Gaslands 21

This week's feature game was Gaslands. The last time we did this we ended up with six players, including one novice and one person running a complicated team, and ended up with a game that we only got a couple of turns into. This time we deiced to go with a fall-back plan; if we had four or five players we would run a conventional 50 Can full-fat game. If we got more then we would cut the game back and run a 21 Can game. previously we've run 20 Can games, be Caesar felt that 21 Cans offered just a touch more choice.

As it was we got six people signing up, so at the last minute put together the six-player low-Can game. One of them dropped out at the last minute, but we still went with it.

How do we do 21 Cans? Well, you basically play with no sponsors, but you can choose perks from one group. You can pretty much buy any weapons you like but the Mishkin electrical weapons are a poor buy since you won't have the Dynamo perk to recharge them with. I did decide that if you bought Mishkin-specific special abilities (the Nuclear Engine or the Teleporter) then you could only choose perks from the two Perk groups available to Mishkin.

Caesar and I put together a selection of vehicles for people. Graeme and Stuart chose from those, whilst Bailey quickly designed a vehicle of his own. It doesn't take long. 

It was inevitable that we'd roll a Death Race. We did think of re-rolling but decided that there's no point in randomising these things if you simply ditch the results you don't want. So we went with it.

From left to right on the starting grid we have:

Kaos (Caesar) - Car, Front Ram, Front HMG, Boarding Party 
Marvellous Engines Of Resistance (Me) - Truck, Wall of Amplifiers, Steel Nets
Diablo's Child (Bailey) - Drag-Racer, Front Ram, Front HMG, Expertise, Trick Driving
Avenging Angel (Graeme) - Car, Two Front HMGs, Road Warrior, Crowd Pleaser
Welcome To The Machine (Stuart) - Car, Front Ram, Armour, Grenades

(Some of those don't add up to 21 Cans, but I don't have the sheets for them to hand, so am relying on memory)

And here's the route. 

Bailey's drag-racer has to fire off nitro every single time it moves, so is fast but difficult to steer since it need room to do a long straight every time. The opening move was suitably spectacular; a long nitro-burst followed by a straight, a slide and a spin. A drag-racer ends every turn on 5 Hazards.

Everyone else started more sedately, and with the two ram-equipped cars going last they took the opportunity to rear-end the other vehicles.

Marvellous Engines Of Resistance and Welcome To The Machine bumped into each other at the first gate.

Graeme got Avenging Angel through the first gate and went after Bailey's drag-racer.

The early stages - I obviously missed some action though. Avenging Angel was stuck just before Gate 2, whilst Kaos and Diablo's Child were out in the lead. Welcome To The Machine and Marvellous Engines Of Resistance brought up the rear.

Caesar got Kaos well ahead. At this point Bailey lost control of Daiblo's Child, which crashed into a wall and was wrecked. Avenging Angel was also coming on strong.

Stuart got Welcome To The Machine through Gate 2, whilst I plodded along behind in my truck. On top of the gate is Diablo's Child, showing that is where it would respawn.

And respawn it did, only to fall foul of ... my Wall Of Amplifiers! The hazards that put out, combined with some handgun fire caused a chain of chaos that saw both Avenging Angel and Diablo's Child destroyed.

At some point Welcome To The Machine must have crashed, because I don't see it in any more photos. I can't remember what happened to it.

Anyway, there were only two of us left in the race now; Marvellous Engines Of Resistance and Kaos. And Kaos was well ahead.

But Diablo's Child got to respawn, and jetted into Kaos from behind ...

Then spun right around and rammed from the front. A head-on collision with a drag-racer is not pretty, and both cars were destroyed in a massive fireball. This put Kaos out of the running early in a turn, so there's be no respawn for a while.

This now left Avenging Angel and Marvellous Engines Of Resistance in the running. Avenging Angel was well behind, but we both recalled that a death race can be won by a vehicle if it is the only one currently left running. So if one of us could take out the other before anyone else was able to respawn, that would be it!

A head-on charge favoured Graeme, whose twin HMGs inflicted a load of damage on my truck, leaving it on its last couple of hits. My handguns did some damage back.

