Road Warriors

Last night I ran a couple of sessions of Machinas for the Gong Garage Gamers. I used the road-chase setup we've used at MOAB - one target being pursued by multiple teams of scavengers, with the winner being the person who brings down the target. This encourages a nice mix of co-operation and competition, although the latter does tend to be the more popular option.

The first game saw three players chasing a lone motorcyclist. Caesar went pink, with Woman King and Lola, Geoff ran the two rat-rods Please Don't Touch and Rhapsody In Blue and John ran two gun-cars, Mr Apollo and Georgia Lee.

Early on the biker was forced to fend off a dangerous challenge from Please Don't Touch, surviving by the skin of his teeth.

John concentrated on thinning out the opposition; Georgia Lee shredded Rhapsody In Blue with its twin machine-guns.

Please Don't Touch seemed to be on the verge of finishing off the bike, but the loss of his consort proved too much, and he pulled out of the chase.

This now left Caesar in prime position to attack the bike, and he wasted no time - the rider was impaled on Woman King's front-mounted spikes.

Geoff had to go, so we ran a second game with two teams of scavengers. John opted to run the chase, giving me a chance to run a pair of pursuers. I used John's newly completed duo, Just Married and 'Til Death Do Us Part. The former has a veil of chains to make passing it more difficult, whilst the latter is equipped with a deadly front-mounted chainsaw. Caesar ran a couple of muscle-cars, Ommadawn and Stationary Traveller. The target was the tanker Industrial Disease. This was going to be a tricky game; most of the pursuers were lightly armed, with only a few handguns between them, and a couple of rams. Victory seemed to rely on getting in front of the tanker and wearing it down rather than a direct confrontation.

That was certainly my plan; get Just Married in front of the tanker to slow it down, and then bring up the chainsaw-armed consort. My run to the front was less than successful, however, with Ommadawn sliding across for a ram as I came up on the outside.

Caesar opted for a similar approach, and tried to pass the tanker, but narrowly escaped being bashed off the road by it.

I had another go. I failed, and Just Married was wiped out.

At the rear of the pack 'Til Death Do Us part was biding its time, building up momentum. With Just Married gone, I had nothing to lose. I moved in on Ommadawn ...

Sliced ...

... and diced.

Caesar had got Stationary Traveller in front of the tanker, hoping to wear down its ability to stay in the chase. Industrial Disease concentrated on trying to pass the car in front, and failed to notice the chainsaw coming up on the inside.

Industrial Disease was sliced open like a tin of sardines.

To the victor the spoils!

Both games were great fun, and actually saw the chases brought down which is a rarity in my experience.