Rosetta Skirmish System - A Quick Solo Test

The reason as to why I've been so quiet of late is because Duncan came by a couple of weeks ago and had some really great ideas for what to do with the Rosetta rules that we've been working on and off for the last couple of years.

Basically the idea was to take some parts of Blood Bowl, some parts of Combat Zone, add a touch of God of Battles and blend it all up with a Warhammer 3rd Edition / Rogue Trader vibe and see what came out. And in my humble opinion - it's quite magnificent!

So here's my little attempt to show, rather than tell, what's up with this system of ours (well, most of it anyway - the devil is in the detail after all), why it has really struck a cord with me and why I have been devoting as much of my sparetime (and brain power) on it these couple of weeks since.

To play Rosetta Skirmish then you'll only need the following:

A board about 2-3' by 2-3', 3D6 with 1D6 (or more) in a different colour, markers for Snap-Fire, Defence, Strain (d10's), Out of Ammo (little d6's) and some tufts of cotton for Pinned. Oh, and a measuring tape.

For this solo-test I simply just chose five miniatures from my recently painted 15mm sci-fi forces; The Colonial Defence Force and The Arc Fleet Infantry to conduct a little wargame.

The game was set up just for a quick skirmish, with no special scenario rules or anything of the sort - it was just a straight up firefight to see how things panned out and if there needed to be some changes to the core mechanics. And so far, so good - it really seems like that the system Duncan and I have brewed up holds its own and all that we need to do is getting a lot of meat to these bones.

The first turn went to the Colonial Defence Force, and they were rather quick in moving up to the ruins and secure a good, solid firebase from the only piece of Hard Cover on the board. I don't exactly envision that what you see here is enough terrain for this kind of game, but it worked okay if a little bloody.

Players alternate in having Turns that are divided up into an Action phase and a Tally phase. During the Action phase then a player activates one of his models and performs a number of actions with it, according to its current State - typically a model would be Steady and have 2 Actions during an activation. Once all of his models have been activated - or if a Turn Over occured - you then proceed to the Tally phase were you make sure that your Strain Tally  is lower than your Breaking Point, which is equal to the number of models that you started the scenario with. After this, it then becomes your opponents turn.

During the very first turn of the game, the Colonial Defence Force managed to Wound one of the ARC Fleet troops - but then again, that is to be expected when you deploy them like a Napoleonic line. The normal "Contact!" scenario would not start by one side having all his troops on the board anyway.

Now, if a model is wounded, then you immediately add 1 point of Strain to that force. If they ever reach a total number of Strain (called the Tally) equal to or higher than their Breaking Point, then they will immediately withdraw and end the scenario. 

During your action phase then if you activate a model that is Wounded it must test to see whether it Recovers or succumbs to its wounds and Bleeds out; in either case it won't perform any actions whilst wounded. However during your Tally phase of your Turn, you modify your  Tally by +1 Strain for that phase only for each Wounded model that you have lying about, making it a dangerous prospect for your morale to just let your wounded men lying about.

The ARC Fleet soldier then attempts to avenge his fallen comrade. He tried to fire at the CDF marked with an Opportunity Fire marker, but both he and the Colonial Defence Soldier failed to hit with any of their shots, which saw the end of the ARC Fleets action phase.

While the turn sequence in Rosetta Skirmish is IGO-UGO, there are a couple of reactions that your models can perform, such as Snap-Fire which allows you to fire at an enemy model that moves into line of sight or that targets you for an attack. However, a model that uses such a reaction is then said to have Reacted and cannot perform any actions in your next Action Phase... unless you choose to Exert them, but we'll get to that.

The next Turn for the CDF went by alarmingly quick. One rifleman tried to move up to the corner of the ruin and then attempted to Exert himself so that he could gain an additional action, allowing him to perform an Aimed Shot at the ARC trooper near the bushes. But alas, he rolled the dreaded 1 on his Exertion test. Not only did this cause a Turn Over because it was a 1, but as it was an Exertion test, the CDF added 1 Strain to their Tally. 

The ARC fleet trooper valiantly dashed forward and attempted to Recover his Wounded comrade, using one of his actions for it instead of the model itself, hoping to get him back up on his feet. However, as the die shows, he rolled  a four and only gained a Brief Respite for the Wounded comrade. 

