The Thing Returns

During lockdown I painted up figures for a Perilous Tales game based on John Carpenter's The Thing.  The 80s Genre Guide for 7TV includes profiles for the various Thing creatures and the designers had a demo game at Salute earlier this year, and shared the episode guide on the 7TV Facebook page.

The playing area was two feet square with snow drifts, trees and the Antarctic Research Base.

I had the Heroes with MacReady, a second co-star, a Corrupt Official with three security guards, and three dogs.

John took the Villains with The Thing, two Dog-Things, a Human-Thing and three Cursed Creatures, plus a Head-Thing and Spider-Thing standing by to take over the Heroes.

Starting from opposite corners of the playing area, we both sent our faster moving dogs into the centre where one of the fuel cans needed was located, whilst the Official and the Security Guards moved up the side of the board towards a second can.

John sent a Cursed Creature to cover the third fuel can but a Scene Card enabled me to swap it with MacReady, getting him into a better position whilst the other co-star battered the Creature.

John transformed one of my security guards into a Head-Thing, killing a second one, so my co-star used the Steal The Scene to get into the action and take revenge.

By now, The Thing had awakened and engaged MacReady before he had a chance to pick up the fuel.

The Corrupt Official used his fuel can to set the Human-Thing alight, whilst the dogs howled at each other in the centre of the map.

My co-star then moved to the remaining fuel can and fought with another Cursed Creature, before taking the fuel and making a dash for it.

The Thing eventually killed MacReady, and the Human-Thing was killed due to burns and dog attacks, but the co-star and Corrupt Official managed to make it to the Series 2 and escape.

Although a number of creatures were disposed with, the Thing was still alive so the base remained infested.  The main co-star was dead but the other co-star and the Corrupt Official escaped to safety.  On balance, we judged this is as a minor victory for the Heroes.  Another great 7TV game.

7TV Gaming Day: "Roundabout Way"

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).

I also took along my film crew to record the episodes.

Episode 1: Dude, Where's My Car

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.

We come in peace... shoot to kill!

Another go with the 7TV rules, this time using the Star Qualities and Special Effects.  The original Star Trek away team...

...were pitted against a group of Grey Aliens with an extra tentacled alien:

Location was the interior of a spaceship using loads of the Galactic Core Set scenery.

Stuart took the Star Trek cast and Kieron the aliens.  We used the Watch The Skies trope with an Alien Meteorite as the maguffin.

Kieron's Great Monstrosity made an early rush to the meteorite but Stuart's next script card allowed him to swap Uhura with the alien, so she picked up the meteorite instead.  The Monstrosity got its revenge by taking out Dr McCoy, and grappled with Spock whilst the Grey Aliens chased Uhura for the meteorite.

After Kirk and Uhura had worn down the Alien Leader with statuses, Scotty was able to take it out.

A card brought the alien back for one last turn and he injured Spock and scared Uhura, before dying permanently.  

Although the objective markers had been collected by both casts, the Enterprise team had the maguffin and had taken out the alien leader, giving them 8 points against 3 - a difference of 5 being a Decisive Victory for Stuart.

A few days later, I replayed the episode with Andy but with a different location - a red planet with a couple of buildings, to allow more ranged attacks than the spaceship interior.

In the first turn, James drew the script card that swaps an ally and enemy position.  Kirk found himself on the aliens entry edge whilst Uhura found an alien next to her in his place.  Feeling vulnerable, Kirk stole the scene to finish off the alien he'd ended up next to.

Andy's aliens advanced after the objectives, ignoring Kirk.  Uhura then killed the alien next to her whilst Spock climbed to the roof for an objective marker, and Scotty entered the building, recovering another marker but becoming Infected for his efforts.

A brief visit by Space Vampires caused wounds to both Kirk and Uhura, with Andy's stars escaping a similar fate, and they pressed the attack.

McCoy went for another objective marker but was overrun and taken out by a couple of Greys.

In the last turn, Kirk managed to shoot the alien leader dead and Spock thought he had captured the tentacled alien, until we realised that "Large" characters can't be captured.

A very close outcome, with the points for objectives equally split between the teams but with Andy's loss of the alien leader outweighing the benefit of recovering the alien meteorite by a single point.  However, although that looks like a very minor victory for James, the rules judge that a point difference of zero or one should be considered a Draw, which feels like a reasonable outcome.

