Announcement: Victorius 2025

Sorry to interrupt the flow, but as many of my Australian readers may already know, I will be at Victorius 2025 next weekend in Box Hill. 

There, as well as being generally helpful, I will be demonstrating the miniatures game I am writing, Nocturnal, which I have mentioned here from time to time, it's a gang skirmish game based on popular urban Vampire media. Think Blade, Underworld, The Lost Boys, Vampire the Masquerade, etc. If you can make it, keep an eye out for the stunning promotional artwork done by my friend Nim; 

I'll be running quick, 2-3 turn demo games for most of the day, so come by and say hello if you want to try it out. I will likely be covering a little more on Nocturnal here in the future, but this won't be becoming a blog about the game; I'll be doing other socials around it as things get closer to being finished. 

Spider-Man Mini Campaign - Building a Narrative

Sorry this keeps getting delayed, but rolling COVID lockdowns are pushing the chance to wargame further and further back. On the plus side, I do get more painting done, which kind of speeds up the game planning to a certain degree? Of course, it is a little annoying that I am completing all of these projects and don't get to do anything with them, but I'd rather be keeping my vulnerable friends safe than playing games and getting them killed, y'know?

Anyway, one of the biggest challenges with planning out a SuperSystem Ultimate Alliance game is building in the narrative, so that it doesn't just become an exercise in combat and dice rolling. Yes, the fight is a fun part of any superhero story, but there really needs to be context, otherwise it's superhero UFC and I get bored pretty quick. This is probably why I've never gotten much into the Batman Miniatures Game or Marvel Crisis Protocol, it's just a fight that never really feels organic to me. To that end, I try and build all of my supers games, especially the Ultimate Alliance ones, around something other than a straight punch-up. This doesn't always need to be a grand narrative, but something as simple as a bank robbery, hostage situation or gaol break can work.

Naturally, this being the first game of my "Death of Spider-Man" campaign, the scenario will involve the death of Peter Parker. This complicates things a little, as with any wargame, guaranteeing an outcome will be tricky. There are a few things I can do to help this along, I'm thinking of starting the game with Peter being down some Hits and just kind of stacking the whole scenario against him. What this does mean, as I'm trying to keep the full narrative of the campaign under wraps before it begins, is that I'll have to be careful about who plays which characters in the actual game. Some players are happy to bend to narrative if the game is fun, but there's always those who see dice and numbers and go for the win no matter what. No judgment, I'm playing competitively for the first time in years in a Kill Team League and loving it, but that's just not what SSUA is about.

The primary antagonist for the mission will be 'Venogoblin', a version of Norman Osborn who's hopped himself up on drug symbiote in an insane attempt to finally kill Spider-Man. So, functionally, it will be a one-on-one game, meaning I can skip things like the Initiative Step and just keep the action rolling. To facilitate the 'death' of Peter Parker, both characters will start out a little lower on health, maybe only as much as D3+1 Hits down, with the trick being that Venogoblin can Regenerate, whereas Spider-Man cannot. Add in some conflicting objectives, with Spider-Man having a focus on saving people rather than defeating Osborn, and our hero should be nicely up against it from the first turn. Again, I can't ensure that I'll have the specific outcome I'm looking for, but there's not just the mechanics to consider when I'm doing all this. Unsurprisingly, a big part of a Narrative Campaign is the narrative.

Although I (or probably, a couple of people I rope in) will be playing these games, they won't be "complete" until I get the write-up done on this blog. So as well as planning out this first Spidey Vs Venogoblin game, I'm also doing the fiction that leads into the game and flows out from it. So lets say Spidey somehow gets the better of Venogoblin in the game, through some god-tier rolling or something, well that doesn't matter too much, as I get to write up what happens later. Peter could well defeat Osborn against the odds, yet again, but perhaps he was badly injured in the fight? Maybe Peter finally took one too many Pumpkin Bombs to the face and he just couldn't recover this time? It doesn't have to be something overly epic or special, Into the Spider-Verse had Peter killed by falling machinery and that worked just fine.

Knowing the basics of the game now, I can start to get the details sorted. I have a painted Spider-Man and Venogoblin, and the stat card for Spidey, so I just have one character to write. I have the table and most of the accessories, so what's stopping me from just running the game? Well, last time I ran a series of linked games, way back in the Dark Ages when this was all done on the Lead Adventure Forum, it would take me months to get each new game together, so the enthusiasm just petered out after two games. This time around, especially as I'm only planning 4-6 games in this Campaign, I want to have at least two ready to go at a time so I can arrange games each month or so. On to next time then, where I'll be outlining game two and maybe looking at scheduling game one.

