Hobby Season review & preview

It's that time of the year again, thanks to Dave (http://www.40kaddict.uk/) so if you think you need an added push with your hobby why not join in ? anyway I'll start with looking back to see how I did last season & then list somethings I'd like to do this coming season.

 This is what I wanted to get done.

1) At death's door
A needle in a haystack as your looking for a small package in a warehouse, think the end of raiders of the lost ask warehouse, well that's how I see it, so build inside of warehouse.

2) Soerabaja manhunt
Your looking for a old sailor in the docks area of the town, so build harbour area to go looking in.

3) Lagoon of terror
As we head over to the island, first stop is the lagoon complete with wreck, so build lagoon.
Failed on this one

The following scenarios don't have to play out in a certain order, so I'll list them as they are in the book

40 Sinister swamp
Not only do our hero's have to face a swamp & all the horrors that entails there also zombie's,
so make up terrain & paint zombie's

5) Jungle trail.
Hacking your way through the jungle & coming in contact with the natives
I have models that will do as natives so just need to build a jungle

6) Blood sacrifice.
I might go down the King Kong road on this one,
build whatever I decide to go for

7) Forbidden city
Close to a volcano is the entrance to an abandoned  city
so I need a volcano & the gate way to a city & some ruins
Changed plans for this one so failed

8) Hell unleashed
 This is set in the ruined city, so doubles up with 7
Failed

9) The escape
This will use part jungle part lagoon
Failed 

So not bad on the the list & I'm more then happy with what I got done over the last year, now what I'd like to do in the coming year.

1 Finish the Severed head, the building work is finished but there's still a lot more to do as you can see below.

2 Really get Tricol up & running as a place with weekly post on the going's on of it folks.

3 Like everyone else I still have plenty of models to be painted so get some more models painted.

4 Build more sets like the one for the Severed head above.

5 This one kind of ties in with 2 as it's building more stuff for Tricol

I'm going to leave it at that as that would be more then enough to keep me happy if I was to complete it, also as this is I think my 4th season I know well enough that there will be things done that I didn't even think of by the end of the season.

So that's it for this post as always my thanks for dropping in & if you'd care to leave a comment it would be welcomed.

Tricol, The last straw

The unrest in the Tricol system is increasing with  Governor  Von Bittner  calling a meeting with the high Marshals & promising to bring in new laws to deal with the situation after the latest in a long line of unlawful events which was an ork attack on a petroleum refinery.

The damage is estimated to be to be in the 200,000 credit's region, with the night watchman needing medical attention after been attacked by a squig.

That's it for this time, as always my thanks for dropping & if you'd care to leave a comment it would be welcomed.

Pulp Alley going solo review

The guy's at Pulp Alley have just released a solo pack pack for playing Pulp Alley well solo, now before I go on the best way to play any game is with another person ( unless you've a very smart dog) not with a computer or by yourself.

That been said I picked up a pack along with the one free page solo play rules & gave it a go (you also need the rulebook), so how did I find it I hear you ask ? the short answer excellent (so if you want to stop reading at this point you can) the long answer is what this post is about.

The game I played was the Trail of clues from the PA rulebook & the only thing I changed was how you place the next plot point after you've solved one, I do this by rolling a scatter dice for the diction as I find if you just place it the game can become bogged down in the two corners .

So back on track, the thing that makes PA different from a lot of games are the cards, so if you like the cards are the stars of the game & apart from bad dice roll's they are where much of the fun comes from, this is carried through into solo play in a very clever way.

How the game works is simple & not a lot different from a normal game of PA, instead of each player having a hand of cards you play a card on the first 3 character's activated, so at the start of each turn you decide do you want to activate your league or the other league know as the bots, now as you can see from the 3 cards above (click on picture if you need it bigger) they don't always effect the character their played on, nor are they always bad.

Who would you pick ? I'll explain about how you pick as it's smart, you don't just pick which team goes first & then just pick who you want, when you pick the team that's going first you then pick the first character nearest to an enemy character to activate, so depending on what happens the 3 closest at the start of the turn might not be the 3 to get activated.

With all perils now been random perils it mean that every time you take a risk there is always going to be a challenge, look at the picture above, the character is about to jump down from the roof  so a random perils which mean's the top card is drawn from the deck & the challenge must be pasted, in a normal game of PA it would be down to the other player to decide if he wants to play a card from his hand, which he might not want to or might even be out of cards.

