Tales of Horror: An American Werewolf in Drumheller

 I squeezed in an evening game of Fistful of Lead: Tales of Horror this past Wednesday using my recently-painted Canadians and some werewolves I painted last October. 

Table Setup

The Hunters:

• Lefty LaRue, Dashing Outdoorsman (Leader; Veteran, Lucky, Coolheaded, Deadeye; armed with an Automatic Rifle and Silver Bullets)
• Jack Nuniq, Inuit Sniper (Specialist; Eagle-Eyed, Sniper; armed with a Rifle and Silver Bullets)
• Frenchie Sinclair (Regular; Folklore Expert; armed with a Pistol)
• Sgt. McMichaels (Regular; Steady; armed with a Pistol)
• RCMP Patrol (Henchman Group; Loyal; armed with Rifles)

The Werewolf Pack:

• Brutus (Pack Alpha; God-Like, Large, Cold-Blooded, plus Werewolf Traits )
• Cassius (Pack Beta; Predatory, Stealthy, plus Werewolf Traits)
• Casca and Cinna (Werewolves; Ferocious plus Werewolf Traits)
• The Mad Trappers of Rat River (Henchman Group, Killer, armed with Rifles)

 

I mostly ran this as the "Under the Blood Moon" scenario out of the Tales of Horror book; Frenchie, Sgt. McMichaels and the Mounties were holed up in an isolated cabin in the hills outside Drumheller, Alberta, and needed to survive the werewolves A) long enough for Lefty and Jack to arrive with the silver bullets, and then B) survive until the sun rose at the end of Turn 7.

Pardon the unpainted cabin.

The werewolves moved cautiously around the cabin for the first two turns after Brutus got a Shock token on Turn 1. Lefty and Jack arrived at the beginning of Turn 3, right as the werewolves were starting to move in and really attack. Lefty shot at Brutus as the giant werewolf savaged one of the Mounties, but was attacked in turn by Cassius. 

 

Casca and Cinna attacked the cabin, with Cinna smashing in the window to attack the nearest Mountie - only to get knocked flat with a rifle butt. McMasters and Frenchie opened fire on Casca, driving the werewolf backwards but not harming him. 

If you're cold, they're cold. Let them in.

Jack drove off Cassius, and Brutus slunk away, deciding to abandon this pack and form a new one next month. He left the table. Ultimately Lefty spent the rest of the game crawling across the table towards the cabin, his wound never allowing him to stand up. Jack shot both Cassius and Casca with silver bullets, finishing them off. The Mountie that bashed Cinna got shot through the window and killed by one of the Mad Trappers. Frenchie and McMasters finished off the Mad Trappers, though McMasters was killed in the process. 

The game ended with the Hunters with 5 Renown Points and the Werewolf Pack with 2 Renown Points, a solid win for the Hunters. Though Lefty was bitten by a werewolf and survived, so who knows what the next full moon holds for him...

Yukon Toughs

 This bunch actually went surprisingly quickly - first pic is four of the five figures in the "Northland Adventurers" pack, second pick is four of the five "Scarlet Patrol," and the last pic is three of the four "Mad Trappers of Rat River," all from the "Yukon Peril" line over at Pulp Figures. These will all see use in various "Fistful of Lead" games - starting with a "An American Werewolf in Saskatchewan" game of Tales of Horror I've got planned for myself. 

Not Much to Report

 My painting has, unfortunately, slowed down dramatically since January. Depression has been kicking my ass, sad to say, and just all around haven't been able to carve out both the time and energy to make it to the painting desk. I did manage to eke out these vampire women from Reaper's Bones 5 Kickstarter, part of the "Shadows of Ravenholme" expansion.

Yo Joe!

 Continuing on with my 28mm GI Joe project, here are the first five members of the Joes proper: Duke, Scarlett, Rock-n-Roll, Shipwreck and Lifeline. 