Melee of Champions - Part I

This project was going to be a bit more "background" than most, but given the huge amount of interest I got on the Super Miniatures Gaming Facebook Group, I thought I'd get going on it now. I've had the idea for a while to run supers games at various community festivals and events which my club attends, but I wanted to make the games more engaging and accessible for people unfamiliar with miniature wargames. Though I'm not much of a video gamer, I knew about the Disney Infinity figurines and Nintendo Amiibos and thought there was some potential there, but SuperSystem just seemed a little too complex for what I wanted to do.

Thankfully, Scott P came up with Super Mission Force [SMF], a lighter, and faster-playing version of SuperSystem which would be easier for new players and young people to pick up. Thanks to my chronic under-employment, it took me a lot longer than I would have liked to get this project going, but I finally managed to get my hands on SMF and play a few games to get a feel for it. As I've said before, I'm not so much of a fan of it as a game for me, but the rules work fine and only require a couple of tweaks for the kind of game I want to get people playing at a convention or festival. Specifically, the changes I make are that all attacks do Knockback and there is no Dice Pool Cap for bonus dice, there are a couple of reasons for these changes. With the Knockback, I'm running the game on a smaller area and use "ring-outs" as a second win condition, so characters flying all around the place makes this happen a bit more often. For the Dice Pool Cap, I found with my Ultimate Alliance games, which are aimed at a convention crowd, more dice meant more fun, especially when a player got lucky and could make a huge attack.

So lets talk theme for a minute. With my SuperSystem games, I built my own "Platinum Age" setting, complete with history, teams, aliens and even alternate universes; this gives me a chance to tell my own stories and flex my creativity. For Ultimate Alliance, I wanted a game where I could combine all of the various characters I had from different publishers and continuities and do all the crazy stuff that copyright laws and corporate interests would never allow. When I came to SMF and had bought some Disney Infinity and Amiibos (ok, so I did already have some, I do own a Wii-U, 2DS and Switch), I decided to approach it from another angle. Given I was was aiming at a younger audience, my mind drifted to a favourite of mine, Super Smash Bros. 

It's a tad obvious when you think about it, take a crossover game franchise filled with popular characters and reproduce it in miniature form. Of course, being me, there's more to it than that, there's a healthy dose of Contest of Champions in there as well, which is how I'm thinking of framing it for players; "Choose your champions and battle to decide who is the greater power", kind of deal. Incidentally, if you haven't read the new Contest of Champions, pick up the two trades, they're really good. 

So now I had the rules and some figures, what next? Thankfully, the online community for SMF is pretty awesome. Through the Lead Adventure Forum, I found this site: http://smfcards.000webhostapp.com/ which has a couple of hundred stat cards for heroes already done up, plenty of Marvel and DC, but also some indy stuff and even a few anime characters. That lot only covered five of the Marvel characters I had, so being time-poor in the extreme at the moment (in the middle of an 18-day work week as I write this), I went the easy route and decided to just adapt characters that were already in the huge amount of work done above. I'm not much when it comes to image manipulation, thankfully Marc P from the Super Miniature Gaming group came to my aid and put together some great images at no expense. You can find Marc's work at the end of this article, for the originals, please support the previous link.

Some of my Disney Infinity; Thor, Nick Fury, Black Widow, Iron Man and Hulk. 

At the Whitehorse Community Festival here in Melbourne, Australia, I had my "Melee of Champions" stuff out and ready to go, intending to do my best to sell the hobby of miniatures gaming to the general public, despite the popular image of neckbeards and body odor. Whilst I had a lot of interest and even ran a few turns, what I talked about most that day was my profession, that of being a counsellor, primarily working with youth, especially those with diagnosed Autism Spectrum Disorder. This kind of work is just something I fell into, finding that I had a talent for it as well as the interest. Some of my best work has involved the use of board and card games to help develop a rapport with clients that may not have a great deal of interest in verbal communication. To help with this, my Counselling kit includes such exotic paraphernalia as copies of Infernal Contraption, Kill Doctor Lucky, Man Bites Dog, One Night Ultimate Werewolf and Rhino Hero.

The Incredibles, courtesy of Disney Infinity 

After this past weekend though, I'm thinking that maybe there's room for wargames in my Counsellors' toolbox. I doubt I'll ever have the audacity to hand out "Getting Started in Age of Sigmar" books at any school were I'm working, but Melee of Champions, as well as games like Tribal, Wars of Insurgency and whatever my kaiju project turns out to be all have potential for being educational and theraputic as well as fun. Games are a great way to get students involved with mathematics, estimation, strategic thinking and, for ASD and other youth that have trouble reading non-verbal ques, learning to gauge the truth of what a person is saying. Not so much teaching people to lie that may otherwise have trouble, but to better pick up on when someone else is being untruthful. Obviously, games like One Night Ultimate Werewolf are better for this than miniatures gaming, but there is an element of bluffing to wargames that I feel many overlook, especially once hidden objectives and unexpected combos come into play. 

