Pulp Alley-The Tomb of Dagon

A couple of week ago myself and Luis got together to playa game of Pulp Alley. It had been awhile since I had played and I wanted to get in a game. Luis plays a lot and is a great teacher.

I was interested in playing something set in Innsmouth, I am surprised there are so few Lovecraft inspired scenarios for Pulp Alley. I have played Innsmouth Gold several times and there are some Cthulhu characters in the China Station campaign. After consultation on line, I got a couple of suggestions from this campaign booklet and decided to go with Tomb of Dagon, I had already played The Fog.

What I missed initially was that The Tomb was a Solo scenario! I had initially set up the below table trying to mirror the scenario but setting it on a street in Innsmouth.

Entry area in the left upper map with only Plot Point in right upper

I quickly realised though that this had only one Entry Point which was not going to work in a 2 player game. The table was changed around as illustrated below. 

We now have 2 Entry Points in the northeast and northwest areas on the table with the Plot Point (cemetary) in the centre. Essentially each league has to work there way through 3 areas with challenges, until they enter the centre at the bottom of the table and then fight their way back up the central street. 

Well it seemed to work, although 9 turns was not really enough. I would play the scenario again with some minor changes in respect to the challenger areas. The Deep Ones made several appearances and were quite a challenge especially the Elder! A couple of more photos.

Elder Deep One in action against Luis's league

My league also took quite a beating.

Thank you Luis for being a willing participant in this modified scenario.

Deep Ones

 

Next up are some figures from Bob Murch, they were a lot of fun to paint. They are from his Cthulhu kickstarter. Terrific Figures!

Primed white, painted with Xpress paint Orc Skin, wash with GW Antonian Camoshade. Dry brushed with VMC Bright Yellow. Eyes teeth and details picked out with various Acrylic paints. Pretty simple but I am quite happy with the result.

Pulp Alley-The Lost Keys

Last Tuesday week, myself and PY got together for a gaming session in Lachine. I believe we both have missed playing Pulp Alley and it is quick to set up so we went with that. I have been getting trounced recently so I decided to go with a new league. I like my Nephilim figures so I put together a new league. I have a slightly better understanding of league construction now, and as a result you can see this is quite a different take, with more reliance on Perks than characters.

I had not realised it but this was somewhat similar to the Cultist league that PY uses but I really had not realised this when I was putting the league together. 

We diced for scenarios and ended up with scenario 2 from the main rulebook. I do not remember either of us getting a lot from the pre-game action so on to the game. PY set up a suburban terrain which looked quite nice.

On to the game, well I got wiped out pretty quickly. My dice were not too bad but I did not have much luck with the cards. PY had one attribute which allowed him to get a card every time he became the director and played them skilfully. I also did not manage my league that well, especially the abilities, missing many opportunities, so a victory to the Followers of the Eye. I will leave you with some photos.

Back to Pulp Alley

I noticed a few weeks ago that I had not played Pulp Alley for a some time. I really like this ruleset and was getting concerned that I would forget the rules. Myself and my friend PY usually get together Monday nights for a game once or twice a month, and I suggested that we have a game of Pulp Alley.

PA takes some preparation especially in League composition, but I did not have a lot of time so I went my Order of the Jade Dragon league.

I suspect PY was a little pressed as well so he went with his Followers of the Eye league.

PY did set up a really cool table which he 3D printed himself, it must of took ages, but it looked great and I have to say it was ideal for a Pulp Alley game.

PY's league has the ability to add a character at the beginning of the game, which he was successful with so he ended up with 4 characters. He also has the ability to convert one of my characters to a member of his league but was unable to do so in this game.....thankfully.

As usual, I took only 1 photo during the game and this one was about half way through. I believe we played the first scenario from the book, with a major plot point in the centre and 4 minor plot points peripherally.

Well, I really enjoyed playing PA again. I forgot how much fun it was. We had a lot of play of the Fortune Cards back and forth which added quite a lot of drama. I got crushed for 2 reasons, my dice were awful with which you can not do much but I am starting to realise that this league is quite poorly constructed, especially needing some changes in the traits of the Inscrutable Tong. Will have to get some work in on that, my Baker Street league is a little better but I think I will start working on a Venetian league with some of my figures from Carnevale.

