Briscon - Pulp Alley

Had a great day at Briscon today. Along with a couple of mates from the club, I was running Pulp Alley participation games.

Most people were there for comps: we noticed a lack of 'casual punters'. Still, we got three games in: each with a new player.

The first couple of games resurrected an old scenario: 'That Darned Cat'. A movie star's cat is loose; everyone's after the cat and the reward.

A busy day at the bazaar.

The Secret League of Mayhem and Evil (SLIME) move in.

Checking out a favourite resting spot of the cat.

On the move: the mad scientist and his minions.

The robot moves in and grabs kitty.

This was the result for games one and two. The robot grabbed the cat and refused to let go!

The last game was one for the ages: SLIME have abducted Siegried Grunstrasse, a local crime lord, and whisked him off to their secret lair.

As is traditional with secret lairs, everyone who is anyone knows their whereabouts, and three other leagues are intent on getting their hands on Grunstrasse. Grunstrasse is hidden in one of the buildings, and the interlopers have to find him before they can grab him.

The tramp steamer crew take the direct route, ramming the front door down, and in the best action movie traditions, blasting cultists from the walls of the compound as they go.

The other leagues, car-less and door-less, have a slower path.

The spies spent most of their time slithering back down the walls before one of them finally got to the top.

The heroes head for the most heavily guarded building, only to discover it's all a decoy! Grunstrasse's in the other building.

The rest of the game was a beauty. Grunstrasse turned out to be surrounded by a pit of snakes (Fortune card made the 3" around him extremely perilous). Fortune cards and perils flew thick and fast as a succession of characters tried to ford the pit of snakes and failed. Finally, the tramp steamer's bosun forded the pit, passed the peril to grab Grunstrasse and, needing two successes on d8s to grab Grunstrasse, got a 7 and a 3. So close!

I've got some photos from other games on the day, but they'll have to wait for another post.

Reinforcements for Briscon

Super quick post - I've been snapping some shots to put on character cards for my Briscon Pulp Alley games. Here are some of the reinforcements.

Techpriest. He'll be the leader of my Admech league.

Stock GW skitarii. For a while, I've been reading the occasional post on blogs and forums about how GW figures are becoming so fiddly to paint. I've always thought, 'Pfft, man up, they're not that tricky'. That was until I began painting this figure. Armour edging, metal detailing on the rifle. This guy was hard work! 'Pfft', I hear you say!

This cute little guy (no scale shot unfortunately) is from the latest iteration of Space Hulk. Grimdark bomb disposal!

At the other end of the scale, this guy was a brute to paint as well. Detail, and lots of it.

A prepainted D&D collectable miniature, repainted and rebased. Makes a great cyber hound.

Hope to have some photos from Briscon up by the end of the weekend (maybe even tomorrow).

Intercept - a Pulp Alley Game

While Romulus Decima has been fighting Necrons, Farov Payne, the Lamenter Scout, has been getting acquainted with his own breed of xenos.  He's been fighting Tau: raids and recon. Now the Tau are pulling out, and he's been assigned to intercept a small force that is on it's way to a neglected landing platform. They are appear to be carrying some valuable cargo: technology? intel? There's only one way to find out!

The Tau have to travel from the top right to the bottom left corner. (I had to grab some club terrain, which doesn't completely blend in with the game mat. Sorry, purists!)

The nefarious scout sets an explosive charge next to a plot point!

Tau and scouts end up on opposite sides of the rock. Who's going to stick their head out first?

The Tau close in on their exit point.

But some exceptional scout shooting means only the Tau leader is left!

He proceeds to singlehandedly take the scouts apart, leaving bodies everywhere and wandering off the table with the major plot point! Another hard day for the heroes.

Continued...

Nasty, Brutish and Short - a Pulp Alley Walkover

Some days the dice are against you. This was one of those days..for Andrew, not me!

