The US Government is in a bit of a pickle. Poncho Villa has stolen the plans to the experimental K-Bomb device, an explosive of unknown power. The plans are believed to be in a factory complex owned by the Mexican government, across the border in Texas. Due to the lack of stability in the Mexican government and overall regional sensitivities, an official action cannot be undertaken. There must be plausible deniability. So, a call has gone out to well known sympathetic soldiers of fortune to bring the plans back, before they are moved into Mexico.. The adventurers that bring them home will be greatly awarded (and more importantly rewarded)! It’s time to crack on and show the others what for!
This was the first play test of the latest version of In Her Majesty’s Name. I picked up the rules recently and wanted to give them a spin to see if they cleaned up some of the issues our group had with the first version.
The scenario was set in a factory complex, located on the edge of a small urban area. I set up the table using my Crescent Root factory set and various throw terrain items. It also included a number of hobby cars.
The table had six marked objective markers. Each would require a pluck test find. If successful, the model would find the plans on a roll of 10. In the absence of the correct roll, a trap would be tripped. The model would then need to take a pluck check or be knocked down. If the player rolled a one, then they would have to pass a second pluck check or be wounded. If the plans were not found by the fourth attempt, the fifth attempt would automatically reveal two police guards. The last marker would be five police guards and the plans.
Once the players made enough noise (a 6+ roll each turn if a shot was fired), a place car with four police guards would arrive on a random road entrance. There was also a tied up guard dog that would break free on a roll of 7+ when it saw a player character. If there was an animal character, the roll would be 5+.
Players would be awarded victory points for each player model eliminated and five for the plans. The game would end on turn twelve or if one of the players exited the board with the plans.
We had four players, so four adventurer groups were set up on each corner of the table. The adventures were the U.S. Marshals X Corps, The Westward Archaeological Society, the Badlands Big Game Safari and Lord Huffington’s Historical Artifact Survey Association. Each group was 150 points.
We set up the teams randomly and rolled for initiative. The game started with each player moving forward slowly to get into position. Lord Huffington started with an aggressive move towards the center to engage the Safari. This caused the chained dog to get free and get amoris with Bandit from Huffington’s crew. All the noise caused the police to arrive and engage both the Marshals and the Society.
While all this excitement was taking place, the various groups searched the buildings for the plans. As luck would have it, most of the doors and windows were locked. it seems they were made from heavy duty materials, as many attempts at breaking them in failed with a number of characters knowing them selves down in the process….
Slowly, the clues were all uncovered, while the skirmish continued between Huffington and the Safari. Huffington’s group got the upper hand in the fight and the arriving police were then engaged. The police got the worst of most of the arresting attempts, but did their job sufficiently to delay the adventurers.
The game ended on turn twelve, with no one finding the plans and the police arresting all the downed adventures, with the others escaping out of the town to try anew another day. The game came down to victory points for models eliminated and the total went to Lord Huffington’s Historical Artifact Survey Association, with the Badlands Big Game Safari coming in a close second.
We went with the game individual model movement. We were able to finish the game in three hours. If I needed to squeeze it down, I would probably reduce the number of turns in the future. In the end, it was a successful playtest!
- Manteuffel