Open Combat - thoughts after a couple of games

A quiet hog-farming village, soon to be not so quiet... My heroes to the right, Thomas' scoundrels to the left.

I have finally started playing with the 2^nd edition Open Combat rules, and a lot of fun it is.

I had the first two games quite a few weeks ago, when I met Thomas, Koen and Laffe for a refresher of the mechanics and an introduction by Laffe (a veteran of at least a handful games...) of what’s new in the 2^nd edition.

Ganging up on someone is a good idea.

Then we had a go at each other, and Thomas and I sat down for what became two games.

Retreat! Thomas' warband breaks as they have been on the receiving end of a world of hurt.

I had prepared a 150 point warband by taking one of the sample warbands from the rules and tweaking it a bit. I essentially removed one figure and buffed the other ones while I removed some abilities that I thought I would probably forget anyway.

Koen and Laffe fought it out in a greveyard. A good idea as a lot of after action activities are close at hand...

We switched sides in the second game, and my troops attacked from the left. The result was the same, as Thomas' troops were mangled.

The set-up in our living room. Lots of really old terrain I found in a box.

I had another game at home with my 12 year old daughter. I used my warband from the match with Thomas and Johanna used a warband she had used with the 1^st edition rules.

Johanna's mostly female warband

My mostly bad-ass warband

It is surprisingly easy learning the basics and after a couple of games you’ll probably have found out how to balance your force. There is also quite a lot of tactical considerations to think of, as positioning is important. To surround an enemy (who don’t wield a two-handed weapon) or force him or her into an obstacle is game-winning and takes a while to figure out.

Long range sniping can be effective. The centaur in the background is protected by the tree and harder to hit and damage.

All in all I think this is a solid set of rules and that it will see a lot of action both at the club and in my home.

Quite a lot of maneuvering to get in good positions

Definitely worth it to try if you want quick fantasy skirmish games. As you stat the figures yourself there is at last a chance to use all those minis that have just languished stored away in a box somewhere.

Spears are good as they have a 1" reach and can attack through your own soldier.

Recommended!

The power of surrounding your opponent. You get a bonus to hit and all results of withdrawal is treated as a wound. The female fighter was quickly felled.

(Hey, and I won three games out of three. Can’t be an altogether bad game!)

The gnome fightress is up against a hedge and can't back off, my blue cloaked fighter is surrounded and can't retreat either, the female knight is also surrounded and can't retreat. This was really bloody and ended the game in my favour.

A big welcome to follower Neil Scott with a blog of his own, Scotty’s Wargaming, a nice collection on a wide-ranging number of topics. He’s building a small army of GNW Swedes, so he is by definition a nice guy with good taste (if he wins with them, of course…). Hop over to his blog to have a look.

A new league for Pulp Alley – WIP

I’m building a new league for Pulp Alley. It’s a gang led by more or less mad bio-mechanical genius Anders Einstein, illegitimate son of Albert.

The first figure is an “improved” member of the team…

The mini comes from Johnny Borg Castings , sculpted by Johnny Lauck, and will probably be some sort of marksman. More to come soon, as this has become a very much prioritized project.

Torture chamber accessories from Zealot

Every evil villain needs a torture chamber and every hero needs to save someone from said chamber. That is pulp basics, and probably valid in fantasy settings, too.

A good thing then, that I have an assortment of implements for such a chamber. They are all made by Zealot Miniatures, and are part of the kickstarter stuff I got a couple of months ago. 

There will be a thing or two more for the chamber from Zealot soon and also some stuff from Reaper, but those are from the Bones III kickstarter and will take a while to arrive.

A warm welcome to new follower Ivor Evans with Saturday Mornings where you will find fantastic terrain, great AARs and more. Recommended!

Pål from the club has also joined and he’s got a brand new blog, Wargame Development from the Trenches, which is about his just started project to build a WWII skirmish computer-game. Just one post so far (he got started with the blog yesterday!) and it sure looks interesting. I for one will follow Pål’s progress and I became his first follower! Yay! Do check it out and have a chance to influence the design of the game!

Zombicide: Black Plague – Lady Grimm

Another hero for Zombicide: Black Death, this time Lady Grimm from the Special Guest Marc Simonetti box och adventurers

I strayed a bit from the original art on this one, but she is still recognisable. 

I also got another five fatties finished. Now there are only five more runners left and the base box is all painted.

A warm welcome to new follower Miloš Sácha. I couldn’t find any blog of yours. Comment below with a link if you do have one, please.

Terror Grub from Heresy Miniatures

The just painted maggotmen inspired me to do more Heresy stuff, and this Terror Grub fitted with the theme. I wonder if the maggotmen are sort of culinary followers...