Meanwhile the rest of his comrades started to move out on the CDF left flank in order to circumvent the ruins, but failed to get any good lines of fire established. This left the ARC Fleet with no further option than to activate their Wounded soldier.

You must always activate all of your model, if possible, during an Action Phase. And models that are Wounded must always attempt to Recover during their activation and can perform no further actions if they manage to recover. Unfortunately, the wounded soldier only rolled a 2, which meant that he was Bleeding Out and was Out of Action, meaning that the model was removed from the game. This incurred a further point of Strain to the ARC fleets tally.

The CDF tried to gain lost ground at this juncture and formed small fireteams that kept the lead flying in the general direction of all ARC fleet troops that they could see. Unfortunately, most of them failed to hit; only two hits were scored.

Whenever you Shoot at an enemy model, then you compare your Ranged Combat (RC) value against their Defence (DF) value. If the RC was equal to or lower than the DF, you only roll 1d6. If, however, the RC was higher than the DF you would roll 2d6 and choose the result. As can be seen in this photo, the CDF scored a 5, meaning that he hit the ARC trooper. The white die means that he used Rapid Fire, netting him a +1 RC modifier, but also means that he has to roll a Wild Die (the white die). If the Wild Die ends up a 1 or 2, then he has run out of Ammo and must spend an action in order to Reload his weapon.

Once you have hit the target, you then roll 2d6 and add them together to see what the effect of the hit was. A score of 2-7 means that the target is Pinned, 8-10 means that the target is Wounded and 11-12 means that the target is Out of Action. In this case, the result was that the ARC trooper became Pinned.

On the CDF left flank however, a rifleman joined up to the Support Fire that the Leader was giving and managed to roll the above result! Double 6, which meant two results of Critical Hits, netting him a +2 modifier for his Damage Roll against the target - this could spell the end for the ARC Leader...

... Unless of course you roll a 4 on 2d6, which ended up a 6 with the +2 modifier - the Leader was only Pinned! 

Support Fire is an action that a model can take during its activation which grants all friendly models within 2" a +1 RC modifier against an enemy target that is in line of sight to both the active model and the model granting Support Fire - sort of how Assists work in Blood Bowl.

It then became the ARC Fleets turn to move. But seeing as all of his model that didn't React in the CDF players turn were all Pinned, his options were severely limited. So he chose to attempt to Rally his men... and unfortunately failed with all of them. Pinned models only have 1 Action during the Action phase (unless they rally and gain an additional action). So, in an attempt to have some comeuppance against the CDF, he tried to Exert his Leader and rolled a 3 - "Wearied" - and the leader did get an additional action... but at the cost of adding 1 Strain to the Tally. And just to kick the ARC fleet while they were down, he flopped his Aimed Shot against the CDF (rolling 2 and 2 - two misses) and thus ended their Action Phase.

This meant that the ARC fleet had a Tally of 3, with a +2 for having two Pinned models. The net result was a Tally of 5, equalling their Breaking Point and thus ending the scenario at this point.

Had the Tally been 4, then he would have automatically removed the Pinned markers from the models, giving him at least a fighting chance for the next turn.

So there we have it - three turns, and even though it was a solo playtest I really felt excited during the game as I was constantly weighing my options and how to best put the odds in my favour for both sides... not aided at all by some very bad die rolls at very bad times. 

Ah well, hope this has given you a bit of insight into the shape of things to come. I might, provided Duncan gives the go-ahead, release a very trimmed down and basic playtest rulebook on the blog so that you can give them a go yourself.

Till then, happy gaming everyone!

Fireteam Fatigue and Some Painted Miniatures (With Colour Guide)

It recently dawned on me that I'm currently suffering from a very specific kind of gaming fatigue - Fireteam Andromeda Fatigue.

Last week I finally got around to having a game of Fireteam Andromeda which, considering all the work I've put in it, should have left me overjoyed! But therein lies the rub of it - all the work. It seems that (and I don't know if other game designers share this experience) after all of the work that I've put into Fireteam Andromeda it has ended up sucking out all of the fun from the game for me.

