After a several year hiatus from gaming I've finally come to the point where I can juggle work, home and gaming into a single week. I started a board game night several months ago and have finally managed to fit in a tabletop game.
It being a school holiday and both my brother and I having our kids we organised a game at our Uncle's house and settled on a good old fashioned Victorian Dinosaur hunt. Having played several before as a much younger person I felt it was a good option. We browsed a couple of rule sets on the morning but finally settled on a slightly modified "Saurian Safari" (
http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/28455/saurian-safari).
After rolling the characters up (the two senior hunters being either woefully bad, or as we decided heavily in the bottom of a lil' brown jug). We set-up the table and prepared to begin.....
"You have been recruited by the rival business UNC (Unified Naturalist Corp) and AUNT (Acquired Uniquity in New Territories) to discover and retrieve seed samples of the relic species local to this remote area. Two of the samples are available from the forested areas close to the ships, however the three remaining surface plants are in the further area across the distant river and the final (the commonly seen rare pink water flower, as opposed to the rarely seen common white variety) is only available in the remote river bank. Both companies have also expressed interest in any other rare commodities that may show themselves on the expedition."
Turn one proved to be rather eventful with our rolling after movement resulting in no dinosaurs, but three events; Giant river leaches accost Christian the Great the Fifths party and Nate the Stout found his path blocked but an almost impassable thicket of thorns and at the same moment saw a mass of huge maggots heading his way. While the Stout party managed to keep it's cool, one of The Great party's bearers was overcome with terror and fled in terror (this became a nasty habit for his bearers).
While Christian was off chasing and then spending several turns calming the bearer the remaining members of his party stumble across nesting Protoceratops and are charged by them. While the junior hunter Terra nimbly dances out of the way, the second bearer surprise surprise panics and makes a mad dash in the opposite directions, further slowing the party.
At the far end of the table a pair of Dilophosaurus come along hunting but are unable to detect anything else on the board as of yet.
Nate the stout after many successful turns with no need to chase and reassure his bearers had managed to grab samples of the nearer seeds, but trouble was finally coming his way in the form of a Tyranosaurus Rex
Who of course spotted the Dilophosaurs across the river and headed for them. Resulting in his first paniced party member of the game
Nate senses the chance to harvest some valuable T-rex glands and opens fire, initially stunning and eventually slaying the giant beast after being knocked to the ground with the recoil of the custom made giant dinosaur rifle. However the lone Triceratops bull hears the shot and charges at his party. Christian the Great's party unloads into the 'Tops as it passes and sends it crashing to the ground after an amazing shot to the brain pan. Seizing the chance for priceless dino ivory the hurry toward the downed beast. The Dilophosaurs attracted by the noises charge The Stout's expedition but are slain by some great shooting.
In what seemed to be the ongoing theme of this current game, just as the final Dilo fell to the ground a pack of hunting Deinonychus come rushing up the shallow river. Deciding discretion is the better path of valour Nate and his cohorts leg it in the opposite direction sending a few shots toward them and managing to drop a couple......
Unfortuately.....
The good Dr Archibald freezes in panic.....
.....and is devoured.
Thus began the final nails in both parties coffins, although The Stout managed to salvage something out of the debacle.
Dramas such as Mosasaurus and a man-eating plant resulted in one of The Stout's baggage handlers disappearing into the wilderness and Darwina (The Great) and Ralph the Man (The Stout) becoming fertilizer
In a spot of rare luck the Deinonychus spot the Iguanadon that had appeared earlier and gave chase eventually running it down in a remote out of the way region and managing to run the Triceratops off, which had managed to shake off the shot to the brain and stand up just in time to see them.
Both teams decided it was time to call it a day and began heading for the boats, The Great with a Protoceratops egg and one seed and The Stout with 2 seeds and 1 from the carnivorous plant (Ralph the Man did not die in vain).
However there was one more disaster to strike the UNC expedition......
A Diplodocus came wandering through the river past the berthed riverboats, shattering the UNC boat, crushing The Great's one remaining handler, his seed, his egg and crushing the leg of Terra.
With nothing left to lose he heads to the remaining AUNT ship seeks and gains a ride home.
Final Result :
- Christian the Great the Fifth for UNC : 0 seeds and only 1 badly injured party member remaining.
- Nate the Stout : 2 target seeds and 1 carnivorous plant seed and 1 uninjured party member and 3 hirelings (2 handlers, 1 hunter).
All in all a fairly straight forward system of rules and a whole lot of fun despite the seemingly non-stop string of disasters
It has come to our attention that the renowned anti-matter research team Dr s Newbody and Longfellow are currently on Argus III testing a new containment field. In view of the harsh environment on the desert planet and the current anti-war demonstration obviously directed at the UN's current harsh actions against our glorious nation we have decided to send your squad down to the planets surface to rescue the stranded scientists and bring them safely to our secure facilities back on Tau Ceti II.
Scanners have detected a force of local "Peacekeepers" heading towards the location to detain the researchers themselves, this must not occur.
