Game Review: 'The Department' & 'Ghosts of Hefei' by Joseph Dragovich

I started reading back over the rules for miniature game system by Joseph Dragovich called, The Department, and its related sister rules set, Ghosts of Hefei.  I didn’t back the Kickstarter for The Department, although I regret that now, but I did back the Kickstarter for Ghosts of Hefei after buying a PDF of The Department from Effigy Miniatures, which is now defunct, but you can still buy a PDF copy from Sabersedge.com.  I also got one set of the 15mm figures for The Department (six in total), but I can only seem to find four of them right now.  Unfortunately, I don’t think that they will be remade (here is to hoping that they are remade.)  As of now, I have the PDF of the Ghosts of Hefei rules, but I am still waiting on the figures (according to the last update, all of the figures have now been cast and now the books and T-shirts are off to the printers to be made).

The 15mm figures for 'The Department'

Both game systems are set in the same setting, but in different parts of the world and different objects using the same game mechanics, Goalsystem, which was designed by Scott Pyle.  The games are designed to be totally independent of each other, or to be used together, so one does not need to have a copy of The Department to play Ghosts of Hefei.   The Goalsystem is a fairly simple system.  Basically you roll the number of d6 dice that you have in a skill, or damage from a weapon, etc., and look for a 4+ which counts for ‘goals’ or successes, with a ‘6’ equaling two ‘goals’.  Actually, it might be worth it to make your own set of dice with 3x0, 2x1, 1x2 on the faces if you were to play a lot of Goalsystem games for ease in counting ‘goals'.  

The Department is the most interesting of the two games in my opinion because its subject matter, primarily, and that it was designed to be a solo game that can handle up to four players as a cooperative game.  The background of the game is in future USA were Fabricants, or androids, are being used, or acting on their own programs, for legal and illegal activities.  The Fabricants don’t have the same equal rights as humans, much like in the movie, Blade Runner (1982).   Matter of fact, the design of this game is very heavily under the influence of the movie, Blade Runner.  The player(s) are police detectives for the Dept. of Fabricant Management, sort of a cross between the FBI and the Blade Runner’s bounty hunters.  What is really nice is that the game can easily be transferred into different time periods with some minor modifications to do any detective style miniature game. 

In The Department, there are several scenarios and a campaign system.  I really like how the scenarios and campaign are set up, besides the fact that they are meant to be played on a 2'x2' area for 15mm figures.  First is that you create your primary characters, the protagonists for your stories.  You start off with 100 character points, but you are limited to 50 points per character.  So you will have at least two characters, but you could have more if you spend fewer points on your characters’ abilities.  But I don’t think you want to go over four characters as it appears that characters with less than 25 points will be extremely weak. 

Next, you start off with a budget to use through the entire campaign.  This is not like Warhammer where you buy all of your goodies at the beginning and have them show up every time in every game.  This is because at the end of each scenario, most of the stuff goes away and it can’t be used in the next scenario as part of the campaign!  Also, if any time your budget reaches 0, the campaign ends automatically as a failure if you have not successful defeated the primary suspect.  So, you really have to learn how to husband your budget and make it last throughout the entire campaign.  But no fear, because as the campaign progresses, you can request more budget resources based on evidence gathered.  This reminds me a lot of the another classic Sci-Fi movie, THX 1138 (1971), (Also it is George Lucas’ first movie!) In the movie the police almost have to end their pursue of Robert Duvall’s and Donald Pleasence’s characters several times, only to have their budget increased because they committed another crime, allowing them to continue on trying to catch them.  If you have never seen this movie, rent it.

In the scenarios, the characters can gather certain types of evidence to build a case.  There are five types of evidence, Person, Place, Physical, Electronic, and Financial.  Some are harder to get than others, with Person being the most easy to get.  Plus certain scenarios can not be played until the characters have gathered enough of the right types of evidence first.   As you gather evidence, you can also get certain items to assist your characters in the next game, maybe with a little loss of your budget too, like Arrest Warrants. 

