GASLANDS – Mark A. Morin

Last Saturday, September 7th, Scott Howland ran a very fun game of GASLANDS at our September gaming session. We had several new players and some young players with their dads (which was cool in and of itself). We had played this game a few times before, and Scott had some really cool new terrain for the race. His scenario was the “Johnny Cab Invitational” as a nod to the Johnny Cab in the 1990 film Total Recall. Scott plans to run this game at CARNAGE in Killington, Vermont in November.

As I got to play I got to take a few more pictures – the race was a real thrill ride (pun intended).

09072019 GASLANDS at Mass Pikemen — The flyer for the game

1 Scott briefs the gamers — Getting ready to play. Each of us got a different cab-type vehicle for the race. On the right, new player Steven (sitting) and his dad Steven (in orange hat) joined us for the first time with his daughter in tow.

2 Scott briefs the gamers — Here you can see the tabletop – we had to cross 5 gates in the race. The cabs had weapons that were not active until you fully crossed gate #1.

3 and the race begins — The start of the race – you can see the starting gate on the right. Vehicles were assigned at random – I had the little Johnny Cab in the foreground. Above me in this photo respectively were Mike and Leif’s yellow cabs on the edge of the tabletop. In the starting gate from top to bottom were Christine in a VW truck/cab, Jack/Jared in a tracked cab, and Steven/Steven in a motorized rickshaw.

4 Mike careens into Leif — The wrecked tractor trailer was part of the game terrain. I’m on the right about to take my first (of many) flip outs. On the right, Mike attempts to crash into Leif. This would go (at first glance) badly for Mike as he rolled badly and got turned around back towards the starting gate. He would end up crashing into the wall behind it and surviving to turn around…eventually. Note that Scott has two welded dice to denote turn and gear segments – very cool.

5 Trying to cross gate 1 — I try to get through the gate after both Christine and Jack crash into me. I ended up flipped over by the right barrier – safe but damaged.

7 Leif's Car is torched — As I was already through the gate I had to back up to get aligned. I used a Molotov Cocktail on Leif’s cab and caught it on fire. It soon exploded and I avenged a past Bolt Action whupping that Leif had put on me earlier! Jack’s tracked cab was run into a wall at the top, while Steven’s rickshaw was closing for a kill. Christine’s blue VW also shot at Leif with a machine gun. Mike was busy out of the picture hitting a wall in 4th gear!

8 Steven's Rickshaw dies — Steven’s attack on Jack’s tracked cab fails. Jack’s tracked cab returns fire, and destroys the rickshaw. Christine’s VW tries to go around away from Jack. I’m just surveying the carnage from the safe rear. Mike is still back along the wall in the rear of the starting gate.

9 Jared and Jack plot next moves — Jared and Jack discuss choices with the dice, while Leif looks at his burning cab.

10 Jack wipes out and explodes — Christine turns the corner and shoots up Jack’s cab – knocking it out of the game. She then dropped caltrops behind her. This left the VW, my Johnny Cab, and Mike still in the game.

11 I set Chris on fire and move in — Johnny Cab turned on the gas, and attempted to shoot at Christine’s blue VW with a machine gun, missing. I threw another Molotov cocktail and hit, catching the VW on fire.

At this point, I closed for the kill. Nothing remained between Johnny Cab and the race course but Christine’s damaged and burning vehicle. Mike’s cab was far behind. My machine gun missed again – but my third Molotov cocktail hit and unfortunately caused a chain reaction with Christine’s own unused Molotov cocktails. The explosion damaged my Johnny Cab and destroyed it and the VW. At this point, Mike was just getting back to Gate #1 after getting off the wall. As the sole survivor, he won! Amazingly, he won our last GASLANDS game as a survivor as well – enjoy your prize Mike – a free trip to Mars! Your second trip!

12 Mike wins again! — The game ends. Both cars in the foreground are destroyed – in the right rear one survives – Mike wins!

The game went very quickly even with many new players. Scott’s vehicles and board were fantastically fun! I lent my new blast markers to the game and I think they worked well (and were very popular with the younger players to be sure). Thanks VERY MUCH to Scott for a well-run and fun game.

Our next session is a road trip to the Fort Devens Game Day on October 19th. Scott will be running a pulp game there, and I will be running my Normandy Breakout game. The November session for the Mass Pikemen will be on either November 2nd or November 9th from 2-7 PM, games TBD.

If you are interested in joining the Mass Pikemen, our Facebook group link is here. Join us!

Last Saturday Jared Burns ran a very fun game of GASLANDS at the February meeting of the Mass Pikemen gaming club. For those of you not familiar with the game, it involves an apocalyptic race/gladiatorial battle using Matchbox cars. The cars are armed with different weapons such as rams, machine guns, and armor, and in the scenario they were racing through three gates with the first car to finish all three as the winning car.

Each of us had two cars. Jared brought his car collection which he had very effectively weathered. Also, Scott Howland brought his cool GASLANDS cars, so we had a nice selection. Jared had also made some very nice dashboards which made play much easier.

1 gaslands feb — The game set up – it was nice as several of us were able to contribute terrain to make a fun tabletop.

2 gaslands feb — Scott Howland made a couple of very cool billboards that were very fun – including this Johnny Cab one from “Total Recall” and…

3 gaslands feb — …this one showing spaceship service to Mars.

4 gaslands feb — These are the two cars that I had in the game. The cab (from Scott) had a ram and a machine gun. The rusty car (from Jared) had a machine gun and a limited ammo mortar.

We all started at gate one, with no firing weapons to be active until we crossed the first gate. Several cars, including my cab, never made it through that first gate. My rusty car did, and turned back to attack Jared’s similarly-armed orange car. I rolled well, and Jared did not, with the result being I destroyed his car. Unfortunately, his ammo sympathetically detonated and both of my cars took damage from that blast.

The first kill – but the ensuing explosion damaged both of my cars.

At the same time, Mike Morgan had been sidelined due to a starting box collision that left one of his cars just getting going. His other car was speeding dangerously towards the stadium wall (the edge of the tabletop), so he was not being engaged. Scott and Jared were both heading to the second gate and taking shots at each other along the way. Scott’s other car was in front of my rusty one, so I shot at it, and the dice were with me again. Boom.

At the top of this shot you see Scott’s (silver car) and Jared’s (blue car) doing a NASCAR run while heading towards the second gate. Mike’s cars are on the far right and far left trying to get back into the fight.

7 gaslands feb — Jared, Mike and Scott ponder their next moves.

Unfortunately, the act of shooting Scott’s car also caused an explosion that wrecked my rusty car, leaving me with only the cab.

8 gaslands feb — My rusty car, a victim of its own murderous aggressiveness!

This left Mike with two cars, and Jared, Scott and I with one, and mine could only ram. I saw them headed for gate two, so I headed there.

9 gaslands feb — My cab goes at the two survivors.

I did damage to Scott’s silver car, causing it to flip and hit the post, and explode. Both my cab and Jared’s blue car were caught in the explosion. This action took all three out of the game, leaving Mike with the only remaining cars and victory!

10 gaslands feb — The mashup that took out three cars.

The game ended and I think we all had a blast (pun unintentional) even though I inadvertently succeeded in destroying my own cars. Thanks to Jared for running a great game.

Our next session is on March 2nd at 2 PM during which we will be playing What a Tanker in North Africa!

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Tag: GASLANDS

GASLANDS brings Maximum Carnage at Mass Pikemen’s Johnny Cab Invitational

GASLANDS Game at Mass Pikemen