Previously, Romulus Decima, the Mechanicus operative, has successfully downloaded records of signal traffic from a Necron communications beacon. Now he must get back to the local Imperial Guard outpost to analyse the data.

Decima starts in the top left corner. He has to make it off the bottom right of the table. Looks like someone else may have other ideas!

Decima and his crew move forward. (Red and blue things are plot points.)

Contact! The necron warriors trade shots with the mechanicus forces.

And this is where it all fell to pieces for poor Romulus! The Necrons pushed up into close combat on both flanks of the Mechanicus position.

The Necrons rolled their hits, the Mechanicus didn't. The Necrons rolled their saves, the Mechanicus didn't. It was effectively all over by turn four. The Mechanicus had one character left, the Necrons had lost one! It was all so quick I didn't get any photos.

A very rare one-sided Pulp Alley game, but a good day to be the villains! (Thanks to Andrew for letting me use his Necrons to crush my Mechanicus figures!)

Continued...

Strange Signals - a Pulp Alley Game

A routine scan of subsector 6 turned up some anomalous signal traffic. We sent a patrol to locate the source of the signals: Romulus Decima and a squad of guardsmen. 

In this game, Romulus Decima has discovered a mysterious communications beacon. He must crack in and download signal traffic before the owners of the beacon persuade him to move on. This is the 'Race Against Time' scenario from the Pulp Alley rulebook.

Decima begins at the comms beacon. His guardsmen spread out to defend him and to try and grab the other strange artifacts (the blue things!)

Hang on, who's skulking behind those trees?

And over there!

The beacon is a Necron communicator. Who knows what devious plans are afoot?

The Necrons close in to secure their beacon.

The medic is the first man down!

Romulus in trouble - the Necrons taking down guardsmen at a furious rate.

Things get really nasty as the Wraith ties Decima down in close combat, meaning he can't work at cracking the beacon.

The final turn, Decima is still locked in combat. He needs to pass one more challenge to crack open beacon. He manages to dodge out of combat...

...and pass the last challenge, grabbing the information! A very close game.

Thanks to Andrew for the use of his Necrons. I must pick up some for myself at some stage (as if I don't have enough to paint already!)

Continued...

Sinastras IV - Forty-nine Years On

It's a long time since our heroes escaped the Chaos rebellion on Sinastras IV. In the intervening years, the hive city has been painstakingly rebuilt after its 'cleansing' by Lamenter marines.

Our three heroes have left Sinastras IV behind gone on to glittering military careers.

Trooper Burns has climbed to the rank of Commissar. With his band of veterans and enforcers, Burns ensures that the soldiers of the Imperial Guard do not falter in their will to fight.

Farov Payne leads a long range reconnaissance team of his fellow Lamenter scouts.

Romulus Decima operates alongside the Imperial Guard, conducting missions that focus on rogue technologies.

Continued...

Fiftieth Figure for Pulp 40k

Last week I painted my fiftieth figure for my Pulp Alley 40k project. Now I know some of you would paint that many figures before you fall out of bed in the morning but I'm slow, so this feels like an achievement!

And here he is, number fifty.

Who is he? A merchant, a nobleman, a gang leader? That's what I like about the figure: wonderfully versatile. At least for the moment, he's Murflew Sleng, patriarch of House Sleng traders: buying and selling questionable goods, no questions asked.

Sleng is an unmodified Reaper figure: Warlord Kang from their Savage Worlds line. I reckon he fits into the 40k universe fine without modifications.

Here he is, negotiating to purchase some merchandise that fell off the back of a low orbit shuttle.

Briscon 2016

Brisbane is not exactly the centre of the gaming universe, but if you happen to be there at the end of April, get along to Briscon (April 30 - May 1).

Lots of tournaments (which are not my thing), but there will also be Pulp Alley! Some mates and I will be running Pulp Alley participation games across the two days.

You can play classic pulp.

Or brooding gothic sci fi.

And if you play, you can grab a dastardly but free fortune card!