.9"? Counted as an extra square. Its a loose abstraction, but more than adequate overall and faster than rolling a die for the extra distance. This also means that Aliens with a D6 leap only get an extra square of movement 50% of the time.

For Alien acid splash, my current thoughts are T+2 of the Alien hit in the square, and a T hit to every Marine in an adjacent square. Its fast, fearsome, and similar in number of rolls to the LE game. Of course no acid splash from the Flamer, but you need a clear LOS or a willingness to kill your fellow Marines...

More Alien rules will include grabbing hapless victims to take back to the hive (Aliens themselves will be immune to Pin, Down, Flesh Wound, and Out results. If they are wounded they are OUT. No pins at all. ) probably based on Flesh Wound, Down, and Out Results on Marines. (Flesh Wound works as normal, Down means incapacitated and ready to be carried off next Alien Move Phase, Out means.. well dead Marine. For Alien combat, number of attacks used means what they do. 3 normal attacks to try and grab a victim, 2 attacks to do an adjacent square tail impale (Down becomes killed. Not good for Marines OR the Hive.. I might drop this one), or 3 attacks for a 2 square Acid Spit strike.

Marines will have extra actions too. 1 move and a shoot. No moves and +1 BS to shooting (Perfect for making Marines die to save a buddy!), 1 move and a weapon reload/jam clear, no moves and use a medpack, device, ect.

I have plans, but these are brainstorms right now and not actual rules as of yet.

As to the inspirational reading I have done? I went and grabbed some of my Aliens related books I could easily reach. HR Giger's Retrospective 1964-1984 (mostly imagery, nothing too useful overall), Giger's Alien (lots of movie making stuff, though some nice images I can be inspired by for the game), Alien Resurrection making of/art book (haven't relooked through it. Probably not too useful for this situation! I'm dealing with the GOOD Alien movies here!),and a Cinescape Alien magazine released in 97. (About half the magazine isn't even about the Alien films. Stuff on Starship Troopers, the Borg, Species, and Alien knock offs and previous sci fi thrillers before Alien aren't what I dropped 10 bones in 97 for! The other half is stuff mostly repeated and expanded in the Alien Quadrilogy DVD set, which is one of the best Christmas gifts I have gotten as an adult.)

Still, its all given me some ideas for more scenarios and something to flip through casually in this cold cold week. Its so cold one of my car door locks is frozen, and the side that isn't is frozen shut! That's COLD. And I so wanted a Slush Puppie today..

I've also continued looking for useful miniatures. I found a decent Power Loader proxy, but its a Japanese Kubrick as part of a set with some also useful eggs, and 5 figures. Its not worth the 70-100 bucks it sells for. Especially given I have Kubrick sized Aliens, Queens, and a Ripley already from Mezco's short lived line that were WAAAAAY cheaper. Sadly, no Power Loader.

Maybe Ill just make one out of Yellow Legos. It doesn't need to be perfect, just something decent enough to get the point across.

My next update will probably be a loose set of thoughts for mission structure.

Aliens Necromunda, Part 2

With the busy holiday time, I haven't had as much time as I would like to work on this project.
Over the last week or two I have made up the Marine datacards for the Leading Edge Aliens boardgame much of this project will crib from (it was originally started as something without any connection to it, but with the Aliens boardgame flash version and me getting a copy of all the needed files to recreate the boardgame anyhow, it just gives me more to work with!) out of cardstock and glue. The cards are certainly not perfect, but they are nice enough. If nothing else, it will give players a picture of their marine.

My 5 pack of AVP Horrorclix Aliens came in from ebay, giving me 3 more ground sized Xenomorphs, and 2 on bits of scenery.

This makes my current Xenomorph collection as follows:
12 perfect for miniatures gaming Aliens.
2 on scenery bases with a figure attached.
6 on scenery bases.

I am torn on either converting the scenery bases which all basically have the Aliens on some form of wall down to fitting on their normal ugly Horrorclix base, using them for boardgame play only (requiring me to scale my maps to 1 square = 4"), or using them as counter figures for various effects.

Wall Aliens could handily be just arrived from vents and airducts, so the GM can tell which ones arrived this turn, and the 2 Aliens with a doomed victim on the base would represent grappled Marines soon to be taken away to host a Chestburster.

I will most likely do this as it requires no mangling of miniatures (even if Horrorclix is pretty much another Wizkids failure.. they should have started with movie liscenses. Its what almost everyone wanted in the first place!) and makes for easy to keep track of actions on boardgame style maps.

Going 1 square = 4" also keeps map sizes small. Mission 1, Reactor Escape from the original Boardgame is 25 by 14 in squares. Scaled to proper miniatures play, it would be 100 by 56. 8 1/2 feet by 4 1/2. That AINT HAPPENING.

I may scale the map to 1 1/4 inch per square though. That would provide plenty of room for the larger Horrorclix bases and be plenty compatible with all my other "Corridors of DEATH" game maps. (Space Hulk, Legions of Steel, Doom, Space Crusade, ect.)

