Escape From El Khazam

On Tuesday night we had a real slugfest of a game of Pulp Alley. This was our first 4 player game, with Dave bringing along his newly pigmented league, led by the indomitable heroine Lady Amelia Frinton.

This episode begins with Dirk Drake receiving a message from his agents that Lady Amelia Frinton has landed in Cairo looking for clues to the disappearance of a dear friend of her Uncle Monty's, namely Professor Barnabas Smythe. Drake manages to get a message from his hideout in El Khazam, past the prowling Nazi and Executive thugs to Lady Amelia that he is holding a Nazi officer prisoner who has information regarding the Professor's whereabouts. In a daring move, he agrees to deliver General von Krauch to her under the noses of his adversaries, but very little happens in Egypt that the Eisernen-Maske and Mr Stamper are unaware of!

In this game I decided not to have any Plot Point tricks or effects and instead concentrate on coming up with an interesting deployment and scenario. The deployment zones were laid out such that Frinton and Drake started from opposite sides of the board. In the middle were the Eisernen-Maske leading his Eisen Fauste strike force, and the Executive, trying to ingratiate themselves with the Nazis again. There were four minor plot points strung out across the middle and Drake's league started in possession of General von Krauch, the major plot point. The villains would score VPs for any plot points not in the hands of their opponents. The heroes would only score VPs for plot points they possess. And so, onto the action. Roll cameras!

El Khazam! Dawn! The Nazis and Executive are pouring from their hideouts looking for Drake. He can be seen entering on the far right table edge.

Looking for a vantage point to exercise his crack shot abilities, Billy Priest tries to climb up to the roof of a nearby mosque. But he really should have worn his other boots as he comes crashing down in a pile of dust, mortar and peril! :)

The Eisernan-Maske lurks while Hans Schleicher orders his troopers to fan out.

Lady Frinton and her stalwart companions leap from their truck, eager to locate Drake.

The Executive know that the key to the lucrative Nazi payroll is finding von Krauch first!

An Executive thug (I forget their names...there were so many characters!) spies Lavinia Love and her father and charges in. She dodges to safety, though, and the Professor has to dodge a hail of bullets that head his way!

The Germans form a firing line with the Executive.

With a woof and a snarl, Chomper charges straight into the action, but Drake's faithful bulldog fails to bring his quarry down.

Meanwhile, LAdy Frinton's Siamese cat, Mr Bigglesworth, sneaks up to the concealed Nazi radio transmitter. He sniffs the box and identifies that the radio is there (he got one success) but is unable to open the cabinet with his paws! (Dave never managed to roll another success! I love how the story telling just comes out of this game!)

Lady Amelia shouts to Johnson her butler as she spies Executive sidekick Janssen advancing. Johnson runs over and demonstrates his pugilistic heritage and cleans the villains clock with ease!

Cheyney runs over to assist his friend and delivers a hefty kick to poor Chomper who whimpers and scampers away from the fight.

However, Dirk Drake bursts from the mosque and Lavinia joins him. Together they are too much for the Executive goons and even the elite German soldiers pull back to better cover.

With supreme self-confidence, Der Eisernen-Maske walks out amidst the gunfire and engages Lady Frinton's family friend, Reggie. Overcome by his ominous visage, Reggie is ineffective and Lady Amelia runs over to assist him.

But Der Eisernen-Maske's advance is relentless and even the courageous heroine falls back!

Distracted by the twanging of bullets on the truck, Johnson and Uncle Monty don't spot Hans Schleicher charging and, with one ferocious blow, Uncle Monty crashes to the ground and stays down.

Attempting to get the General to the truck, Drake's men suffer fearsomely accurate fire from the German troops and the General slips from his bonds.

In a dazzling display of athletics and derring-do, Dirk Drake avoids all the fire from the Germans and closes in on the last of the troopers.

But it is too late! Professor Love recovers his wits and grabs the General (although he didn't have time to complete the Plot Point I consider the General to still be a captive). The sun has risen high in the sky and the rumble of trucks signals the arrival of Nazi reinforcements, so Lady Frinton gathers her companions and make off in their truck. Drake returns to his hideout and starts plotting his next move to get the General out of Africa and to uncover the secret Nazi plot!