We passed, and I was out of the arc of the HMGs! But Graeme fire two handguns at me ... and scored a double six, inflicting four points of damage. that was enough to take me out!

This left Avenging Angel as the winner!

Graeme had travelled down from Sydney for this game, in holiday traffic as well, so it was a richly well-deserved win.

The 21 Can format worked very well, giving a full evening's gaming with far fewer rules to keep track of.

More Balloon Busting

I did some more balloon busting over the weekend. For this scenario I moved into 1917, with the French attacking the balloons with Farman F40s and the Germans defending with Fokker DIIs. Two of the Farmans carried rockets; for this game I gave them the same firing effect as pivot guns with a 5+ for a single volley and a 4+ if you fired both, but dice other than the red dice shooting at -1. Short range only, obviously.

The Farmans approach the balloons. The one at the back has no rockets and is there to cover the others.

Almost within range ...

One Farman sets a balloon on fire with its first half-volley. The other missed.

An Albatros swooped into the attack.

The other Farman started to turn for a second pass.

The Albatros was hit by anti-aircraft fire. A direct hit. Amazingly the plane survived but with one hit left.

A Farman was also hit by anti-aircraft fire. The pilot was seriously injured as was forced to land.

On the right a Farman - the 'fighter cover' - was heading further over the German lines and out of the play area. It would not return and counted as lost. In the distance the damaged Albatros was also heading for home

This left two aircraft in play; A Farman with one volley of rockets remaining and the second Albatros. The Farman made a run for the intact balloon; this was 1917 and the rate at which they were pulled down was pretty impressive.

The balloon that was on fire exploded.

My notes fail me at this point! I just have this one last photo showing an Albatros closing in for an attack. I can't remember if the Farman got the second balloon or not, or even if it made it home. Sorry.

(Actually the record sheet shows little damage of shots fired for either plane. I suspect that the other balloon was hauled to the ground)

Anyway, the French got at least one balloon, but lost two planes doing it. 

And further disappointment. I tried a game set in 1918 afterwards with two Fokker DVIIs after the balloons. The Germans had incendiary ammunition. It was over very quickly; the Fokkers took out both balloons before the defending Sopwith Camels even turned up. It was a quick and unsatisfying game but probably not unrealistic. 

Wonderland And Wulgaru

It's been a while since I played HOTT on a Thursday club evening, but last night I did.

Geoff brought along his various 15mm Middle Earth armies, and used a different one in each game. I brought my Australian Aboriginal armies and Wonderland. I used Wonderland in the first game where I faced the Riders of Rohan (who are mostly knights).

The Riders were assisted by Gandalf, who quickly caused Alice to flee, leaving a big hole in Wonderland's line.

The Riders of Rohan charge home. 

A lot of Wonderland's spears disappeared as a result of that first charge; I simply couldn't get a break from low combat rolls in my first two games.

One success was and ambush by my lurkers on some warband trying to turn my right flank.

I tried to shore up my line, but I had too few troops and too many knights bearing down on me.

The Queen of Hearts was surrounded and destroyed, giving Geoff a fairly comprehensive victory.

The Cheshire cat really has nothing to grin about.

In the second game Wonderland faced the Knights of Dol Amroth. This was lots of knights backed up by some blades, spears and a couple of warband.

This time Wonderland held the initial attack.

The flamingos covered the left flank against Faramir's rangers. They also mess up the colour-balance on my camera.

On my right the Gondorian blades held first, throwing back attack after attack. I just couldn't finish them off, despite having some reasonable odds in a couple of the combats.

But the knight eventually broke through in the centre, and once again my general was surrounded and destroyed.

On to the third game, and I switched to The Horrors of the Dreamtime, possibly the worst army in terms of troop composition I have in my collection. It's a mess and really hard to use effectively. Looks fantastic though.

I was up against the Army of the Dead. This was warband, knights and a magician.

I got the insect-swarm hordes onto a hill to defend against the attacking knights. They even killed one before they were wiped out.

The warband charged my troops in the centre, which consisted mostly of a magician and a couple of behemoths.

The Horrors' general, Marmoo The Evil One, fled before the enemy magician's sorcery. But he's best out of the way in most games.

Geoff's plan of attacking behemoths with warband was, as expected, a disaster, and since of the of warband the behemoths flattened was his general it ended the game pretty quickly, to give me my one victory for the night.

