Battle Report & First Thoughts - Danger Close

Howdy folks,

I hope everyone is doing well. As the title says, this is a 'quick' (albeit a long one) battle report on the Danger Close ruleset from Empress Miniatures as well as some initial thoughts on how they work and impressions. I played the game a few days ago and have had a chance to also collect a few other thoughts on the whole thing...so here goes:

First, the ruleset comes in super light at only 4 pages...and if you're not using any vehicles or large assets it is literally 2 pages. The made thumbing of pages trying to look things up is not really a factor in this game; at the same time, there are a few small gaps in concepts or defined terms - personally I was really good with that, it gave me a chance to be creative or go with what jumped to mind. 

Second, the game is a straight up d-20 affair, and relies heavily on calculated dice mod's +/- to applicable rolls. 

Third, in terms of who's who, the game breaks that down to a quick stat line per figure - with the most important stat being what is the Skills & Drills for that individual figure. YUP, these are for individual figures or characters if you want to do a narrative campaign thing. This made it pretty easy as S&D's drive everything in the game (number of actions you can take, modifiers, and who goes first), but also keeps the figure count relatively low...lots of metal/resin/plastic to control, so the suggestion from Empress is 20 figs or less.

Fourth, it does help to have some knowledge of military/combatant organization or load-out; but conversely, don't let that stop you. Have some belligerents in mind and kit them out accordingly - so you could have some creative license.

Bottom Line: I liked it...it was a lot of figs to manage for a first go, I made some mistakes, had to ad-lib a little, but really liked the flow and how it went. I hadn't looked at the ruleset in sometime, dove right in and had a 17 figure game in about 2.5 hours.

The Setup:

I didn't think far enough ahead to have any set objective...so that kinda developed as I rolled along. The terrain was extremely rudimentary as I also wanted to see how forms scaled with the figures and overall look and mechanics. So this was also a terrain build planning exercise.

Basic objective: Regular force (tier1/2 operators) converge on insurgent/militant/criminal safehouse. In this instance it was a sweep and clear operation or similar.

Good guys: Operators, broken into 2 loose teams; Team #1 was 3 pers, with silenced weapons; Team #2 ended up having the SOF Commander and 3 operators without silenced weapons. As these were SAS, SEALS, or JTF'ers they had 4 and 5 for S&D's (5 is the max). So this crew is built for speed and action.

From left to right: Boomer (5 points, M4 w/grenade launcher - team #2), Slick Pete (5 pts, M4 and silenced pistol - team #1), Face (5 pts, SOF Cmd, M4); Thud (4 pts, silenced M4), Swing Joe (4 pts, M4, pistol and tomahawk), Thump (4 pts, M4 and shotgun), and Fabio (4 pts, FN Minimi SAW).

Bad guys: The Milli Vanilli crew, mix of S&D's from 1 to 4, variety of kit but predominantly AK's, no body armour; 10 figures total, not grouped into teams but a variety of functions and placements on the map.

From left to right: Map Jerry (3 points, AK w/grenade launcher), Captain K (the bossman, 4 pts, SMG), 1-Eye Will (3 pts, AK), Walkin' Pete (2 points, Dragunov), Tower Tom (kneeling, 2 pts, AK), Carl (2 pts, AK), Mobile Mike (cell phone, 2 pts, AK), Helmet Hal (1 pt, RPD), Mark (1 pt, Dragunov), and Beret Boris (wearing a...beret...1 pt, RPD).

The table:

As marked on the pic, the compund/safehouse is 3 buildings with 1 guard tower. There are 2 vehicles, with one backed into the Garage. Tower Tom is in the tower, Beret Boris in the Garage, Mobile Mike is near the blue van, and Walkin' Pete is pulling sentry duty. The rest of the crew is in the main house, the higher skilled folks are having a meeting, making a plan; the remainder are in the next room grabbing some racktime. 

The dice are there to denote doors (6's) and windows (anything else, but then I changed this to 4's). The green shaded areas are brush and forest (so light-ish ground terrain, impedes movement) with the general idea that everything is just a smidge lower than the tower - so relatively easy to stay out of line of sight.

The Game:

The view from the left side of the table for Team #1, and right side for Team #2. The plan is pretty simple, stay in cover and move converge on each side of the table. I realized mid-way through turn 1 that I had all silenced weapons on the left side. 

I was randomly rolling for the movement of Walkin' Pete and Tower Tom, whether they would turn left and right, and then make their own actions accordingly. For Tower Tom that kept him looking in the wrong direction for almost the entire game...so not a lot of use having Tom on watch. Funny enough, Walkin' Pete had started heading towards Team #1, but rolled to move the other direction and kept on going towards the tower.

