Tomorrow’s War 2nd Edition is and Ambush Ally Games set of rules first published in 2011 by Osprey, and no longer available in print, although you can download the pdf from Ambush Ally for US $25.00.

I was lucky enough to find a second-hand copy on Amazon for sale and it arrived a few days ago.

Tomorrow’s War is the futuristic follow-up to Ambush Games’ Force on Force Ultramodern rules. Having like the Force on Force rules system I was interested in seeing how Tomorrow’s War treated Si-Fi gaming.

The book is a 250 page lavish production by Osprey with loads of photographs, artwork and player aid tables throughout. Yet for all of this effort I was extremely disappointed.

Although I did not buy the book for its rules I have to say I was expecting something similar to Force on Force. Some things were similar and looked more streamlined but others were not. For all the simplicity of the universal die mechanic (different die D6, D8, D10 for varying class and moral), the game still seems to get bogged down with lots of book keeping. For instance having to record reducing effectiveness of units taking multiple reaction tests which have to continually reduce their firepower and movement for future reactions.

It is also a bucket of dice game where not only do you roll your bucket of dice to score over the target number, but you also have to roll higher than your opponent with dice individually paired off as the defender rolls his bucket of dice.

On the plus side the rules are figure neutral so you can use your 40k, star wars, or future wars which means no additional figures are required. There is also a lot of interesting ideas and rules for different types of potential scenarios, a detailed future world, and an extensive campaign system.

Normally Osprey publications are laid out well and in a logical order. Not so with “Tomorrow’s War. There are too many charts spread out. Even worse, there is no quick summary sheet. Critical information for playing the game is scattered throughout the book and hard to locate. Maybe if things were better presented the game would have some potential. As it is now, Tomorrow’s War has too many scattered ideas, too many situational rules, and needing too much effort to wade through the book to be a solid game. Even the downloadable QRS is four pages long!

If you can pick it up cheaply and you are looking for a good, but not great, source book for Sci-Fi games, then it is worth the purchase. If you are looking for a good set of rules FORGET IT! The pdf at US $25.00 is not worth the money – try for a second hand copy.

This is a post by way of thanks to John@justneedsvarnish who has sent these Invasion X rules to me. They arrived today and I have had a brief chance to have a quick look through them while SWMBO was driving back from our colour appointment for our new home.

Why via John. Well unfortunately Killer B Games can send me piles of lead figures from the UK but unfortunately do not send their rules. This may be a copyright issue, not sure, but it has been darn inconvenient. Enter John who very kindly offered to not only send me the rules but provided them as a gift as well.

Thanks very much John much appreciated!

The Killer B figures are great if a bit quirky, but as you know quirky is my middle name! The good thing is they are straight from the 1950’s alien genre, the bad thing is they are from the 1970’s in design and standard, but that quirkiness makes up for that.

Some of their Invasion X miniatures. They also have “Geezers Shut it” based on your typical 1960/70’s British TV cop shows which also looks a hoot.

The rules also look hilarious and cover such characters as the “screamer”, the lost bomber crew from 1945, the steamer crew from 1918, and all sorts of other abductees. Down Under also rates a mention with the Antipodean schoolgirl missing from Hanging Rock!

I almost wet myself with whilst reading the Flying Saucer Tactic Cards. Cards such as “Bring the Anal Probe”, “Begin the Breeding”, “We have come for your females”, all had quite a distinct trend to them!

The are written in the form of the Roswell Daily Herald and should make great bedtime reading.

Thanks again John.

I will write a rules review when I have had more time to digest them.

BUUUUUURP!

The beauty of Wargaming is that you can play “what if” scenarios. This one was not intended as both myself and Brad had not organised to play each other and we did not have historical opponent armies. Not something I normally like doing, but hey a games a game! Right!?

My Finnish Vickers Light tank charges forward to take the stone wall and threaten the central objective.

A Japanese section also moves jup behind the opposite stone wall to counter the tank move.

Finnish medic and MMG in the ruins on the right, the tank in the centre, and the leader and light mortar in the rocky ground.

The Japanes take the central building and their mountain howitzer is threatening the tank from the hill on the right.

On the Japanese left flank an infantry section and light tank threatedn the woods and the ruined building held by the MMG.

The situation on the Finnish right flank.

The Japanese tank is hit by the Finnish Vickers tank but only stunned as the round fails to penetrate.

Finnish Infantry moving up to support the tank in the centre.

More Japanese infantry advance on their left flank to support the howitzer.

The Japanese tank moves into the forest to shoot the infantry moving up.

The Vickers tank again fires at its Japanese counterpart but misses.

With the Finnish tank also able to shoot at the Japanese armoured car it retreats to avoid destruction and support the left flank. The Japanese infantry on the left roll a FUBAR result and shoot at their own leader, killing his adjutant and causing one stun on the leader.

The Japanese advance on the objective currently held by the brave Finnish Lieutenant.

Finnish troops cross the open ground to try and defend the centre objective.

