Galactic Heroes: Skirmish on Tatooine

I've played quite a few games of Fistful of Lead although never actually the original Cowboy version...most of my games have been using the Horse and Musket variant for games featuring Sharpe or set in colonial Afghanistan.  It's a great system which is easily adaptable to just about any setting and Wiley Games have produced several supplements including Horror and Post-Apocalypse settings as well as a generic rulebook.  The version which caught my eye was Galactic Heroes which covers everything from Flash Gordon to  Star Trek and, of course, Star Wars...

So last night I dusted off my son's old collection of the Collectible Star Wars Miniatures which were all the rage a few years ago and set up a game for my friend Andrew and I to try out.  The rules are really easy to pick up... proof of this was apparent early on when I realised I'd forgotten to bring a spare QRS for Andrew but we found within a turn or 2 he had a really good grasp of the mechanics.  The game uses a deck of cards to activate characters (usually around 5 or 6 figures per player) with certain cards giving an extra bonus such as  a +1 to shooting or combat, allowing a re-roll  or removing wounds, shock etc.  Each figure has a special trait, usually positive although we each had a figure with a penalty, and the squads are led by a Hero or Villain who has extra traits and sometimes extra actions.

Mos Eisley... a random desert town...

So on to tonight's main feature...  We used one of the scenarios from the book: our heroes, led by Luke Skywalker and Chewbacca have to get a droid containing vital plans across a hive of scum and villainy to a waiting Speeder (I didn't have a large enough space ship).  Unfortunately the droid only has half the vital plans...the rest are in the possession of a Jawa who is hanging around the town. Unfortunately there are several Jawas in town and they all look very similar so some running around questioning them has to take place before our Heroes can leave.

Of course our Heroes don't get it all their own way.  The Imperials have learned about their plans and sent some Stormtroopers to intercept them.   Darth Vader has decided not to leave things to chance and decided to take charge of the operation himself.  Both squads have a Hero/Villain, a 'Specialist' (not quite as good as a Hero) and a couple of Regular figures. A 5th figure on each side has been replaced with a group of 3 Grunts... think Redshirts who are likely to die quickly but at least there are 3 of them.

There were also a selection of random events that may or may not happen.  We did get a 'Disturbance in the Force' result which meant Luke and Vader couldn't use their Force powers for a turn but sadly my rampaging Bantha didn't get to put in an appearance this time,

The waiting Speeder, parked next to a convenient Cantina...

A perfectly innocent Jawa...

Lord Vader gives a pre-match team talk to the Grunts...

The Grunts decide that climbing up onto the gantry is a great tactic... funnily enough they get shot almost immediately, but not before killing Greedo (he didn't get to fire first this time...) 
who had been looking after the important Droid.  Andrew's dice rolling for wounds was quite spectacular and generally resulted in people being immediately Out of Action (ie dead) rather than Wounded or Shocked...

The Rebel Scum huddle behind a building...their blasters weren't proving very effective at hitting the Stormtroopers who had sensibly taken cover behind a wall...

Chewbacca was hit by a blaster bolt and wounded and spent several turns trying to recover

 before Luke ran over and used some of his Jedi mind tricks and healed him

The Stormtroopers are gradually whittled down...

...so Lord Vader cunningly calls for reinforcements and a fresh trio of Grunts arrive...

...but they don't last long.

One of the few remaining Stormtroopers takes refuge in the Cantina and decides that a quiet life farming on Tatooine is definitely preferable  to fighting the Rebellion...and removes his point of Shock by the liberal use of alcohol...

As you'd expect from a game like this, the end result was always going to come down to a fight between Luke and Darth.  Before young Skywalker could take on his dad Chewie decided to get involved.  Not only did Chewbacca manage to wound Darth but I managed to roll a 1 in combat which meant I was disarmed...Chewie's axe had smashed Lord Vader's lightsaber!  As Vader was lying on the ground wounded I'd hoped Andrew would see the opportunity for Luke to reason with his father and turn him back to the Light Side of the Force but no, he ran up and ruthlessly killed his father in a flurry of Sword blows!

A definite victory for the Rebel Scum but I'm taking comfort that in Luke's merciless killing of his father he has taken a step towards the Dark Side...

Great fun and a properly cinematic game.  The rules are well worth looking out for.  They can be bought direct from Wiley Games and in the UK Oshiro Model Terrain stock them.