But how do you keep players from being gun happy thugs and think every encounter should end like the final scenes of Bonnie & Clyde (1967)?  Now this is the best part of the game in my opinion, there is a system for Internal Affairs investigations that can range from a reprimand, to a temporary suspension (i.e., the character can’t be used in some number of future games), to getting fired and removed from the campaign.  During the course of the game, if the characters do something undesirable, like shooting at a suspect in crowd (for every shot!), he gains Internal Affair Points (IAP).  At the end of the game, you roll the number of IAPs earned in the course of the game with the same number of dice looking for ‘goals’, but these ‘goals’ you don’t want.  Depending on the number of ‘goals’, it will determined the punishment of the character.  But you can also gain IAPs for in-between games actions, like interrogating a prisoner too hard (yes, there are rules for this too!) 

Ghosts of Hefei, as mentioned above, is set in the same setting as The Department, but it has a different objective.  This game takes place in Hefei, China, a large industrial city that makes fabricants.  In this game, the players are competing against each other in a more traditional type of game.  The players build a gang of criminals whom job is to steal fabricants through hacking and other means and build their power on the streets.  In this campaign system, your gang can either win by eliminating all of the other gangs (players), gather enough wealth to go legit, or gain enough reputation that you can rule city hall.

In Ghosts, the player must choose one type of gang to be from, but other players can also pick the same type as a rival faction.  The gangs available are the following:  Iranians, Russians, Tong, and Yakuza.  There is an option to play the police too, but it only suggested if you have two or more players running gangs for the campaign.  Like The Department, there is a set number of character points and resource points to build your characters, the rest of the gang, and outfitting them.  But in Ghosts, you have more character points so you can easy get five or six characters for your gang, plus some standard thugs.  The author pretty much state that your gang needs at least one character that is a hacker to take control of fabricants. 

Also in Ghosts, there are cyber implant rules.  As the game system is the same as The Department, you can easily transfer the cyber implants and hacking rules to your The Department campaign and play something more in line of the Ghost in the Shell animated series or even Cowboy Bebop rather than Blade Runner.

Some lovely 15mm Sci-Fi civilian vehicles from Darkest Star Games.  They also have some great not-Tachikomas for a "Ghost in the Shell" games

While I have yet to actually play a game of either game, just from reading the rules, they are a fairly solid system.  I think the only thing that would improve them would be have vehicle rules as there are none. One other set of rules I think that are missing for a proper noir type game are for Femme Fatales.  With both of those rules, I could even turn the system into a James Bond like campaign!

It is not Noir without a sexy Femme Fatale!

Cheers,

Sapper

"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe..." Roy Batty

3-15-15: Remembering H. P. Lovecraft

Hello,

Well, I just started the final Ian Fleming's James Bond novels.  It is a collection of four stories and I just finished the first one, Octopussy.  So totally different then the movie plot, I might say!  So, I will be starting up the four volume series on the Guerrilla war in Missouri shortly.

Anyways, I was reminded that today is the 78th anniversary of the death (? - assuming that he is just not sleeping in R'lyeh) of one of my favorite authors, H. P. Lovecraft.  So, I am listening to the audio book of probably his most well known, if not his best written story, The Call of Cthulhu.  The version I am listening to now is read by Andrew Leman.  The story can be downloaded for free at the H. P. Lovecraft Literary Podcast at this link.  If you have an interest in H. P. Lovecraft's work, I highly encourage you to listen to the various entries on this podcast.  They are go over the work and the background of the various stories and are quite interesting.  

Cthulhu Rises by Silberius

Andrew Leman, the narrative of this version of the story is also a producer/actor of multiple radio plays and movies based on the works of H. P. Lovecraft.  I have most, but except for the most recent release, of his radio plays and movies and enjoy them greatly.  Check out his website at the H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society here.  I should also mention that Andrew Leman also co-wrote the lyrics and lent his voice to one of my favorite rock operas, Dreams in the Witch House.  Check it out here.    

