On 13 July, I attended a hugely fun 7TV Gaming Day at Wargames Workshop in Milton Keynes, organised by David Brown and promoted on the 7TV Facebook group.
Eight competitors each brought a 40 point Hired Help cast to fight their way through four Milton Keynes-themed episodes. I fielded the A-Team (Bold Planner, Organised Criminal, Practical Mechanic, Pilot) and their associates Amy Allen (Reporter), Frankie Santana (Driver), with special guests Alex Drake (Plainclothes Cop), The Jackal (Sharpshooter) and - because you can in 7TV Episodes - a Yeti (Missing Link).
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Last night was going great, exploring the various districts of the new town looking for opportunities. That was until the fuel ran out - someone's for the chop! The consequences, following a long walk home in the dark, are that fuel needs to be found, and your vehicle recovered. And do it quickly before the boss finds out, and explanations ramp up a level!
BA's van started on my opponents baseline and the cast had to make their way across town, collecting fuel, to refuel and drive off the edge of the playing area. The Yeti proved useful in knocking opponents down so that other characters could attack them without the defenders using their stretch dice. We both made it to our vehicles and my opponent collected more fuel but lost more cast members, giving the A-Team one more victory point in total - which 7TV rules reasonably enough judge as a Draw.
Episode 2: It's A Matter Of Scale
In a terrible metric/imperial measurement error, reminiscent of Spinal Tap's Stonehenge, the first cow constructed from the original drawings by Liz Leyh was rather oversized. Fortunately, being the prototype, it was just wire mesh and paper mache.
In an echo of the A-Team Season 3 episode Showdown! my cast faced a group of imposters resulting in what looked like blue-on-blue action, with Hannibals trading bullets, and Faces wrestling each other.
My Hannibal took charge of the cow and in a slightly dubious move, managed to swap locations with an ally with a lucky Script card and quickly got to the edge of playing area. However, as my Star, I elected to keep him on the table rather than escape with the cow, judging that he would contribute more to victory by remaining in play. This paid off as the A-Team managed to collect more of the objective markers and keep control of the cow, giving them a Decisive Victory.
Episode 3: Don't Have A Cow, Man
The concrete cows are now synonymous with Milton Keynes, but when initially displayed they were open to abuse by inventive groups. Whether simply displaying a gang's tag, hiding a stash in their hollow interior, or locating a listening device for law enforcement, they could be very useful.
I faced a tough sci-fi flavoured cast in this game and although I eventually managed to take out a co-star by massing my figures on to it, I was unable to get around to tag as many of the cow objective markers as my opponent, giving them a Minor Victory.
Episode 4: The Roundabout Way
Milton Keynes is not only famous for it's concrete cows, but for many other things (101 according to Destination MK!). A simple episode to close the series, but a good understanding of Milton Keynes may enhance your chances of finishing on a high.
This time the cow objectives were flipped when claimed, revealing a Milton Keynes-related symbol underneath which brought an associated benefit, or penalty in one case. The A-Team were doing well here until the last Script card provided one of their enemies with a turn of guaranteed successful shots, equalling the losses across both casts and resulting in a Draw.
Summary
This was an excellent day's gaming. David had put together a great set of scenarios and also provided each competitor a set of the special MDF objective markers and a Roundabout Way measuring stick to take away, so we can replay these episodes again in future. All the games were played in a fun and friendly spirit, as encouraged by the 7TV rules.
Finally here are the seven other casts at the event, the first four are my opponents in order.