By no means do I think it is a bad game - far from it! Apart from a few "clearly-a-first-ever"-game design things that have annoyed me, the game is solid, works and has given people great games. So, the product itself isn't really to blame. It is, and again I'm guessing because I don't really know any other game designers, simply due to stress and burnout after having put a lot of energy and effort into it. I just can't seem to play it anymore and just have fun with doing so, but always end up tinkering and considering stuff.

So with that out of the way, I still needed a game for my 15mm armies and the Terminus Nebula setting as well. Rather than re-invent a new game from the base up, I instead decided to do the time-honored thing and tinker with an already published set of rules.

This means that within a couple of days (real-life permitting) I'll post a bit about my Employment War modification for Bolt Action as well as upload it for the general public at large. Thus I hopefully can get back into gaming - for fun -  and get back into developing the Terminus Nebula setting... which, when I get back into gear, will become immensely helpful as I start development of the Mecha Legion 6mm wargame that I've been tinkering away with.

Anyway! All this rambling and wordyness needs to stop - I've also been painting whilst contemplating the fate of my 15mm gaming life!

First up is a squad of Republican Guards for the Republic of the Western Sphere. These troops have been around since the dawn of the Republic and haven't really changed neither uniform colour nor equipment (overly much) in the last 200 years. I painted them in simple muted colours to reflect their campaign on Earth as well as Mars during the Civil War. The colours used also match my Mecha Legion for the Republic as well - which was the intention all along!

• Fatigues / Uniform - Iraqui Sand (VMC), washed with Soft Tone (Army Painter) and then painted with Iraqui Sand (VMC) once more, leaving the darker tone in the recess.
  
• Helmets / Armour - Beige Brown (VMC), washed with Strong Tone (AP) and then painted with Beige Brown (VMC) again leaving the darker tone in the recess.
  
• Webbing - A simple coat of Umber Brown (VMC) which was washed with Strong Tone (AP).
  
• Weapons - The rifles were all painted using Gun Grey (VMA) with a two drops of Black (VMC) added in to tone them down, then washed with Nuln Oil (GW). The missile launcher was painted with Reflective Green (VMC), washed with Nuln Oil (GW) and then painted with Reflective Green once more, leaving the darker shade in the recess.
  
• Flesh - Was painted using Foundry's (urgh) tri-color shade of basic skin. This is the first and last time I'll ever use this so...
  
• Bases - These were painted with Flat Earth (VMC) and then given a drybrush of Cork Brown (VMC). I later found bought a bottle of Brown Sand (VMC) and will use this colour for drybrushing in the future.

Secondly we have a squad for my other Republican Army that I'm working on. I really should have gone for them being Alliance Patrol soldiers or similar - but oh well. They're a continuation of my trend of trying to paint the same uniforms for my sci-fi miniatures across scales, where possible. The miniatures are from Critical Mass Games (Arc Fleet Troops) and are really great high-tech footsloggers, if a slightly bit too small next to my Ground Zero Game miniatures (sheesh, this scale-creeping!). 

• Bodyarmor - Was all painted using Dark Blue Grey (VMC), given a wash of Dark Tone (AP) then painted with Dark Blue Grey again, leaving the shaded areas in the recess.
  
• Fatigues - Whilst barely shown, then these were painted Dark Grey (VMC) and then given a wash of Dark Tone (AP).
  
• Weapons - The casings were all painted Cold Grey (VGC), given a wash of Dark Tone (AP) and then painted with Cold Grey again, leaving the shaded areas in the recess. The few metal bits were painted with Steel (VMA) with a bit of Black (VMC) mixed in, then given a wash with Nuln Oil (GW).
  
• Visor - The visiors were first painted Flat Green (VMC) and then painted with Scorpy Green (VGC). It was then given a wash of Thraka Green (GW) and then painted once more with Scorpy Green leaving the shaded areas in the recess.
  
• Bases - Burnt umber (craft paint) which was then given a drybrush of Light Sand (Lifecolor)

Finally I also painted a Sister of Mercy Sigmar for yet another unnamed Fantasy Warband. This time we go up to 28mm and is more a showcase of the flesh colour I've finally decided on using, as well as just to spice things up a bit on the painting table. 

