ATZ Day 1 - Here we go

Finnally I've managed to get my shit together and get a game of the fantastic All Things Zombie : Final Fade Out finished and written up, most of my time was spent finding textures and images to use in Maptool but hopefully I've got enough now to do a couple more games at least.

In this campaign we will be following a construction worker called Johnny Ericsson as he tries to bring together his friends and family to survive in a quickly evolving zombie apocalypse, this series is going to be written as a story with the odd picture of my map just so you can see where everything is, if you're wanting to get more of an idea of how the game plays from a mechanics point of view feel free to leave a comment and I'll try to answer any questions.

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"Bugger all on tv as usual..." Johnny mumbled to himself as he idly  flicked through the channels as he usually did on his days off, he fruitlessly glanced around the sitting room for anything to entertain himself, "May as well go for a walk". A walk for Johnny normally consisted of about 10% walking and 90% having a drink at the pub and so he pulled himself up from the sofa, slipped on his jacket and left the house in the direction of the Rose & Crown.

Johnny finally arrived at intersection by the pub after taking a long walk around the park, "There are some nutters in this town" he muttered as he caught a glimpse of someone walking down the middle of the street a few meters away. It seemed like the man had heard him as he turned round and began staggering towards johnny, 'He looks wankered' he thought to himself as he stood in place while the man approached. The man took a few more steps forward and Johnny began to feel uneasy, he started to notice something off about the mans face and the way he was moving, then he thought about the time of year, "Haha, nice costume mate, you out scaring trick or treaters?" he laughed as he shifted his weight onto his other foot.

Suddenly the man lunged forwards trying to grab hold of johnny, "What the hell are you doing?!" He shouted before shrugging the man away and delivering a strong right hook to his head, which promptly detached from the rest of the body and rolled a few feet away. Johnny stood motionless for a moment in shock of what had just happened "...That thing was real?" He said aloud "What the hell is going on here...".

Still shaken from the encounter Johnny circled around the corpse and backed away slowly towards the bar, as he did he stumbled down the curb managing to twist his ankle, it was nothing serious it just made moving around a bit more difficult. Johnny turned around to face the pub and was stopped in his tracks by what he saw, a few meters away stood a woman, mouth open with a look of sheer terror on her face, she'd obviously just witnessed what had happened. It was difficult for Johnny to know what to say in this situation, he cleared his throat and shuffled his way towards the door, "Zoommmmbbbiiieeee!!!" The woman shrieked as she began beating franticly at him, "Wait sto..." Johnny couldn't even finish his sentence before having to defend himself. With a bad ankle he couldn't keep his balance and feel backwards hitting the ground hard and knocking the wind out of his lungs, the woman sprinted off into the distance still screaming.

Johnny slowly righted himself and brushed himself down before hobbling through the bar, "Hey Johnny, what're you doing here?" The man behind the bar said in a hurry,
"Hey Harry, well I was going to stop by for a drink but there's some freaky shit going on outside, is Suzie still here?"
"She's on her way back to your place, I'm just about to lock up here, haven't you seen the news?" Harry replied,
Johnny paused for a moment "No...what's going on?"

Harry spent a moment outlining the main points of the news item that had been broadcast to all tv stations while Johnny was out, the dead had risen up and started preying on the living, the phones were dead, power outages were expected and cities all over the country would start being quarantined off until the government could get control of the situation and find out how to stop the spread.

"Anyway there's no more time to explain everything, I've got to get back to my family, your Mrs saw the news report so she can fill you in when you get back but for now just get yourselves safe."

"Good luck" Johnny replied quietly as he backed out of the bar into the street, as he did so he noticed something further down the street on his right, two more people seemed to have come out of the building next to the bar at the sound of the commotion and were stood motionless, inspecting the zombie carcass from across the road. Luckily the pair were too preoccupied and too far away to cause Johnny any grief and he continued to hobble back towards the park.

As he came along side the park he failed to see the group of panicing people who were running perpendicular to his path. With a bit of ducking and weaving Johnny managed to just about escape a collision with any of them "Watch where you're going you bloody idiots!" He shouted as they disappeared across the street and down an alley. That was the last peice of action Johnny saw on his way home, what was even better is that his ankle was starting to feel better too, good thing it wasn't serious.