 

Some Pulp Figures

I have really enjoyed playing Pulp Era games, but have yet to paint any figures for the period as I already had quite a few figures that would work, especially for Pulp Alley leagues. I do however need some civilians and maybe some NPC's. I had ordered some stuff for Graham recently and rather than asking him for payment, I asked him for some figures from his lead mountain.

After having a little look, I decided on for 8 nautical figures. They will work for China Station which myself and P-Y are playing now.

They were sprayed with the Grey Seer primer with the hope that the AP speed paints would work ok on this primer. I have had some problems with re-activation especially when I try to layer with acrylics.

Three on the left from Bob Murch and others from Brigade Games.

I am generally happy how they came out but the AP Speed paints again gave me a bit of a challenge. Anyway they have been treated with polyurethane now so they should be good. I have to say that they were lovely figures to paint and I am happy to add them to my collection.

Pulp Alley China Station-Big Trouble

Last week myself and PY had our 4th game from the China Station campaign. This time we shifted to my place. I have been working on quite a bit of mdf terrain from TTCombat. Some of it I have had for quite a long time as it was acquired during the first kickstarter for the game Carneval. I recently added to the terrain by buying several pieces from their WWII collection. 

The Setting

So it was a bit of a challenge to blend pieces for a Venetian landscape with city pieces for WWII. I felt thought that I could make this combination work for China Station as described in the following.

China Station is a ‘Pulp Era’ international trade settlement somewhere along a sparsely settled coastline of South East Asia. Some have likened it to a more remote, smaller and more dangerously seedy version of Singapore, infested with rival gangs, pirates and foreign spies. The ‘Station’, as its foreign compound residents call it, is located at the mouth of the Boo Kong river delta, a tropical hothouse of sweltering mangrove swamps, crocodile sandbars and triple canopy jungle. The Station itself is partly built upon stilts and it juts out into the main branch of the river not more then one half mile from the open ocean. Its been said that there is nothing that can’t be bought in this seedy little port-for the right price.

At various times throughout recent history the area has been controlled by the British, French, Germans and the Imperial Chinese but, in the wake of the Great War, the area has been left in a sort of treaty limbo and as such, most of the great powers have commercial compounds in the settlement but no firm hold. An international coaling station makes China Station a frequent stop for naval and commercial shipping. Though French colonial authorities are present, both the American and German navies patrol the Boo Kong River, the only semblance of law in the region.

I had a lot of platforms, as Venice is of course canal bound. As different European countries had been involved in its occupation so a varied housing style is reasonable. I actually spend quite a few months putting together the pieces and painting them. I also did a water-based 3x3' mat to set everything on. I am quite happy how things came out, and I also can move things about to represent different areas of China Station as 4 of the scenarios in the campaign are based there. 

I still need to add some scatter terrain as well as some vehicles. I have found quite a number of French vehicles in the 3D Print world but unfortunately my resin printer just bit the dust. I also believe I have to work a bit more on making it look a bit more tropical. I started with some vines on the buildings etc but I need a bit more vegetation. I also need to make it a bit more sweltering....not sure how to do that but I am thinking about it. I used quite a bit of weathering dust, maybe a bit more may help.

The Game

We went with the same leagues as previous as required in a campaign. PY has stuck with his original version of his Followers of the Eye, probably because they work. I have been playing around with my Baker Street league but I changed little from the last game except for bringing back Watson in place of Mycroft as my sidekick and bringing in Inspector Hopkins as a new follower. Still not working really that well, my Order of the Jade Dragon is a much better league.

As usual, I took few pictures but I have a general memory of how the game went. In this scenario, there were only minor plot points which were represented by 5 characters who start on the table. We also have NPC's deploying at the start of the game and at the end of each turn. These NPC's can actually also capture the minor plot points which made it an interesting scenario.

