Faustus Furius: MMLIII

A couple months back I picked up a copy of Faustus Furius and instantly fell in love with it. It looked like a RIOT! The game  is written by Nic Wright and uses some of the same mechanics as Galleys and Galleons (which uses some of the same mechanics as other Ganesha Games Song of… game systems). It looked like it would be a really fun game to do as a demonstration game at a convention – fast, fun, simple, opportunity to have cool looking toys and terrain. It seriously just about derailed the whole Vimy thing as I started taking stock of all the chariots I have (and I DO have quite a few chariots – a Pictish chariot, an early British one with Boudica, an Amazon chariot, at least 3 Egyptians ones… none of them assembled or painted).

Then Viscount Eric over at Gaming with the Gnomies went and posted a link to the Jet Bike Construction Kit Kickstarter and I realized: This would work even better for JET BIKES!!! I kickstarted the thing to the tune of 20 BIKES (they’re not ALL for me!) and decided I would run an event at the next ToonCon (September 2017 – watch for it!). I think I will call it “Faustus Furius 3000” (or should that be Faustus Furius MMM…?).

Of course while I’m waiting on the Jet Bikes to arrive (and to finish up the whole Vimy thing) I was trying to think of  a way I could actually try it out… without having to paint anything. So I went digging and found a few not-quite-jet bikes that were already painted that I could re-base onto the size of bases I’ll be using for the jet bikes so have a go at the rules. Not being Jet Bikes, I decided it needn’t be so far in the future, hence “Faustus Furius: MMLIII”.

THE GAME

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)

As the War Room table is currently occupied by terrain and toys for the Vimy project, we set up a small circuit on the dining room table (where the lighting is awful – I apologize in advance for the poor quality of the photos…)

On the left we have The Thundergutt brothers (a pair of ancient Citadel/GW Squats - that paintjob is over 25 years old);  Darwin on the left, and his younger brother Freddy on the trike next to him. On the right are the Latrodectus sisters; Coral is next to Freddy, and Mira is on the extreme right (They’re a bit newer and from West Wind Productions).

Finnegan played the Thundergutt brothers and I played the Latrodectus sisters.

Things looked like they were getting off to a great start when I drew Mira’s card, but then I had to roll dice. One success, two failures – so Freddy got a reaction and shot out ahead of Mira. Mira got her compulsory move, but then had to use her single action to turn a bit so she didn’t go crashing into the building straight ahead of her on her next move.

Darwin’s card came up next and I don’t remember how many actions he had, but it was at least one and her zoomed out into the lead!

Freddy’s card came up next – he rolled three successes and used that little lead he got from the reaction to Mira’s failures to shoot way out using one action to do a “propero” (I’m going to have to come up with some new names for these maneuvers…) in addition to his compulsory move. Then, having two action left and not having anything better to do with them (not needing to turn or anything, and not having a competitor close enough to attack) he decided to Incite the Mob!

Finally Coral got to go and she did a bit better than her sister, but had to use actions to veer out and around Freddy to avoid a collision.

There was a lot of sound effects involved in this game – high pitched whining of engines and screeching brakes… Oh, yeah, it got loud.

The Thundergut Brothers both rocketed ahead the next turn while Mira and Coral had to waste actions maneuvering to get back on track.

Two turns in and the Thundergutt brothers had a commanding lead.

Coral pinned it and briefly moved up with the Thundergutt brothers.

It got a bit tight in that first corner! I was a little worried someone might bump!

But everyone seemed to hold it together and get through that congested corner okay!

Swinging into that second half of that first lap, Mira is desperately trying to keep up with Freddy Thundergutt, Darwin is swinging wide around that corner and Mira is floundering way behind.

I should have taken notes… I can’t remember exactly what happened here… I think Mira rolled two failures and Freddy got a reaction move ahead, then Freddy rolled a bunch of successes on his activation dice and rocketed ahead of everyone!?

VrrrrroooooooOOOOOWWWWwwwwwrrrrrrr!

Cant’ believe how far that guy got ahead of us… It’s like we forgot to do our turns or something… but that wasn’t it, he was just crazy lucky with the dice rolls and positioning and the Latrodectus sisters not being able to roll more than one success per turn!?

And Freddy finishes his first lap while the rest are lagging nearly half a lap behind. I have to say, Darwin did a pretty good job of blocking for his brother. The LAtrodectus sisters had to do a lot of brake maneuvers to slow themselves down or swing out wide to avoid collisions.

Freddy roaring around the next bend nearly half a lap ahead of everyone else.

Freddy gives a wave as he roars past some of his more exuberant fans

Damn. Look at that guy go… must have been that extra wheel he had…

Darwin swings a little too wide and Coral nips past!

Darwin manages to incite a few more of the Thundergutt fans to pour into the streets, blocking Mira’s way!

Freedy roars around the far end of the circuit. He’s gone… just gone…

Darwin roars up between the Hooligan Mob and Coral and then uses a spare action to ATTACK (gave her a kick as he roared past.

Darwin’s attack was successful and Coral rolled on the Out of Control table which made her veer off the right, nearly taking her off the table… (I’m going to need more buildings to make the circuit completely closed. We said the table had a hard edge and Coral had collided with it.

I rolled a “skid” which allowed her to make an immediate 90° turn and come to an hat! Could have been worse. Mira is having to maneuver around the crowd of hooligans.

Coral pinned it once again and shot back into the race, passing Darwin. Mira just past the finish line to start her second lap as Freddy was roaring up to finish!

The scene from the other end of the circuit.

Not about to give up Coral and Darwin play a bit of a game of cat and mouse.

Darwin was ruthless and not about to give these girls a chanced at catching up to his brother, so when Coral nipped ahead at the turn, Darwin attacked AGAIN!

His blow sent Coral careening off into the corner of the circuit, giving her no hope of getting around that corner and catching up to Freddy.

Mira for once rolled more than one success and was going to get that Darwin back from messing with her sister. She used her compulsory move to catch up to Darwin and then used her first action to attack! Unfortunately DARWIN BEAT HER! So SHE had to roll on the out of control table. Luckily(?) the result was “stunned driver” which would have affected her dice on the following turn. She then used her second action to propel herself right into Darwin’s Bike! Rolling for Darwin first on the collision table he CRASHED! Mira rolled next and got another SKID result which just brought her to an immediate halt after turning 90°. Not that it mattered at this point… 

Freddy zoomed past the finish line to the roaring adulation of his fans! Huzzah!

Great Game! Can’t wait to play it again! Can’t wait to be done the Vimy  project and for those jet bikes to arrive!

I will have to make a few more buildings/walls to have a hard edge all the way around the circuit. The table is, I think 5’x3’ and it was a little tight even with just 4 bikes. I think for bigger games – especially for the demonstration game at ToonCon in the fall I’ll need a bigger circuit (MORE buildings!).

I’ve already been dreaming about possibilities with this game… campaign rules and advances… a simple method of tracking damage to bike/rider from crashes… It would be fun to do a weekend campaign stage race. Or possibly combine this with a Mutants and Death Ray Guns campaign weekend (MDRG campaign Friday and Saturday, mega FF3K race on the Sunday…?).

I’d also still like to play this with chariots (when I get to building my chariots). Which brings me to another game weekend idea: a Song of Shadows and Dust campaign on the Friday/Saturday and street chariot racing on the Sunday!). I will do one of these for the Winter Wargaming Weekend in 2018! 

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Great War Germans! (I hope!)