FfoL Galactic Heroes: A Family Quarrel

**WARNING** This post contains images of unpainted and unfinished terrain which some hobbyists may find distressing.  

There were only two of us for a recent Monday evening game, so we decided to play Fistful of Lead: Galactic Heroes. We used my 20mm Star Wars stuff and quickly came up with a storyline where Luke, aware that Vader *Spoilers* was his father, was trying to find one of his uncle's friends to discover more. Unfortunately Vader learnt about this and set a trap. Maybe not the best background, and it doesn't quite fit canon, but it worked for us.

We each had a crew of Leader, Specialist and three Regulars, plus the relevant Galactic Hero

This was the first time we'd tried using Heroes, how well would they work for Star Wars?

Brave Rebel heroes (or scum)

Imperial forces no doubt giving the residents a hard time 

Luke leads his Rebel crew in from the dunes, while Darth Vader and his Stormtroopers occupy the town 

The Rebels cautiously advance, trying to make the most of the cover.  The Imps are even more hesitant, Lord Vader directs them from atop one of the buildings.

Early Imperial shooting takes out one of the Rebels!

Luke uses the Force to heal his companion's wound 

Vader (near centre) uses The Force to shield himself and 'Force chokes' the recently healed rebel trooper 

Luke charges in to fight Vader. Vader is Shaken by his assault, then Luke cuts him down

Another great fun game, and an interesting experiment using two iconic characters.   Shooting was a bit lack-lustre on both sides, though the Imps got the first kill.  There were a couple of times the Rebs took wounds or were shaken, but I was able to use the relevant cards to remove these conditions, or have Luke use his Healing.  The only successful Rebel shooting was the PLX - 1 which took out two Stormtroopers with one rocket in the same turn as Luke's heroic charge against his father.

As we have seen before, the FfoL Galactic Heroes rules certainly work well for run-of-the-mill Star Wars style skirmishes, but how did they work with Luke, Vader and the Force? 

The Heroes rules essentially build another Leader. We added Psychic (Force) Powers as well (so one more Trait than strictly allowed, but we wanted really impressive heroes). The Psychic Powers did feel like the Force, and we saw them used to good effect. Luke Healed one of the Rebels and Vader used Force Choke on the same poor Reb. Vader also Shielded himself to dissuade the Rebels from shooting at him and goad Luke into fighting him. We didn't get any deflection of blaster bolts, largely because any firing against the heroes was from too far away; once we got closer, neither of us wanted to risk it.

The game was quickly put together, given more time I'd adjust the traits slightly, but they seemed to work fine.  Also, unpainted terrain.  This was some stuff I threw together last time we were playing, and it never got finished.  I should complete it, but I've been thinking about doing some 28mm stuff to use the greater variety of the old WotC pre-painted stuff.

Oldhammer Elves part 1

When I explained how I'm collecting and organising my Oldhammer minis I showed a group of elves. Well these are going to be the first reduced model unit for my Good Alliance. In that post I suggested a unit size of four, but I'm going for six instead.

L to R; C08 (3C - 11) Bowman, C08 (3C - 08) Guard, C08 (3C - 04) Orc-Slayer, ME 31 (02) Silvan Elf, ME 31 (01) Silvan Elf, 4213/10 Bow 9

These are lovely minis and include some of the classic Lord of the Rings minis that Citadel did long before the films. (I've got quite a few of the ME minis scattered around; I'll have to see if I have a full Fellowship somewhere for a future project).  The first three in the line-up above are all sculpted by Aly Morrison but I don't know who did the others.

I don't think of this lot as an organised unit, so no uniforms; that said, there will be quite a bit of green.  I'll probably go for light green hose and dark green tunics, where relevant, rather like the different greens I used on the Reaper Bones Undead Elf. I'd also like to use some browns, following the description of Legolas "clad in green and brown".

I'll vary the shades slightly as well, as I feel this gives a more naturalistic look to pre-industrial fabrics.  There are some nice details, such as straps, buckles and studs, which will give plenty of interest, but not so much that I get confused as to what to paint things (a complaint I have against many of the more modern minis).

I've also got another unit ready, again lovely Oldhammer models. This time a unit of Light or Heavy Foot. It'll be a while before I paint them though, I think I should do a unit for the Evil side first.