Weird Science

Have you ever had that frustrating experience where you're about to cook up your latest batch of mutated growth serum, but the agitator spindle in your vat gives out? There's nothing worse than insufficiently agitated growth serum. This is the unfortunate experience of Dr Otto Verückthaar.

Fortunately for him, the local nefarious cult, the Secret League of Intrigue, Mayhem and Evil (SLIME) are currently shipping out some black market industrial equipment. Verückthaar reasons that if he can intercept the shipment, he has a good chance of snatching a replacement part.

The action begins as SLIME wait for the arrival of a truck to spirit their illicit goods away. SLIME leaders stand guard over the crate, while cultists 'mind' members of their production team.

Major plot point - the crates - in the middle, minor plot points (manager in the foreground, pots hiding spare factory keys, engineer in pith helmet in the market).

The engineer shopping for wife's birthday present. The last minor plot point, the shirtless factory foreman, visible in the distance.

Dr Verückthaar's attack began badly. Giant rats and a henchman head for SLIME's engineer, but they are stymied by cultists.

On the other side of the village, Verückthaar and his robot push forward, engaging cultists as they advance.

Verückthaar's hunchbacked henchman attacks the cultists guarding the factory foreman.

However, the finer arts of interrogation are better left to the doctor himself.

In the meantime, SLIME has seen the threat that the robot poses to the shipment of crates. Their leader, Dr Grief, rushes the robot, along with two underlings.

The robot proves to be as threatening as it looks. The cultists are eliminated and Dr Grief goes down under a monsoon of  massive metal metacarpals.

As a result, the way is clear for Dr Verückthaar to scarper in to the crates and rummage around in search of his agitator spindle. He succeeds, but must survive a storm of gunfire from the four nearby SLIME agents.

It's Verückthaar's day though, and he dodges back through the storm of lead, entirely unharmed. The hunchback and the robot move in to ensure that Verückthaar can get away safely with his treasure.

To add a final insult Verückthaar spends the final turn pilfering the hidden backdoor key to SLIME's factory.

Another fun game of Pulp Alley. Possibly more so for me than for Mark. I looked to be in trouble for the first couple of turns as my rats were swept away. In the end, though, a clear win for my mad science league - 5-2. The win hinged on the robot's ability to absorb and dish out generous amounts damage. It was unstoppable. A machine, you might say! Verückthaar's charmed run for the major plot point helped too!

The scenario, by the way, is the Raid scenario from the Vice Alley expansion.

Monk and muskets

The week's painting: a warrior monk for Pulp Alley samurai. A Northstar figure.

 Painting the yellow was a pain: it looks nicer in the photo than in the flesh!

And a base of AB 15mm Austrians.

Star Wars Pulp Alley character cards

Here are the character cards for the Star Wars game. I had lots of fun statting up the characters - the range of abilities in Pulp Alley means you can create quite appropriate characters.

The Rebels:

The bounty hunters and Imperials:

Star Wars episode 5.5

A Pulp Alley game I played a little while ago in a galaxy not so far away...

Boba Fett flies over Tatooine, intent on delivering Han Solo's carbon-frozen body to Jabba the Hutt. En route to Jabba's palace, the Slave 1 develops carburetor problems and Boba is forced to put down. He continues towards Jabba's palace on foot. Along the way, he picks up an escort of Sandtroopers.

Unfortunately, most of the Sandtroopers' armour is at the cleaners. They cobble together a range of other, less aridly inclined armour and sally forth.

Even more unfortunately, they are spotted by a ship searching for the frozen body of Han Solo. Soon, their delivery mission becomes a little trickier.

Boba Fett must get Solo to the opposite corner of the table

Another roadblock for a tradesman just trying to do an honest day's work

Chewie and Lando proceeded to blast troopers (Sand, Storm and Snow) as they advanced.  

Luke decided to wade in before the others bagged all the easy ones.

No surprises about the outcome there!

With most of the peons out of the way, the first real gunfight breaks out. Crafty intergalactic bounty hunter versus large mound of shagpile carpet. 

That went well.

While Luke continues to carve and slice, one of the troopers makes a break for it, popsicle in tow.

Only to be chased down by the Wookie!

Who will triumph in this titanic struggle...

Yes, well, I tried to add some tension and uncertainty.

However, one bounty hunter remains on the table, wounded but unbowed. If he can break from the clutches of the Jedi, he can still grab his frozen treat and, with it, victory.

Sigh. At least it's better than being gummed by a Sarlacc.

Captain Courageous

A rollicking game of Muskets & Tomahawks with Mark today. Sadly, less than half my stuff is painted, so just a few close up shots. You can see some of the dubious terrain in the background!

French Indians skulking.

For most of the game, my English monstered Mark's French. My Indians took apart his Marines in melee, my Provincials broke his militia with a thunderous volley.

French militia on the way to their doom

Then Mark's captain moved from providing moral support to lending a hand in combat (mainly because most of his troops had disappeared!) He proceeded to drive off my Indians and snipe the Provincials. Eventually, my morale card came out before Mark's and my remaining troops fled. Victory to the French!

Civilians sallying against their opponents

2014 in review

Games-wise, 2014 was the year of Pulp Alley.

• Pulp Alley, 15 games 
• Sci fi Pulp Alley, 4 games 
• Samurai Pulp Alley, 1 game 

Then:

• Force on Force, 2 games 
• Saga, 2 games 
• Muskets and Tomahawks, 2 games 
• Songs of Blades and Heroes, 1 game 
• Impetus Fantasy, 1 game

Painting - not a heap, but a good year for me.

A piratical minotaur by Reaper Miniatures.

 Khurusan's 15mm Control Battalion troopers

Khurusan's 15mm special forces for Force on Force.

Some gothic bits and pieces for Pulp Alley sci fi. 

A Reaper assassin, a Warhammer Quest rat with bonus bionics, a kid's toy drum and a homemade terrain tyle.

A unit of 10mm Warmaster boar riders. For Impetus Fantasy.

28mm samurai, et al. A mix of Black Hat, Black Cat and Northstar. 

Gripping Beast Anglo Danes for Saga.

Pulp Alley bits. 

Goat by Empress Miniatures, temptress by Black Army Productions, other figures by Pulp Figures. The Car is a Lledo diecast. Buildings scratchbuilt from cork.

Muskets & Tomahawks. Northstar French, Galloping Major civilians and Provincials.

So that's 2014. The New Year? I've dragged out some 15mm Napoleonics. I'd like to get some more samurai stuff done. Other than that, we'll see what hits the table.