The Circuit

Bailey is moving up north at the end of next month, so this was possibly a last chance for a few of us to get together with him for a game of Gaslands. 

We had four players:

Caesar - Running the General Lee (car) and Jeb Stuart (buggy) - A Verney-sponsored team with the bold move of no dropped weapons.
Bailey - Keeping the beaches safe with his surfer-dude Highway Patrol team, featuring the truck Tribal Thunder and the buggy Surf n Destroy.
June - Using the first team she designed and painted herself; two Miyazaki sponsored performance cars.
Me - Using the Last Of The V8 Interceptors, sponsored (because it has the right perks) by The Warden. I'll post the design below.

Once again we rolled a race, but we'd agreed that the next time we got one we'd try the circuit set-up we tried a couple of years ago. In this you have four equally-spaced gates and each team starts at a different one. To win you must go clockwise and pass through the gates in order as you do so, with the first gate you pass after your start activating weapons. Because of the size of the circuit (with hindsight we made it a bit big) a team would win when one of their vehicles passed their original starting-gate.

So essentially the race is a pursuit. Everyone gets a simple uncluttered start, but unless every team runs at exactly the same speed you will eventually have to pass through another team. And, as you'll see, other tactics were a possibility ...

Anyway here's the setup. In the distance is June's Miyazaki team, to the right is my mad Warden driver, in the foreground is Bailey's surf patrol and finally Caesar's team to the left.

Early on we got a taste of things to come when Caesar managed to roll this (a product of dice with rounded corners on a neoprene mat).

Bailey sliding close to the edge. It's hard to tell from the vehicles, but the green one is the truck and the blue one the buggy.

My mad guy got of to a staggeringly bad start with this roll. And it was a reroll so I had to live with it. There was an early wipe-out in my future for sure and, sadly, no-one to ram whilst I had all those useful hazards for my Battlehammer perk. My car was very much built around using nearby vehicles to dump hazards, so this circuit start wasn't good for me.

And here we are! The inevitable wipeout. Fortunately I managed to pass the gate as I did it, but that was me done for the rest of the turn. In the top-left you can see June's lead car.

Casar's buggy, Jeb Stuart, was doing well, and was catching up to June's team. Caesar got to fire the first shot of the game, raking June's orange car with a heavy machine-gun.

June's lead car shot up Mr Mad as she went past.

But it was now a new turn. I got my vehicle running again, and chased June, looking for revenge. Powered up with hazards and firing a shotgun as I closed I destroyed her blue car in a single ram.

Bailey was adopting an alternative approach to the race - be last survivor. To that end he'd run to his first gate to activate weapons, and had now turned around, intending to run the other way around the track, destroying everything in his path.

His buggy chased after me. It had some nasty cop abilities. I managed to not take pictures of what happened next.

Bailey rammed me, using a special ability that forced me to make an evasive move that put me in a very bad position with regard to a wall. On the plus side I was running a performance car; the ram meant that I could take a bonus action, so I used it to collide with the wall, and wipe out. Wiping out gives me an Audience Vote, which I then used to accelerate back into action, as the wipeout had spun me to face roughly in the direction I needed to go. Avoiding Bailey's truck I roared towards my second gate, travelling at an insane speed.

There I am, heading off into the distance at Gear 6! But Here comes Caesar's Jeb Stuart, also travelling fast. If he could reach that gate he would win the race. All that stood in his way was the surf-cops in Tribal Thunder.

Bailey went for a head-on collision. No buggy could survive that.

That is unless your opponent rolls eleven dice and only has two score a four or more, for a total of three hits. And then you evade two of them. Caesar escaped with barely a scratch. And on his next move could move through Bailey's vehicle, ignoring it, since the two were in contact.

But wait! What's this? As a result of the collision Tribal Thunder wiped out. and that caused it to pivot out of contact with Caesar's buggy. Now when Caesar moved he had to collide with the truck again and, once again it was a dangerous head-one (yes, even with that orientation - Caesar's front still hit the front corner of Bailey's truck. We really must put our vehicles on bases to make these things easier to see).

This time Caesar didn't survive the collision, and even the short wreck move wasn't enough for him to cross the line.

June's orange car now had to run past Bailey's cops.

Caesar now adopted Bailey's strategy. He spun General Lee around, and ran through a wall (this is Gaslands - it happens), since the next vehicle likely to win was ... me. I'm out of shot to the left.

(Ignore the car on the wall - we decorated the arena with spare vehicles)

Not sure what happened here but I know that the end result was the demise of June's second car at the hands of Bailey's cops.

Meanwhile I was making my final run for the finish line. Skidding wildly I cut through some soft sand, and was raked by the mini-gun of General Lee, taking me down to my last hit. But I had a desperate plan.

I had two templates worth of movement required to get through the gate. And with Caesar's car bearing down on me I'd only get one turn before he shot me up. So I cranked my car up to full speed and piled on every hazard I could get. My initial move left me almost at the gate, but not quite. However I had so many hazards that I wiped out - and was going so fast that I was almost certain to flip. And did. The flip got me over the line, took off my last hull hit and the mad Warden man was destroyed in a spectacular fireball in his moment of victory.

It was a spectacular Gaslands finish to a great race. I do like this format for races, even if we made the circuit a little large. It makes for a different style of play, and therefore changes the dynamics of what kinds of builds do well; you can't really get out in front with a fast vehicle since you will always be forced to interact with the opposition as you go round.

Thanks to all involved for a fun evening.

