Scary Space Spider Strike - game 2

This time the spider was more aggressive - perhaps incensed by the outcome of the earlier game.  It swiftly 'webbed' a Jeep and then looked about for another victim.

It soon found one in the shape of Sgt. Nigel Drury's tank.  Here the spider can be seen rummaging in the strangely shaped tin can for that last delicious morsel of Nigel.

When other humans approached more webs were deployed.  Despite throwing in all the latest 1950s military technology things were looking bleak for the Earth.

But in the end the humble footslogger prevailed.  This brave fellow was one of only two survivors in this game!

Scary Space Spider Strike - game 1

John A found this game on the 'Pz 8' blog some months ago.  We played it at the Sheffield club with John's 15mm toys.  Aside from it being rather jolly, I thought the game would work rather well with 54mm toys.  Having made the mistake of saying so, some other fool suggested it would fit in well at COW.  Having (successfully I hope) spread the blame, it's back to the game.  I established that I had most of the required toys - Deetail US for the infantry, a pair of scruffy Tamiya Jeeps and an M-41 Walker Bulldog of dubious origin!

The spider cost about £2 from eBay and is suitably scary - especially the red eyes!

The game was inspired by those dreadful old Science Fiction movies of the 1950’-1970’s. A meteorite hits the countryside somewhere and turns out to be the egg of a giant Spider. You are in command of an Army unit with a vital mission: kill it.... and save the Earth!

At COW I ran the game twice with three players each time.  Two of the players each commanded three infantrymen (think of them as representing a squad or thereabouts) and a Jeep with MG.  The third had a tank.

The spider is cornered - human forces are approaching from top left, top right and bottom left.

The spider didn't move about very much and was soon overcome by sustained gunfire.

Long ago in a wargames club far, far away....*

*OK, it was June 2019 and 14 miles away.

This week Martin ran a sci-fi game using a selection of Star Wars figures he and John had accumulated.  The players represented rebel factions attempting to clear a section of a planet of Imperial forces.  The players were Jerry, Graham, John, Diego and your humble correspondent.

My own faction consisted of a Hans Solo figure (in black above) with a speeder, a bloke in an orange suit (he'd missed the lecture on camouflage) and of course....

 ... a small droid.

 We all entered from different directions and investigated various locations marked with the green chips.  These could be
1. a leader - usually Darth himself hatching some diabolical plot - who would have to be fought
2. cash or other valuables
3. an ambush - usually storm troopers - who would have to be fought
4. a trap - from which the character would need tor try extricating himself or be helped to do so.
Victory would go to the player who ended the game with the most chips.  Martin's briefing mentioned the need to co-operate - which immediately set us against one another...
Above can be seen me (as Hans Solo) speeding up to check out another chip atop a mountain.  Of course it was a trap...

 ...in the shape of this massing dinosaur type thingie.  Luckily my tiny dustbin-like droid was soon on hand to rescue me.

Darth pops up again (his forth appearance in the game) and is assailed by Diego's wookiee.  Never thought I'd ever have to type that.

 Dustbin droid wonders how the hell to get down off the mountain.

 By now the race was on for the last chip. I got there (just) first and of course it was another bloody ambush.  Hans got stunned by the Imperial Gebirgsjager...

 ...but orange suit man zapped them from a distance and grabbed the chip jest before John's Princess Leia lookalike arrived.  This clinched my victory, as I had six such chips to Diego's five, thus making it a good game.

And so ended an action packed film.  Er, I mean game.  In the silence just before the credits rolled there was a crash from off-camera.  Yes, Dustbin Droid had fallen off the mountain...

Shoot to kill, Jim

On Wednesday John treated us to a sci-fi game using some Star Trek figures he bought and painted only this year.
The brave lads (and lasses) of The Federation were to investigate an object which was upsetting the equilibrium of an M-class planet.  I started at something of a disadvantage as I thought that an M-class was a Mercedes SUV...

Anyway, back to the plot.  Boldly going where no same man had gone before were the crew of the USS Illustrious, starring
Martin as Jim the Captain.
Tim as the serious bloke with the pointy ears.
Tom as 'third man on planet'.  Sorry Tom.
Plus some non-Equity members who were mostly there to catch alien bullets and diseases.
Our other objective was to secure a TV series...

We had been told that the planet may have been occupied by some nasty space goblins so clearly a wary approach was required.  Sadly Federation directives prevented us from just nuking the planet so Captain Jim decided to land a party of six crew members to investigate.

After beaming down we didn't have long to wait before the baddies appeared.

 These were horrible mis-shapen alien beings.  And Jerry and Graham's figures were pretty ugly too.

