Under Sea VSF

 Now I've got them painted, I'm trying out some underwater VSF games. The first couple of games were just solo ones, trying out different rule systems. So far I've tried In Her Majesty's Name and Mutants and Death Ray Guns, so far I'm inclining to IHMN.

I need to get some of the guys over to try these out now, to get some outside input.

Here are some piccis from the test games. The minis are mostly 3d prints designed by Mr Big Tong, plus a few older metal divers from Tiger Miniatures.

All the kerfuffle has attracted the (unwanted) attention of some other inhabitants of the deep ocean!

New VSF Steam Tanks

 I recently expanded my collection of VSF armoured steam contraptions with three new purchases.

Two are from Black Pyramid, a medium landship and a heavy landship from their Tea Wars range https://www.blackpyramid.co.uk/collections/the-tea-wars-vehicles

                                     

The Medium Landship. All these models arrived just two days before I had a planned VSF battle with Colin and Henry, so I rushed to get them assembled and painted with a base coat so that I could get them om the table. the result meant I neglected to take any photos of the assembly or pre-painted stages!

The Heavy Landship. These are big pieces of resin but quite light, I do not know if Black Pyramid have some sort of hollow moulding they use, or else use some kind of lightweight resin. They come in 4 pieces, the main body, two track sections and the main gun.

Each tank comes with a selection of guns, described as eather weapons. Unfortunately, given they are presumably steam-powered machines, they do not have a smoke stack. But Black Pyramid do have a kit that includes two different smoke stacks, so I picked up one of those as well. I then added assorted machineguns from the bits box.

Like I said, these are big beasts. Shown here alongside an Ironclad medium steam tank.

On Ebay I also picked up an old PMC steam tractor. This range used to be sold on Ebay years ago but disappeared and I wish I had been into VSF back then and bought some. The moulds have ended up with Minifigs and the range is listed on the website, but everything is marked Out of Stock or Out of Production. http://www.miniaturefigurines.co.uk/Catalogue.aspx?ScaleID=15&CategoryID=61&SubCategoryID=310

 

Now some pictures of the vehicles with their final paint jobs and weathering.

I really like the Black Pyramid landships, quick to assemble, enough detail but overly fiddly to paint (I am a wargamer, not a precision modeler!). I will pick up a couple more and add a bit more stuff from the bits box. It is a shame that the old PMC range is no longer available, because i would certainly pick up a few more from the range if it were.

Cowboys and Zombies! My next Kickstarter finally arrives.

 I finally took delivery of one of the kickstarters I backed in 2020. Covid and other problems caused delays, but it's finally here. Zombicide - Undead or Alive from CMON. 

I have never played va Zombiecide game, but heard good things about them. But let's face it, I bought into this for the minis! I already had a few Zombicide figures in my collection, from their medieval game, but these were cowboys...and zombies....COWBOY ZOMBIES!!!

Unfortunatly I don't have much time this week (isn't that always the way?), so I have had to content myself with a quick unwrap and scan the contents, to be investigated in depth at a later date. At first glance I am not disappointed by the figures. 

The survivor characters are great. As well as zombie games, quite a few will fit in with my conventional wild west gunfight games. I can also see a couple of new IHMN companies emerging from this lot! Several of the zombies are obviously western, but some will pass for generic victorian, so will fit in elsewhere as well.

Anyway, as I said, time is short, so here are my first pics. enjoy.

VSF Royal Navy and Crescent Moon Naval Forces Clash (with Tong Smugglers)

 Just to confuse matters, we tried a 3-player game with the VSF ships! We used a variant of the scenario I used last time.

ISLAND RECOVERY SCENARIO

 The Royal Navy have had a tip-off about the location where the Tong are picking up contraband and a RN force are heading to the location to intercept them. However, the Ottomans have also discovered the plan, and a Crescent Moon landing party have used a mole machine to reach the location first, where they will rendezvous with a naval launch.

 Layout: Water with a scattering of small islands, jetties etc.

 Place 2 counters of contraband along the eastern edge on islands or jetties and 1 on the island in the centre. They are valued at 10, 20 and 30.

 Place the Crescent Moon mole machine and 4 characters on land or a jetty, anywhere along the Eastern edge. The launch carrying the other 4 characters is placed in the water along the eastern edge. The Royal Navy start within 6” of the NW corner and the Tong within 6” of the SW corner.

