Wasteman by Jason Fairclough + Games Night

I haven't posted any photos from the games table in a long time. Rest assured the Tamahere Officer's Club is still going strong. Apart from the regular variety of wargames, boardgames and RPG's, there is always the chance something new will be brought to the table. This is exactly what happened last Tuesday night, when Lewis ran a game he had been preparing over the last few weeks: Wasteman. Here is the game report from Lewis:

Last night we played Wasteman for the first time.
This is new game made by an excellent fellow called Jason Fairclough. You can see more Wasteman here: http://www.tcminiatures.co.uk/#!wasteman/clrb

Now I'm probably a bit biased when it come to this game as I'm a Gamma World fan from way back, and I gotta tell ya that this game nails the Gamma World vibe on the head.
But don't take my word for it. Lets see how a game plays out!

We played a scenario called Convoy, where one faction's vehicle has broken down in the middle of the board and another faction needs to have a model within 5" at the end of the game to win. How lucky to have broken down outside the old Cherry 2000 franchise...

Our hapless travelers were consisted of a group of bandits: 3 "Hazmatadors", Nurse Betty (sorry about the unfinished paintjob), a titanotron demolition robot, (Old Yello), and their leader, Olga the Cruel.

You get a nifty card for each figure! Unfortunately their party is about to be crashed by Cybjorgs - Swiss cyborgs gone rogue :-)

The Cyborgs entered from both ends of the table intent on destruction, however the Cybjorg Jarl got a bit ahead of himself and was jumped by Olga and Big Yello.

You might notice bottle caps. These are activation counters specially made for each faction by Jason. How cool is that!!

Meanwhile at the other end of the table Nurse Betty was getting a drilling from Grendel, resulting in her being "crippled", (That's what the lightening bolt counter means). In this game you can be Spooked, Crippled or Seriously injured. Spooked; loose an action, Crippled: slow move and decreased attack, Seriously injured; out of play till healed. And of course you can wind up Dead too.

It seemed a good idea to knobble Nurse Betty first as she was medic for the bandits. If the Cybjorgs could take her out, any bandit who went down would stay down. 

However Grendel's drills still left her mobile, so it was time for a little chicanery called a MAD card, (Mutual Assured Destruction). 

Each player gets five of these cards at the start of the game. They represent weird stuff that occurs in the post apocalyptic world, from alien abductions to mega tornadoes. Eldritch Madness allowed the Cybjorg player to take over a bandit (Mr Hazmatador) who he used to shoot Nurse Betty. 

It was all to no avail, and the bandits proceeded to take out a nasty minigun armed Cybjorg, Tobledrone.

As Nurse Betty hobbled away, Grendel bored into another bandit. Goregasm!! 

(Goregasm is a special ability for chainsaws, drills etc that almost guarantees splatter).

Check out that measuring stick!

It wasn't looking too good for the bandits.

With Olga and Big Yello engaged elsewhere, the remaining Hazmatadors made a last stand by the truck.

Grendel managed to spook both of them, but wait, what's this?

Big Yello rushes in!

Only to be smashed to bits by Grendel's whiring drills of death!!

Olga arrives in the nick of time, only to be crippled.

And this is when Nurse Betty steps from the shadows and heals Olga, who promptly put a pickaxe through Grendel's eye. Good work Ladies!

However It'll take more than a pickaxe to the eye to take down this Cybjorg. Being surrounded, Grendel is feeling the heat, and is luckily abducted by aliens, courtesy of another MAD card. This means he disappears for a turn, then returns next turn to the same spot. A lucky escape...

Olga take the opportunity to beat down the Cybjorg Jarl who was heading for the vending machine. If you stop at a vending machine in Wasteman, you can get extra MAD cards. This is handy as an extra hand!

Olga feeds the coins, and the vending machine spits out 3 more MAD cards for the bandits.

Grendel returns from his probing, but he's in a bad way.... (crippled).

......and Olga returns to finish him off.

With a fresh handful of MAD cards the bandits make short work of the remaining Cybjorgs. One is shot and the last is squashed by a passing Globestrider!

Gotta say that this game was a blast.
The rules are quick and easy to learn, and with the addition of MAD cards it rewards tactical play.
It has a kind of Rogue Trader charm to it, especially with the cool chunky sculpts that are reminiscent of the late 80's 40K figures. 

And the quality of the game components is outta sight! Virtually no flash on the figures! Scenery such as couches to put round the radpit, vending machines, toxic waste barrels dissolving bodies and unexploded nukes!! The cards even remind me of the Starwars card I used to buy when you still got bubble gum with the cards, (showing my age there). That's not even to mention the monogramed bottle caps as activation markers. Eye candy double plus.

So I give Wasteman a big thumbs up.
It does it for me, but then I've been waiting for this game since the mid 80's when I first played Gamma World.
And so have you.
Buy it.
Now.