Conwy Wargames Club November 7TV game

Episode 3 'He's making a list, he's checking it twice'

Gaz played the Moon Nazi's and here is his brief. Dickie and Chris elected to play the forces of good and here's their brief for the Santa cast. No one at the club had played the 7TV rules and this was my second go at using the second edition. My nerves were made worse by chosing a Christmas theme of my own imagining, inspired by TV and film (Iron Sky, Arthur Christmas, Stargate, Harry Potter) but not an obvious series like Dr Who or the Sweeney.

Scenario Summary - details to be found in the briefs.

The Moon Nazi's have tunnelled in to on a dome hidden from all sensors including the human eye. Code named Snow Globes only their capture of Santa's sleigh has enabled them to find their locations, but they don't know what they are or what is protected. It's up to the villainous Otto von Krank and his team to find out.

Santa on the other hand is furious someone stole a sleigh, and now tunnelled in to one of his transport hubs. He wants to know who needs to go on his Naughty List and stop further secrets escaping.

The Game

All quiet ... well apart from the racket from the Aufklaurungsmol and the alarm set off by the Elfin safety officer

The Diggywiggle comes to a stop and cools. The Santagate portal is closed in the back ground

The Portal control room

The view from the opposite side from the Diggywinkle

There was a loud unscrewing noise and the Moon Nazi's poured forth

Otto von Krank split his forces left and right of the tunnel

The first Count Down card stifles any actions by the Control Room elf Dobby in Santa's turn. The black tokens are extra objectives placed by the players in turn. Possession of said tokens earns them a plot point which can be used to make actions or effect dice rolls.

The Moon Nazis in the majority rush the Control Room, while Mr Gingerbread and the MG team take the flank. As they finish the portal makes a whoosh noise and a red sleigh swoops in and lands

The North Pole Rescue Rangers leap out followed by Santa, Rudolph and Miss Naughty and Nice

Overview of the action

Santa's force ready and willing

Santa's side with cards at the ready to make the most of their casts abilities

In the distance Otto von Kranks' reconnaissance team

The Moon Nazi Marine-SS schutze are a little exposed. They blazed away at the new arrivals and missed - just like real Storm Troopers - cue Imperial March music

The North Pole Rescue Rangers sprint for the Control and erm... take control. Their support weapon opens up on the  schutze in the open and vaporises them with a hissssssss. Everyone stands back impressed with it's destructiveness

Santa and his co stars take cover behind the cabin

The remains... 

... of the Moon Nazis

The North Pole Rescue Rangers support weapon on the left. Team Santa is feeling quite smug at this point and opt to steal the scene and move again

The Moon Nazi right where Mr Gingerbread and the MG flank Santa

In the Moon Nazi turn they all dash for cover except Mr Gingerbread and the MG who open fire on Santa. After a shooting role it turns out Santa is not as much in cover as he thought and takes wounds, as does Rudolph caught in the MG fire.

The Moon Nazi then also steal the scene and go again. Both sides can only do this once per game. The Aufklaurungsmol engineer dashes forward and plants explosives and them uses a jet pack to get in to cover ready to detonate. Cool!

The North Pole Rescue Rangers daren't move or they'd set the device off!

Aufklaurungsmol engineer readys the detonator

The bomb goes off and retires some Rangers and the rest of the Moon Nazi's pour fire into either Santa or the Control Centre. Santa's wonder weapon team go down in a hail of fire, ironically because they were caught in the open

In the distance the Moon Nazi corporal has been pushed back by a Count Down card

Not so good for him

The Moon Nazi's close in, but another gadget played by Santa sees the Aufklaurungsmol demolition expert captured in a capture bubble. Revenge for his earlier stunt with the explosives and jet back. Need to get a capture bubble model, I'm thinking either a ping pong ball or maybe a Christmas tree bauble.

Santa's wounds mount up - 1 more and he's a goner. Rudolph on the other hand uses his special skill to recover wounds, but this reduces his chance to do anything

The Moon Nazi's sense victory

The Control Centre is slowly surrounded

Dr Angel and a Schutze try to get in through the window. A brave Ranger tries to take advantage of a gadget card played on the assaulting Moon Nazi's weakening them. His shots cause 1 wound on Dr Engel. She was not impressed

Santa's cast is axed but by force of will passes his test and keeps control of the Control Room/Centre/Cabin. The Rangers are now down to just 2, 1 inside 1 outside. Dobby is taken out by a splinter as the MG rakes the cabin. Rudolph picks up the control key - the episodes maguffin. Miss Naughty and Nice steps in to the clear to distract the next wave of Moon Nazis moving in.

The Moon Nazi's keep trying to get through the window. May they should try the door.

Initially Santa struggled to use his plot points but once his cast was axed the surplus kept him going, activating cast members and changing the dice in his favour. The Moon Nazi's repeatedly used up their points each turn and the lack of spares began to tell.

Otto von Krank urges his team for final supreme effort for the Moon Fuhrer. He plays a gadget that slowly engulfs the cabin in flames

Moon Nazis galore are stunned. This is the last round, which was also the last card of Act 2. If we'd continued the Moon Nazi's would need to test for being axed.

The End in flames. Cue Eastenders dum dum end music mixed with Christmas bells. Will Santa survive, if our hero's don't put out the flames they take loads of hits but if they are putting out the flames whose stopping the baddies?!

We all expected a Moon Nazi win. I totted up the points and Santa won by a huge margin. Christmas is saved. Hurrah. Here's one of the Santa team celebrating!

The feedback from everyone is that they loved the game, phew. The rules worked well and flowed nicely. Everyone liked the cards, and loved the gadgets ans countdown cards for the cinematic moments they introduced to play.

As for me I enjoyed it and the use of card stats for dubious shots/ leaps through windows avoided debate and kept play flowing. It was a blast.

Next game in Jan I think I'll go for a cops and robbers inspired shenanigans.