Wednesday 7 March 2018

BwendTV Tuesday Tussle - Gaslands AAR

Steve and I tried Gaslands for the first time this Tuesday. I think we mostly got the rules right, but more importantly we had a great time. The game played more slowly than expected. I imagine it will go more quickly now that we understand the rules better, and we need to add the skid dice table to the quick reference sheet, because neither of us has the skid dice that you can buy for it. As someone who played Car Wars to bits back in the eighties and early nineties, I found this a real pleasure to play. There was a good hit of nostalgia combined with a simpler game system: I was starting to find the Car Wars activation system a bit too detailed towards the end. This definitely scratches that itch.

Welcome to the Gladiolus Arena for our Tuesday Tussle. Today's match is a Death Race between the Gladcorp sponsored Team Ztum and the Albion Car and Motor Engineers Corporation sponsored Z-Cars. The teams must race in a figure-eight, passing through each gate in turn, before completing the course by crossing the start line again. The racers must pass Gate 1 before their weapons activate, and then it will be a free-for-all and may victory go to the swiftest and deadliest.


Here we are at the start line. Team Ztum has won the coin toss and taken pole position, choosing the inside line. ACME Corporation has occupied the outside line, perhaps hoping that their trike can take off quickly ahead of the slower cars.

In pole position is Helicopter 'Corners' Cutter in the Black Mamba. This sleek sports car features a turreted heavy machine-gun and will be relying on its driver's skill to keep it out of trouble. Behind the Black Mamba is Gurek 'Spin Doctor' Assigo in The Purple Peril, with forward-mounted heavy machine-guns, nitrous injection, and a nasty mine-dropper surprise in its tail end. The ACME Corporation has refused to reveal the names of its drivers or even the details of its vehicle designs, as is typical for any Albion enterprise. No doubt they are up to some trickery.


 Now to the start. RED LIGHT, RED LIGHT, RED LIGHT, RED LIGHT, GREEN LIGHT. AND THEY'RE OFF!

'Corners' immediately shows her true colours and practically spins the Black Mamba on the spot, heavily damaging the trike. You can almost hear the ACME driver swearing over the roar of the engines.


Unfortunately, as the trike breaks away 'Corners' is immediately rammed by the car behind the trike. The Black Mamba is heavily damaged and you can see panels falling away. Meanwhile the Purple Peril spins out of the starting gate, while the other ACME car seems not to have realised that the starting gate is lines by heavy Gladcrete(tm) walls.


The Black Mamba seems to have stalled on the start line after that smash, and The Purple Peril has spun around after driving through and writing off the trike. The trike's driver is able to hobble to the Porta-Potty near the crash site where they must wait until the end of the race now.


As the start line chaos shakes out, the two ACME cars form a line and head for the first gate with the Purple Peril in close pursuit. The Black Mamba is really having a hard time catching up though.


As they roar up through the gears, ACME hits the gate first but sideways, closely followed by The Purple Peril. Their guns are now active.


Through the gate, the cars turn, and The Purple Peril uses its nitrous injection to tear ahead of the field. Sliding sideways around the corner it rights itself and races over the second gate in fourth gear, and leaving a nasty surprise for the first car to cross the gate.


A brief spat between ACME and The Black Mamba sees the heavily damaged sports car wrecked, but not before tearing panels off the ACME car with its machine-gun. The Purple Peril races on ahead unchallenged as the ACME drivers try to hit the second gate.


They manage to hit the second gate as The Purple Peril crosses the third gate, but one of the ACME cars triggers the mines and is blown to bits.


With a clear field ahead of him, 'Spin Doctor' Assigo pilots The Purple Peril over the finish line to win the race, followed a long way behind by the one remaining ACME car.


Stay tuned for more auto mayhem with Amateur Night Action only on BwendTV.

I can't remember the last time we  laughed so much at the antics of our miniature alter-egos. Or, for that matter, worried so little about the outcome. Every spin, slide and even wreck was a cause for much hilarity. I'm looking forward to playing Gaslands again and trying a mini-series. I think we are going to have to come up with an experience system for our drivers though. The campaign system in the rules is ok, but it's not personal enough for our tastes. I really loved the corporate Car Wars campaign, and would like to see something like that where drivers gain experience while the team wins money, so you could have separate drivers and team championships.

4 comments:

  1. We played time ago but I don't remember why we didn't keep playing it. YOur game makes me wanting to dust rules off and give them another try.
    Good game!
    Cheers,

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    1. Thank you. It was a fun game. I don't imagine we'll play Gaslands regularly, but it's certainly worth picking up every so often.

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  2. There's a deeper campaign system now available. Right now it's only available through a magazine, but it's also expected to be release on its own at some point. I don't remember the name of the magazine, but you can find out about it on the Gaslands forums.

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    1. Cool. Thanks for letting me know. I'll go and check it out.

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