A Fistful of Horror - Halloween game AAR part 3

Part 3:  The big finish

The sideshow tent was half surrounded by members of all three groups.  One Gypsy was down, another right in the middle.  And cards were drawn.  Remember how I said only one time did the monsters get good cards?  This was it.  First out of the tent was the Countess.  She broke to the left and took out a Pinkerton on the way.  Next 2 zombie skeletons burst out and attacked.  One of the preacher's men was killed and a lawman went down.  (1 king and 2 aces drawn by Miles!)

Now it was the town's turn.  The Preacher charged forward, his bible held high.  The zombie skeletons recoiled in horror, running away.  Miles went next, and out of the tent burst Count Dracula himself.  Identifying the Preacher as the biggest threat, the Count rushed him and smeared the Preacher in hand to hand. Just plain wiped him out.  But while he was busy, his wife was taking fire from multiple sources.

Count is up on the right, having just smeared the preacher.  But what about that outhouse?

The final epic turn:

One Pinkerton guard had been standing on that balcony the entire game, waiting for the right shot.  He had shot at Dracula once, but at long range had missed.  His only hope was the deuce in his hand.  This time, he would get 4 shots at Dracula.

Guy on balcony "Please give me a high initiative, please?"

But Dracula didn't play nice.  Dracula rushed the Marshall!  Another bloody hand to hand!  The first round was a draw, which should have been a warning to Dracula. The Pinkerton couldn't shoot for fear of harming the lawman.

On the left, things were bad too.  The Countess was down for the second time.  Regeneration wasn't keeping up with the bullets.  But now that she was down, fire concentrated on the zombie skeleton, and he took the hits. A shotgun blast at close range blew off one of his arms, to the enjoyment of the players.

And then the John Wayne moment happened.  Marshall West was in desperate hand to hand combat with Count Dracula and a zombie skeleton.  2 against 1, the fight of his life.  I called "roll for melee".  Miles would get 1 roll for the zombie, 1 for Dracula.  Sara would get 1 roll.  She dropped the die out of her hand by mistake, it hit a building, and ended up a 10.  After much discussion, we determined that it was an accident (she said so), and she had to re-roll.

So she was forced to re-roll her greatest hit of the night.

And repeated it.  Another 10, no questions this time.

Dracula, already suffering from 1 wound, took 2 more and went down.  (Miles kept rolling 10s for damage on himself).
The zombie, at 2 wounds, took 2 more and disintegrated into a pile of bones.

"Clint Eastwood?  Never heard of her..."

While the countess was still up and moving, we called the game as trick-or-treaters were starting to arrive.  The Marshall and his posse ended up with the win.  And Marshall Gordon West?  After singlehandedly taking out a Master Vampire and a Zombie Skeleton in hand-to-hand combat?  Well, I hear Chuck Norris just offered to be his valet...

Bye bye, freeloaders

Decided to lube my "whiffle tree" on the trailer and found somebody's old condo.  I evicted them first, then cleaned and relubed everything.  No more mousies!

a sad day for the British fleet in the West Indies

Full report available if interested.

Santa Margarita crosses Brave's stern as Brave trades broadsides with the Santa Isabella

My best move of the game, as HMS Brave crosses the Santa Isabella's T and delivers a devastating volley at short range.  Unfortunately, her captain was made of stern stuff and survived the encounter.

Early in the battle, I think

Maiden voyage in the books

Made it back from our maiden voyage - everything went well.  While the mountain roads all around us were covered with giant mudslides, we only had several light, 5-minute showers, just enough to take the heat off.

Wiring done

Rancho Dominguez

Hopefully more pics to follow later

baby got new shoes

Baby got new shoes, and they're high heels!

New tires added and replaced the spare.  While the wheels were off, re-lubed the bearings.  And then added a Dexter axle "flip" kit to move the axle to oversprung.  No more scraping the driveway or random dips in the road.  Does make it higher!

Sorry, but blogger is misbehaving and rotating my pictures any way they want tonight

And in between, started cleaning out the water heater

And the Wandering begins again

The travels can begin again.  New-to-us 2005 Fleetwood Niagara

Several minor cosmetic fixes needed.  One major.  The toilet door needs replacement:

And some more work needed:  These are the original, 13-year old tires!

Ghost Recon - the battle

I used the alternate card activation system.  All Ghost team members started hidden and prone, along with an extra blip.  This didn't really matter, since this was a solitiare game.  I gave up on the blips early.

Ghost commander set up on the hilltop, within range of most of his team.  Geardo took the right flank, with the Meat in the center.  The sniper snuck off to the single hill on their left, hoping to pretend to be the fake blip.

