Merry Christmas to All…

While I realize one can not tell by this blog, but the Williamsburg Legati are still very active.  This year has seen some Altar of Freedom games, an increase in some of our boardgaming,  an introduction to Blood and Plunder, Guild Ball, and Battlestar Galactica.  Chris is excitedly preparing for Rommel.

An unexpected home repair disaster has seen us temporarily convening in a storefront (thanks, Joe) but we expect to return home soon.

Last Thursday saw a return to our seasonal game celebration.  We played 7TV.  A variation of their Search and Rescue episode starring Department X and Shiva casts, with a special guest appearance of St. Nick himself!

Both sides had 60 some points.  The set up was that Santa’s sleigh had crashed/ been shot down over the Greendock area of London.  Both Department X and SHIVA were in a race to recover Santa who was the McGuffin for the episode.

SHIVA pulled the “setting the scene” countdown card which allows a piece of scenery to be moved.  They used this to great advantage to move the main warehouse in the center of the table enabling Kali to easily capture Santa.  This and a failed attack by the single shot rocket of the X Track gave SHIVA’s dastardly plan a very successful head start.  The took this advantage and pulled back with much of their force to a lockup in an arch deep in one of their corners.  As Chris said, “this was to be their Alamo”.

This did prove to be, however.  The episode did seem to begin to sway in Department x’s favour. Hugo Solomon defeated the Guru in a very quick fight.  The X commando support by their Xtrack and Pandora King (not Stryker as printed in the comic) made quick work of SHIVA’s minions.  It looked like it would, in fact, all come down to a fierce fight for the lockup.

SHIVA, however, had been burning through the countdown cards trying to end the episode early.  With luck they got the “PLOT TWIST” allowing them two more Countdown cards, one of which was “Cliffhanger” thereby ending the episode prematurely, with Santa in their clutches.  Vince suggested that SHIVA was injecting Santa with the Krampus virus, to turn him evil.  Hmm, I do have a Krampus model on the way here, I think I see next years Holiday special!

Until Next Time, Cheers and Happy Holidays!

 

 

 

Wiliamsburg Muster 2017

The club participated as we always do in another Williamsburg Muster.  Though this one was different in a number of ways.

The Convention itself was held over Memorial Day Weekend (May 26-28) rather than its usual time in February.  It was not just a wargaming miniatures convention, but rather reached out to our local board gaming and roleplaying game communities to help expand the convention into a greater or more universal gaming convention, and lastly, it was at a new venue, The Doubletree here in Williamsburg.

The hotel was a great improvement, and one attendee stated that “it was nice to have a hotel with hot and cold running water for a change”.  If you attended last year’s Guns of August you will know he wasn’t entirely exaggerating!

The convention was different for the club as well.  Chris had planned on running some games but his business demands (The Phalanxe Consortium) and his convention duties got in the way.  He was present as a vendor of course as well.  Poor Peter found himself laid up at home with an injured back.  This left me to carry the Legati flag as far as running games and reduced the number of games supported by the Legati in years past.

My first game was intended to be a “Big Chain of Command” game, using TFL’s expansion for multiple platoons.  It was based on a scenario for Mud and Blood in an older TFL special, “Midnight at the Oasis”.  This was part of our ongoing commemoration of the World War One centennial.

Only two players wanted to participate, however, and so the game turned into “regular” Chain of Command with just two of the original four platoons.  One of our long lost Legati, Andrew Frantz participated and gained victory with the Turks holding the supply depot.

I also provided two 7TV games.  Both were set in 1970s London and played on the same table.  That made it far easier for me to run two games on Saturday, but it also gave me the opportunity to show off the versatility of the game.

The first game was “The Beat” a gritty London detective show involving a security van robbery.  The game was undecided.  The criminal firm successfully pulled off the heist but the Met did manage to nick some of the baddies including one of the stars.

The second game was a more outlandish spy-fi game.  Department X was escorting a VIP when attacked by the mysterious SHIVA. Al and Kerry played and the VIP was safely delivered.

Overall the convention seemed successful to me, and the new venue has a lot of promise.

Until next time Cheers,

Ron

 

 

One Bad Apple, a 7TV Episode

     ONE BAD APPLE

          With DC Falstaff disguised as a member of the firm,

      the Beat unleashes a sudden raid.  Unfortunately, it’s

      less of a surprise than expected.  Is a member of the

      squad bent?  DI Skelton has to find the culprit and

      nick the villains.

   So last Sunday the Williamsburg Legati began a new project.  7TV  second edition is a game by Crooked Dice based upon cult TV shows of the 1960s and 70s.  The game was really intended as a practice to help familiarize the players with the concepts and the rules.  Are table is not quite finished yet, so some of the scenery is a little sketchy, and in the excitement, I paid a  bit too little attention to the camera’s focus.  My apologies for these deficiencies!

This was an episode (game) of “THE BEAT” which was fictional TV Channel 7TV’s hard detective action programme.  Both casts (Sides) were built on 50 Ratings (points) and we had four players.  A random roll decided that this would be a Battle which is the simplest of the scenarios.  The Law got to choose if they would defend or attack and they decided it made more sense that they would be attacking. The coppers would be unleashing a raid on a criminal firm’s hideout in a factory complex.  Everything sounds fine so far….

A very interesting feature of 7TV is the “count down” cards.  these cards act as a turn counting device, but they are divided into three groups (Acts One, Two and Finale) and have special events that escalate as the acts progress.  The coppers had initiative and peeled around the corners in an impressive collection of vehicles.  The villains however, all had one free move due ot one of the character’s special effects.  Clearly they knew something was up.  Than a countdown card ( I think, it might also have been a special effect) caused one woodentop to activate under the villians control.  Choosing the driver of the police van, the bent copper smashes into Skelton’s flash motor, wrecking it!  these event crfeated at random a new narrative.  Obviously the villains had someone inside the squad!

This accident caused the police raid to stop further from the crooks than intended.  The coppers fought hard, but the disadvantage of firepower (all the PCs armed just with their truncheon) and the surprising toughness of slag aiding the Geezers eventually caused the Old Bill to pull out.  Occasionally crime does pay I guess.

Everyone enjoyed the game, which took longer than it should have since we didn’t know the rules as well as we might.  They are not difficult, but a number of the concepts are a little unusual.  Clearly the challengs of the game are knowing your cast (and perhaps the opponents) and determining how to spend your plot points.  These are used not only to activate your characters but can also be used to acctivate special effect or gadgets and to increase your attacks or defense.  I look forward to playing again.

Cheers!