ONLINE- Tues 12 Jan

[DaVinci's Cat]

Another Gaslands session. Death Race scenario at 50 Cans and no other restrictions. If anyone is interested in joining the mayhem, just let me know.

[Mike]

And another crazy game and good match up on sponsors, Simons highway patrol vs Mikes Idris.
Basically I want to race fast and straight whilst Simon wants to pursue and take me out of the game.

It started off well for me with my performance car nudging ahead of the pack whilst my Monster Truck just got in the way of Simon.
Then it just went all down hill for me. I didn't even get a vehicle through gate 2.

My average 4+ on a dice was about 1 in 9.
To change gear up or down 4+.
To damage another player 4+.
To save against damage 6+ ( I think I rolled 6 twice in the whole game)
To clear hazard tokens 4+ ( 6 tokens and you lose control. Drop to gear 1 and spin etc)

Simons lead vehicle just couldn't stop rolling 4+ with a high % of 6's.
At times he wanted a spin or slide, and the hazard token that goes with them, to get the better angle for the next gate.
Even took a hazard to re-roll a 'good result' but nope.

TYPICAL ARBBL GODS
The game would be decided in a collision roll off.
I had 1 vehicle on 1 hull point rolling 5 damage dice.
Simon had 1 vehicle on 3 hull points rolling 2 damage dice.

Snake eyes for Simon and 3 x 4+ for me.
Monster truck held together with duck tape wins the race by default as opponents has no vehicles left on the track.

As they say it is not over till the fat lady sings, that is so true.

Although the same length of time as other games we had more rounds.
Each round has up to 6 phases starting with 'Gear 1' where all vehicles can activate.
Then 'Gear 2' all vehicles on gear 2 or higher can activate. Etc.
But if a vehicle has 6+ hazards ( perks/vehicles can change this ) it loses control and goes down to gear 1. Basically out of the running until the next round.
We are getting better at the game but also having less active vehicles makes the rounds go quicker. Mikes aim in any game is to get to just one active vehicle.

Some phases in the rounds I have not taken a screen shot as not much happened apart from a vehicle moved slightly.
Apologies the game is still picture heavy.

[Mike]

The last stages of the game.

Simons car previously lost control giving my Monster truck time to go through the gear phases and catch up.
When I did catch up I also lost control.

Side by side in round 6 I would activate first. I couldn't ram him and my shooting was rubbish as normal.

It looked like the end of the race.

Simon could reverse in first gear over the finish gate. ( ) that far away, literally a couple of mm.
If he had slid his car (rolled a 3) he would have won. Something I was rolling a lot all night.
Cant remember how many hazards he already had and if he didn't want to take the chance to spin again out of control or if he did reroll and still got 4+.

Luckily I am still activating first in gear phase 2, still couldn't ram him. Shooting still rubbish.
In gear phase 2 he couldn't reverse, he had to move forward, so I put my Monster truck in the way so he would collide with me.

[Mike]

Round 1 + 2

After an earlier lead my performance car came a cropper just by gate 1.
Bad driving and some heavy shooting from Simon.
Simons vehicles get by my monster truck and head for gate 1.

My monster truck catches up with one of Simons and they decide to have a drift contest.
Whilst Simons other car takes the clear route north to gate 1.

[Mike]

Round 3 + 4

Whilst the other 2 are mucking about in gate 1 Simons other car drives through gate 1 and with some excellent driving clears the freight containers on its way to gate 2.

[Mike]

Round 5

At the end of round 4 my monster truck is desperately trying to get away from / destroy Simons vehicle so that it can get after the other.
Simons white car sped its way to gate 2, cleared the gate but lost control at high speed under the billboard as it tried to drive along the edge of the arena.

Eventually Simon is down to one car and monster truck limped out of the battle narrowly missing a chemical plant.
White car gains control and has a relatively clear curving route to the finish line, that is a lot of hazards it is carrying!

[DaVinci's Cat]

What a rollercoaster ride. And I'll happily admit a little frustrated at not closing this one out, but as has been said, and will continue to run true, it's not over til it's over.

Yes my attack and defence dice rolls were (way) better than normal/average but I'd like to think it was a little payback for previous weeks... My skid dice were distinctly average although a struck a vein of luck when attempting to swerve my way through the containers but after that, nothing to write home about. For whatever reason, I just couldn't shift hazards off of my cars this week and that poor hazard management ultimately led to wiping out too frequently, at inopportune times or having to blow a ton of audience votes to avoid crashing and wiping out. Maybe it was because I was using cars and as such only had access to 3 skid dice but I was attempting to drive like I was a buggy or performance car.

It would have been such a perfect cinematic ending, reversing back towards the finish line, guns ablaze with a final quick J-turn to scoop the prize....

Overall, I like how the Highway Patrol play and had Roscoe and Buford set up as a bit of a tag team which would have worked really well if I could have kept them in the correct order at the start. They'll certainly be getting some more table-time in the future, maybe with a couple of tweaks in terms of additional perks at the expense of the minigun, but I just need to drive a bit better.

Mike's choice of Flag Tag for next weeks' encounter. You never know, we might actually have improved enough to pick up a flag this week!