On July 4th weekend, I was the invited guest of INCONJUNCTION, an excellent science fiction convention that takes place in Indianapolis. While there I was asked to run a Harpoon game, but not just any Harpoon game... Setup for Monster’s Ball took over two hours, and I’d probably still be there if Brooks Rowlett, Nancy Graf, and Randy Porter had not pitched in to help me set up the cityscape and harbor. Brooks spent most of his time cutting up colored index cards into city block shapes in three colors, to represent the three levels of buildings.
Godzilla’s starting position, just below the Aqua Line, a submerged tunnel linking the east and west sides of the harbor. It didn’t last long. Photo by Bev Valentine
Nancy made up hachimaki for all the players, a touch that really got all the players into the spirit of things. After the briefing, the players braced themselves for Godzilla’s arrival.
Brooks had provided several to use with the miniatures, but we had a problem. The one in correct scale with the 1/2400th miniatures was the “new” Godzilla, while the more traditional monster figure was five times too large. There was really no question of which one to use.
The players were told which plan would become available next, and roughly when it would arrive. Unfortunately, the first plan was the Oxygen Gag, available on Turn 4, which meant the big G had to be in deep water. They immediately pelted him with a mix of Harpoon missiles and Mk48 torpedoes, more than enough to enrage him. Two Harpoons flew past Godzilla and hit one block of low buildings a mile or so north of the Aqua Line on the west shore. Godzilla headed south toward his attackers, although he did manage to mangle the Aqua Line before the distraction took effect.
On the second through fifth turns, the Japanese concentrated on pouring a mix of aircraft and ship-launched weapons at him, enough to keep him enraged and headed in the right direction. He was swimming by the end of the second turn, which had the advantage (for the Japanese) that any hits were head shots, doubling their effect. Typical dp totals were 800 dp, although on the second turn he was hit for 1350 dp!
They tried the Oxygen Gag on Turn 4, without success. Plan A with the GBB-88s became available on Turn 5, but its use was delayed until Turn 7. The players chose not to fire on Godzilla in Turn six, so that he could turn and head into the harbor again. The ship with the Femme Fatale was located at the north end of the harbor, and they wanted Godzilla to be able to see her when she was put into action.
With Godzilla been pointed properly for his pending hot date, the GBB-88s were used. I had envisioned the aircraft making single attacks with these awesome weapons, then seeing what the results were before making another drop. The players, however, saw no reason not to drop all of them in one Tactical Turn (technically one every 15 seconds). He was still swimming, so they were all head shots, doubling their effective damage points. Of the 12 dropped, 11 hit, doing an incredible 3300 dp!
If the plan had worked, Godzilla would be a head shorter, but I’d already rolled before the game and the weapons could not penetrate his hide, or evidently his thick skull. Still, I announced that Godzilla was submerging for a full turn, because the cool water felt good on his head right now. The blasts had one other beneficial effect: They knocked out the NHK news helicopter which had been flitting about and preventing the players from using SAMs and AAMs. After that, the other news choppers relied on their zoom lenses.
One other incident during this period involved a few Harpoon missiles that missed Godzilla and locked onto Kongo and Shirane, on the other side of the monster and in the line of flight of the missiles. The ships’ point defenses got one, and the other missed the ships as well, destroying a block of waterfront buildings.
About this time Godzilla spotted the female decoy, and started to head straight for it. It was impossible to tell from his demeanor whether he thought it was real or Memorex®, but it was suddenly realized that the initial position of the ship had been poorly chosen. It had a top speed of only ten knots, which was not fast enough to maneuver past Godzilla in the confines of Tokyo Wan and then head out to sea. Instead, he would reach the vessel (whatever his intentions) about the time it was abreast of the Imperial Palace! This was Not Good.
Salvation came in the form of Plan D: Nap Time, which became available on Turn 6. As soon as Godzilla locked onto the ship carrying the female decoy, the Japanese commander ordered all the Thorazine mines laid in a tight ladder pattern right in his path. With twelve P-3s each carrying three mines, that gave the player seven lines of five mines each, with one extra. The field was finished by the end of Turn 7.
He needed all of them. While rolling up the results of the different plans before the game, I had found out that the Thorazine mines would work, but I then had to roll and see how many mines it would take. I rolled D6 and got 5. That’s too many, I said, mentally making a note to change the roll to D6/3. I rolled again, and got a 5 once again. Taking this as a sign from Reno, god of probability, I wrote “5” on the worksheet, left the roll un-changed, and finished the preps. Godzilla entered the minefield in Turn 8, crossing two line of mines, stepping on a mine in each line (5 or less on a D6). In Turn 9 he crossed the remaining lines, almost reaching the decoy (he was enraged, by the way, and would have attacked it). However, in crossing the last five lines of mines he stepped on another four mines and took a nap.
Godzilla’s total score was 3 points for buildings destroyed (by JMSDF friendly fire), and 4 points for damage to the Aqua line, or a measly 7 points altogether. A singular victory for the Japanese player.
Two plans would have worked, the Thorazine mines and the C-130. The C-130 was ready to make its attack on Turn 9, but was not needed. The synergistic interaction of the C-130 and the explosive-laden decoy (5,000 tons!) remained unresolved.
Barney (Plan E) was never really in the running. Godzilla was locked onto the decoy, and I’d already rolled that Plan E would not work. The failure mode was #2, meaning that Godzilla would have seen Barney as an offspring and attempted to feed it.
The next step is to use a different monster, or a different setting. How about Rhodan, or better yet, Cthulhu? Remember the British monster movie Gorgo? Would the Royal Navy of the 1960s be able to handle Gorgo and his momma?
What if Godzilla, frustrated with inflatable lizards, decided to visit England? Maybe he’s not intimidated by a single mother. He could be the father figure Gorgo needs. This was a lot of fun to write, and to run.
BT
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© Copyright 2002 by Larry Bond and Clash of Arms.
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