Once again I am left with trying to work out how to salvage a useful army out of the Horrors without compromising their background.

Balloon Busting

I have been browsing a lot of thread on the Wings of War Forum as, whilst they relate to a specific game, a lot of the discussion covers general WW1 air subjects and it's fairly easy to relate them to my own rules. As you know I painted a kite balloon last week, and this week I did its companion:

It coincided with reading THIS THREAD on the forum, looking at what would be important in games involving shooting down balloons. I tried to organise some rules based on them in order to add such attacks to my S&L games.

The rules I needed to add were for anti-aircraft fire, shooting at balloons and, additionally, shooting at balloons with Le Prieur rockets or with incendiary ammunition. Today I tried out some of these ideas.

I set my first game in the Summer of 1915. The British were having a crack at a couple of German balloons using a pair of Vickers FB5s. They would be relying on their machine-guns to try and down the balloons.

They both closed on on the southern balloon (the grey one).

The anti-aircraft fire began. If a plane was within 6" of a balloon it would be subject to AA fire, which took place before regular shooting. This would consist of a 2 dice attack on the aircraft, with a 6 scoring a hit. Criticals are tested as normal, but structural hits score an additional 1D6 damage. Any plane with 2" of a balloon, or friendly aircraft would only be attacked by a 1D6 shot. But, yes - AA fire affects friendly aircraft. 

One Vickers took a direct AA hit and was blown to pieces.

The surviving Vickers pressed home its attack, opening up on the balloon. I ran firing against a balloon as normal combat, although the +1D6 modifier for a large target applied. Deflection modifiers do not apply. A balloon can take 24 hits; a single plane is unlikely to achieve this, although criticals are tested for as normal, with crew hits affecting the observer in the basket, and engine hits of either kind counting as instant destruction. Regardless of criticals, after an attack that scores any hits the attacking aircraft rolls 2D6 and takes the highest score. If the score is equal to or less than the number of hits inflicted in the attack then the balloon catches fire, and is considered destroyed. The odds of this happening are low, as the Vickers soon found out.

The Germans had one Fokker Eindecker on patrol as well. On each turn I rolled a D6 and on a 6 it turned up, on a random side edge, in line with the balloons. It turned up as the Vickers made its first attack.

The Vickers turned behind the balloon as the Fokker fired a long-range burst at it.

The Vickers briefly evaded the Fokker.

Rather than turn slowly back on the grey balloon, the Vickers went after the khaki balloon instead, whilst the Fokker turned to attack it again.

Disaster for the Germans as the Fokker took a direct AA hit and dropped from the sky, its pilot dead.

The Vickers closed on the balloon, shooting as it went. It scored hits, but couldn't get an ignition.

What are those red markers next to the balloon? Well, they represent its 'altitude'. Any time there is an enemy aircraft within 6" of the balloon its crew will attempt to winch it down to the ground. The technology for this progressed throughout the war, with the balloons being pulled down by hand at first, then teams of horses, then steam-engines and finally by petrol-driven winches. By the end of the war the balloon could be pulled down in minutes. My rules are as follows:

At the end of any turn in which a balloon has an enemy aircraft within 6", the crew will try and pull it down. Roll a D6; if the score for the year is achieved then one marker is removed. When all markers are removed then the balloon has reached the ground and can no longer be attacked. The rolls are:

1914-15 - 6, 1916 - 5+, 1917 - 4+, 1918 - 3+

(I am considering making the AA attacks within 6" of the balloon 3D6 if it is at two markers or fewer, to simulate the attacking aircraft having to fly lower.)

Anyway, in this scenario the balloon is only lowered on a 6 each turn, so the Vickers had plenty of time to make attacks. Unfortunately none of them caused the balloon to catch fire, and the Vickers eventually ran out of ammunition and headed for home.

A final burst of AA fire saw no damage, and the Vickers got back, mostly intact.

So in terms of dropping a balloon the mission had been a failure, with the loss of one of the attacking aircraft. The only bright spot was the loss of the German plane, but that was an own-goal, so hardly a cause for celebration.

So balloon busting with machine-guns is not the best way to ensure success.