So raise a glass to H. P. Lovecraft!

That is not dead which can eternal lie,
And with strange aeons even death may die

Fhtagn,
Sapper 

Emmett Dalton & Henry Starr…Bank Robbers and Movie Stars

Actor Justus D. Barnes in "The Great Train Robbery"

I was reading up on Henry Starr just recently and just thought that it might make for an interesting blog entry.  Before I get into more about Henry Starr, I thought I would share why I was reading up on Henry Starr.  At work, we got talking about the movie, “Tombstone” (1993), with Kurt Russell and one of the guys mentioned that he heard the at the old time silent movie scene at the beginning of “Tombstone” was an actual bank robber from the Old West.  I knew that was wrong, but I remember hearing that once before too.  So I went on to explain that was an actor from the first real Hollywood blockbuster, “The Great Train Robbery” (1903.) (Yeah, I have some great useless trivia knowledge.)  I also explained that he was not totally wrong in thinking that Hollywood of that period did use actually known convicted criminals to portray criminals in the movies.  Two famous 'Wild West' bank robbers that I am aware of that Hollywood used in making ‘Wild West’ movies were Emmett Dalton and Henry Starr, both from the Indian Territory, later to be Oklahoma. 

Emmett Dalton

Emmett Dalton, the youngest of the Dalton brothers, was part of the Dalton Gang that would be infamous for attempting to rob two banks in broad daylight at the same time in Coffeyville, Kansas (1892). He was the only survivor of the five gang members with 23 bullet wounds from that attempted robbery in the gun battle with the armed citizens of Coffeyville.  After serving his time, eventually went to Hollywood, wrote a book about his life than eventually played himself in the Hollywood movie, “Beyond the Law” (1918), which was based off of his autobiography.  Emmett Dalton also played in some bit roles and was an adviser in some other movies as well.  It appears that Emmett Dalton lead a straight life after his time in prison, but the same cannot be said about Henry Starr.

(I actually got to visit Coffeyville and see the Coffeyville Defenders’ Museum, the banks, and the bloody alley where the Dalton Gang fell.  Below is a few pictures of Coffeyville.)

One of the two banks that the Daltons attempted to rob

The interior of the bank from above

The alley way that the Dalton's met their end with the outlines of roughly were their bodies laid after the battle

Henry Starr

Belle Starr

Henry Starr was a more interesting character than Emmett Dalton.  Henry Starr was a part Cherokee native that was also a relative to the infamous bandit queen, Belle Starr who was associated with the James-Younger Gang (incidentally, the Daltons where related to the Youngers from the same gang.)  Henry was interesting for several reasons, first was that he is one of the few men to escape being hung by the famous Judge Isaac Parker, “The Hanging Judge”…not once, but twice!  Both times he was not hung were due to legal technicalities.  Later, he created a gang of outlaws in Arkansas and committed a large number of bank robberies, including being credited with the first bank robbery with an automobile as get-away car and using automatic weapons in the USA. (The first to use an automobile and automatic weapons in robberies were the Bonnot Gang in France, 1911-12.  They are also have an interesting read about their criminal activities too.)  Henry Starr may have robbed more banks then any man in history, at least in the US, with 21 banks confirmed and possibly over 30 in total.  He got caught in 1915 and then served time in prison only to be paroled in 1919.  During his time in prison, Henry Starr wrote an autobiography and moved out to Hollywood right out of prison to become a movie star.  Like Emmitt Dalton, Henry Starr starred himself in his autobiographic film, “A Debtor to the Law” (1919) and he was also in a couple of other movies too.  

