LOTR: SBG - More Speedpainted Elves & Goblins

I'm both feeling sick, and also flooded in (it's Queensland, cyclones are inevitable - I'm talking a 10m+ river rise). So I'm quite productive paint-wise, as I am too crook to do outside tasks (like mow my ankle-length grass), but just OK enough to listlessly paint some rank and file to a mediocore-yet-table-ready standard.

First, 24 Moria goblins gives me a total of 48 Moria cannon fodder. Once I finish my Balrog I'm pretty much done, as I've already done prowlers, captains and cave trolls last Christmas.

 Next, the final 12 wood elf rangers meaning I've done the whole box. Some were repaints from my earliest ever painting efforts from ~15? years ago. Heck, this blog dates back to 2011.  I still have half a dozen elven heroes to paint but I'll save those for when I'm more alert/coherent.

Finally, the final 12 Galadhrim. I tend to paint in multiples of 12 - basically it means paint has dried sufficiently by the time I return to the first model in the queue, and with my casual speedpaint style (base+wash+highlights) I can finish 12 all in an hour or so. It's a manageable 'chunk.' 

So these 48 miniatures means my 2022 total painted now stands at 116 after only 10 days.  It's probably not a lot to the masochists suckers dedicated souls who paint regiments of Napoleonics, but for someone like me who only plays skirmish games with under 20 per side, it's a fair chunk.

My LOTR lead mountain of 500+ minis has has a significant bite taken out of it.

99% DONE: My elves, uruks, dwarves and goblins are pretty much completed save the odd hero or monster.

WORKING ON: Mordor and Gondor are halfway- I have 40 or so painted of each but another 40 each to go. They are functional, painted armies though.

HAVEN'T TOUCHED: I have a metric shitton of Rohirrim (20+ cavalry, 60+ foot) and a bunch of Easterlings (~80 various). I did watch Two Towers last night for inspiration so there may be some movement on the Rohan box. If only the LOTR wasn't shot with that bloody blue-green tint so I could actually see the colours....

As I'm feeling sick and un-alert, I'm not doing any playtesting, game design analysis etc lately. However I DID buy the new Middle Earth: SBG core rules for $70AUD (a steal as they are usually $98AD) which arrived before the floodwaters.

It's weird that GW does not take the cake for most stupidly overpriced thing I bought all holidays - that'd be a $35AUD Killwager PDF. An incomplete PDF at that. Early access comes to tabletop wargaming - yay. That's teach me to break my 'no PDF is worth more that $10' rule.

Anyway, I doubt any blog readers have never encountered LOTR:SBG - even as GW's redheaded stepchild it's bigger than 99% of other indie company releases - but I could do a review if anyone is interested. If only for the novelty of hearing me praising GW - I believe it's the best rules GW has ever produced.

Skirmish Sangin Rules Review

I'm exploring modern/near future combat at the moment, as part of making my own homebrew rules and also in hopes I'll find something good so I don't HAVE to make my own rules.

Sadly, Skirmish Sangin isn't what I'm looking for. For a start, it's not a wargame.

The Shiny

It's a 169-page PDF, pretty well designed and printer friendly.  They make it clear their focus is on narrative skirmishes (so far so good) with a bit of background on Afghanistan. There are lots of lovely photos of minis and it is easy to read. There is also a detailed index for finding things. The time and ground scale is clear (3" is ~6m). I found the squad weapon loadouts etc quite useful; there is info for British, NZ, FFL, SBS, SAS, US as well as insurgent forces etc. There are plenty of quick reference sheets. The rules are sensibly laid out. 

Overhead - aka What You Need to Play

D6s? Easy. But two d10s for d100 (%) sounds a bit ominous and gives me RPG vibes. Eek! Rifles do 2d10 damage. And there are rolls like 1d10+4.  This is clunky and over complex - I don't even like this in a RPG. Not only are there several dice resolution mechanics, but they aren't easy to remember if they vary from weapon to weapon. It's made for 6-10 soldiers per side, which frankly is looking overly optimistic.

