In a Garden Far Far Away

Play testing my Close Little Star Wars / Close Little Space Wars blog post rules https://manoftinblog.wordpress.com/2016/09/25/close-little-space-wars/

Star date: 9.25.2016

Planet: Yarden / Location: in a galaxy far afar away (but strangely, just round the corner of my house)

Scenario: A captured red hat enemy staff officer  of the  Imperious Forces (usually the bad guys) has revealed the whereabouts of the secret Imperious Space Base on Planet  Yarden.

Rebellious General Yodel uses Mind Force to interrogate a captured Imperious Staff Officer, watched by an Astromech droid and Princess Layla.

He is interrogated with mind control by tiny General Yodel.

Rebellious or Revolutionary Commando Troops from many nations and planets led by the tiny General Yodel and feisty Princess Layla are heading there to destroy this base.

Its giant super laser cannon is capable of destroying entire planets / space ships / etc, yardeh yardeh yardeh …

Any similarity to the characters and plots of well known space films by George Lucas and Disney are entirely coincidental or in your own mind.

Meanwhile on Planet Yarden, the Rebellious or Revolutionary Troops head towards the Imperious base with their star crawler packed with Space TNT.

Rebellious Troops- Figures from the 1981 Airfix Space Warriors set and recent  Star Wars Command troops, past the tendrils of mysterious creeping plants. Discer laser grenadiers in the background.

The secret Imperious base is protected by watchtowers and a smaller guard base.

The smaller Imperious Guard base with khaki pound store Imperious troops and 1960s spacemen.

Luckily the Rebellious or Revolutionary troops have a secret weapon, a heavy space ballista mounted on a space ship.

Space Freighter Ship and Space Ballista with Rebellious Revolutionary Crew and Astromech droid pilot. Yodel, Layla and their captive can be seen in the hovel behind them.

In Turn 1, whilst most of the figures are out of weapons range, the Rebellious troops land a direct hit with a space rock on several of the (Cylonic looking)  Imperious Troops  behind rocky barricades, guarding the smaller space cannon.

Rebellious Captain Lush and his heavily armoured Laser sword wielding troops of The Rebellious or Revolutionary Forces (all Airfix Space Warriors).

In Turn 2, Captain Lush and several of his Rebellious laser sword warriors are killed in a melee with Imperious Troopers.

Direct hit on the Space Ballista and freighter, whilst Imperious troopers head towards Yodel and Layla’s position. 

Turn 3 – The giant space cannon of  Imperious Trooper Base lands a direct  hit on the Rebellious Space Freighter and destroys the space Ballista and its crew. A dice throw sorts out if it is repairable; it isn’t, cutting off the Rebellious chances on escape by ship.

Rebellious forces storm the laser cannon position and prepare to climb the ladder to enter the Imperious Base, drawbridge guarded by pound store imperious space troopers. The irony of Plastic rocks in the garden. Lovely 1920s spring cannon firing laser Q tips / cotton buds.

The smaller Imperious Guard base is blown up by the TNT  onboard  ‘fire ship’ of the Rebellious Half track Space Crawler.

Fortunately in Turn 3, the crew of the Rebellious Space Crawler packed with Space TNT roll the right d6 number: 4,5,6 to blow up on this move.  The smaller guard base is breached, killing several Imperious troopers. The Rebellious crew bale out  and head towards the larger base.

Turn 4 – A desperate fight takes place on the entrance ladders and drawbridge of the larger Imperious Space Base.

Turn 5 – Meanwhile some Imperial troopers threaten to capture General Yodel and Space Princess Layla and free the Imperious Staff Officer. However Layla grabs a space blaster rifle and Yodel uses his Mind Force (two d6 compared to 1d6 in the melee) to fight off the Imperious Troopers.

The Imperious Base in lockdown, drawbridge and telescopic space cannon withdrawn. The fallen Rebellious and Imperious Troopers lie scattered where they fought.

Turn 6 – A dice is thrown for when Rebellious troops might continue to attack and take over the base or withdraw into the forests.

Similarly the Imperious Base Commander dices to see when the base goes into lockdown.

The main Imperious base being in lockdown, its smaller base destroyed by the exploding Rebellious  half-truck , their own Rebellious space freighter ship irreparably damaged – it’s time for General Yodel and Layla to escape into the forests and undergrowth of Yarden. Time to fight another day …

Watching their backs!  Layla leads the surviving Rebellious Revolutionary Forces and Imperious prisoner into the planetary undergrowth.

Figures, Vehicles and Buildings

The 54mm / 1:32 scale figures were a real mix, cobbled quickly together for this game, so many are unpainted. If I had waited to paint figures and vehicles  or scratch build a space base etc, the weather may well have turned and I would not have got this solo outdoor game in.

Sterne the Imperious Base Commander and Staff Officer prisoner  are Lone Star Afrika Korps. Colourful 1960s spacemen man the smaller space cannon.

Pound store figures in khaki  form the bulk of the Imperious troops, commanded by Imperial Empire Star Wars officers.  Airfix 1981 Space Warriors and Star Wars Command figures (from Pound stores / Wilko) form the rest of the Rebellious troops, led by a zoo ranger as Princess Layla. Pound store police formed some dark blue space marines.

The space freighter ship is a lucky ‘handmade’ wooden ship find from the 1960s, topped by another junk shop find of a plastic ballista (Timpo?) This had to be strapped on to fire properly.

The smaller laser cannon is really a spring loaded metal cannon from the 1920s, it had a good range of about 2 feet of more firing cotton  buds / Q tips.

The buildings are an Airfix Strongpoint Bridge watchtower (off show in photos) and  a small roofless ‘pet house’ to hold the Imperious Staff Officer prisoner.

The main space and guard bases are the black plastic delivery bases of those PC / computer server boxes, obtained spare as packaging from a local workplace. The plastic space domes are seed incubator tops from the garden centre. The deadly large space gun is a Tiger.com £1 periscope.

Rules and Playtesting

The Close Little Star Wars version of Close Wars were scaled up for the Yarden / Garden and 54mm figures.

Buildings such as the bases seemed too impregnable, without firing the Q Tip weapons.

Any umpire type command decisions (playing solo) were solved by creating special d6 dice throws such as Is the freighter reparable? Will the Rebellious troops withdraw? Will the Imperious base and big gun withdraw into lockdown? When will the TNT in the half track blow up the Guard base?

Many of the troops only had close quarter weapons such as laser pistols or laser swords, meaning they could only be used up close or in melee phase.

The Airfix space Warriors with the disc / boomerang thing were used as Laser Space Grenadiers. Range of 12″, throw 4 to 6 to hit home. Throw d6 to see how many troops are hit.

Luckiest Shot? The Space Ballista worked well firing in trials at first chunky dice (too heavy) and second, pea gravel. This took out several of the ‘Battlestar Galactica’ type Cylon figures from the Airfix Space Warriors set  who were safely behind barriers serving with the Imperious forces. Ironic to be using plastic figure pound store rocky outcrops outdoors in the Yarden.

I hope H.G. Wells would approve of this stellar mash-up …

Great fun, possibly the last garden game maybe of the year as it gets colder and wetter going into autumn.

Posted by Man of TIN blog, September 2016.