Day: March 20, 2018

Chris Palmer and I ran a GASLIGHT game on my 7-foot long zeppelin.  The scenario involved Professor Serafini Nannini transporting his rocket sled in Duke Morrison’s zeppelin.  (Duke Morrison is the hero of my pulp games using GASLIGHT.)  Nannini and his daughter Gianna had hidden six components of one of his fabulous inventions around the zeppelin for security reasons. As Nazi rocket troopers and hired gangsters attack the zeppelin to seize Nannini, the rocket sled, and the six components, Duke Morrison (and his soldiers), “Boats” Morgan (and his sailors), “Wrench” Webb (and his soldiers), the Nanninis and their lab workers, MacDuff (and his police), and “Crash” Corrigan (and his rocket troops) work to gather together the components and move them to the rocket sled.  The game was to end at exactly 1130 (wall clock time).  If the good guys had gathered the components and had them in the rocket sled at 1130, the sled would launch, and the good guys would win.  The sled could not be launched until 1130.  Oh, and only five people could drive the sled, so one of them needed to last that long.  The five people who could pilot the sled were Duke, Boats, Wrench, Prof. Nannini, and Gianna Nannini.

With eight players worth of figures, the game came down to three figures at 1128.  There were two gangster minions left and Boats Morgan, who was in the rocket sled.  Everyone else had gotten killed during the three hours of zany shoot-em-up.

The two gangster minions shot at Boats with just two minutes left to play.  One of them scored a hit, and Boats failed his Save.  The bad guys had all the components (five of which the good guys had conveniently carried to the rocket sled) and the sled itself.  And they also possessed Duke’s zeppelin, as none of Duke’s men survived.

Below are some pictures of the action at various points of the game.  I think the players all had a really good time.  The fact that the game came down to the last three figures two minutes prior to the game’s end contributed.  All the players got into the light-hearted spirit of GASLIGHT.

I used the same table for my second Philippines 1941 Combat Patrol(TM) game at Cold Wars 2018.  The scenario was the same as the first game.  The Japanese were attacking, and the Americans were trying to stop their advance.  The Japanese victory conditions were based on the number of figures they could get across the road.

This game featured the most successful Banzai charge I have seen in Combat Patrol(TM).  There have been bigger ones, longer ones, and more costly ones, but this was probably the most effective.  The way Banzai charges work in Combat Patrol is that before the turn begins, the Japanese player must declare the charge and choose the units that will participate.  Then when the first unit’s card is drawn, the command dice of all the units in the charge are changed to that number, and the charge begins.  All charging units move with two cards, not one.  They get a +1 in melee.  They also get no cover benefit.  A “game master” card is shuffled into the Activation Deck on the next turn.  When this card is drawn, which may take several turns if the “reshuffle card keeps appearing first,” the attack is over, and all participating Japanese are stunned.  All accrued morale checks are immediately resolved.

In this case, there were just two Japanese teams in the charge.  One ended the charge in the road in front of the two American water-cooled machine-guns.  During the morale check, the Japanese team first recovered all stun markers and then conducted another Banzai charge, which overran both American machine-guns.  The American line was broken; however, the game was an American victory.  When time ran out, the Japanese were ready to cross the road on both flanks, but at the end of the game, there were only two Japanese figures across the road.

The game was quite fun, and I think that all the players had a good time.