Last War 2. Rescue the medics.

Before:

Mission 0. The Pals- Roll call

Mission 1. Only the dead...

Now...

The Pals are trying to improve their lot in this miserable existence. Hiram's gammy leg is responding to treatment from the Aid Post, but the resident stretcher-bearers went out yesterday and haven't returned...

The Aid Post sister is relieved to have one of her stretcher bearers back, and the menacing sniper cleared from this sector. They focus their efforts on Mr Sing, whose psyche has been affected by this endless war even more than most.

The Pals replenish their precious ammunition. The Quartermaster shares a secret- the engineers are on the verge of getting a tank up and running. Will this be their ticket out of this hellscape?

Another successful stunt! AD Specific was very lucky not to be killed by the sniper. Then Hiram rolled a natural 20 and did some significant damage to the German, following up with another great shot that obviated the need for Private West to batter the sniper to death with a shovel.

'O.P.' really struggled against the rats- they were doing critical hits on him and forcing him to take morale tests. He couldn't wound them back, and they kept stopping him from breaking contact. I think one must have run up his trouser leg!

The corpse markers are the same boardgame pieces I used for mud ghouls in Mission 1, with the bases chopped off and pressed into a muddy 20mm washer. I would have liked to add some helmets, rifles, webbing etc. but I think they fill the part adequately.

15mm corpse markers

The trench rats are 3D prints at 50%.

15mm trench rats

Last War 1. Only the dead have seen the end of war...

Before:

Mission 0. The Pals- Roll-call.

Now...

A heavy fog blanketed no-mans' land, cutting down on ranges. The Germans were completely taken by surprise. I had a few lucky rolls and my concerns about the viability of 15mm for skirmish were assuaged. I'll have to decide what to do with my loot and XP.

The Mud Ghouls were made from some tiny boardgame zombies I had lying around, slopped liberally with mud texture paint. The crates are HO/OO railway scenery.

Mud Ghouls

To be continued!

Last War 0. Roll call for The Pals.

The Great War never ended. The War to End All Wars slumped nightmarishly on after the worldwide devastation of the pandemic. The surviving and overlooked troops may have been in these trenches for weeks or years- time and maps have no meaning anymore. They cannot find their way out through the roiling fog, and any contact with High Command is long forgotten.

The remnants of a Pals battalion have stumbled into each other in the mists, and banded together. All that is left in their pathetic existence is the false hope of escape to the green fields beyond...

'OP' thinks he's the leader, and the others allow him this delusion. He does have a knack for scrounging ammunition, but is even dumber than he looks. He's strong but clumsy.

'OP' waves his pistol encouragingly.

Mr Sing is a broken man, whose heart was never in it. His rifle is rusted solid, but he hasn't told the other Pals.

Mr Sing's rifle can only be used as a club.

Private West will die fighting. He's got a trench club, and yells a terrifying battlecry as he charges the enemy. This means he is always targeted by them, but they are so disconcerted he has lived longer than expected. He's a poor shot, and doesn't have any ranged weapons.

Private West is a terror up close.

Hiram is a good shot and has a working rifle, but his gammy leg makes him painfully slow. He worries that one day the Pals will have to leave him behind. Oddly for a sharpshooter, his nerves make him clumsy.

Hiram will struggle to climb out of the trench.

AD Specific doesn't use guns. He just can't. What he can do, however, is bring one makeshift explosive on every mission.

No-one knows how AD Specific gets his bombs.

My sluggish 15mm WW1 ambitions got a shot in the arm with Last War, a grimsical Weird World War 1 tabletop adventure game. I intend to solo my way through the campaign and see what happens to the Pals. I do not expect them to all make it... One of the things I like is that each character has a pretty underwhelming stat line, and a crippling flaw.

I'd love to do this in 28mm and convert figures, but I'm sticking with 15mm and seeing if I can differentiate them with poses and weapons. All distances are halved, so I only need a 12" playing area! When I'm done, I'll do a deep dive into my terrain for you.

The rulebook has a random name generator which I used for inspiration. I've sexed up the pictures with the LensFX app.

There are noises in the fog. The Quartermaster says an enemy supply patrol got disoriented- can the Pals sneak out in the fog and get the crates?

What's out there? 'OP' will lead the way into the fog...

To be commenced...

*Based on Forbidden Psalm which is based on the Mörk Borg RPG.