A Quick Game of Close Wars-Returning to Venus and the Cruffin expedition

 A Quick Game of Close Wars

Returning to Venus and the Cruffin expedition

There are times in life when work and the responsibilities of being an adult make it a little difficult to find enough time for a ‘real’ game, but Donald Featherstone, in his seminal book War Games, has the answer. In Appendix 1, he outlines a very simple set of rules for fights between small numbers of men. These rules are not as comprehensive as those found in his book Skirmish Wargaming, but they are very quick to set up, and a game with about twenty figures on each side takes around 30 minutes.

I have a rather eclectic collection of figures, but over the last couple of years I have been building up terrain for 15/18mm sci-fi games, so the scale was not a difficult choice. Choosing which range to put on the table was a little harder. I decided to settle on my Venusian project, which I originally started for Congo and which I will, hopefully, finish one day. The figures have not seen the table since March 2024.

Skirmish Narrative

After weeks in the forests of Venus, Reginald Cruffin and his men had seen more than any previous expedition had managed, but with supplies dwindling and sickness beginning to spread through the column, Cruffin decided that he would have to approach the Vhiss'tal tribe and see if they would be willing to trade.

The chieftain of the tribe, Ssthevar, was unwilling to deal with the interlopers. His cunning reptilian mind reasoned that he had no need to trade for something that his warriors could seize by force of arms.

Hearing the whoops of the approaching Vhiss'tal warriors as they ran through the crystalline forest, Cruffin put Alana Quartermain in charge of the right flank while he took personal command of the left. The approaches of the two leaders could not have been more different. Quartermain spoke softly in the Martian tongue, while Cruffin barked out orders as though he were still aboard HMS Thunderchild. No sooner had the troops dressed their ranks than a howling mass of Vhiss'tal warriors burst from the undergrowth.

The crack of the Martini–Henry and Snider-Enfield rifles punctuated the war cries of the tribesmen, but the effect of the section volley was less than Cruffin had hoped for. His Martian Askari and Ruga-Ruga fired wildly, their shots going far astray. Only the disciplined volley of the seconded men of the 50th Foot found its mark, bringing down several of the advancing tribesmen. But even their success was not enough to check the charge of the ferocious Venusians.

The Vhiss'tal warriors entered the fray like whirling dervishes, their spears stabbing left and right, cutting down Martian Askari, Ruga-Ruga and men of the 50th Foot alike. Horn Pipe Bill, Cruffin's batman, threw himself before a spear thrust meant for his commander, saving the officer from being skewered alive but joining the growing number of bodies that littered the field.

The moment of respite allowed Cruffin and the last surviving Askari to flee the combat.

The valiant members of the expedition bent but did not break beneath this primitive fury. On the left flank, Captain Theo Kretschmar-Schuldorff steadied his Ruga-Ruga and, in a characteristically clipped manner, directed a devastating fusillade into the Vhiss'tal braves, shaking their resolve before they could close for combat. Many of the Ruga-Ruga fell beneath Vhiss'tal spears, but they had done enough to throw the attackers into confusion and force them to retreat.

While on the right flank, Alana Quartermain rallied her troops with her cool, steely voice. She ordered her men to show the Venusians what the Pattern 1876 felt like when wielded by troops of stout heart. Both the Ruga-Ruga and the Kentish men did good service with their bayonets, finally breaking the resolve of the Vhiss'tal warriors.

A valiant cheer broke out from the surviving members of the expedition; they had survived a clash with these deadly warriors.

Reginald Cruffin smiled with pride at the way the expedition had performed. He would have to see to the training of the Askari; they had not been up to muster.

The fates had smiled upon him, though. Horn Pipe Bill had escaped a fatal wound when a spear thrust was deflected by a hip flask, leaving his old Martian shipmate bruised but not seriously hurt. His thoughts turned to Ssthevar, the chieftain. He had learnt that trade conducted down the barrel of a Martini–Henry rifle exacted a heavy toll in blood. Cruffin hoped that, now the unpleasantness had been dealt with, the two sides could come to some kind of agreement.

Painting the Dark future

 Painting the Dark future

The Dark Future game is stacked with goodies, from the rulebook, road sections and tokens, but the pièce de résistance is the plastic cars. They do not really stand up to modern models, but they have a definite aesthetic that ticks all the boxes for me.

I had not done much to them since I bought the game in 1988; only one car had any paint on it. I am not sure when that happened, but it was probably at some point in the 1990s. The cars needed a few repairs: some of the wheels were broken, and the plastic struts on the Renegades had all snapped, but they were all fairly quick fixes. I decided to take the cars apart so that I could paint each one separately and because it would make adding drivers a lot easier. Luckily, I had not used much glue when I originally put them together, so they came apart really easily. In a fit of inspiration, or perhaps madness, I decided to magnetise all of the weapon hardpoints on the cars. This was not that difficult, but the plastic was quite brittle in places, so I had to take it slowly.

If I thought that putting magnets into the cars took a little work, it was nothing compared to trying to get the North Star Military Figures Gaslands drivers into the cars. They seemed a bit too big for the Dark Future vehicles, so I ended up having to shave quite a lot from the bottoms of the figures to make them fit. The Interceptors were particularly difficult because the windscreens reduced the amount of space beneath the roof. I am glad that I persevered with them, though.