However, unlike Emmitt Dalton, Henry Starr couldn’t shake his old ways.  On February 18, 1921, Henry Starr and three other men drove out in a Nash car, along with some automatic firearms, to Harrison, Arkansas, to rob the Peoples National Bank.  After robbing the bank of $6000 (almost $83,500 in 2015 USD), Henry Starr was shot in the back by the former bank president, WJ Myers, as he was trying to escape.  The rest of the gang escaped unharmed and never have been caught or identified. Henry Starr died four days later.  His mother, who was there at this death bed, probably said the most fitting epitaph for Henry Starr after she was told that he died, stating, "Henry has always been a trial to me, but thank God, I will know where he is tonight. I believe his character was being moulded even before his birth." 

Saddle up, posse!

Sapper

End of February Updates

Well, first off I am sure by now that you have heard about the passing away of Leonard Nimoy.  What a shame.  I really liked his voice and he seemed to have been a very nice guy.  I saw his last twitter message to everyone in the news and it was very moving.  Unlike many people, my first real exposure to Leonard Nimoy was not through Star Trek, but the TV show, In Search of…, which I enjoyed greatly as a kid.   I was too young to have seen the original series when it was the first run, never really got into them either, but I did watch about a dozen of them.  It was the movies that got me into Star Trek, but I am by far not a Trekkie in any means.  The closest I can say to being a Trekkie is that I did watch all of the movies and the first four seasons of the Star Trek: The Next Generation as well as that series final, plus the dozen or so episodes from the original series.  Oddly enough, the same holds true with my introduction and liking William Shatner came not from Star Trek but either in a rerun of the Twilight Zone episode, Nightmare at 20,000 feet, or  the movie The Horror at 37,000 Feet or Big Bad Mama (I am not sure which one I saw first) and later, TJ Hooker.  

Below is a YouTube link to the Bermuda Triangle episode of In Search Of...

In the area of books, I have knocked out some more James Bond books since my last entry.  I am now just starting, You Only Live Twice.  This is the third to last book in series, so I will be finishing the series soon.  Overall, I really am enjoying the series, but I didn’t really care for The Spy Who Loved Me.  So, it looks like I will be starting up the Bruce Nichols’ four volume set, Guerrilla Warfare in Civil War Missouri, sometime in April or early May at the latest.

I also just finished the unabridged audiobook, Gallipoli, by Peter FitzSimons.  It is very good.  While it is mainly over the ANZAC, it does touch quite a bit on Turks too, and to lesser extended the rest of the Allied powers.  The narrator for the audiobook, Robert Meldrum, was also very good, including doing accents to narrative accounts in the book.  I am really forward to listening to more by this narrator.  Luckily, he does narrate one other FitzSimons’ book, Eureka: The Unfinished Revolution, about the revolt at the Eureka Stockade in Australia.  Next up on the listening queue is the ‘Alien Voices’ radio plays Star Trek:  Spock vs. Q and Star Trek:  Spock vs. Q: The Sequel performed by Leonard Nimoy and John de Lancie in honor of Leonard Nimoy.

I have been getting some figures together to send off to be painted and will hopefully have them sent off in the next week or two as I am typing out the painting instructions.  Now with the house paid off plus I am not planning not to spend much of my regular hobby allowance on new stuff, I will be shipping more figures off to be painted on a regular basis to get some projects done.   This first batch is going to be odds and sorts.  But after that, I am going to focus on one project at a time on what I will get painted.  I probably will start with my 15mm French & Indian War project again.  I probably should send in my 15mm Canadians for the Ridgeway project instead, but I really want to paint those myself.  I plan to get back to painting them next week as I probably will not have much time tonight and Thursday night I have to go through a CPR class in the evening until 8pm, then I fly home for Friday and the weekend.  With any luck, by the end of next week, I will have the figures done for the 13^th Hamilton done and needing to be based (and which I still have not completely decided on how I will do yet.)

