2020 Top 10 Countdown of solo skirmish games #8

#8 PULP ALLEY

Pulp Alley's theme hits all my buttons. The pulp era! Think of Doc Savage and the Gang of Five! Versus all those cool 30's era villains! The scenery! you could get sucked into a time lost jungle with Neanderthals and dinos! A mad villain's outlandishly equipped lab. Foil nefarious plans! Fight with hill tribesmen who are henchmen of the Big Bad Guy. The sky's the limit!

So why don't I play this more, and why isn't it higher on the list? (A more pertinent question: why didn't I blog about my games?!! I have the photos to prove I played them!)

Good question. The game system is lots of fun, as you face encounters and challenges with every sign post on your adventure quest. The game uses multiple dice types and 4 is always your target number, you just have different dice types (d8 and d10) to roll to get your hits. The game uses a deck of bespoke cards to provide you with challenges and tests along the way.

You do need to stat up your heroes and sidekicks. There's just so much stuff available that making a gang or two can take a whole day, especially if you're OCD (like me!).

And with the Cthulhu Death May Die Kickstarter I certainly have more than enough minis to use for my games, since Pulp Alley is minis agnostic (even though the game has its own official set of metal minis that are not required but certainly very tempting to own because they are so gorgeous.)

The short answer is: First World problem of having TOO MANY GAMES. Solution: my 2021 resolution is to see Pulp Alley and Firefly Adventures hit the table more often (when I'm reunited with the games again).

HONOURABLE MENTIONS

Battlespace. I first found out about this on FB but there were too many unknowns about it at the time. A few months and a few YouTube videos later made me finally get off my butt and I got it from DriveThruRPG about 2 weeks ago. It's a minis agnostic modern skirmish game. Think of a 4-man squad in Afghanistan or some other modern 21st century conflict... we're certainly not lacking for settings, that's for sure, It has some interesting game concepts and a nice AI activation. It DOES use d20s though so if the extreme swinginess of a d20 isn't for you... 

I also currently don't own ANY suitable minis for the game although I can always proxy of course. I ordered some 15mm stuff and buildings in November. I haven't received anything yet, so disordered has the international shipping system become. So that's the only reason why this game is an HM. I just haven't played it yet.

STOP PRESS!!! Even as I prepared this list, literally the day before Christmas, this appeared in my mailbox. Some 15mm Australian troops (thankfully regulars, not their Special Forces given the latest exposés in the news) and some Chechens that will do double duty as Irregulars in Fallujah.

Of course, my terrain hasn't arrived yet. The guys I bought them from haven't even made the terrain yet (MDF) according to their web site. I could proxy with boxes and all... let's see if this makes it to the table before the end of 2020.