Disney Infinity Gamora and Rocket Racoon represent the Guardians of the Galaxy I have so far. 

One of the better aspects of this project is the cost, or lack thereof. I tend to game a bit on the cheap anyway, being chronically underemployed, but I also don't mind spending money on my hobby to get the pieces I want. For example, I have a Flesh Eater Courts army for Age of Sigmar, which I really enjoy playing, but damn if it wasn't one of the more expensive armies I've put together. For the most part, the Disney Infinity figures can be found second-hand for a few dollars each, and I tend to buy the Amiibos on sale for around $9AUD each. As mentioned above, I use the Amiibos for my Nintendo hardware, so the price also includes the added play I get there. SMF is a pretty affordable book and the Stat Cards are printed on photos, around 10c each at the local office supply chain store. 

Some of the Disney Infinity really exaggerate the proportions, I'm not keen on Syndrome, but it looks good on Ahsoka Tano and Rey. 

Part of the appeal of a cheap project also helps with my public displays, where the aim isn't so much to convince people to join my particular wargames club, as it is to raise awareness of the miniature wargames hobby and how people can start playing quickly and easily. Something that's as affordable as SMF and some toys that many parents may already have too many of laying around looks a lot less daunting than Warmachine or Age of Sigmar. I've found that most children over around 10 (depending on developmental skills) can pick up SMF after only a few turns, especially with the nice cards that cover most of the Powers and skills. I struggle sometimes to not use phrases like "D6" and "Alternating Activation", after so many years of playing with wargamers, but practice makes perfect and all that. 

Captain Jack Sparrow and Barbossa from Disney Infinity and Captain Falcon Amiibo make for a trio of Captains. 

So this is the part where I ask for help. Not so much for anything in particular, but to start working on something we can all use. As mentioned above, the stats I have for The Incredibles, Syndrome, Rocket Racoon, Ahsoka Tano, Captain Falcon, Falco, King Dedede, Meta Knight and Bowser are simply rebranded versions of existing cards taken from the link. Not to mention needing stats for new acquisitions Rey, Barbossa and Captain Jack. Whilst Marc has expressed an interest in making up more cards, I've never actually done up the stats of a SMF character, and do need to learn, but of people out there, in the community are keen to have a go, please do. Perhaps we can build a database or wiki somewhere? I'm not great with computers, so would be willing to hand that idea off to someone. If you want to help out, comment on this post, in the the original link to this I posted in the Super Miniatures Gaming group. 

Falco, King Dedede, Meta Knight and Bowser, the Amiibos are actually really nice for the money, well sculpted and the painting is crisp. 

Thanks for sticking around til the end of this one, I have a couple more ideas for figures for this one, if Disney, Star Wars, Pixar, Marvel and Nintendo aren't enough for you. First of all DC did a line of "DC Animated Universe" style non-posable heroes called "FIGZ", which look perfect, but I can't find anywhere anymore: 

Seriosuly, if you find any of these, please let me know, I'd like to grab a few. The alternative is the Schleich versions, but at $20+AUD a pop, they're out of my range. Similar designs can be found with various Anime franchises, but I'm, again, waiting to find some in my price range, mostly Dragonball. If video games are more your thing though, you may want to take a look at the Playstation Totaku collectables, but wait until they go half-price at your local EB or Gamestop. 

Personally, I'm waiting for a Ratchet and Clank, but the Tekken stuff is tempting. Hope all of this is helpful or at least interesting for those who got this far. I'm starting a proper counselling job again next year, with a look to do more "games as teaching", so expect something more along these lines in the future. 

JDMG AAR - Cyberpunk Rock Song

Several of my clubmates and I are collaborating on a Cyberpunk project for Little Wars Melbourne 2018, primarily focusing on getting a huge table of terrain and several "factions" done, with a look to trying different game systems on the finished project. I suggested that we give the table a go before we got too far along, so I put together a Judge Dredd Miniatures Game scenario and four teams to try it out. As you'll see, the table is very much a work in progress and the gangs where whatever I could get together that fit the theme.

The table is looking good, we need a mat though.

