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.

Second playtest of Perilous Tales - Episode 102: Mexican Slayride

Perilous Tales is a solo or cooperative skirmish wargame of thrilling tabletop adventures.  Beta versions of the rules are available for playtesting at the Planet Smasher website.  After last month's playtest with my Dad's Army figures, I thought I'd try it this time with the recently painted A-Team.

I wanted an Amy figure for the scenario but she wasn't included in the A-Team pack I bought, so I converted Crooked Dice's "Ripley from Alien" character. I took detail off the uniform and reduced the massive space gun to something more resembling an assault rifle.

So the full team looks like this:

I made up cards again with Nandeck which I could use to record the wounds taken with some plastic hearts I recently bought (originally sticky-backed for craft projects but an overnight soak in some white spirit removed that):

The objectives for the mission were as follows:

Nuevo Paraíso reflected a typical Mexican town in a typical A-Team episode:

...but of course not with the typical stereotyped A-Team baddies.  This time the soldiers of fortune had a Tentacled Alien and her babies to contend with:

I used some Villain and Location characteristics from the Perilous Tales rules:

The threat markers were set up in the Encircling pattern and the boys headed into the town.

A baby alien was quickly revealed, dealing 3 wounds to BA, who defeated it in hand-to-hand combat the following turn.  A second alien attacked Hannibal whilst Face and BA fell to the ground following a minor earthquake.  

With the wounds piling up, the A-Team started to take a more cautious approach, using their last action of each turn to get their Eyes Peeled, so they could attack the aliens as they were revealed before they had the opportunity to ambush the revealer.

This proved almost too successful.  The Mother and the remaining aliens were finished off either as soon as they appeared or immediately in the following turn.  By the 6th turn, the A-Team had killed all the Villains and exited the playing area a couple of turns later.  Three objectives completed at 3 points each plus a further one for not losing Hannibal and another for not losing any team member, gave a final score of 11, ranking "A" - "a truly heroic performance!"

I reset the scenario and downgraded Face and Murdock to Teammates rather than Leaders and tried again, this time with an Aggressive deployment of threat markers.  But got a similar result.

I then wondered whether I was interpreting the Eyes Peeled rule incorrectly as you are not allowed to shoot targets who are already engaged, as the newly spawning villains always are.  This was a much more challenging game, although bad luck played a part, with four "From The Shadows" results on the threat checks spawning an additional 4 baby aliens during the course of the game.  The Villains were defeated in the end but only at the expense of losing both Hannibal and BA!  The final score was still 9 as the three objectives were achieved, giving a "B" rank for "a tale fit for the telling".

This last time was a more challenging and hence more enjoyable game.  But then afterwards, I spotted that Eyes Peeled was the only time you could shoot a target who was engaged.  So I think I have some questions to take back to the playtest group.

Soldiers of fortune

Ten years ago a crack commando unit was sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn't commit. These men promptly escaped from a maximum-security stockade to the Los Angeles underground. Today, still wanted by the government, they survive as soldiers of fortune. If you have a problem... if no one else can help... and if you can find them... maybe you can hire... The A-Team.

Latest painting project finished.  I've had these for years and had to Google to remember who made them.  Foundry do a set called "The B Team" but these are "Barca and the Boys" from Studio Miniatures, which are much more finely modelled.  The incorporation of Murdock's sock puppet Socki the Talking Dog is pretty niche and I love it.

It was the Perilous Tales rules that inspired me to paint them as, like Dad's Army, it's another set of heroes to play with.

And they're under starters orders...

Last year, as I completed the palanquin from AW Miniatures for the Japan project...

...I had another crazy idea.  How about a set of similar models with figures being borne by others?  And then racing them!

I've now painted up another three teams - a couple bought at shows and one donated by Andy.  The latter are WW1 stretcher bearers from Foundry:

Next is a Muisca chief on a litter from Gringo 40s.  The Muisca were a pre-Columbian people and one of the four advanced civilizations of the Americas - although not as well known as the Aztec, Maya, and Incas.  Just a headdress and some sheaths to paint here...

Lastly, a 19th Century Chinese sedan chair with a European occupant:

The Muisca set came with a horde of golden treasure that would also fit in the litter to replace the chief.  I decided to glue him in and adapted the treasure to use as a "buried treasure" marker in figure games instead:

In case the race ends in a photo finish, I also painted up a Victorian photographer and his assistant - originally bought with Wild West and Dads' Army games in mind.

And if a referee is required, I'm sure the WW1 officer will oblige and act in the spirit of British fair play:

Now to find or devise a simple set of rules for racing these against each other.

First playtest of Perilous Tales - Episode 101: Dad's Army and the Crazy Nun

Perilous Tales is a solo or cooperative skirmish wargame of thrilling tabletop adventures.  Beta versions of the rules are available for playtesting at the Planet Smasher website.  The rules really appealed to me with hidden markers and programmed actions for the enemies, like a simple figures version of Ambush!, and I was keen to try them.

