Sacre Bleu! Pirate Skirmish

My most recent experimentation with miniature games is Sacre Bleu! from AGEMA. It is defined as "mass skirmish wargame rules for the age of pirates, reason and wayfare." The entire rules are contained in just six pages. The book also includes four scenarios with different objectives. The text is well-written and the few tables are clear.

The main distinguishing feature of Sacre Bleu! is that it is played as a succession of randomly determined phases. A given phase may allow one of the players to move their figures, or to shoot with figures that didn't move in the previous phase, or allow all figures (from all players) to fire simultaneously. Close combat is resolved at the end of every phase as necessary. The game designer explains that this was done to model the chaotic nature of skirmishes. From a solo gamer's standpoint I found this idea very cool; in a way it is a variation of activation rolls that can add even more unpredictability to the game.

Each figure is described by its discipline grade, the weapons it carries and possibly one of a few modifiers. Discipline is used when a "decision check" phase is rolled. Essentially it is a kind of morale roll that can cause a number of figures to move randomly (they panick or decide to try some crazy plan) if failed -- but if they succeed they may gain an extra action too.

Rush for the Treasure

In this scenario, two bands of pirates try to grab the treasure chests from the center of the board. Once a figure is in contact with a chest, it can pull it at half movement rate. The green patches provide soft cover. The bands are almost the same, however the left one (side A) has two peg-legged pirates with pistols while the group on the right (side B) has two guys with polearms. All figures count as bad-disciplined units and the leaders are the figures carrying the pirate flags.

Circle of Death - Campaign Summary

This is a summary with links to each fight in the Circle of Death tournament played with the Red Sun Black Moon rules.

Intro - an overview of the tournament and introduction of the fighters.

Fight 1 - Grend vs. Mambul: a soldier looking for revenge faces the lion man.

Fight 2 - Black Talon vs. Mad Ramos: the assassin and the wanderer.

Fight 3 - Drush vs. Sussimog: a duel of resilience against strength.

Fight 4 - Keris vs. Terokk: champion of the Red Sun and the mysterious stranger.

Semifinal 1 - winner of fight 1 vs. winner of fight 2.

Semifinal 2 - winner of fight 3 vs. winner of fight 4.

The final fight for championship of the Circle of Death!

Circle of Death: Finale

This is the final match in the Circle of Death tournament: Drush vs. Mad Ramos. [I've played Mad Ramos as his rating is lower than Drush's.]

The two warriors meet at the center of the arena. Drush strikes with his axe but Mad Ramos blocks the attack with his shield. He immediately counterstrikes with his sword but Drush parries it with the shaft of the axe.

Circle of Death: Drush vs. Terokk

Terokk spent the night before the match in meditation. Sitting in the grass, with legs folded, he remained still like a statue, or even more like a tree -- for his thick hair moved by the wind sounded like leaves. At dawn, no one noticed a bird landing in front of him, picking up what seemed like a seed he took from a pouch, and flying away.

Drush spent the night as usual, drinking with his toadies until he nearly passed out.
[This time I'm playing Terokk (rating 8) against Drush (rating 9)]

As the fighters entered the arena, Drush paused for a moment, studying Terokk as if confused. He hadn't bothered learning about his opponent and now wondered if he was some kind of orc. "No," he thought to himself, "the smell ain't right."

 Terokk started walking towards the center of the arena, his two handed sword held steadily in front of him. Drush finally moved in a frantic charge, with his axe ready to strike. Terokk tried to step back but the orc moved faster, and with a sweeping motion hit him in the left leg. The blow was so powerful that he was knocked down, blood covering the floor.

Surprisingly, the flow of blood decreased, as Terokk's flesh seemed to be healing at the edges of the wound. He stood up and promptly attacked, and the two large warriors engaged in combat. Sword and axe met with sparks flying around but neither combatant could find an opening...

Terokk attempted a powerful descending strike with his sword, but his wounded leg made him slower. For a moment his guard was open as he maneuvered, and Drush took advantage of this, cleaving him in the stomach. The warrior folded in pain, and dropped to the ground dead. The killing stroke in the center of the arena caused the audience to burst in applause and screams.

Conclusion

Drush tramples over another opponent in the tournament... In this match I had really bad luck with the dice. Even though I burned around half of my bonus dice on the first attack, I couldn't avoid that bleeder wound. Then on the third round I rolled only one success on attack while Drush got five (and that's rolling six dice.) With a two handed axe and high strength his damage rolls are always dangerous so getting a killing stroke after that wasn't unlikely.

