AAR: Junkyard Pickin'

 Mark, Wayne and I got together at Roll the Bones game store in Savannah on Sunday afternoon for a game of Shakedown, my modern What A Cowboy variant. I put the scenario together earlier in the week and came up with the following.

The guys running the questionably legal towing business in town towed a car to their junkyard a yesterday that belonged to a weed dealer. They didn't know whose vehicle it was when they towed it. The Clanton family heard about and knew the vehicle was owned by that dealer. They decided to break into the junkyard, find the drugs which are likely still in the vehicle, and make a nice score! Of course the Clantons tripped an alarm on their way in so the local police are on the scene to respond. The police also have long suspected the scumbags running the "towing" operation of also running a chop shop so this would give them a good opportunity to get into the office and look for evidence.

Mark took the Clantons, Wayne took the Towhook Gang and I got to run the boys in blue. 

Our 36 x 36 game area. Twelve cars to search. The Clantons are in the back, circled in yellow. They just popped a section of fence. The Towhooks are in the double-wide office (just made this week!). My police are nearest the bottom of the photo.

In no time at all, Little Dale of the Towhooks had located the wannabe thieves. He gave his MAC-10 a long pull on the trigger and gave Uncle Cy a hell of a spray. One of the bullets hit Cy in the head and he was out of action right away!

Since the other guys started the fight straight away at the other end of the yard, I had a long slog ahead of me!

And then it happened. The godforsaken junkyard dog rushed Officer Murtaugh. Roger was rattled but otherwise OK.

And it wasn't long before the JYD was on top of Earl Clanton! Poor Earl got a bit of a bite during his run-in.

"You OK, man? Was that a dog that got you?"

Meanwhile, Officer Callahan had gotten into the office. He was expecting company and was in position to cover the door. When Cale came in after him, "Dirty" Harry was waiting and with a Bonanza token,  knocked Cale down a peg. Cale was taken out of action a turn later.

The summanabatching dog reappeared and took a bit out of Officer Hannah's ass.

Earl's worked his way over to the other row of cars. I worked Murtaugh up to the shotgun fight between Ricky and Booger Clanton because a third shotgun is always fun!

After Harry had enough evidence on the Towhooks, he rejoined the fight was was pinned by Ricky and his sawed-off 12-gauge. Roger took the opportunity to join the shotgun fight and took Ricky down at close range.

Boom, done.

Meanwhile on the other side of the lot, Earl and Booger were making good progress looking for the dope. Surprise surprise, they found it in the Hippy Van! Earl had hit the jackpot.

Callahan moves up to finish off Darrell, the last of the Towhooks. Of course, their trusty dog was right there, screwing things up! I still managed to get a shot off at Darrell forcing him to fall back pinned.

A minute later Harry slapped the cuffs on him. A nice day's work!

But while that was going on, "Fast Earl" had found his calling and made his way out of the lot with the loot! 

So we called the game there. Wayne's group had taken a beating with three KO'ed and one arrested. The cops had plenty of evidence on the Towhook Gang to shut that operation down but failed to stop the break-in and couldn't round up the drugs. The Clanton's lost two of their group and had two make it out intact. My cops performed well, Clancy Wiggums was knocked out, but the others were OK, except for needing rabies shots. That dog was just the worst!

A darn fun game for sure! When Mark chose to enter the junkyard so close to the office, the game turned into a high-intensity firefight right away. Mark did well to extract two guys and continue searching for the loot while Wayne's guys were busy with me. We all enjoyed things and I'm here to tell you, the addition of the dog (a last minute idea thanks to my wife) was just hugely entertaining. The dog would appear instantly and attack any cop or Clanton that rolled triples on any of his activation dice. So you rolled three sixes, great! Fight this dog first though, sucker! Wayne's idea of being able to summon the dog and sic it on someone for its first appearance is pretty strong and I'll remember that the next time it's appropriate. 

New Models for the New Year!