NUTS! - Send in the Brits!

Welcome to the first game in my first NUTS! campaign, we will be following Captain Robbie Knight who is the Section Leader of the 1st Section, No.4 Commando unit. He commands a section of 11 highly trained British commandos and works alongside another similar section and a 3rd support section to make up the remainder of his platoon, you can see details of his section in a table a bit later on.

It's 22nd January 1944 and No. 4 Commandos have been deployed to Italy, 1st and 2nd sections have been ordered to patrol a wooded area to try and secure the region to make logistics for the rest of the force easier, enemy resistance isn't expected to be high and as such the level of support the commandos have is limited.

(apologies for the colours on this table, they're copied straight from my excel sheet and I don't have time to fiddle with it)

ID	Name	Type	Rep		Weapon
1-1	Cpt. Robbie Knight	SL	5		Medium   SMG
1-2	WO. Arden Mayes	Jr SL	5		Medium SMG
1-3	L Cpl. Hewie Newell	LMG Gunner	4		Bren LMG
1-4	S Mjr. Rigby Cartwright	LMG Asst.	6		Bolt Action Rifle
1-5	S Mjr. Jimmy David	Rifleman	6		Bolt Action Rifle
1-6	L Cpl. Zack Sniders	Rifleman	5		Bolt Action Rifle
1-7	L Cpl. Keegan James	Rifleman	5		Bolt Action Rifle
1-8	L Cpl. Irving Ware	Rifleman	5		Bolt Action Rifle
1-9	L Cpl. Hal Howard	Rifleman	5		Bolt Action Rifle
1-10	L Cpl. Harve Jerffries	Rifleman	5		Bolt Action Rifle
1-11	Pvt. Lee Bass	Rifleman	4		Bolt Action Rifle

Red targets are PEFs, Blue represent scouted terrain (I give up on that after a while)

Deployment sees 1st section taking position in the woods to the west while 2nd section does the same to the east, the commandos take a moment to quickly scan all the possible defensive locations for enemy troops but all the visible terrain looks clear for now.

As part of deployment we generate 3 PEFs, one pops up behind the ruins in the center of the staging area while the other two start out in the north east most woods 

Activation rolls [British 6-1 German] - friendly reinforcements turns out to be nothing...

PEFs in the woods move towards 2nd section and the one behind the ruin remains stationary.

The commandos are still going over their plans and preparing to move out.

Activation Rolls [2-5] -  enemy reinforcements, 6 infantry, 1 with panzerfaust...

 

A German squad made their way into the area from the north, one of the men (1-3) is armed with a panzerfaust while the rest had their standard armarment, meanwhile the two eatern PEFs waited behind the crest of the wooded hill, out of sight.

The British commandos start to creep through the woods on either side of the area, their plan is to advance up each flank to minimise their own vunerablitiy while being able to support eachother if neccesary.

Activation Rolls [4-6]...

Both sections continued to advance forwards, 2nd section left the cover of the woods to dash across open ground towards a nearby hill hoping to gain a vantage point.

Activation Rolls [2-1]...(sorry I forgot to snap a picture here)

2nd section formed up at the end of the woods and then advanced, unsure of what they were walking into. A snapping twig nearby put the men on edge, but after a breif check it turned out the just be a case of nerves and so they moved deeper into the wood.

1st section upped the pace to try and stay level with the other section, as they reached the edge of the woods they came to a sudden halt, the point man had spotted a squad of Germans behind the ruins a short distance in front of them. It didn't seem the Germans had noticed the commandos as none of them seemed to be readying their weapons.

Seeing this as a good oppertunity the three front commandos oppened fire, two men drop to the ground and the squad bursts into action scrabbling to find any cover they can while dragging their wounded away.

Once they'd made it to cover the Germans which could wasted no time in returning fire L.Cpl. James lost his footing as the bullets whizzed past his head but he managed to escape harm and all other shots were poorly aimed.

With automatic fire flying towards them the commandos kept their heads tucked in behind the trees, they all knew just how easy it was to get clipped.

Activation Rolls [3-1]...

