BBR - Game Day Playtest

It's been a while since I last posted, but summer got busy, so this playtest occurred in mid-June, and I'm just getting it posted now. Very happy with this game, and the figs and terrain, it is everything I want it to be: quick and smooth to play, easy to pick up, and very tactical, full of important decisions that eventually add up to a win for the side that plays better - most of the time!  The opposition gets a vote...

I went to the Springfield Game Day to test "Big Boy Rules" cold on people who had never played - always an enlightening experience! The game day is sponsored by our local HMGS Outreach Coordinator, the illustrious Cliff B [click].

"Big Boy Rules" are for modern combat, basically bolt action rifles + Maxims to the near future, so 1890-2030. It uses an alternating activation system to play smooth and help players plan and make decisions. Players typically field a squad of two teams with perhaps a specialist or two that are important for the scenario.

The table was quick to set up [below] using the perfect mat donated by The Angry Dachshund [click] and my Battle Systems [click] cardboard buildings and scatter terrain.  I fashioned it as a village with two "lanes" of travel that narrowed at each end. In the center was a building and some conex containers. These help provide cover and break up LoS / LoF a bit, otherwise the center just becomes a kill zone, which can make for an interesting game, but "not today, campers".

Above top left, the Goons have a hostage they're hanging onto, with some Guards and a Fire Team in reserve - the Western Contractors will have to rescue him.  At bottom center, there's a large square building. At each corner there's a container that has a "drop" in it from the Creeps local contacts - drugs to turn into cash to further their operations.  Opposing them, the Rangers will be on patrol to gather intel and clear buildings of suspected illicit Contractor Teams.  

A couple of players turned up, one had only played ancients and came to the Games Day just to try out my Moderns game!  He chose the valiant American Rangers and Contractors. The other had a variety of gaming experience, I think both with skirmish games and WWII moderns. He chose the Goons & Creeps, not-Russian Contractors [click] with a locally hired Security Team [click].

"Danger, Ranger... and it's not from the helos this time!"

American split the Rangers [click] into two groups on the center-right [above] and center-left [below] ends of town; they are on a routine patrol, looking to clear buildings, gather intel, and hey, maybe pop a few rounds at the Goons...?

Yes, yes indeed, you should "detour" this quaint little hamlet Mr. Ranger...

The Blue Sky Contractors [click] are chasing down a lead regarding a kidnapping; some local big-wig appears to have been grabbed, and is being held in a building on the far side of town. But there are some furtive movements in the shadows...

"Who's the dude with underwear on his head, man?"

"It's the HOSTAGE, dummy!" [click]

The fight starts off with all Teams off the board. The Russkies win Initiative and immediately Run to the center building, their objective. Securing it will make it a lot easier to not only dominate the board's right side, but also to clear the containers.

It's looking good - they've secured two of the containers, with their SAWs on the left, the Team Leader and an Assault Rifle on the right. The Rangers are uncertain what they are up to...but securing real estate is something they understand.

Fire is exchanged with the Rangers, who are clearing buildings and searching for intel. One Russkie climbs up to get a better Overwatch location.

Next, they push forwards to another container on the right, and Ranger Side, of the building. But this time they are opposed by a motivated SAW MPMG gunner who actions are valiant if indiscrete!   

With the Russkies pushing hard, the Rangers gather all six from their security activities and get them in a mutually supporting line in Cover. As the Fire is most intense to the left [where Russkie SAWs are] they toss Smoke to obscure the lanes of Fire - this will help them move on the Russkies.

They then advance into the smoke even as the Russkies move up to the left container, and onto the roof for overwatch.

The Fire is up close and personal - someone is going down, but WHO??

In a series of aggressive it ill-advised moves, the Rangers manage to take down three of the Russkies and clear the building. This cost them a wounded Ranger who was taken prisoner, however!  That won't go over well in Washington...

The last Russkie SAW gunner ends up wounded after escorting the prisoner to the rear.

