Tricol, Building better worlds (I hope)

I created the Tricol system for a couple of different reasons & one of them was for modelling terrain, now this is helped a little by the fact the I'm us it to play a game called Pulp Alley in, as the game is played on a 3x3 table, you could maybe be make it a 4x4 if you 4 or so players.

Somewhere in Tricol

Now we've played out a couple of games & I've had some nice comment on my terrain both on this blog & on the Pulp Alley forums (thank you) but over all while I was happy with the terrain I wasn't quite happy with the table it was set up on, but I'd dragged my feet getting this thing up & running & felt I needed to start playing some games to get the ball rolling.

As I've said I was not really happy with the table or ground or what ever you should call it in those games, but that's a problem I've found in a lot of the games I played over the years, I think the hard part is getting the terrain to blend in with the ground it's set down on, just call me fussy lol.

In the picture above this is not a problem unlike in some below, so in this post I'm going to explain to you what I've done to fix it & how I'll get over other such problems going forward.

Clicking on the pictures will enable you to see them in a bigger size.

The good old green grass gaming mat where most games are played out on

Just doesn't look right does it ?

Even when you use terrain with bases it's very hard to blend it in right

The F.A.T mat from FLG these are love & we a good few of these in the DDG thanks to Mike T

But even these suffer when you put down terrain with bases on them

A 3x3 gaming table I made using cork tiles, cost of gaming table about 36 euro including paint & dip

A piece of terrain I made sitting on it as you can see it blends in every well

Unless you go for a modular table this is as good as it gets & it good enough for me.

Been made up of 12x12 tiles means that storage is not a big problem  

But it also has another advantage as you can see in the picture the board has changed a bit

If you want to invest a bit more time & money this board can very easily be changed around

As this side shot shows the board is rising, how this is done is by making a tile with a couple of layers of tiles on it & then use other tiles to raise up the ones behind it

For those that's interested this is how the gaming board is made

I covered the cork tile in per mixed tiling grout 

Next create an uneven surface 

You finished board should be something like this, then just paint as you want, I used an army painter cream coloured spray & army painter dark shade dip which I painted on

Well that's it as always my thanks for dropping in.

Tricol Customs, A Pulp Ally AAR

Upon hearing the bridge door open Jack turned around & asked well Doc how are the patients ? Felix is fine nothing more then a few cuts & bruises ( may start hidden ), with Mr Smith its a bit worse as he took a really bad blow to the head & may have a bit of concussion ( -1 to a random skill )

Now would you care to enlighten me as to your plans & have you any idea why there should be so many weapons stored at an asteroid mining base enquired Doc Neddle  ?
The first part of your question I can answer easy enough Doc, sooner or later some ships are going to come to bring supplies & bring back what ever it is their mining out here, when that happens I hope to just join their convoy & head to one of those planets , the second part I've no idea about but would guess its something illegal.

A couple of days later it was exactly like Jack said & they put into space dock above the second largest of the planets know as Shin- Tethys, the plan went off with out a hitch that was until they took the shuttle down on to one of the planets, this is where we join the action.
The last part of the story can be found here http://ifitwasntforone.blogspot.ie/2015/06/tricol-in-asteroid-field-pulp-alley.html

As well as Jack who is the main plot point we had the two crate's from the last game, one at bottom right of the picture,
one at the office top left, another crate about half way between the hanger & the red car & a kroot at the blue fuel tank

Jack & crew exit from the lift down from the raised landing pad

It looks like the customs officers are not going to be the only thing Jack has to worry about

I won the roll off for the initiative & was using the same league as last time with some different models added

As I set about trying to get into good positions Paddy springs a trap on my follower taking him out of the game  

i rolled familiar area on the events table while Paddy rolled reconnoiter a roll that was to cost him no little pain.

My team at the end of my first turn

some things are just better in two's, well he started it 

The generator blows up putting all of Jack's crew apart from Felix in perilous area  

This combined with Paddy's event roll was slowing Jack up nicely 

but all that didn't help this guy open the crate

& so the shooting starts as the guy nearest the back of the car opens up

sometimes to just have to go toe to toe, as for the little markers you can see, the white & red one at the top of the picture & in the picture above was to make out the area that was perilous while the black one was placed on anyone who had shot as then now counted as been in a perilous area  

I put an end to Jack's extra follower

Jack rushes into the fight 

& gives some payback

Father Felix take his chainsword to one of the crates, one way of opening it I guess

the explosion is still having an effect, good

the end of turn 3 & J ack is still a long way from the gate, even better

I make a start on a couple of the minor plot points, in the two pictures above

& reach yet another one, things are really on the up

Oilskin & that dam dog do a bit of tag teaming on one of my guys

& down he's goes

That chainsword does'nt seem to be doing the trick

I got back up but was knocked down again

As Jack makes it to the gate house

Mr Smith has his tail up now & rushes into another one of my guys, who I don't think would ever have gotten that crate open

& down he goes

while my leader shows everyone how to open a box

now Mr Smith is even giving it a try

Jack has fully convinced the guard yet I'm still in with a chance

my sidekick rushes Oilskin

& makes a right mess of it

but then makes up for it with a couple of guards heading his way

& the gate is open, Jack you old sweet talker you

well at least there's still time left to do something about that dog

& he bits the bullet putting an end to all his good work on the crate 

Jack with his rewards, with 3 vp's for himself & one for the plot point Felix got the game end 4-2 in Jack's favour 

This game was a mix of the Dangerous Delivery & Death Trap scenario's & a blast to play, with Jack as the main plot point & having to try to get off the base through the checkpoint which once there he had to complete a challenge just like a plot point, the other guards around the table moved about a random D6 at the end of each turn & if they came within an inch of a character would become an extreme peril.

I've got to say I'm finding pulp alley to be very easy way of building a narrative & fits very well into any setting  or plot in the best of pulp fashion, now we started off well with Tricol & have gotten 2 scenario's AAR's  in in more or less a week, but going forward this is more likely to be a month which was my original target, this will give me time to build any terrain I need & with Paddy moving up to Belfast he's not going to be around as much.

So my thanks to you know who & well done on another good win, I thought I had you that time & also as ever my thanks to you for dropping in.