Saturday, December 21, 2019

Christmas Eve Terror

The guys at the club let me run a winter-themed game for our last session of the year.  I always wanted to use the huge lego ship my daughter got for a birthday present and I figured it looked enough like the HMS Terror that it would do.


The scenario was basically capture the treasure-chest lost for generations aboard the ice-bound HMS Terror. For Team Buffy, it contains the Book of Sorrow, for Team Vader it contained the location of the rebel base, Team Hogwarts was after a Horocrux and Team Santa wanted the deed for mineral rights under the pole (since toy manufacturing was booming untenable).


The boat was surrounded by frozen zombie crew (who thawed out as the game progressed) and was in the hands of four terrifying villains: President Cheeto, the Grinch, Henry Ford and Marie Osmond. The ice was thawing (we placed blue water cards each turn that interrupted movement). I made provision for a five player game but with only four, we ran the villains as NPCs.


The first two turns saw some movement (zzzz...) and some fighting between Santa and the little witches. Due to the darkness, figures could only see three card lengths ahead of them.


Suddenly, Buffy was up on the poop deck grabbing for the chest! This galvanize the rest of the players to dog pile on Terry. The card mechanic in Tribal means that even unsuccessful attacks can cost an inactivated figure its turn and Buffy spent a lot of time fending off attacks! The blue cards are growing areas of water as the ice cap melts.


Team Vader wisely stayed out of the fray and let the rest of us duke it out. The stormtroopers were shooter gangs (so largely useless) but Vader was a very powerful figure.


There was much combat on the ship: below Buffy fights off Mrs. Weasley.


The Yeti dusted Trump and everyone cheered. Terry was given a time out for puns.


Intermittent fighting between Hogwarts and Santa continued with Hermoine putting the boots to a jolly old elf (so much for elf liberation).


Eventually Vader got ready and jumped up on the ship...


 ...and proceeded to cut through every other character like a hot lightsaber through padawan. With no one left to fight him, Vader made off with the chest and was declare the winner. Some cagey play by Scott. terrain was good. I'm not sure the scenario was all that interesting But there was lots of fun with the placement of water cards.


Mike and Chen played some Crossfire, with a British attack being beaten back (I think) in the hedgerows of Normandy.


Up next: Some more 15mm WW2.

4 comments:

fireymonkeyboy said...

This looks ridiculously fun ;)

Bob Barnetson said...

Thanks. I think it was fun. The interaction between the players is always the best part. Terry's weaponizing of the water mechanic was very fun and irritating.

Simon Quinton said...

Lol what a cool game. Merry Christmas to you all Bob!

Bob Barnetson said...

Thanks; Merry Christmas to you too, Simon!