Fourth playtest of Perilous Tales - Episode 104: We Come In Peace, Shoot To Kill

This morning, I finished painting the Starship Crew from Matakishi's Tea House.  I bought them a week or so ago again thinking they would make a great heroes team for Perilous Tales.

I made up some more cards in Nandeck:

And set up the mission:

This required a pretty simple layout with the heroes game edge being on the left and the threat markers arranged in the Aggressive deployment:

I used the Tentacled Aliens as the Villains with some location threats for the planet of Regula II:

The Away Team beamed down and advanced with Scotty revealing the first Baby Alien and Spock prompting an earthquake, resulting in most of the team failing their skill test and falling to the floor. 

Scotty took a beating but Kirk and Uhura killed the alien.  Spock revealed another Baby Alien which wounded him severely, but he killed it the following turn.  After being healed by McCoy, Scotty promptly revealed another Baby Alien and became Mired.  He collected the wounds he'd just had healed, and then he and Kirk took their revenge.  Scott then revealed Disaster Strikes but fortunately this time, none of the Skill 7 attacks hit their mark, thanks to a difficulty die roll of 9.

Spock discovered the Genesis device in one piece and Kirk decided to lead his away team to safety by making an early exit from the playing area.

This was rather scuppered by my subsequently rolling The Trap Is Sprung! in the next threat check, resulting in the Mother Alien accosting Spock...

...and another Baby Alien attacking Scotty, who was bringing up the rear.  Again, three of the Away Team fell down in horror.

Fortunately, the Mother failed to land any blows on the already quite wounded Spock, but Scotty's time finally ran out as the Baby Alien killed him.

McCoy then killed the Baby Alien whilst Spock and Kirk finished off the Mother Alien.  In a couple of event-free turns, the crew escaped with the device.

Despite the sad loss of Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott, the crew turned in a truly heroic performance with 10 points: 3 each for completing the objectives, and 1 for the leader surviving.

Another fun game and the rules worked well.

“I find your lack of faith disturbing”

Well how long did you think it was going to take me?

"Feel the power of the Dark Side"

To go with the Star Wars theme of my games room a.k.a. The Gentlemen's Quarters, I bought a Lego Darth Vader clock, about 9" high.  Placed on the windowsill, I think the hot weather must have got to him as the alarm became permanently set on, regardless of the switch position on the back.  So I thought I'd take him apart and fix the switch.

Then I realised I could complete him.  Presumably Lego didn't include the cloak so that the alarm and time set buttons on his back were easily accessible (the light and snooze function are operated by pressing down on his helmet).  But it didn't look right.

The Darth Vader figure from the Death Star provided the template and scaling for the alarm clock.

I lengthened the cloak a little as the Lego version wasn't as long as the one in the films, and cut it out of some spare black fabric.  The thin fabric even flaps in the breeze coming in through the window.  The alarm switch is now fixed as well.  An easy and effective mod.  May the Force be with you.

Of course, now I'm thinking about making him a lightsaber...

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.