This was a really good game. Dave and Nick, playing the Frintons and Drake respectively, didn't really communicate enough before starting (though I admit they didn't know the scenario until late on) so they ended up with no-one on hand near the end to hand the General over. Instead, we had quite a bit of gun play and fisticuffs, which played nicely into the villain's plans. In the end, no plot points were secured by the heroes, so the Executive and Eisen Fauste took all the VPs.

Back again and introducing the Eisen Fauste!

Phew! I'm back! We've had some substantial work done on our house and that involved the spare room that I was using for painting been taken by my son for his bedroom. So, since I last blogged I haven't been able to paint a thing...until now! I finally managed to get space to get a temporary desk in to the dining room and have put brush to lead again. Huzzah! So to celebrate my return to active duty, here's my first completed miniature in about two months, ready for his first outing in our next Pulp Alley episode tomorrow night - Hans Schleicher, Hauptmann of the Eisernen Maske's personal strike force, the Eisen Fauste!

Hauptmann Hans Schleicher of the Eisen Fauste!

Does WH40K have to mean £40K?

I have to admit that I am currently being strongly drawn to Warhammer 40K! I'm not really sure what the motivation is - nostalgia, aesthetics or possibly that it gets played at the club a lot - but nonetheless, I want to put together a Space Marine army. Unfortunately, when I looked up the GW website I was horrified to discover just what the cost would be! A starter box of about 35 figures and 3 vehicles sets you back a whopping £140! And that probably only amounts to about a third of what you really need to play a decent size game!

But this got me to thinking about the value of an individual figure and the context in which it seems OK to pay over the odds for them. First off, the material seems to have a big value. Most people I know seem to value metal over plastic because of the heft of the miniature. And to be honest, I actually fall into that category. For some unknown reason, it feels better to pick up a miniature that has a bit of weight to it. But then we look at resin figures. They are as light as plastic, but are much crisper and more detailed than their metal counterparts. But in the end, once a figure is painted to a reasonably high standard, does it really matter what it's made of? I have come to the conclusion that it probably doesn't. 

Take the recent move away from metal towards plastic for Malifaux. The prices have remained unchanged; you are still looking at £25 odd for about 6 figures. But this doesn't seem like a bad deal. The figures are very well detailed and full of character. Also, look at the figures you get in the WH40K box set Dark Vengeance. I think that the quality of these castings sets GW head and shoulders above almost all plastic figures I've ever seen! And you get about 50 for £61.50 (and a good bit cheaper if you shop around!). And the Finecast figures are just superb! I actually bought a Blood Angels Chaplain (shown below) a while ago just to paint and was most impressed with the quality of the resin (perhaps this was the seed of my heresy!). Whatever problems they used to have, GW have sorted it.

A Chaos Space Marine character from Dark Vengeance. This is plastic!!

What's not to love about this?

So, boutique games or top quality plastics in small numbers? I'm totally fine with paying for plastic what I would pay for in metal. BUT!!! The game changes when you're trying to put together an army of 50 or so figures or more. In this case, you can get metal figures of perfectly good quality for about £1 to £1.50 each. If you were building a platoon for Chain of Command or something then you could get a whole platoon in metal for about £50 at the most from Artizan. And in this case, plastic figures usually offer a cheaper alternative to build your forces, albeit for a slight drop in quality, in my opinion. (I'll admit that the new Perry WW2 stuff has changed my mind about that!) 

So, why do GW think it's OK to charge £25 for 10 Space Marines when you need about 40, plus characters and vehicles, etc? We know they can cost this stuff cheaper. One look at the Dark Vengeance box set shows you what they can produce for a pretty reasonable cost. A rule book, templates and about 50 figures for £61 seems fine. You'd pay that for a decent board game these days. Of course, the argument that they can charge what they like holds. If that's what people value their product at then that is their business. I, however, do not!