An average soldier has 1d10+10 body, 1d10+4 armour, 55% morale, 3 AP in "stats" and the skills of Pistol (bodyx3 =%); rifle (bodyx3+10%), spot 100%, first aid 40%, heavy weapons (bodyx2=%); throw (bodyx3=%); forward observer (bodyx2=%)

The above paragraph should tell you everything you need to know about how gluggy, convoluted, old school, and RPG-ish this game is. Creating as force is about as laborious as setting up a D&D party.

This is one member of your 10-man squad.

Activation & Initiative

Yes, the players use action points (yay the 90s) and their "Body" stat determines in which of the 10 combat phrases they activate - basically you go down your forces from highest to lowest BODY (representing agility etc) checking who can activate. Models can use 3AP in each phase they are active, to do the usual walk, climb a high obstacle, climb a low obstacle, climb through a window, stand up from prone, kneel - you get the idea, it's pretty detailed. 

On the upside, the action is broken into small segments and I kinda like the 'SFB impulse' idea.

Models must spot enemies in their 180 front arc - this is 100% but can be reduced by cover, visibility conditions, and increased by target movement etc. There's a lot to keep track of. There are 37(!) spotting modifiers. That must be a modifier record out of all the rules I've ever owned. 

The dedication to modifiers and charts is impressive. Possibly a record? 

Especially since spotting is something you do relatively often...

Combat

Shooting also has plenty of modifiers but a mere 27 this time. These are a % change i.e. a solider may have a 45% chance to hit, but +/- various 10% increments. Surprisingly, weapons are lumped together by type i.e. SMG, assault rifle, sniper rifle, LMG and there's no DMR or differentiation by calibre. Given the level of detail, I was expecting weapons to be all different i.e. M4 having different stats to a M16. Units can 'snap fire' out of sequence with -30% shooting and forfeit their next activation.

When hit models can make armour rolls (1d10+4 etc) to block incoming damage. Damage that exceeds this has effects on the wound chart.  Of course each model also has 12 hitpoints. Hitpoints, bah. Models can also fall unconscious.

The wound table is predictably detailed, e.g. seriously wounded models -20% off morale of allies in 12" due to their screaming, among 6 other effects of being seriously wounded. Of course, you can also have a light, medium, or critical wound with their own accompanying effects.

There are predictably detailed rules for grenades, smoke launchers, etc. In hand to hand combat sides take turns hitting each other (meh) but can use special multiple-AP maneuvers to modify to hit/damage, like feinting, circling, all out attack etc (cool). I like variety in melee, allowing some decisions not just shoving models together and rolling dice (I think this is food for a game design article).

There are lots of % morale tests, with the game recommending stacking counters for each 10% morale penalty. Agh, just please - no. Well, there are only 13 modifiers this time, so perhaps I shouldn't complain...

There are rules for heavy and vehicle weapons, vehicle combat and indirect fire but I'm not going to waste time describing them as by now you should know if this is sort of game you'll love or loathe. I suppose there is an audience for clunky convoluted pseudo RPGs*...

*There is even a whole page of "fumbles" and "criticals" - if you ever roll a 01 or 00 on your % dice. There are penetration charts taking up a whole page. There are literally hundreds of modifiers for various actions. (Yes, vehicles get their own tables and modifiers). Ironically, a dedicated RPG like Savage Worlds has smoother, more consistent gameplay and combat.

The PDF has lovely art and is one of the best laid out PDFs I've owned.

TL:DR

While well presented in a good PDF, Skirmish Sangin is a clunky 1990s RPG dressed up as a modern narrative skirmish game. If you love convoluted rules, charts and think game design peaked in the 1990s with WRG and you think D&D has fluid combat, you may love this. There are literally a hundred modifiers, charts galore, many different dice mechanics, and plenty of opportunity to clutter the table with tokens. If you can imagine it, there is probably a detailed rule explaining exactly how you can do it. However, I found it was odd that along with such excessive detail things like DMRs were absent and it didn't differentiate between 5.56 and 7.62mm rifles.  I liked the melee options and thought the activation method was interesting but Skirmish Sangin is not my style. But if you enjoy lots of dice rolling and looking up charts and modifiers over actually playing a game, you'll love this. 

Recommended? No.

While not an exhaustive list, these are some other modern warfare options I've tried lately:

Ambush Alley is Stargrunt remastered and while good is actually slower/gluggier than it seems. Osprey.

Black Ops is 40K Kill Team with TFL card mechanics. Cheap Osprey blue book.