This weekend, I hope to work a little more on my basement to clear off my table.  The last time I was home, I didn’t put stuff up but instead threw more stuff on to the table to sort through.  This time I am just going to start boxing stuff up and not worry about sorting for now.  I have seem to have mis-placed my excel file that created to list all of the stuff that I plan to depart with soon.  I have to search around for it as I really don’t want to have to recreate it and recount every all over again.  I plan to start putting stuff up for sell this summer.  I plan to offer stuff to my closest gaming friends first, then on my blog next, followed by TMP’s (The Miniatures Page) Market Board, and then Ebay.  I might try to get rid of some of it at a local game auction or maybe at a local con if they have reasonable table rates.  Otherwise it they will most likely go to the landfill after a year of trying to get rid of the stuff.  I hate to do it, but I need to clear stuff out.

Cheers,

Joe

A good year for solitaire board games

So I was looking at the Strategy & Tactics Magazine website because I remembered that they had recently released a game on the chase of the SMS Goeben in 1914.  After listening to the audio book, Kaiser’s Pirates, my interested was peaked on the subject of the German raiders and was hoping that it was a solitaire game so I could play it when I am out of town working.  With luck, it is a solitaire game.  But was I also found that S&T had recently and will be release quite a few solitaire games through all three of their magazine titles (Strategy & Tactics, Modern War, & World at War).  A large number of them have perked my interest for topics.  It really is nice to see more games coming out for solo gamers or gamers like me that can’t be around my usual gaming friends most of the time.

So I will be putting an order out for several of them now and plan to buy some more later as they are release.  Below is a list of the various solitaire games and a brief description that I “cut & paste” right from the S&T website.  I hope this listing will be really useful for some.

Already Available Games:

From Ra'anana Gamer (link)

Strategy & Tactics #287 – Goeben

“Goeben, 1914 puts you in command of the SMS Goeben, the German battlecruiser that made a historically epic voyage through the Mediterranean during the opening days of World War One. This is a solitaire game in which the player must accomplish a specific “objective” to win the game, which will be generated at random at the start of the scenario. The player must manage the various outfittings and functions of the SMS Goeben and its escorting light cruiser, the SMS Breslau. As you fight your way through the Mediterranean, you will encounter various Allied warships, merchantmen for raiding, and unexpected opportunities and objectives. These are represented by “Incident” chits.”

Modern War #10 - Target Iran

“Target Iran is a solitaire simulation of a hypothetical US-Coalition-Israeli attack on Iran to destroy weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and other critical targets. The game begins with a "strategic" phase wherein the player conducts reconnaissance, cyberwar and mobilization (the purchasing of assets) for the actual attack, and then an "operational" stage, which is when your attack is actually executed.”

Modern War #14 - Carrier Battlegroup

“Carrier Battlegroup puts you in command of a US Navy carrier task force operating against the Soviet fleet in the North Atlantic in the 1980’s. This is a solitaire game, played in scenarios. The player must accomplish the scenario’s Objective, which will be generated at random at the start of the scenario. You, the player, must manage your carrier, its air group, and your escorts. As you operate your battlegroup, you will encounter various Soviet warships, aircraft, missiles, and unexpected opportunities and objectives. These are represented by Incident chits.”

World at War #10 - Coral Sea Solitaire

“A purpose-designed one-player wargame covering the aero-naval battle that took place between the US and Imperial Japanese Navies in May 1942. It was the first of the Pacific War.  CSS is based on the game system used in World at War number three Solomons Campaign; however, there are significant differences owing to the smaller scale of this operation and the systemic necessitates inherent in a solitaire design.”

World at War #37 - Bloody Ridge: Decision on Guadalcanal, 13 September 1942

“A purpose-designed solitaire wargame of low complexity simulating the climactic Japanese night attack of that date. The attacked was aimed at nothing less than the capture of Henderson Field and the annihilation of the entire US ground force on the island.  You are on the offensive, commanding the Japanese attack force that’s attempting to break through the US Marine defense.”

World at War #38 - Ghost Division

Ghost Division is a solitaire game in which you, the player, takes command of General Erwin Rommel’s 7th Panzer Division during the drive across Belgium and France in those heady days of May and June of 1940 (there are four German formations in the game that drive the events of play: The 7th Panzer Division, a regiment of the 5th Panzer Division, a regiment of SS-Totenkopf Division, and the 15th Motorized Corps’ non-divisional units, also representing OKW non-divisional units).