The decision then becomes how to make the map. Print out the barebones map from the Aliens Yahoo group then draw the grid with pencils on big cardstock? Waste lots of ink and time by printscreening the electronic version mentioned above and printing it out, finally assembling it all with lots of tape and glue?

When I get more Ink I will have to decide. The harder work version will look better, and I can copy the playing pieces from that version as extras and backups. (Which will be needed, as my parts list below shows!)

I can get a decent Ripley, Deitrich, and Newt miniature set, but getting the entire group of Colonial Marines is either gonna require serious conversion work, or massive proxy mania.

I can get miniature Pulse Rifles, and finding a decent Gorman (Officer in fatigues with a ballcap), Bishop (Guy in coveralls), and Burke (Office Worker would do fine. Guy in outdoors vest even better!) shouldn't be too hard.

Its getting the rest of the gang that will be a pain. I can either buy a set of Warhammer 40K Cadian troopers and glue Pulse Rifles to them, or I can search for knock offs online.

Aliens Necromunda Project, part 1!

A long time ago, I began work on rules to replay my favorite movie of all time, Aliens, as a series of interconnected Necromunda scenarios.

Talking with Pico (of which we have had 2 game days I shall report on later), he mentioned he would rather use Necromunda to play the Aliens movie rather than the Leading Edge boardgame which is expensive and rare, yet available freely on the web to those with a penchant for killing their printer ink supply.

With some extra additions I have put in today, here is part 1 of my rules! Also all this talk of Aliens made me go on the Ebay and get a couple extra Horrorclix Alien miniatures. 5 of them for 16 bucks isn't too bad, especially what I want them for. That will bring my Xenomorph collection count up to 20 plus Queen.

Aliens Necromunda: This Time it’s War

Colonial Marine Armory:

M4A3 Semiautomatic 9mm Pistol:
Range: 0-6 +1 7-12 0
Strength: 3
Armor Pen: 0
Damage: 1
Ammunition: 12 shot clip
Special: May be used in close combat.

M41A 10mm Assault Rifle:
Range: 1-16 +1 17-32 0
Strength 4
Armor Pen: -1
Damage: 1
Ammunition: 95 shot clip
Special: 1d Sustained Fire

M41A Grenade Launcher: (Hi Explosive Frag/ Incendiary/ Bounding Frag/ Starshell)
Range: 1-8 0 9-16 -1
Strength: 5 / 4 / 3 / 0
Armor Pen: -2 / -1 / 0 / 0
Damage: d3 / 1 / 1 / 0
Ammunition: 4 grenades in order
Special: Hi Explosive and Incendiary 1” templates. Incendiary causes Flamer burn effects. Bounding Frag 2”.
Starshell turns an area into normal light conditions for 2 turns after the turn it was fired in a 8” radius. Units within 4” of the blast point are effected by blindness for 2 turns if they don’t have eye protection if they fail an I test.
Grenades may be hand thrown as per normal grenade rules.

M240A1 Flamethrower:
Range: Flamer Templates
Strength: 4
Armor Pen: -2
Damage: d3
Ammunition: 10 points of ammo per canister
Special: Flamer rules. Any of the 3 templates can be used in firing the weapon. Small template uses 1 point of ammo. Standard Flamer Template is 3. Heavy Flamer Template is 5. If weapon wielder is hit on a natural 6 the ammunition explodes in a 1” radius per 2 points of ammo still in the weapon, rounded down.

M56A2 Smart Gun:
Range: 3-24 +1 25-48 +2
Strength: 4
Armor Pen: -1
Damage: d2+1
Ammunition: 50 Sustained Fire Dice in an ammo drum
Special: Move or Fire Weapon, Only Partial Armor allowed, may reroll 1 Sustained Fire Die when firing. May fire up to 5 dice per turn. Infared camera reduces light/cover modifers in half, rounded down.

M42 Scope Rifle:
Range: 6-32 +1 33-64 +2
Strength: 5
Armor Pen: -2
Damage: 1d6
Ammunition: 15 round clip
Special: If firer does not move when firing, there are no negative modifiers for cover, hidden/spotted, or light/smoke effects in play due to the multifunction scope.

M83A2 SADAR:
Range: 1-16 -2 17-32 -1
Strength: 8
Armor Pen: -5
Damage: 3d4
Ammunition: Single Shot
Special: Against large targets (2” or larger bases) to hit penalties reduced by 1. Against larger vehicles or heat sources (3.5” or larger bases/area) penalties are removed and it becomes +1to hit at short range and +2 at long. Any model within 2” of the rear of the firing model takes a S4 hit when fired if they fail an Initiative check from backblast.

Gerber Mark II Combat Knife:
Range: 0-0 0 1-4 -1
Strength: As user
Armor Pen: 0
Damage: 1
Ammuntion: Its a knife. Only lost if thrown. DUH.
Special: Close Combat weapon, may be thrown 1-4” if needed.