Now the final match is defined: Mad Ramos versus Drush. Will the berserker human defeat the raging orc?

Paper Cars

Today I've built my first paper car from the amazing collection at Inkjet, Paper, Scissor, a papercraft blog run by Grendels_Mother64 also of the Cardboard Warriors forum. This model was printed at 50% scale to make it compatible with 15mm minis. Even at this reduced size it was very easy to build and looks great.

My advice when building them: glue one side to the top, then the other side and finally the floor. Now I have to build a few more to use in my modern games. Come to think of it, I now probably have more than enough terrain to play All Things Zombie. 

Circle of Death: Grend vs. Mad Ramos

In this match the two human warriors face each other in the arena. Grend has proven he can stand a long fight and hold a stronger opponent at bay until they are tired. Mad Ramos defeated the elf Black Talon with a mixture of skill and luck. [In this fight I played Mad Ramos, who has a rating of 8, against Grend who has a rating of 9. I've also built some walls to decorate the arena.]

The two warriors move to the center of the arena. With a quick dash, Grend moves to Mad Ramos' right in order to avoid his shield and stabs with his spear. However, Ramos quickly deflects the attack and strikes back in a continuous motion. Grend steps back and lunges again, wounding Mad Ramos in the chest.

Feeling the pain of the wound, Mad Ramos takes a step back and catches some air. Grend advances, trying to hit with another stab but his opponent blocks him. The fight continues and Grend attempts another attack. Before Mad Ramos can react, he makes a quick stab that catches him in the belly. He steps away and catches his breath again, his back against the arena wall.

Trying to regain some strength, Mad Ramos moves along the edge of the arena, keeping out of reach of Grend's attacks. As the audience starts booing, he stands his ground and waits for the attack. Grend moves in and makes a series of quick stabs, holding his spear above the shoulder. Mad Ramos dodges and blocks the spear tip and then, as Grend pulls his arm back, slashes him across the chest, with enough force to push him back.

The two warriors pause for a moment, breathing heavily, then resume the fight. Their weapons meet each other's shields several times and the roar of the spectators is frightening, like thunder announcing a storm. Mad Ramos pushes Grend back once more, and he charges again. The wild swordsman steps to the side, spinning around and hitting Grend in the neck as he passes. The impact decapitates him in a single strike.

Conclusion

Grend's shield was very useful as it blocked a strong attack from Mad Ramos, which otherwise might have caused a bleeder wound. Unfortunately, Ramos would land another strong attack to the head, this time a killing stroke.

One of the tournament finalists has been defined, and now only two matches remain. Mad Ramos succeeded on the recovery roll so he's ready for the winner of the fight between Drush and Terokk.

Last Stand at Kirrinbahr

This is just a quick post to comment on the solo adventure "Last Stand at Kirrinbahr." It is a paragraph-based adventure, along with some maps to help understand the context and a simple action and combat resolution system. I've just finished playing it in about 3 hours and thoroughly enjoyed it. By the end of the game I was really immersed -- a feat in solo games as it's just too easy to step back and analyze the game from the outside.

Two things I liked: your actions have logical consequences (at least for me) and the story does have some twists. Actually, make it three: the action and combat resolution systems work well to keep the game moving.

Two things I didn't like: the PDF could have hyperlinks to aid navigating across paragraphs and maps (I bet many people will play this on a computer or tablet instead of printing the book) and some character options don't seem to matter so much as others (but I didn't explore every possible path in the book.)

It's hard to comment much more without spoiling the game, so I'll stop here. As with most paragraph-based games, the replay value isn't very high although I'll probably try again with different character choices.

Circle of Death: Keris vs. Terokk

Keris had watched the match between Drush and Sussimog. Officially, he had joined the tournament to champion the red sun, in a land where most people ignored the traditions or had sympathy for the dark cults. There was more, however. He learned that the orc who killed his brother in the arena would be there, and maybe he might avenge him.

Terokk the wanderer came from distant lands. At first he spoke in a strange tongue but with time, he learned how to be understood by the locals, although with a disturbing accent. It is known that foreigners sometimes are accepted as gladiators (some say the gods welcome all races, others say they are good to draw people to the arena.) Terokk is always on the move, looking for better opponents and that's the motivation for him to joining the tournament.

