A Very Gamey Day (part 1)

Saturday, I got to play miniatures games almost all day long and I WASN'T at a convention, but rather in the comfort of my own home. It started with my youngest son wanting to play with some of the character tokens from a role playing game. That's all fine and dandy, but he's never really gotten to play a proper miniature game with actual rules, etc. so I suggested that we set up a table and put some minis to work. My firstborn joined in and we had a good 3-player bash!

We used the basic framework from the GASLIGHT rules since the mechanics are simple enough for anyone to grasp. Each of us had four no-names and one much better leader. There were seven markers on the tabletop and the first player to bring three back to his base would be the winner. 

Junior used his Infinity guys, Cameron was using some Bones minis I painted up recently. Junior's got a guy nabbing one of the objective tokens here while dodging bullets.

Cameron sends his leader up the ladder to get the token.

And then the stinker ran the gauntlet (the green arrow) to grab the third marker and win the game. He just couldn't fail a save!

Next Game!
As we wrapped up game one, Cameron found a Godzilla toy and started stamping around on the table with it. Both kids wanted to play another game so we quickly put the idea on the table. Cameron used an 11" Godzilla, I took a squad of terrifically out-classed National Guardsmen and Junior took four flying saucers and eight space aliens who picked the worst moment ever to invade the planet.

Junior lobbed pennies at the table from about 5 feet away to determine where his saucers would land.pennies that went off the table would be thrown again on the next turn.

My weekend warriors are in the lower left, around the gas station. Two of Junior's saucers made it to the table to begin with - perilously close to the big lizard. Cameron was testing out the breath weapon.

It didn't take long for Cameron to move Godzilla forward and burn up an alien. The saucer survived! I guess atmospheric entry and lizard breath are similar.

But it wouldn't survive the stomping foot of the hell-spawned beast.

Another saucer is victimized by Godzilla. He's also killed my bazookaman, my only character with a realistic chance of harming him. To this point, we've done two hits of damage to Godzilla and lost two saucers and three or four troops. 

Gojira sets his sights on my Lieutenant. I got a terribly lucky hit on him and caused a third point of damage before Lt. Dan was burnt to a crisp. Note the two aliens in the distance at the edge of the table...

They quickly hopped into their saucer and got out of town right away! This planet isn't worth what they were hoping for!

After a few more turns of wanton destruction, Godzilla was victorious and slunk back to the ocean for a rest.

The Godzilla game, as one-sided as it was, was tremendous fun and solid inspiration for a convention-style participation game. I need to work out the details but it has potential.

We all had a good time and it was good to play "toy soldiers" with my kids. It turns out, my gaming day wasn't yet over, but that's another post.

Mega Mecha Update Extreme

OK, so it's Thanksgiving week and I've had the entire week off. I have been busy painting - mostly FoW US  Paratroopers from the shipping disaster of "earlier this year." The reason I've been painting them and not something much more interesting is that my micro-armor tanks didn't show up until Friday. 

I did sell the German FoW army. Yay. No plans yet on what I'll get to replace their toy soldier space.

I did finish of the West German M48s today. I'm quite happy with them:

I also finished up the pico-armor stuff I picked up for Mighty Monsters:

I really love their stuff - it is just so damn cute!

Which leads me to MIGHTY MONSTERS! Dennis and I played a couple games of MM this evening. Out first battle featured Destroyah versus Mecha Bot One. Dennis controlled Destroyah while I took the reins of Mecha Bot One.

The contestants

And the battlefield - Metro City

Dennis' critter hoists an oil tank and heaves it at Mecha Bot One. It flew harmlessly past the giant robot.

The two behemoths mix it up.

Destroyah kept up a combination of wing buffets and charge / body slam attacks.

But skillfully landed punches and kicks take their toll on the beast.

And Mecha Bot One eventually wore out the monster from beyond the stars.

And since we had plenty of time and nothing better to do, we played a second game! This time, Destroyah Junior came to Metro City One to avenge his father's butt kicking. The Defense Forces were alerted to try to halt the behemoth.

My forces arrayed along the bottom edge. We had to put some bridges in since the army dudes and D.J. needed some way to cross the water. I used 6 tanks, 4 APCs and one plane.

My forces inch forward while Junior wastes no time advancing on them.

The plane lands a beautiful shot on the monster with a rocket hurting it!

But Destroyah Junior isn't bothered much by the attack and continues his stampede through the Earth forces.

Stomp, smash, crunch

The jet makes another battle pass and lands another rocket on target! If it bleeds purple blood, we can kill it!

But it'll take another three armies. D.J. finished them all off. His thirst for revenge is slaked for now as he continues his search for Mecha Bot One.

Mighty Monsters was a hoot. Both fights were very good, although I'm here to tell you, if you play using the army, go in with a good attitude because your guys will die in droves. Who cares though, right? Have the army guys ever won a fight with one of those giant monsters?

Until next time, Good Gaming!

Mighty Monsters!

I bought Mighty Monsters from Ganesha Games earlier this week $8.00 - PDF download - buy it! And I played a learning game with my wife and son last night. We had a blast. All our monsters had the same stats, but with different special abilities based on the characters. There is a "kid's rules" section that gives some tips on reducing complexity which coincidentally is fantastic at learning the mechanics. I used Gigan, Junior used Fire Godzilla and Wifey used Godzilla.

There was a great deal of screwing around to begin with, smashing buildings and trying to hit eachother with the bits. My wife and I tangled and poor Gigan took a beating. Fire Godzilla was content to sit back and snipe. I got KOed first (working with three red dice isn't that productive) followed by my Wife who completely botched a leg action, leaving Fire Godzilla completely unscathed! Three white dice to end the game... bah.

I'm looking forward to the next match, this time using actual points-value created critters to add a bit of flavor to each character. It's a strong game for $8.00.

~Christian