Meanwhile, on the American right [Russkie left], the Big Sky Protection contractors divided into two pairs - one provided Fire support from the building, the other advanced down the line of shacks to right, then charged into the building, taking down the guard and grabbing the hostage right in the face of the local Security Team that grabbed him for a little extra cash and some intimidation.

They toss some CS into the building as they EXFIL, but the local TL and a Thug maneuver over to intervene, but are quickly Pinned down against the building.

Somehow, they manage to Rally, and get the drop on the BSP contractors, spraying them with close range Fire. Rolling exceptionally well, the Thugs hit both of the retrieval pair, pushing them to critical. This is aided by the Russkies sending their drone operator and a rifleman to pin the pair that are on Overwatch. 

The finale is that the hostage should be able to run to safety...wherever that is...

This was a great play test!  The new players quickly picked up the rules, even though one of them had never played a skirmish game, much less a modern one.  Overall, the Russkies played well and despite bold efforts on the part of the Rangers they managed to squeak out a win mostly due to the Rangers getting too dispersed to support each other. In Big Boy Rules, you will almost always need your Battle Buddy at some point, so sending out one guy alone will go badly for you.

Overall, am very pleased with how the rules and missions play out.  Very few and small tweaks are needed, and next up is to paint a few figs for different missions, and another team for Blue Sky Protection, which is an interesting security force to play.

Soon, I'll have to write the rules in full, with "pictures and arrows and shiny things" and send them out to volunteers for blind playtesting.  That will be the last test, and after that I'll begin selling them in some format or another - another skill set to learn!

"In Country" HBR Security Team

Do you feel more secure with these guys?

Well, probably not...

Another round of painting has me finishing up the Hanna Barbara Rus Security Team [Local] that has been partially done for a while now.  They came out much better than I originally anticipated, and are a great reminder how awesome the figs from the InXCountry line are. 

** Now sold by Echo Dark Studios CLICK. Formerly, they were sold by Enemy Spotted Studios, with which they still maintain a close relationship. **

They are not only a joy to paint, but the little details like wrist watches, positioning, belt loops, web gear straps, etc, are just insane. Whatever one thinks of the various rule systems / games they are working on, and they seem solid, the figs are an obvious must-have for any gamer. 

Now, "that's a bold claim, Mr. Up-the-Blue! gamer!  Why is that?" you might say.

"Glad you asked, Mr. Gamer Customer."  It's because 

"These guys are easy to paint, and make you look 150% better as an artiste"

I mean, seriously, I'm a solid painter with 45 years of painting mishaps behind me.  These guys are just plain easy, and make my efforts look good.  Enough said - go get yourself some here [CLICK]!

Here are some shots of the finished [Local] Security Team:

These kids look like they should be stealing tires off a car, not runnin' and gunnin for some contractors - what would their mother say??

Below, a local Thug who has worked his way up to being a full Goon, this guy sports a knock-off Rolex Oyster Perpetual - you can just make out the lettering on the dial...

...OK, just kidding... but you believed me for a sec, right??

Finally, I finished the Hostage special model from the InxCountry box set.  Overall, He came out well, altho I may fuss with him some more.

Every [great] figure tells a story, don't it?  

This guy was roused out of his bed in the middle of the night, and has a pillowcase over his head, along with a pair of his wife's underwear.  They forced him to dress quickly, so he grabbed a pair of his trusty Gym King sweats and some **** sneakers.

The tied hands were tough to guess how to do and how they'd turn out.  In the end, I just had to make some judgement calls and see what happened. Overall, I think he came out well.

These were finished because I'm doing a few more playtests tomorrow at a local Game Day. We'll see how it goes, as I've aggressively trimmed the rule mechanics in addition to finishing up a team and an independent model. 

As always, I'm hopeful it will be fantabulous to play "Big Boy Rules"!

Rezolution: CSO Teams head to finish

Last time, I did all the blue highlighting, by brush stroke [CLICK]. It's time consuming but the effect is worth it for small skirmish units where every model has some individual character. Then the holidays got very busy, and I always find it difficult to get the model's past the halfway point - they don't look that great, and what to hit next requires some thoughts, so they stalled for a few months as I felt the scheme was a bit bland. Finally, I just decided to go ahead and paint the guns and faces and see if there was enough to catch the eye for a satisfying model - glad I did!

