It is interesting how a game can lead you into doing something a bit different which is ultimately more entertaining than the game.
That might sound a tad confusing, so let’s start at the beginning.
There is a game from Osprey Games called Gaslands which has been on our group’s radar for some time.
The game’s website describes it this way. “Gaslands is a tabletop game of post-apocalyptic vehicular mayhem. With fast and cinematic rules, it is designed to be played with toy cars, allowing players to ram, skid and race their way through the wreckage of a burnt-out Earth.”
So what you have is a game that is a large part Mad Max mixed with the 2008 version of Death Race with a sprinkle of Fast & Furious on top.
This is a game of simple imaginative carnage where players put together small fleets of vehicles with mounted blades, dozers, and of course lots, and lots of guns and head into various game scenarios, from a straight race, to seeing who can run over the most zombies, all the while taking shots at opponent vehicles.
This is a pretty solid ‘beer & pretzels’ game, one that is a fun way to spend an evening as long as you don’t take things too seriously.
The ruleset comes in a single book, and is frankly a rather stellar investment, if you like miniature gaming to start with.
The cool thing is that you play with toy cars, which for most of us, takes us back to our childhood when getting a new Matchbox or Hot Wheels car was enough to have us smiling for days.
With Gaslands you just buy a vehicle, or three, and you are ready to go. You can simply write what armaments you have on a piece of paper and the mini Mustang is ready to roll.
Or, you can begin to ‘bodger’ your vehicles.
This is where the game veers into something different, and I will say even better than the game itself.
When I could actually visit based on COVID restrictions, I played my first Gaslands, using a couple of cars I had.
My adult son however, who is becoming quite a good mini painter, had customized a few cars already, and had a literal pile he wanted to do.
I left the table with the comment I might try ‘bodgering’ a couple, but saw no reason for more.
Of course I immediately went to a local store, grabbed three or four, and dug through some storage boxes for a few more.
I still planned to do only a couple, but I wanted options.
And so I began filing off paint, and breaking out windshields, and chopping off chunks of bumpers and bashing in a few roofs, all to give the vehicles a demolition derby look.
I quickly found out it’s really quite fun to bash little cars.
It also so happens you can find files online to 3D print dozers, saws and guns, and my son gave me a baggie full.
So next I started gluing on bits and pieces to the battered cars.
And, finally I did some painting, not detailed stuff, but sort if grunge splashing paint around.
At present the two or three vehicles I thought I’d do has turned into a fleet of 12.
The creation of the cars has actually been a ton of fun and truthfully outstrips the game in many ways. The cars are just cool, and getting them to a table to play some Gaslands will be a true gaming blast.