• Flesh - First a coat of Beige Red (VMC), then washed with a 70/30 or 60/40 mix of Red Ink (AP) and Soft Tone (AP). Then painted with Beige Red (VMC) again, leaving the shaded areas in the recess.
  
• Hair  - This was painted Brown Ochre (VMC), then washed with Soft Tone (AP). It was then painted using Brown Ochre (VMC) again leaving the shaded area in the recess.
  
• Tunic - First given a coat of Flat Green (VMC), then followed up with a coat of Iosan Green (P3). This was then given a wash of Strong Tone (AP) and painted with Iosan Green again, leaving the shaded areas in the recess.
  
• Non-armor Leather - This was painted English Uniform (VMC) and then given a wash of Strong Tone (AP). Painted with English Uniform (VMC) again, leaving the shaded areas in the recess.
  
• Leather Armor - Painted this with Bootstrap Leather (P3) and given a wash of Strong Tone (AP). Painted again with Bootstrap Leather (P3) leaving the shaded areas in the recess.
  
• Dress - Painted with Beige (VMC) and then followed by a coat of Menoth White Highlight (P3). This was then washed with Soft Tone (AP) and then painted with Menoth White Highlight again, leaving the shaded areas in the recess.
  
• Hammer - The shaft was painted using Foundry's Spearshaft paint (urgh), washed with Strong Tone (AP) and then given a basecoat of Foundry's Spearshaft again. The metal was painted using Steel (VMA) with a drop of Black (VMC) added. This was then washed with Nuln Oil (GW).
  
• Golden Bits - This was painted using Bright Brass (VMA) and then given a wash of Seraphim Sepia (GW).
  
• Base - This is then setting my new default for painting generic bases! A good coat of Flat Earth (VMC) followed by a drybrush of Brown Sand (VMC).

So there we have it - some painted miniatures and a new feature for the blog as well; the colour guide! I might have to revise the method of these in the future were I hopefully get around to write up an article on how I go about painting my miniatures in general. 

The paints used were mostly Vallejo Model Color (VMC) with a touch of Vallejo Model Air (VMA), Vallejo Game Color (VGC), Army Painter (AP) and the last time I'll ever use Foundry paints (which is a rant for another day).

Thanks for reading this far and let's see how quickly I can get the Employment War up and running!

A bit of nostalgia from the paintdesk

Even though I've been busily painting fantasy miniatures - and have really enjoyed myself in doing so - I still much prefer to paint and play science fiction games. So I painted up a couple of really great - and old - miniatures that I've either gotten as a gift, found on e-Bay or just had lying around the place since time immemorial!

A small command group for my as of yet unnamed mercenaries. 

A small (tee-hee) heavy weapons team for my rogue Venture-Captain Jari'hd ül-Harokraht, aka. the Red Scourge of the Five Suns

And my piece-de-resistance; a boarding party for the Red Scourge; ready to board'n'plunder across the known universe

As might be suspected, then I really love these models! They seem to have been cast with pure character and it is astounding, to me, to think that they're going on 20-odd years old at the time of writing! While they might not hold up to modern days finesse (shudder) or over-the-top-style (yuck) then they are serviceable for any wargamer - they're easy to paint up, they look the part and they are generic enough so as to be used in any setting you could imagine. In my eyes then they could easily be used in a Firefly inspired universe as they could be for a Star Wars inspired universe. 

I for one welcome this cherised addition to my collection and I look forward to be able to field them in battle soon!

Paintjobs: Some more Science Fiction Miniatures!

Just finished these two of and here's a post to share them with you all:

The Anti-Walker-"Hand"-Cannon as used by the unnamed mercenary faction to combat various light vehicles, especially heavy power armor or similar. (RT-Era Shock Attack Gun Orc Model)

Two "highway men" or "emmissaries" of the dread Pirate Jiarez ül-Harokrat (RT-era Eldar Scouts)

Further I've finally decided on how to "manage" my web presence - I'll keep this blog going for random musings, news and what nots, whilst actual finished projects (as well as battle reports and tutorials) are going to end up on webpages dedicated to their purpose. That way I won't feel too obligated to keep posting high quality blog-posts on a daily basis, but can use the blog for just that - a weblog of what's going on and so forth.

Anyway - another ramble for another day!