It’s a two-piece resin kit, and from experience I do advice you to paint the inside of the mouth before you glue on the front segment with the outer parts of the mouth. Trying to paint the inside with everything assembled was a bit of a pain…

You’ll need a tiny bit of green stuff to hide the gap between the pieces, but for this big a model that is to be expected. A very nice and bubble-free nice kit all in all.

I painted it greenish, gave it purple and red washes and then drybrushed gray green.

Ready to chomp on adventurers in Frostgrave and other fantasy settings.

Obviously!
This is where I got my icky monsters.

Pulp Alley AAR – Perilous Island Campaign – The Escape

During the last adventure the Perilous Island started to shake, the volcano erupted and everything essentially went downhill. The courageous CSSS started an orderly retreat back to the beaches while the other leagues panicked and just ran.

The CSSS enters lower right while the Belgians enters upper right.

Two of them, the phrenologists and the awful heretic cultists, obviously got lost while the CSSS and the Belgians reached a secluded beach at the same time. Things looked good as there were an assortment of canoes and small craft at the shore. It looked equally bad as some monstrosity swam around in lagoon.

Monsignore swore as he had a bad feeling about this and some not so fond memories of the monstrous creatures he had had the misfortune to meet on this cursed island.

The objective here was obviously to neutralize the monster so escape would be possible and Monsignore’s plan was to appoint his low ranking members to the important task of being speed-bumps… ehr, I mean… well, you know… the important task of stopping the other league, while Monsignore himself supported by his two loyal side-kicks would tackle the monster. Sounds like a good plan. What could possibly go wrong? (I’ve said that before, haven’t I?) 

This goes according to plan. The low-ranking memebers of the CSSS starts to make life tough for the Belgians. All to slow them down. 

My brilliant plan is to have Soura fight the monster while Monsignore and Padre shoots at it. 

Belgian leader and a member armed with a strange secret weapon. You won't know the result of fire from that one before you actually pull the trigger. It could be awful or it could be brilliant. (Turns out to be mostly on the awful side). They will take pot-shots on the monster for the rest of the game but accomplishes exactly zero.

Area effect weapons are effective, and this downs one enemy.

Miss Mayhem knocks one of my men out but is in return downed by a shot-gun blast.

Soura Innocenza rushes the monster while Padre and Monsignore realizes that the cunning plan just went downhill as you can't shoot into a melee where one of your own is a part... but the opposition can...
There goes my plan! From cunning to stupid in a second.

"Sit, you naughty beast!"

Padre Sicario can't really do anything but rush the monster. He gets wounded in the close combat.

At the same time things looks good on the other front.

The battle continues and this time Padre falls and is out of the game.

Monstrous creatures are extremely hard to wound but Suora manages to land a hit, gaining a plot point.

But the monster gets its revenge and wounds Soura as the battle continues.

It starts to look less than ideal here...

...but a well-timed shotgun blast evens things out a bit.

Now things are starting to look a bit bleak on this front...

But it looks very much better here!

Until...

This is not according to plan!. Monsignore have an acute feeling of déjà vu. 

There is an awful lot of Belgians still left on the low-level front and only one of my heroic  priests.

Hey! Soura recuperates and is in the fight again.

The last of my allies and followers bites the dust...

... and Soura and Monignore takes the brunt of the attacks. It is too late to make any difference as the game ends.
Only one plot point is awarded for wounding the monster. Amazing considering the amount of  damage we tried to inflict...

The island starts to shake, the monster flees and our heroes gather their wounded and paddles away from the  doomed island. The other leagues can all be seen fleeing as the cowards they are in a flotilla of ramshackle crafts.

We all find our waiting ship and under a fragile truce we see Perilous Island explode on the horizon. An era disappears under the waves and the Earth is rid of some savage monsters. Monsignore breaths a sigh of relief.

The ship steams into the sunset leaving a bunch of savages behind. They are good paddlers so they will eventually find land. Somewhere. Possibly. The nearest land is hundreds of miles away... Well, they are savages anyway and we can’t possibly have them on board.

With that the Perilous Island campaign is over. With a bit of luck we will see some adventures before the CSSS start to explore a rumour of misdeeds in Egypt.

Frank Buck and a snow leopard from Reaper and another Cringing Captive from Pulp Figures

More finished figures from the painting table build-up.

The first one is another figure from the Cringing Captives blister from Pulp Figures and sculpted by Bob Murch. She will definitely see action in Pulp Alley, as there is always use for another poor blonde to rescue.

To her rescue comes Frank Buck, an Indiana Jones wannabe, from Reaper and their Bones range and sculpted by Bob Ridolfi. He is rather larger than life, or at least larger than 28 mm, as he is nearly a head taller than my other 28mm figs.

Finally a large cat from Reaper and their Animals Companions 2 set. I tried to paint it as a snow leopard for our games of Frostgrave and the result is... well, I guess it’s at least okay. I'll have to train a bit on leopard-spots, I guess. Better than no snow leopard, anyway.