Shotgun: Shot/Solid Slug
Range: 0-4 +1 5-8 0 / 1-10 0 11-20 -1
Strength: 3 / 3
Armor Pen: 0 / -1
Damage: 1 / 1
Ammunition: 8 shots individually loaded in order.
Special: Shot ammuntion usable in close coombat allowing a single hit.


Marine Gear and Equipment:

ARMORS:

Marine Light Armor:
5-6 Save. Wearable with M56A2 Smart Gun

Marine Standard Armor:
4-6 Save. Standard armor type. Includes personal headlight illuminating 8” in front of the wearer.

Marine Battle Dress Uniform:
6 Save. Officer and pilot dress. Damaged or Acid Splashed armor becomes this.

TECHNICAL EQUIPMENT:

Motion Tracker:
Device that detects movement within 24” in the front arc of model using it up to 10 feet above and below.

Portable Welding Tool:
Can seal or unseal any given door or man sized access point in d4 turns.

Medkit:
Revives downed units in d4 turns, giving them back 1wound.

Radio Communicator:
Built into Marine Standard Armor, carried by others. Allows for radio communications.

Personal Locator:
Keeps track of wearer and their current medical lifesigns.

HEAVY EQUIPMENT:

P-5000 Powerloader:
+1 Armor
1/2 Move (Walking only)
2 Strength 7 “Forklift” manipulator arms. (D2 damage, Parry)

UA 571-C Remote Sentry Weapon System:
Toughness 4
Mounts 1 Machine Gun equivalent to the M56A2 Smart Gun
Special: Takes 6 turns to set up, has a 60 degree front firing arc, fires on any targets without a Personal Locator automatically, and will roll all 5 dice as its firing action.







The Colonial Marines & Non Combat Personnel:

Lieutenant Ellen Ripley (F, Non Combat Advisor)
M WS BS S T W I A LD
4 3 2 2 3 2 5 1 9

L. Bishop (M, Non Combat Synthetic)
M WS BS S T W I A LD
4 1 1 5 3 3 4 1 8

Carter J. Burke (M, Corporate Advisor)
M WS BS S T W I A LD
4 1 1 2 3 1 3 1 6

Colonial Marines:

Lieutenant S. Gorman (M)
M WS BS S T W I A LD
4 3 3 3 3 1 4 1 7

Sergeant A. Apone (M)
M WS BS S T W I A LD
4 4 4 3 4 2 4 1 9

Corporal C. Ferro (F, Dropship)
M WS BS S T W I A LD
4 3 4 3 3 1 5 1 8

Corporal D. Hicks (M)
M WS BS S T W I A LD
4 3 4 3 4 1 4 1 8

Corporal C. Dietrich (F)
M WS BS S T W I A LD
4 3 4 3 3 1 4 1 7

Private First Class J. Vasquez (F)
M WS BS S T W I A LD
4 3 4 4 3 1 4 1 8

Private First Class W. Hudson (M)
M WS BS S T W I A LD
4 3 4 3 3 1 4 1 6

Private First Class D. Spunkmeyer (M,Dropship)
M WS BS S T W I A LD
4 3 3 3 3 1 5 1 7

Private R. Frost (M)
M WS BS S T W I A LD
4 3 3 3 3 1 4 1 7

Private T. Crowe (M)
M WS BS S T W I A LD
4 3 3 4 3 1 4 1 8

Private T. Wierzbowski (M)
M WS BS S T W I A LD
4 3 3 3 3 1 4 1 7


Notes: All Marines have Personal Locator, Battle Dress Uniform, and M4A3 Pistol with 1 extra clip.

Marine Classes:

Apone & Hicks are Gang Leaders. (Goliath & Orlock)
Gorman is an Orlock Juve
Vasquez & Crowe are Heavies. (Escher & Delaque)
Ripley is an Escher Ganger.
Hudson, Ferro, Spunkmeyer & Frost are Van Saar Gangers.
Frost & Dietrich are Cawdor Gangers.
Newt, Burke, & Bishop do not gain EXP at all.

All enlisted Marines are qualified to use all pistols and the Pulse Rifle.

Gorman can use all pistols and the Pulse Rifle.

Ripley can use all pistols, and may learn 1 new weapon after every mission up to 3 total.
(Pulse Rifle Grenade Launcher is considered a seperate weapon.)

Everyone but Newt can drive the APC, though only the Marines may use any onboard weapons.

Everyone but Newt, Gorman, and Burke may use the Welding Tool.

Ripley, and all Marine Privates may use the Powerloader.

Van Saar class Marines may use the Motion Tracker and have +1 to their Ld checks when using any computer or electronic skill. They may also use the Remote Sentries.

Heavies may use the SADAR or Smart Gun.

Cawdor class Marines may use the Flamethrower.

Apone and Hicks may use any weapon.

All weapons are considered to be carrying 1 clip of ammunition, and have a second clip on hand except for the Flamethrower which just has its default load.

Bishop is considered to be a Van Saar for purposes of any electronics or computer use except he does not have any time penalties to his Ld checks.

Ferro, Spunkmeyer, and Bishop may pilot the Dropship.