Yesterday there was some apocalyptic mayhem at clubnight. Rob hosted a game based on the Dead Man’s Hand rules, adapted to a sort of Fallout setting. He added some rules for vehicles and an alternative card system for turns. This made for a fast paced game in Mad Max style.
5 players made gangs of 5 models, one of which wielding a heavy weapon. All models had to be mounted on bikes, buggies and trucks. Each gang could have one heavy vehicle such as a truck, the rest would be riding light vehicles. The heavy vehicle was also equiped with a heavy gun.
All gangs started on one side of the table. At the other side was Fat Mat’s Diner. For us it was a coveted piece of architecture which could serve as a new headquarter. For the mutants now occupying it, it was a nesting ground. We had to kill all the mutants and destroy the nest. And then find out which gang would take control of the Diner.
Considering the players around me and my own style of play this should result in chaos spiced up with random carnage. Perfect for a friday night casual game.
I brought some Escher and Tallarn models for my gang. I used a Hellhound tank for heavy vehicle and a Sentinel and Taurus for light vehicles.
There were orc trucks, bikers and buggies and even a big piece of industrial equipment driven by a lizard creature and sporting a mutated bear with a cannon strapped to it’s head.
At the other side of the table the Diner and the mutants awaited.
There were also some crates all over the place. These could be opened to gather some more item cards or event cards. Just as in regular Dead Man’s Hand we could use event cards to alter the course of the game. In this case we were given two random cards at the beginning of play, but once used you got no replacement cards. Instead you had to gather new ones from the crates. Rob created a whole new set of cards in a more apocalyptic style. While we moved forward and immediately tried to shoot each other to pieces the mutants slowly advanced and took position next to some of these objectives.
Shooting left and right the various vehicles charged onwards. Some of them a bit slower because of suffered damage. Rob’s big battle wagon led the way in a frenzy of speed, guns blazing all the while. Many a bullet was fired uttering the words; ‘you shot at me right? Let’s see how you like it when I shoot back!’ and some people even started name calling (the models).
When the diner was reached some gangs took the time off from killing each other to destroy some of the mutants. In the meantime my walker and buggy had started to circle wide in order to go around the diner and attack from behind. Other gangs did not see the brilliance of my strategy and took some shots at them. The walker was blown apart while trying to pick up one of the crates which were conveniently in their path and unguarded by mutants to boot.
More and more vehicles entered the parking lot, killing mutants as they raced past them. Once the mutants were all destroyed and the crowd gathered closer together, a brutal gang fight ensued. Bullets flew everywhere while gangers dismounted from the vehicles and headed to the doors or windows of the diner.
My heavy vehicle had been severely damaged while still racing towards the diner. This meant it could move less then most of the others and it fell behind. And while the buggy was still circling wide and picked up more and more crates I decided to keep the heavy tank back from the frenzied fighting near the building. My heavy gunner dismounted and the driver took over the heavy gun on the tank. Now I could take shots at the rest of the gangs with two heavy weapons and hope that most of them would be killed by this and the fights held between them. Unfortunately one of the gangers from the industrial war rig had fallen off during their wild ride forwards and now approached my vehicle. A firefight between him and me broke out and this took too long for me to concentrate enough firepower on the madmen near the diner.
In the end it turned out we had not enough time to complete the game. As more and more casualties fell it was clear that two gangs had gained entrance to the diner. But since the nest had not been destroyed yet they could not even try to claim the building as their own yet.
We called it a tie and a very successful game because we had so much fun.