 600 point companies.

 Victory.

VP for enemy killed and contraband controlled by the player. To be controlled contraband must be in contact with only one player or on board a player’s vessel.

Game Length 8-10 turns.

Underwater movement.

Characters that can move underwater, move a full speed, but lose ½ action to enter or leave the water. Whilst underwater they can only be attacked by another underwater foe.

 

The table layout before the players have deployed. The nearest edge is West.

The end of turn one and everyone has their boats on the table (although it's a bit crowded in the Tong's corner.

The Crescent Moon have used their mole machine to seize one of the objectives.

The Dragon Lady and a cannon defend the central objective.

The end of turn two, both the Royal Navy gunboat and the Crescent Moon launch have been bombarding the Tong forces on the island. The RN launch has made a rush for the third objective...

....but so has the Ottoman Iron Man., who got there first. The launch's machinegun peppered the Irom Man but the bullets just bounched off! 

In the meantime the Ottoman launch started firing at the two smaller Tong vessels intent on boarding them. At this point Colin realised that he had boobed by putting the Yeti on the punt, so his strongest close combat specialist was on his slowest boat!

The end of turn three. In the bottom corner the RN boarding party advance after the Iron Man, who has scooped up the contraband and fled. The gunboat slowly moves towards the island to land it's boarding party, the gunner has switched attention to the junk and set it on fire!

BOOM! The Tong fanatic (the sword bearing body next to the cannon) successfully got close enough to the RN boarding party to set off his bomb. This was the third time the Tong had fielded this combination and on both previous occaisions the fanatic had been killed before he could detonate! Unfortunatly he only killed one of the RN party, due to their armour, but he did kill 4 other Tong members who had jumped into the sea to escape the burning junk. 

Things got heated now and I forgot to take pictures of the final turns. The game ended as a RN victory, all the Tong were dead and the RN had the 30 point objective on their gunboat. The Ottomans did have the other two objectives on their launch, but they only had two men left and the tiller had been shot away. As both RN vessels were closing in with 5 men ready to board the Ottoman boat, we called it as a RN win!

Bonus points go to Mark, playing the Crescent Moon. As the RN boarding party closed in on one of the objectives, the Ottoman diver grabbed it and jumped ito the sea, them walked out to the waiting launch leaving the CPO and his men just standing at the shore!

VSF Shoot Out

 

Colin got over for a day of VSF today, which gave me the opportunity to put my Ottoman steam armoured car and clockwork one-man walker on the table for their first game.

A lovely little model from Ironclad.

The table layout, a peaceful scene somewhere along the Adriatic Coast.

The British medium walker stalks through the market square, while Ottoman janissaries take cover and their armoured steam car moves forward into the  bottom right of the picture. At the top right you can see an early casualty, the British armoured steam car. A lucky shot from a janissary with an arc rifle had killed both the crew.

Things start to get close up and personal. The British sergeant and a riflemen charge the Ottoman captain and a janissary. In the background the Ottoman mechanical soldier moves up in support. A bloody melee ensued with finally saw the Ottoman Captain as the last one left on his feet.

The Ottoman armoured steam car moves forward, flanked by two janissaries.

On the other side of the building, the British captain and the sapper with rocket grenades stalk the armoured vehicle. The Ottoman hashashin was lurking in the green house and sprang out, but the Captain put him down with a well-aimed pistol round to the head.

Walkers face off in the square. The Ottoman walker's arc cannon killed both the British driver and the gunner, so the engineer took the driver's seat. He charged forward to try and stamp on the Ottoman walker, but the light one-man walker was more mobile and kept evading the more lumbering British machine.

The two captains go toe to toe. Behind them a lucky shot by the British sniper has just disabled the armoured steam car's machine gun.

We called a halt at this point with an honourable draw. The British had their captain, a rifleman and a walker with a working gun, but only one crew left. The Ottomans had their captain, the light walker and an armoured car with no gun. We had been playing a last man standing game, rather than a scenario as it was the first time we had used armoured vehicles and walkers with IHMN 2ed, so it was an opportunity to get to grip with the rules.

Starstones Campaign Chapter 9

 Chapter Nine

 On arriving at their base camp, Professor Hodgeson was delighted to find a large crate awaiting him. After Jack had prised the lid off the Professor pulled out a strange looking leather hood and mask with thick glass eye holes in it and put in on his head.

