Pulp Alley – The CSSS in Mad Pulp Max

We’re still playing our Perilous Island campaign for Pulp Alley. Next adventure in the campaign-book is the one set in Soerabaja harbour, but before that we wanted to test the vehicle rules found in the Pulp Gadgets, Guns & Vehicles supplement. We still wanted a scenario tied to our campaign, so I wrote Mad Pulp Max (I’ll do a more detailed write up of the scenario on the Pulp Alley Forum soon)

Our heroes of the CSSS have just gotten clues to the whereabouts of Professor Darrow so they are off to the Dutch East Indies. The best way is with aeroplane from Ankara and the best way from Istanbul to Ankara is by car or truck through the Turkish highlands.

Our heroes are travelling through the steep-sided valleys when they suddenly emerge on a wider plains and from that plains only one narrow valley remains before Ankara. Life is good. The sun is shining. No hurry. Relaxed small talk in the cars.

Until two dust clouds are spotted. A check through the binoculars and it is clear that two of the other leagues have had the same idea. And they have all spotted our heroes.

The quiet of the serene plains is scattered with the roar of engines.

The race to Ankara has begun and the gloves are off.
This time the Phrenologists had made a wrong turn and didn't show up, unfortunately.

The rules in short:

- The goal is to get as many league-members as possible through the valley.

- At the end of the game all members on the last 2'x2' board are deemed to be in Ankara and all leagues will be tasked with the same peril that they must pass. The league that passes with the most dice is deemed the winner.

- The terrain is rolling, that is, at the end of the turn when at least one car is fully on the farthest terrain-segment (the one farthest into the valley, closest to Ankara) the last segment (closest to Istanbul) is removed and placed in the front. Anything still on that board is emoved from play.

- Every league gets up to 6 points to buy cars/trucks from. No armour or armaments allowed.

The set-up. Some cars carelessly parked (oops, forgot to remove them before the photo)

Here we go. All three sides have one car and one truck. Belgians far left, Cult of Ra in the middle with a mummy ready for action and our heroes on the right. The car is driven by Suora Innocenza.

I swapped one ally. This one, Soldato Morto, got a machinegun and can  place a 3" burst. Nasty. Unfortunately the drivers of both the enemy cars passes their perils and can drive on.

The mummy activates and jumps to the Belgian car. It starts to grapple with one of the passengers...

...and looses the fight and falls off.

More cultists arrive in their truck. It is actually full of red-robed cultist, I think there are seven or so crammed in that truck. 

The Belgians arrive with their truck and starts to shoot. Two cultist fall and as they are followers they are removed from play immediately. The mummy, an ally, misses his recovery-roll at turn-end and is removed also. 

My truck, driven by Monsignore himself, had moved up behind my car the first turn. The new turn started with another machine-gun burst on the two enemy cars. Dakka-dakka-dakka.

Works better this time as the Cultists' car is damaged.

Next the cultists drove their truck into the Belgian car. Everyone manage to keep control over their cars, unfortunately.

Our heroes and the cultist step on it.

Another try at boarding the Belgian car...

... and another cultist bites the dust. Boarding wasn't such a good idea and the cultists started to shoot instead. Didn't do much difference, except no cultist fell off. 

The rest of the cars drives away and another turn has ended.

A rather uneventful turn. Driving, some shooting and not much of any effect.

Vroooom!

Stop! School ahead. Speed limit 30 kmph. Aaaargh.
Those dastardly Belgians runs over an innocent teacher. Ruthless they are and Jeppan laughted insanely. Now you start to understand the kind of people I have to game with...

The cultists drive their car side to side with the Belgians. They are rightfully horrified by the cold blooded murder. That teacher was, after all, a perfectly good sacrifice. What a waste!

Well, driving close to cold-blooded Belgians was a bad idea as a well aimed bulled penetrates the engine resulting in a spectacular crash. The leader of the Cult of Ra has the gods on his side and crawls out of the wreckage unharmed. His companion is knocked senseless and will take a long time to recover (got the Stay Down card played on him)

The cultists tries to get revenge by ramming the Belgian truck. A poor farmer looks on, "Foreigners" he mutters.

Our heroes drives on.

Another turn. The Belgians closes in on the last board. The Leader of the Cult of Ra runs after.

The cultists ram the Belgian truck. 

This time it works. The Belgin driver loses controll and the truck spins away, damaged. 

Soura makes a heroic attempt at driving down the Cult Leader but unfortunately she doesn't reach him this round.

A firefight sees two more cultists go down. How many are there?

End of turn. Just one turn left. Two trucks are hopelessly after.

The Beligans drives away as fast as possible to secure a place among the victors and of course a safe spot far from everyone else. Cowards! The Cult Leader also runs into the final board, hoping to survive Soura's driving. 

A final ramming attack!

And both trucks loose control and spins away. Far back and not scoring.

Suora tries to ram the Cult Leader but he deftly steps aside.
The truck driven by Monignore cannot reach the final board, they are shy a couple of millimeters! Instead Monsignore once again plays his secret weapon - Double Cross!

Double Cross only works on Allies or Followers, and there is only one to choose.
Last match this Belgian guy had turned traitor and joined the CSSS in the last round and giving us a plot point. He had begged his master for forgiveness and was given another chance, under the stern eyes of the Belgian Leader.
Now he couldn't resist the religious sirens' call. He knew he was a sinner and was promised salvation. How could he not help his God? How could he possibly turn his back to his faith? The true faith!
And a fat wad of money...

That ended the adventure. The Good Side, that is the CSSS, had Souroa, Soldato Morto and one Belgian on the last board whiles both the Belgians and the Cult of Ra only had their leaders there.

We rolled for victory and the CSSS got their well-deserved victory!

Our heroes celebrated their stunning triumph in Ankara. In their midst was a very frightened Belgian who didn’t understand a word of Italian.

Sic gloria transit mundi.

A big welcome to Frank O’Donnell with If it wasn’t for ones covering Pulp Alley and other fun stuff. Check it out.