L Cpl. James regained his feet as the rest of his section manouvered to better firing positions through the hail of bullets directed at them, miraculasly none of them get hit and the presence of their captain keeps them all focused on the job at hand. L Cpl. Newell put his training to good use and with the help of his assistant managed to get his Bren LMG set up towards the ruins in no time, it was time to do some surpressing fire of their own. The LMG began violently spitting a stream of bullets all over the enemy position, wisely the occupants imedietly ceased fire, chosing instead to keep their heads down, however the squad leader didn't react quickly enough and slumped to the ground with blood pouring from his arm and stomach.

Hearing the eruption of fire 2nd section made haste towards the top of the hill to set up their own firing position, once again the machine gunner of the team does an excellent job setting up and is ready to fire extremely quickly. Another rifleman hits the dirt as a result of their salvo, the Germans had quickly became pinned with two machine gun fire coming in from each flank, not a good place to be.

Suddenly the western LMG was silenced as more fire began coming in from the north, a German squad had arrived in support of their comrades and with two SMGs had done a pretty good job of pinning the commandos down. A considerably less amount of fire scattered itself across the eastern flank as the squad also engaged 2nd section and bolt action rounds were exchanged, the German squad ultimately lost the exchange as they lost one man to the fire an another to his nerves.

The support from the north allowed the squad in the ruins a bit of time to reorganise and set up some fire of their own, no hits were scored but the use of a rifle launched grenade made the commandos keep their heads well behind cover.

Activation Rolls [2-5] No reinforcements...

The firefight continued on the west with another German going down, 1st section prepared to make a move while second section kept the squad in the ruins busy, managing to rip the enemy machine gunner appart with their own LMG. The gruesome sight and heavy casualties appears to be enough for them as 2nd section notices the remaining men putting their weapons down.

Activation Rolls [1-3]...

The panzerfaust squad leader barked violently at his men that were hunkered down, soon bringing them back to fighting condition, they soon came under LMG fire as half of 2nd section occupied the ruins and rounded up the prisoners, this gave 1st section a chance to split up and form two teams to encircle the enemy and scout more of the area at once.

Probably through sheer stubberness than anything else the two remaining Germans continued fighting against unimaginable odds, this got one of them hit before he could even fire as he poked his head up and instantly caught an LMG round in his shoulder, this was enough to make the squad leader finnally admit defeat as he was the last man standing.

[Many turns later]

The commandos managed to complete their objective and scout the area without encountering any more resistance, they made their way back to the forward base for tea and medals.

New Virtual Board

Just a quick update, I've decided to start using a new virtual board which will allow me to adapt to new games which I'm planning to play in the near future (Like the new ATZ which I will be purchasing soon). Battle Chronicler is a great bit of software but I think that the RP Tools Maptool will let me include interior sections to my maps, something which is important in the rpgs I want to play, alot more easily.

The downside of this switch is that I need to get used to the program and get all my images etc together so it'll be a little while before my next report is up, but it shouldn't take more than a week at most for everything to be sorted and ready. Once that's done I'll be putting up my first battle of my NUTS! campaign, we'll be playing a British commando section leader and working our way through the campaign until its resolution or we die.

Red Sand Blue Skies - All Muscle No Brains

Today Vergilius is matched up against another Threax who has very unusual characteristics, he is of average size and has no signature traits however the results I got while rolling up his stats were truly bizarre, he has a measly 2 Speed and Savy, but a colossal 6 Strength! Needless to say if this guy hits us we are going to know about it. (All the images have both gladiators stats, wounds and bonus dice on the right so you can see where they're being used if I forget to mention them, click on the image to get a bigger version)

Speed check: Vergilius 5 - 6 Aristole

Even with a two point advantage in speed I still managed to uphold the tradition of losing the opening speed test, quite a feat I must admit when you have double your opponents speed, but not to worry, as long as I won the next one I'd reach the center first and have the most advantageous position. It should probably be noted that at this point Aristole failed both of his option dice meaning he should really remain still and catch his breath but seen as his bonus dice pool was full and he had no injuries I decided it would be a bit weird for him to just stand there.

