Last night at the club meeting I play tested my Tales of the Gold Monkey game for Cold Wars in two weeks. For this game I am using the G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T. rules, but I gave all the extras a Save as well as the Main Characters. The game began with most of the board blank, covered with palm trees. As the different groups of explorers and adventurers pushed into the jungle, they discovered different sources of treasure, from a native village to idols with jeweled eyes. These were, of course, guarded by natives, animals, or monster. Each player had a “cut” card they could use for one free re-roll. In addition, each player had three dirty tricks cards they could use to slow down other players.
Jake Cutter and the Sergeants Three gangs move out.The table at the beginning of the game. The players begin near the trading post by the lagoon.A closer view of the trading post.Bing, Bob, Dorothy, and the Andrews Sisters of Mercy climb a ridge to find a lizard idol with jewels for eyes. Later in the game, Bing and Bob killed a couple of Italians with golf balls.A giant spider has other ideas for Bing and Bob.It’s a grim day for the Andrews Sisters of Mercy.And then to add insult to injury, another player played a dirty tricks card that had a herd of oryx stampede through them.Despite all their setbacks, and the death of Dorothy being gored by an oryx, Bob and Bing were able to retrieve one treasure.The Italians found the lost elephant idol — but it was guarded by pygmies.The Italians lost many men to pygmy attacks but were able to get a treasure at the elephant idol.A much-reduced Italian contingent is attacked by an angry elephant (another player’s dirty trick), but they managed to secure a second treasure at the raptor excavation.The French Foreign Legion ran into apes guarding an idol.There seemed to be a never-ending supply of apes!The foreign legion found a treasure after defeating a LOT of apes. They also found Amelia Earhart and a boat and were headed down the river to the lagoon when they were attacked by giant tentacles of some unseen monster. In a “Von Ryan’s Express” moment, the last Legionnaire tried to leap into the boat as it floated past. He rolled a 20, fell into the water, and was eaten by the crocodile you can see in the bottom right of this picture.Teddy Roosevelt, two “dangerous dames,” the lady photographer, and his band of fearless adventurers ran into natives guarding an idol. As Kurt was the first one to find a treasure, players played FOUR dirty tricks cards on him, stacking up natives. But Kurt has perennial kid luck and easily swept them aside.At this point, the Easter Island heads at the lagoon turned around and started to cut off Teddy’s path back to the lagoon. Teddy and his group tried to cross the river to avoid them but ran into some trouble.The Sergeants Three found a native village where they were preparing to sacrifice a white woman for some purpose.It took some time, but in the end the Sergeants One (as two died) freed the woman and advanced on another idol.The Sergeant One approaches the idol to get a second treasure, but Jake Cutter and Professor Challenger beat them to it.Jake Cutter and the American infantry ran into a giant scorpion defending the lost temple. Almost all the American infantry were killed, but Don was able to grab the treasure and also find Professor Challenger to add to his party.
The game was sufficiently chaotic and bloody, so I don’t plan to make any changes before Cold Wars. I think all the players had a really good time. This will make a good Saturday night game at the convention.
