A Plot Exposed - a Pulp Alley Game

In the last game, Commissar Burns found himself fighting off an assassination attempt on an Imperial Guard Colonel. Worse, the assassins were traitor guardsmen led by a chaos psyker. There's a plot and Burns must get to the bottom of it. His investigations have led him to an abandoned underground storage facility. Rumour has it that the assassins have used it as a base: perhaps he can find evidence about the group.

We played this game using the Investigate scenario from Vice Alley. Because they're poking around for clues, characters can't run or attack until turn four, or until a plot point is completed (whichever comes first). We played about a month ago, so the my memory for the fine details is a little rusty! This was our second remote game Pulp Alley: we skyped with Kevin who lives 3 600 km away in Western Australia. It worked really well. The small number of figures makes the game easy to keep track of. If I, as the umpire, felt Kevin was doing too well, I could just furiously wave the ipad and induce a bit of motion sickness!

Burns and his crew. But who's that lurking? (and I don't mean the feet!)

More guardsmen! Traitors? But no one wants to fire any shots yet.

Can we find any incriminating messages on the communications console?

Guardsmen grabbing a radio that, again, may have compromising information (preset comms channels and the like).

The guard push up to grab the major plot point, a book (surely the traitor guard wouldn't have written down the details of their plot?!)

Suddenly, a skulking simian surges out from behind the crates and strikes the cultist. (This was a Fortune card for a random peril, and the traitor guard player has a special love for monkeys in games!)

Super simian causing carnage for the guardsmen!

The lie of the land - things aren't going well for the traitors.

Commissar Burns arrives to do what he does best.

More carnage at the bookfest.

Burns grabs the book.

And retreats, pursued by guardsmen.

He's really good at shooting guardsmen: years of practice, I suppose.

Having spent his guardsmen, the chaos psyker takes a crack at Burns, but to no avail. A resounding victory for the forces of good (at last!)

Now, what's in the book? Tune in next time!

Continued...

Escort Duty - a Pulp Alley Game

Escort detail. Dull, dull, dull. Mind the Colonel on a routine visit to an Imperial Guard supply depot. All predictable, all boring and, thankfully, almost over. Just see him to his ship and we can slide off to the pub.

Commissar Burns and his men. Colonel at the back. 

The table. Commissar Burns and the Colonel's entourage at the top. Other figures are guardsmen going about their business. Burns has to get the Colonel across the table in six turns. Simple!

Moving out.

Who's this? A shadowy figure. Unfortunately for him, his sense of mystery and menace is dented when he's accosted by a rat.

The enemy swoops: a cultist assassin dashes for a plot point, while the psyker unleashes a psychic blast at his opponents.

Treachery! A group of guardsmen approach and open fire at the escort. They're in league with the chaos cultists!

More guardsmen close in.

The Colonel strides forward, undeterred. Didn't he have an escort? 

Here they come: Commissar Burns doing what commissars do best.

More carnage.

But the traitorous guardsmen just seem to keep coming.

Endgame. The Colonel and his escort push through their attackers, but they fall agonisingly short of getting the Colonel off the table! 

A(nother) win for the baddies!

Continued...

Cornered - a Pulp Alley Game

The Sinastras IV campaign has been bubbling away, but it's been a little while since I've posted an update. Here's the first of three games to catch upon. I was jumping between two games grabbing photos, so this one is rather sketchy and brief. I've posted about it for completeness' sake!

In the last game, Farov Payne and his fighting patrol were eluded by the commander of the Tau detachment. Pulling together his battered men, Payne follows the Tau commander. His destination is a small landing platform: clearly, he is waiting for extraction. Payne quickly organises his men to swoop in. But even as they close, a pulse round slaps into ground beside them. Tau back up has arrived!

Opening dispositions.

The commander decides to get amongst it: at least he can't be shot at now!

Scout fire has seriously weakened the Tau relief force.

More shots traded.

End game: the Tau leader is still on his feet as a Devilfish sweeps in. The scouts melt away into the desert, frustrated again!

Continued...

Briscon - Pulp Alley Day 2

Back to Briscon for more Pulp Alley. For day two, I revisited this scenario.

Why invest vast amounts of time and energy digging up a priceless archaeological treasure when you can let someone else do all the hard work and then steal it? The famed golden chest of Cheops has been unearthed and sold to Sir Clifford Carne, the famed collector. Even now, Sir Clifford is lugging the chest to his car, ready to whisk it to the dock and then back home to his collection. But you have other ideas...Capture the chest!

The mad scientist and the cultists were out to grab the chest of Cheops for themselves. The tramp steamer crew were on their way to rescue Sir Clifford and bring him to safety.

The cultists enter from the left, the scientist from the right, and the tramp steamer crew from the bottom. Sir Clifford is (just) visible top centre.

Raised voices in the marketplace: two men arguing over something...

"That dice was cocked! No way it was a six!"

Meanwhile, Sir Clifford surveys his run to freedom and fortune.

His reverie is quickly broken by a shattering roar and a flash of flames as Dr Veruckthaar arrives via experimental jetpack.

At the same time, the leagues work their way to the centre of the town.

Bad luck for the cultists as they encounter the black cat...

...and then a burst of tommy gun fire from the sailors.

Heavy traffic in the centre. Note the elusive Sir Clifford, steaming blithely into No Mans Land.

The cultists get some of their own back on the sailors.

The sailor wishes he had stayed down!

A three way tussle for a minor plot point.

This scenario ended up being a walk over for the mad scientist. He grabbed Sir Clifford, then played a No Drop card, meaning no one could grab Sir Clifford from him. That made it three wins from three appearances for the mad scientists for the weekend. (They did go on to drop their last game, though!)

Briscon - Other Games

Here are some shots from a handful of other games at Briscon. I missed lots: this is just what caught my eye.

Some great tables at the Infinity comp.

Dropzone commander was very eye catching too (I must be a sucker for buildings!) This particular table looked great: all overgrown.

Fistful of Kung Fu,using some Aussie product: Knights of Dice. The cinema was a superb looking building: heaps of detail.

If I get enthused, I've got some more photos from day two's Pulp Alley games for another post.