The Purple Lord's plan was simple.  Use Red squad in the center to fire and fix, Blue squad on their left.  The Purple squad along with the Sergeant would flank the right side and assault the hill (not knowing about the sniper).  The mortar drone also advanced on the right.

First turn:  Red squad took the first hill.  A lucky shot at extreme range from the Meat killed one.  The squad blew their roll (even in command range), and ran back down the hill right to their boss.  I'm sure he had a few choice words for them!  (hit condition brown on first turn!)

Red squad runs back off the hill right into the Purple Lord's face!

On the left, the Blue squad advanced more cautiously.  For 3 turns they played cat and mouse with Geardo.  He only managed to get one before they moved in range.

On the right, both the Purple squad and the mortar drone moved out.  Mister Mortar dropped rounds on the fake blip, causing it to go away.  The Purple squad took a casualty from the sniper and ran away.  Code Brown again!  At this point I was thinking they hit Code Brown too easily.  But as it turns out, that was the last of the game.

Purple squad doesn't wear helmets, instead they dye their hair to match their lord.  And yes, the mortar drone is unpainted.  Still not sure what side he will end up working for...

At the end of the first turn, the team rolled a 6.  That's a great start on 21...

Turn Two, etc:

After the initial setbacks, the purple lord started a steady advance.  Red squad took the first hill again and kept it this time.  Desultory fire was exchanged at long range.  Geardo, Meat, and Blue squad played cat and mouse as the squad slowly advanced.  But the action was on the other side of the table...

The Sniper had his hands full.  Purple squad was advancing again, Mister Mortar was right behind, and the sub-commander Sergeant was with them.

A target-rich environment

He waited until the mortar moved into position, then he fired.  He hit!  But then for his damage roll?  a double 1. Best shot in the world, zero penetration.  Mister Mortar returned fire on his turn, and didn't miss. And a 6+5 on his roll meant bye-bye sniper.

Sure wish we brought the medic now

This left a gaping hole on the right side that the Purple Lord was quick to exploit.  But the dice were rolling for extraction.  Turn 5 started with:

• 20 out of 21 points for extraction.  If the remaining team members could hold off 1 more turn they would win!
• Purple squad at the base of the final hill
• Mister Mortar set up for support
• Red Squad fixed and not doing much
• Blue Squad finally within range for some heavy fire.

The final round:

Purple squad drew an Ace and decided to soften up their target before the final assault. The flamer scored a direct hit on Ghost Commander, and he was waxed before the rest of the squad's fire poured in.  Geardo and the Meat made their mental rolls, so the game wasn't over yet.  

Mister Mortar dropped another pin-point round, right on top of Meat's head.  And that was that.  Geardo has snuck off into the hills, maybe they'll make a movie about him some time.

I gained a spectator near the end

And of course, the spectator had to add her own touch.  For some reason, this guy keeps crashing my games:

Final Thoughts:

Gruntz + Spec Ops is great.  But the scenario needs tweaking.  The Purple Lord was overpowered.  Maybe next time don't give either team the mortar.  Or let PL have the mortar, but beef up the recon team.

And I wasn't paying attention to the Ghost Leader's wounds.  He should have survived the flamer attack.  But probably not the rest of the squad.

Oh, and I need better scenery...

Ghost Recon Team Last Stand - a Gruntz Spec Ops module

After watching some Gruntz action at Strategicon, I was all motivated again to play it.  Still not having any sci-fi armor, I decided to use the great Spec Ops supplement from Clear Horizons.  Spec Ops

The Scenario:  (Found the original version of this on thedogsbrush and did a first modification for Gruntz.)  Instead of Kyushan freedom fighter, the indigenous troops would belong to the local warlord baron.  Not very well trained, their best fighters are split into a separate assault squad.

Fearing they would be too weak, (the scenario called for the recon team to be overmatched), I added a drone walker with a light mortar.

Facing them was part of an elite deep-recon team.  They were at their extraction point when discovered.  If they can hold the extraction point, they win.  (Scenario:  at the end of each turn that the hilltop is clear of enemies, roll a D6.  Once the total reaches 21, the extraction will occur)

I had two other team members statted up that I did not use.  In retrospect, having the medic along would have been a help!

The terrain:
For unknown reasons, all my Sci-Fi is based in desert terrain.  And all my "hills" are horribly oversized for 15mm.  So each gigantic hill became a gentle slope, requiring 2" of movement to ascend / descend.  All other rock obstacles cost 1" of movement to cross.  They gave +1 to guard if occupying, +2 if behind.  And of course, I didn't take a picture of the board, so here is the map from the scenario:

Part 2: The Battle