Flying Lead. Godzillasaurus Unchained! A Venusian VSF Adventure - Part 1

He's BEHIND you!

I don't know why I bother, I offered Tony a choice of 3 evil villains to do the dastardly deeds chronicled below:

Fu Man Chou and the deadly Chou clan, as seen in the last Giant Rat of Sumatra game.

Greenbackusama, or if you prefer Baron Greenback and crew, normally seen as the command in my oriental OGAM goblins.

Dominar Rigel, with of course, his female bodyguards, as recently featured in Dominars.

 

This is a simple VSF game based on Venus (Mars having been done recently). The evil Dominar has captured a dread Godzillasaurus and is heading for the nearest port to transship it to Earth. He has the aid of his faithful, truck driving, bodyguards (not the ninja, though!) and a flock of savages from the dread highlanders (as their homeland rises a full 2 metres above the swamp, most of the time).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space:_1889

The Dominar controls the Godzillasaurus by the power of his superior technology. If he fails an activation or suffers any adverse combat result the beast will be free of his control if he then fails a Q test on one dice per failure. He can regain control by spending 2 actions per one Q test, a success regains control but a failure is the complete loss of control-.

Godzillasaurus may attempt to break free of his chains which has C3. Double succeeds, treble destroys the vehicle. He may leap free of the moving vehicle on a successful Q test, landing 1 Short away. A failure lands him on the deck 1 short away, requiring 2 actions to get up.

If Godzillasaurus is hit and get an adverse result while chained to the lorry, the driver makes a Q test, failure results in a crash. A double result gets an overturn and a Q test -2 all in the vehicle to survive.

Godzillasaurus gets a free hack per move and will always spend one action (or 2 if mounted) to eat fallen prey or carrion, after which he will spend 1 action giving a roar, which causes fear, requiring all within Small a Q test -3, at Medium -2 and -1 at long. To gain the leader advantage, the figure must be closer than the target.

A dinosaur strapped to the back of a steam powered lorry, hmmm, could reuse this plot – possibly with Fu Man Chou and the Ying Tong? Releasing the beast at the houses of Parliament after a chase through the East End?

In the meanstwhile, Inspector Wafflin-Smythe and his pal Pinky Bublington (regular readers will remember them from the last Giant Rat of Sumatra game) are rushing to head them off at the pass. This time they have swapped their traditional Gurkha stalwarts for a posse gleaned from the local constabulary, who are Venusians under the command of one Sergeant T Atkins.

This particular Venus is the one from Space 1899, steaming swamps haunted by giant dinosaurs that match the “earlier versions” most of us grew up with. Large herbivores like Brontosaurus live in the swamps, big predators like Godzillasaourus are relatively slow moving and roar a lot. Humans are very slow moving and vulnerable in the swamps, which teem with nasty bitey things.

The Good Chaps (RED)

Inspector Wafflin-Smythe 112

Pinky Bumblington 71

Sgt Atkins 60

Venusian Militia (h)Jones, (i)Pike, (j)Frasier, (k)Walker, (l)Godfrey, (m)Dru, (n)Gru, (o)Barney, (p)Mcgru, (q)Cuthbert (Dibble and Gibbs are on leave) @27

Hunting brake 24

Lorry 38

Total 575

Points 112	Inspector Wafflin-Smythe, British Quality 3+	Combat 3
	-Pistol, CQB Specialist, Crack Shot/Marksman, Fearless, Hero, Steady Under Fire, Strong, Weapons Expert

Pinky Bumblington, Chap about the Club and his Purdy Dinosaur Gun

Points 71	Quality 4+	Combat 2
	-Pistol, Jungle-craft, NCO/Second In Command, Sniper,Stealth

Weapon  Points:22
Armor Piercing, Lethal vs. Soft Targets, Range: Long, Slow Reload, Sniper Scope

 
Sgt Atkins, a good sor

Points 60	Quality 4+	Combat 2
	-Pistol, -Single Chambered Rifle, Jungle-craft, Specialist

Militia

Points 27 Quality 5+ Combat 2 Special Rules -Single Chambered Rifle, Poor Shot, Strong

Lorry

Points 38 Quality 4+ Combat 2 Special Rules Personnel Carrier 15 passengers, Vehicle

Brake*

Points 24 Quality 4+ Combat 1 Special Rules Personnel Carrier 3 passengers, Vehicle

