Chicago Police from Tactical Miniatures and West Wind

Here's another one of those projects that I started long before I had a use for it. I'd been wanting to paint up some Chicago Police Department officers since I picked up four packs of cops at Little Wars for stupid cheap money two years ago. Here's what I ended up with.

• "Rookie Cops" and "Narcotics Team" from Tactical Miniatures, now owned by Armorcast and available here.
  
• "Police Officers" and "Detectives in Tactical Body Armor" from West Wind, still available direct from West Wind in the UK or from Old Glory in the USA.

I recently painted up the Rookie Cops and Police Officers. First up, I'll discuss the Rookie Cops from Tactical Miniatures.

These guys are very realistically proportioned to the point of maybe being a bit too slender. I ended up with a nice selection of poses and weapons with a modern sculpting style.

And here's a look at the West Wind Police Officers.

These have more of a chunky, mid-90s style to them. They remind me a bit of the Copplestone or Foundry style. They have less fine detail than many current miniatures, and have more of a uniform appearance (no pun intended) with caps, long sleeves and generic semi-auto pistol.

I painted these guys with my usual base colors, a bit of drybrush for the hair and then a brush-dip of Minwax Polyshades Tudor. However, this time I tried something new for me. I painted freehand Chicago flags on all the officers, and checkerboard rims on the caps of the West Wind figures (an essential CPD detail).

I used a micron pen for the black checks and the blue stripes.

It turned out OK -- nothing to write home about, but good for a tabletop-quality paintjob.

These figures are virtually stock, though I cut their slotted tabs down to pegs so I could mount them on plastic bases. I also cut away the insignia on the right shoulders of a couple minis to make space for the Chicago flag.

Speaking of bases, like the Van Saar I painted a couple months ago, I based the cops on Champ Industries plastic scenic bases, in this case the "Urban Design" set.

Though they only come in four styles, the Urban Design set is a nice set of plastic bases depicting broken pavement with some half-buried metal beams. It's very reminiscent of the ancient streetcar and train rails that still show through some Chicago streets.

The bases are slightly bigger than a standard 25mm slotted base (a bit over 26mm in diameter) but you wouldn't notice on the tabletop.


Despite the difference in proportions, I think the two lines will look fine on the tabletop together.

Of course what police force would be complete without some cruisers? I picked up a few of these Welly brand 1/43 Ford Crown Victoria cruisers in Chicago Police Department livery a few years ago.

This vehicle is still a CPD icon even as it's being phased out in favor of smaller Taurus and Explorer based interceptors.

Here's a look at the whole group.

There you have it, a CPD unit ready for action. These figures were a joy to paint and finished up very quickly. I can recommend them without reservations to anyone who needs some cops on their table. I still don't have a concrete use for them yet. They might make their way into next year's Halloween zombie apocalpyse, or perhaps they'll fight alongside superheroes in our next game of Power Legion.

When I paint up the narc team and detectives, I'll have enough variety to make a very cool police force for "Fistful of Kung Fu", a Hong Kong action movie ruleset from Osprey that I recently picked up.

-- Karl, Chicago Skirmish Wargames club member

Doom Comes to Sunnyvale: Our 3rd Annual Halloween Zombie Game

The club gathered last week for what has become an annual event: our Halloween zombie apocalypse game! This session continued the narrative that began in our first two games and saw our survivors escape from the chaos and carnage of New Chicago and flee into the relative safety of rural Illinois. Many months passed, and the survivors found comfort and shelter in Sunnyvale, an abandoned trailer park located deep in the woods. As the weeks passed and the zombie threat diminished, the survivors thought they had escaped the worst. They were wrong...

Doom Comes to Sunnyvale was conceived by Josh and I as an all-out assault by the walking dead on the fortified trailer park. The whole scenario was built around a truly epic terrain project from Josh -- he singledhandedly assembled, prepped and painted each and every mobile home in the park, most with special touches and unique features. As if that weren't enough, he made a whole bunch of extra terrain to accompany the trailer park and set the rural scene: a playground, a water tower, a clothesline and a windmill. Combined with a veritable forest of trees from me and Tim and you've got all the makings of an excellent wilderness zombie game -- quite different from our typical urban zombie games.

