Another Round of Fire

Finally dragged the boy out to the gaming room again.  He is convinced the Dice Gods hate him.

 We're playing Round of Fire, still in beta.  To make it more interesting, I'm using my Dust Tactics figures, that I haven't completely statted up yet.  But Luther up above there is special.  He's a vehicle in the rules, but he does get a melee bonus.  That was to come in very handy later.

 Horrible shot of the board, I know.  But that's a tribute to the game rules.  We became so involved in the fight we forgot to take pictures.  Once you grasp the rules, play really is fast and fluid.

The open center posed a tactical challenge.  We played the "double blind" scenario out of the book.  Miles' defense point was the garage in left bottom.  He stacked his BBQ squad in early.  He was afraid to come out the front door once my squad took up defensive positions around the toxic pool in the middle.

But then the light dawned, and he saw how innovative and clever the turn wheel is. First his mech laid supressive fire on my squad, bumping them up the wheel.  Then he Assaulted with his squad:

 Normally you would think they were sitting ducks in the open like that.

 But the Assault lets you move and shoot.  And flamethrowers are nobody's friend.

 To make matters worse, his mech got to go again next.  With a, "Hold my beer!" the mech showed what a big flamethrower can do.  (I need to make better specs on the big flamer).  I think next game the toxic sludge will be flammable.

Things were looking bad on my left flank.  My heavy squad was wiped out.  It's just my leader and my mech on the left, as my zombies charge up the right flank.

Sigrid takes a shot at the BBQ squad, but it's long range for the laser and it doesn't do damage.  She's using a neat rule called "corner cover".

Decision time for my mech!  A squad in the open.  A mech in the open.  Both in range.  On the extreme right flank, another enemy squad about to hit my zombies.  Who to shoot?

He went for the mech.  My heavy squad had managed to put a hit on him earlier.  The dice gods finally woke up and realized that Miles was playing.  My rolls became perfect, his terrible.


Meanwhile, on the other flank my zombie squad had been taking casualties as it advanced.  Feeling confident, Miles launched his squad from cover in a counter-attack.

Only to discover the hard way that the zombies were optimized for melee combat!

(But we still need to practice the melee rules, not clear on handling multiple combatants)  

Things were still looking good for Miles.  I had a leader and a mech.  He still had a fully-functioning squad, deep on my side of the board.  But then my mech jumped around the corner and melee'd the squad.  (In Dust rules, this mech can melee with his claw, so I figured that would work here, too)
And the dice gods smiled on me.  That is the mech melee roll:

Pictures stopped there.  But after a couple more moves it was clear we had a stalemate.  The remnants of the BBQ squad holed up in the building.  The mech outside was just waiting for them to pop back out.  On the left, the remaining zombies and recon squad were engaged in a slugfest.  Both leaders were moving that way to help, but we called the battle a draw at that point.

For the future?  Must keep working on stats.  And must build more terrain.  The Dust figures are large for 28mm.  Using them with a Distance Unit of 3" (on a 3x3 board) makes for some funky short ranges.  We might try it on a 4x4 board next time.

detailed Niagara Post - SOLD

2005 Fleetwood Niagara "Highlander".  One of the biggest pop-up campers ever made.  It's a "high-wall", which means it is taller than most popups you would see.  This means you get a bigger fridge.  You also get a bigger sink, and don't have to lift the sink up and down each time you set up.  But the best part of a Niagara?  It has a true hard-walled bathroom!  You don't have to hide behind a curtain to do your business.  This was the selling point for my wife.  You can actually have a real bathoom with a real shower.

It's 26' 10" when fully open, but around 14 feet closed.
It weighs 3,400 pounds fully loaded (weighed on CAT scale).
sleeps up to 8
Dual King-size beds.  Extra padding added under the adult sleeping end.
1 slideout
conventional aluminum roof (around this time, camper manufacturers were experimenting with ABS roofs and they all seem to crack)
cassette potty - no black tank.  Don't have to tear down the whole camper to dump, just carry a box to the toilet.
No grey tanks!  Again, don't have to tear down every time you fill up your grey water.  Just carry a jug to the dump.
Other goodies:
All bulbs replaced with LEDs for longer battery life
2-year old tires
axle flip kit for greater ground clearance.
USB charging port added
Radio disconnect switch added
Electric Tongue Jack added
Dual propane tanks
All canvas is in good shape.
Awning bag just repaired, the awning is in good shape.
"Pop-up Gizmos" all around.  These are aftermarket insulating covers for the bunk ends and slideout.  Makes a dramatic difference in both summer and winter.  These are the "super high-wind" model, just replaced under warranty last year.

