Dwarfs on the roll

One of my projects at the moment is to play solo some scenarios form One-Hour Wargames book by Neil Thomas, using different rules and armies.

For my first try, I opted for Scenario 5: Bridgeahead, using orcs as players army (blue side) and dwarfs as system driven army (red side). Ruleset of choice was Song of Blades and Heroes, and since the red army have clear objective, I played using Dogui's simple rules for enemy activation.

The game was fun, although it was mostly decided by dice. It was the worst dice rolling I have ever seen, as presented on photos below. Orcs, as rep 4, were totally disorganized, and had turnover after turnover, even after the leader appeared in turn 6 - as seen they failed to move from the base line.

Dwarfs moved, killed orcs that did managed to move, then killed troll, then bumped into orc line and send them running.

 Dwarfs move, orcs stand.

First battle. My dice are of course red. Orc is C1 as outnumbered and after power blow. 3 is rolled. Dwarf is C4. 6 rolled. One orc dead.

 Dwarfs move on.

 Another combat, another orc dead.

 And another.

 Troll comes to defend the bridge!

 But gets killed.

 Finally some luck. Good shot, and orc archer kills a dwarf.

But dwarfs just press on, and orcs are driven from the table.

Better luck next time. I will have to repeat the scenario, to see if I can get better than this.

5150 platoon leader

New 50150 Star army title is out, so I decided to check it out.

For my first battle I paired my monkey boys (two Rep 4 squads - one led by a Star, one Rep 5 assault squad and a rocket launcher)  vs. some Star army troopers (one Rep 4 squad lead by a Star, one Rep 3 squad, one squad of Rep 4 Symons and a rocket launcher).

In turn one, my boys were unable to activate, so Star army moved first. Unit with enemy Star moved in sight of my second squad, won the test end eliminated my troops from the table.
Symons also activated and they came in sight with assault Zuh-Zuhs. My guys won the firefight this time, eliminating 4 Symmons and sending two of them running for cover.

In turn 2, assault troops moved into forest to shoot at rep 3 troopers, and eliminated complete squad.
On the other side of the battlefield, Star army command squad involved into firefight with Zuh Zuh command, and scored better, managing to get OOF result on the Star (after star power dice were rolled) while loosing just one trooper.

 

Left without the leader, monkey boys retreated from the battlefield.

Painting orcs

Just painting some 10mm Copplestone orcs, so I thought that it might be fun to post a process.

Please note that this is not a painting tutorial, I am going for tabletop quality.

I start with giving my orcs base coat of rotten flesh.

 After the paint dries for five minutes, I give them heavy green ink wash.

Few more minutes of drying, and it is now time to add details - black hair, brown bows and quarrels, orange cloth patches and arrows, bronze and chainmail metal for armor.

I use white to highlight details like teeth, runes on quarrels, belts, etc. It is also time to paint the bases. For the flock I use, snot green is the best base color.

 Adding flock.

 Some final touches to the bases, and two of my orc archers units are ready to see some action.

In total, two units are painted in less then one hour.

Some terrain features

Recently, I decided to make some terrain features for my 6mm/10mm games.

Here is the result:

In the picture below, you can see a 10mm evil humans wizard in a forest, 6mm french chasseur riding though the rough terrain, and finally a 10mm orc horde defending some linear obstacles.

 

Then, there is some modern/SF terrain.

Ammunition shop is paper model from papermau, scaled down to 6mm. Roof is a walkable surface, so it is magnetized to keep 6mm star trooper connected to it.

Windmill is made from old tooth brush head, with paper blades.

The root of all evil

When I start new project, I usually go for the evil army (the one that will be played by game mechanic) first. After that, I am still in the mood to paint some good guys to. I do not know if I would be willing to continue with the project other way around.

So, when I decided to make 10mm fantasy armies, I started with the evil side first.

And, without further delay, I present to you - THE HUMANS.

There are many fighting happy races in the world, but no one wakes sheer terror in the hearts of other races like Humans.
With their short life span, fast breeding and endless numbers, they are a face of pure evil.
While orcs may attack and rob, they will eventually return to their lands. But not humans. Humans will  not be satisfied until the last former occupant of the land they invaded is dead, and the lands settled by them.
And there is no place safe from them - from the highest mountains to the deepest caves, you will find human colonies.
These are the creatures mother-orcs scare their mischievous children with.

Picture above shows cavalry of the humans of the plains - cavalry general, knights, fighting cavalry and two units of horse skirmishers.

Infantry - foot general, 4 units of spears, one unit of barbarian warband (or eventually blades), 2 units of archers and 2 units of halfling foot skirmishers.

All models are from my favorite supplier of 10mm fantasy -  Copplestone castings.

CRGE Game master emulator from Conjecture Games

Unlike solo wargaming with miniatures, within the last few years solo RPG-ing turned into rather exact science.

The player uses Oracle, different randomizers and maybe some driver engine, and he knows exactly what to do and how to do it.

And as it is the case with every exact science, new works in domain are not breath taking exploits into unknown, but rather small steps that improve and deeper our understanding of the subject.

So, the latest contribution in the field of solo RGD-ing is Conjectural Roleplaying Gamemaster Emulator (CRGE) by Zack Best (Conjecture games).

Lets then explore what is the scientific contribution (or simple said, what is new in this work) of CRGE.

The most innovative part within CRGE is a d100 Oracle, which is called The Loop of Fate. Unlike the oracles we are most used to, it does not take into consideration the probability of the event. Instead, three tables within the oracle are chosen based on the scene set-up: one is for scenes where players are trying to gain knowledge, one is for scenes leading into conflict and one is for scenes that should wrap up the adventure.
Each table has eighth possible outcomes. Besides six commonly known (yes and, yes but, yes, no, no but, no and) The Loop of Fate uses two more - Yes and unexpectedly and No and unexpectedly. The Unexpectedly result is further elaborated in additional d20 table and makes good sense.
Another interesting thing is called the Surge Count. Basically, each time the plain yes and plain no is rolled on the oracle, a counter is increased. This counter value is than added to or subtracted from further rolls on the oracle to drive  the final result towards some twists. This is the good mechanics that can improve quality of one's game.

CGRE also implements a little vague driver that divides game into 3 or 4 small acts: exposition, rising action, climax and (optional) epilogue. 

The rest of the booklet is basically compilation work from lots of different sources. It is done well, and CRGE can be good starting point for beginners, even if the experience players will already be familiar with most of the stuff.

In any way, considering the price (booklet is Pay What you Want on Drive Thru RPG) it is another must have for all solo RPG players.