We had five players for the game: Karl, Tim, Matt, Mattias and Tyler, with some spectating from Mike C. and Mike M. We decided to use Blasters & Bulkheads for the scenario, which is the same ruleset that we used last year. It's easy to pick up and has a great "henchmen" mechanic for running groups of zombies. Josh and I had adapted Tim's house rules to randomly generate hordes of zombies from five spawn points on the tabletop. These were known to the players, and they had the option of fighting their way across the table to a supply shed, grabbing some grenades, and attempting to destroy these spawn points with heavy explosives. As you'll see in the battle report, a couple players tried to go this route, but they quickly found themselves overwhelmed by the endless ranks of the dead.

Speaking of undead, this game featured more zombies than ever before! Between Tim, Josh and I, we had upwards of 75 painted zombies on the table!

Here's the tabletop at the start of the game. Survivors are milling around in the center of the trailer park, mostly unaware of the looming zombie threat.

And we're off! The first turn, Josh and I ended up deploying several dozen zombies among the five spawn points. The walkers immediately shuffled in the general direction of the survivors. We had some rough behavior rules in mind for the zombies. In order of priority, they would:

1. If alone, move to join a group of zombies
2. Move toward and attack the nearest survivor
3. Move forward in a straight line

As you can see in these photos, the zombie hordes grew quickly and moved through the woods into the survivors' settlement.

Each player had two survivor figures armed with a variety of weapons. We played the survivors as WYSIWYG, so if a survivor had a shotgun and a machete, well, that's what he had to fend off the undead hordes.

As the zombies approached the settlement, some players sent their survivors to meet the zeds at the perimeter. A vicious firefight developed on the east flank of the settlement as zombies swarmed out of a traffic pileup and into Sunnyvale proper.

Across the map on the west side of the trailer park, another ragged group of survivors faced off against shamblings hordes spilling out of the dense woodlands.

The players maneuvered and attacked the hordes, slaughtering dozens of the walking dead and littering the streets with rotting corpses. The henchmen rules for Blasters & Bulkheads meant that the zombie groups moved and fought together but died easily to coordinated firepower. Once they got in close combat with the survivors, it became hard to escape!

Just as the survivors were getting a handle on the looming zombie threat, Josh and I played our ace card -- with a clank and a groan, zombies shoved aside manhole covers in the center of the street and started spilling out of underground sewers! The perimeter of Sunnyvale had been breached!

Again the survivors fought with the ferocity of cornered tigers, fending off the undead hordes even as they boiled up from the sewer manholes. But by this point, we were nearing our turn limit, and it was clear that the survivors would be able to escape and live to fight another day. Sunnyvale, however, was completely overrun, as these photos show.

In the end, it was a pyrrhic victory for the survivors. They had managed to escape, but their settlement was a total loss. What had once been a spark of hope in the vast, dim realm of the zombie apocalypse -- Sunnyvale -- was now reduced to a desolate wasteland where the walking dead prowled and no sanctuary could be found.

All in all it was a fun game that built on the narrative established in our first couple zombie games. We're even more excited to play a sequel with the survivors returning, perhaps armed with military-grade equipment, to clean out Sunnyvale and turn it into a proper defensible settlement. This will give us another chance to play on Josh's excellent terrain!

Afterward, we gave out some prizes for most zombies killed, best team player, etc. The goodies were provided by Matt (proprietor of Wreck-Age and all-around great guy). Everyone got to take home a Wreck-Age treat, so look for some new additions to our post-apoc games in the near future.

-- Patrick, Chicago Skirmish Wargames club member (photos by Josh)

Atomic Highway: A Little Wars Battle Report

We've been hyping the game we've come up with for HMGS' Little Wars convention for some time now, and after a weekend of furious action, here are the results.

The Gangs

First, let's take a look at the gangs that took the field. We had 6 factions involved in this game.