Speed check: Vergilius 6 - 7 Aristole

...Or not as the case may be. Aristole managed to once again pip me at the post and take the center of the arena before I could move, the only thing you can really do to move someone out of your way in this game is to charge in head first...so being a cautious and strategically minded individual that's exactly what I did. All I can say is thank god for auto successes, I managed to fail all of my rolls leaving me with a result of 4 thanks to my speed, despite throwing in a bonus dice the best result my opponent could get here would be 5, beating me by one, luckily one of his dice came up a 4 which meant we'd tied and would both remain where we were while catching our breath. Not the best of starts for either of us really.

I've got to stop doing that...

Speed check: Vergilius 6 - 4 Aristole (After 1 tie)

Here we go, we've got first turn and I'm feeling pretty good about my chances here, I make my highly intelligent and completely unpredictable charge forwards and after sacrificing 2 bonus dice I score a very good 7 successes, without at least 3 bonus dice this target is unreachable for my opponent and coincidentally thats exactly how many dice he decided to use. Unfortunately for him his rolling let him down and he scored no successes other than the 2 free ones for his speed, I took the opportunity to unleash a bash attack and once again had devestating rolls, using 2 bonus dice each I managed to beat him by 5 rolls, giving the best result possible from this test. Aristole is sent flying backwards into the dirt and suffers a hit to his chest, luckily managing to avoid hard with the use of his shield.

My opponents turn was short and simple, he just clambered back to his feet and remained in his zone to catch his breath.

Speed check: Vergilius 7 - 6 Aristole (After 1 tie)

Another success for me allows me to carry on taking the fight to my opponent, I easily outmanouver him again and opt to attack his unshielded side rather than bashing. Wanting to be sure of a good result I throw in 2 bonus dice, my opponent also expends 1 of his own, the end product was another decisive victory to me as Aristole was once again forced back this time suffering a light wound to his belly.

This time Aristole wasn't just going to stand there and take it, he advanced into my zone and took the fight back to the manuver table, for some reason he chose not to expend any bonus dice and as such I easily won again, once more I chose to go for the unsheilded side. Feeling confident I only use 1 bonus dice, my confidence may have been a little premature however as I only scored 2 successes with my 9 dice, luckily my opponent couldn't capitalise and we went into another round of combat...3 rounds later and another 2 bonus dice lighter I manage to break my opponent and inflict a serious wound to his already damaged belly.

Speed check: Vergilius 8 - 5 Aristole (After 1 tie)

I can sense the win here so I want to press on and not give my opponent a chance to catch his breath, my rolling seems to have improved as I easily outmanouver him again and seen as my regular attacks had been a bit dicey so far I decided to try another bash this time. With no bonus dice being used from either combatants I managed to get a good opening for my attack, as brutal as it is this attack connected with his belly too causing yet another small wound, his midriff was really taking a pounding. All he could do in response was to get back up to his feet and catch his breath in the hope of getting a lucky attack on me next turn.

Speed check: Vergilius 9 - 4 Aristole

Its time to finish this fight, I move forward again knocking aside my opponents weapon to set up for another attack to the unshielded side, this could easily end this.  Aristole manages to hold me off with the help of a bonus dice and we go to a second round of melee, rapidly running out of options he uses the last of his dice in an attempt to fluke his way out of an incredibly sticky situation, alas it was no good and I beat him by a huge 5 successes sending him flying backwards with a deep cut in his lower left leg.

Aristole hit the dirt having used up all his energy and the fight was declared over, now this may have seemed an easy win as I escaped being hit once, but I can guarentee that with a strength as high as his it could have very easily only taken one hit to kill me outright, it just goes to show in this game Speed and Savy are very important attributes, while you may be able to kill in one hit with a high strength connecting with that hit is very difficult.

We gained 10 Fame for this fight which allowed us to level up our strength with 5 fame remaining, furthurmore I've just now realised I've not been taking into account my +1 to strength for my size so our total attributes are acctually 13, this means we're at the stage where we can upgrade to the next locale, im keen to start using the mercy rules etc and to hopefully experience a special match or two. So next time we join Vergilius he'll be fighting in the heart of the empire and infront of some very demanding crowds.

