Monday, August 25, 2014

A Pulp Alley Sunday

So yesterday I woke up and after getting some coffee I checked my email and among a long list of junkmail I found a cry for help from a fellow gamer. It was Dr. The Viking, from Dr. The Viking's Miniature Games Hell, asking if I had the evening free to playtest some Pulp Alley with him.

Apparently he is going to Sweden next weekend to showcase some retro sci-fi/space cowboy stuff and so we had to test of if everything would work out and if he had all he needed.

I snapped a few photos of the game and even though everything was not painted I decided to post it anyway.

The set-up included some Skeleton Robot Cowboys shooting it out against Mixed Posse of Space Teddy Bears, ZZ Top Scrunts and other Heroes! Both sides race to the center of the settlement to get access to the Astro Bank and the sweet plot point inside.

Pistol Pete gets knocked back by Speedy the Space Teddy.
Fighting over a minor plot point.

Dueling it out across the main square of Galactic Gulch City.

A quick overview of the set-up.

The bank vault is breached and the Mad Banker emerges to take vengeance.

Too late, the Mad Banker is too late to save his loot.

The game was great fun and had some great plot twist during the game. We had 4 minor plot points and the bank vault was a major plot point worth double points.

Each time a plot point was taken a random encounter was also revealed in the shape of different Space Monsters and when the major plot point (the bank vault) was taken we decided that a kind of Boss was needed and the Wild Wild West mechanical spider was just perfect. it was something I had lying around in my lead (plastic) pile and as such it was not painted or coverted up for the task, but I hope Dr. The Viking will give it a good treatment before the actual game.

During the game the Skeleton Robot Cowboys was constantly in the lead, having the most plot points and always one step ahead. But by tactically saving my fortune cards for use in the right moments I managed to win the game in the very last turn.

The leader of the Robots was accumulating plot points, since he was losing gang members and one by one had to pick up the other gang members plot points. In the end the Robot leader was holding 3 plot points, including the major plot point. This giving the Robots 4 points in total (the major plot point counting as 2) and the Mixed Posse only had 2 points.

By playing a fortune card I managed to prolong the game an extra turn, thus taking down the robot leader in turn 7. Then taking over the major plot point right away by playing a second fortune card as the Robot leader was knocked down.

The game was now taken over by the Mixed Posse, but with a huge Infiltrator Bug threatening my leader it was still possible for me to lose the 2 plot points he held and the Robots was threatening my Side Kick, who was holding my 3rd point. So it was possible to make this a draw just before curtain fall.

Luckily I had saved just the right fortune card for this situation and when the final Robot Cowboy tried to take down my Side Kick I revealed my fortune card and got myself a free dodge out of the way. At that point the Robots could no longer win or make it a draw.

Skeleton Robot Cowboys: 0 points
Mixed Heroic Posse: 4 points

5 comments:

  1. I love the bright, pulp sci-fi look of the table.

    Robot Skeleton Cowboys versus ZZ Top space dwarfs in a space western, using Pulp Alley rules... tasty. You and Dr. The Viking are definitely looking for the same sorts of things from your games as I am :)

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    1. Yes, I deffinately see a connection in our approach to gaming.

      It would be awesome to hook up for some gaming at some point. Not that I see it happening any time soon. But it is on my wishlist ;)

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    2. It could happen :)

      You never know when an opportunity might come up, I might get to Denmark, you might get to Ireland, we might both be at a gaming thing in the UK... We just have to keep an eye out for a potential opportunity :)

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  2. Nice batrep :)

    What's that mechanical spider thingy? It looks like it's a toy from a movie or something. Either way, it rocks!

    Cheers

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    Replies
    1. Thanks.

      The Spider Mech Thing is a Wild Wild West toy, I think from McDonalds or similar.

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