Saturday, April 28, 2012

15mm Moderns Game; Insurgent Commander found!

 Hey all!

Well, I had a bit of time last night, so I got the last "block" of my 15mm Moderns game going!

The troops were in the last square of the game... they were looking for the insurgent leader, who was in the far left hand section of the city in the above shot.  However, there were several possible contacts to the right flank, which would make things interesting!


So here are the teams... they decide to just put some distance between themselves and the possible targets on the right hand side of the street... Bravo team heads left, to get into the buildings overlooking the target sector and into the compound looking back towards the possible encounters on the right.  Meanwhile the support vehicles and Alpha team head up the street, figuring they'll hold at the intersection until the possible IED is examined, and the humvees 50 cals can punish any bad guys who show up in the rear.


Alpha team and the two humvees hold at the intersection, while members of Bravo team get up to the rooftop... and there are the possible targets on the rooftops to the right!  Down down down...!  Wait... the two possible targets end up just being some kids playing tag and a few ladies hanging laundry on the rooftop to dry.  This REALLY opens things up for the troops... only two possible contacts left, not counting the target himself and his body guard, which we haven't found yet.


As members of Bravo provide overwatch, the humvees hold the intersection, and two troops from Alpha head into the far building to get to the roof to provide cover, one soldier moves forward carefully to examine the possible IED...


Soldiers from Alpha and Bravo take commanding overwatch positions around the intersection, both to keep an eye on the target section of the city but also as protection against two final possible contacts, out of shot to the upper right and to the upper left behind the buildings.


Under the watchful eye of friendly troops, the Marine examines the possible IED and finds it to be a false alarm...


... and now that the street is clear the rest of Bravo team advances to clear the tall building on the left!


But just as they move past the alleyway leading deeper into the target quarter of the city, one of the two remaining blinds moves across the alley and into view...


And voila!  An entire platoon of enemy insurgents!  They scatter away from the alleyway opening and prepare to get into some sort of firing position... this could be bad!


The marine commander has to think fast.  He instantly orders both of the humvees to power up to the side entrance of the alleyway, and they quickly do, unleashing a thunder of 50 cal fire down the alley!  Two insurgents, including the one with the RPG, are killed and another is pinned down by the tremendous fire!  Part of Alpha team also runs up to the corner... and past the doorway of a building that hadn't yet been cleared...


And there he is.  Looking down from the windows above their heads are a bunch of insurgents, bristling with AKs and RPGs, guarding their leader and preparing to take as many NATO soldiers with them as they can...

Good stuff, and I'll post the grand finale soon!:)

Monday, April 16, 2012

Final block of the 15mm Modern game rolled and ready...

Hey all!

Okay, I rolled up the final block for my 15mm modern game that I started when a buddy of mine stopped by...



I used the "chart" that I posted on an earlier blog post.  Turned out it was a four way intersection.  There were no open areas (no squares or parks or anything) and three of the four "quarters" ended up being tall buildings... the near left quarter was lower buildings and emptier.  Two of the blinds ended up being scattered among the two rear quarters, although two ended up in the block quarter to the right of the NATO troops... definitely a dangerous spot, but the NATO troops could, if they moved carefully, get the drop on them.

And the target was rolled up as well; he is somewhere in the buildings in the top left quarter. The troops will have to sweep the buildings to find him... he is in there somewhere, along with some bodyguards I would assume!

Sunday, April 15, 2012

IED markers finished


Hey all!

Well, I threw some paint on the IED markers... there are three of them, with ominous black things sticking out of the ground (maybe the rear of a shell or something) and covered with debris.

I am using these to mark potential IEDs in my 15mm moderns game.  If a figure moves at full speed within a few inches of them (not sure if I want to do template or inches... still thinking) they have a chance of setting them off.  A figure moving at half speed has a much lower chance of setting anything off.  A foot figure who approaches them can then examine them and, if they turn out to be dangerous, disarm them (sometimes they represent just a pile of junk.)  I am still working on how to do the rules for them... I want them to reflect a few things; first, that troops approaching them have to approach carefully, lest they set them off (thus slowing down the NATO troops and allowing the insurgents more time to set up) that they can be just debris and rubble, and that they can be disarmed.  I do need to make sure that the math "works" and that I don't somehow let there be MORE of a chance of them being an IED when players are near them than when players go to disarm them.  The math might be slightly tricky.


Oh, and I am buying this Peter Pig set.  You have to, right?