Spectre is a solid generic toolkit but I've only played the alpha rules due to the $50(!) P&P.

Killwager is very innovative and Infinity-esque but terribly explained, overpriced and incomplete.

5 Core/5 Parasecs if you want the RPG campaign experience without the clunky 90s mechanics

Gruntz: Spec Ops is rebadged Warmachine rules. PDF.

Infinity: Code One is free and is a simple version of the excellent but complex sci fi Infinity rules.

Zona Alfa is STALKER post-apoc; a pretty straightforward set of rules. Another cheap Osprey title.

Out of these, Infinity and Ambush Alley I've played the most, and Spectre is what I'd probably recommend to a player new to moderns or wargaming.

LOTR SBG: Gondor, Wargs, Galadhrim (+ Moderns!)

 I'm determined to make inroads in my unpainted LOTR mountain.  While I have not even touched Rohan or Easterlings, I have made significant inroads in Elves, Gondor, Dwarves, Uruk Hai, Moria and Mordor.

First, the 12 Galadhrim I said I would paint.

The, speedpainted some 24 Gondor to get some runs on the board. They only take a few minutes each.

Man, the old school warg sculpts are BAD. Huge mold lines, joins, etc. I admit I was even more casual than usual painting them as they didn't seem 'worth it' neither did I feel like mucking around with greenstuff.

The 9 wargs will also serve as monsters in my "Forgotten" homebrew horror rules. Here they confront some luckless Eureka legionaires. I have painted 12 of these.  They are nice sculpts but like most Eureka stuff the legs are a little stumpy.

I also touched up some 11 Empress US troops. Both Eureka and Empress work well together although both have some weird poses. I'm not a military expert but the poses just seem 'off'.

I've also eyed off Spectre (the third 'big' name in 28mm moderns) as they have some great PMCs but the prices (and postage) are a bit steep. It worked out $190AUD aka $140USD (including $50 postage) for a softcover rulebook ($50) and about 10 minis. It makes GW look like a bargain - a starter 40K box with a rulebook, terrain and 30+ minis is only $120AUD. Yikes! I'm all for supporting smaller mini companies but there is a limit. I'm probably going to go with Empress in future because of the aforesaid stumpy Eureka legs and prohibitive Spectre pricing. Also Empress has interchangable heads allowing me to make unique special forces wizards for my paranormal squads.

Anyway, 68 minis isn't too shabby and makes a good start to 2022.

LOTR SBG - Mordor Orcs & Trolls

 Here's this week's 24+cool stuff paint list. It was pretty dull and slow - drab colours, yet needing to be individualised as orcs aren't uniform. 

The depressing bit is the 32 orcs I painted are probably only 1/3rd of the base rank and file of Mordor orcs I own....   Way back, between LOTR and the Hobbit movies there was a lull where you could find plastics in job lots for for 50c each, and metals and monsters for ~$5-10. I kinda went wild and now either (a) I face an embarrassing unpainted mountain or (b) I can get rich off eBay - depending how you look at it.

 The trolls are terrifically heavy lumps of metal which I have concerns about on the table (a bit like some of the old top-heavy Warmachine metals).

Quite a few of the job lots had broken models in them. Given most plastic rank and file are $3.50AUD each now I have either repaired them with Perry/PSC bits or they serve otherwise, like this luckless man of Minas Tirith.

The paintjobs are pretty basic. I'm going to reward myself by doing more colourful Galadhrim and maybe the plastic Fellowship I have.  I have buckets of unknown metals and heroes (especially orcs - all orcs look alike to me!) so I'll be spending time in the unofficial collectors guide.

I haven't had much time in my shed due to rellies visiting so I'm quite pleased with my progress given it was snatched moments at my office desk.

I'll probably do another game design post soon - I'm thinking about "mental pressure" - this is not complexity, but rather unrelenting involvement and decision making which even a simple ruleset can exert. I.e. chess is simple but can have relentless mental pressure. Basically, you know those decision points (moments of player agency) I like so much?  I'm beginning to think sometimes you can have too many of them, especially if there are other layers (like magic or campaign rules) which are important to the game.

