Gaslands Flag Tag

We played Gaslands at the club last night. We nearly always get a good turnout for a game; it's very popular. Fortunately we're now getting quite good at playing it, so manage to finish the games within an evening.

Last night we had five players:

June ran her three vehicle Maxxine team
Graeme ran a Miyazaki performance car and bike
Craig once again took the Scarlett mini-bus All You Need Is Love into the arena
Caesar ran his Mishkin monster truck It's A Long Way To The Top
I ran the gigantic Warden excavator Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven

The scenario was Flag Tag; each team had a flag on one of their vehicles. If  the vehicle was wrecked then the flag would then dup on the table. A team would win if they had a single vehicle carrying two flags. So basically you were looking to retain your own flag whilst freeing up and then collecting an opposing flag.

Here's the arena, with everyone ready to go.

I got my digger moving and shot up June's bike.

June's car faced off with Caesar's monster-truck

A deft bit of driving saw her bring the side-mounted rams on the car into play, inflicting some real damage on her massive opponent.

Meanwhile the digger went to work, ramming June's buggy and shooting at her bike. Doing damage is how my vehicle manages its hazards, so I was keen to beat stuff up. The digger also has a Wall Of Amplifiers, so opposing vehicles were blasted with a high volume medley of tracks by Godspeed You! Black Emperor.

Anyway, the attack ended with both bike and buggy wrecked. The flag was on June's car, though.

Or it was on her car until Craig brought the pirate mini-bus into play and smashed her vehicle up with devastating carronade fire.

One flag was now free to collect, but in an awkward place behind the building. Craig chased after Casar's monster-truck. Caesar evaded the fire using Mishkin technological trickery ...

... but went out of control and crashed anyway. So that was another flag up for grabs.

I went head to head with Craig. I somehow came off worse in the damage stakes ...

... although I did flip the minibus behind me.

An overview of the action so far. We had started a new turn, so both June and Caesar had respawned and collected their flags. Graeme was driving around in a  thoroughly Miyazaki way ready to swoop in on any loose flags that might appear.

June and Caesar went head to head again. It didn't end well; June's car was wrecked once more. 

Meanwhile Craig's piratical lunatics did a tight turn and rammed my digger causing it to wreck through a minefield and then explode catastrophically.

My flag was now up for grabs. Graeme's bike swooped in; if he could collect it then he could rendezvous with his car and win.

Caesar was trying to plot a course to grab June's flag, which would give him the win.

Craig went for my flag by trying to drive through a wall. We worked out afterwards that if he'd wrecked he would have collected it; the wreck would have moved him through the wall and over the flag for a win just before he was destroyed.

Graeme's bike crossed over the flag, but was wrecked in doing so (shooting from the pirates, naturally). However this allowed Graeme to reposition the flag, away from a point where it could be easily collected by Craig.

Caesar failed to collect the loose flag he was after and ended up stuck in a corner for the rest of the game.

At some point Craig's mini-bus wrecked as well, leaving two flags in the soft-sand against the wall. Graeme's car was ready to zoom in and take them. June and I both tried to stop him with audience votes ...

... but couldn't do it. Graeme grabbed a flag, adding to the one his car was carrying and giving him the win. 

So a well-deserved win for the agile Miyazaki team. Graeme had hung about on the fringes whilst the heavier vehicles had shot and rammed each other into twisted lumps of metal. Probably a sensible move when you only have light vehicles.

Anyway, a great game with some fun vehicles in play.