New RSBS module

Finally I've been lucky enough to find a good vassel module for Red Sands Blue Skies. The one I've been using up till now is something I cobbled together in 15 minutes and although it does the job it lacks a certain polish that this new one has.

I have to thank Kidd for creating this and making it available for download as it is a fantastic module which goes over and beyond what is necessary to play the game by including some really nice extra cosmetic features which are especially helpful if you're wanting to post battle reports of the game. A link to the post where he reveals the module is here http://kidd-batrepsandotherstuff.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/vassal-module-is-donefinally.html and a download link can be found here http://kidd-batrepsandotherstuff.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/link-for-rsbs-vassal-mod.html?showComment=1347908941036 .

It also appears that he's starting up his own Red Sands campaign at the moment too so if you enjoy them be sure to keep an eye out on his blog. My own campaign will be continuing soon and you can be sure to see a star appearance from the new module.

NUTS! - Intro Scenario 2

Here we are with the promised NUTS! scenario, this will be the last introduction scenario before we dive into our campaign which is what I'm really looking forwards to. Although I'm writing this after the game I was actually writing the report in full while I played rather than just taking notes like I normally do, I think this will let you see my thought process and reactions to events better which is something I want. Also there is no fluff RP stuff in this but don't worry I will still be adding it now and then when the situation feels right.

Anyway on with the report, this scenario is taking place at night so all units have their view distance reduced to 12", this made for some very interesting stand offs, but you'll see all of that as you read on, I would be in command of a US infantry squad with a BAR and bazooka supported by an M-10 tank destroyer, my objective was to halt the German advance and prevent infantry or half-tracks from leaving the west side of the table.

Good Tiger tanks...

 --Deployment--

I chose to deploy my tank destroyer on the road at an angle where it could cover most of the eastern side of the table, which would be where the enemy would deploy. I then placed my infantry nearby in the woods as support. I rolled for the enemy forces and where they would appear *Cue girlish whimpering* 2 Tiger tanks were deployed on the southern side of the road, I would have rather rolled something like an APC for at least one of them as now I'd have to completely rely on my tank destroyer and two man bazooka team to do any real damage, on the plus side I technically couldn't loose seen as the objective for the Germans is to have six infantry or one half-track reach the eastern table edge, they have neither and at this stage we're not playing with reinforcements so they're gonna have a really hard time managing to do that any time soon. But hey ho, this isn't about winning, I'm just supposed to be learning how vehicles work so lets get into this.

--Turn 1 American 2-3 German--

Both teams activate with the Germans going first, T1 moves up behind a low wall and goes hull down while T2 moves towards the US Squad in an attempt to draw them forwards and into their ambush, the In-Sight test is triggered and 2d6 passed sees the squad duck back as the only AT weapon is out of range.

A quick turn for the Germans and its over to the Americans (from now on Yanks as I'm too lazy to type and it feels more natural as I'm a Brit :P) The M-10 crept forwards staying out of sight range, I kinda need it to be in an advantageous position or be able to first first before I expose it so it's over to the boots. I decided to split the squad up into two fire-teams, the Jr NCO would take the BAR and a rifleman (Baker team) and fall back towards the M-10 while the NCO and bazooka (Able team) would hide deeper in the woods until they could get a side armour shot, that's the plan anyway, first I've got to get away from those machine guns.

I think I may make the X's for OOF bolder, little hard to see.

Able team was the first to make a break for it, the Tigers In-Sight test would be at -1 to rep because it is buttoned up. *Sigh* 1 and 3 meaning 2d6 were passed, no prizes for guessing what happens now, the co-axial MG-34 spat a burst of bullets at each of the 5 men attempting to stand up, thank god for my cover as it was six's or nothing for hits. It would be the two most important people that get hit though wouldn't it, my NCO was knocked down and a 5,6 roll against his rep saw him out of the fight, my bazooka gunner found himself meeting the same fate as he hit the dirt after a roll of 2 for damage, narrowly missing being obviously dead.

At this point I think I'm going to use a bit of creative licencing, I'm going to make a rule in my games (not sure if its already official I'm too lazy to look) that a unit can forfeit half of its total movement to pick up a weapon from a fallen soldier, friend or foe, I think this is a realistic thing to happen, especially in a situation like this. I roll for the MG reloading an it passes 2d6 meaning it's ready for anything next turn, now it's onto the hull LMG, again 5 bursts fly at the team and all but one miss. The hit is scored against a rifleman and although he is knocked to the ground he has no serious injuries and will be able to act again after a turn out.