The downsides: It could use a paint job.  Decals are old and peeling.  There was a bunk-end leak in the past (former owner repaired).  There is still stained canvas, but no leaks during the downpours this winter!  And it is probalby time for a new battery.

We towed it both with and without a weight-distributing hitch.  Reese WDH and friction anti-sway included in the price.

Niagara Pics combined

Not my interior, but the same one

Axle lift kit installed

handles dirt roads well!

All set up.  Awning is currently off.

The back side, showing the insulating "Pop-Up Gizmos"

Yes, a real hard-sided bathroom (again, not my pic)

First playtest of Rogue Stars

Repo Man
Rogue Stars playtest

Attackers:
Mercenary squad from the book, except dropped BB#3 and Big Brother.  Replaced with single character "Robot Enforcer" as it fit the model better.  Changed leader's weapon to something appropriate for boarding action.  (Everybody got non-penetrating ammo)

Leader "Bud".  Blue and Red from the Merc squad.  Blackie the robot enforcer

Defenders:  Vivan Roo's squad straight from the book.

Jinn the leader, Dalla the Psion to her right, Pip to her left, and Crunch the roadie in front

Cut me a break on the  minis, OK?  Actual crews are on the painting table.  Although there just might be an entire crew of rodents...

Mission:  Boarding Action.
Location: space ship interior.
Complication: Love is in the air.  Bud (merc leader) and Dalla (psion) secretly have feelings for another. May not shoot each other.  May melee, but never with more than +1 weapons.

This ship is full of choke points!

Bud got the ship access code from Dalla and brings his team on board in the middle of the night.  2 defenders must start in quarters, 1 in workshop or entertainment room, 1 on duty in control room.  Characters in bed must spend 2 actions to get dressed and grab their weapons.  All door start unlocked.

Crunch and Pip are in bed.  Dalla is watching a mindless holo-vid in the rec room.  Even when docked to a space station, Jin keeps watch from the command deck.

Intelligence roll:  a 2 and a 1.  Nobody knows nothing.
Initiative roll:  Even with Blitzkreig, a 3 on the init roll means the attackers trigger an alarm when entering.  Defenders will go first!

Oops.  That wasn't the doorbell...

Crunch activates first with 2 dice and gets dressed.
Pip tries to activate but gets caught in his nest, 2 fails.
Bud reacts and runs for the stairs.
Pip tries again and gets dressed.
Jin hears someone pounding up the stairs and tries for a triple activation, passing 2.  Blackie fails to react.  She draws both SMGs and turns towards the door.
She activates again and gets 2 successes.  She runs across the control room, bringing her in sight of Bud on the stairs.  Her marksman cancels out the -1 for ambidextrous, and surprise attack cancels his heavy cover of the stairs, so she unloads both SMGs at Bud.
First is a hit to Bud's arm.  He takes 1 pin, his arm is crippled, and he drops his gun.
Second is a crit to the head! Bud sucks on his damage roll and is OOA.

Well, that didn't take long.  It sucks when you can't blame the other player for the damage roll

Morale roll.  All 3 cyborgs hear Bud go down, but pass their roll.  

Dalla never even saw Bud, so she doesn't know he's bleeding on the deck above.  She activates twice and starts running towards the fight.
Crunch sees an opportunity to block up the intruders.  He activates twice, running to a corner and then shooting at Blue, standing in the doorway.  Crunch isn't known for being subtle, he uses his laser cannon.  Better not miss! Again, the surprise offsets the heavy cover of the door.  He hits the torso.  Blue, even with Tough 2, blows his damage roll too and is OOA.

Did I mention he was using a laser cannon?  And that it sucks to roll your own damage?