The BAD guys (BLUE)

Dominar 86

The Minders 3x71 = 213

Venusian highlanders 5x39 = 190

Godzillasaurus 48

Lorry 38

Total 580

Dominar

Points 86 Quality 3+ Combat 1 Special Rules -Taser, Body Armour, Leader, Long Move, Personal Communication Device

Minders 3

Points 71 Quality 4+ Combat 3 Special Rules -Shuriken/Small Thrown Knives,, Fanatic, Personal Communication Device, Sprinter Combat Fiend

Mounted Venusians

Points 39 Quality 5+ Combat 3 Special Rules -Thrown Javelin, Chucker, Long Move, Mounted, Strong

Godzillasaurus

Points 48 Quality 5+ Combat 5 Special Rules Armored +1 (Thin), Off-Road, Vehicle

 

*Normally such vehicles would be considered off-road, but not on Venus, which would require something similar to a swamp buggy. Of course this Peugot hunting brake is fitted with the export self munging reciprocator (the cast iron model, not the later aluminium) whereas on Mars it would be fitted with the ovaloid self lubricating overhead wangling munger, due to the impact of corrosive dust. See, I've worked car shows and can pontificate self angrandising bollucks like any enthusiast.

The scenery. I wanted something different, the sort of causeway common around here in the stone age. Folded cardboard topped with clip together scenery gave a height of about 20mm. The swamp and forestry bases I'd made for early America helped the look, with some handy “fog” to cover the cracks.

The vehicles were a lucky find the week before, as had the brake and model T used originally for Trouble at t'mill. But I've learnt a lot since then, so now I've based, painted and inked. Half way through I decided to try pom-poms in the open cabs. The Venusians were purchased when they came out. I tried a metallic green topped with a darker green but I couldn't get them right. Second time round I'm fairly pleased. I have a lot of these silly dino's and even more proper “old style” dinosaurs, so we will return to Venus.

The Game

Tony got initiative, which switched very frequently, thanks to his cavalry and my Pinky. I got on Tony's flank and decided to dismount from the brake to get Pinky into a firing position with the van moving up to dismount the troops as close as possible.

Tony got a good role for his cavalry and sent them screaming in. Differences in technology aside, 2 javelins in your engine will ruin your plans. Out of the 11 in the vehicle, I got Sgt Atkins, privates Pike and Barney in good condition, the rest ended up in an awful mess-. Then it came down to the hand to hand fun. Sergeant Atkins put up a good fight, but went down. The two privates got knocked about then Barney got skewered. The chaps did a job shooting baddies off their mounts but were unable to kill them with just a pistol. Things were looking bad for me when Godzillasaurus broke loose!

Tony's troops scattered out of the way, except for one poor chap who didn't make it. Distracted by its happy meal, Godzillasaurus came under control again. Dominar called in the girls, who made the mistake of trusting him (well, they are young) as Godzillasaurus (unchained) was free again. It went for the nearest, who put up a hell of a fight, repeatedly being pushed back until the others could come in and beat the poor beast into submission, getting it down and dominated in the swamp.

Pinky did manage to get his act together and got off one shot that missed. Wafflin-Smythe teamed up with Pike, who kept getting 3 activations and taking Venusians out. Now they faced the girls. Pinky went first, knocked down by a near hit with an arrow then skewered by a Venusian javelin. Pike took out his killer with a 6:1 shot.

 

Now came the girls. Wafflin-Smythe first faced with the sword. He sent her staggering back and then down. Pike rushed in with another of his three activations. Fixed bayonet, strong strike, her on the ground and he still went crashing down then gutted. Fighting against 2, the inspector went down, dying by the sword.

A lot of what-ifs here. We could replay this one a dozen times! The complete disparity of technology did nothing to outbalance the game. Godzillasaurus worked well, not over-powerful but the perfect wild card.

The Dominar, Godzillasaurus and the bodyguards got away and can proceed with the evil plan. Oh joy,

I need to come up with a sequel or even two which breaks my no-sequels rule after Giant Rat of Sumatra.

 No plan survives contact with an enemies javelins.

So the Dominar takes the brake and looks at the map. If he takes junction 2 and gets on the B2377 he can head for the Japanese trading post at Moss Ida. The main problem is that it's run by Baron Greenbackusama and his hired guns. Can they get Godzillasaurus off-planet? Is there a service station? All will be revealed in the next thrilling instalment!