Flying Lead: The Defense of Bravo Base

Max and I tried out the Flying Lead miniatures game by Ganesha Games. As you know, I am a huge fan of Andrea's work, having played many games of Song of Blades and Heroes and Mutants and Death Ray Guns, it was time to try his modern/sci fi rules written with Rich Jones.

Max is a huge fan of Star Wars, so our first game, of course, had to be set in that universe. I downloaded the stats for the Star Wars universe from the Song of Blades Yahoo group. Also, a special shout out to Tim's Wargaming Stuff blog for the custom Flying Lead cover.

I set up a Republic Base, and off we went. The battle is chronicled below in images...

Bravo base on the planet of Crixis IV 

 Advancing Droids menace the base.

 The clash begins...

In the droids' first salvo, two troopers go to ground, and one is Shaken.  

 The clone commander moves into position to better rally his troops. 

 Max contemplates his next move. 

 The heavy clone trooper manages to wreak some havoc in the Separatist forces but goes to ground. 

 The super battle droid fells another brave trooper while a commando droid looks on.

Another trooper falls to enemy blaster fire.  

 The super battle droid takes care of the heavy trooper and moves onto the commander. 

 The commander uses his jet pack to go into cover and give an order to concentrate fire on the advancing super battle droid. 

 The super battle droid proves stubborn. 

 The commander finally falls to a lucky shot by a common battle droid. Down to less than 50% of their beginning force and losing a leader, the remaining members of the squad abandon the base to fight another day. 

Max is the victor in our very first game of Flying Lead! Way to go, Max!

The rules for this game are NOT Song of Blades and Heroes with everyone having ranged weapons. It is properly deadly for the subject matter. I love how much they have modified the rules for firearm combat while still maintaining the Fast Play philosophy of all of Ganesha Games games. 

Max set up the terrain for another battle between Republic and Separatist troops, who will win? Stay tuned! 

Thanks for reading and Happy New Year. 

Song of Blades and Heroes: Dragon Defenders

Dragon Warriors vs. The Warhulk's Raiders. Max was playing his warband from the previous game. His dragon was wounded (increasing his Quality). I was playing an Ogre Warhulk, a warmage and his pet chain golem, a harpy, and a dread warrior. The battle was truly back and forth, but in the end, Maximan rallied his troops to defeat my raiders. Nicely played, son.




Below is the battle in images...

 Dragon Warriors Assemble!

 The Warhulk's Raiders head for the bridge.

 The dragon moves advances.

 The Raiders move to engage the Dragon defenders.

 The chain golem starts to take a toll. 

 The dragon takes to the high ground while the other combatants slug it out on the ground...is that a tasty wizard below...hmmmm.

 The chain golem has done some damage. 

 The fire samurai finally moves toward the battle following his dwarf commander. 

 Go for the leader!

 The leader sends the chain golem reeling. 

 The fire samurai moves to finish off the golem with the help of his commander. 

 The flyers duke it out over the battlefield. Harpy vs. dragon. Who do you think won?

 The golem is back on his feet...

 but not for long. The fire samurai's flaming sword proves to be too much for the magical juggernaut. 

After slaying the warhulk leader, the remaining Raiders flee the battlefield. The temple of Astasia is safe from defilement for another day. 

What an awesome game, Max almost gave up, but in the end, he rallied his troops for a decisive victory. Two in a row!


Next up, Star Wars Flying Lead


Thanks for reading!

Attack on the Ancient Shrine of Cassotar: Max Wins!

Max and I sat down to another game of Songs of Blades and Heroes with Max playing his newest warband: The Dragon Warriors. Max's band consisted of an elf archer, two human crossbowman, a fire samurai, a ninja, a dwarf commander, and a helpful green dragon!

I played a gnoll warband with two claw fighters, an archer, several warriors, and a warchief. I called them Yeonoughu's Favored.

My gnoll raiders were attempting to defile the shrine to win favor with their hyena-headed god.

The Dragon Warrior mercenary band was tasked with defending the shrine.

 The forces assemble for battle

 The dragon advances

Yeonoughu's Favored take the bridge. 

The dragon takes to the high ground. 

 The Dragon Warriors' ground forces push back the advancing gnolls.

 The battle for the bridge is fierce.

 The first wave of gnolls is dropped and stopped.

With their leader in the fray, the gnolls push back and take the bridge. 

 The gnolls manage to slay the dragon! 

 The leaders clash. 

 The gnolls have the upper hand. Victory seems to be in their grasp. 

 The tide of battle turns, and the warchief of Yeonoughu's Favored leaves the field. 

The fire samurai finishes the gnoll archer. The Dragon Warriors are victorious!

Max wants to play his Dragon Warriors again, so we rolled on the combat aftermath table to see if his fallen combatants will return. The dragon has some severe wounds but will return to battle again. All of the other members of his warband only suffered minor injuries and will live to fight another day. 

Thanks for reading and Merry Christmas, everyone!

Starshield Gaming Knights: Super Dungeon Explore!

Starshield Board Gaming Knights!

Last Monday, several of our members got together to test run the brand spanking new game, Super Dungeon Explore!  

I arrived late to the party and had to choose my character randomly. My character was the barbarian butt-kicker!

We jumped right into the game. And my barbarian was the first to the fight.  

 The druid's bear form was cool!

Rex smashed quite a few of us.

The boss dragon spawned with only one Super Dungeon Explorer to defeat. The rest lay broken by its minions.

What I Didn't Like: I have never been much for Japanese-style art. So, the artwork was a bit distracting to me. It felt too kiddie for the theme of the game. I know it was meant to emulate certain Japanese designed video games, but the art, though colorful and pretty, was a disappointment to me. I feel if they were going for a video game feel that emulating the style of Torchlight would have been a better fit.

Also, I felt that the Starshielders could have designed this game using minis, dungeon tiles, and dice we already own.

What I Did Like: We got our butts kicked. I like that we will need to work together more in future games if we have any hope of surviving.

The models, though Japanese-inspired, were awesome, hefty, and made of quality plastic. Top notch. Kudos!

I like the dungeon tiles. They were pretty and seemed to have enough variety to give the base game plenty of re-play ability.

The dice were pretty and well-made as well.

I liked the equipping system with certain items being placed to match certain icons on the cards.

I liked that there was lots of dice rolling! It did my Ameritrash soul good! I liked the dice system: certain dice roll more successes than others, providing plenty of combinations for dice-rolling.

Overall: I would like to play the game again to see if we could do better. I look forward to playing it again to roll lots of pretty dice. I look forward to playing a different character. My poor barbarian didn't last very long.

Thanks for reading and have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Happy Holidays!