I probably spent too long painting the interiors of the cars; once I put them back together, you can barely see what is inside. This is particularly true of the Renegades because I added some mesh to the windscreen area. They looked like death traps without it. The mesh certainly makes the vehicles look more Mad Max-esque, but it does obscure the view of the drivers. I may have to hit up eBay at some point and pick up a couple more that I will leave open.

Painting the bodies of the cars was not much of a chore once I had decided on the paint schemes. I wanted to go for a dark, grimy look with the Renegades, so I started with black, dry-brushed several layers of grey over it, and finished everything off with an Agrax wash. The transfers came from a small-scale Maschinen Krieger kit that I got from a gacha machine. The skulls came courtesy of the GW Box of Skulls. I thought that a Bloodletter skull and a Plaguebearer skull suited these hooded scavenger drivers rather well.

Most games of Dark Future seem to be asymmetric, with one Interceptor taking on two Renegades, so I decided to paint the Interceptors in different liveries. The only thing that ties them together is the semi-gloss varnish I used on them. This makes them look sleeker and cleaner than the Renegades, which were given a matt varnish.

The first car has a police theme, as that matched the driver. Getting the white right took a few layers, but as I seem to paint a lot of figures in white, I am getting the hang of it. I am not sure why I keep giving myself that cross to bear. I guess I am just a sucker for punishment.

The paint scheme for the second Interceptor was inspired by two things. The first was Nigel Mansell in his days with Ferrari. Not that I am a follower of Formula One, but as a child in the 1980s it was hard to escape his name. The second, and more important, inspiration was the parody of Nigel Mansell, Steve Pising, in the short-run series Man to Man with Dean Learner from 2006. I really like the series and thought that the reference was obscure enough that most people would not get it, but it would make me smile each time the car hit the tarmac.  Is the car perfect, no it`s not, if you look closely you can see that the p on the front number plate is a bit wonky, but it is good enough for my table, for now, at least.

Is the car perfect? No, it is not. If you look closely, you can see that the “P” on the front number plate is a bit wonky, but it is good enough for my table, for now, at least.

The next things that I should paint for Dark Future are some of the weapons that I magnetised, but I would like to finish the major components from the game first. So, I will probably slap some paint on the motorcycles that came with the game. I am going to paint two of them in the same scheme as the Renegades, while the other two will be painted to match the Interceptors. I will probably put some skulls on the bikes that will be joining the Renegades to help them fit in better and to add a little detail to these somewhat crude sculpts.

Are they my favourite figures? Far from it, but they deserve to get some gaming time.

I may have also made a smallish eBay purchase of some of the metal motorbikes from back in the day, but they will have to join the painting queue, as I have other figures that need painting. My poor 20mm Zulu project has been waiting for four years to be restarted. That being said, I should probably strike while the iron is hot and plough through the Dark Future stuff. It is definitely something to ponder.

Returning to The Game of Highway Warriors

 Returning to The Game of Highway Warriors

My first game of Dark Future in decades

In my last post, I teased that I had received my copy of Dark Future from my younger brother in April. I originally bought the game back in 1988 when it first came out. The game is far from pristine, but all of the components are there, along with White Line Fever and all of the articles from White Dwarf that I cut out back in the day. My older self almost cries at the destruction I meted out to those magazines, but it does mean that I have all of the rules that were published for the game.

As I went through the box more carefully, I noticed that all of the road pieces are a bit warped. The corners are worse than the straights, and even the spin template is showing a bit of a twist, but they are nearly forty years old, so what can I expect? All of the pieces are still usable. The cars and bikes are in surprisingly good condition, and once I slap a coat of paint on them, I can get them on the table.

I took about a fortnight to go through the rules before I was ready to play my first game. Fortunately, the rulebook comes with a series of six learner games. I thought that I would give them a go.

Game one

I broke out two of the cars that I made for Gaslands to try the first scenario. It is a very simple game in which one car is trying to get to the end of seven road sections before the other car destroys or disables it. You may have noticed that my table is a little too small for seven road sections, but I simply removed the rear section after no vehicles were on it and placed a new section at the front of the road. I may try to play my next game on the living room floor, but I am not sure that my knees will be up to it.

Battle report

Along a lone strip of highway, Paz and Baz Chuckle were in pursuit of Lawford Featherstone of the Westbury Warlords for encroaching on their territory.  

Paz opened fire with the machine gun, scoring a critical hit on Lawford's engine and destroying the carburettor.

The brothers could not avoid the oil slick that Lawford had dropped, and Baz panic-braked to keep the car under control.

Lawford sped away from his pursuers, dropping oil slicks as he went. His buggy was constantly being hit by machine-gun rounds.

Hitting a second oil slick at 100 mph, Baz lost control of his vehicle.

The car skidded, heading towards the verge.

Baz fought to right the car, but it started to spin.

Hitting a third oil slick, the car went into a roll.

The Chuckle brothers were thrown clear as their car bounced along the tarmac.

The wreck finally ran out of steam and shuddered to a halt.