Keris entered the arena and looked at his opponent. Although green-skinned, he was no orc: Terokk was taller and built more like a human, except for the hair that looked like plant roots. And that unnerving white mask that looked like bone. [In this battle, Terokk has a rating of 8 so I controlled him, against the rating 10 dwarf fighter.]

Terokk advanced to the center of the arena, holding his sword with both hands at an angle across his chest. Keris moved towards him, and taking advantage of the reach of his halberd, tried a stab but the large humanoid dodged it.

The two fighters started to exchange blows. Terokk tried to avoid Keris' shield with slashes to his right side but the dwarf managed to parry and deflect the attacks. On the other hand, the dwarf also couldn't find an opening for a decisive strike. At one time, Terokk would burst a chain of attacks, only to be blocked by the dwarf's shield. Then Keris would try to hit with alternate stabs and slashes, but the green man kept dodging and deflecting the attacks.

As the fighters grew tired, their movements became slower and less precise. At one point Keris tried to hit with another stab but Terokk spun around and slashed his left leg, causing a serious wound. The dwarf stumbed back, almost losing his balance.

Terokk tried to press on but the dwarf avoided the attacks. Keris focused on the fight, ignoring as much as he could the bleeding wound on his leg. Unfortunately, he grew weak and after parrying one slash from Terokk he left his guard open. The green giant took the opportunity and drove the sword through him, ending the fight.

Conclusion

Despite having a higher rating, this matchup was the worst possible one for the dwarf, as the size difference gave a bonus attack die to Terokk all the time. I think I'm getting the hang of the game, both in terms of being able to play it at a good pace, and in learning some strategy.

This fight completes the first part of the tournament. Now the fights between Grend and Mad Ramos and between Drush and Terokk will define the contenders for the final match.

Circle of Death: Drush vs. Sussimog

There's shadow, and then there's darkness, in Talomir. The cult of the black moon spreads and corrupts and while some orc tribes embrace it fully, other races are drawn by its promises of power. Such is the case of Sussimog's tribe of turtle men. Constantly losing territory to other tribes, the once peaceful creatures moved to a region infested by demonic energies. Not long after, they were waging war against other reptilian races. Sussimog is the third in command of his tribe. He was sent to the tournament as a champion to prove the strength of his tribe, to bring new allies and intimidate their enemies.

Drush is one of the black moon orcs. He travels around the continent to fight anyone in the arenas for the glory of the dark forces.

[Since both fighters have the same rating and almost the same point values (85 and 87) I randomly chose one to play, getting Sussimog.]

The crowd cheers as the two fighters enter the arena -- on one side, the huge turtle man waves his club above his head, while the musclebound orc roars and shakes his two handed axe. The orc charges to the center of the arena, showing his pointed teeth. Sussimog advances in a steady pace and lifts his club, ready to bring it down on the orc's head.

However, the orc is faster and spins his axe in a wide arc that cuts through the turtle man's armor, and flesh. The sound of the breaking shell startles part of the crowd, and blood gushes from the turtle man's belly, who stumbles and falls on his back.

Before the turtle man can stand up, Drush leaps forward and brings his axe down on his chest. Once again, the sound of broken shell is terrifying and Sussimog is covered in his own blood.

Sussimog finally stands up, grasping his club with both hands in a defensive posture. He seems to lose focus for a moment but then his expression changes to grim determination. He blocks and parries the orc's strikes and every averted blow brings cheers from the crowd. This only increases Drush's rage and when he finally breaks through the turtle man's defenses, he drives his axe deep into his chest. The hit is so violent that Sussimog drops his club and is pushed back, his life gone as he falls to the ground.

Conclusion

This was the most brutal fight so far. I didn't want to use too many bonus dice at the start, while the orc rolled seven bonus dice to attack (plus another one for his rage and two for his vicious signatures.) The result was that serious, bleeding wound right at the beginning. Once the orc burned his bonus dice, he was a lot less dangerous, as seen at the end of the fight...

Now only one fight remains for this first part of the tournament. Who will fight Drush: Keris or Terokk?

Circle of Death: Black Talon vs. Mad Ramos

Black Talon used to be a notorious thief and assassin, hired for dangerous and complex missions by the rich and powerful. As it tends to happen, overconfidence got the best of him when he stole an artifact after murdering a powerful wizard. The wizard's colleagues traced him through the artifact -- and worse yet, found and destroyed the man who hired him. When he learned that he was the next target of the vindictive wizards, Black Talon used whatever contacts he still had to become a gladiator. Most of the time, he travels around fighting opponents that he knows he can defeat. He is not in the arena for fame, but for survival. There are rumors that he joined the tournament to gain allies that might help him against the wizards...

