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