Showing posts with label military. Show all posts
Showing posts with label military. Show all posts

Thursday, March 28, 2024

The (White) Russians Are Coming!

 Inspired by Balkan Dave's recent post about a Russian Civil War book, I finally took the plunge on a box of WW1 Russians from Wargames Atlantic.

Ever since I got a Count Casimir variant sculpt from Pulp Figures, I've been thinking I should make a White Russian emigre faction for him to lead. As mentioned in the blog post above, the anti-Communist side of the Russian Civil War was politically and temperamentally very much in the same ballpark as the silver shirted and white robed factions I've already assembled. Historically, after losing to the Bolsheviks these jerks mostly relocated to the future Axis powers, and would participate in WW2 in both the German and Japanese armies. But some did end up in the US, including Boris Brasol who became buddies with Henry (*spits in disdain*) Ford, so this is a plausible faction for my interwar US setting even if it's not strictly a historical one. "Cossacks" also make an appearance as henchmen in an early Batman comic, so there's some "authenticity" from the fiction side as well.

Thusly untethered from the iron grip of historicity, I decided to have fun with the uniforms. I've got the RCW White Armies book by Osprey, so I basically painted a sampler of those uniforms. I guess the idea is that when Brasol or Bermont-Avalov or Vonsyatsky calls up them to join the big reactionary alliance, each one just gets his old uniform and Mosin-Nagant out of storage and reports for duty.
 




In both Pulp Alley and my homebrew system, antagonists can be single miniatures or groups of five. So in addition to "fire teams" of four rifleman and one sword-wielding officer each, I have also assembled a few "specialists": a sniper and spotter, a mad bomber, a submachine gunner and a melee expert, to provide some tactical variety and pulpy feel. The Pulp Figures guy is here too, in the white jacket.
 
 


The minis are mostly the aforementioned WW1 Russians, but I mixed in some partisan bits from the same manufacturer, some Gripping Beast hairy heads, and a handful of Warlord Games WW2 bits (eg the katana arms, and both binoculars). Finally, there are a couple German and a couple US bodies, reflecting how the Whites were often supplied by foreign powers.
 

A pretty intimidating bunch, all told! I'm still trying to decide what to call them in my game. The Russian All-Military Union (RAMU) and the Russian Imperial Union-Order (RIUO) are both appropriately sinister-sounding real orgs, and there were also a couple of explicitly Fascist Russian emigre groups if I want to be especially on-the-nose with it. But I can always make something up instead.




Monday, August 1, 2022

Battle Report - Super Villains Attack!

This is the fifth playtest I have done, but the first one I've taken sufficient notes for to present any kind of after-action summary. The scenario is a combat-focused one, with the villains trying to abscond with three pieces of mysterious technology, while the US Army, aided by a couple of heroes and some local law enforcement, attempt to stop them.




The villains (nominally the Player Characters although this is a solo game) are pretty straightforward, with Solomon Grundy and Namor as heavies, Catwoman as a more mobile operative, and Dr. Sivana with a potentially wide array of useful gadgets. They are aided by NPCs: two mercenary fire teams, and a truck-mounted machine gun (anachronistically, a technical).




They are opposed by a squad of US Infantry, some snipers, a pair of policemen, an officer, a machine-gun team, The Guardian and Nick Fury, with the potential for more reinforcements. If the villains cause enough mayhem (property damage or profoundly excessive violence), they will eventually attract the attention of Superman himself.




One characteristic of the system I am using is that PCs can avoid any negative consequence (anything from damage to enemy reinforcements arriving), but in doing so, they accumulate an unpredictable amount of stress depending on the result of their resistance test. This allows the heroes (or here, villains) to act in as hypercompetent or even superhuman a manner as one might see in a comic book or summer blockbuster.


Round 1: Solomon Grundy opens the battle by charging headlong into the military firing line, hoping to destroy the Browning .50 cal dominating the main approach. Assisted by covering fire from the mercenaries and pushing himself to extra effort, he is able to nearly close the distance without taking any physical damage or even stress.




Namor follows up to confront the police that Grundy bypassed, knocking one out with no return damage. While the two bullet-resistant villains are brute-forcing the direct route, Catwoman scampers across the rooftops while Dr Sivana accompanies a second team of mercenaries up the alley, although the later hesitates involuntarily, and another pair of police enter the area ahead of his path.

 



On the authorities' side, the two snipers target Catwoman, who is able to dodge but accrues one stress. The officer devotes his action to calling for reinforcements, and the remaining feds shoot at Grundy, but to no effect. Finally, the villain NPCs take potshots at the cops and solders, dealing scattered damage.