No one is sure about Mad Ramos' story as he tells it differently every time: one day he might say he fought in two wars, while on the next he was born a gladiator, or maybe an escaped slave. He's said to come from Mirish because that's when he was first seen fighting in arenas. Barefooted and wearing no armor, his opponents tend to underestimate him until it's too late. [In this match, Black Talon is a rating 9 gladiator while Mad Ramos has a rating of 8, so I played him.]

The two opponents reach the center of the arena and the clash of swords begins. Mad Ramos attempts a stab but Black Talon counter strikes, only to be blocked by Ramos' shield. The two fighters keep exchanging attacks until Black Talon cuts into Mad Ramos' left leg, causing him to jump back defensively. [There was an awesome exchange of seven attacks, moving back and forth before Black Talon got a hit.]

After the intense start of the fight, Mad Ramos pauses to catch his breath, his wounded left leg instinctively placed backwards. Black Talon advances, alternating attacks with his two swords but can't find an opening, so Mad Ramos hits back. The elf attempts a bold maneuver, slashing with both swords but Ramos dodges to the side and cleaves Black Talon's left leg just above the knee, causing him to fall down with the impact. [And then on the third turn I got lucky, winning an attack by 3 and getting 5 successes on the damage roll -- destroying Black Talon's left leg and causing a bleeder wound!]

Black Talon gets up with surprising speed, blood flowing from his left leg in pulsating rhythm. Mad Ramos barely avoids a strike as he turns around and the two fighters start another exchange of blows that continues until Mad Ramos hits the elf with a high slash, opening a cut to his forehead. Keeping the pressure, the crazed warrior bashes the elf with his shield, hurting his right arm.

The elf is noticeably weakened by the loss of blood and most of what he can do is keep his defenses up, and maybe get a lucky hit. However, Mad Ramos won't stop in his berserker rage and attacks again, this time causing a grievous wound to the elf's right arm.

With all the pain from his wounds, and his right arm nearly useless, Black Talon attempts one last strike before the mad warrior can turn around. The two exchange attacks furiously and the crowd is startled at the elf's resilience. Seconds feel like hours as the swords meet but for every clash, life leaves Black Talon's body. It doesn't take long before he collapses on the ground, dead.

Conclusion

Who'd have guessed that the human would defeat the elf? This was a nice fight and I was a little less stingy with the bonus dice this time. The exchanges of attacks during the fight were great to play, with several counter-attacks -- they don't translate so well to this battle report. 

On the next phase of the tournament we'll have Grend vs. Mad Ramos, but the next match will be Drush vs. Sussimog: a battle between the strongest and the best-armored fighters in the Circle of Death.

Circle of Death: Grend vs. Mambul

This is the first match in the Circle of Death tournament. Grend is a former soldier from Seniira. A few years ago two villages in his nation were ravaged and a group of beastmen was found guilty. Some of them were gladiators and were set free as long as they kept out of Seniira. Grend wouldn't have that, so he turned to the arena to hunt them down. For now he's gaining fame to be able to have his revenge, and that's the reason for him to joining this tournament. He uses his soldier training with spear and shield to keep his foes away.

Mambul is a lion man, one of the many cursed beastmen of the realm. He worked as a mercenary until he found that he could gain more (with the same risks) as a gladiator. He is known for his cruelty, using a hand axe to slowly cut down his opponents and then finish them with a vicious bite. It is no surprise that the tournament masters would match him against Grend.

[Technically, both fighters have a rating of 9 but Grend barely makes it at 85 points while Mambul has 92 points. So I chose to play Grend. Note: I use the yellow die to mark the active gladiator and the orange die to mark the current attacker.]

The gates of the arena slid down, hitting the dusty ground with a thump. The two gladiators stood at opposite sides, facing each other. Grend tightened his grip on the spear and Mambul let out a roar that made the chatter of the audience turn into silence. The former soldier knew that feeling, the growing fear right before the charge. He had to keep it in check to come out alive. Mambul wouldn't make it easy, as he shouted, "You call yourself a monster hunter, but today you will be my prey!" and started a slow, prowling walk towards the center of the arena.