LOTR:SBG - Dwarf & Elf Rangers (plus ....Hoverspeeders)

On holidays I usually set myself a 24+cool weekly painting goal - at least 24 boring-ish minis and then a handful of cooler things like heroes or side tasks. 

I've decided to make more inroads in my huge LOTR:SBG pile, given I am reading LOTR to my 8 year old. On a side note - good gracious Tolkien was a fantastic worldbuilder but would benefit from a good edit. For a man who pretty much pioneered fantasy he never was one to leave an eating scene/scenery description/random song or poem out. As a main character Frodo is bland - the characters are all pretty much just one dimensional 'scenery.' The pacing feels off in places. Tolkien certainly is the godfather of fantasy genre and he certainly knows how to give his work a historical/mythological feel, but a great all-round author? Hmm. It's one of the few times I'd say movies are probably better than the book. Except for the magic green ghosts winning the final battle. 

But I digress. Back on topic:

First, some wood elves. 

I thought my daughter might like to try some LOTR:SBG - in my opinion probably the best, most clean/simple rules GW has produced. (Yeah I know there is a newer rule set - Middle Earth - but locally it's $90AUD - about $65USD - for just the base rulebook. Also, I bet it has been needlessly complicated)

I'm focussing on rangers, uruks, warg riders, wood elves etc - all the earlier stuff from Fellowship. I'll probably do some Mordor, and then finally finish with Rohan then Gondor.

As usual, I go for tabletop quality and speed. At the ripe age of 40 I find it harder to sit still for more than an hour at a time any more....

Now, for my random project. Mantic's supremely affordable 28mm hoverbikes ($15USD or $20AUD for 4) are as cheap as most 15mm stuff so I grabbed some for some Wipeout-style racing. I love the idea of Gaslands but I just find the rules too clunky to enjoy. So this is an excuse to fiddle with my own more streamlined rules. I'm thinking vector/drift mechanics (which I often play with in space games) may be fun. Also, Byzantine chariot-racing style, it will be around small arenas. I'm figuring 4 bikes or 4 teams of 2, depending on how fast playing the rules are. I want a round to last 30min or so max.

My not-McLaren and not-Williams inspired speeder bikes. I have to tidy them up with more detail but they are 90% table-ready. They come with gun/missile/cannon pods which I'm going to magnetize to swap out. I'm also going to allow each team to have 3 "perks" or "changes" to tweak their otherwise similar bikes. I.e. slight 10%-ish boosts to turning, acceleration, straight line speed, armour, handling etc.

Also on my to-do list:
Paint 12 LOTR Galadhrim and 30+ Mordor orcs/Warg riders.

Paint another 2 speeder bikes.

Playtest Intercept Vector arcadey jet rules.

Paint a handful of Mantic space dwarves for Deep Rock Galactic style mining-meets-Space Hulk fun with the kids.

Develop/continue to playtest modern/sci fi horror rules (both more sci-fi homebrew  'Forgotten' and a more Stalker-y dudes with AK47s vs monsters).

We'll see how well I keep to this.. I'm notorious for getting sidetracked. I mean, it's a hobby, for fun. Rigorous schedules are more work.

"The Forgotten" - 28mm Sci Fi Horror Alpha Playtest

I kept the weapons, units and gear very vanilla so I could get a feel for the mechanisms. No special weapons, no magic or hacking, no extra rules for demons or AI.

Stats are:
5 AI Enforcers; Move 4/2, Veteran d8, Shoot d8, CQC d8, Phys d8, Defence 6, Will d8. Weapons are 4 rifles RoF2, d10 damage. 24"+ -2 long range, and a heavy gunner RoF 3, d10 damage, 24"+ -2 long range.

7 Cultist Marines; Move 4/4, Veteran d8, Shoot d8, CQC d6, Phys d8, Defence 4, Will d8. Weapons are 5 laser rifles RoF2, d8 damage. 24"+ -1 to long range, and 2 SAWs RoF4, d8 damage, 24"+ -2 to long range. They also have a leader who can Rally them and also adds +1 initiative dice if he is up and about.

Disclaimer: Photography is in a poorly lit shed on my phone, and I promised the wife I'd be 30mins max. So let's see what we can do in this time.

Sides as deployed. 7 Marines, 5 AI Enforcers. 