 “Uncle, you look ridiculous. What on earth is it for?” demanded Maisie.

 “To protect me from splashes.” He mumbled in reply.

 “Splashes from what?”

 “From this!”.

In a cloud of sawdust, the professor pulled out a metal tank with straps. In his other hand he clutched a strange, gun-like device that was joined to the tank with a flexible tube.

 “It’s a device for shooting a mix of chemicals, similar to those in my exploding globes.” He explained.

 “Isn’t that dangerous?” Lady Amelia asked in a concerned tone.

 “My dear lady, I most certainly hope so!”

 Having re-supplied themselves, the party returned to the village at the foot of the eastern Accursed Mountains, where they had discovered the grisly remains of the Ottoman troop. Before departing their base camp, Professor Hodgeson also spent some time in the local church, once again in conversation with the priest. Singh had scouted ahead and reported that he had tracked the fleeing vampire to what had appeared to be their lair.

 “It’s just to the north of the village, a small stone-built house of some kind, standing apart from the other buildings”.

 They followed Singh until the mysterious stone building came into view.

 Jack groaned. “It’s a charnel house! Singh, why didn’t you say it was in the middle of a graveyard?”

 “You didn’t ask!”

 “I’m sure they find it very convenient, having so many spare parts close to hand.” Sighed Maisie, unshouldering her rifle.

 

Set Up: A graveyard with a Mausoleum in the N/W corner. Scattered within the tombstones are 6 table tombs, these are the initial spawning points for ambushes. The PCs must locate the vampire and destroy it.

 

Deployment: Deploy all PCs along the S/E, then deploy foes randomly but not closer than 8” to any PC (if a foe appears closer than 8” from a PC, place it 8” away).

 

Foes:

3 x hordes of 4 Ice Revenants

2 x Ice Revenant Wolves

 

Trap: A pit opens up at the PCs feet and an Ice Revenant emerges and attacks. Mark the spot as a future ambush point. Replace the card in the deck.

 

Ambush: An Ice Revenant emerges from the nearest table tomb/pit and attacks.

 

Reinforcements: 1-6 Ice Revenants enter from a random table edge or by a table tomb.

Roll 1d6 for location, 1-4= table edge, 5-6 = random table tomb.

 

At Our Back: 1-6 Ice Revenants enter along the southern edge (or 12” behind the rearmost PC).

 

Complications: Pack of 6 Ice Revenant Wolves enter from a random table edge.

 

That will come in handy: Nothing

 

Wandering Monster

Roll 1d6 for location, 1-4= table edge, 5-6 = nearest cover to centre of table.

1-2: 3 x Ice Revenants

3-5: An Ice Revenant Cossack

6: An ice Revenant Creature

Game Event: A Lesser Vampire enters from a random table edge or by a table tomb.

Roll 1d6 for location, 1-4= table edge, 5-6 = random table tomb.

 

Mausoleum

If a PC moves within 4” of the entrance and the vampire is not yet in play, the vampire will emerge from the mausoleum and attack the PC.

 

Victory

The game ends all PCs have left the table or are dead.

5 XP plus 1XP for killing the lesser vampire or carrying a comrade’s body off-table.

The party just enter the graveyard and the revenant ambushes start. Not a good time for Lady Amelia's shotgun to jam!

And more shambling undead enter behind them.

Yet another emerges from a hole that opens up at Singh's feet, but he swiftly crushes the revenant's skull.

A horde of revenant wolves enter the table.

In fact the western side of the table looks decidedly unhealthy.

The party start to veer to the east.

But Maisie is ambushed.

The lesser vampire enters from the eastern side and is blasted by Lady Amelia's shotgun.

Singh and Jack gang up of the creature of the night, Jack beheads it with a Power Blow.

With the Vampire destroyed the party can withdraw, but on the way the Professor is ambushed and wounded before he can use his Free Disengage ability and escape.

As the Professor and the ladies escape Singh holds back a horde of revenants.

Seeing his plight, Jack rushes up, his revolver blazing.

Between then the pair finish off the last of the revenants and make their escape.

A relatively easy adventure, despite the repeated ambushes. Three of the party suffered single wounds and two were unhurt. Mainly due to the luck of the Vampire entering close to the party whilst the hordes of foes came on from the far side of the table. If he had come on in the midst of the masses of revenants on the western edge it would have been a different story!