Grend rushed to the center, holding the spear low and his shield straight ahead -- a defensive posture. When he was a few feet away, Mambul pounced forward with his axe. Grend attempted a rising stab with his spear but the lion man deflected it and in a continuous motion slashed again. The man avoided the attack and closed in for another stab that glanced Mambul's armor.

Circle of Death

I have decided to organize my next games of Red Sun Black Moon in a tournament campaign format. The Circle of Death is a gladiator tournament held on a small island somewhere in Talomir. The arena is small, built into a 10-feet deep pit. The audience can watch the matches along the edges of the pit, and a select few have access to a ring-shaped platform suspended over the arena.

There are eight gladiators taking part in the tournament. From left to right, they are: Grend, a warrior from Seniira; Mambul the lion man; Black Talon, a silver elf rogue; Terokk, the masked foreigner from lands beyond the horizon; Sussimog, turtle man from the dark swamps; Keris, from the red sun dwarves; Drush the savage orc; and Mad Ramos, from Mirish.

After creating the stats for each of the fighters, I randomly matched them for the first four fights. Here is the chart for the tournament. On each fight I'll control the gladiator with the lowest rating or, if they are evenly matched, I'll randomly pick one. After each fight, I'll allow the surviving gladiator to recover 2 Strength, repair bleeder wounds and roll on the recovery table once.

That's it for now. The first match of the tournament will be Grend vs. Mambul. The odds are in favor of the lion man, but nothing is certain in the arena...

Those who are about to die

So I jumped the Red Sun Black Moon (RSBM) bandwagon, so to speak... While I frequently read the Two Hour Wargames discussion group, this title (and its older sibling, Red Sand Blue Sky) had been under the radar for me so far. Actually, what sold RSBM to me were these wonderful battle reports from Carmen's Fun Painty Time (more here and here) and every day new, awesome reports are popping up on the discussion group.

Since this game is played in an arena with sector-based movement, there is no need for a large board even if you use 28mm miniatures -- so I printed a bunch of them to use as my arena fighters. In this picture there are humans from Okum Arts, reptilians from One Monk, dwarves and elves from PERMES, the just-released lion men from Reivaj and orcs from Sanity Studios.

Here's the arena I made, drawing on a corkboard self-adhesive tile. Each of the 9 sectors in the middle is 2" wide. Later on I might add some 3D walls around it (maybe in a flat-folding format.)

While reading the rules I created a few fighters (as recommended) and staged some test battles to get the hang of the procedures. In very broad terms, the game's turns involve movement and when you end your movement in the same sector as another figure, you enter the maneuver phase. The maneuver phase models the fighters trying to find an opening in their opponent's defense and get an advantage. It is an opposed roll that may lead to an attack phase. This is similar to Qwik, but with a lot of additional details both in the test modifiers and in the outcomes. The fighters can also have several special abilities (and some negative effects, too,) referred to as signatures, which add to variety. And while you might roll some handfuls of dice at times, the game flows smoothly and welcomes narrative interpretation.

Fight!

Here's a battle report of my first complete fight in the arena. I played Karos, a red sun dwarf against Drush, a black moon orc. Dwarves and orcs have been fighting for ages, in wars, skirmishes and arenas. The corruption of some dwarven clans by the black moon cults has only increased the hatred of those faithful to the Red Sun. I counted both figures as wearing light armor (AC 1.) The dwarf used a large shield and a halberd, while the orc carried a two-handed axe. Both of them had good fighting skills and while the orc was stronger, the dwarf was a little more agile.

Orcs Strike Again (Swordplay)

Rake's Corner suffered another orc invasion, this time to try Swordplay Final Version. I controlled a raiding party of three orcs against the town militia (rep 3 or 4, warrior or missile class). I used the following custom force table to generate the militia:

Roll 1d6:
1 = rep 5 dwarf leader (medium armor, one-hand weapon)
2 = rep 4 archer (light armor, longbow)
3 = rep 3 archer (light armor, longbow)
4 = rep 4 warrior (light armor, one-hand weapon)
5-6 = rep 3 warrior (light armor, one-hand weapon)

The orcs are Bazug (star, rep 5, warrior, using a one-handed sword and shield), Crog (rep 3, warrior, with one handed axe and shield) and Dwem (rep 4, warrior, with two-handed pickaxe).

Here's an overhead view of the board. The red markers indicate the starting PEF positions. My objective is to loot the magic shop (the light-colored building on the other side of the canal.) The enemy activity level (EAL) is 3.