So I am refusing to pay the RRP for anything from GW if I can help it and I include some of the discount online retailers in that. There are some good 25% discounts to be had, but the shipping just bumps it back up. My project, therefore, is to acquire a Space Marine army for what I actually think it's worth. This will probably mean eBay for the most part, so we'll see how we go. I aim to try and average out at about £10 a unit, so getting close to about £1.25 per figure taking big stuff into account. Of course there may be some characters that I have to buy new, but as long as it's offset by some cheap as chips bargains, that will be OK. I'll no doubt let you know how it pans out!

Dirk Drake and The Iron Menace

Once again, ladies and gentlemen, we find our redoubtable hero, Dirk Drake (played by Nick) in the thick of the action as he plunges into the bazaars and alleyways of Cairo in a bid to save Professor Barnabas Smythe from the clutches of the evil Executive (played by George)!

After delivering the Stygian Idol into safe hands, Dirk and his Daredevils have made their way to the African continent to track down the Executive. Arriving in Cairo, an urgent telegraph from The Black Smoke awaited him with information that the Executive were attempting to deliver the Professor to a contact dispatched by their mysterious employers. Using his contacts in the docks, Dirk locates a low level thug in the employ of the Executive and 'persuades' him to show him to the contact's location. Will he get there in time, before the Professor is spirited away, never to be reunited with his poor daughter, Selina?

A suspiciously quiet suburb of Cairo!

Professor Love and his daughter Lavinia inspect a suspect crate. The lid is a little too tough for Lavinia, but her father helps out and inside they discover a strange device. Could this be the Sonic Generator that they have heard rumours about?

The barking of Chomper alerts Daredevil Ernie Mallon to the location of a missing agent!

The Executive crowd behind a building. Some of them have barely recovered their nerves after the encounter with the Mkubwa Shetani!

But Mr. Janssen, who was slightly delayed by a certain giant ape, appears and guns down Dirk's stalwart ally.

Dirk Drake directs the informant to lead him to the contact. "In the mosque!", he bleats out!

In his haste, Dirk doesn't spot the loose bricks in the walls and the wind is knocked out of him as he tumbles to the other side.

Meanwhile, enraged by the appearance of Janssen, Chomper charges. The Nordic villain simply levels his revolver, though, and the canine champion slinks off to lick his wounds.

Free from any interference, the rest of the Executive move up, dragging the poor Professor with them

Dirk Drake leaps up and quickly checking that nobody saw him fall, dusts himself off! He drags the snitch into the mosque to discover that the Executive's contact is...a Nazi! Dum dum duuuuuum!

As the Executive's leader, Mr Stamper, grabs the missing agent, Ernie Mallon comes to his senses and leaps in. He is no match for the tough villain, though, and is soon back in the dirt again!

Hearing raised voices from the mosque, Janssen runs to the window and curses as he sees Dirk Drake interrogating his boss's contact, General Ernst Von Krauch. He levels his gun, but Dirk is just too fast and Janssen is winged by a bullet and goes down.

And, once again, Mallon picks himself up out of the dirt and comes at Chaney from his blindside. He seizes him and bodily drags him over the wall!

Distracted by Janssen, Dirk fails to notice Von Krauch lift a telephone on the table next to him.
"Our plan has been discovered. Kill zem all!"
From all around the area, the sound of jackboots on packed dirt can be heard and suddenly both the Executive and the Daredevils find themselves surrounded by elite Nazi troops led by the menacing Eisernen-Maske (played by me)!

The Germans appear...

...from all directions!

After quickly dispatching the troopers coming between the tents, Billy Priest urges Lavinia Love to escape, which she doesn't hesitate to do!

The Germans advance, guns blazing away, mercilessly cutting down any and all before them!

The Eisernen-Maske leaps the wall and draws a bead on Dirk Drake! Bullets fly and Drake lands a shot on his sinister assailant, but the bullet glances of his metallic headgear!

Keeping his cool, Drake pulls the terrified snitch and enraged General through the window to safety. Outside he finds Billy Priest and Janssen back to back, fending off their common enemy. Bitter enemies suddenly united by a far more malevolent threat!

Showing his true mettle, Billy Priest, the Daredevil's resident crackshot, dispatches German after German...

...before covering his pal in their retreat with the captives.

Despite his captives being shot down, poor Professor Smythe finds himself falling into the clutches of the Nazis after all! As Stamper, Janssen and Drake flee the scene of carnage, the picture fades to the tinny, muffled laughter of the Eisernen-Maske!