Now for my reactions, I have to take a received fire and man down test for the entire squad, and the Able team needs to take a leader lost test on top of that, both teams will use the worst result of all their tests. Able squad hurriedly grab the wounded and duck back towards the northern table edge, the bazooka is still on the body of the downed gunner as I used more than half of the teams movement to get them out of there, H's stunned result is overridden by the duck back so He'll be able to operate next turn as normal. Remarkably Baker team would have returned fire if they weren't out gunned, but instead they remained in cover behind the trees.

Not a great turn for the Yanks but at least some of them are still alive.

Bring in the M-10!

--Turn 2 Yanks 1-6 Germans--

That's the kind of luck we needed, the German tanks wouldn't be activating this turn which gave us a much needed reprise. I've decided my M-10 needs to get in on this if I'm going to survive so I'm going to advance into range of T1, the In-Sight test now, 1d6 passed meaning he fires at -1 rep so we need a little luck here. The German gunner brings his sights onto the hull of our M-10 and passes his round placement test with 2d6 scoring a solid hit...I should have looked at the armour on my tank first...so I've got a front armour of 3 against the AP power of 9 for his gun...Bollocks. He needs 6's to pass, guess what?! 2d6 passed! My crew is all OD and the vehicle is destroyed...oops.

Uh huh...

Lets see if the infantry have anymore luck, Able team are out of sight and I retrieves the bazooka while taking command, G steps up to become the new loader and H is left behind to set up a wounded way-station and protect the injured. I want Baker team to try and go round the back of my tank wreckage and flank round the building so I check to see if they're in sight range (they weren't) and fast move them out. My JrNCO passes his leader dice so every figure will pass at least 1d6 and I manage to roll a 3,6 on the actual test meaning even the rep 3 figures pass 2d6 and can move double distance into the forest to the west.

--Turn 3 Yanks 6-5 Germans--

This is the kind of turn that only matters if reinforcements or something happen...let's move on.

The only option is to hide...run and hide.

--Turn 4 Yanks 2-5 Germans--

Aha! Another turn with no German activations, we may actually be able to swing this (famous last words). I try another fast move with Baker squad and all pass 2d6 except for the two riflemen who only passed one thanks to the leader dice, they'd lagged behind slightly and would now count as their own group till they caught up. Elsewhere I want to sneak my bazooka up for a side armour shot on T2 (I left the ruler so you could see his sight range, I'm literally millimetres short.) Now in an ideal world I need to go first next time to get my shot off otherwise I'm going to get MG'd to death again.

--Turn 5 Yanks 3-6 Germans--

Dice gods, I love you, each and every one of you where ever you are. Time to try some bazookaing! (If I don't get spotted) In-Sight passes 1d6 again so another -1 rep modifier, now the gunner physically can not hit me (needing a 8+ dice roll) and he can't benefit from the pitiful shot rule as he's not rep 3 for this shot, so I'm going to take that as the gunner decides not to shoot because to me that makes sense. My bazooka team come in range of the 6 rated side armour, I need a 5 to hit with this soldier and that's exactly what I got, because my weapon's AP rating is 7 I need to roll a 1 here to penetrate, I got a 5 so the tank will just take a Clank test, 1d6 passed means they would return fire but neither the hull MG or turret are facing me so they can't.

Baker squad caught their breath at the corner of the house while F and E just managed to catch up.

--Turn 6 Yanks 6-5 Germans--

...Ignore that.

Suicide? No, Bravery!

--Turn 7 Yanks 3-1 Germans--

At least I get to go first again, so lets fire off another bazooka before anything else happens, I saw in the book I did the last shot wrong so lets do this one right, I'm aiming at the hull again and pass 2d6 on the appropriate table scoring a hit, but alas my roll for penetration is 3 and we get another Clank test which gives the same result as last time.

