Flying Lead, and other things

The local model railroad shop in Savannah moved a few months ago. It was/is the only local place to get flock so I made my way to their new location Saturday to get some ground cover for the 2x2 terrain board I'd finished up at least a month ago. It's been a while since I had to but a new bag of flock. Here's how it turned out...

It's made of 3/4 inch styrofoam sheets mounted to a sheet of 1/4 inch MDF. I held the styrofoam together with loads of glue to begin with, then once the sheets were stacked, I speared them through with toothpicks to keep everything aligned properly. After everything had dried, I took a serrated knife to it and gouged the contours. I smoothed out the jaggies with spackle and painted the whole thing dark green. The roads were painted on with glue sprinkled with extra fine sand. Pet stores usually have very fine sand in their reptile department if you're interested. It's a lot more consistent than beach sand and a much finer grain. A liberal coat of watered-down glue and a heavy sprinkle of flock and the job's done. I'm going to hit it with some spray clear-coat today to help the flock stay in place.

I also overhauled my other terrain board that I made originally for SBH but has been used for others since. I removed the graveyard and hedges and flocked over the spots for the buildings. This is what it looks like now:

I need to spackle over the holes left behind by the graveyard renovations - they glue and flock didn't cover them up nearly as well as I'd hoping for. I need to even out the ground cover colors a bit more too - minor stuff really. The board is more generic now and a bit more suitable for a variety of genres.

Dennis and I played a round of Flying Lead in the afternoon. I was leading a squad of the American peace-keeping force across town to a "safe" area while Dennis' rebels tried to cut me off and take some hostages. Here's the layout:

Initially, I sent a group of five up the railroad tracks and a group of four took up positions in the wooded area. The bazooka-man kept overwatch while the others moved into position.

Dennis' insurgents at the top of the map prepared themselves for me to come around the corner, but I had other plans. My flankers hopped up on the landing platform and went right through the train station. My other group was having their way with the group of insurgents closest to them.

Three insurgents knocked out, one down in front of the gas station, one still in good shape behind the hedge. I've put a smoke screen out in the road and my flanking force has made great progress through the train station.

Another view

At this point, I had a customer call who needed some computer help. Who am I to simply refuse $100 cash for very little effort? Dennis was about to pack it in anyway - his dice were absolutely miserable and I was very close to getting my troops into the safe house. I think Dennis went three or four turns in a row with either zero or one successful activation. Good on him for sticking it out as long as he did. Next time we'll try out the new terrain board!

Flying Lead and Little Grey Men

The National Guard and LGM had another encounter Saturday evening - this time Dennis took command of the spacemen while I kept control of the Georgia Army National Guard. I worked up some stats for the Jeep and its recoilless rifle as well as the Aliens' robotic menace TOBOR. I also tweaked the LGM a tad - the guys with rifles are much nastier now with a better C score and their weapons also being one C score higher. Below are the actual game stats used. I really do like that Ganesha Games has a very easy to use unit generator on their website for their games.

Lieutenant  Q3 C3 Pistol, Leader
4 Guardsmen Q4 C2 Semi-Automatic Rifle
Radioman   Q4 C2 Semi-Automatic Rifle
Loader Q4 C2 Carbine
Bazookaman Q4 C3 Bazooka
Jeep         Q4 C2 Off-Road, Recoilless Rifle
Recoilless Rifle   Anti-Tank 6, Combat +2, Lethal v. Soft Targets, Range: Long, Slow Reload

Alien Leader Q3 C3 Ray Pistol, Leader
5 Troopers Q4 C2 Ray Pistol
2 Riflemen Q4 C3 Raygun
TOBOR Q3 C2 Armored +5, Ray Claws, Off-Road
Ray Claws Anti-Tank 5, Combat +3, High-Tech Ammo, Range: Long

The battlefield from my side. Two riflemen, the jeep and the Lieutenant on my right, bazooka Joe and the loader in the center and three riflemen towards the left.

The game board from the other side. TOBOR was overlooking the road and all the infantry was in the woods between the robot and the saucer.

The jeep and TOBOR line up shots at one another. Both shots were ineffectual.

The jeep pulled back to reload and the riflemen try to get into a good firing position.