Before you can shoot, you have to spot the target first. This worked relatively well for the SOF dudes, and not so well for the Milli Vanilli's, they only had 1 successful spot. If equipped with radios, then you could make a roll to pass on any successful spot to the rest of the team...this ended up working well. Spotting is kept until the target breaks LOS with all team members...so bonus!

So, in the pic above, we see Team #1 keep working their way up, making it to the edge of the brush and trees. They would hold here for a spell, getting into shooting position, spotting targets, and reporting to the rest of the team.

View of Tower Tom, looking at the vans...poor Tom, and Team #2's progress on the right side. For the most part they stayed close together at the start and would then break into two 2-man elements and ingress to the structures.

Overhead drone shot...you can see that Walkin' Pete has made it to the DHL van, Mobile Mike finally rolled to start moving and heads towards the main house. Tower Tom is spotted, but only by 1 team member, comms issue and he failed the 5+ roll to tell the team, sigh...but all the others in the open are spotted and position reported to the team. And the arrows show the SOF movements...on the right, you have 2 operators by the guard tower, 2 moving up along the treeline just short of the shed. On the left side, all operators are now on the edge of the brush and treeline.

Closer view from the right side...

and the left side...

Tower Tom is finally reported to the rest of the team; SOF moves on the right: 1 operator on overwatch (red and blue die), 2 move in behind the blue van (out of LOS of Tom), and 1 in behind the shed.

Alternate view of the above actions.

Thud is lining up for a shot on Tom from within cover...spoiler, he misses...luckily he's using a silenced weapon and no one was alerted.

This pic is just before things go somewhat wrong...if I remember correctly, shots are fired, but the noise alerts Captain K, Jerry, and 1-eye...

1-eye Will points to where he hears the noise...

Lots of quick action...2 operators move behind the garage and stack up near the backdoor. 2 others are behind the blue van and lay down some fire on Walkin' Pete and Mobile Mike (who are both seriously wounded)...Mike fails the subsequent stress roll and surrenders to the SOF troops, getting up against the side of the van.

Alternate view and other moves...Team #1 takes out Tower Tom, and they start their move towards covering positions near the tower. Beret Boris lets loose with a burst of fire from his RPD and misses Boomer and Thud by the VW van. Boomer has enough of that and fires his grenade launcher at the house. The sleeping troops in the house are woken by the RPD fire and jump out of bed to join the action.

Anyone within 4 inches is hit and rolls for injury (point of green pen is impact area, 4 inches is up to the black band at the top of the pen)...Captain K and 1-eyed Will are lightly wounded, Map Jerry is seriously wounded, and Mark is lightly wounded as well (although he would end up in the corner of the room from failed stress roll. Captain K, peeved off, runs out the door of the house to let loose with his SMG. Helmet Hal, with his 1 action moves to the doorway.

Another flurry of action...SOF'ers move through the garage and take aim at Captain K, taking him down as he gets out the door (he does fire a burst, but it has not effect). 1-eyed Will moves to the gapping hole in the house and jumps through, and falls to overwatch fire from Slick Pete. From inside the house, Carl jumped out the backdoor and was immediately taken out by overwatch fire from Thud.

More action, SOF Cmd Face rushes the open door near the fallen Captain K, and drops Map Jerry with well aimed fire. Boomer rushes past 1-eyed and sprays the inside of the building. Slick Pete gets to the doorway, opens the door, and puts a couple of rounds into Helment Hal before he can react - definite difference between in S&D, 4v1.

Subsequent moves...SOF converges and consolidates on the house. Swing Joe gets into the house and drops Mark in the corner of the room. Thud jumps in through the backdoor and provides cover into the house. Fabio rolls around the corner of the VW van and secures Mobile Mike for recovery.

THOUGHTS: all in all a very enjoyable game...yes, I did decide on running through it last minute, hence the improvised markers and 'measuring' template <cough, green pen>. I think this will also serve as a good scenario to playtest some other rulesets and then I have a proper baseline to compare against.

Take care folks.

Battle Report - Marvel Crisis Protocol

Howdy folk,

Here's hoping that the New Year vibes are still treating you well. 

Well, first game of the year, and sure enough it was Duncan and I taking some more Marvel Crisis Protocol to the table. Unfortunately Mike was unavailable, so it would be only two teams of heroes and villains. We took the opportunity to go with a "full meal deal" of MCP, and that included all objectives and special markers (can't remember what they're called in game).