 Happy 2026 everyone!. My cold symptoms are on the mend, I'm real happy about that. All that coughing and congestion was just the worst. After finishing up those KVs int he previous post, I got to work on some 28mm moderns for my WAC variant. These models are from Spectre Miniatures. Resin 3D prints, very good quality. A tad pricey, but that's everything these days, plus a Christmas discount at GCminis helped!

First up... the Trailer Park Defense Force. Where I live, these could be west Chatham, Effingham, Bryan or Liberty counties' primary residents. 😁

Two melee folks with a baseball bat and a broken beer bottle. Two with ARs, a shotgun and one with an SKS. Very crystal meth. 

I'm not good at tattoos on my minis but this crew demanded it. There really should be a lot more. A fun gang for sure! Loads or character.

And the last two - a couple of Feds. An FBI agent and a plain clothes agent for whatever agency seems appropriate.

Should have some WW2 Check Your 6 on the schedule tomorrow to ring in the new year!

Bad Boys Bad Boys

 Whatcha gonna do?

I've been itching to put together a modern gang & law enforcement game for over a year now and made the plunge on a bunch of 3d printed 28mm minis. I shopped it out on Etsy from a variety of vendors and now have a nice collection of urban toughs. I organized the gangs into four stereotypical groups to make it easier for players to keep track of who's who.

First up, the boys in blue.

And here we have some feds in civvies. I have fixed the lady in red's base with the red sloppies...

And now with the rogues' gallery..  First up the Biker gang. Jeans and leather jackets of course. 

And of course the Russian mobsters. Got to have some track suits!

Next up, the Mexican cartel group. The guy with the Molotov is just special. I love the luchador mask.

And finally the Bloods. I enjoyed the more uniform look on these guys with the red gang colors and of course the Lakers gear.

These models were quite enjoyable to paint up. All are based on 25mm rounds, Gorilla Glued to 25mm washers to make them very bottom heavy. I only had three breaks separating models from 3d print frames, two of which were fairly easy repairs, the third I simply ignored since it was pretty minor. Overall, a fun dive into an "all 3d printed army." Now, to get them shooting at each other!

Some Weekend Gaming

 On Sunday, most of the usual suspects got together at Wayne's office for some tabletop wargaming. I put Shipwreck on the table - it's been many years since those toys saw the light of day. Wayne put on a Classic Battletech game. Both were good fun.

My game - 1985 Gulf of Sidra. The Libyans vs the US Navy. At this point in the proceedings, the opposing forces have located each other and missiles have just been launched!

Left to right... Ziggy, Aaron, David Mark and Wayne.

Oh oh! Four Harpoons bearing down on one of Z's Nanuchkas!

Still, that's better than six SS-N-9s! 

Both ships actually remained afloat due to some rather effective close range defenses and fortunate damage rolls. Needless to say, neither boat was in fighting shape.

Of course this spelled doom for Wayne. David's boats picked up the USS Scott and let loose twelve missiles her way! 

Wayne did very well to account for 9 of the 12 incoming missiles. The remaining three all hit sending the stricken ship under the waves! Tragedy!

After a couple hours, we had all had a fine time and it was on to Battletech. 

It was a 3 v 3 engagement featuring Marik and Steiner forces. 

The fickle finger of fate! 

Not many pictures of BT, but a fun outing. The Marik side (me, Mark and Arron) got wrecked. Good job Steiner crew!

Thanks for hosting, Wayne. Zig, stay safe... he's off to Germany for a month-long NATO exercise.

Super High Tech Jet Fighters

 I finished up another batch of commission painting today. These are some 1/300 aircraft Wayne picked up for Check Your 6. I really enjoy painting 6mm stuff so of course I was happy about this opportunity. Planes are a mix of types for the Indo-Pakistani wars in 1965 and 1971.

Mystere IVAs, Hunters and Gnats

MiG-21s, F-86es and F-104s

I look forward to seeing these on the gaming table. Should be a fun group to play with.