Third playtest of Perilous Tales - Episode 103: They Don't Like It Up 'Em

My third playtest of Perilous Tales using my Dad's Army figures against the recently acquired and painted Fungoids from Crooked Dice.

Colonel Pritchard called the office in the village hall earlier this week:

“It’s a night exercise in the woods for your platoon this weekend, Mainwaring. Hidden amongst the trees are a radio and three valves for you to find and recover, if you’re up to it. And someone has been prowling around the army hut there too and I want you to take a photograph of the blighter so I can deal with them.”

In terms of Perilous Tales objectives, this equated to Find The Precious (for the radio), Recover Equipment (for the three valves) and Get Evidence.

Using statistics for similar characters in the Villain lists (in brackets), the Fungoids were as follows:

1: • FUNGOID SCIENTIST (MAD SCIENTIST)
MASTER, LURKER, 12 WOUNDS, SKILL 5
Experiment: If there is a knocked down model within 1”, and no other hero within 6”, kill the knocked down model as this model’s activation.
Experimental Simulants: Minions within 3” of this model gain advantage to their attacks.

2: • FUNGOID ATHLETE (LAB ASSISTANT with MONSTER trait)
3: • FUNGOID THUG (LAB ASSISTANT with MONSTER trait)
MINION, LURKER, 8 WOUNDS, SKILL 5
Powerful: If an attack from this model causes one or more wounds,the target suffers knockdown.

4: • FUNGOID SCHOOLGIRL (IMP)
MINION, PACK HUNTER, 3 WOUNDS, SKILL 3
Pickpocket: A hero within 3” of this model counts as having no traits.
Creep: After attacking, trigger this model’s reaction.

5: • FUNGOID DOG (WOLF)
MINION, PACK HUNTER, 4 WOUNDS, SKILL 3
Scent of blood: If this model targets a wounded hero with an attack action, it gains +1 skill

And I used three of the Perilous Tales location perils but renamed to fit the Dad's Army theme for my Walmington Woods location:

6: STUPID BOY! (TEMPTED FORWARD) – Every hero within 6” of the revealer must pass a skill check or immediately take a Walk action towards this peril.

7: DON’T PANIC! (UTTERLY HORRIBLE) - When revealed, the revealer and every heroic model within 6” of the threat marker must make a horror check with disadvantage, treating this threat marker as the closest villainous model. Discard this threat marker after revealing.

8: PUT THAT LIGHT OUT! (THE CAPTAIN) – When you reveal this peril, spawn the ARP Warden, who immediately ambushes as a villain.  He counts as a minion with 6 Wounds and Skill 4.  If a hero successfully takes the Parley action targeting the Warden, minimum difficulty 8, the Warden switches to being a teammate with 2AP and no traits.

The 2 feet square playing area had a Nissen Hut, a pillbox, a pond and several large trees plus a run of telegraph poles.

The threat markers were set up in corridor deployment and the Platoon moved up towards the hut with Mainwaring taking the lead.  He prompted the simultaneous reveal of two threat markers and was ambushed by the ARP Warden and the Fungoid Thug.

Mainwaring took 8 wounds from the pair of them but was fortunately (on his third and last try) able to convince Warden Hodges who he was and gain his help.  Pike searched the hut and found the radio.  The Thug runs to the pillbox being fired upon by Wilson and Jones, and hides.

Wilson shoots the Thug dead before a Crawling Chaos terror check roll results in 4 of the 6 characters failing their Horror Check and retreating.  Jones held on though but was rewarded for his bravery by a nasty bite from a Fungoid Dog emerging from the pillbox.

Mainwaring disappeared behind the hut and found one of the radio valves.  Godfrey came to help Jones but triggered the Fungoid Athlete.

As the noose tightened, an infected Schoolgirl surprised Mainwaring at the edge of the woods, wounding him and running away, only to be taken out by the Captain's subsequent sharp shooting.

Jones killed the Dog and the rest of the squad took out the athlete.  Mainwaring and Godfrey found the other two radio valves.  With the threat level only at 6 and two objectives completed (both 3 points) with no losses (a further 2 points), it was tempting to go for the safe exit down the centre of the playing area and retire with 8 points.  But where's the fun in that?  Instead, Jones activated the Scientist and received significant wounds for his effort.  Then the threat check (The Trap Is Sprung) saw another Fungoid Athlete appear, who killed an already wounded Godfrey.

Mainwaring killed the Athlete whilst Pike took the photograph of the Scientist that Pritchard wanted.  Another "Trap Is Sprung" result saw another Fungoid Thug appear.  The now wounded Scientist attacked the Warden but Hodges was able to escape combat allowing the platoon members to pepper the Scientist with bullets, taking him out of the game.  Pike recovered the third valve from the body of Godfrey.

Another threat check, another minion spawned.  This time the Athlete killed Jones outright with some good rolling.  His colleagues took their revenge.  Not all the characters could exit the playing area in one turn so they moved to the edge ready.  Yet another minion was spawned but the threat level then reached 10, ending the game.

Each of the three objectives were achieved (3 points each) and the leader was still alive (+1) but with the loss of both Jones and Godfrey, the 10 points ("a truly heroic performance") was perhaps a hollow victory.

Great fun though.  And again it prompted a few thoughts on the ruleset which I'll share in the playtesting group.