My first DreadBall Team!

I finished off painting this team last ngiht, but waited for today to take a couple of pictures of the team as the sun is sorely needed for my camera to function correctly (incidently, I'm on the lookout for a new camera and a lot of lamps).

May I present to you the...

O.C. COMETS!

I chose to paint their threat arcs in a color corresponding to their role on the pitch, as well as a slight nod to the dice colors from the base game. Guards are Red, Jacks are White and Strikers are Blue. 

The team colours consists entirely of Orange (Macharious Solar from GW) and White (White from Coat D'Arms) which were chosen because one of the many corporations from my notebook regarding the Terminus Nebula is called Orange Corporation; a multisector conglamorate with interests as diverse as fruit shipping to multimedia platforms - and of course, DreadBall.

I am not entirely happy about the basingcolors just yet and may give them a final drybrush highlight to better tie the colors in with the board. But overall I'm pretty pleased with the results of the team. My painting style is not, however, greared towards these miniatures as they have a lot of panels, which takes forever for me to highlight - and incidently is also the reason why I haven't started on the Orx team just yet... Need to gather some patience once again! Oh, and figure out a color scheme as well...

Dust Tactics - First Impressions

The forces are deployed and the first turn is well underway (Photo by Lars)

Last night I had my first game of Dust Tactics.

Dust Tactics have been on my radar for a long time; I mean, what's not to like about huge Axis mecha-death-machines wielding dual 88's walking across a war-torn Europe? Zombies, that's what. Zombies and then the simplicity of the game. And did I mention the zombies? I hate zombies.

Being a long time wargamer and having played a whole host of different wargame rules (as my overburdened bookshelves will attest to) I have slowly formed my own opinions on what makes a great wargame, and like any wargamer of renown I have also become set in my ways and will always scoff at the notion of anything new and exciting. I think you can't help but develop a certain level of cynicism after having dedicated yourself to playing, demoing, thinking, writing and breathing various "indie" game systems time in and time out - but that's a rant for another time.

As I was saying; one of my key complaints for Dust Tactics is that it wasn't (and isn't) a proper wargame. Where's the home made terrain? Where's the home-made boards?  Where's the sweeping charges? Where's the unpainted hordes of half-assembled miniatures? In either case, it went under my radar as a game that looked cool (to an extend) but also a game that there was no way in hell I was going to invest in yet another "indie" system only to watch it burn out and never get any play-time around here. Been there (yes, Warzone, Void, Vor and Starship Troopers - I'm looking at you!), done that.

Fast forward a few years. I became heavily interested in boardgames (or just games in general), joined up in a couple of local groups over on Facebook and what did I find? A couple of gamers who had invested quite heavily into the Dust Tactics game system and asked me if I would join up.

The German sneak-attack, moments before the "Ludwig" jumped out of cover and blasted the SSU artillery walker to kingdom come!

Now, as you can see from my pictures I joined up and got a couple of games in. Two quick "Learn the basics"-scenarios and then a big three-way battle. I played the Axis and went for a Walker heavy set-up (I just like big, stomping, death mechs!). It was a bit of a nailbiter, with highs and lows for the Axis and SSU (and mostly lows for poor, poor Lars who had the most horrendous dice rolling karma!) but in the end, the SSU prevailed; despite their early setback.

The rules themselves are simplistic; line of sight can be a bit weird at times (it took me four turns before I finally got my head around how you determined line of sight in and out of buildings!) and the Initiative roll-off system is awful (a whole lot of re-rolls, especially when playing three persons; we quickly house ruled a solution to save ourselves a lot of time); and finally, the scale of things seems a bit off for any wargaming purist - as I mentioned to Lars; I think I would have been all over this game, had the miniatures been in 1/100 or similar scales and been on a company level rather than this weird half-way-platoon-half-way-company level.

But I had fun. I had great fun.

The game is simplistic for a wargamer, yes. And I would get bored, in the end, if I only ever played Dust Tactics. But it works for what it is; a simple introduction to wargaming that stays fun on its own and isn't some feeble Games Workshop introduction to the hobby. And, most importantly, I met some cool guys from the local area who are interested in wargaming and I got to play wargames as well - so it's a win-win all around!