The Settlement Survivors — These folks are not inherently violent, but are willing to do what it takes to defend their families and their fragile settlement on the outer wastes.

1. Gas Runner tribe — Nomads who specialize in the acquisition and transport of Black Gold. In this case they are working for the Settlement Survivors faction.

2. Settlement Scouts — These warriors are specially tasked with finding supplies (in this case Black Gold) for the settlement.

3. Settlement Defenders — These survivors have come along as extra muscle to ensure the safe delivery of the Black Gold

The Vandals — These villains survive not by their own efforts, but by raiding and stealing from others.

4. Butchers of Boozetown — Feared by all, these psychotic raiders are not known for leaving survivors... intact.

5. Rat Scavengers — Mostly comprised of former Settlement Survivors, the Rat Scavengers are raiders who prey on their former comrades.

6. Lone Skulls Biker Gang — No stranger to violence before the Great Catastrophe, the Lone Skulls now find their skills in violence and intimidation to be a valued commodity.

The Scenario

In our scenario, the survivors of a dark future have secured a tanker of Black Gold (gasoline, of course, using a term borrowed from "The Road Warrior") with the help of the Gas Runner tribe. In order to get it back to their settlement, they attempt a daring cross-country run, trying to avoid the Vandals by staying off the highway. The Survivors need to get the tank of fuel across the wastes to their settlement, while the Vandals' objective is to seize the truck.

We managed to set up a table featuring 14 feet of post-apocalyptic madness! The settlement objective is in the foreground. Notable areas include the Narrows and the Splits. This game used a very simplified version of the Wasteland Meltdown rules. Over the course of three separate playtest games, we tweaked the rules to create a fun, easy-to-learn scenario.

The Game

The game began with a roar of engines as the Gas Runners took off across the wastes, defended by the Settlement Survivors and pursued by the Vandals. Adrenaline and a sense of duty overpowered sound logi,c and early in the game the Settlement Defenders tried a suicidal blocking maneuver to slow their pursuers.

The Gas Runners and Settlement Scouts roared ahead into the Splits.

Unfortunately for the defenders, the massed firepower of the Vandals and the ramming power of their death trucks made short work of the blockers. The defenders' vehicles were crushed, smashed and crippled, with most occupants slaughtered.

With only one surviving figure, the Settlement Defender player opted to take advantage of a "respawn" rule we had created for just such a situation. The player received one vehicle and two passengers at a garage located further down the battlefield. The respawn option was available to any player who lost both of his vehicles.

Ambush! As the Gas Runners and Settlement Scouts come out of the Splits, they were ambushed by a Rat Scavenger sedan.

To represent their control of the wastelands, the Vandals were given the ability to begin the game deployed anywhere up to the last road section. Additionally, any Vandal vehicle ending its turn on a black asphalt road section was able to re-enter the board from another road section the following turn.

This ended up being a great mechanic for keeping the action fast, and keeping players whose vehicles were damaged from being completely left behind.

The ambush was largely ineffective, though a few of the Vandals managed to leap onto the Gas Truck just before it roared into the Narrows. Shortly after, the majority of the Vandals left at the table at a road section in order to ambush the truck after the Narrows.

As the Gas Truck left the Narrows, it was beset by several Vandal vehicles, which rammed it and poured on the firepower. More Vandal riders boarded the truck; absolute chaos ensued as it neared the settlement (and the end of the game)!

Though indestructible as part of the scenario, damage nonetheless took its toll on the Gas Truck. Every 20 points of damage meant a panic check, which meant friendly passengers might fall off!

At the settlement, the defenders rolled back the vehicles blocking the entrance...

.... meanwhile the attackers and defenders massacre each other until only the driver and one Vandal warrior remain aboard the Gas Truck as it rolls through the settlement gates.

Despite the loss of all the Gas Runner defenders, the Settlement Survivor faction won the major objective — and by only losing three vehicles, they secured a MAJOR VICTORY!

Conclusion

Overall, I couldn't have asked for a better game. The outcome actually became less sure as the game progressed, and it was in contention right up until the moment the Gas Truck rolled into the settlement.