Baker team take a Wanting to Charge test...yes you read that correctly...the leader dice fails so it's all down to the figures to pass these. Apparently E and F are still tired as they pass 1d6 and stay put, one by one the rest of the men charge round the corner after a fast move test each. My assistant gunner was first and passed 2d6 on his test,  I'm not bothering with In-Sight tests for the tank as no guns are facing the chargers anyway.  He takes the appropriately named Who Wants to be A Hero test, Success! He throws a satchel charge under the tank and uses his remaining movement to duck back (which in this case was run and go prone). The top armour of the tank is 3 and the AP of our charge is 5 so we need a roll of 2 or less to penetrate, the roll is a 3 and we just force a Clank test which results in nothing. If at first you don't succeed try again, my BAR gunner tries this time and once again manages to hit but has no effect. Finally my JrNCO steps up, he's the man of the moment he needs to take this tank out here or we are royally screwed...he dashes towards the tank...annnd drops the charge before he can place it...good job buddy.

Ohhhh crap.

Now it's the big guns turn, both tanks spin in place to face their respective enemies, T1's co-axial will fire first, amazingly only one hit was scored thanks to the soldiers being prone, but it was against their leader and he suffered a knockdown resulting in OOF, luckily the gun wasn't properly reloaded and therefore the loader would have to try again next turn. Now the hull MG let loose and scored a hit on the assistant gunner, he too was knocked down but managed to get away with a result of stunned. T2 needed six's to hit so it was unsurprising that only one of its shots hit the target, the single hit did manage to score an OOF though which meant that the bazooka wouldn't be able to fire every turn now. Remarkably Baker team score 2d6 on all of their tests and were allowed to carry on as if nothing happened, even more surprisingly the same was true for the remaining soldier in Able team.

At this point I decided I'd learnt enough from this scenario and it was already decided that the Germans would win here, I did enjoy this game and I'm keen to get into the campaign battles which should give us some interesting scenarios and some tense fights, hope you enjoyed this and I'll see you soon for another report.

Red Sands - Fourth Fight

I felt bad not having a battle report up in so long so I decided to do a quick Red Sands one to fill the gap while I get battle chronicler working again. When I rolled up my opponent for this fight I was quite surprised to see that his stats and fighting style came out almost identical to mine, the only differences were that I have one more base strength than him and he had no bonuses from size or signature. I had a feeling this might be quite an even fight, probably with not too many wounds but one or two rounds that would decide it, was I right? Read on to find out.

Sigh - Issues

Unfortunately I'm battling with some issues on battle chronicler at the moment and until I solve them I won't be able to get the next NUTS! report out. If I don't get it sorted before Monday I'll give in and do another Red Sands battle to give myself a bit more time and end my posting drought.

Announcement - Changes to the Plan

Hello hello hello, I'm going to get straight to the point in this quick announcement, my original idea of making this quite a regular blog is not going to work, I just don't have the time to keep up with it, therefore I'm going to aim to put up a post roughly once a week but do it in a much more informal way, so basically I'll put up content when I get it ready rather than constantly rushing to finish it in time. I've also decided I'm going to stop writing the 'In character' fluff in my reports for every little thing that happens, instead I'll only do it for parts that are humorous, insanely awesome or that I will feel will really gain from having a narrative along side them, this obviously means some games are going to have more of the fluff than others so you'll just have to get used to which ones will have it and which ones won't (If it matters to you).

So with that out the way I should have something more from the Nuts! Introductory scenarios ready soon so look out for that, I also have plans for other games I want to start up and I fully intend to have quite a lot of different campaigns going at once which is why I'm using the labels thingy on Blogger to organise them, I just want to clarify even though I think it should go without saying that if I start a campaign I will finish it no matter how many others I'm playing and no matter how long the breaks in between games are.

Sorry this post isn't really on topic but I just don't want to make changes without documenting it on here so people know what to expect, I'll have new stuff up soon and I'm still waiting for the elusive first comment so be awesome and make my day by giving me some one to chat to :P See ya.

Red Sand Blue Skies - A Days End

Here we are at the final fight of the month, so far Vergilius has managed to win two fights without so much as a scratch, he's beginning to make a name for himself and his career as a gladiator has got off to a perfect start. This match is easily going to be the hardest he's had (trust me) and to come out of this one uninjured would be an absolute miracle, that said he still has every chance to win he'll just have to fight clever and hope that luck is on his side, this is a long one guys.