With the flamethrower having destroyed the Japanese tank and turns its attention to the armoured car. An infantry fight ensues on the Finnish right with what remains of a Japanese section that failed to activate for most of the game.

The destroyed Japanese tank.

Unfortunately the flamethrower failed to destroy the Japanese armoured car but inflicted three stuns. Unfortunately it runs out of ammunition and retires from the field.

At this stage night began to fall with both sides in control of one objective and the central one still contested, although only just by the Finnish.

A very tight and tense game but great fun as we fought to a draw. These are both tough armies to dislodge and both are very dangerous in close combat.

Hi all as you are aware Azazel and I met together for a game. We discussed two things other than gaming. One was to try and organise a Christmas catch up for those in and around Melbourne sometime early in December.

The other was a global catch up or get together on some form (et to de determined) conferencing medium for an hour intro.

This may not suit those who like the anonymity of our blog and that is OK if we end up with one or two that’s fine

I am suggesting a weekend around 9PM AEST on a Sunday which would make it 7AM New York time, 4 AM LA time (sorry) and Noon London time.

If you could comment to let me know if you are interested in principle so I can have an idea if this is worth proceeding with. If there is no interest that is also OK and I have more time for painting.

After Orktober I will gauge the interest in a Christmas get together for those in Melbourne.

This model was sculpted by Jason Wiebe. The model was part of a huge amount of figures given to me by Azazel and its brother was painted by him way back in 2018.

I cannot pretend to compare with that quality of painting but here is my attempt:

The model is a soft plastic but has still painted up OK and will be used for Post Apocalyptic gaming.

This Game report dates back to 11th of September when Bill B and I came together for a 20mm game of Bolt Action. The game was a 1941 Western Desert between Australian and Italian patrols. The table was a road flanked by two Wadis with a small Oasis and Mastafa in the centre of the table.

From the left Italian HQ, Veteran Squad, Veteran Squad.

Third Italian Veteran Squad and an Inexperienced squad

Second Italian In-experienced squad, medic, sniper, light mortar. medium Machine gun and flame thrower.

L3/33 Flamm tank

Australian command, and medic.

Australian Light mortar, Vickers machine gun, and sniper.

Matilda Light tank.

Australian Veteran squad.

Australian Veteran squad.

Australian Veteran squad.

Australian Veteran squad with Universal Carrier transport.

We had decided to play Scenario 3 “Key Objectives” from the rule book which is about seizing at least two of the three objectives on the table to win the game.

Australian advance along the road towards the objective between the Mastafa and Oasis.

Another squad moves towards the objective in a rocky outcrop.

The Australian Universal Carrier moves on but rolls a box cars “FUBAR”. a subsequent roll on the FUBAR table saw the Universal Carrier crew shoot at the Australians to their left as they thought them to be Italians.

The poor Australians from Griffith (has a large Mediterranean population) suffered two casualties and one shock.

The Italians swarm all over the third objective near the Wadi and take control of the Mastafa complex.

The Australian squad are force out of the rocky outcrop by the L3/33 flamethrower tank with heavy casualties.

The Italians also have control of the Oasis which is defended only by the Australian medical team.

The Matilda is forced to move forward to contest the objective

At the end of the game the Italians control the objective west of the Mastafa.

With the Matilda easily dealing with the L3/33 the Australians were able to take control of the objective in the rocky outcrop.

The objective between the Oasis and Mastafa is contested when the game ends. If the roll for the additional turn was successful then the Italians would have been easily able to deal with the few Australian troops in the centre to win the game. The Australian final gamble had paid off as night fell.

I just happened to be a lucky general and ended with a draw against Bill B.

Last Wednesday Rob D gave me these at the Axes and Ales Club Meeting.

The box consists of 30 Japanese Infantry that can cover the Japanese Army from Manchuria to Okinawa. I wanted to try and have these ready for next week meeting so have puched myself to put them together and start painting.

I have completed a “Command Unit”. Whilst not strictly what Bolt Action would consider a command group it consists of the platoon leader, an ensign bearer and a bugler.

The rest of the figures are assembled, undercoated and I have started painting them.

From left to right, a second standard bearer, 12 infantry, 2 knee mortars for squads, 2 squad leaders, 2 light machine gun crews, 3 knee mortars for a grenadier squad, suicide anti-tank team, and 2 SMG’s. This will make two complete squads with lots of alternatives. I will need two more boxes a light tank, an armoured car, support options, and a 75mm light howitzer to complete the army I am after.

The army list I am working on completing is

As this army is not a main priority I will continue to pick things up at “Bring and buys” and when on sale.

Thanks to Easy Army for this download.

No, actually they really, really, really, suck or rather my die rolling does!!

Way back on 31 July I put out a post on World Friendship Day. One of the comments was from Azazel:

“We do have a good little loose circle of people here. I just wish there was some way that we could have regular games with one another, but even those of us who live relatively close to one another actually live quite some way in practical terms!”