Including briefing, the entire game of 14 turns took less than two and a half hours. Except for collision results and a few inevitable GM rulings, the players were able to handle almost all gameplay themselves within four turns. The respawn and road re-entry mechanics kept all players engaged through the entire scenario, and they all seemed to be having a great time.

Special thanks is due to Pat, who created and modified the scenario and would have run it if life hadn't intervened. Also, thanks go out to the Chicago Skirmish Wargames club members, who gave up three club nights (nearly two months of meetings) to heavily playtest this game. The playtests resulted in many, many changes, and when I think of what the rules first were, the game would have been a true disaster without the modifications.

Thoughts on Little Wars

Little Wars was a great venue for running the game. They were very friendly and more than willing to give us a double-long space for our 14-foot game boards. They also provided the GM (me) with a goodie bag of snacks and a medal to give to the best general. The award went to the gamer who had only lost one vehicle and two passengers.

Even though our event was sold out in pre-registration, only three players actually showed up! However, we were able to fill the three spots with two walk-ups and Ryan, our erstwhile club member who had come in from Kansas City to hang out for the weekend and help our with the game.

The convention sights were great as always. Little Wars consistently has a multitude of great battlefields and miniatures representing the entire historical spectrum of eras and scales. The flea market was small but excellently run and there were lots dealers. I made some great finds at both.

Though not having much interest in historical gaming, I had a good time looking over the tables and at the paint-and-take booth. Interestingly, there isn't free admission for GMs, and unlike Adepticon, there also isn't free admission for folks who want to come and shop, or just walk around and watch games in progress.

This is the second year that we've run an event at little Wars. We'll likely run another event at Little Wars next year, but we are considering other venues. It's very heavily weighted toward the historical side of the spectrum (as one would expect for an event run by HMGS). Aside from the Warmachine tournament (which had the distinction of being the only games featuring unpainted miniatures, haha), our game was one of only three non-historical games I saw. As most of our group does very little historical gaming, we are left wondering if we are reaching the right audience with our games. Moreover, if we didn't run a game at the convention, would we spend $20 to stroll around and shop?

We have plenty of time to discuss this question before next year's event. I'd urge the event organizers to consider free admission for GMs as well as a reduced rate for non-players who just want to browse and spend money in the vendor area. Anything to make the convention more accessible is a good thing!

As always, we'd love to hear your impressions of Little Wars. Post a comment below or (if you're in the Chicago area) join our mailing list!

— Karl, Chicago Skirmish Wargames club member

The Valley of No Return: A Supersystem 2 report

(Editor's note: Inspired by reports of the new Blasters & Bulkheads title that takes the Goalsystem into space, CSW member Don shared photos and a writeup from a game he ran last year using Supersystem 2.)

"The Valley of No Return" was a three-player 28mm cooperative game where three of the world's most famous hunters (Alan Quartermain, Kraven the Hunter, and Ka-Zar the Savage) were sent to a valley to hunt some big game. Although they were working together, each player had some secret objectives.


During the game, the group was beset upon by a host of creatures including renegade Chinese troops, a giant spider, and King Kong (or is that Mighty Joe Young?)! Then for the final curve ball, a Predator was secretly hunting all three during the game which led to a truly pulpy (and by that I mean bloody) climax. As with all my games, a prize was given out to the overall winner (a Predator DVD) which was Kraven the Hunter I believe.



Supersystem 2 worked really well for all these disparate elements, and my players — who are not hard core gamers — picked it up quite fast. There is a a lot of dice rolling, but it goes pretty fast, so all players are engaged. It also helps to have each player pursuing secret goals unknown to the other players, which leads to great backstabbing. Stats for the characters can be generated fairly quickly, as there are ample examples for a balanced game, and if you do some google-fu you can find various other creatures that only need a bit of tweaking.

One complaint about the Goalsystem games are that fights can take a long time. This was supposedly addressed in the Victorian Horror game Chaos in Carpathia and I will report once I run a trial game.

— Don, CSW club member