Nuts! - Should it be this easy?

As promised I'm going to be starting a campaign that feature larger scale battles to go alongside my Red Sand games. I've decided to play Nuts!, which I have bought specially, and hopefully it will provide us with some tense and entertaining situations (WW2 normally manages to achieve this so fingers crossed). The first few games will be me playing through the introductory scenarios to make sure I'm comfortable with the rules before I dive into starting a campaign and as such I won't be adding my usual story like narrative along side the report, but don't worry if you enjoy these because they will be making a return when I start properly and I'll still be doing them in my Red Sands battles.

 With that said let's get started and see how many bullets the German army decides to throw at me today.

Red Sand Blue Skies - Round 2

Vergilius is back in the arena straight away after only just finishing his last fight which he won with ease, this time he'll be facing off against a much more dangerous gladiator who fights in the style of a Murmillo (Wielding a large shield and small sword). We'll still be fighting on the fringe of the empire for a few more matches so we'll most likely be more skilled than our opponents but all it will take is a bit of bad luck and we could still find ourselves in a lot of trouble.

Red Sand Blue Skies - Beginnings

In this campaign we will be following a young slave named Vergilius on his journey through the bloody battles that are a staple of being a gladiator. For those unfamiliar with the mechanics in this game you can generate gladiators fairly randomly by using dice rolls and referring to tables, because he is a player character I picked Vergilius's fighting style and starting attributes but everything else was left to the dice, we ended up with a large physique which increases his strength but not at the cost of his speed and the brawler signature which helps in certain situations during a fight. So once he'd been generated I moved on to his first opponent, luckily I got a nice easy match to get it all started, enjoy.

Introductions - Short and Long

Welcome and thank you for stopping by. In the future of this blog you can expect to see a lot of battle reports from table top war games along with some other content such as the occasional video from war simulators such as Arma or Falcon 4. Although I'm doing a lot of table top gaming you won't be seeing any images of actual miniatures purely because I don't have the money or time to collect and paint them, therefore I do all of my gaming using virtual platforms such as Vassel or Battle Chronicler. I hope you enjoy my content and I'm really eager to hear back from you so feel free to leave comments or get in touch with me directly at sequentialmm@gmail.com.

That was the short version of my introduction, however if you're interested in finding out a bit more about why I decided to start this blog please read on.

War gaming is something which I've enjoyed since I started playing Warhammer 7 or 8 years ago, however I never really connected with any of the other hobbyists who lived nearby and having no one to play my battles with made it become stale fairly quickly, since then I discovered solitaire games which I absolutely love as they solve the problem of needing to find an opponent and allow you to tweak the rules slightly to your liking. As I've already mentioned I now chose to play my games virtually to save money and time, this also has the added advantage of reopening the possibility of finding live opponents to play against regardless of location (hint hint guys).

The reason why I decided to do this blog is actually pretty simple. I always have enjoyed reading battle reports, it helps me see whether I want to try a certain game, teaches me new tactics and better ways of handling situations and when the person writing them goes to the effort of providing a narrative overview of the battle they can be very entertaining to read, I also enjoy writing so putting these two things together lead me to want to start writing my own. War gaming is something that I would share with my current friends however it doesn't really interest them, therefore I think that if I can aim to provide the type of content I like to see maybe I'll be able to get in contact with like minded people who I can start chatting to about war gaming and maybe get some games going over the Internet. For those reasons I decided starting a blog and encouraging readers to interact with me and each other would be the best way to do this, so here we are.

I hope you find what I write interesting and entertaining, as always I'm really eager for you all to get in touch to keep this blog interactive, the first batch of reports you can expect will be from a 'Red Sand Blue Skies' campaign I'm playing at the moment. For those that don't know it's a game covering Roman gladiatorial fights and even when played solo each match plays out very differently, once this campaign has finished I will be doing a different game but if you particularly enjoy it let me know and I'll be sure to do another campaign soon. With all that out the way I hope you enjoy when I provide and you'll be able to see my first report this weekend.