Faustus Festivus

Finally, a write-up on our Christmas game for this year:

Faustus Festivus

It is a little-known fact that Santa Claus isn't one person.  In reality, a new Santa is chosen every year from the strongest of the North Pole Elves.  The Xmas Decathlon features such events as speed-wrapping, chimney spelunking, and sumo-style belly wrestling.  But the crowning event, the final showdown, is a 4-way sleigh race among the top finishers.

The idea started when I found Permes"Santa Claus and Reindeer Chariot" free paper-model download at DriveThruRPG.Com. free paper model Being a larger scale than we usually play, it required a larger course.  So we had to get creative with the obstacles.  Yes, the Christmas tree farm is lighted for the holidays.

The rules:  Faustus Furius, of course. The Rules What else could it be?  See below to the minor changes to the rules:

Crowd Pleaser:  To designate who has the loyalty of the crowd, the player wears a Santa Hat instead of a laurel.

Dirty Deeds:  As a gift, each player starts with one of:

Icy Patch:  Your elf pours a large jug of water on the snow behind them at the start of any bound, before rolling to activate.  Any sleigh that drives over the icy patch will have to stop their movement immediately and roll on the out of control table.  The icy patch will remain on the track until it is driven through by a sleigh.

Australian Carrot Patch:  Your elf has purchased Australian carrots which can be dropped from behind their sleigh at the start of any bound, before rolling to activate.  Since everything is upside-down in Australia, the carrot patch sticks out of the snow.  As magic reindeer love carrots, any sleigh that drives over the patch will immediately spin out as described in the collision table.  The carrot patch will remain on the track until it is driven through by a sleigh.

And of course, the crowd.  They may be pleased, they may be irked, but in this game they will always be caroling snowmen.

 The four players:  Mrs. MommyElf, Mr. DaddyElf, Miss GoodyElf, and Brother NastyPantsElf.  (Guess which one of us named the players?).  After drawing for position and which dirty deed to load up, the race started.

Right off the bat, Brother NastyPants lived up to his name.  Rolling a triple activation at the start, he gained Crowd Favorite by pelting Miss GoodyElf with snowballs (close range attack, we had no archer chariots). As he sped off practicing his "Ho Ho Ho", she collided with Mr. DaddyElf and they both rolled flips.

It was game on from that point, and the camera was hardly ever picked back up.  Here is Mrs. MommyElf halfway through her second lap, ignoring icy patches and random caroling snowmen.  She's about to lap Mr. DaddyElf.

And the winner by a mile!  Or at least 8 reindeer.  Yes, Santa Claus will be transgender next year.  Congratulations Mrs. MommyElf!

A "Dusty" Round of Fire

Time to combine "Round of Fire" with "Dust Tactics" and see what happens.

Still converting units, but I have enough to start.  Well, I don't have the heavy weapons converted yet, but you gotta include walkers.

The Germans have word of an item of power that might be found in some old desert ruins.  Sigrid Von Thaler forms a force of weirdness and heads out.  The Americans, caught off-guard, scrape together whatever they can to intercept.

Germans:
Sigrid Von Thaler, leader
Recon Grenadier squad
Battle Grenadier squad
Laser Grenadier squad
Braineater squad (because I want to test the weirdness)
Ludwig medium walker




Americans:
Corps Officer Team (Leader, Medic, Mechanic)
Recon Boys squad
Gunners squad
BBQ squad
Pounder medium walker

It's a simple 6-turn stand-up fight.



Initial positions on the wheel:

Since the Braineaters go first, they run.

The Recon Boys and BBQ Squad are both fast movers.  They can Run for 4 instead of 5.  So they both head for cover.

Recon Boys have "Terrain Expert" so they monopolize the smaller cover

BBQ Squad stacks up behind some ruins, with the flamer claiming "corner cover"

The Pounder goes next.  Because of his turret, he has shoot and move.  His Dust "Jump" ability translated to "Agile", so he gets to ignore blocking terrain.  He Assaults, and (dual wielding) fires his main gun and 50 cal at the braineaters. (The Ludwig would be in long range, but because of the assault he can't hit it.)

The pounder blows both his rolls, never getting a hit in.  The battle-hardened Braineaters respond back with their solo P100 panzershrek, and do hit the Pounder.  Both advance on the wheel.

NOT what I expected.  Who gave RPG's to Zombies?

Game postponed on account of dinner, and the realization that I need to print some of the unit cards.  Can't keep flipping between 4 open files on the laptop to find numbers...

Sample unit card

300Blackout blowout

Had a major rifle malfunction on the range today.  300 Blackout, in a rifle I have several hundred rounds through, failed to fire.  Firing pin wasn't even touching the primer.  A group together tried to diagnose the problem.

As a last resort, I swapped the bolt carrier group from another rifle.  The rifle fired, and the round blew out of battery?  It blew the magazine out the bottom of the rifle, and peppered the watchers with powder.  When I got home and dis-assembled, the problem was even worse than I thought.