Lawford Featherstone drove away from the scene with only minor damage to his car.

Thoughts

The first question that might have crossed your mind is how this compares to Gaslands. The best thing that I can say is that it plays differently. It has a bit more crunch than Gaslands, but not as much as I have often heard on YouTube. I am always a bit disappointed when a YouTuber shows off their copy of Dark Future, or any old-school game for that matter, and declares that they will never play it. For me, these games are there to be played and enjoyed. That is probably enough of a rant.

Dark Future is not a game that I would bring out for a pick-up game on a club night. I think where Dark Future shines is in the campaign rules and the slightly more granular combat. In Gaslands, there is no degradation to your vehicle; it can continue to take damage until it is destroyed. Not so in Dark Future. Cars get worse as they are riddled with bullets, and critical hits can destroy a vehicle really quickly. I enjoy both games because they scratch different itches for me. I am glad that getting into Gaslands has led me back to an old favourite from my childhood.

Dark Future is also packed with glorious images like this: the 80s at their best.

Mud, Blood, and the Golden Ticket to Mars-Some thoughts on Gaslands

 Mud, Blood, and the Golden Ticket to Mars

Some thoughts on Gaslands

It won’t have escaped the regular reader of this blog, if such a thing exists, that I’ve really got into Gaslands. I’m not sure how long this obsession will last; I can already hear the roar of an engine from Dark Future calling to me, but Gaslands has quickly become the most-played tabletop game for me in a long time. I’ve managed to get in fifteen games since February, all against other people, which is a bit of a record for me, as I spend most of my time playing solo.

Why has Gaslands taken such a hold on my gaming? I think there are a few reasons why I’m really enjoying it at the moment. The first has to be the social side of it: I’ve managed to get my gaming group into the game, and there’s nothing quite like a group of mates hanging out and getting excited about the roll of a die or the choice of a template.

The second reason is the game mechanics. It’s quick and intuitive, so I can get straight into the story unfolding on the table. Some of this may be because it shares mechanics with games like Wings of Glory and X-Wing. More than one game has hinged on a single bad choice of movement template—sending cars careering into walls or barriers. The look of horror on the face of the person who picked the wrong one is priceless.

The final reason has to be the building of the cars for the game.  Each car that I have made has drawn me into the game more and more.  It is hard to express the joy that I have found from taking toy cars apart and making them my own but there it is.  Gaslands got me using a power tool for the first time in decades.  Did I feel more like a real man for taking an electric drill to a Hot Wheels car?  Probably not, but it was fun.

Carnage on the raceways - My Gaslands obsession continues.

Carnage on the raceways 

My Gaslands obsession continues

I’ve taken advantage of the spring break to continue building cars and playing games of Gaslands. This has impinged on my blog post writing a little, but when push comes to shove, I’d rather push some figures around the table than write a blog post.  

I finished two more teams in the last month—one for myself and the other as a gift for a friend. The first team, the Westbury Warlords, came together really easily. I was given some 3D-printed pieces that hadn’t worked out for my friend, and once I saw the French Renault FT17, at least, I think that’s what it is, I knew I wanted to stick a car body on top of it. The turret didn’t really work with the other cars in the build, so I put it to one side to use in a later project.

The second car I built also uses some 3D-printed cast-offs, but in this case I removed the car’s wheels and replaced them with tracks. The front ram was made from pieces of an old broken toy, which I think gives it the right level of brutality—or orkishness. I’m sometimes drawn to the Orks of the Rogue Trader era for inspiration.

For the final car in the team, I wanted to make something a little more toned down and cheaper in cost. I found a buggy in my local toy store and thought it only needed a few adjustments to make it table-ready. I didn’t use any 3D-printed parts on it; instead, I raided my bits box for weapons and things to stick on the car. I chose to add a Lewis gun from a box of Wargames Atlantic WW1 Tommies fairly early on. I’ve always been a bit of a fan of the Lewis gun, and this buggy was the first vehicle where I felt it really worked.

So, that’s the Westbury Warlords complete. On the track, the team has had mixed results, as the tracks don’t seem to help that much. Still, I think they look pretty good—and the rule of cool always comes first.

The second team, the Semyonovsky Lifeguards, drew inspiration for its paint scheme from the Mod movement: blue, white, and red, along with my attempt at freehanding a roundel. It wasn’t the most successful, but if you don’t try, you’ll never improve. Volvo estates were always known as “tanks” when I was younger, so I thought the turret from the Renault would work on one. It just about fitted on the roof of the Volvo, so that was a win.

I wanted a more technological look for this team, so when I was hunting through my bits box, I pulled out any weapons that fit the bill. To help sell that more scientific feel on the second car, I bent some wire into cabling that runs into an engine at the back.

I experimented with the final car in the team, an Alfa Romeo. I wanted to add a smashed windscreen, so I took one of those protective film things for a smartphone, cut it to shape, and then hit it a few times with a bradawl. It took a few attempts to get the look right, but I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. The other experiment was my attempt at a roundel. I definitely need to work on my freehand skills a lot more.

I really enjoyed putting this team together for a friend, and I’m looking forward to racing against them on the track.