Friday, January 10, 2014

Attack on Pirate Island

Our mini-assembly took place between 9:00 and 10:00 today.  Some sections watched movies, some did karaoke.  One group learned how to tie bowties, because bowties are cool.  But me...well, was there any question that I would do a miniatures game?  Since I had only an hour and most of my players had never done anything more challenging than Risk, the rules had to be super-fast and super simple.  I created nine teams, each with their own goals, then let the fun begin.

Here are my pirates: Katie, Shira, Arjun, Colin, and Abay.  

And the townies: Darian (playing the zombies), RJ, Gordon, and Carter.


Here are the rules I projected onto my Smartboard. I was on hand to referee actions not covered.  Since I wanted to keep it simple, I disallowed moving ships or firing cannon at structures.  The kids were sad. Apparently they like making things blow up.

Turn One: Colin decides to fire on his fellow pirates.  "Um, Colin, you realize that you don't get any victory points for that?"  "Yeah, I know." 

The first pirate band tries to sneak into town by skirting the perimeter. An angry mob and a donkey await them

The Royal Marines were well-armed and did very well despite being surrounded by four bands of pirates.  hence the sneaky move-around-the-town maneuver by Abay.

Oh, noes! The Zombie maroons appear on the edge of town. It's a three way bloodbath!

Some players, like RJ, negotiated with enemies, giving them the opportunity to turn their attention to a single foe.  Here, RJ attacks Darian's zombies, allowing Arjun's pirate to sneak in and plunder the town treasure. (Sadly, the lone pirate burglar was blown to bits by artillery from the fort as he tried to return to his ship.

Darian's zombies hunt for brains.  They ultimately cornered the governor's daughter, ate her delicious brains, and caused a huge point deduction for the marines and the angry mob, who had been leading up to that point.  A win for the Zombies!

The final points tally.  Students had fun, and I enjoyed sharing my hobby with them.

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