The essential mechanism in the game is the Skill Check.  A difficulty dice is rolled - two if the figure has Advantage or Disadvantage, and then the lower or higher respectively is taken as the difficulty target.  Then a number of dice equal to the figure's skill are rolled and success is every die equal or greater to the difficulty target.  A few twists on this: ones always fail, zeros (10) is a double success and sometimes there is a minimum difficulty target.

There is a similar threat check that takes place between the heroes and villains' turns which increases the threat level and can result in threat marker movement or additional villains spawning.

The rules are designed around the pulp fiction and horror genres, and only require a handful of figures for each side.  I thought they might work well with Dad's Army and ran up some cards using Nandeck with special abilities for each character that reflected their personality in the TV series.

I made cards for Walker and Frazer too but just used these five for this episode.

The idea for the enemy was that the main villain was a nun turned against England by the broadcasts of Lord Haw-Haw.  With a mad scientist, she had re-animated skeletons from Saint Aldhelm's graveyard in Walmington-on-Sea and was disrupting the plans of the local defence volunteers.

The Home Guard didn't know any of this of course.  They had simply received orders from Colonel Pritchard to investigate why the searchlight had failed.  This also included three specific Objectives from the thirteen offered in the rules.

I adapted the Voodoo Cult from the official Villain List to create my Crazed Nun list:

All Perilous Tales games are played on a 2x2 feet square area which was easy to set up on my workbench since I was playing solo.

I printed out the markers included in the rules.  Eight are numbered for the five enemy figures and three location-related events, others represent the switches, radio and other devices not used in this episode:

The playing area with markers in Aggressive formation and initial deployment of the heroes looked like this:

Here's how it played out:

1. After initial moves, Pike triggered the first skeleton on the right, which attacked him but missed.
2. Jones joined Pike to give them Advantage in their attacks and they killed the skeleton.  The threat check resulted in Creeping Horror and Bats! events in front of the church, the latter wounding Wilson.
3. As Jones and Pike pressed forward, the rest of the platoon moved up to the fence line on the left and Wilson climbed over, discovering another skeleton.
4. Mainwaring kills the skeleton whilst Jones discovers the Crazed Nun near the searchlight who wounds him.
5. In classic George Mainwaring style, the Captain then falls into an open grave taking significant damage.  Godfrey heals Wilson, whilst Jones and Pike slug it out with the Nun, and the Mad Scientist makes his first appearance, lurking around the gravestones.
6. Around the back of the church, Mainwaring and Wilson flick the first two of the three switches revealing a further skeleton and an extra skeleton spawns next to Godfrey.
7. Mainwaring and Wilson kill the skeleton near them and the former shoots the Scientist with his Officer's Pistol.  Jones finishes off the Nun but is then surprised by another skeleton.
8. Godfrey and Jones kill the skeletons they are engaged with.
9. Pike interacts with the third switch, making this the final round.

The heroes earned the following victory points: +3VP for killing the Crazed Nun, +3VP for interacting with the three switches, none for radio as that wasn't activated, +1VP for the Leader (Mainwaring) surviving, and +1VP for not losing a single teammate.  A final score of 8 victory points is ranked B - "a tale fit for the telling".  And now I've told it.

I enjoyed playing this game and look forward to playing it with others when we can share the heroes out and take on some new villains.  The rules seemed robust and the game flowed well.

Japanese Pagoda

I kept it until last as my reward for painting all the Japanese figures but I've now finished the pagoda that Andy bought me a while back.

This is another excellent MDF and card kit from Sarissa Precision with the optional additional storey and the extra height will really make the model dominate the table and the proportions look better.

This is the biggest kit I've made with 13 and a half A4 pieces:

The additional storey:

After pressing everything out, there were dozens of pieces:

I then did a test fit:

Before priming each separate part of the structure:

After priming (with our apple blossom in the background):

Lots of fiddly red paint to apply and I also added washes around the edges of each white panel to age them and give them some depth:

The cardboard roofs were spray painted and rolled slightly to fit to the curved roof supports:

The kit has the steps sticking out from the base so to protect them I based the whole thing again, adding grass, flowers and some lanterns on the corners.  The finished item:

The pagoda comes apart into five pieces - the top roof and the four storeys - so that figures can fight in and around each of the rooms:

The final elements of the Japan project were some accessories from TTCombat and a Sake temple offering from Oshiro to be used with the shrine and pagoda.

I was particularly pleased with the Sake barrels and the Buddha statue, aged with turquoise washes as used by Adrian with the Samurai DBA armies:

So after almost exactly five years, all the Japanese figures, buildings and accessories are now finished.  I have designed a set of figure stat cards for the Ronin ruleset and will get them professionally printed when my chosen printer re-opens for business post-lockdown.

And then, one day, hopefully soon, we will get them out on a table and play together again.

 雨降って地固まる (ame futte chi katamaru)
Literally: after the rain, earth hardens
Meaning: Adversity builds character / After a storm, things will stand on more solid ground than they did before.