Marines (with 7 + leader) unsurprisingly win the initiative dice off. Both sides move up, staying in cover.

 

A Marine sprints across a gap, wins reaction roll and gets past before Enforcers can fire.

A second Marine peeks but is shot down by the Enforcer's SAW gunner. Oops - forgot should have been using d10s to damage; also he should have been only "downed" - not dead. Probably works out fair. His allies in LoS who see him shot all pass their morale checks. Now I should have swapped initiative to the Enforcers here but I forgot. Btw, I shift from using green to blue as my Hold token, as I realise I have not enough greens in my shed box.

Both fail their reaction roll and are "Stressed" - this basically means they can only react to actions directly targeted at them; i.e. instinctive reactions like dodge a shot or fight back in CQC, but they can't snipe someone across the board.  I'll remove the Stress in a 'clean up' phase at the end of the turn.

The Enforcer tries to peek a Marine in the distance; but the Marine wins the reaction roll and the Enforcer is stressed. Luckily the Marine's shots bounce off his Enforcer armour and he passes his morale check to avoid being shaken.

The Marines in the open on the flank are a tempting target; the Enforcer tries to peek but loses the reaction roll and is gunned down, dead, by well aimed shots. At this point initiative should have shifted again - but I forgot.

The Enforcers continue their futile attempt to clear the Marines on their left flank; this Enforcer fires first but misses his shots.

This Enforcer attempts another crossfield shot and again fails his reaction roll and is stressed. Again I forget to change the side with the initiative. 

 

An Enforcer tries to rush into CQC but a long distance shot hits him. Although his armour deflects it he fails a morale test and is shaken (orange token) and cannot complete his move into contact, remaining stranded in the open.

Now a bit of tactics; one Marine goes on hold to cover his ally who then moves into LoS; now he can join the reaction roll in a 2v1. This was cool. Both sides get 8s but the active player wins ties.

Hit by two shots, the Enforcer is "downed" - writhing around on the ground. The Marine leader then tries to finish him off but narrowly misses both shots which spray chunks out of the concrete next to him.

On the other flank, a Marine pops out to confront the Enforcer previously "Shaken" by a long distance shot. The shaken Enforcer is downgraded to d6 and unsurprisingly loses. The other Enforcer was facing away and cannot join in. I prefer 180 vision arcs in games where possible - as it adds a lot to positioning/tactics without a lot of complexity. 

His partner pops around the other side of the cover to shoot the other Marine who is stressed. He wins the roll but misses hideously from point blank. At this point I stopped as I promised I'd only spend 30min in the shed.  

Observations: Game works out of the box, as expected as the 'beat 4+ with a dice' is pretty common. Quite a bit of action going on.

I forgot to swap the initiative back and forth a few times (when the active side failed a reaction roll with a 3 or less; and when the active player took more casualties in their action), so it was less dynamic and a bit more IGOUGO than it ought - although the reactions provided plenty of action for the non-active player.

Reacting models do get to use their full RoF, but a failed reaction roll means they are stressed - they miss their turn if they haven't acted already, and cannot react further except at actions targeted at them - which limited the reactions a little. I also forgot to use Suppression fire. Reacting models also all passed their Ammo rolls this game which is probably pretty unlikely, mathematically. Had a vaguely Infinity vibe as models often paused and went on Hold to cover an area. There was quite a lot of care in positioning and facing which was good. Cover mattered as intended. I liked how you could Hold with a model and use it to cover an ally. I may expand this into a Hold+Move simultaneous action.

The jump from 4 Defence to 6 Defence was vast; enabling the Enforcers to shrug off quite a few shots. The variety of dice (d6, d8 d10) made it harder to make modifiers consistent but did make it easy to calculate (just grab the dice and throw).  I liked how when a model was downed you had to decide - should I finish him off? - potentially wasting your shots on a model that might die anyway.

I didn't play with stealth or darkness rules (which will be integral to the setting) which would really impact the long-range crossfield shots which happened quite frequently. No gunfight included more than 2 models on each side, despite how I had rules to allow bigger shootouts. The plentiful cover kept the action spread out into chunks and stopped it becoming a shoot-fest, enabling some small 2v1 gang ups and flanking. There was quite a lot of thought put into precisely placing minis out of LoS/angled so they only had to face minimal opponents when they acted.