In these games, we introduced more of the rules, leaving out only the Genre Cards I think.  We also reduced movement to 4" in the second game as the open terrain on a 24"x24" mat meant that otherwise many of the objective markers could be reached in the very first turn.  We learned that Extras can take out a Star if that Star is already worn down a bit by some status markers.  Also that holding back plot points for a big push in one later turn can turn out well.  Using the Star Qualities and Special Effects on the back of the cards does add extra reading and some complexity but with the benefit of more variety and more story.  I think we're getting used to it.  What should help is that the 7TV rules seem applicable to pretty much every genre so it would be good to use them for other skirmish games so the rules become even more familiar.

The 7TV 80s Genre Guide that I backed on Kickstarter should arrive soon - the PDF has already been sent but I'm trying to hold back until I can sit down with a real book in my hands!

Battle Hymn

Back in November, Andy and I tried out the first mission of the Battle Hymn wargame.  This the variant of Ambush! (that I have been playing occasionally with David) for the Pacific Theatre of World War 2.  We played the second mission this week.

The mechanism is the same as Ambush! with some appropriate changes for the theatre and enemy - like Banzai charges, tiger traps and snipers in palm trees.

Mission 1: Boomerang

Guadalcanal, 7 September 1943. As part of Carlson's Raiders, your squad is being put ashore on the Eastern side of the island. Your mission is to infiltrate the Japanese rear area, cover the marines' left flank, and return overland to Henderson field with a thorough report of enemy strength.

This was rather an anti-climax as the squad managed to get across and off the map, avoiding a number of traps but losing Soldier Foxtrot to a hail of machinegun fire.  However we failed to discove enough on the map to get enough victory points to count as a success.

Mission 2: Hit and Run

Somewhere in the Russell Islands, 18 September 1943. While the battle for Guadalcanal swings back and forth, naval intelligence has detected that the Japanese have been constructing a secret fighter base in the Russell Islands to provide advanced fighter cover for the daily bomber raids against Henderson Field. Your hand-picked men are being sent on a dangerous but vital mission: embark by submarine, land at night, and destroy that base!

Landing on the beach at night in inflatable boats, the squad split into two and crossed the beach towards the cover of the palm trees.  A Japanese sniper was spotted at the top of a palm tree and was quickly incapacitated by the Sarge.  As the rest of the squad approached the jungle they heard a Zero taxi-ing to the runway but it took off before they were anything like in range (a random event that unfortunately occurred rather too early for us to take advantage of).

A machine gun nest was discovered protecting the airfield but the squad rushed in and after a few rounds of close combat took control.  The buildings around the airfield were satchel charged in sequence with just one minor mishap.  One building was occupied by a mechanic who proved to be the most lethal Japanese soldier on the map...

He was defeated but not before he had incapacitated the replacement Soldier Foxtrot.  The Sarge pulled Foxtrot to safety after which Soldier Hotel threw a satchel charge into the building.  Unfortunately he missed.  And even worse, the roll on the scatter diagram directed that the charge went into the same hex as the Sarge and Foxtrot.  The Sarge scrabbled to throw it clear but failed his Perception Check, and so the charge exploded, wounding the Sarge and sadly killing Foxtrot.  In better news, his re-rolled replacement for the next mission has much better stats!

With many Japanese discovered and all buildings destroyed, this was a resounding success for the squad.

That belongs in a museum!

Finally got round to testing the 7TV rules for Cinematic Skirmish games.  The rules have been around for a while and the second edition was revised this year.  I had played a lot of hero and villain games during Covid lockdowns using the Perilous Tales solo ruleset and it looked like 7TV would be a good step to take to play with others using all the figures I'd painted in recent years.  So I backed the Kickstarter and have since also backed the Kickstarter for the 80s Genre Guide, expected Feb/March next year.

7TV uses profile cards providing 100+ generic characters for a range of genres including spy, action, fantasy, thriller, and horror.  Profiles can be generated too but the idea is to spend more time playing and less time creating cards!  The concept is that players are making a TV episode, so characters are stars, co-stars or extras, activation and special actions are done using "plot points" that your cast earns each turn, and the episode is moved along by event cards happening in three acts.

For this first game, we didn't use Props or the special abilities on the character cards.  The game isn't too complicated but there is a lot to learn initially.  I acted as gamesmaster for Andy and Stuart to play the game.

Our scenario was Indiana Jones trying to beat the Nazis to the Holy Grail.  The good guys cast comprised:

The baddies were:

Both casts cost 28 points, and started at opposite edges of a 2x2 feet area with six objective tokens along the central line of a ruined Egyptian temple.

Stuart brought on Indy and friends first, keeping to cover and using Henry Jones Sr ranged weapon to pick off Andy's cultist archers early on.

