Pulp Ally and OPR!

At present, I have to make a 90 minute drive (one way) to meet up with my gaming group that plays tabletop skirmish games on Saturdays. It’s fun and provided I leave by 10am at the latest, not too onerous. But it doesn’t beat making a 19 minute drive to meet up with my local board gaming group, so I thought… can I convert some of them to also play tabletop skirmish games?

Turns out… it’s possible! One of my board gamer friends is VERY interested in minis agnostic skirmish games, and asked to learn. (Another was also interested but couldn't make it due to work commitments).

I took the opportunity to introduce him to OPR’s Grimdark Future Firefight and Pulp Alley.

Since he doesn’t own any suitable minis, I provided him with 250pts of TAO Coalition and I took the Robot Legions. I won 3-1 by successfully controlling 3 objectives and contesting 1, leaving him with only control of 1.

He was plagued with some bad luck as he kept failing his Wound rolls (even with just 1 wound!), getting Knocked Out instead of just Stunned. There’s not much you can do with bad rolls like that, and so he lacked the numbers needed to control and/or contest the objectives at the end of Turn 4.

Using the exact same terrain, we next played Pulp Alley which interestingly enough has enough similar mechanics he was able to quickly pick up the game play and he enjoyed the simultaneous combat and plot point challenges.

Due to the terrain available, I used my custom Star Wars Rebel & Imperial Leagues and we played a standard Smash and Grab scenario.

At first it went really badly against him as he (true to form) kept failing his Recovery rolls and by Turn 4 (of 6) was down to only 2 characters out of 5: his Leader and Sidekick while I was left with 5. He was ready to throw in the towel at that point but I encouraged him to persevere as Pulp Alley is a VERY different game (in spirt if not mechanics) to OPR’s rules. And what do you know...

All my attacks on his characters went bad and it was MY turn to fail the recovery rolls, and when Boba Fett (my Sidekick) failed his, I knew it was going to be extremely difficult to win. 

Sure enough, he managed to eke out a 3-2 victory even with 1 character (his Leader) left on the table! I was just left with my Leader (who isn't great at combat) and a lowly Ally who had to make a Finesse test just to fight his Leader.

Really great game, went all the way down to the final turn (an extra turn 7 due to the Reward Card) and the final roll of the dice.

So two great games, and as always the fun was in Pulp Alley, although he preferred his giant robots. I don’t blame him, as giant robots are SOOOOO cool!

And as I’ve always contended, Pulp Alley and OPR’s rules make perfect introductions to the world of tabletop skirmish gaming, and he now wants to make his own Grimdark Future Firefight war band and Pulp Alley (fantasy) League because those are the only minis he has to hand.