The Gangs: Four factions squared off, in two overlapping two-on-two games; Public Security Section Nine (East Meg Invasion Force) was attempting to prevent Ulysses Klaw (Mobsters) from stealing the MacGuffin Crystal. At the same time, Batman [Beyond] (Lone Vigilante) was preventing the Royal Flush Gang (Sky Surfers) from robbing rich apartments. 

 You like comic references? We got those. 

 A Section 9 Tachikoma keeps Klaw at bay for a couple of turns down near the pump station. 

 Apartments in the sky. 

 Noodles to go, vendor and noodles coming soon. 

 Even the car-sized Tachikoma are dwarfed by the urban sprawl. 

 The Royal Flush Gang did well at first, grabbing three of the five objectives. 

 Those handsome men and their funny books. 

 Klaw brings up one of his Killbots to help battle the Tachikoma. 

 The second Killbot sneaks towards the crystal, past this nice billboard. 

 The Royal Flush gang have had their cards reinforced after at least one of them breaking in every damn game. 

 It's always fun to put down a single figure and call it an "Army". 

 Copplestone robots for the Killbots and an Infinity miniature for Klaw. 

 Public Security Section Nine. 

 Tachikoma, repainted toy. 

 Hasslefree Bateu runs up the staircase of a Knights of Dice building. 

 "I think that's my guy there?" 

 Ground level terrain helps create the density we're looking for. 

 We just really like that billboard. 

 Showing off my new Knights of Dice building. 

 The finished sections really demonstrate what the table will look like. 

 Section 9 takes up a defensive line. 

 Queen and Jack attempt to make a getaway. 

 Ace and Tachikoma come to blows.

 Queen manages to slip away with an objective. 

 Killbot takes up a sniper position. 

 One Killbot down, Klaw takes cover from the Tachikoma's minigun. 

 King and Batman face off, the would-be royal no match for the Dark Knight. 

 Ace is simply no match for the military-grade Tachikoma. 

 Jack just before Batman caught up with him. 

 Killbot 2 actually made it to the objective before Bateu chased it down. 

It was a fun game, Batman and Section 9 coming out on top in the end. The balance was probably a little off, but I was going for having teams that could move about quickly and make use of the terrain. The table worked nicely, a couple more tall buildings will be completed and some scatter terrain. 

For those of you interested, here are the rosters of the gangs we used:

Batman Beyond – Lone Vigilante  

Move	Agility	Shoot	Melee	M Dice	Will	Armour	Hits	Psi
5/15	+2	+1	+3	3D	+3	+4	5	-

Equipment:

Exo Suit, Respirator

Jet Pack: Batman may make a 15” Flying Move instead of his normal Move. Agility check or lose Actions and 1 Hit.

Chameleon Suit: So long as Batman is in cover and did not make a Shoot or Melee action in his last Phase, he may not be targets by attacks from more than 20” away.

Weapon	Range	Dice	Damage	AP	Special
Concussion Grenades	10	1	Stun	0	Explosive 3, Weak
Electro-Prod	Melee	3D	Stun	0	Weak
Las-Knife	Melee	3D	1	-5	-

Talents:

Brave: Batman may re-roll failed Will to Fight checks.  

Parry: Force an enemy model to re-roll one Melee Die.

Agile: Batman may re-roll a failed Agility check (not in Melee combat).

Stealthy: Enemy models more than 20” away must win an opposed Will check to target Batman.

Silent Action: Batman does not break Stealth when taking Move or Special Actions.

Silent Killer: Batman may make Shoot and Melee actions whilst being Stealthy at a -1 penalty, when doing so, all hits are automatically Critical. Stealthy expires at the completion of an attack. 

Public Security Section Nine – East Meg Invasion Force  

Batou

Move	Agility	Shoot	Melee	M Dice	Will	Armour	Hits	Psi
5	-4	+4	+2	2D	+3	+5	6	-

Equipment:

Weapon	Range	Dice	Damage	AP	Special
Fists	Melee	2D	1	-	-
Pistol	12	1D	1	-5	-

Talents

Accurate: Batou may re-roll a missed Shoot attack.

Agile: Batou may re-roll a failed Agility check (not in Melee combat).

Brave: Batou may re-roll failed Will to Fight checks. 

Dance of Death: Once per turn, if Batou removes an enemy in Melee Combat, he may immediately make a bonus Melee Action.

Duck & Weave: Batou gains +1 Agility against Shooting attacks when in Cover.

Light Foot: Batou may make an Agility Check to move over any obstacle 3” high without movement penalty. If failed, Batou stops moving.

Tachikoma 1

Move	Agility	Shoot	Melee	M Dice	Will	Armour	Hits	Psi
5	-1	+1	+2	4D	+1	+6	5	-

Equipment:

Cables: Tachikoma may make close combat attacks against a target up to 6” away with a Melee action but cannot benefit from charging if it does so. The two models are not locked in combat.