Brilliant fun!

I wanted this scenario to be a show stopper entrance for the Iron Mask's league and I think it delivered! There were two random minor plot points, the sonic machine and the missing agent, and the Executive and Daredevils both started in possession of fixed minor plot points, the snitch and the Professor. The major plot was the contact in the middle of the table. A character had to be in possession of one of the fixed plot points to complete the major plot point, which was quite a tough one at 3 successes on Cunning.

The twist in this scenario is the 'double cross'. No matter which faction completed the major plot point, General Von Krauch will lift the telephone and give the order to spring the trap. If it's the good guys, then the presence of the Nazis is discovered and all witnesses must die. If it's the bad guys, then the Nazis double cross them and simply eliminate them rather than paying up. This meant bringing an entire fresh league on quite late in the game, but I took care to try and keep some balance by taking a leader, the Eisernen-Maske, and only a couple of allies and lots of followers. The troopers were all followers with 2d6 Shoot and the NCOs were the Ally characters, both with good shooting skills too. Also, as I hoped, the effect of the Nazis was to unify the other 2 players, so that it was a bit more even.

All in all, another rollicking, two fisted Pulp Alley success! Stay tuned to see if poor Professor Smythe can be rescued and his secrets kept from the evil Nazis in the next thrilling episode!

Separation anxiety

We're currently getting some work done to the house and it meant having to disassemble the desk I was using as my painting station. It'll probably be at least a week until I have a suitable space to paint in again and it sucks! Turns out that TV kind of sucks in general! Guess I can catch up with some reading and sleep for now! :)

The Terror of Mkubwa Shetani - Pulp Alley

Tonight, ladies and gentleman, we are thrust into the terror and nerve shredding peril of the Dark Continent! Prepare yourselves for a journey into the very jaws of danger as we witness The Black Smoke embarking on his most menacing adventure yet - to recover the Idol of Mkubwa Shetani!

After the Stygian Idol was snatched from under their noses, the sinister Executive immediately embarked on a plane to Cairo from where they travelled deep into the Congo to search for it's counterpart piece, known as the Idol of Mkubwa Shetani. News of it's discovery had just reached Europe thanks to the work of one prominent archaeologist, Professor Barnabas Smythe. Thanks to their network of agents, Dirk Drake's ally in the fight against crime, the masked vigilante known as the Black Smoke, was informed of the Executives actions and was able to gather some operatives and attempt to head off the master criminal, Mister Stamper. After a frantic dash through the dense, humid African jungle, they arrived at the camp of the Professor just in time...!

The scenario rules were thus:-

• The major plot point was the Idol of Mkubwa Shetani and was placed centrally on the table. Completing this plot point was to have...ramifications! :)
• One minor plot point was Professor Barnabas Smythe, who has intimate knowledge of the Idol. The Executive needed 2 success on Might or Cunning to win him to their side. Black Smoke's Network needed 2 success on Cunning or Finesse.
• One minor plot point was Smythe's daughter, Selina. She could provide necessary leverage if she was to fall into the clutches of the Executive. The Executive needed 1 success against Might, the Network 1 success against Finesse.
• One minor plot point was the Professor's journal, which holds all his notes on the Idol.
• The last minor plot point was the natives who worship the Idol. These had the following rules:
• 10 natives were placed at the start according to normal plot point setup.
• Each was a perilous area extending to 3" due to their spears.
• After each player activation, the player with Initiative had to activate a native which would move 6" towards the nearest character in LOS or the centre of the table. This kept a fluid game going and made us really think about order of activation.
• A native could be completed by getting 2 successes with Shooting while not in base contact. While in based contact, 1 success on Brawl or Might was needed.
• Completing a native plot point didn't win initiative.
• Any time a native was completed and removed, a new native moved 3" onto the board from a random board edge or corner.
• The player with most native plot points held the +1 Experience Reward.

On to the action!

The setup! The Idol is in the middle, the natives are prowling and the Leagues arrive. All across the area the natives are chanting in a most sinister fashion - Mkubwa! Mkubwa! Mkubwa Shetani!

