More Death-Racing

We played our first club game of Gaslands yesterday where each player brought their own vehicles. And, with one exception, they did their own designs as well. We also rolled for which scenario we would play (each scenario favours, or doesn't favour, particular team designs, so in their you need to optimise your builds). However the rolls are very much weighted towards the Death Race, and that's what we got.

We set up this circuit. (Sorry about the quality of photos; I'm still getting used to the camera on my new phone).

The starters. They were:

Jason, running two Miyazaki-sponsored cars.
Ed, running a single Miyazaki-sponsored monster-truck.
Dave, running two Slime-sponsored cars.
Caesar, running a car and two buggies, sponsored by Idris
Myself, running a bike and a performance car sponsored by Mishkin

Most of us made a clean getaway from the start-line. Caesar slipped up his activation sequence and ended up having his front-row Mini getting rear-ended by Dave's ram-equipped car. Dave sliced through the Mini, and then destroyed the wreck.

Ed's monster-truck and my performance car quickly got out in front.

Jason chased the monster-truck with an explosive ram, but ended up being destroyed by his own weaponry, whilst having little effect on his target.

I got through the first gate activating my weapons and leaving an inconvenient oil-slick for the other racers. Unfortunately I also wiped out, narrowly missing a shipping container.

With a lot of larger vehicles jostling off the start-line, I sent my vulnerable bike the long way around.

More vehicles approached the first gate, where their weapons would become hot.

As my car got back into the race (via reversing into a wall like a complete dill), Caesar brought his Freeway Fighter into action, and destroyed me with rockets.

My bike came into action at that point, damaging Caesar's car with a double-shot from its nifty laser-beam, before falling to a rocket attack from Caesar's surviving buggy.

Meanwhile the Freeway Fighter used more rockets on Ed's monster-truck, which ended up badly damaged.

Ed misjudged a slide, and the truck clipped an obstacle, taking just enough damage to destroy him, putting him out of the race for a turn.

Unfortunately the rest of us couldn't get ourselves organised to exploit Ed's brief departure. I got my car running again just long enough to fire one shot from its arc-lightning projector, before Caesar used more rockets to destroy it again. My shot did take out both Caesar and Dave's lead vehicles though.

Jason finally got a car across Gate 1, and launched a RC car-bomb at Dave's second vehicle, slightly damaging him.

In revenge Dave rammed Jason's car, setting off a trail of carnage that ended up with Dave navigating a field of wrecks.

Meanwhile Ed had got the monster-truck running again, and was so far ahead that we called the race in his favour.

This was a fun game, as no-one knew quite what everyone else would be using in advance. Ed made good use of the Miyazaki traits to dominate the racing, although was vulnerable to some extent to any vehicles that could get in a decent shot on him. Jason was unlucky with his early explosive-ram attack, that would have hampered Ed's chances before gate 1 had it done more damage. Caesar's rockets were deadly after the first gate. There's a lot of suggestion that, as a weapon-system, they're under-priced or over-powered, although their knock-on effects can cause unwanted chaos if not managed right. I was happy with my designs, which were packed with cheap, small weapon systems designed to trigger Mishkin's audience vote mechanism, whilst also making good use of the combat laser and the rather useful arc-lightning projector. My vehicles weren't built for a sustained rough and tumble though; I lost out when I failed to break away after the first gate with my performance car (due to wiping out), and also brought my bike into the race too early; I should have hung back a little more.

It would still have been nice to have a non-race scenario, though. Maybe next time  ...