A lot more to do, but the game works as is, which is nice. I kinda enjoy using my weird dice so I'll stick with them instead of my original d10+stat system.

Mantic 28mms (Deadzone) // "The Forgotten" Sci Fi Horror // Tomorrow's War Squad Level

So these minis are not finished (missing detail, bases need work, etc), but I'd regard them as 'table-ready' to start playtesting my homebrew sci fi horror rules. Basically the core  game will be "Necromunda" level squad skirmish, but with heavy emphasis om morale/stress, darkness/lighting/stealth, plus weapons that jam or run out of ammo at inopportune times.  

Viral mutated monsters controlled by consciousness uploaded via computer chips.

The premise: the Rapture spoken of in the Book of Revelation has come. The holy have ascended to heaven, and the earth has been destroyed in fire. However, Revelation didn’t mention the unbelievers who were in space stations, asteroids, or terraforming colonies….

Twenty years on, darkness and horror stalks the remnants of humanity – who call themselves the “Forgotten”. The Forgotten form factions, warring for valuable resources, usually under the patronage of powerful demons who compete for resources, followers and prestige. The small populations of these colonies and bases do not support large armies. Instead, small special ops teams are aided by their demonic patrons in desperate strike missions and boarding actions. Something along the lines of Doom meets Event Horizon. Chaos Cultists wearing Mass Effect special forces tech. But they are not alone – scientists who try to fight back have created a virus to mutate human DNA so they are impossible to become hosts and thus "immunize" themselves against possession and free themselves from the frailty of human flesh. In the design process, they have created horrific monsters and mindless mutants, and have uploaded their consciousness into computer chips embedded in hybrid life forms. Meanwhile, many station and spaceship AI, unable to deal with the paranormal events, have gone rogue, creating drone and cyborg forces to enforce their own obscure (and sometimes crazed) agendas.

No space elves. No space orcs. Just men, machines and monsters.

I'm working on 3 asymmetrical forces: 

The Possessed (Event Horizon/Prophecy meets Alien/Mass Effect) “Benevolent Evil, Cool Guns”

The Plague (Umbrella Corp meets Altered Carbon) “Resist evil – become a monster”

Rogue AI (If Skynet had the personality and pettiness of Glados) "Great power, weird agendas"

While I'm still working out how my AI forces will work, Mantic has been supplying my needs thanks to their surprisingly cheap and pleasant Deadzone/Warpath sculpts. 

You get a lot on a Deadzone starter box; I still have ~10 unpainted minis from this set. These Plague will serve as the "scientists who mutated themselves" faction.

I was most impressed by the GCPS "Imperial Guard" - they come with a huge pile of spare bits and a wide range of weapons and poses. Probably one of the best value 28mm boxes I own.  In this 20-man unit box, there's enough leftover bits for ~12 or so more models if you had more torsos.

The "Peacekeepers" wouldn't have been painted red if I realised I was also going to buy the fleshy-red Plague; I regret not painting them purple instead (a good cult-y colour); also ffs my GW black wash failed and left chalky white deposits where there was supposed to be dark recesses.

There's quite a lot of toys in each starter and at $40AUD (around ~$30USD) I think they were well priced to sucker me back into my first 28mm purchases in years.

Savage Worlds vs Tomorrow's War?

I've been working away at some sci fi horror rules for a while, which use d10+stat and have both opposed and static rolls. But digging through my old HDD (the one I resurrected this year) I found a rather interesting set of house rules I already made. It seems to be an amalgam of Tomorrow's War's initiative and reactions and Savage World's pulp magic powers. Both actually share the same dice system; each stat is assigned a d6(poor) d8 (average), d10 (great) or d12 (heroic) which has to beat a 4+ (and the opponent, if it is an opposed roll) so they kinda fit neatly together. 

So instead of using the sci fi horror system I've purpose-built for ages... ...I'll probably adapt this instead as it has caught my fancy. What can I say *shrugs* - I have a limited attention span....

Reading these I was inspired to dig out Infinity and Tomorrow's War - to revisit the "reaction" genre I've moved away from (I feel they bog games down to much; an alternate move system allows similar "reactability" at a fraction of the overhead). I want to discuss them in a game design post... but report cards are looming large in my near future...