The Executive spot the camp and begin to move in.

The Black Smoke leads his agents towards the camp from the opposite direction.

His sidekick, Vinnie Harold, leads the sharpshooter Cliff Marsh in a pincer move.

Evading the natives, The Black Smoke leads his personal physician, Dr. Rupert Behr and his mechanic and fixer Milton Croft.

But Vinnie Harold is surprised by a warrior and engages in fisticuffs! Mkubwa! Mkubwa! Mkubwa Shetani!

Meanwhile the natives infiltrate the Professor's camp. Mkubwa! The baggage handler seizes the Professor's journal to protect it, while Miss Selina Smythe hides in the undergrowth.

As Mister Stamper and his ever-present henchman, Janssen, close in on the Professor, the noise draws some irate natives close. Mkubwa Shetani!

Dr. Behr climbs up the ruins and comes face to face with the Idol of Mkubwa Shetani! He grips it and pulls. Realising there is a mechanism holding it he sees that he needs to twist it free. As he does so, a click and a thud are heard deep in the ruins. Suddenly a loud 'BONG!' echoes from deep underground and the hairs on everyone's neck prickles as a deep roar resounds across the jungle!

It's dinner bell having been rung, Mkubwa Shetani arrives on the scene! From here on, all natives activating within 12" of the great ape are removed from play as they melt away into the jungle!

The trees and undergrowth shake furiously as the Mkubwa Shetani charges at the nearest snacks it can see!

Klaus Fellows, a follower of the Black Smoke runs to the baggage handler to try and seize the Professor's journal, but the native is too wiry and strong and Klaus is knocked to the ground and loses consciousness.

As the terror from the jungle surges forward, Stamper and Janssen are caught up in a struggle with some natives after capturing the Professor! In the fracas, they fail to realise the impending danger!

Chaney, an exective goon, moves up to the jeep and opens fire on Milton Croft, who is fleeing from the Mkubwa Shetani. He takes a snapshot back and both men hit the dirt wounded. The adrenaline is pumping though and both leap to their feet soon afterwards!

A native Witch Doctor urges his warriors on as the close down on the Executive goons Hogan and Morgan.

Milton Croft climbs to his feet as The Black Smoke sprints past, the giant ape hot on his heels. Sometimes discretion is the better part of valour!

The scuffle with the natives goes on in the camp. In the far background, Vinnie Harold has battled his way through the natives to reach Miss Smythe. "Never fear, my dear! I will keep you safe!" "Oh, Vinnie!" Swoon!

Vinnie leads Miss Smythe away from the danger lurking near the camp!

Hogan and Morgan become ever more embroiled in trouble. They wouldn't manage to extricate themselves for the rest of the game!

Dr. Behr attempts to reason with the baggage handler, but he is suspicious of the newcomers and the doctor must dodge back.

Mkubwa Shetani lets out a ferocious roar and charges Mister Stamper who has finally thwarted the native threat! A little late, methinks! 

Janssen and Chaney try to run, but in their panic they lose their footing and only stumble a little distance (I had two Trip Up cards in my hand! Heehee!). However, The Black Smoke is nearby! In a hail of bullets, both men are knocked clean out as Stamper dodges and weaves desperately!

"Run for it!" Dr. Behr finally convinces the baggage handler to surrender the journal and he follows his leader in a desperate rush for safety while Mkubwa Shetani is busy trying to stamp out Mister Stamper!

Once again, Pulp Alley delivers! This was a brilliant game! George and I haven't laughed as much as we did here in ages! The natives and the ape really worked as I hoped. In the early part of the game, the natives were a nuisance and were actually quite dangerous for the lower level characters. But once the Mkubwa Shetani (Swahili for Giant Devil) appeared, they melted away and were only a threat around the fringes, while the Terror became the real danger. Accordingly, and because we were on a 4 foot table, there was less interaction between the 2 leagues, but there was so much to do and so much fun to be had that it didn't matter one jot! The story unfolded in a deliciously pulp manner and the next episode will see the Daredevils attempt to rescue the Professor from the clutches of the Executive's sinister employers!

Tune in for the next thrilling episode!