Unfortunately, this week's Algy game had to be postponed, so I stepped in with another pirate game. This time I opted to use Fistful of Lead, figuring it was both simpler, for the Zoom format, and more appropriate for a multi-player game.
I had intended this for our annual Christmas game but brought it forward a week; which gave me a mere few hours preparation. A shame, as I had planned a few more items of terrain and had some random events in mind, but needs must and we played the rough and ready version.
The scenarion background was that the Spanish treasure galleon, the Hispaniola, had foundered with its fabled treasure on board. The Brethren of the Coast have somehow obtained the ship's logs and charts, contained in two small chests, and hope to use these to locate the wreck. Unfortunately, one chest has been lost; it's guardian, Jim Lad Catchmole, mislaying it amongst the taverns and fleshpots of Rumtown.
Rumtown
I had designed the scenario for 5 players but, due to circumstances beyond our control, only had 3 players on the day. By dropping one force and the umpire running a force, we managed to play it as a 4 sided game.
Each force had a similar composition, in FFoL terms, and consisted of a Leader, a Specialist and 3 Grunts.
Brethren of the Coast (English faction)
Lucky Jack Quilp (pistol and sword), Mr Bangs (musket and grenadoe), 3 Freebooters swords and mixed musket / pistols
Brethren of the Coast (French faction)
Happy Dan Le Pew (pistol and sword), Pierre (musket and dagger), 3 Boucaniers (muskets)
Spanish
Don Lardo (pistol and sword), Jose (flintlock musket and sword), 3 Miliciano (matchlock muskets)
Kuna
Man Friday (bow and club), Poo Man (bow, poisoned arrows), 3 warriors (bows)
The rules were pretty much the FFOL core rules with a few tweaks for period flavour.
Grunts used a D10 and not a D8 (this kept it simple and I don't own any D8s in any case).
Poisoned arrows used the poison trait but delivered via shooting rather than close combat.
Grenades had to prepared the turn before use, taking two actions to light the fuse, and would explode at the end of the figure's next turn.
Bows had a -1 penalty on the Wound table.
Anything involving a match (grenades and matchlocks) couldn't be used in the rain.
The objective for the Brethren was to retrieve both chests and retire back to their boats. The English started with one chest but the second had to be located amongst the civilian populace of Rumtown. (Unfortunately, due to the batteries running out on my camera, I didn't get a shot of this but their were almost 20 civilians on the table). It was up to the players to decide whether they wanted to work together or contest the ownership of both chests.
The Spanish objective was to stop the Brethren, whilst the natives had the straightforward objective of killing the despised Spaniards.
The French began in the boats, whilst the English deployed on the opposite table edge, behind the church walls.
The Natives deployed in the fringes of the jungle on the left table edge, whilst the Spanish took the opposite edge.
What followed was an absolute hoot (or at least I thought so), despite the Zoom format, and would have been brilliant as a club game. Maybe one day.
The game got off to a flying start, on the very first card, with the Spanish playing a Joker. Unbeknownst to the players, this triggered the appearance of Baron Samedi and the potential of Shock on the activated figure.
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| Voodoo Chile |
Inevitably, the Spanish player had activated his 3 Matchlockmen, who promptly took fright and buggered off around the back of the tavern.
A Shocked group of Spaniards hide behind the tavern
On subsequent cards, the English approached the town square, intent on interrogating the populace, whilst the French disembarked and began questioning the denizens of the docks - to no avail.
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| The English enter the Square |
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| French scour the docks |
Meanwhile, the Kuna natives were creeping from the Jungle and approaching the town.
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| Man Friday and Poo Man lead the warriors forwards |
On turn two, after haranguing several unsuspecting citizens, in the town square, the Spanish intercepted Pedro the Pedlar and his donkey. A roll of the die revealed that said donkey was, in fact, carrying the missing chest. However, just as the Spanish were feeling smug, Man Friday and his warriors appeared at the edge of the town square and loosed a volley of arrows. Needless to say, they hit the donkey, which took fright and ran off towards the board edge, carrying the chest.
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| Pedro's Donkey takes fright |
To add insult to injury, a second volley of arrows, aimed at the Spanish, killed Pedro.
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| Pedro bites the dust |
With the chest located, and the civilians running for cover, it now became a race to catch the donkey. The French played a Joker, in an attempt to seize the initiative, but instead brought forth Baron Samedi. However, they weren't impressed and, shrugging off theapparition, the Boucaniers raced down the table edge to intercept the fleeing donkey.
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| It's that 'man' again |
The English had also begun to cross the square in pursuit of the donkey but were on a collision course with the Natives who were sprinting across the square in pursuit of the Spanish. To make matters worse, a second Joker that turn heralded the onset of a tropical storm. Ranges were henceforth halved and any matches unuseable - so much for my much vaunted grenadoe!
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| Market square heroes |
Not trusting the Natives, the English fired first and missed. This triggered the inevitable response and a volley of 6 arrows hissed towards Lucky Jack who was soon down and wounded with 2 Shock. Despite his nickname, on his subsequent attempt to recover, he rolled a 1 and promptly expired! The remaining English took the opportunity to retreat, with the second chest, and made their way back to the boats.
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| Leaderless English head for home |
Meanwhile the French were also leading the donkey, which they had named bluebell, back to the boats.
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| Bluebell at the boats |
With the Brethren fleeing with the chests, there then followed the funniest sequence of turns, which I apprently neglected to record!
I had given Don Lardo the Large trait, reasoning tat he was the fattest Spaniard on the Main. This meant he could take 4 wounds(instead of the usual 3) but was easier to hit. Arrow after arrow found their mark but Don Lardo kept finding the Queen of Hearts to remove wounds. That said he was wounded and down for several turns and failed to recover - he instead resorted to crawling underneath the market stall for cover. The model did actually fit, otherwise I would have disallowed it.
After another Queen of Hearts, Don Lardo recovered enough to mount his counterattack.
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| Don Lardo (behind the market stall) considers his options |
With his matchlockmen useless in the rain, Don Lardo decided upon fistcuffs and propelled his large, and probably sweaty, body towrds the nearest native. A sword of good Toledo steel versus a bow string, what could go wrong? You guessed it Don Lardo was wounded and down!
Another attempt to turn a Joker into the Queen of Hearts saw the appearence of Baron Samedi, once again. Fortunately, Don Lardo had had enough of this fellow, with a bone through his nose, and was unfazed.
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| Guess Who? |
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| Carnage in the Square as the Natives run for the jungle |
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| French embark for a win |
Boats built by a master craftsman I see!
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