The el Makitar Rebels have been caught in Dhaka after their daring raid to kidnap ambassadors attending the recent Crescent Society conference. Unfortunately, two of their captives have not been found and are being held somewhere in the city. Failure to find the ambassadors could result in war within the Ottoman Empire. News of the captives location has rung out and soldiers of fortune are on the prowl to find these important men and return them to their native homelands for reward. However, some of these groups have more nefarious interests to kidnap them themselves and sell them to their enemies. Will the ambassadors be found, will war be averted and who’s going to get rich?
Time for another Pulp Tuesday night game. I expected four to six players, so needed to have enough forces for each person. Thought I would slim things down a bit from the previous games, as I wanted to guarantee we would finish the game in time. I created eight gangs for each player to choose from (I really need to paint more minions…). Each had one star and four extras of the same character type. Most were different types of soldiers supporting a good or bad star to lead them. Players picked their forces and set up on their respective side of the table.
I decided to pull out my old Crescent Root Middle East buildings and set up a city board. The ground cloth was the usual Cigar Box battles. The scenario took place at night (an excuse for not having any civilians on the streets (as I still have not painted any……). I did put down some random through terrain, mostly boxes and stuff to break up the streets.
The scenario was built around two macguffins (the two ambassadors) and four other markers. The markers would be worth 0-2 points each (D3-1 when found). The ambassadors were worth 3, with a bonus of 3 if they were moved off the table. While on the table, they provided the controlling side their card bonuses. Points would also be awarded for wounds caused to stars.
We went through the first act with both sides positioning their gangs to grab objectives. There was some long range shooting, but the act was generally bloodless. Act two is when things got bloody. Both sides found one of the ambassadors and positioned them to keep their bonuses in play. At the same time, both groups took losses, with one group being eliminated until the timely pulling of an act card returning a character! We entered the final act with both sides trying to take out their opponents ambassadors and stars. Most the extras were taken out on both sides (tough to have a read shirt). Both sides managed to get their ambassadors of the table on the last turn. The good guys managed to get a couple more points on objectives, but they took far more star wounds. The result was a bad guy win. So, who’s interested in paying up big time for an ambassador?
- Manteuffel