Pulp Alley- Commando Raid - Fall In, November 4, 2017

Pulp Alley - Commando Raid game at Fall In Convention 2017

I ran a game of Pulp Alley this past Saturday, 11/4/17, at Fall In, held in Lancaster, PA. 

The scenario was based on The Raid scenario from Vice Alley. 

We had four players, Jamie and Matt were Germans.  John and Mike were the British. 

In the above photo you can see the beach area and the cliff that the attackers will have to scale if they enter from the sea.  This was a perilous climb, except for the area where the path is, by the bunker.  The bunker had a German MG deployed in it.

The area to the far right, where the dice are, and in the back, the tape measure, is not playable.  Basically, depending on where the British decide to attack from, would determine the play area. 
If they launch a sea attack in the landing craft, then the shore and some of the buildings top part would be the main battle area.  If they landed by parachute then the other side of the board would be the play area. 

The major plot point for the British was to capture the German radar scientist.  He would randomly move around the board each turn.  

The other plot points were the two houses, the radar station itself, and the bunker. 

 The Germans had five guards deployed on the board at the start.  One can be seen in the vineyard to the right of the above photo.  The guards would function as a gang, even though they weren't close enough.  They would walk a straight line of six inches until the British were spotted.  This gave them a lot of strength for firing at first.  I had figured stealth would play a big part early on while the guards were at full strength. 

I explained the basic rules.  Matt had played before but the others had not.  The British were given the two choices for the initial attack and they chose the parachute drop.  The landing craft were available to escape with and there was a gang of the Royal Navy and a commando,"Mad" Jack Churchill.  Churchill carried a longbow, sword, and bagpipes into battle (during WW2). They could either radio the landing craft, send up a flare, or have a predetermined turn for the landing craft to, well, land.

The British decided to opt for the parachute drop.  Originally I was going to game the drop and have various rules for bad landings, off target landings, and lost equipment.  After realizing that I was overly complicating things I decided not to do that and just deploy the troops. 

Both sides were evenly matched with their leagues.  Each side had one gang available and on gun team.  

The British won the initiative, John, and they started moving.  Since each side had two cooperative players, the playing of Fortune Cards would be by side.  For example - If John (British) had the initiative and asked Matt (German) to move a figure, both British players would have the chance first, then Jamie.  Trying to avoid having people arguing over who played first. 

The scenario was a night scenario and no shooting over twelve inches would be allowed.  The twist in that, was that daylight would be happening as the game went on. I shuffled four of the blank cards into the deck.  The first three were randomly shuffled into the top "half" of the deck, and the fourth into the bottom "half".  I got the inspiration for that timing device from the old Avalon Hill game Assassin. When the first card was drawn, the range would be increased to eighteen inches, the second twenty-four, the third thirty, and then the fourth thirty-six.  FYI - The board playing area (elevated part) was about four feet by four feet. 

One of the cards was drawn on the initial draw and the starting range was eighteen inches.  

The British started out moving the first one or two characters three inches and remained hidden.

 
After a brief discussion though, the British decided to start moving fast.  They wanted to reach the objectives before time ran out.

The Germans reacted and moved into position to block the advance.  

One German section came out of the larger house and took up position behind some supplies.  

The British had troops scattered around, trying to overwhelm the Germans, but the Germans seemed to keep a better concentration of firepower together. 

The British players kept pushing forward, trying to use combat skills, to eliminate the Germans, instead of avoiding combat and trying for the plot points. 

The only British character that really seemed to handle himself well, is the one that will be my Keith Mallory in the Force 10 game that I am working on.  He was able to brawl successfully with several Germans, and the British leader commanding him, John, kept using him that way to try to eliminate the German defense. 

The field above became a real maelstrom of death.  The British gun team, several British soldiers, the German gun team, and several of their soldiers, all met their end there.  

At the end of the game, the Germans had eliminated most of the British forces.  The British landing craft remained at sea, and the rest of the commandos were captured.  Not one plot point had ever been attempted. 

I think that stealth could have played a bit of a larger part.  Once spotted I would have, and tried to encourage moving, more and fighting less.  Trying not to bog everyone down with combat.  

The British also had a character with the Doc ability.  They never used it.  

I think that not being familiar with the rules, can be a drawback.  While Pulp Alley is an easy game to learn, there are a lot of subtle differences from other rules out there.  

The players all said they had fun, I know I enjoyed having the opportunity to run the game with them.  

Thanks for a great time, gentlemen.  

Hope everyone keeps on playing Pulp Alley.