Fistful of Lead: Bigger Battles. Four player Aliens vs Humans...

 

Today I dusted off my old collection of HEROSCAPE figures to put on a four player Fistful of Lead (FFoL) game.  We met at Darwin tabletop gamers group and used the 'Bigger Battles' version of the game that I bought from War-game Vault a few weeks back.

I've played FFoL a fair few times over the past two years and it's always a blast. Today's game didn't really have the same mix of tumbledown craziness that our typical FFoL skirmish level games have had, although it was a very tight battle that went down to points at the end. 

The 'Bigger Battles' rules enable players to field more figures on the table, and in this game each player controlled sections of four to five figures. The look of the game resembled more of a small platoon sized game such as Bolt Action, rather than the single figure skirmish games that we have typically played. 

There was a lot of shooting, moving and shooting....scads of dice and little bit of 'take that' gameplay thrown in. The main difference i'd say is the 'bloodiness', casualties come thick and fast, figures were removed quickly as the game progressed.

The scenario map contained a recently crashed asteroid, situated just East of an unnamed African village. The asteroid was an Alien Nest, and this nest, at the early stage of the game, was to be protected by two MECHs - and like mum & dad their job was to protect their babies.

The Nest was the prized and the crucial target for the human players. They had to make it within firing range and destroy it before the Nest could spawn Aliens. 

The Aliens were to destroy all humans and any evidence of human habitation, in order to raze the earth in preparation for a new and better Alien civilisation. Yeah I know...nothing new to see here, but enough to make a pretty good tight battle.

It was a 2 vs 2, 10 turn game. Myself and J_. were to take the Aliens. S_ and S_...took the militia.

Throughout the early part of the game the MECHS took a lot of damage and fought back valiantly. MECH V1.0 (MUM) positioned herself at the eastern side, with a good field of fire in which to laze up and grenade any threat. MECH V2.0 (DAD) was to pop behind the troops and attempt to outflank and cause chaos and confusion.

The Troopers on the southern flank quickly moved towards the nest.

                                        The nest couldn't fight back, but held 12 wounds of damage. It would take a concerted effort to destroy it. Every time a Joker was pulled from the pack, a randomised Alien would spawn. It was essential at this early stage of the game, that the humans should take the initiative and destroy that nest before it could spawn.

MECH V2.0 (DAD) arrived on the western edge of the table and immediately drew the attention of some of the better trained troops. DAD took three hits in the first salvo, almost wiping him out, before he started using his fusion gun to destroy the village homes and the odd trooper. Once per turn, he also had the ability to jump smash people or places up to 12 inches away, rolling 5d12s damage. 

It took a focused crossfire from two units to destroy DAD fairly early, enabling the regular units to about face and make their way towards the nest.

By turn 3, it was looking very worrying for the aliens, as the humans had only lost a few buildings (worth VPs) and few soldiers.

All that stood between the humans and the nest was poor old MUM (MECH V1.0). Oddly enough, it was a swarm of humans that threatened to end the game early. The nest had not even started to provide the Alien team with any re-inforcements.

MUM stood her ground, lobbing grenades and machine-gunning the elite and militia units moving on the southern flank. She took a few wounds early the game, and by turn 4 it was looking like a quick end to the game.

The Elite troops covered the approach of the militia units, laying down some serious D12 firepower against MUM, all the while the militias units overlooked the hills sheltering the Alien nest. These militia units set themselves up with a good firing position in order to finish of the nest and win the game.

By this stage, the second Elite unit had positioned itself in a second overwatch elevation, and had already started to call in airstrikes, with some effect. MUM was down to three wounds and taking a lot of fire as well.

Then finally, finally the Jokers arrived.

Firstly, it was a MEGA Alien. At six wounds, it took two militia teams all their mags to try and take it down. The militia teams took a few stoppages in the process.

Soon the Nest spawned more Aliens...some Laser pistol toting troops arrived and began fighting back, at D12 to hit , they could do some serious damage to those militia units. But as you can see, those militia units cut up that MEGA Alien pretty bad.

Soon the MEGA was dead. But at least by this stage of the game, the Aliens were back in the fight and back in the game. The Troopers were all dangerously close to the angry and wounded nest.

The nest began to spawn a hell of a lot of trouble by turn 5. Another MEGA, some Heroes, and even some weird Alien dogs joined the party.

As you can see though, the Nest had also drawn a lot of fire, and as a consequence, had received a lot of wounds. Eventually, she would be wiped out. MUM had tried to draw fire away, but had also perished in the onslaught.

By turn 7, the nest had been destroyed, bu there were a few angry aliens to deal with.

Towards the last few turns the Aliens started to move forward and really hammer home. The militia units were crushed to a pulp, and lazed up, wiping them off the map. Another elite unit was destroyed as well. The Alien heroes over-promised and under-delivered...and were caught in a massive crossfire and wiped out. 

The attention sought by the Heroes enabled the MEGA alien to go on one last rampage...smashing a few houses in the last two turns to try to stack up some VPs.

By the end of turn 10 the scenario had ended and we tallied points. It was to be a minor victory for the humans. They had destroyed the nest, a few aliens - including a MEGA - and had a three good ordered units on the board as well. 

They had 33 points.

It was a closely run game though. The Aliens had killed 17 soldiers, and wiped out a bunch of shacks, village farmhouses and even the old hotel.

They racked up 27 points.

We all had a good time and the fellas all enjoyed FFoL, no one had any real dramas learning the game as it's pretty simple. I would like to try a more historical scenario next time, but thought the 'Alien theme' would be a better introduction for two newer players. 

The game took about two and a half hours. 

The figures are a mix of HEROSCAPE and my collection Eureka African Militia & Portuguese Colonial troops.

Most of the terrain is from my own collection, although the 'parkland' piece with the picnic benches was the club's terrain.