BCG stuck partially out of battery

Extractor bent

Barrel bushing? Cracked through

Cartridge (minus base) stuck in barrel.  Bullet is still 3/4 down the barrel also

Even the upper receiver is cracked through

K-K-K-kamping

wiring again

SoDT - Beaver Wars Playtest

Playtested a Scenario today for the upcoming supplement to Songs of Drums and Tomahawks - Beaver Wars.  Great fun and 2 (yes, two) nail-biter endings.  

But first, as always an apology to the writer, Mike Demana.  He produces great scenarios, and then I do my best to butcher them up beyond recognition.  Here's his map for the "horse raid" scenario:

And my butchered response. Don't have enough horses, so we'll use cows instead.  Can't find the cornfields, so we'll use orchards instead.  And half the Indians are still on the painting table, so it's now Settlers vs. Indians.  But I did keep them as a tribe, not using SoDT settler archetypes.

Each band (232 points), had a leader, several warriors, and 2 youngsters along.  The Indians were surprised halfway through their raid.  In the first turn, most of the settlers approached from the North East.

Here in turn 2, one Indian is making away towards the wood with the prize bull.  A lone settler enters from the South West and takes a shot.  Miss!

The Indian War Leader, upset at the temerity, fires back.  At long range he scores an amazing hit and takes out the first settler! (shown here before removal)

Since one of the ways to win is to collect scalps, the War Leader rushes towards his kill, dodging excited cows along the way.  But wait...

Uh Oh!  The Settler's partner enters the field.  It's going to be a fight!  Who will activate first?

The War Leader does!  And gets a triple activation. He is able to rush up, scalp the unfortunate settler, and move into contact with the next one!

 Action was occurring all across the board, of course.  One of the Indian youths had frozen in the corral after missing a settler.  He didn't miss his return shot, and rushed in for the scalp (blue dots).

Settler Joe hid in the center orchard and killed the other youth and scalped him as the cow wandered off, only to be killed by a return shot from the other cow-handler.

 The rear guard Indian got grazed a few times, and finally rushed into hand-to-hand with a settler.  He forgot it was the Leader  of the Settlers!  In the background, the 2 Settler youths started heading towards the cow that got away.

 At this point, it got so active that I forgot to take pictures (of course).  2 Indians had cows and were about to exit the board.  1 was still in hand-to-hand with the leader (fighting for his life).  The Indian Leader dispatched his settler easily and started heading towards the exit.

But catastrophe!  The Settler Leader finally dispatched his opponent, triggering a morale check on the Indians.  Both braves holding cows panicked and ran off the board (we ruled they lost the cows).  The Leader calmly moved on, and ran into the settler boy just as he finished scalping his victim.  This would be an easy kill for the War Leader (C3) versus the youth (C1)

But No!  In an amazing feat of high-and-low dice rolling, the boy manages to score a kill on the Indian War Leader!  It's a rout, a huge success for the Settlers.  Tom (Indians) is inconsolable, Sara (Settlers) won't stop bragging!

Ending Two:
After enduring endless bragging, Tom realized he calculated the combat incorrectly!  Ha Ha!  War Leader wasn't dead!  He demanded a replay, just like the Olympics.  After pouting, Sara agreed.

The second fight went more to plan, and the War Leader killed and scalped the boy.  But with more Settlers rushing forward, he wisely ran for the exit.

Final score was 4 scalps for the Settlers, 3 for the Indians, and no cows taken.  Still a win for the Settlers, but not nearly as dramatic.

Faustus Furius - Race 3

Today was the third race in the first annual Ventura Cup.  A challenging course awaited our noble charioteers.  You could take the safer but slower outside line, or risk it in the middle.

This time 6 chariots took the starting line.  With 4 players, we added a wrinkle:  Every 3 turns players diced for control of the red and blue chariot.  Whoever had control ran them for 3 turns, then diced again.  This caused much carnage and mayhem.  And yes, I was on the outside, while Helen had the pole position.

Did I say carnage and mayhem? Right off the bat I had an early start, but Miles, running the blue chariot, rammed him into me, causing a double crash.

By turn 3 of the first lap things had settled out a bit, with every body behaving.

But a failed triple-activation had motivated a gang of hooligans onto the track!  By the end of the race, 2 gangs were roaming around, looking for trouble.

Late in the game.  Sara has a lock on the lead, looking to cruise to an easy victory.  Where is Miles?  There he is, half a lap behind, seemingly not even in contention.  Some would give up now, but not Miles.

...And with good reason.  Total carnage in turn 3!  The Blue Chariot (me controlling) went on a suicide chicken-run.  He took out Sara and Helen,  Red Chariot (controlled by Miles), took me out in exchange.  While everybody tried to get their chariots back on 2 wheels, Miles calmly cruised through the middle, using his "crowd favorite" to thread the needle.

And it paid off:  Miles crosses the line first, while also getting "crowd favorite" again! MHI for the win.

After Miles crossed in first with crowd favorite, Sara also crossed the line with 3 successes.  So we house-ruled that both got the bonus points for crossing the line as the favorite, as the alternate seemed mean.

The standings after 3 races:
Sara 10 points
Miles 10
Tom 7
Helen 5

air compressor install for Commander

Pics for the compressor install.

Niagara Microwave