A more traditional AAR this one as it does not contribute to
Inspector Johnson’s story arc however it does feature his brother,
Lt Col.
Johnson and was a trial outing of my Dino Wrangling rules for IHMN. Luckily I
had a willing opponent in Geraint who is pretty good at pulling rules together
himself and was happy to cast a careful eye at my scribblings!
Oh and here's a link to download the rules from
Google Drive
The premise of last nights game was one of capturing some
mythical beasts in the “Lost World” and returning them to London for the masses to marvel at. Being a
little short of cash and in between missions the Lt Colonel was happy to accept
the contract and ventured into the jungle with his trusty troops and a few
native guides to try and attempt to wrangle a few of these creatures. Needless
to say it was not without hiccup as the so called “Lord of the Jungle” Tarzan
had other ideas - namely to guide the beasts to safety and away from the
questionable intentions of Her Majesty’s Empire.
As per my draft rules we deployed on opposing board edges
and then radomised the Dino’s entry points (we only used three Dino’s for the
game). Unfortunately they all appeared on the same short board edge! Tarzan had
kept his small force together in the center of his deployment (Tarzan, Great
Ape, Shaman and four Natives) whereas I had split mine into three groups
covering the full width of the board (Lt
Col & two Natives, three
Natives in the center & a Sergeant and two Riflemen on the flank).
The game began and immediately I had a problem as the
Hunterosaur moved through cover towards my Riflemen (the Hunterosaur ignores
cover penalties and moves 9”). In the draft rules Dino’s move randomly unless
there is a wrangler within 6” at which point they move towards them. With the
Hunterosaur being so fast through terrain I would be foolish to enter the woods
to try wrangle it. Seeing that the Dino’s were all on the far side of the board
the Lt Colonel and his natives hightailed it across the board as fast as
possible. However Tarzan had other ideas, sending his natives to wrangle the
Angryosaur whose random movement sent it through the woods towards him, whilst
he and the Great Ape ran straight forwards to intercept the Lt Col and natives.
As things developed we both learned that Dino’s are hard (that’s
hard with a capital “oh my god its just eaten someone”!) with the Angryosaur
using its very angry “Rarrrrr” to reduce the shoot value of Tarzans natives
thereby reducing their ability to wrangle it. However they did better than my
rifles managing to get two lasso’s on the beast (leg and mouth). This meant
that it was less effective at fighting (FV was halved) and could only move 6”
towards the wrangle that had hooked its leg making it much more predictable.
Geraint being the jammy player that he is managed pass his natives Pluck roll
to disengage each time the Dino moved into contact (he’s hooked the leg
remember!). Because I had written in that you roll for priority for the Dino’s
just like any other player controlled model the Angryosaur was frequently
moving and fighting before Geraint’s natives so those Pluck rolls to disengage
were invaluable.
Meanwhile I pushed one of my Riflemen into the woods to try
and tempt the Hunterosaur out thinking that I could disengage when it moved
into contact with my Rifleman. But oh it was not to be as I fluffed the roll
and then the thing gobbled him up in true Ray Harryhausen fashion.
So currently Tarzan and co have two lasso markers on the
Angryosaur and I’m minus one Rifleman. If Tarzans other two natives can hook
the beast he’ll have four markers and be able to drag it safely off the board.
He’d only need one more Dino to win or alternatively just kill off my troops so
I can’t get the requisite four lasso markers to capture one.
Then disaster struck! I used one of my natives as a tasty
treat for the Hunterosaur (“ere, Zuma, go stand over there, we’ve got your back
mate!) which obviously couldn’t resist and pounced out of the woods on the
innocent young tribesman. It was at this point that we agreed that Dino’s should
have the Terrifying rule (doh!) and therefore I duly took my Pluck test, which
I failed and backed off, leaving the Hunterosaur standing in front of three
eagerly waiting lasso’s. Roll the first dice, ooh a hit, roll on the Dino
table, a ten………
The damn thing fell over, narrowly missed young Zuma and
broke its neck!
Hurrah you might say however the aim of the game is Dino
Wrangling not Dino killing. The Lt Colonel’s paymasters would not be happy with
a dead Dino!
And while all this is going on Tarzan is trying to despatch
my other natives, the Lt Colonel is having a bit of a disagreement with a Great
Ape and Geraint’s natives are singularly failing to capture the Angryosaur to
the point where, being jealous of the Hunterosaurs Ray Harryhausen audition it
promptly scoffed one of the wranglers and his lasso (Dino Spaghetti!).
Its not looking good for either party at the moment. I
decide to go interfere with Geraint’s natives while Tarzan is tied up with my
natives. It was at this point that Geraint reminded me that there was a third
Dino on the board, the Veggiesaur which had been happily wandering around
eating trees and ignoring the mayhem. So I changed my original plan and headed
in its general direction, luckily it obliged by ambling towards my rather
flustered wranglers.
Geraint could see that his attempts with the Angryosaur were
not really going to succeed and he managed to disengage his worried natives to
then copy my plan and interfere with my attempts to capture the Veggieosaur.
Then just to add insult to injury the Lt Colonel despatched the Great Ape with
a rather callous pistol shot (quick call the RSPCA!) and headed over to
intercept this new threat. Meanwhile Tarzan discovered that earlier in the day
Jane had been cleaning the treehouse and mistakenly swapped his fighting knives
for rubber spoons (he couldn’t hit for toffee!!).
Success was mine for the taking as I managed to hit with all
four lasso’s on the Veggieosaur. The following turn it was just a case leading
said captured beastie to my board edge.
Hurrah!
Errr…. until one of
Geraints sneaky natives did what Tarzan had been unable to do all day and
despatch one of my brave stalwarts of Her Majesty’s Empire, none other than Lt
Colonel Johnson himself!
Rest assured dear readers her recuperates as we speak as it
was only a flesh wound..*cough, cough*
All in all not a bad outing for my little Dino Wrangling
rules, a few tweaks and some very obvious missing bits (terrifying!). I’ll try
and get them drafted up and posted up here in the next few days once I’ve
incorporated any other comments. The Draft is over on the
Lead Adventurer Forum
if you’d like a lookee!