I tried again, but this time shifted to the Summer of 1916. This time the French were attacking, with a pair of Nieuport 16s, fitted with Le Prieur rockets. The Germans could test to bring on two Fokker Eindeckers.

Everything you'd ever want to know about Le Prieur rockets is in this excellent paper, that was linked to on the Wings of Glory Forum. The key thing is that they have a short range and are best used against the wind. The nose of the balloon faces into the wind, so you really need to get behind it to be effective. I used the following rules to check the direction of the balloons:

They start the game facing the Allied baseline (the west, from which the prevailing wind blows). I then rolled 4D6. each 1 or 2 rotates the balloons 45 degrees anticlockwise. Each 5 or 6 rotates them 45 degrees clockwise. Obviously each roll of 1 or 2 negates a roll of 5 or 6 (and vice versa). In this game they turned 45 degrees clockwise (facing the north west). British or French balloons would have their rear facing the German lines, but the Germans never used rockets, so it's not really an issue.

Anyway, with no German aircraft around the Nieuports split up, each going after a balloon.

Of course, just after the did this a Fokker turned up.

AA fire exploded around both aircraft as the Fokker closed in on one of the Nieuports.

The other Nieuport also found it was receiving a lot of attention from ground fire.

One burst damaged its engine, but it kept up the attack.

Rockets fire at close range only (up to 3"). They are treated as normal gunnery, but get the deflection modifiers for shooting into the balloon's front or rear arc. A plane has two volleys of rockets; you can fire one of them or both. A single volleys hits on a 5+. A double volley hits on 4+. When testing for ignition you take the lower of the two dice rolled. It's a lot easier to kill a balloon with rockets.

Boom! The first Nieuport ignited the balloon, destroying it.

The other Nieuport also hit and destroyed its balloon. However as it flew bast the burning Drachen it was hit by AA fire and destroyed.

The first Nieuport was slightly damaged by its exploding balloon. I ruled that the turn after a balloon ignited, it would explode, and any plane within 2" would take a 3D6 AA fire attack. With its damaged engine it didn't have the speed to escape the explosion.

The surviving Nieuport now had to get home. Both Fokkers were in play, with one closing in on the Nieuport's rear and the other moving to cut it off.

The Nieuport slowly edge in behind the one Fokker, but soon found the second Fokker on its tail.

It started to take hits.

It tried to inflict hits on the Fokker in front of it, but its shooting was abysmal.

The lead Fokker broke away, but the other Fokker stuck doggedly to the tail of the little French plane.

Both Fokkers now attacked, and the Nieuport went down.

So the French got both balloons but lost both attacking aircraft. I'd probably count that as a minor victory for the French, but nothing more.

So thoughts for future games. I'm still working out how to score the games. Destroying a balloon should get good points, and the attackers should lose points for lost planes. Shooting down defending planes might give a point as well, but isn't the aim of the mission. Killing or wounding the observer on a balloon that isn't destroyed should give a few points too, as it puts the observation platform out of action for a period. And if the balloon reaches the ground that should give the attacker points as well, since, again, it deprives the defenders of the balloon's use for a while whilst it is got back into action. 

I'm still trying to work out just how effective rockets were. I may drop the hit chances to a 6 for a single volley and 5+ for the double volley. They get good odds of converting hits to a burn, but I like the idea that actually scoring a hit is hard. Obviously attacking from the optimal tail position maximises hits.

I may have balloons roll to see if they explode once they are on fire, so you don't know exactly when they will go up. Setting them on fire is a kill; that is for sure. But since they are dangerous when they explode it's fun to make that random. I think maybe a 4+ on each turn, including the fire phase when they are set on fire (so if you've attacked them at close range there's a 50% chance you'll risk taking damage from it). Then you test each fire phase just before you resolve AA fire.

I haven't tried incendiary ammunition yet. This would use the normal gunfire rules, but with the ignition test being on the lowest of the two dice. In theory it wasn't supposed to be used on enemy aircraft, but was. I'm not sure what effects to apply there, though.

Anyway, that was a long report, with a lot of rules mixed in, many of which are to remind me how I played the game in case I lose my scribbled notes. But I hope they give an indication as to my thought-processes when setting up the game.