All in all, a solid bunch to paint with plenty of variety, and great practice with the light box as well. Looking forward to getting them on the table for Fistful of Lead.

GI Joe Project

 So I've been kicking around a project for a bit. I want to challenge myself, and an idea I hit on is to assemble and paint everything I would need to put on a big, flashy convention wargame demo. That means all the figures, terrain, and put together a scenario that could handle up to six players. 

 For me, the obvious choice was to use Wiley Games' Fistful of Lead.  There's no ruleset I like better or want to see more people playing than that. But what to do with that ruleset?

The idea I hit on was a GI Joe game, with squads of Joes squaring off against gangs of Cobra troopers. Get a couple vehicles on the table, and it'll all be very eye-catching with (for gamers of a certain age) familiar characters on the table. 

 Funnily enough, I'm not a gamer of a certain age - being born in 1987, I missed out on GI Joe, He-Man etc., during their peak; I remember Christmas 1992 was a GI Joe-heavy one (including the very big electronic GI Joe base released that year), though, and my wife and I became fans of the Sunbow animated series from the 1980s a few years back through Netflix (though she loses interest as soon as Sgt. Slaughter gets introduced to the show).

I've got a couple pieces of MDF terrain from Sarissa Precision so far to build (a guard-house, a helicopter pad and a radar station) that I think will come into play, and leads on 3D-printable Joe and Cobra vehicles. I've sourced some figures as well, and painted my first gang for proof of concept - the Cobra-affiliated militarized biker gang known as the Dreadnoks, and their sinister leader Zartan. 

Also, I have a light box now for photography. Woo!

OWAC Begun

 It's January, and I'm once more painting orcs for the Old World Army Challenge. I'm off to a solid start, with 15 Orc Big'uns (mostly Citadel figures released between 1985-1993) and a Shaman:

Wasteland Warriors: Escape Down River (Solo Campaign Game 1)

 New Year, new After-Action Report! I had two gangs ready to go, and received both my hard copy of Wiley Games' "Wasteland Warriors" and a Gale Force 9 "Battlefield in a Box" Toxic River yesterday, so it was a great time to clear off the dining room table and set up a 3' x 3' battlefield. I used a slightly modified version of the scenario "The Escape" from the Wasteland Warriors book:

 

Annette's Gang, laden down with loot scavenged from a buried tech-vault, take a short-cut through territory held by the Soviet Occupying Army (though since the Fall, there's no longer any Soviet Union; despite claiming to continue to follow the last orders given before the Big One, they're just another scavenging gang), following a toxic river to where a boat has been cached. The sound of shots fired and whooping war cries signal the arrival of Olga, Tigress of the Cossacks and her ragtag commie followers. 

THE CREWS

ANNETTE'S GANG (Crew Trait: Loyal)

• Annette (Gang Leader; Human; Veteran, Coolheaded, Killer) armed with a Shotgun
• "Nine-Yards" Nora (Specialist; Human; Ranged Fighter, Strong) armed with a Heavy Machine Gun
• Stalker (Regular; Human; Ranger) armed with an Assault Rifle
• Bandit (Regular; Human; Stealthy) armed with an Assault Rifle
• Croak (Regular; Mutated Animal; Brute; Mutations: Regenerate) armed with a Club

SOVIET OCCUPYING ARMY (Crew Trait: Ranger)

• Olga, Tigress of the Cossacks (Gang Leader; Human; Sixth Sense, Bodyguard, Encouraging) armed with a Pistol and a Rad Boomer
• Luchenko (Specialist; Human; Ranged Fighter, Stealthy) armed with a Sniper Rifle
• Commissar Ivanov (Regular; Human; Thundering Charge) armed with a Sword and Pistol
• Mysha (Regular; Mutant; Pugilist; Mutations: Flier, Dark Dependency, Sonic Scream)
• Heroes of the Soviet Union (Grunt Group; Human; Loyal) armed with sub-machine guns

  The first few turns of this game were fairly quiet; Olga's gang moved into position, with Luchenko climbing into the ruined building to find a sniper's nest while Ivanov moved towards the bridge to cut off access; Annette's gang are starting on the opposite side of the river from where their boat has been cached. Meanwhile, Annette's gang moved down the board, mostly keeping to the river and moving from cover point to cover point. Stalker and Croak crossed the river to the opposite bank near the starting point instead of waiting to reach the bridge 3/4ths of the way down the board. 