Red sticks it out, but Blackie is hit by bits of Blue and fails his morale roll, suffering a pin and a stress.
The Merchants spend two of thier determination points to remove 2 stress.
Getting nervous about losing the initiative, Dalla rolls 1 die and activates.  She attempts to Encourage Pip and succeeds.  Pip decides to go for broke.
2 successes and a critical failure to activate! But Pip is Lucky, and re-rolls the critical failure, getting a 3rd success.  With his tiny little rodent legs, he has to run to get to the corner.  He is about to throw a stun grenade when he realizes it would be useless.  So he draws his sonic pistol and shoots Blackie.  He almost crits his attack, giving enough for a head shot.  Tough offsets the pistol damage, and Blackie rolls a 12.  That's enough for a pin and light damage.  He's knocked prone, and goes for his Endure test.  Easy pass.
The Merchants are up to 13 stress, which would make a Take The Initiative roll easy.  But so far nobody is failing to activate. And it doesn't help that all the remaining Mercs are non-reactive.
Dalla rolls 1 die to attempt to activate again.  This time she fails.  The Mercs Take The Initiative!  Finally.
Red goes first, getting 2 successes and 1 fail.  Pip fails the reaction roll.  Red moves to the door and takes a shot at Crunch.  Being in a bad situation, he opens up with a Hail of Fire. Of course, he misses with both.
Thanks to his non-penetrating ammo, nothing happens but some scratches.
He activates again, getting 1 success and 1 failure.  Crunch reacts (and I finally remember his Veteran bonus).  Critical failure on the reaction!  He is a Sitting Duck!  It's Hail of Fire time for Red again.  Of course, he misses with both, again.
This time he hits a locker, and lookie!  Some contraband spices fall out.  +2XP if they can get them off the board.

Red is shooting at the guy in the bottom right corner, and somehow hits a locker in the room to the upper left, tumbling out some purple spice.  That's some pretty poor shooting!

His second shot hits a light control panel and now all lights are out in the ship!  -2 to shooting rolls.
Blackie gets 2 successes and a fail on his activation.  Crunch tries to react again.

He does.  

He misses.  

Spectacularly.

Crunch blows a hole right through the side of the ship!  Pressure loss!

Nobody makes their save roll, everybody gets dragged towards the hole.

That big blue hole goes to the vacuum of space!  Everybody, alive or not, is being dragged towards it.  Red is screaming in terror...

On the second round, Red plugs the hole, but is sucked right through it. Bye-bye, Red.  Blue's OOA body gets stuck in the breach, plugging the hole.

Al least I did not die in vain.  Hey, look at Red floating out in space...

Unbelievably, Blackie still passes his Morale roll. He stands up and moves into Melee with Crunch.
With nothing to lose, he rolls a critical success, critical failure, and a success.  He uses the crit to cancel the crit, then manages to blow his melee attack.

He attempts to activate again, 1 success 1 fail.  The Merchants manage to Take the Initiative from him.


Dalla activates on 1 die to help Crunch, but fails.  The non-reactive Blackie gets a 19 and reacts!  He melees Crunch and scores a critical hit to the torso.  2 pins, 1 wound, he's Prone and Staggered.
Pip, finding himself way to close to a large enraged robot, rolls 3 successes.  He aims (1), shoots, and gets a 19! With the point-blank range and aim offsetting the darkness penalty, that's a headshot.
Crunch has head armor and tough 2, against a measly 2 damage pistol.  Crunch rolls a 1 for his damage roll.  Another pin, another wound, and OOA unless he passes his endure roll.
Crunch fails his endure roll spectacularly.  The Mercs are wiped out.

Don't mess with the mouse...

Game 2:
That was a solo version.  When Miles was done with his homework, we played it again.  He took the attackers, and was much more effective.  His strategy was to lead with Blackie, instead of Bud.
Crunch blows up an interior wall early, spraying high-temp hydraulic fluid over a large arc.  Later on Red, even with non-penetrating ammo, managed to blow open a cage and let critters start running around the ship.  Blackie rushes up to Crunch and chest-punches him OOA while  Dalla is right next to both.  She critically fails her morale roll and surrenders.

By the end the ship was listing to port, the artificial gravity was at half strength, and the only 2 left standing were Jin and Red.  Jin was holed up at the top of the stairs and not letting anybody pass.  Red decided to grab Dalla and run for it.  Jin couldn't stand the thought of losing all her crew and attacked Red.  But in the ensuing gunbattle, Red managed to send Jin staggering.  Instead of running away, Red moved up for the kill.  A narrow win for the Repo Men!