A good turnout for our Semi Regular Retirees game as we took a Summer season trip to the ocean using Thunderball Scuba Diving skirmish rules at Miniature Market Cave Springs. The scenario pitted some 1960s TV super spies from The United Network Command for Law and Enforcement (U.N.C.L.E) against the forces of criminal organization Spectre of the James Bond films. The goal was to get to the wreck of the merchant vessel M/V Not Very Seaworthy that went down in a storm carrying a valuable cargo of “unobtainium”. Our sides squared off with each having one super spy with extra benefits and the race was on to the wreck.
Jay Clendenny once again provides us with a turn by turn, blow by blow report as the struggle for the valuable resource took place.
“Robert Smith stood brooding on the bridge of the MV Nelson Valentine Stewart. He was not happy at all with the circumstances. The NVS’s usual skipper had not shown up and no one had a clue where he was. Smith was due to retire soon and didn’t appreciate the company shoving him on this old tub in a “one last voyage for the company” move. The Stewart was by far the oldest ship in the company and due for a visit to the wreckers soon. Most in the company knew the NVS as “not very seaworthy” as she had thrown a lot of fits over the last several years with major machinery and structural issues. Now, they were headed into some weather and he was bound by instructions that he had to have his cargo (which he and everyone else aboard knew nothing about) to his destination on time or else. Suddenly, he heard a loud boom on the port side and the ship immediately took a sickening lurch in that direction.”
“Kevin Fitzpatrick ran a Thunderball type of scenario using the Thunderball QRS game system for our diving pleasure since the weather has been so hot and playing in the water sounded good. The objective was to recover as much cargo as possible from the MV Notveryseaworthy, which had capsized and sank. Two teams of divers from organizations of questionable character were competing with each other for the valuable cargo. Team DJ had Jay and Steve (Scepter) while Team Steve L had Chris and Mark (U.N.L.C.E.). Each player had two divers, some of whom were armed with spear guns. As leaders of their respective teams, DJ and Steve L had a “super agent” diver that had some extra abilities. Each player would roll 3 dice for each diver and this would determine how many action points each diver had for the turn and also when they could possibly move. The super agents got to use 4 dice instead. Each action point allowed you to either move 1 inch, change depth 1 level, fire/use a weapon, pick up something, get a defensive bonus, etc. Each diver had 4 hit points.”
“Turn 1 saw both teams converge on the wreck.”
“Turn 2 sees Mark W join as a “free agent” swimming in late towards the wreck. Steve L is the first to have a diver pick up items and start working his way back to his side of the board. Chris elects to take a shot at one of Steve’s divers, but misses. As the turn progresses, team Steve L picks up more cargo. DJ’s team closes in on the wreck. “
“Turn 3 Both teams have most of their divers scooping up cargo and heading for their respective edge. Steve returns fire on Chris, but misses. Jay shoots at one of Mark’s divers and hits and Steve also goes 1 for 2 and hits one of Chris’s divers while Chris returns fire, but misses again. (A lot of these were just missing, so it seems the dice were onboard with the 60’s tv theme of narrowly missing and providing TV shots of spears wizzing by divers at close quarters).”
“Turn 4 sees heavy action with Chris going to knife fighting range on one of Steve’s divers and connecting for 2 wounds. Mark attacked Jay, but missed twice. Mark W (apparently paid off by Steve L or trying to uphold the name of Mark) decides to join the fray on the side of team Steve L and attacks Jay. The first attack misses, but the second one connects. Steve scores the first kill by shooting one of Chris’s divers twice. Mark also attacks Jay’s diver again and scores a wound. At the end of the round, team Steve L had 8 cargo off to team DJ 3.”
“Turn 5 Mark and Mark W finish off Jay’s wounded diver as the other diver makes a hasty escape. Both sides sort of separate to concentrate on grabbing cargo and getting it off the map. The count at the end of the turn is Steve L 11 to DJ 5.”
“Turn 6 sees DJ’s hero approach the wreck and snipe one of Marks divers that had been wounded before. The count remains the same as divers are in transition with cargo or returning back from dropping cargo off.”
“Turn 7 DJ continues his sniping ways and polishes off one of Steve L’s divers during the turn (scored 3 hits for 4 wounds). At the end of the round, the score stands at team Steve L 15, team DJ 11. While team DJ has a few wounded divers, they got the better of the fighting with 3 divers out for team Steve L and only one for team DJ. At this point we called the game as it was getting late in the afternoon.”
“All in all, a enjoyable afternoon of gaming and everyone had a good time with the game system. “
We had a few questions yesterday on sourcing the game components. So here’s where things are from.
1). Foliage – leftover silk flowers that were being discarded.
2). Foliage bases – clear round disks from Amazon and Water Putty from Home Depot. Also used on the diver’s bases.
3). Divers: 54mm plastic toys found on the internet.
4). Ship wreck – craft boxes from Dollar Tree.
5). Diver’s Height Dice Chessex 12mm D6 from Miniature Market
6). Diver’s paint colors Army Painter Speed Paints from Miniature Market
7). Thunderball Rules From MSD Games.
8). Unobtainium: Pennies from the United States Government.
9). Diver Wound Markers : Chenille Stems from Amazon.
A Thank You to Jay for the great report and keeping us on track, a sincere thank you to the players that came out to join in and those that stopped by to visit for a bit Bill, Greg and Bev. Our continued appreciation to fine staff of Miniature Market Cave Springs for their continued support of our historical table top gaming community.
Remember to shop local.