Marion and Brady picked up a couple of objective markers with Brady getting poisoned as a result.  Andy had better luck at the top of playing area and was able to revive one of his archers, and found the Holy Grail.

Indiana lasso-ed the Nazi capturing him and reducing Andy's plot points for the next round.

A Skeleton then made a surprise cameo, creating a bit of uncertainty and then hilarity as it bolted through several figures knocking them over.

The skeleton did benefit Andy by killing Salah, the only loss to Stuart's cast.  The Nazi managed to escape and started running towards the top edge of the mat.  In his final turn, Andy drew a blast Script Card setting three of Stuart's characters on fire.  Stuart extinguished Indy and Marion, leaving the already poisoned Marcus Brody to take his chances... he survived.  However, another bullseye from Dr Jones Sr saw the Nazi shot in the back and taken out in the last turn of the game, giving a Minor Victory to Stuart overall.

By the end, we were getting familiar with the rules and where to find things in the book when we needed them.  Next time we will play with Props, and the Special Ability and Special Effects available to the characters, which will provide even more variety (and mayhem) and perhaps balance up teams more effectively.

The key thing we learned was (obvious in retrospect) to play it like a TV episode!  An extra isn't really going to do much damage to a star so you really need to lead with your stars and co-stars and engage their counterparts, and let the extras fight it out when you have the opportunity and plot points.

With larger casts, I think this will work well with two players a side looking after a few characters each.

30th Anniversary Rivals Weekend

Somehow three decades have past since the formation of Rivals games nights.  Last weekend we got together to mark this and play a load of games.  Sadly Adrian couldn't make it, he was much missed.

We played a range of games, figures and board, old favourites and new.  We started with a "Bearers' Steeplechase" - a simple race game James had been planning for a while with some of the figures he had been collecting:

The figures were (from left to right, starting with the back row) Captain Scott on his Husky Sled, Lady Tsukiyama in a Palanquin, Sir Henry Pottinger in a Sedan Chair, Wilfred Owen on a WW1 Stretcher, Chief El Dorado the Muisca Chief, and Mrs Mavis Pike on her bicycle.

After looking for suitable rules for some time, James came across a game called Stage Chaser in a charity shop, a card based game simulating cycle races, with counters and tiles.  The tiles were reproduced as strips the figures could be placed along side.  The game uses three colours of poker chips to represent the energy a player has for attacking uphill, downhill and on the flat.  

Unfortunately this energy is depleted not by effort but by other players landing on your space and nicking your tokens.  This was quite fun but makes it tough to catch up, particularly if your hand of cards doesn't help your current position.  A good little filler game but if we play again, we'll use David's suggestions of allowing players the option of missing a turn in order to discard and replenish their hand in full.

The second game was a Dad's Army scenario - full write in this blog post.

Alternating with games of old favourites Ra and Pelopennes (and a picnic-style lunch and pizzas for dinner), we also had a couple of games of Hare and Tortoise that James had bought specially having recently discovered it was the first Spiel des Jahres winner back in 1979.  It was actually first published in 1974 but the German edition came out in 1978.

This 2010 edition from Gibson Games comes in an uninspiring box with an almost Victorian style board, suggesting a game of ludo-like simplicity.  But it's much more complex and devious than that - a race game that doesn't use any dice and (unless you take a chance card) has little luck element at all.  Suggested for ages 7 and up, we could imagine some very unhappy families trying to play this together - no doubt the reason there are so many copies under a tenner on eBay.

Each player starts with 65 carrots and 3 cabbages.  You move by paying carrots in triangle numbers for the number of spaces i.e. 1, 3, 6, 10, 15 etc carrots for 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 etc spaces, and have to visit limited and busy locations to drop off your cabbages.  The added challenge is passing the finishing line with 10 or less carrots (or 20 or less if in 2nd place, etc).  You can collect a lot more carrots by going backwards and taking a tortoise approach, resulting in some large moves e.g. 20 spaces costing 210 carrots!

We really enjoyed it and played it twice.  The first game especially had much hilarity as we struggled to get over the finishing line with the right number of carrots remaining.

We next played the bidding game Medici followed by a 6 Nimmt, a Board Game Arena favourite from the COVID lockdowns.

After David left, we had a game of St Petersburg with James' new copy recently acquired from a Board Game Geek seller for a reasonable price.  This rare but excellent game attracts some very high prices on most selling sites.

In the morning, we had a hearty full English breakfast before a very close game of Airlines Europe.

A great weekend, missing only Adrian, in both senses of the word.  Our last games weekend was just before the first COVID lockdown, so over three and a half years ago now.  We felt we should try and do this more often!