Olga tried to position herself to shoot at Annette, but got shot by Nine-Yards Nora for her trouble instead; Luchenko fired at Nora in response, initiating something of a sniper's duel; both figures being equipped with long-range weapons and the Ranged Fighter Trait, they continued to fire back and forth as Nora tried to move downriver. Croak and Stalker got shot at by Grunts; Croak went down, Wounded, but then stood back up as his mutated lizard-flesh reknit itself. 

 

Around Turn 6 is when things went absolutely wild. Croak started bashing the grunts with his club while Stalker moved to finish off Olga - but the Tigress of the Cossacks managed to bring him down despite being wounded and prone herself, resulting in the two wrestling on the ground in their own mingling blood. One of the grunts ran over and tried to save Olga from Stalker, putting a second Wound on him; Croak managed to rescue Stalker, bashing the grunt's head in as Olga died from her wounds. 

Meanwhile, a Joker was played, triggering a storm - reducing LOS to 12" and giving everyone a -1 to Shooting rolls. Mysha blasted Nora with a Sonic Scream, putting a Shock token on her; but Nora rallied and squeezed the trigger, sending the bat-winged mutant Out of Action. Bandit was Wounded and crawled along the riverbank for two turns before recovering enough to stand up and stagger towards the bridge and waiting boat. Ivanov, waiting on the bridge, got shot by Nora but struggled back to his feet.

 

Ivanov shot at Annette, putting a Shock token on her, which she shrugged off; trying to return fire, however, resulted in a "1" - Out of Ammo! And in Wasteland Warriors, since she's not carrying extra ammo, she's Out of Ammo for the remainder of the game. Undeterred, she proceeded to beat Ivanov's ass with the butt of her shotgun. 

Luchenko, exhausted and wounded, tried to retreat deeper into cover, but another Joker played caused him to stumble into a booby trap; discovering a hidden explosive the hard way. As the bits of Luchenko rained down, Annette's gang collected the badly wounded Stalker, boarded their boat and sailed down the river to relative safety...

END RESULTS

Annette's Gang made it off the table without losing anyone and with five bags of loot, gaining 3 Renown. Bandit was "just winged" and will be able to play in the next game, should this become a solo campaign; Stalker needs more attention and will have to miss the next game, and will begin play with one Wound already on him the following game. 

Sorting through their finds from the tech-vault they raided, Annette determines that they've obtained a Bayonet, some Extra Ammo, a powered exoskeleton, a futuristic helmet, and a Beamer (Laser) Pistol (needs a power pack). Because the Beamer is a Tech Level III weapon, someone's going to have to figure out how it works before anybody can use it. The exoskeleton, likewise, will need some study before it's useful. 

On Olga's side, everyone was ultimately taken Out of Action which...this won't be good.

• Olga: makes a full recovery and is ready for the next game.
• Luchenko: must miss the next game, but is eligible for the following game.
• Ivanov: must miss the next game, is eligible for the following game, but gains the negative trait "Drunkard" and starts every subsequent game with one Wound.
• Mysha: the carcass is taken to the composter for reprocessing into Soylent bars. Start looking for a replacement.
• Heroes of the Soviet Union: Their memories will be honored, comrade. 

AN UNEXPECTED VISITOR

 Atticus normally ignores my hobby space and solo games but decided to get very interested in the table today, jumping up on it and circling around sniffing and/or knocking over anything he could. You never know what will emerge from the Wasteland...