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Author Topic: Galactic Heroes Co-op AAR  (Read 1136 times)

Offline Maniac

  • Scientist
  • Posts: 367
Galactic Heroes Co-op AAR
« on: September 02, 2020, 01:00:24 AM »
My kids and I broke out some new figs and new terrain to play Galactic Heroes.  I had purchased a couple of the infinity paper terrain sets and had reinforced the structures with foamcore and wanted to try them out.  Add in 4 new warbands that I had done during lock down, and bingo!  All new fun to try out.

We played a variant on the ‘These Aren’t the Droids’ scenario in the main rulebook, and I thought we’d try out a co-op game, with my kids playing one force each, two Imperial forces, and me playing the force trying to get the package off the table.  To add to the mix, I’d also recent purchased Pulp Alley’s Solo card deck, and each turn we were dealt a single card from it, that could be played at the controlling player’s discretion (when they activated with a card or when another player activated with a card, max of one card in a hand at a time to avoid complicated choices.  This meant you had to play the card before getting a new one).  This took a little work, as the two systems are not the same, but I used some general rules as follows:

Shifting a dice up or down gave a +1/-1 bonus to the action
Perils cause a task role, with a single role as an easy task, two perils as a regular task, and three perils as a hard task. 
3 Shocks count as knocked down

My daughter played the Clone Troopers, led by a Jedi.  The Jedi is 3D printed, and the clones are from FFG.



My son played rebels, led by Luke Skywalker.  Luke is 3D printed on an Anycubic Photon, and the squad is awaiting some snow added to their bases



I played Space Marines and started with the Child.  The Marines are all custom True Scale figures.  I still need to finish up the banner…



Lord Vader and some Death Troopers.  All figures are FFG.



Then some Mountain Troopers as the other Imperial Force.  All are 3D printed and counted as regular storm troopers, and like the rebels are awaiting some added snow to the bases.



For the game, we would draw 5 cards for the Imperials, and until they dropped below 6, we would activate 2 figures per card.  I hoped this would set things up so that the kids would win but have a few tense moments.

The game started with the Imperials coming on from both sides, in the middle, of a 4’ x 4’ map.  I started on one side with the Child, and my kids in the ‘corners’ of the opposite side.  We dealt out cards, and a Solo Card to each (one for the Imperials, one for each of us).



Opening moves saw some inconclusive shooting, with the Marines going out of ammo on one of their figs.  Vader jumped up on the buildings, intending to move towards the center of the map, only to have Luke leap up after the dark lord.  The rebels tried to intimidate Vader, to no avail, as he promptly used his anger to over-ride Luke’s subtle force manipulations.



The Marines continued somewhat ineffectual fire, while the Clones moved with precision up behind cover to prepare covering fire into the center of the board.



The Rebel heavy blaster, in the meantime, tried to sneak up into a defensive position opposite Vader on the main complex.  However, an insidious Death Trooper was waiting in the shadows of a crate and scored a hit on the gun crew before they could climb the ladder. 

Real casualties opened when an Arc Trooper vaporized a hapless Mountain Trooper who had thought to garner a sniper spot up on some crates, while the clone’s Jedi began buffeting two troopers with blows.  While it would take a few rounds of combat, and one trooper would pluckily hold out for three rounds, the Jedi would still decapitate or limb them both.



Meanwhile Luke made a run for Vader.  A plucky Death Trooper took aim, and would have killed the hero if not for the force deflecting the shot just enough to enable him to complete his leap into combat with his father (9 Lives saved Luke an ignominious death at the hands of a simple blaster).  Father and Son squared off, and a flurry of blows yielded a somewhat inconclusive melee.



Luke knew he had to finish off the Dark Lord and drawing his blaster he snapped off two quick shots.  The first the Dark Lord was able to deflect off, but the second scored a direct hit on his life support apparatus, and took him out of the fight (Luke missed the opening shot, which Vader deflected off into a wall, but scored a 10 to hit, and then a 12 on the wound table, knocking Vader out of it when my son played a card which caused ‘knocked down’ figures to be removed from play).  Awesome moment given how ineffective the shooting between rebels and Death Troopers otherwise was (I think all in I rolled out of Ammo 5-7 times during the game, either as the Marines or as the Troopers.  I used a lot of 6s or wild cards as 6s, let me tell you).