After several turns on searching with no results, one of the scientists was turned up by the local force. There squad leader deciding one anti-matter researcher in the hand was worth two in the protester infested shanty town, immediately headed for his edge of the board and the safety of his barracks. Sensing that searching peacefully was no longer an option the NSL squad commander stating that he'd "never even heard of Argus V before.... I mean IV, I've never been on a secret mission to Argus V" headed for a nearby rocky hilltop to set up to open fire on the retreating unit. Closely followed by the now incited new crew and calls of "Sir, Sir, Are you the infamous Christian the Butcher, Slaughterer of the farmers of Argus IV and Destroyer of the Argus V Icemen??"
Heedless of the protesters still resolutely and most assuredly peacefully assaulting the local troops the NSL squad opens fire on the enemy, killing there SAW trooper and wounding the trooper carrying the rocket launcher well enough to take him out for the game. The protesters shocked that some one would dare assault the targets of there peaceful barrage of filth and aluminium head toward the hilltop. A turn of being unhampered by the new crew allowed me one more round of useful fire resulting in the wounding of another trooper, but some incredible armour saves prevented the other two shots from killing the squad leader and winning me the game.
4. Painting my Veer-myn team for the aforementioned Dreadball. Keep in mind these are the first models I've painted in over 10 years so (apart from a practice run on a few of old genestealers) while they're not award winning (tbh I was never even close to that) I'm happy with the way they're going.
The game begins with Senior Deputy Rick moseying along up to the entrance of the church and El Fwaupo sending Pepe out to check on the intel. Some how the young man manages to insult the informants and they assure him that Nate West is still in the saloon, so he goes back to let his Uncle know. Next up Justin continues his patrol and makes it to the bank window. Peering inside he sees Nate West and his two senior gang members inside. His young blood pumping and sensing a chance to make a name for himself he draws his six shooter and fires a round into the bank sending "Dirty Stan" diving for cover. As the shot rings out Jim Wilder leaps out of bed in his long johns and heads for the street strapping on his piece accompanied by his two remaining deputies. Across town the fiesta draws to a sudden close as El Fwaupo and his friends rush out to see what has caused the shot to be fired. At the same time Nate and Twitchy rush out of the bank and quickly drive the young deputy around the corner with a flurry of shots.
Pepe again begins the next round and fires on the one day from retirement Rick Mucks as he regains his feet and sends him to the ground again, this time stone cold dead. Sanchez after working his way around the homesteaders wagon fires a round toward one of the deputies missing completely. But the poor homesteader has had enough drawing his knife and charging toward the Mexican. El Fwaupo heads to the street firing rounds at the enraged man with no effect. The sheriff sensing the danger heads to the street trying to draw the bandito's ire.
After several turns Manuel flanks the hotel entrance but misses Flint and was in turn is pinned by The Pheonix Kid who has snuck up behind him from the train station drawn by the commotion. After carefully accessing the situation Six Fingers decides to flee..... I mean remembers he left El Fwaupo's cake in the oven and runs to save it before it burns. The angry husband charges Sanchez and drives his knife deep into his arm wounding him, but as he lifts his bloody knife to drive it back into the now snivelling Mexican El Fwaupo draws a bead on him and kills him with a single shot. The Pheonix Kid rather rattled by the sudden changes in front of him loses his head, panics and grabs Susette the Camel-faced hostage as she loiters at the front of the saloon. Flint lines up the Mexican gang leader with his shotgun and sends him to the ground dead. The remaining Mexicans waver but decide they should relieve Nate West of his loot, it's what El Fwaupo would have wanted after all.
With casualties mounting the turns begin to progress much faster. Flint looking up from the now motionless body of El Fwaupo, spots another Mexican bandit across the street and lets him have a couple of rounds from his pistol sending yet another one to meet his maker. This proves to be too much for the Mexican with the knife wound and he also goes to "check on El Fwaupo's cake". The junior deputy Justin after working up some courage rounds the corner of the general store in chase of Nate but finds the outlaw waiting and fires a wild shot over his shoulder from shock. Nate however remains calm and expertly places his bullet through the youth's throat and he lies gasping and clutching his throat as it all goes dark. Pepe and the remaining Mexican (one of the neutral townsfolk who decided to help chase all the money) open fire on Nate and send him scuttling for cover. The other deputies had been exchanging rounds with "Stumpy" his cover now blown decide enough is enough and one of them charges the rock the veteran has been hiding behind and puts the two-faced ex military man down for good.
Flint seeing The Pheonix Kid distracted by sheriff Jim charges in and quickly dispatches the young outlaw seemingly ending his career before it has had a chance to begin. Pepe and friend again fire at Nate West wounding him twice. Nate bravely drags himself to his feet and across the way to the stable owners house bravely??? taking his wife and baby hostage. Sheriff Jim rushes behind the general store in response to the shouts of his deputies. The Mexicans seeing that the money is but a few minutes from being unjustly returned to the bank disappear off into the sunset. Seeing his hopes of even a dirty getaway die, Nate West releases the hostages and crawls out of the house and to the jail house to await his day at the gallows.....
