In space, no one can hear you whimper...

This week Anthony and I played a board game which both of us have acquired in the last couple of months... Alien: Fate of the Nostromo.  I'd bought a copy off eBay a while ago but it has been sat in the 'to play' pile so when Anthony mentioned he had it as well I knew it wouldn't be long before it appeared on the table.

As you'd expect it's a nicely produced game with miniatures for each of the key crew members and one of the Alien itself.  The map features rooms and corridors on the Nostromo split over 2 levels.  

The game is cooperative.  Players are allocated 3 random missions that they have to complete before the final mission is revealed.  Each turn random event cards move the Alien or pesky Science Officer Ash who is doing his best to thwart the crew's actions, usually by confiscating the scrap material you'll need to build things like cattle prods, flame throwers etc. and generally getting in the way.  Some of the cards are incident free and Jones the cat makes the occasional appearance.  As the game progresses the more benign cards are removed, meaning the tension ramps up as things build to a climax.

In our case the final mission involved having each player in specific locations and having to manoeuvre the Alien into the airlock.  Of course the Alien is doing it's best to attack the crew... if it does, no-one actually dies.  Instead the player has to flee and the morale tracker counts down.  In our game we'd got 3/4 of the way through the morale track before successfully blowing the creature out of an airlock.

It's a fairly simple and quick game but nicely challenging and replayable.  And the board also features a lovely picture of Jones... what more could you want!

Nam!!

 1st game of the year was a chance to dig out some neglected figures and venture back to Vietnam for the first time in years.  

Last year I'd picked up a copy of the 2nd edition on Peter Pig's 'Men of Company B' rules... I used to play the original rules quite a bit and really enjoyed them.  Like a lot of PP rules they contain some really interesting concepts, but sadly like a lot of PP rules the layout can make it had to make sense of the rulebook!  I've picked v2 up a few times but never got very far into the rules so, when I'd suggested a Vietnam game to my friend Andrew I thought this might be a good spur to get to grips with them

In the event I failed completely to read them and had to dig out v1 since I was reasonably familiar with these rules.  MOCB is a small scale patrol-style game with the US (or ARVN) troops on a mission to drive off NVA troops and seize supplies, both of which gain victory points.   The US player has a choice of missions from 'Hearts and Minds' which gives more points for securing supplies and penalties for civilian casualties, to 'Bodycount' which emphasises wiping out the NCA/VC and is less worried about innocent bystanders!

The US troops activate zones by contacting markers which reveals hostile troops (possibly), civilians, and supplies.  Of course the NVA/VC player has a choice about where to place the markers and how to populate them.  There are options to 'interrogate' the locals and to call in artillery or air strikes.  The NVA/VC player has a chance of redirecting these however!

The M113s trundle happily down the road...

Uh oh....

In our game the VC sprang an early ambush from a paddy field, causing an expensive US casualty and pinning down one of the 2 M113s that were advancing down the road, thanks to a well-aimed RPG.  Sadly this was the high point of the game for the plucky revolutionary heroes.  I made a mistake in my allocation of troops... in hindsight I should have concentrated the bulk of my force in one location to hit the US troops hard... they really can't afford too many casualties.  Instead I'd spread them piecemeal across the table and lacked the killer punch I needed.  This allowed Andrew to deal effectively with each VC cadre he encountered and then to hoover up supplies and Intel.

Marines take cover in the jungle

Interrogating the locals...

I really like this game although I'm not sure Andrew was as convinced.  It has inspired me to properly read the v2 rules and have a think about other Vietnam rules that are out there.

Bliadhna Mhath Ùr

So it's a rather belated Happy New Year to everyone... resolutions steadfastly ignored, decorations are down, and I'm bracing myself for the return to work tomorrow :(

As is traditional it's a good opportunity to do a review of the year and look ahead although if 2026 is anything like 2025 I'm keeping my eyes shut!  On a personal level last year and 2024 before it were really tricky with lots of health issues in the family which have had a real impact on everyone.  For me this manifested itself in various ways but one of the most telling is that I haven't picked up a paintbrush in over 6 months.  Just didnt have the motivation to get going.  I'm feeling a bit more inspired (maybe the Xmas break helped) so perhaps I'll get going again soon.  I did keep on gaming though and a big thanks to my game-friends for keeping my spirits up ❤️

Looking back at blog posts I managed to have a game most weeks.  Boardgames seem to dominate with lots of games of Crusader Kings, Mosaic, Zombicide, Skyteam and a smattering of old school Metagames.  I have a pile of games I've picked up over the year that are still unplayed (can't resist a bargain!) and need to try and break some of these out of the box in 2026 .  There were some miniature games (Zulus, ECW, Jacobites and a rare outing for my Congo figures) but these were all definitely in the minority this year.  Im hoping to.start the year with a proper tabletop game later this week.

And so to 2026... no resolutions and no plans.  Maybe try to get to more that 1 show this year. Last year I only managed to get to Salute.  And try to get back into painting, at least a little bit.