As you can see it didn't end well, plot point's have also become harder as your now always going to face a challenge before you can try one, that straight away makes trying a plot point with any one other then a leader or sidekick  very dangerous indeed as in most cases he'll only have a 50/50 of passing it & in a lot of case's he won't be able to pass it at all.

The guy in the picture above reach's the plot point & faces a challenge, as you can see it need's two on any of the 3 to pass it, most allies or follow's would auto fail as they would a lot of the time only have 1D in the those abilities.

Luckily he's a leader passes & tries for the plot point, so how did you do Frank did you win ? tbh I was lucky to get a draw with both sides having the minor plot points & me only having my leader left & with the other leader ready to try for the major plot & the game about to go to turn 7 the card that removes all other card effect from play was drawn,so saving my butt.

Now a little confession here, the picture's your seen are from what was my first try at solo but after turn 3 I realised that I'd gotten a few things wrong so I ripped it up & started again this time just paying attention to the game & not trying to get pictures.

Seems even when I not playing anyone I still can't roll dice lol, so in conclusion my over all take on PA solo is that it work's very well & seamlessly & is very enjoyable, for someone like myself it will be very useful in moving the Tircol story along, for anyone who GM's games of PA it will be a great way of trying out leagues to see how balanced they are, or even you've nothing better to do on a cold winter's night & feel like some pulp fun the solo game's a great way to go.

  Well that's it for this post, my thank's to Dave & Mila for coming up with yet another way to have PA fun, my thanks to myself for a fun game & as always my thanks to you for dropping in & if you care to leave a comment it would be most welcome.

Tricol, Alex's gets a lead

A lot of strange things had been shown up on the black -market lately & Marshal Alex wanted to know where it was coming from, it was well known that there had once been an advanced race in the Tricol system but they had been gone long before the first star-ships arrived via the wormhole & as it was hoped that the way back out might be found in their technology all archaeology could only be carried out by the authorities.

With Tect-priest Darrow & his Daughter still missing it appears as if someone is going to a lot of forbidden effort & Alex could understand why, for the person who can find the way of getting the warp-engines to work would become the most powerful person in the system, the stuff that was turning up was not what was been looked for & so was sold off on the black-market to the well to do who wanted to impress their friends with their new toys.

But Alex's had been putting the heat on a lot of the under-world scum & got a lead that pointed to the harsh-lands, so leaving the transport a couple of km's back they arrived at the site just after sunrise, the men she had with her she'd hand picked for the job as to many of her plans of late seemed to be reaching the wrong ears before they where carried out.

Agent De Vayne breast the top of the hill but is spotted the element of surprise is lost.

 Alex heads over to the right while Zerbe goes left.

Gleason stays centre to ad his fire-power to De Vayne in the hope of keeping the gang pinned.

The gang is well armed & the law enforces are having a hard time of it, but justice will be done (they hope).

The guy who seems to be in charge runs behind the building.

While another takes cover behind a create.

Alex's has work her way forward & is about to let lose on one of the gang.

 De Vayne from his high point shoots at a gang member who tries to rush across to where Zerbe is.

Zerbe also opens up on him stopping him in his tracks.

Out of sight the leader has climb a ladder up onto the roof

and now has a great vantage point over Zerbe.

 Alex takes down one of the gang, who never seen her coming.

Gleason rushes to the foe taking out another gang member.

De Vayne reacts to help out Zebre, but something flickers around the gang leader just after he pulls the trigger.

Another gang member goes down & it looking like justice will indeed be done this day.

Figuring the game is up the gang leader makes a run for it.

While the law enforces close in &

round up the rest of the gang, you did well gentlemen & my thanks says Alex but her can't help feeling disappointed that the leader got away this lot don't look as if they know their own names.
Still they be questioned just the same & who knows something might be learned.

Designers note, I was trying out a hybrid set of rules & as I'd everything set up thought I do a few pictures & then when I'd finished though I might as well do up a little story based on how things had gone & do a post & I've got to say am happy with how it all turned out.

It was also the first time I've used a backdrop & I don't know about you guys but I think it work out well, anyway that's it for me I hope you enjoyed it & as always my thanks for dropping in & if you'd care to leave a comment it would be welcomed.

Tricol, The inside of the Severed Head Part 3

A good bit more done on this & I'm really liking what I see, but how did it get from where we left it in part 2 to this ?

I'm just going to post a few wip pictures to show the different stages but don't let the picture above fool you there's still a lot to be done on this, but it at the stage where I can look at what I've got done & think yes this will work.

I've added a couple of new blogs to my reader list on the right hand side, well that's it for this post as always my thanks for dropping in & if you'd care to leave a comment it would be welcomed.