World at War #40 - Rampage & Stalingrad Cauldron

“Rampage is purpose-designed solitaire wargame that covers the fighting in northwest Europe from the time of the Argentan-Falaise encirclement in mid-August 1944 through the end of September. You actively command the Allied forces, while the rules system directs you in the handling of German forces. You win by accumulating victory points via seizure of key areas on the map.”

“Stalingrad Cauldron (SC) is purpose-designed solitaire wargame that covers the fighting in the areas of German Army Groups A and D on from the time of Sixth Army’s encirclement late in November 1942 through to its destruction at the end of January 1943. The single player actively commands the Soviet forces, while the rules system directs the player in the deployment of the Axis (German, Italian and Hungarian) forces. The player wins by accumulating victory points by achieving the destruction of Sixth Army’s component corps and the seizure of key areas around the map.”

Future Releases:

Modern War #17 - Dien Bien Phu

“Dien Bien Phu (Solitaire) is a wargame covering the decisive battle of the First Indochina War in which elite French Expeditionary Force units defended an air-land base against the communist Viet Minh. The game covers the critical period of Viet Minh assaults and French counterattacks of March to May, 1954. Historically, the Viet Minh won the battle, overrunning the base. This led to the collapse of the French position in Indochina and eventual US involvement in Vietnam.”

Modern War #18 - Green Beret: Vietnam

“Green Beret: Vietnam (Solitaire) gives you command of a Green Beret team in the Central Highlands before and during the Vietnam War. Your duty is to lead your men on a variety of randomly generated missions (representing orders direct from high command), choose weapons and equipment that are best suited for the mission, decide on how to posture your team, plan your approach, and a method of extraction.”

Modern War #20 – Drive on Baghdad: 2003

“Drive on Baghdad: 2003 is a solitaire game in which the player takes command of Central Command Forces during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Your goal is to defeat Saddam Hussein’s forces in such a manner as to prevent a post-campaign insurgency from breaking out.”

Modern War #21 – Kandahar: Special Forces in Afghanistan

“Kandahar: Special Forces in Afghanistan (Solitaire) gives you command of a Special Forces team in Afghanistan from 2003 to 2013. Your lead your men on a variety of randomly generated missions; you choose your weapons and equipment, decide on how to posture your team, and plan your approach and method of extraction.”

World at War #43 – Patton’s Third Army

“Patton’s Third Army is a solitaire game system where the player takes command of General George Patton’s Third Army during the campaign across France in 1944. The game begins immediately following the Falaise Battle and continues through to 15 December, at which point Third Army was sent to fight In the Battle of the Bulge. Your goal as a player is to surpass Patton’s original record, thereby possibly forestalling Germany’s Ardennes Offensive and thereby gaining glory as a great general.”

World at War #44 – Night Fight: Solitaire East Front Tactics

“Night Fight: Solitaire East Front Tactics is a solitaire wargame in which you command a Kampfgruppe group of German panzers infiltrating and attacking Soviet forces at night while the system runs the Soviet forces. The first scenario is based on an actual night action from the Battle of Kursk during elements of 6th Panzer Division infiltrated behind Soviet lines. There are also several other scenarios representing other night fights on the eastern front in 1943.”

World at War #45 – Panzers East Solitaire

“Panzers East Solitaire (PES) is simulation that covers the advance of Germany’s Army Group Center, starting on the first day of Operation Barbarossa and potentially extending to the last day of August later that same summer. The design supports both strict historical and alternative history explorations. That is, at the end of July, when the AGC offensive was historically shut down in favor of supporting extended drives by the flanking army groups, it’s possible that, if you’ve done better up to then than your historical counterpart, Hitler may authorize a continued and immediate advance on Moscow. You command the German forces while the system directs the handling of Soviet forces. You win or lose based on the timely seizure of key areas on the map.”

Be seeing you

Sapper