Round 2: Grundy makes it to the machine gunners and starts stomping! They take damage but aren't done yet. Namor lashes out with his full super strength, easily destroying the remaining policeman and damaging his surroundings as well.




Catwoman bounds further along the rooftops, effortlessly dodging the sniper fire directed her way. For his part, Dr. Sivana pulls out a ray gun, and supported by his mercenaries, finishes off the police blocking his exit from the alley.

Nick Fury heads towards the super-science threat emerging from the alley, while The Guardian and one fire team charges Grundy, and the remaining fire team and both snipers fire upon Namor. Grundy only takes one stress resisting the damage, Namor takes none. Wrapping up the turn, the technical damages a fire team and the mercs near Sivana wound Nick Fury.




Round 3: Grundy and Namor defeat their respective foes, suffering no consequence but an excess of property damage sending the mayhem counter up another tick.


Catwoman moves forward, very nearly in position to hijack the truck with an objective on it




Sivana moves up to blast Fury with the ray gun, exposing himself to return fire in order to get the clearest shot. He injures Nick Fury but his blaster very nearly malfunctions, costing him two stress to prevent the loss of his weapon.



Grundy takes one stress brawling with the Guardian and soldiers, while Catwoman is able to take cover behind the truck to avoid the snipers.

Not confident of his chances against a supervillain, the officer moves to the edge of the battlefield, still radioing for help.

Sivana's mercs gun down Fury, while the other band of mercenaries advance in search of a target.

Round 4:

Catwoman hotwires the flatbed and immediately guns it back towards the lair, weaving between her mighty compatriots in their swirling melees, crouching in the seat to avoid the potshots of the snipers. Sivana orders his mercenaries to join the battle in the center, but they (rather sensibly!) balk. The other mercs, however, join of their own accord.





While the other soldiers' efforts come more or less to naught, the officer's profanity-filled radio diatribe finally bears fruit -  a tank rolls onto the battlefield to even the odds.




Round 5: Namor finishes off the soldiers he is fighting, while Grundy seems to be struggling against the Guardian. 

Catwoman swerves the truck onto the sidewalk, knocking a fire hydrant loose and showering the street in water. 



Sivana, calling in support from the technical, manages to deal some damage to the nearest sniper. The other sniper and the tank both shoot at Namor; even his Atlantean physique is at risk from the big gun, he takes stress to avoid the damage.

Round 6: Grundy keeps trading blows with the Guardian, while Namor charges the officer, but the military man is tougher than he looks, and Namor takes a hit while dealing no damage.




Catwoman escapes with an objective, driving off the battlefield and on to the villainous base!




Dr Sivana finally outguns the sniper, but faces a major consequence and takes four stress to prevent the arrival of serious reinforcements. 




Round 7: At long last, Solomon Grundy defeats his shield-bearing foe, albeit at the cost of an arm!

Namor, on the other hand, seems to have entered his own stalemate, unable to harm or be harmed by the officer.

Sivana shoots at the tank, but its aim is better than his. Diving out of the way to avoid the blast, the doctor maxes out his stress, and is out of the battlefield.




At this point, I call it. With one Villain PC out, and one objective claimed, I think it's a pretty convincing draw. I played the PCs pretty uncreatively, but this was probably roughly compensated for by my uncharacteristic luck with the resistance tests.












Saturday, July 15, 2017

Interwar test figures

One thing that always helps me buy into a superhero scene is the presence of capable, competent non-superhumans backing up the superhero in their fight against evil. From the Avengers battling aliens alongside NYC cops and National Guard, to Wonder Woman spearheading an assault across no-man's-land, the involvement of soldiers and/or law enforcement (or even civilians, though that's a good bit rarer in our militaristic culture) helps add some weight and scope to superheroic do-goodery.

So with that in mind, I've grabbed some WWII plastic kits, with an eye towards building some late 1930s troops. With head swaps and a bit of conscientiousness about their weapons, I've made and painted my first marine and first army infantryman (with an unconverted Pulp Figures gangster for comparison).




Both soldiers are made from the appropriate Warlord Games kit. The marine has a head from the AWI Continental Infantry kit, with the crown of the hat cut down a bit to look more like a campaign hat. The army man has a brodie-helmeted head that I bought from Anvil Industries. I don't know if the rest of their kit is strictly accurate for 1938, but I think the heads do a good job of signifying "not 1942 yet!"

I rather like how these two turned out, so I will be painting the rest of their squads soon.