So we selected the mission type, the general table layout, and then objectives...in this case we pulled the mission 'Spider infected civilians', whom we dubbed spider-babies immediately and forever after. As well there were 3 portals on the table...I wish I had remembered that they were portals then, but, such is gaming life.

So, that leaves us with game setup of 5 x spider-babies to rescue, and 3 x portals/rifts to take control of. In the case of the babies, they could move the character holding them distance S if the right (or wrong, depending on your perspective) roll was made. And the portals had a nifty feature that left any characters with the 'incinerate' condition if they were within distance 1. Oh, and our threat level on the card was 17 or 19, but given that I had not brought enough, we went with max value for the figs I had...so our threat value was 14.

Team setup: Duncan had the Soviet Avengers...Winter League, Red Guards...maybe Winter Guard...I honestly can't remember. I just googled it, they're the Winter Guard. He had Soviet Ironman (gawd I gotta google this...)...

...okay, he had Crimson Dynamo, Darkstar, Ursa Major (big ole bear), and the Red Guardian...I was calling him Captain Russia and Soviet Captain America in the game...my comic-fu is a little lacking here. Anywho, to counter this red horde, the Guardians of the Galaxy...Peter Quill, Rocket, Groot, Gamora, and Nebula - all of them are worth 3 points each except for Nebula who is a cool 2 points.

**So we googled while we were playing...Duncan had just bought the new core box, I had the original set...and we saw that there were a varied number of tweaks to abilities and point values between releases, so we're just going to pretend that I'm on the up n up**

Anywho, the Guardians of the Galaxy...

We even broke out Tactics Cards for this as well...admittedly the only cards I recall are the 2 specifically related to Rocket and Groot...I do remember that StarLord had a narly leadership skill which could be doled out to 1 Guardian per turn that allowed up to 3 re-rolls of defensive or attacks dice...at anytime...so kinda handy

In the interest of being fully transparent, as soon as the game was over, I started forgetting details...FAASTT...so this is much less a report and play by play, than random rememberings and thoughts on the game.

Duncan did beat me to the punch and his report is here.

So, here we go...gametime...hope you enjoy the pics!

Table setup, Winter Guard at top of frame, Guardians de Galaxy on the bottom. Terrain was various building and such. Card layout had 5 x red tokens for spider babies, 3 x blue for portals/rifts.

The Winter Guard...Ursa, Red Guardian, Darkstar, Red Dynamo (l to r)

First few turns had the Winter Guards moving up to the Daily Bugle, taking a few spider-babies and controlling 2 x portals. The Guardians moved up and StarLord took a portal, I think Groot grabbed a baby, and the sisters Lady Gamora and Nebula came up from the right.

Rocket and Groot moving fairly close together...their tactic cards have some nice features...Groot is a tank and can absorb damage, and if they're together, Groot can activate Rocket to carry out 3 x plasma rifle attacks up to range 5, but they have to be on 3 different targets. So I just kinda kept them close together...Groot moves S, and Rocket cruises at M.

For the most part, the Red Guardian kept behind the action holding onto the intial portal. Ursa Major who is not only a bit of a tank, is also a real f'ing bear...has some really good damage abilities.

Duncan was making some amazing die rolls...like I was getting a few hits on him, but he really blocked almost all damage I was dealing. The big thing with the Guardians de Galaxy, they generate power on successful hits and damage , so that was a nice bonus...but Duncan's rolls kept that minimized.

Nebula and Gamora are also pretty slick...they have melee weapons, but they are able to do some jazzy range 2-3 attacks that let them end next to their target or keep at range depending on the ability. But, boy can they move, they both move at L and while Nebula cannot contest an objective or hold an object, she is a wicked assassin...

The pic above, the Red Guardian finally comes up from the back...StarLord keeps taking a bit of a beating and will eventually get tossed behind the Daily Bugle and get pummeled in the dark alley.

At this point, the Bugle keeps being hot! and Crimson Stark starts to head off Rocket and Groot. You can see StarLord in behind getting hits from all the other Winter Guards...he takes one for the team and just takes the hits.

At this point, both Nebula and Gamorra have enough and start getting aggressive on the Bugle. Nebula gets tossed to the alley and Gamora keeps charging in.

Nebula makes it back on top of the Bugle...Ursa Major gets knocked off (I think...) and Nebula takes it to Darkstar...getting some wicked ninja assassin hits in on her and knocking Darkstar out of the game...I think Quill is already gone by this point.