Well you know how speed dating works, one thing led to another and after finally having our diaries coincide yesterday we finally caught up for a chat and a game. The conversation covered everything from work, painting techniques, games systems we like, bemoaning a lack of time, the cosmos and the meaning of life (oh and cats and housing when SWMBO was around!). Having solved all of the world’s problems we had a few turns of Fistful of Lead’s “Tales of Horror” from Wiley Games before lunch.

The Vampire coven of Alabaster Darkmore had been terrorising the ruined streets of one of London’s slums and Scotland Yards finest had called in their consulting detectives Sherwood Hollows and Professor Matson to try and capture or eliminate the Coven.

The Vampire coven of Alabaster Darkmore

The Coven consisted of Vampire Count Alabaster Darkmore, his confidant Diamanda Von Stein, and two fledgling vampires Bludwan Shadowsoul and Colton Sanguine. The coven was accompanied by the three Cossack Guards of Count Darkmore.

The Coven had been tracked down to an old ruined cemetery.

The Scotland Yard squad team consisted of the consulting detectives Sherwood Hollows and Professor Matson, Inspector Sorse, Sergeant Heston and three Bobbies.

The chase started with the bobbies rushing between the buildings on their right flank.

One of the cossacks, located in a ruined tower could just make out one of the Bobbies through the intervening windows and fired a long range shot but missed.

The two fledglings ran towards the Inspector and Sergeant in search of refreshment!

An other Cossack could see a second Bobby clearly outlined in the window and took a shot but again the Bobbies luck held out. The Bobbies fired back and inflicted at first one shock,

and then another.

The Cossack attempted to rally but routed of the table, never to be seen of again.

After lunch the “game was a foot” in earnest as the vampires started closing in on the Detective and Sergeant. Hollows and Matson were trying to redeploy as quickly as possible to meet this threat.

Two shock were inflicted on both Inspector Sorse and Bludwand Shadowsoul.

The Bobbies advanced as Matson scampered to assist Sorse.

A long range shot by one of the Bobbies hit its mark and the Cossack was no more. needed an 8 on a D8 and then another high dice roll to take the Cossack down but his firearms training had really paid of. At this stage despite the loss of two Cossacks the Vampires were into close combat and were going to be in their element!

The third Cossack tried to redeploy and ran through the graveyard but was spotted by the Bobbies and taken out. This was a mistake on my part as it meant the loss of an activation card which Azazel was quick to jump on.

The melee going on (top left) whilst the Bobbies take out the last Cossack (middle right).

Diamanda Von Stein charges into fight Hollows, who promptly puts a stake through her heart despite being outnumbered three to one!

He then turns to fight Vampire Colton Sanguine and puts the “Yard” to shame with another wooden stake piercing the third vampires heart.

With only one activation card Alabaster Darkmore draws the King of Spades (the highest activation card, and decides to settle the matter once and for all. Sherwood Hollows passes his fear test to fight the Vampire Count and takes out his fourth vampire in succession!

I repeat, Vampires really, really, really suck!

This was a great fun game played in between lunch and lots of discussion. The “Yard” rolled quite well against the vampires whose strength is when they win a fight as they have a number of pluses on the wound table allowing them to take opponents out easily. Unfortunately this only works if you win the fight!

Sherwood Hollows is a really mean dude with several pluses on combat dice.

A great day and one that we will repeat towards the end of the year.

Thanks to Azazel for the game and the horde of toys he brought to give me. He said he had some Deadzone figures – well this was almost all of the first Deadzone Kickstarter, plus the Deadball game, and the majority of the Reaper Kickstarter set!

It has taken me most of the day to sort out!

Thanks Azazel…….. I think!

I will share a large proportion of it with friends.

The lesson from today was:

Back to Azazel’s quote “We do have a good little loose circle of people here. I just wish there was some way that we could have regular games with one another, but even those of us who live relatively close to one another actually live quite some way in practical terms!”

We decided to do!

Way back on ninth of August I asked if anyone knew where I could get a skull throne from for the Phantoms Skull Throne room. Pete from Sp’s Projects Blog put me on to this one from Scotia Grendel models:

Thanks Pete this was a great “pointer”!

It arrived about three weeks ago quite quickly, but I only have just had time to finish it. The model is great with a bit of flashing and mould lines but nothing more than you would expect. The model painted up within an hour so was well worth the wait.

These is still a lot more furniture that requires painting for the skull cave but I have made a start.

I picked up these pumpkin scarecrow miniatures whilst looking on the Westwind Productions Site for vampire models earlier this year. They have both pumpkin and sack headed versions. I went for the former.

Only the head needs assembly and it paints up well. You may like I did want to use a 40mm base because of the outstretched hands and the size of the figures base.

It is believed that more than 2,500 years ago, Greek farmers created the first scarecrows that look like people to protect their crops. Earlier the Egyptians used a wooden frame spread with netting to protect wheat along the Nile. Throughout history farmers have used scarecrows to scare away predators and pests, hence “scare crow”.