Richard staged the first club game of Gaslands Refuelled on 6 February at the community centre. Rob, Doug, Paul B., Paul S., Jonathan and I were all racing car drivers in a post-Apocalyptic world (taking our pick of 1:72 scale model cars), aiming to complete a circuit through six gates (from Sarissa), which Richard had specially constructed.

The mat, from Deepcut Studios, was terrific…

The cars we chose were as follows: Paul S. – silver; Doug – black van; Rob – red; Paul B. – white, Jonathan – grey, me – red (Rob copied me!)

Movement is measured by templates of various lengths and shapes (swerve, veer, hairpin, etc.), while ‘handling dice’ are thrown to generate shifts up a gear or hazards.

RACE ONE

We lined up with Doug in pole position at gate one.

Racing to the the second gate, Paul S. was rammed by Doug, both picking up two hazard tokens each

Doug sped on but hit both me and Paul S. I gave Doug two points of damage, but received 6 hazards. I swerved but Doug drove on. I then hit Paul S. twice.

Paul B. was first to cross gate 2 in his white car…

Paul S. collided with Doug – both took two hull hit points

I overtook Paul S. but he veered ahead again

Paul B., clear of the pack, raced ahead with some gusto…

Rob and Jonathan were at the back…

I swerved ahead of Paul S who soon overtook me again. Rob came alongside of me…

I collided with Doug as we neared a bend: we took 2 hazards each, plus one damage point to Doug…

Jonathan swerved as he passed gate 2 still in last place. Paul B passed gate 3, looking unstoppable…

Rob hit Doug, and I passed Doug. I collided with Paul S. – two hazards each. I passed Paul S. again but went forward and hit Rob!

As Paul S. came round the corner, I hit him. I failed a wipeout test and went down from gear 4 to gear 1 and took 2 hits to my hull. Drat!

Paul S. urged ahead into second place, as everyone filed behind Paul B. in the lead…

Rob overtook me, but I pulled alongside. Rob and Paul S. moved on however

Suddenly, Paul S. failed a wipeout test and crashed! He had reached 6 hazards.

As Paul B raced ahead, he won the first lap test run. Rob finished second, I finished third, followed by Doug in fourth and Jonathan in fifth. Paul S had wiped out and did not finish.

RACE TWO

Richard decided to take over from Jonathan who went home. He chose a dark green car.

I took the lead out of the starting blocks, and was first past the initial gate…

Richard crashed into a barrier, taking 4 damages. I sped on… Doug shunted Richard mercilessly

The order past gate 2 was: Me 1st, Doug 2nd, Paul S 3rd, Richard 4th, Rob 5th and Paul B 6th. We were now testing the weaponry. Doug fired a machine gun at me, inflicting 3 hits…

I did a hard right turn and came off the main track… onto the wrong piece of road!

Paul S. now hit the barrier on the left

I corrected my direction of travel by doing a hairpin turn… but took 3 hits by crashing into the next gate! Driving lessons needed? Not me!

Paul B. skirted rough ground as Rob loomed behind him

Paul B. then hit Rob, who took 2 hits as did Paul!

I pulled alongside Doug, who had passed me when I turned off at the wrong point. Richard had extricated himself from his crash, but was way down the rankings…

Doug won the race, followed by me…

Overall this was a fun test game using some great terrain and nifty model cars. We had a good laugh in a friendly atmosphere of wisecrack and repartee. Gaslands Refuelled is relatively simple and a portable wargame indeed, with a lot of further possibilities once we fully explore the weapons, cars, and different types of races. A step up visually and gameplay-wise from Car Wars. Thanks to Richard for hosting!