Faustus Furius: 3000

It’s a long weekend here in Canada (Victoria Day) and we’ve been very busy with… well… lots of stuff. Amanda was away for almost two weeks and was busy on a couple other weekends before and after she was away and so this is the first time in a while that we were all around and didn’t have anything scheduled – so I was hoping we’d get in a bit of GAMING! Unfortunately it doesn’t look like we’re going to get QUITE as much gaming in over the weekend as I’d originally anticipated… and I’m not sure we’re going to get to play all (or even ANY) of the games I’d originally hoped to play (Pax Renaissance or  Neanderthal and/or Agricola and/or Nations). But when it looked like we were running out of afternoon and no one was interested in playing a heavier game – I did manage to convince them to play a quick game of Faustus Furious.

For those not aware Faustus Furious is a fun, fast-playing game of ancient chariot racing by Nic Wright (author of Song of Shadows and Dust - my favourite iteration of the SOBH game engine - and other games), which I have adapted for JET BIKE racing and dubbed Faustus Furius: 3000 (or FF3K). Finnegan and I played a game a few months back with motor bikes (we called it Faustus Furius MMLIII).

I backed the Ramshackle Games Jet Bike Construction Kit Kickstarter specifically to play with using this game. I’m planning on running a big demonstration game at ToonCon in the fall (15 weeks to go… 15 jet bikes to build… and some new terrain!). Ever since I finished off the First Jet Bike from the Kickstarter construction kits completed I’ve been itching to play a game!

Amanda took Jet Bike #1

Finnegan took Jet Bike #37

The Girl took Jet Bike #53

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

The Course I set up for them.

The Course from the other end.

End of Turn One – almost - they all shot forward. The Girl’s bike (in the middle) was the last to go, and she had a spare action so she attacked Amanda’s bike – and succeeded….

but the Out of Control result was a panicked burst of speed, which shot Amanda’s bike further ahead!

Turn Two – Finnegan going last.

This time Finnegan attacked Amanda’s bike

And again she shot forward in a panicked burst of speed!

Turn Three – looking a little tight as they try to take that first bend!

Miraculously Amanda maneuvered and didn’t crash into The Girl’s bike!

ZWAAARRRrrrrrrooooooowm!

(I have no idea if that’s an appropriate Jet Bike sound effect – there lots of Jet Bike sound effects used during the game – and some that sounded like screeching tires in the corners…!?)

Finnegan’s bike coming into that first corner.

The Girl’s were kind of pulling away from him at this point.

He has a terrible bit of bad luck on the next turn and rolled THREE FAILURES! This angered the crowd and some hooligans spilled out into the street to hurl insults… and bricks… and generally get in the way!

Luckily the turn before he’d maneuvered into a position that allowed him to do his mandatory straight ahead move and NOT CRASH – which was tricky in this tight turn at the far end of the course!

The Girl peels away from the pack!

ZzzzzzOOOM! She got quite a bit of a lead there for a bit.

Amanda got up close enough to attack The Girl’s bike sending her careening off to the left! Things looked dire at this point!

But The Girl rolled a pile of successes the next turn and managed to maneuver out of it!?

Just about the end of the first lap (I’d lost track of how many turns this was) and The Girl was in a pretty commanding lead!!

Just another shot of that incredible lead she had….

…before her bike crashed into a building just as she finished her first lap!?

This gave Amanda and Finnegan a bit of a chance to catch up!

Amanda got around the bend, but then rolled three failures and another crowd of Hooligans poured into the street!

She rolled not-so-many dice the next turn – but that lead to no successes/action and she crashed into a wall!

Amanda was not entirely enthusiastic about this turn of luck.

(There might have been a dollar added to the swear jar at this point)

Finnegan’s jet bike sailing past the wrecks of the two girls’ bikes!

The Girl had about four turns of only rolling one success (two are needed to get a crashed bike up and going again!) - but finally got her bike sorted out and back in the race!

Finnegan now had a pretty commanding lead – but he was having to round this corner – now with two fatigue dice and a group of angry hooligans blocking the way. Then Keira rolled Three Failures – at this point Finnegan had the option of having ANOTHER group of Hooligans surge onto the streets within 1 Medium range stick of The Girls bike OR move one group already on the streets! He chose the latter!

But he still didn’t get enough actions to take the corner… and crashed!

The Girls catching up!

Getting closer!

Finnegan’s rider was a bit quicker at getting his bike righted however, and got it up and shot off down the street before either of the others passed him!

ZWAAArrrrrrrmmmm!

(It looks like Amanda’s caught up to him… but Finnegan hadn’t moved that turn…)

SCREEEEEEEEEEEE!!

(It looks like they’re neck and neck, screaming down the final stretch, but again, Finngean had yet to move that turn)

The Girl still trying to catch up, but taking the corner a little too slow.

Into the final stretch!

Finnegan shot ahead – just shy of the finish line.

On the next turn he just slid across and there was no way Amanda or The Girl could catch him – He didn’t even need to roll – his single mandatory forward move would have carried him across – but he rolled anyway and I think he actually rolled THREE SUCCESSES!

I think we played it out in about an hour – fast game – lots of fun – can’t wait to try it with MORE bikes! There was lots of excitement and a pretty huge upet – The Girl looked like she has an unstoppable lead… and then crashed because she couldn’t quite make a turn – Finnegan went from dead last to in the lead – then crashed himself – but got going again just before the others caught up to him and kept that lead for the rest of the final lap!!

It’ll be interesting to try it with different bikes. Not sure if I will allow different bikes in the ToonCon game – might just keep them all the same for simplicity’s sake.

Looking forward to a lot more practice/play-testing over the summer!

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Some Super Dungeon Explore Billmen bad guys – my entry for last weeks round of the Lead Adventure Forum’s Lead Painter’s League.

After that…?