The Marines managed to run up the middle, dodging blaster fire, and together with the clones killing off all the Mountain Troopers or placing a lot of Shocks/Wounds on Death Troopers.  A storm whipped up, obscuring vision, and the one death trooper brave enough to run for the child got shocked and ran empty on charge packs.



In closing, the kids had a lot of fun.  My daughter had a great game, killing or maiming everything she shot at.  She took down 4 of the 5 Mountain Troopers and helped block the Death Troopers from cutting off the hand-off.  The Pulp Alley cards added a nice twist but will need some tweaking before I use them again.  The modifiers to shooting/combat and the perils as tasks is straight forward, but the knock down cards will need to be looked out (requiring 3 shock as too much to make it of use).  It might be worth picking up the non-solo cards as well as the reward cards to add into the game.

Additionally, I took a new approach to figure cards, which helped immensely.  I spelled out or added in any bonuses, rather than use a look up table.  This helped my kids know what each thing did much easier, and meant they were more likely to use their traits than in a normal game.  Definitely something to consider for our 15mm stuff.

Lastly, I know the Infinity Terrain is not for everyone, but it is a steal for cheap, effective terrain.  For $10, you can get most of a table.  Be wary of which sets you buy though.  The Navajo set saw me only build the crates and a single building.  Overall, the buildings were not well designed in this set.  However, the Daedalus gate stuff was rather good.  There are a lot of good tutorials out there, which I borrowed, to strengthen the models up through the addition of foam core/cardboard/similar.  This really makes the terrain much sturdier, and frankly the design of the buildings is better than the Navajo set by far.  Again, not for everyone, but a cheap and quick set to build up.  Use some metal washers in the bottom of the crates to keep them in place, and off you go.  For $20-$30 bucks, you can have an entire table’s worth of terrain (buy two sets, and off you go with mat and buildings).  Add a little cardboard, some washers, and paper clips, and the terrain will last a long time and hold up to regular play.






« Last Edit: September 02, 2020, 12:36:32 PM by Maniac »
On time, on target, or the next one's free

Offline Spinal Tap

  • Mad Scientist
  • Posts: 974
Re: Galactic Heroes Co-op AAR
« Reply #1 on: September 02, 2020, 05:37:48 AM »
Great battle report.

Lucky kids.

Would you like to adopt me?

😁

Offline fred

  • Galactic Brain
  • Posts: 4360
    • Miniature Gaming
Re: Galactic Heroes Co-op AAR
« Reply #2 on: September 02, 2020, 06:25:28 AM »
Good write up, great that you are getting games in with your kids!

We too were plagued with out of ammo results in our last game of FFoL!

Offline Karadek

  • Scientist
  • Posts: 295
    • Xenia Gamers Club
Re: Galactic Heroes Co-op AAR
« Reply #3 on: September 02, 2020, 02:28:19 PM »
Not familiar with this game. A quick google search gave me a game from Wiley Games, or one from Hasbro. Is this the Wiley Games one?

Offline Maniac

  • Scientist
  • Posts: 367
Re: Galactic Heroes Co-op AAR
« Reply #4 on: September 02, 2020, 02:50:30 PM »
It is indeed the very same.  Overall it it a great set of fast play skirmish rules.  They produce several supplements, and you can use it for anything from stone age to blasters.

They've recently done a bigger battles version, scaling up from 4-10 models to something more like a large Saga game or Sword and the Flame.  There are also several campaign and scenario books, if you want them, along with rules for space combat (I have not tried these rules yet).  I've used the rules for Peloponnesian War skirmishes, Samurai raids, and sci-fi.

I would say that the most recent Fistful of Lead rules is all you really need (it's essentially just Galactic Heroes with a little clean up and some bits added in to allow for more time periods).  Then the card deck is helpful, but not required (you can play with a regular deck and use the provided list of what a Jack of Clubs or Queen of Hearts does, the purspose made decks just list it right on the card along with the number and suit).

Pulp Alley is from a different manufacturer, but is a similar small scale skirmish game.  I purchased the solo deck to see how it might work to support solo or co-op games with my kids.  Effectively it adds a bit of flavor or seasoning to the game, but adding some unique challenges or happenings.  Think of it like adding more flair to the game, giving it a more cinema like feel.

 

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