Things aren't going so well. The bazooka man actually hit TOBOR twice but failed to cause any real damage. The alien rifles took out the guardsman on the billboard and the bazooka man with some fine long-range sniping.

LGM cross the hedge. I have two guardsmen on the roof of the Texaco station, prone. The jeep takes a shot at the aliens but it misses terribly. A return shot ignites the fuel in the jeep and ends its day. 

A few turns later, the guys from the Texaco station climbed back down and charged the aliens, engaging them in close combat. The back and forth shots had been indecisive and I was looking for a way to break the stalemate. My soldiers took out the three aliens but the Grey riflemen gunned them down in short order leaving me with just one soldier - he's at the very bottom of the picture towards the left. He passed his morale tests but I evacuated him on his next activation. Clearly, the alien menace was not to be taken lightly!

We had a good time with the game. It was Dennis' first gaming using the SBH system and our first time using armored vehicles so going was slow but after some time we were buzzing right through it. I do need to tone down the alien riflemen - I'm going to put their C score back down to 2, that with the +3 from their weapons makes them better than the run-of-the-mill grunts but not overpowering which is exactly what they were. I also need to pilfer an army sniper from my FoW collection to help the guard out.

Be well and good gaming!

Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting

Junior and I took Flying Lead out for a spin this evening and had a quite enjoyable battle.

The scene: October 13, 1960 near the Chatham / Effingham county line north of Savannah. 4:00pm. The Georgia National Guard has been put on alert - something has been spooking old man Kessler's cattle for the last week or so and the FBI has reason to believe the problem is not of this world. Lieutenant Callahan is patrolling with a squad of weekend warriors when they come across something they never expected.

National Guard OOB:
2LT Callahan Q3C3 Pistol, Leader
Bazookaman  Q4C3 Bazooka
Loader Q4C2 Carbine
5 Riflemen Q4C2 Semi-Automatic Rifle

Grey Aliens OOB
Mul'der  Q3C3 Ray Pistol
2 Alien Riflemen  Q4C2 Raygun
6 Alien Troopers Q4C2 Ray Pistol

The layout. We're using the SOBH board I made for Gnomecon. It's 24x24. The aliens on the board are not where they will be starting.

A view down the creek.

My starting positions. Lots of rifles on my left and the bazooka "sniper" on the right. The bazooka was nothing special in this game with no vehicles. He is a better shot than the other guys though.

The invader's setup. They are all in the woods. The saucers are really just scenery but became important a bit later in the game.

Two Greys take up positions on my far right. One has overwatch on the bridge. 

The guard moves up. The bazookaman goes prone - indicated by the silver marker.

Riflemen take shots at targets across the river. Two hits!

We decided that the aliens could drag their wounded back to the saucers for first aid. Junior did just this. His trooper that crossed the road into the graveyard takes up overwatch on the bridge.

The lone alien rifleman (the other was wounded and currently being tended to) takes aim at PFC Jones.

Gene gets a neat little hole through his chest.

Another raygun blast hits home - Private Stephens is wounded badly.

"Bear" lines up a rocket at one of the scum on the bridge and knocks it out of action!

But the aliens are trying to make off with the body of Jones! What kind of monsters are these?

Lieutenant Ricky Callahan rushes forward with his .45 blazing, catching the alien square in the chest, sending it sprawling on the asphalt.

But the other alien rifleman forces Callahan to hit the deck.

Bear looses another rocket and blasts the vermin. Another one out-of-action!

But the honorless alien leader slowly stands and carefully lines up a shot, disintegrating Callahan. Bear, the Loader and one other rifleman, PVT James Simmons fled back. Clearly, more firepower was going to be necessary.

So, the Greys won, the out-and-out kill on my leader pretty well decided that. My guys were so close to my board edge that any flee result meant they were off the board. We both had a good time. Next time we'll add in the rules for vehicles and maybe add in the tank or jeep and the alien robot.

The Truth Is Out There

As it turns out, Greys are very easy to paint. I did up two squads of eight since Thursday. Here they are with their saucers and TOBOR.

Junior and I may give them a go later this evening in Flying Lead. We'll see how the day plays out.