Of course the photos never do them justice... they look MUCH better in real life.


Friday, April 13, 2012

The original "Bards Tale" on the iPad!


(image courtesy of The Bard's Tale Online!)

Holy COW yes!

Bards Tale 1 and 2 (Thief of Fate) for two bucks?!  Holy CRAP, yes PLEASE.  99 Beserkers, Tarjan the Mad God, sneaking through the shadows... I spent SO much time playing this as a kid, and I am SO happy to have it back.  Played for a bunch of hours tonight... got my guys up to roughly level 5, although I took some lumps along the way; it is an unforgiving game.

Link!

Thursday, April 12, 2012

How I generate tiles for my 15mm Moderns



Hey all!

Just whipped up this quick graphic to demonstrate how I randomly generate my tiles for my 15mm Moderns game.

There are five aspects.

First, you roll up the road layout.

Then you roll up if there are any open spaces (i.e. lack of much cover and buildings) in the tile.  This particularly means no elevated terrain.  I use open palm groves, or parks, or squares, or even markets for this.

Then you roll up the buildings.  This is fairly open-ended, because it is determined in some ways by the buildings you have available.  Generally you want to put the types of buildings you roll up along the road, as they are usually the more important buildings... that is good enough to give the "feel" that you rolled up, either of lower buildings along the roadway or taller buildings.

Next you roll for IED markers.  I think this is straight forward.  The exactly width of your markers vs the width of your roads doesn't matter; the entire road, width-wise, is treated as possibly mined.

Then you roll for blinds, which represent possible enemies.  Please note; there is more of a chance of enemies being in the far half of the tile than the near half.

Not sure if anyone will like this, but I figured why not share?:)

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

15mm Modern game



Game time!

My buddy came by today again, and we played another game!

This time, we were going to play a rough version of the game I am working on.  You determine where your target is in number of "blocks" (tiles) and head that way.  I have a random tile generator that A) determines the type of road, and B) determines the buildings/rough layout of the square.

We had a target that was three blocks north and one east of the starting square, as below.  You have to get to the target block following streets.

The first tile was a four way intersection.  It had fairly dense layouts, with a higher group of buildings on the right side of the street halfway up the block.


You can see the tiles above.  The starting one is on the bottom left.  It had a four way intersection.


Above you can see Alpha Squad, my boys moving up on the outside of the tile.  I put a SAW and a rifle on the roof to provide overwatch.  There was one insurgent who popped up in front of us amongst the market stalls.  He dropped back but couldn't get across the street soon enough.  A few insurgents ended up popping up to the rooftop to open fire.  You can see a three story building (lighter, in the background) that had a dominant view of the main road, and there was an RPG running up to it...


Bravo Squad moved up the main street and then moved left into the alleys... they wanted to avoid that big three story building with the RPG (a corner of which is just barely visible in the bottom right of the above photo).  The compound right in front of them had a few insurgents in it who were dashing up to the rooftops.  However, two Marines from Bravo ran to the rooftop of a two story building and began to slaughter insurgents... the guy on the far corner accounted for three bad guys, covering his guys heads as they moved up the narrow alleyway.


Here is another shot of those two Bravo guys providing cover... the guy on the far side took down his last enemy of the tile in the far corner.


Alpha continued to move up, killing the near insurgent with a grenade before moving up.  However, there were a ton of insurgents in the alleys beyond!  One NATO guy is killed.  One American Marine was pinned down at the corner, but fire from a SAW (out of the photo on a rooftop to the left) pinned all the insurgents on the rooftop while the team on the left side of the building ran around the back...


... down an alley.  They were fired at from above and almost got cut down, but they turned and returned fire, killing both insurgents, including the one with the RPG.  The two Marines then came up around behind the insurgents in the alley.


Bravo meanwhile advanced up, as the covering team advanced through the alley ways and caught up with the humvee just as they left the tile heading north... and out of shot to the left (sorry, no photo!) despite some fire Alpha hit the insurgents in their alley from both sides and killed them with grenades and fire... and then Alpha advanced off the tile as well.


Next up?  The roll indicated a right hand turn in the road that lead in an perfectly acceptable direction.  There was a collection of taller buildings at the corner, and an open area on the near right... a collection of palms and empty land.


Here is a shot of the tile (sorry, I forgot on the first tile...)  You can see the street turns right.  There were possible insurgents directly in front of Bravo (on the left amongst the buildings) and one in the palms on the right, near the market stall.


