Lurkers from the Deep: Issue 3

Whilst the Police and FBI hit Dr Fiske's factory and the Finley cannery, Colonel Roth led the main force directly in the heart of Marshport, where they were met in pitched battle by a horde of fanatical cultists and gibbering eldritch horrors led by the Mayor Newbury, the apparent leader of the Cult of Kutulu.

The Battle of Marshport is the third scenario from the Lurkers from the Deep feature pack for 7TV: Pulp, and sees what is probably the closest to an outright battle that I've ever played in 7TV.

Again, I took control of the 'fishy' inhabitants of Marshport, who are all part of the mysterious Cult of Kutulu:

Mayor Newbury - Star

Shoggoth - Extra

Police Chief (Dirty Cop) - Extra

High Priest - Extra

2 Malign Zealots - Extras

4 Dark Disciples - Extras

4 Fishfolk Hybrids - Extras

2 Protoplasmic Terrors - Extras

For the purposes of the game, we made a small change to the Cultist Coven unit card to replace the two required Gibbering Lunatics with Fishfolk Hybrids, allowing the Malign Zealots to lead two separate units. Not doing this would have meant that the villains would have had no chance of activating all their forces each turn.

Matt took control of the National Guard unit which had been called in to deal with the insidious threat emerging in Marshport:

Colonel Julius Roth - Star

Spiritual Custodian - Co-Star

Army Officer - Extra

2 Army Sergeants - Extras

8 Army Privates - Extras

Army Flamethrower - Extra

Truck - Vehicle

Again, as an extremely minor change, we played the Flamethrower as a two man team to reflect the two wounds on the card and the fact that I had a spare model. Also, we ran most of the heroic force as a Military unit, which gave this cast a very efficient activation cost each turn.

The battle saw the Army pushing in from the top right corner of the table and the Cult moving out from the House of Dagon temple in the lower left. The objective was a straightforward 'kill them all' mission for both sides, with the only wrinkles being the Protoplasmic Terrors and Shoggoth being able to move across the table via sinkholes (the craters) and the Inferno peril card being in play - which I forgot about and was unable to avoid with half my force at the end of Act One.

The villains took an absolute mauling in that battle. A combination of Matt maximising his plot points, the Army having better weapons, me forgetting about the Inferno, and all the negative objective effects hitting the Cult made things extremely difficult. However, because of the even split of objectives, all the stars and co-stars escaping unscathed and the way the victory points worked, the final result was only a 4-3 victory to the heroes.

Although I was unlucky in places, this scenario felt quite one-sided. Had we not made the tweak to the Cultist Coven unit card, that feeling would probably have been overwhelming. One of the key elements of designing 7TV casts is thinking about how many plot points are required to activate the entire cast. Even clanging the units still meant I was stretched to active all of the villains, whereas Matt had plot points to spare each turn.

Additionally, despite the special rule about sinkholes, the Protoplasmic Terrors still moved too slow to take advantage of this. If I were to play this scenario again, I might suggest that the Shoggoth and Protoplasmic Terrors begin play in the sinkholes, perhaps with the Shoggoth only emerging in Act Two as a balancing factor.

However, much fun was had and the campaign moves on apace. I think I have everything I need for the next scenario...except for a lighthouse...