With a bit of building up, all the faces popped really well, full of character as well as expressions that said a lot about who they are and what they're doing...

...rushing, concentrating, and 'talking on the phone'...

...leading - "Let's go, people!", running and shooting, inching forward into danger...

...another leader, "Get Some!" and "Oh s--t!!" clearly seeing a monster...

Next up, what to do about those huge assault rifles?  The ARs are over-sized and definitely take up eye space, so I wanted to give them some sort of contrast. Below, basic black, light grey, and off-white.

 

I had trouble deciding and posted a bit on Fb. I did get a few comments, and in the end I went with a contrast color for the weapon but based on the 'fluff'.  

I figure beat cops don't usually carry ARs since it it too aggressive.  So these weapons are taken from the holding locker shared with the Peacekeepers.  That force uses a grey color scheme, so these weapons went with grey. 

The hand protectors I made orange which is a color-wheel opposite from the blue [and also a sorta 70s vibe]. Was having problems with the Vallejo orange...took it apart and a large dried plug was found.

The orange was a bit thin, but the layering of it onto the grey looked good!

...gave the weapons a quick covering of Nuln Oil, also.

Along the way, was inspired to work on the optics. They look terrible up close, but the red one is dark red, Polish Crimson, then a white spot. The yellow has a touch of brown and a white spot.

Quite pleased with the results!

Had some trouble with the eyes, which I had to do a couple of times to get the white dots adequate.

some more detail work on optics...

and computer gadgets, the medic's cross, Technicians hand computer...

Got motivated to do most of the work on Marshal Renton, who really came up nicely over halfway through. He looks older and more weathered painted than in bare metal! This is block painted, dry brushed, and a few details picked out and brought up. I went with a white shirt to brighten him a bit, plus he seems like a guy who takes off his tie and throws on a field jacket and gets away from his desk at the drop of a [Stetson] hat!

The 5-pointed star was a bit of a PITA, and took several attempts using a tiny brush and yellow, then black. The hiking shoes were pretty easy, as was the "CSO" on his back.

At just a few more inches away, he is looking good.

Very pleased with how the CSO force is coming out, so will get them across the finish soon!

Rezolution: CSO Teams Halfway

Work on CSO for "Rezolution: A Dark Tomorrow" [CLICK] continues...

When last worked on, these 12 models has been primed, dry-brushed, then base coated [CLICK]. Today, my intention is to practice highlighting to make them really pop on the table, despite a pretty muted color scheme of black and blue.

Took my primed Marshals, aka "not Bladerunners" and the medibot, and put a base coat on them, using the two Citadel paints pictured: Ivanden Darksun & Base Corax White. These foundation / base paints have been very useful, as they have a lot more pigment in them so color onto a fig quickly, even if the primer wasn't perfect.

Results below - easy to see how well these paints work. There, I said something positive about GW, but don't hold your breath for the next time...!

Now, to continue working on the blue highlights for the other 8 models...

using the paints pictured, I built up some high highlights - I want them to pop a bit.

In this instance, I went for a wet and blended technique, using the paint's cap - in a lot of ways, I prefer the cap to the latest squeeze-bottle fad, e.g. Vallejo....

...put in a few drops, then mix with a paperclip...

...this created two samples, below. One is highlighted with the AP Royal Cloak the other with a sky blue by Polly-S, but the label has long since worn away.

You can see how much the one on the right "pops".  Is it too bold?  Maybe for historicals, but not for sci-fi figs, I think!  A little over the top is no problem in fiction...artistic license and all that.

Below, the nine assembled, primed, dry-brushed, base-coated blue, then highlighted CSO troopers. Two "leaders" likely sergeants, four "troopers" and three specialists, the Medic, Technician, and Engineer.

At a more "game table distance" they seem to have what is needed for them to stand out, even if up close they are a bit unrealistic.  But they're game pieces, ultimately, so game distance is good for them.