Now all I need to do is to lure both Lars and Peter into playing Warfare as well... 

Cork City - Paint & Putty, Oh My!

So, I had myself a complete suburbian settlement on my hands, but it look a bit too much like raw MDF (what a surprise!) and who wants to live in houses made of MDF, eh? Thus I embarked on a grand adventure of Putty & Paint to bring some more patina to the houses of Cork City!

The MadMechaGuy houses are still brilliant bang for your buck, but like all MDF-cut stuff, with interconnectors, these houses suffered from too much of a "model kit" look, once assembled. Undaunted, I gave it no nevermind until I had undercoated the first building and decided, that, well, it still had that look.

This meant that I now had to experiment (yay!) with an easy method on how to hide these connectors and turn the MDF look into more of a concrete look - suited for suburban housing. My first call to port was Acryllic Paste that I bought on the cheap at a local store called Søstrene Grene (The Sisters Grene) for around £3.

Now, while it did work, to an extend, it wasn't exactly easy to apply and the drying times are horrendeous (for a member of Generation X-Y anyway). Still, as an added bonus I now have an easy-to-use plaster-like material for my houses!

So, next up I tried to block off the corner with pieces of card to hide the joins. While this worked beautifully, I would like to remind my dear readers that cutting, drawing and gluing anything resembling a straight line just doesn't work for me. At all. So, it worked out okay, but it will become too much hassle for me in the long run.

Another experiment, was to puchase something called plastictree from a local hardware shop. This increased the budget by £5, and so far I'm not entirely convinced. It's hard to get out of the tube and even harder to apply - but it looks like mud (or anything but wood really), so that's a bonus!

I then tried the Liquid Green Stuff method, courtesy of Games Workshop and hideously overpriced, as per their standard. However, as far as I can tell, then this stuff is actually the best of the methods I've tried out for now in regards to ease of appliance, drying time and overall effect. I will test out some Acryllic Gel instead in a near future to see if it'll work better.

Unless, of course, I just decide to just paint them all up nice'n'proper and ignore these seams in the future. I am, after all, more interested in quick and easy fixes rather than complete and complex modelling projects, akin to dollhouses. After all, I didn't bother with the interiors of these buildings for a reason!

Cork City - Sci-Fi Suburbia

Having always (just ask my Math teachers in 5th grade) been an utter idiot at drawing, cutting or sawing anything in a straight line has naturally posed some limitations for me when it came to constructing wargaming terrain over the years. Give me any organic shape, a lot of random sizes and we're good to go! But ask me to build a small wall, at a ninety degree angle and watch me flee in terror! Try as I might, I have therefore avoided building any sort of city layout for my miniature forays.

That is until I recently stumbled upon Mad Mecha Guy's offerings of lasercut MDF buildings for 15mm science fiction games. As you may gather, these buildings look the business! And they won't put you out of business either! For me, being the thrift-gamer that I am, most other resin (or other materials) buildings in the same scale have always been just beyond my price-range; at least for the amount of houses that I envisioned for my near-future/sci-fi cityscape.

So I ordered up some through a, somewhat, archaic method of emailing my order, reviewing my order and having a nice chit-chat about my order with Joseph, the proprietor and designer - being along the whole way from start to finish. Not only was the conversation super friendly and easy to follow, the shipping itself was speedy as well! So, roughly a week later, shipping from UK to DK, I had my very first parcel of MDF buildings in hand.

A word of caution to those who haven't worked with laser-cut MDF; this stuff reeks of soot! Take heed!

This was then how I recieved my initial parcel; within there were 6 x Two Storey buildings, 5 x One Storey Shopbuildings and 2 x Large Shopping Centres; all of which for the small sum of £24. Now, it may not look like much in the picture above, but...

It definately does the part! For £24(!) I now have a 2' by 2' city center. Or, well, at the very least a surburbian hell-hole, worthy of any firefights. I'm hoping to get them painted as soon as possible; my mate Thorbjørn will join up for a quick test of my Rosetta Skirmish System in 15mm; we're going to pit some X-Com look alikes vs. some Green Men from outer space!

Well... best get painting! And yes, I will show off all of Cork City as I progress. And I will do a post about why it's called Cork City in the first place. Stay tuned!