At the start of the battle the PEF at the center of the board moved towards my orcs and resolved as three figures: one rep 4 archer, one rep 4 warrior and one rep 3 warrior, triggering an In Sight test.

My orc leader went first, charging the human with a sword. He lost the melee round but avoided damage thanks to his star power. The archer ducked back at the same time that my orc with the pickaxe charged the swordsman. They locked in melee and, surprisingly, the orc was taken out of the fight. The other orc ducked back.

On the turn after the first combat was over, my orc leader moved forward, causing the two other PEFs to resolve and triggering an In Sight test. One PEF was nothing but nerves but the other turned out to be eight militia and dwarves. The following picture shows the troubled situation in which my orcs put themselves.

Interestingly, the five figures involved in the In Sight test rolled two successes, so all actions were simultaneous. My orc wanted to move away but the two melee fighters wanted to charge, so I rolled on the charge table and, since they got more successes, I assumed they were faster. One archer ducked back and the other missed a shot. I then proceeded to resolve the fights against the two enemies, and luckily the orc managed to take both the dwarf and the human out of the fight.

On the following turn I activated and decided to make a run towards the objective, rather than continue fighting. I left the other orc hiding behind the building, otherwise he'd probably trigger another In Sight test and die. The orc leader entered the magic shop while the enemy forces got a 6 on the initiative roll, thus being unable to activate. Now I needed two turns to loot the place. The enemies split in two groups moving around the tall building to catch my orc. He moved, triggering an In Sight test and was taken out of the fight by an archer.

As I left the shop after looting it, I triggered an In Sight test. The two archers missed and another militia ducked back. I took a fast move check and ran towards the board edge. The militia was close to surround me. I made another fast move check and started to run but caused an In Sight test. Since the orc got the most successes, he could act first and his action was to get out of the board. Victory!

Conclusion

Just like the final version of Chain Reaction, this new Swordplay has been further streamlined (in the good sense.) For instance, the new melee resolution pretty much doesn't require looking up a table anymore, and the In Sight mechanic requires less reactions as well. The armor system has changed a little, with armor class numbers that I didn't really see applied in the rules -- maybe it's something coming with Warrior Heroes: Legends?

GunCrawl

I got the GunCrawl Collection in the recent WorldWorks sale and after seeing some nice pictures on the Cardboard Warriors forum, I had to try it. GunCrawl is a sci-fi "crawl" game for one or more players. The map is built with tiles (6"x6" rooms and different types of corridors) with grid-based movement. These features make it particularly simple to run a game using MapTool, so I wouldn't have to print and build all tiles and props first.

Here's my first mission map. The objective was to repair the two computers marked as blue squares on the map, avoiding or fighting the hostile aliens that may be found. The mission had a 20-turn time limit. I had two grunts armed with assault rifles and an engineer with a pistol. I created a single type of alien: fast-moving, with strong close-combat attacks but relatively easy to kill.

My soldiers entered the first room and found three aliens inside. The creatures charged and incapacitated one of Tom, but he recovered at the end of the turn. Afterwards they defeated the three aliens and another two that showed up in the following corridor.

By the 10th turn I had fixed the first computer and was on my way to the second objective. However, now some alien patrols started appearing. The engineer opened the door to the last room and was ripped by one of the aliens inside. Fixing the second computer without him was going to be harder.

On turn 16, one grunt was killed as the other desperately tried to fix the computer. On the next turn, he managed to complete the repairs, completing the objectives of the scenario. I didn't keep playing but I don't think he would be able to escape alive.

Conclusion

My first game of GunCrawl was interesting. The beginning was easy, maybe because my map didn't have suitable corridors to allow placement of patrols (at least until I passed through the second room.) Also, I didn't use the rules for ammunition, which would have limited the amount of ranged attacks I could make in a turn. On the other hand, near the end of the game I would repeatedly roll new enemy reinforcements that slowed me down. I still have to experiment with the threat level system for balancing the number of enemy units on the board.

I felt that the rules for GunCrawl are simple and easy to memorize. They're also very flexible, and can be adapted to sci-fi, zombies, killer robots etc. Generally, all-out aggressive enemies will be well modeled by the rules. Differently from other tile-based crawls, in this game you set up the whole board in advance. This has the drawback of requiring some planning but at least there is no risk of getting stuck in a dead end.