7TV Pulp – The Tombs of Kalabach.

It was Pulp Tuesday and time for another pulp game. I decided I should continue on the fantasy pulp band wagon for a while. This has the advantage of allowing players to bring their own figures (as hard as tried, no one really got around to painting their own Pulp companies..). So, I pulled out the 7TV Pulp rules and decided on a scenario.

I thought about going with an attacker/defender type of scenario, but this is hard, as I never know how many players. So, I stuck with the battle scenario, but selected one of the adventure options from the encounter book. Having both of these, really opens up the gaming possibilities!

I had painted up some GW temple terrain a long time ago, but never got round to using it. So, its time had come! I pulled that box and a box of jungle terrain, plus my throw terrain box. I had my green highlands matt out already from my last historical game, so I just opted to use that.

I got to my FLGS and set up the game table (I borrowed a few hills from the store’s open collection). I placed the ruins in the middle and added so underground access pieces from the box. I added some other ruins and added jungle plants all over the table to break up the lines of site.

The encounter requires players to enter underground tunnels and roll on a table to see what happens. Instead of having single tunnels, I decided I would have four entrances and two extra exits (that would become entrances once they were discovered. When the model got the exit result, they would roll a D6 to see which of the six points they exited! I also was not limiting the number of treasure finds a player could find. I figured with this rule, we would get more exploring and a little less planned fighting (boy was I wrong).

Next, I just needed to wait for some players to arrive. They started dribbling in, so I asked each to create a force out of the models they brought. I gave them the appropriate fantasy race cards to match their troops and let them choose their star (I left out co-stars). We started with the Orc player, then the Dark Elves, followed by the undead. I was actually worried I would have too many players and figured I would have players share if we got above six. We ended up with three players…. Normally, I have a board effects units that I can give to the odd player, but did not do that this time… *&^$^%$…

So, I figured I would just build the deck and let each player play independently. We rolled for play order. I only allowed the last moving player to “steal the scene.” Each player would then move up, which would give each player the option. I went with a 21 card scene deck that I hoped would work. I also allowed the players to set up twelve inches in. This would get them into action faster on the larger table, so I would not have to add more cards.

Everyone set up at the three points and we got into the game. We pulled the first scene card and it allowed every player to move a terrain feature three inches. Two of the players just move some bushes around. The third player opted to move one of the tunnel entrances away from one of their opponents (this was a decision that proved to be critical in the game). All the forces then closed in on the center of the table at full speed.

The dark elves jumped into the tunnels with one of their troops, with the others moving to their left flank. The Orcs and Undead moved right after each other and got into it quickly. The Elves decided to help gang up on the undead.

The elves started searching the tunnels and found a good amount of treasure, putting them well into the lead. While this was happening, the fighting on the surface got into full swing, with figures falling everywhere. The undead was able to get a spell off and return a number of their skeletons to the fight, which kept the fight going.

The game entered the end stage and the orc player realized he need to send someone into the tunnels, but it was late in the game. The undead player was to busy fighting to stay in the game to get to the tunnels.

The Orcs found a little treasure, but it was too little too late. The dark elves had a good sized stash. the character points and status points were not enough to compensate, so the Dark Elves ended with the victory!

• Manteuffel