Here you can see the marker... it turned out to be nothing, thankfully for the troops of Alpha in the  background moving up the street.


The humvees start up the street... and left-side Alpha humvee puts eyes on a possible target in the alley.  And yeah... it is an entire platoon of insurgents!  Yikes!  In my rules when you reveal a blind the guys can move up to three inches in any direction, and they promptly hightail it into the compound on the right side of the photo.


While Alpha humvee waits at the alley and prepares to kill anything that moves near the door or on the rooftop, Bravo humvee hammers down the alley to the left, and puts eyes on the compound doorway from a different angle.  50 cal fire kills several insurgents in the compound while the rest flee to the roof.


After assessing the situation (another blind in the far right corner of the above photo turns out to be a second group of insurgents) the Marine commanders decide that it is time to just move; there is no need to engage what turns out to be a huge force when there are no insurgents between Alpha and Bravo and getting off the tile.  The Alpha humvee begins to rake the compound rooftop with fire, keeping the insurgents heads down as Bravo humvee barrels out of the alley and moves into the street and opens fire. Alpha and Bravo company hightales it towards the palm grove.


Both Alpha and Bravo head off the tile, the two humvees pouring fire back down the street and pinning down insurgents behind them.  The insurgents do manage to fill the Bravo humvee with holes, wounding one man, but not managing to knock it out.  The infantry moves across the open area, using the tall building (and one SAW at the window on the street) to cover them as they move.


Next up?  Perfect, a left hand turn, taking the teams towards their target!


Here is the tile.  There are no large open spaces, and very few taller buildings, so the team figures they can make it through... however, there are three possible targets right near the exit of the square... and given how many 6s I've rolled for possible targets (resulting in a platoon of insurgents including an RPG) we were nervous...


Alpha (on the left) and Bravo (right) head down the street, men sheltering behind the humvees.


Turns out that one of the possible targets is just some civilians, and the other two are a single insurgent each, armed with AKs.  It doesn't seem that the Marines will have much trouble, and they largely move past, using some fire from the Humvees to keep the two targets back.


Next tile?  Perfect!  A straight street, with an open square on the near left, and some tall buildings overlooking the street and square to the far left... that could be a problem.


Here is the tile... Bravo on the left, and Alpha on the right.  There were two possible enemies in the near right compound, and a few on the far left.


Alpha humvee pulls up to put a quick eye on the two blinds that are there... and voila!  Tons of insurgents!  The entire compound was littered with them!   Just after being seen they run to the walls and roof tops... it would take them a turn or two to get into fire position.



Forget it.  Bravo and Alpha take off down the street... they can get further away and maybe get some men up into the tall buildings at the end of the block, into a superior fire position to engage the insurgents who are swarming into the buildings of the compound.


A few insurgents pop up in the buildings to the front, but Bravo charges into the tall building next to the square and up to the roof, where they pop out and begin to provide covering fire around them.  They knock down a bunch of the insurgents back in the compound, and also some of the bad guys at the foot of the building, keeping Alpha and the two humvees on the street covered.


At one point one insurgent with an RPG actually manages to step out of a corner and put an RPG round at the back of Bravo humvee, but the shell screams just wide.  The insurgent is quickly cut down by return 50 cal fire.


Alpha makes it off the tile north, while Bravo and the humvees lay down a good curtain of fire... in the turn after the one pictured above Bravo knocked down three or four of the insurgents in the near compound, and then left the board hastily. 

So!  Now we move north to the target... I'll play that round later!:)

Monday, April 9, 2012

15mm Modern games




Hey all!

Well, a buddy of mine stopped by today, and we hung out a bit and played a bit of testing of the moderns game I was thinking about!

We did a pair of games on a single tile with two American patrols (one with a humvee as support) going to kill a rebel leader.



Above is a shot of NATO troops moving across the board... there is a building in front of them with a few insurgents in it.  The humvee is parked at the intersection, laying down supporting fire.


Here you can see the humvee firing to try to pin down two insurgents.  This was in the second game... in the first, an insurgent actually managed to pop around a corner and smoke the humvee with an RPG, despite a hail of gunfire coming his way.



Some NATO troops prepare to storm the building.



A Marine patrol makes it up the building and takes out the insurgent on the roof.


Some of my new "possible target" markers... sometimes they are bad guys, sometimes they are bad guys, sometimes they are just civilians or dogs.


Used a movement tray to move some guys... now a movement tray of toy soldering goodness!:)