Anyway, here's the info for my car

The Last Of The V8 Interceptors - Warden Performance Car - 50 cans

Weapons and Equipment: Shotgun, Front Ram, Molotov Cocktails, Armour Plating
Perks: Battlehammer, Boarding Party, Terrifying Lunatic, Madman, Road Warrior, Grinderman, Crowd Pleaser

(If I ran this vehicle again I might swap Grinderman for Murder Tractor).

But otherwise I used all of the traits. Crowd Pleaser gets me Audience Votes without me having to have my vehicle destroyed. And the perks allow me to combine dumping hazards on other people whilst getting rid of some of my own so long as I shoot ram or generally stay close to the opposition. The ram is my primary weapon; I know it's not canonical, but it's basically plot armour (as is the actual armour on the vehicle). The Shotgun was the best weapon I could come up with that doesn't take any slots.

Scilly Privateers

During the ECW the Isles of Scilly, off the tip of Cornwall, were a hotbed of Royalist privateer activity. It was only in 1651 that a naval expedition extirpated them. It had secluded harbours and anchorages, and was well-garrisoned and fortified. Irish privateers also used it as a base.

This scenario sees a trio of Dutch ships carrying good from the West Indies who have, via a navigational error, strayed too close to this hotbed of privateers. A couple of small Irish vessels, backed up by a local ketch set out to intercept the rich prize that has landed on their doorstep.

Dutch

St. Barnabas, Curacao, Gouda - Q3 C2 - Galleon Rig, Merchantman, Razee, Shallow Draft, Yare

Privateers

Clontarf, Liffey - Q3 C1 - Lateen Rig, Razee, Shallow Draft, Swashbucklers, Yare
St Peter - Q3 C2 - Square Rig, Shallow Draft, Swashbucklers, Yare

The Dutch were sailing from bottom right to top left, with the privateers intercepting from the bottom left. This trapped the Dutch against the land.

An early shift of wind disadvantaged the privateers, though, and they had to use all of their tricks to close on an intercept course with teh swift Dutch merchant vessels.

(The Dutch have Galleon Rig and Razee which makes them very fast in most wind attitudes). 

Clontarf tried a long range shot, hoping to knock away some Dutch spars.

The lead Dutch ship, Curacao, returned fire and Clontarf was not only damaged but saw her captain felled. An inauspicious start for the predators.

Gouda also fired on Clontarf and damaged it some more. The Dutch were looking good not only to make their escape but to drive off the privateers as well.

St Peter closed up. Slower than the other ships on the table it did have well-manned guns and (relatively speaking) plenty of them.

Liffey fired a broadside into the stern of St Barnabas. To their consternation the Irish privateers saw their target catch fire!

Despite the loss of their captain reducing their chance of activating, Clontarf managed to run aboard Curacao, grapple and board.

St Barnabas blew up, and some of the wreckage set Liffey on fire.

Gouda attempted to slip past the privateers, shaving close to some rocks as it did so. But St Peter closed with it and boarded.

There were now two boarding actions on the go. The badly damaged Clontarf was, surprisingly, holding its own against Curacao, whilst St Peter was slowly whittling down the resistance of Gouda.

Gouda struck.

St Peter was able to cut grapples and quickly turn to the aid of Clontarf.

Outnumbered the crew of Curacao surrendered. To the right of the picture you can see Liffey, returning to the fray after extinguishing the fire on board.

The privateers had done fairly well, capturing two Dutch vessels whilst only suffering one damaged vessel themselves. And the game only took about 20 minutes to play, so I set it up again.

This time the Dutch had to pass through the narrow straits between two islands. The privateers were heading straight for them. As you can see, the faster sailing Irish privateers were well ahead of the slower St Peter.

Clontarf and Liffey approach the Dutch. There was no preliminary firing this time.

Clontarf took the initiative, grappling Curacao. It got the best of the initial attack, but a Dutch counterattack saw the action start to swing the Dutch crew's way.

Liffey tried to come to the aid of Clontarf, but didn't quite make it. It did manage to rake Gouda, killing the vessel's captain.

The crew of Clontarf rallied and with renewed vigour took the fight to the Dutch, pushing Curacao to the edge of surrender.

Gouda turned and raked St Peter, badly damaging it.

Liffey misjudged its attack on Curacao and collided with the Dutch ship. But the damage it did was enough to cause the Dutch crew to give up. Liffey was fortunate to escape with no damage.

St Peter also collided with Gouda. Both ships were damaged, but St Peter was now in a bad way.

A raking broadside from St Barnabas finished off St Peter, shattering it so badly that it sank

St Barnabas and Gouda were heading away from the fight. They would have a tricky turn through the wind to make it to their exit point, but they were in a position to escape.

But the Irish privateers were fast and nimble. Clontarf extricated itself from the captured Curacao and piling on sail, headed after the Dutch ships

Gouda damaged Clontarf with a ragged broadside, but Clontarf grappled, boarded and quickly captured the Dutch vessel.

Liffey had to make more of a turn to get back into the fight, and shaved some of the rocks very closely indeed.

St Barnabas engaged Clontarf, with both sides inflicting slight damage on each other.

But it was Liffey which swept in and grappled St Barnabas, its crew swarming on board the Dutch vessel like a tidal wave, sweeping all before them.

Clontarf also engaged, and St Barnabas struck.

So in this second game the privateers took all three Dutch ships, although they did lose St Peter. And Clontarf was the one to administer the finishing blow on all three ships.

I really enjoyed these two actions. It was fun using very fast manueverable ships with low combat factors. It does make the die rolls a lot more important, since a wide disparity is much more likely to see doubling or tripling of a target's score, but the unpredictability added to the game. The Dutch ships are tricky targets too; the merchantman trait makes them weak in boarding, but they are fast ships and can pull off a few surprises.