An Intermittent Firefight

Bret and I managed two games of Wrath of Ashdarlon, the sequel/expansion to Castle Ravenloft. we played the first team scenario( actually the second scenario as the first is solo). Since we played it wrong, the first time we played it a second time. wrong again, but at least we won. The reality was we made the game tougher as we played without treasure. It seems every turn that you kill a monster, you get treasure. We forgot the treasure. But really, in a true D&D game we never would have had time to loot the bodies of the monsters as we had not a single second of breathing room. We advanced (a cleric and a paladin) into the foul Dragon Ashdarlon's fortress to try to take some pressure off the local village. Within moments of entering the fortress we were under attack from monsters, snipers and traps. We fought until we were near death and retreated out having accounted for ourselves very well, but definitely requiring two more adventures to truly make an attempt... As for our mistake in the first game, we moved the monsters too much. This game is definitely harder than Castle Ravenloft but a great game. It gives you a fun fast dungeon crawl to satisfy the RPG desire without the huge time investment. The game was good enough that I am happy Legend of Drizz't is on the Christmas list. I have heard LofD takes you higher than second level and into the Underdark. Next up is rumored to be rules for taking your heroes of yore into the game system and using them instead of the pre-mades...I'm sold.

Sunday Morning dawned with Bret being railroaded into a game of Alien Attack(http://frontline-games.com/alienAttackMoreInfo.html). Actually, I'm not sure if he was railroaded, but I did not give him an option. The paint was barely dry and I had the set out. The game is a kid friendly micro-game style of sets from Reaper. I picked mine on on Monday, had it by Thursday and painted by Friday. You get one flying saucer (resin 5" diameter with flight stand); three 28mm greys, three boyscouts and one scoutmaster. The rules are simple. The figures are Reaper; thus good. The only criticism of the figures are tht the scoutmaster looks like a Canadian Mountie; but he works. If you want the boyscouts, though, you have to buy the game. We played a quick game in an hour or less which included set up and learning. The scenario, you ask: aliens land near a boyscout camp. While landing, one falls in a puddle and dissolves. The boyscouts need to fight their way off the board--best done before the saucer shows up and starts collecting. The aliens need to abduct three people. We played and Scoutmaster Wiggles and two scouts disappeared. With only one scout getting away, it is doubtful if the authorities will believe the story...perhaps the sequel over the holidays.