I started in the bottom right while PY started his cultists in the top  right. I should also note that PY has an ability which lets him capture one of my characters quite easily and add him to his league. This has been a bit of a hassle in this and the last game.

Our characters started quite grouped together, as you can see. We were both able to capture a minor plot  point in the first turn. As it was 2 other plot points favoured PY's edge while only one favoured my edge and this was inside the centre building's courtyard.

I did not use Holmes that well, he captured the first plot point easily, I should have handed off the plot point to one of my other characters and advanced him to the centre, my mistake which cost me.

The Cultists have now captured 3 of the plot points, but one of the NPC's took one back and started to move to my edge. 

Watson got in the Courtyard quite easily but really had abysmal dice and ended up finding one of the NPC's to capture one of the minot plot points. He never did. 

So the game ended with the Cultists getting 3 of the plot points with the Baker Street lads getting just one. It was not even close. PY got the secret map so got an extra reward card.

So we have now split the first 4 games, but PY is ahead on the Rewards and I believe has a better league, not sure what I am going to do about it. As per the rules the Leader stays the same and we have been playing it once one of the other characters is put into play, they are not allowed to change out their abilities. 

I believe we have misunderstood how the campaign progresses in respect to rewards so I have had to work backwards to see where we are. I am hoping it is correct.

Campaign Tracker (cumulative)

Scenario 4

Baker Street

Reputation 8

League rewards 6

Experience 1

Investigation Points 0

Followers of the Eye

Reputation 11

League Rewards: 8

Experience 2

Investigation Points 0

Scenario 3

Baker Street

Reputation 7

League rewards 5

Experience 1

Investigation Points 0

Followers of the Eye

Reputation 8

League Rewards: 5

Experience 1

Investigation Points 0

Scenario 2

Baker Street

Reputation 4

League rewards: 4

Experience 0

Followers of the Eye

Reputation 5

League Rewards: 2

Experience 1

Scenario 1

Baker Street

Reputation 3

League rewards: 3

Experience 0

Followers of the Eye

Reputation 0

League rewards 0

Experience 0

 

Pulp Alley-The Serpent's Eye

Last Sunday myself Luis and David met up at the Abyss for a game of Pulp Alley. This was going to be the first 3 player game of Pulp Alley that I was going to play and I was curious how it would work. Luis set up a terrific terrain as usual and brought all the ancillary figures. I believe the scenario comes from Pulp Alley Expansion Tomb of the Serpent. It was really quite a good scenario and different than I had previously played.

This was not a cooperative game, so it was each man for himself. I brought my Order of the Dragon Tong league, while David played the Serpent Cult league. I am not sure what Luis league is called but I believe it is one of the main leagues from the rulebook. I am sure some of you will recognise the figures from below.

All 3 leagues are in pursuit of the Serpent Relic and the one who finds it achieves victory. It was an 8 turn game which is quite long for Pulp Alley but we had no problems finishing the game. The game is set in Casablanca, and the minor plot points were recognisable to me from the film of the same name. The premise of the scenario is that a thief has just stolen the Relic which is the major plot point and to find the thief you have to gain the the minor plot points to do so.Wandering about are both thieves and police so the game was a lot of fun. 

Unfortunately I took few photos and those I took we really not that useful in retrospect. But here we go anyway.

The basis

The terrain layout, I started in the SE, while while David started in the NE with Luis starting in the NW.

The thieves in yellow with the police in blue

The Serpent Cult

Luis's League

The Fat Man minor plot point

I am really sorry that these photos that I thought were cleverly took are absolutely useless to tell a story.

Turn 2

Turn 3

Turn 4

Turn 7

Turn 8, the final battle was on the roof of the building markedly the dice.

Well if you can figure it out good on you. Generally both myself and David went for Luis league, mostly I think because of initial positioning. I lost a sidekick (I have 2) and one of my followers almost immediately. David had more success with the Serpent Cult (all sidekicks) but by the end of the game had lost at least 2 of them. Luis did lose some characters but was able to hold on and capture the the Relic and held on to it until the end of the game.

This was really a fun game and I definitely would play it again, thanks to Luis for putting it on.