Now, Ursa jumps back into the fray, he really likes the Bugle rooftop...and both Gamora and Nebula lay down a beating on him

of note, any red tokens that you see laying on the table are spider-babies that have been dropped by our heroes and villains after they are injured and/or taken out of the game. I think at one point I had 3 of the Guardians de Galaxy get injured at the same time...

The ladies get control of the Bugle rooftop, sending Ursa Major back to Mockba Zoo!!

A few frenzied plays and we're both trying to scoop up spider-babies...

The last roll for me of the game, and I solidly knock Crimson Dynamo out of action...

And with that, we had a game. The extra elements were cool, but definitely took more care on my part to play the characters to their maximum. The game was a lot of fun, and happy to have this start of the year's action. Oh, lol…I forgot to say, Duncan and the Winter Guard for the win…but I think I was within 2-3 points of him…good game regardless!

Take care.

Hello There 20-24

Hey everyone,

Winter is finally upon us…we made it until the second week of January before we saw any snow to follow-up our original snowfall back in mid November. Depending on where you are in Canada right now you are potentially feeling some -40 to -50 Celsius weather, and in some areas that very rarely get any subzero temps…so stay warm Canada.

So, with the dawning of the new year, I guess its time for the mandatory review and some forward thought…last year, my plan was fairly straight forward (I think): paint up more figures, focus on 15mm, get some more gaming in, try some new games, and work through the pile of lead (shame). By year’s end, I was sitting around 133 x 15mm figs painted (vehicle and troops) and 62 x 28mm figs…not my best output, and certainly not my worst output. I worked through a bunch of moderns and Team Yankee figs and I was happy that I started to get into some old starter/expansion boxes that I had laying about.

I didn’t game as much as I wanted to, but I was really happy that I got to give Marvel Crisis Protocol a shot and really enjoyed the game and mechanics. It was pretty cool, finally seeing some figs on the table. 

I had intended on working towards some set projects, but admittedly, I just couldn’t muster the focus. I put plenty of thought towards Afropia, but most of it stayed in the brain pan…although, I did work through some 15mm Team Yankee Red Dawn Insurgents/Militia that will fit in nicely. Funny enough, in the last week before end-year, I ended up looking through some of my terrain collection, put some thoughts towards potential actions, and am thinking that I may need to do a re-think and sync on the project.

So, that leads into the soothsaying and what will the next year hold. Painting more is an ongoing objective, I have plenty in the pile to work through, and some great looking MCP characters to bring to life. So that will continue to be a thing. With the release of NATO Forces, I have some Canadian Airborne Regiment and Special Service Force troops to put together for a continental Canada force. I had started a Cold War scenario some time ago, so I will continue developing that. I have been painting up a good amount of moderns over the last 2 years, so I would like to see them get to the table.

I think I will try to focus my efforts around the following projects and see how it goes:

1. Work on a proper Red/Northern Dawn scenario, ideally 2 of them, and that includes the terrain to get it to the table. So, I would like to work through the VDV starter box, and fill out my Cdn Abn Regt;

2. Work on a 15mm scenario inspired by some of the Bush War actions, I think this will be a good kickstart for me to push som progress on the greater Afropia idea - and really work on some of the wider mechanics and construct of that verse; 

3. I’d like to get some moderns to the table, so thinking of either Danger Close, Spectre Ops, or Force on Force, but moreso a limited small action scenario; and

4. Continue with MCP…and get my Hoth force for Star Wars Legion moving.

I think that covers enough variance over genre…and approaches more of the lead pile. So, we’ll see how we go over the next few months and start getting onto the verse’s.

Take care folks.

A New Year & A New Decade

Howdy folks,

I hope all is well on your end of the WiFi…Happy New Year and all the best in the year to come!!

This post marks a considerable milestone for this blog of mine, we are officially at 10 years of me droning on about my gaming woes, hopefully showing some progress on painting, and random thoughts on gaming and what I see in the community…as I still see myself as a novice to the hobby, I like to think there’s still a world to see out there, so much more to discover. 

It’s been a heck of decade…and in that time I’ve published 327 posts + this one here…so 328. We’ve had just under a quarter of a million views, around 217k, and all in all about 725+ comments left to mark our thoughts. I’d like to say thanks to all the bots, fake accounts, and spammers out there who have made the post count what it is today. If it weren’t for their work, I might actually know what the world thought of my ramblings. More importantly, thanks to the real people out there who pop by everyday…without you folks, who knows…so to the dozen or so real folk out there…thanks! Lol, actually to the 3 dozen-ish followers, thanks for your time!

So with that, I just wanted to say…Thank you!