Back on the bridge calm reigned - I expect they were smoking some of those dilithium crystals again.

On the planet Captain Jim's plan was rapidly unravelling.  Turns out that conducting what was effectively a heliborne assault onto a 'hot' LZ wasn't such a great idea.

The green horrors were present in some profusion!  But we had a plan.  The crew beamed down a grenade from the Transporter Room...

...ah well, we got one of them.

Captain Jim then ordered another party to beam down.  Another fine mess ensued.

"we're under fire Jim, we canna tak much more..."

Shorn of the three man security detachment (the guys in red never last long), Spock, Jim and Nurse Chapel fled into the woods.  Jim got it in the back en route.  So I left him.

By now the ghastly green goblins had done for most of the rescue party.  Only Doctor Bones survived.  "it's worse than that, he's overacting Jim."

The goblins had a rather a tight grip on the objective...

..so I lobbed the last two grenades at it then flew off as the credits rolled.

So a not entirely successful pilot episode and no series contract.
But stay tuned for "Spock and the Space Goblins".  I think it's the future of TV.

Dicing with Darth

The recent sci-fi game I reported on saw Darth himself getting stuck in.  I was so taken with the following sequence of photos that I felt they deserved their own post.  We take up the story as Darth gets to grips with one of the military types from the Evkri 'provisional government'.

Darth strikes.  The Evkri is down...

...but there's an upset, Darth himself is down!

Let's try that again...

...and finally Darth gets his man.

A profound breach of intergalactic law?

A report of this game has already been posted by Martin - link - but sadly it was less objective reportage and more imperialist propaganda.  So I decided it was time to redress the balance and submit a completely unbiased report.

The top photo shows half of the Meacri Militia force  - courageous freedom fighters defending their homes from outside aggression.  The 2ic of this force was Jerry, and it's commander....well, modesty forbids....

The next photo shows the spaceport in all it's hi-tech wood and felt glory.

Briefing  (thanks to John for his permission to reproduce this)

The Rainuk system, situated on the fringe of the Empire, has two habitable planets, Evki and Meacri.

For many centuries the system was part of the Empire. Evki and Meacri were originally ruled by separate governors, but about 60 years ago became a single colony administered from Evki. Whilst the population of Evki is homogeneous only about 25% of the population of Meacri are of Rainukian descent, the majority being from descended from immigrants from other parts of the Empire.

Some 23 years ago, during a period of political turmoil in the Empire, Rainuk declared independence following popular demonstrations on Evki. The former governor became the first president of the newly independent republic. The Empire recognised the independence of Rainuk in a treaty which gave the Empire rights to the existing strategically important base on Meacri.

Ten years ago the president announced that he would not stand for re-election. The election was narrowly won by his prime minister against an opposition candidate who wanted closer links with the Federation. Allegations of vote rigging and intimidation backed by largely peaceful popular protests on Evki resulted in the election result being overturned by the courts and the re-run election resulted in a win for the opposition. Relations between Rainuk and the Empire have since then been strained.

Three months ago the president refused to sign a trade agreement with the Federation and instead proposed a closer relationship with the Empire.

Popular demonstrations on Evki followed, which became more serious following the death of a number of protesters when riot troops were sent in to end the demonstrations in the last week. The president has left Evki and is believed to have travelled to Meacri. He is now thought to be either in the Empire base on Meacri or to have gone on the Imperial capital.

A provisional government has formed on Evki which has sought support from the Federation.

It is clear that the new government has little support on Meacri. An armed group, describing itself as the Meacri Militia, has taken over the space port on Meacri and will not allow craft to land.

Brave militiamen check out the duty free shops at the spaceport...

Soon they all hit the dirt as intruders appeared.  But who were they?

Oh, this lot.  Darth and chums - the forces of the evil empire.

The Provisional Government of Evki sent their own forces (left) to take the spaceport.

Darth had certainly brought a lot of friends.   But wre they the enemy?

Apparently not - but were there more intruders yet to come?

Apparently yes.  Soon a load of Federation chaps were jet-packing into view....

...and scattering scary explody things among the Militia.

The Federationists were really quite intimidating...

...from any angle...

...but their carbon footprints must have been dreadful!

Jerry's squad having by this time been wiped out, the other survivor and I finished off the chaps from Evki and decided to clear off ourselves....

...leaving the Empire and Federation to fight over the wreckage.  So time to look at the players' objectives.  The Meacri Militia was to prevent the provisional government on Evki from controlling the spaceport.  As the Evkians were all dead this was clearly a major victory for we Meacrians!

Disclaimer:  Any resemblance to real events which may or may not be unfolding in former parts of a real evil empire are completely coincidental.