Since it's not a proper American Thanksgiving without a game, I got out some figures and laid down some terrain, and treated myself to a solo game yesterday of Wiley Games' Fistful of Lead, using their new Fantasy rules combined with their Galactic Heroes supplement. One of the best parts of FFoL is the ability to comfortably bend genres like this.
After their ship crashes on a Medieval Fantasy world, Guzbag’s Space Orks need to collect as much spilled fuel (represented by five objective markers spaced around the table) as possible. The Wizard Lutholio, witnessing the crash from his tower, quickly showed up with a retinue to claim as much of this mysterious glowing substance as he can.
Any
figure can claim an objective by moving into contact with it and
succeeding on a regular Task roll; once claimed it needs to be moved off
the table to secure it. Figures carrying objectives off-table stay off
table for one full turn before being able to return.
The Wizard Lutholio was supported by a bannerman, a couple of regular soldiers (one with a zweihander, two with swords and shields), as well as a rabble of halfling archers pressed into service. Guzbag had a heavy gunner and four regular troopers with SMGs.
Lutholio made an early grab at two objective tokens, using the spell "Light Footed" to send one of his soldiers racing towards the further token, while Guzbag's forces moved towards the center of the board before beginning to spread out.
Before long, Guzbag aimed his blaster pistol at Lutholio and pulled the trigger - click! Rolling a 1, he went Out of Ammo. Lutholio responded by raising his hands and weaving the magic to throw a Fireball at Guzbag and a couple nearby goons and - Misfire! Lutholio rolled a 1 as well, singing his beard and eyebrows. As the two leaders stared each other down from opposite sides of the fountain, the Ork heavy gunner raised his machine-gun and opened fire on Lutholio, gunning the wizard down without mercy.
I thought this might be it for the Medieval Fantasy side, but they rallied admirably and actually overwhelmed Guzbag's forces. The game ended with only one Ork alive but off-table securing an objective token, and two human regulars and two halflings still alive. The human with the zweihander was personally responsible for the deaths of three Orks, including Guzbag, and the halflings at least wounded three of the Orks. All in all, three out of the five objective tokens were scored by the Medieval Fantasy side, making it a resounding win for them.
Thanks for the After Action Report! Very illuminating! And your figures look great!
ReplyDeleteDo you find that using Fistful of Lead and its various supplements results in games that are one very much like the other, regardless of genre, or is there enough flavor in the supplements to make them distinctive in some way?
Thank you! So, of all the Fistful of Lead supplements, I've played Galactic Heroes more than anything else. Almost exclusively, come to think of it. So I don't have a lot of experience to speak from regarding other genres.
DeleteThe Fantasy supplement does a really nice job of emphasizing melee combat over shooting and has a really good armor system that I'll be porting over across other genres. And the magic system works really well and gives some nice flavor with different magical schools.
Wasteland Warriors, the post-apocalyptic supplement, I think offers a lot of good flavor with different future/mutant races that each operates slightly differently, allowing very flavorful themed gangs or very balanced mixed ones. It also has a resource management system built in that I think probably really shines in campaign play versus one-offs, where scavenging for supplies between fights or even while under fire becomes a big deal.
Hi, Bill. Thanks for the quick reply. This is very helpful.
ReplyDeleteAt my age, I'm getting too old to fiddle with multiple systems, with a separate rule set that's "the best" in each genre. I've been looking to consolidate into a unified system that works generally well across multiple genres (with a few exceptions--I could never surrender The Sword and the Flame!). It's come down to Fistful of Lead vs Pulp Alley. Thanks for your insight--it's valuable!
Happy to help! Honestly, at this point Fistful of Lead is my go-to ruleset for everything. I've bought a couple of other rule books lately and for the most part just looked at them and went, "I can run this in Fistful of Lead without a problem." I was going to hold on to Dragon Rampant for larger battles with units of figures, but then Wiley Games put out "Fistful of Lead: Bigger Battles!" and solved that one for me.
DeleteMan, The Sword and the Flame - I've never played it, but the website of a group of guys who were using it was my first introduction to wargaming beyond Games Workshop back in the early 2000s.
love this article.
ReplyDeletebecause of this inspiration, im planning on something like this except the orcs are gonna be the fantasy faction.
great stuff!!
Wow, thanks! I'm glad I could inspire! Looking forward to seeing your take on it!
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