Weapon	Range	Dice	Damage	AP	Special
Claws	Melee	4D	2	-3	Smasher
LMGs	12	5D	2	-3	-
Snout Gun	8	6D	1	-	Spray

 

Tachikoma 2

Move	Agility	Shoot	Melee	M Dice	Will	Armour	Hits	Psi
5	-1	+1	+2	4D	+1	+6	5	-

Equipment:

Cables: Tachikoma may make close combat attacks against a target up to 6” away with a Melee action but cannot benefit from charging if it does so. The two models are not locked in combat.

Weapon	Range	Dice	Damage	AP	Special
Claws	Melee	4D	2	-3	Smasher
LMGs	12	5D	2	-3	-
Snout Gun	8	6D	1	-	Spray

The Royal Flush Gang – Sky Surfers

King – Sky Surfer Icon

Move	Agility	Shoot	Melee	M Dice	Will	Armour	Hits	Psi
20	+3	+1	0	2D	+1	+4	2	-

Equipment:

Power Board: King is a Flyer and may not make Melee actions.

Weapon	Range	Dice	Damage	AP	Special
Fire Bombs	10	1	1	0	Explosive 1, Fire

Talents:

Jinker (Passive): King may re-roll his Agility when targeted by a Shooting attack. This roll suffers a cumulative -1 Penalty for each attack after the first.

Voice of Command (Passive): Every Model within 12” of King gains a +1 bonus to all Will check.

 

Queen

Move	Agility	Shoot	Melee	M Dice	Will	Armour	Hits	Psi
20	+1	-1	-1	2D	0	+4	1	-

Equipment:

Power Board: Queen is a Flyer and may not make Melee actions.

Weapon	Range	Dice	Damage	AP	Special
Zip Gun	15	3	1	0	Inaccurate

 

Jack

Move	Agility	Shoot	Melee	M Dice	Will	Armour	Hits	Psi
20	+1	-1	-1	2D	0	+4	1	-

Equipment:

Power Board: Jack is a Flyer and may not make Melee actions.

Weapon	Range	Dice	Damage	AP	Special
Zip Gun	15	3	1	0	Inaccurate

 

Ten

Move	Agility	Shoot	Melee	M Dice	Will	Armour	Hits	Psi
20	+1	-1	-1	2D	0	+4	1	-

Equipment:

Power Board: Ten is a Flyer and may not make Melee actions.

Weapon	Range	Dice	Damage	AP	Special
Zip Gun	15	3	1	0	Inaccurate

 

Ace – Demolition Droid

Move	Agility	Shoot	Melee	M Dice	Will	Armour	Hits	Psi
5	-1	-1	+3	2D	0	+5	7	-

Equipment:

Weapon	Damage	AP	Special
Crushing Fists	2	-2	Smasher

 

Corporate Mercenaries – Mobsters

Klaw

Move	Agility	Shoot	Melee	M Dice	Will	Armour	Hits	Psi
6	+2	+2	+2	3D	+3	+4	5	-

Equipment:

Weapon	Range	Dice	Damage	AP	Special
Machete	Melee	3D	2	-5	Parry
Spit Pistol	18	3D	1	-2	-
Grenades	10	1	1	-1	Explosive 2

Talents:

Accurate: Klaw may re-roll a missed Shoot attack.

Agile: Klaw may re-roll a failed Agility check (not in Melee combat).

Close Combat Shooter: Klaw may perform shoot actions with pistol weapons with an enemy in contact.

 

Killbot α

Move	Agility	Shoot	Melee	M Dice	Will	Armour	Hits	Psi
6	+0	+2	+2	2D	+1	+5	3	-

Equipment:

Flight Pack: Killbots may make a 10” Flying Move instead of their normal Move. Agility check or lose Actions and 1 Hit.

Weapon	Range	Dice	Damage	AP	Special
Fists	Melee	2D	1	0	Smasher
Laser Pistol	12	1D	1	-4	-
Spit Gun	20	3D	1	-2	-

 

Killbot β

Move	Agility	Shoot	Melee	M Dice	Will	Armour	Hits	Psi
6	+0	+2	+2	2D	+1	+5	3	-

Equipment:

Flight Pack: Killbots may make a 10” Flying Move instead of their normal Move. Agility check or lose Actions and 1 Hit.

Weapon	Range	Dice	Damage	AP	Special
Fists	Melee	2D	1	0	Smasher
Laser Pistol	12	1D	1	-4	-
Spit Gun	20	3D	1	-2	-