Valley of the Peeps

Good Lord, it's been awhile since I've put figures on a table with the kids, school, work, basketball, and the kids being kids have negated any free time, but Easter always allows a little bit of down time.  

Sure, historically, I've been able to get the Easter game done on Saturday, but I wasn't going to argue with a swath of time after dinner Sunday.  

I had managed to pick up a few Easter game essentials the few time I remember while running into a store, so it was time to set up the gnome village.

Houdini the Wonder Cat inspects the battlefield before we can play

For a concept, I took directly from Valley of the Ape.  There has been no word from a remote gnome village for weeks.  Advance scouts report Bunny Peeps seem to have taken over, but they appear to be unarmed.  Something far sinister has driven the gnomes away, possibly an avatar of Chocco. 

The gnome generals scoffed at the initial report, "We've fought Avatar's of Chocco before, in fact much bigger ones... We've always defeated them."

"But in all fairness, sir, this smaller one isn't hollow, it's solid chocolate."

The General dropped his tea cup, sending it shattering into a million pieces onto the floor."

"May God have mercy on our souls..."

It's surprising, given the recon, that only two squads of gnomes were dispatched, more surprising that they both chose a combined direct assault approach onto the town.  They were intrigued by the promise of ancient gnomish artifacts in the village, but those who defeated Chocco earned all the glory.

For the Redhats, stirring Chocco was of little concern, as they befriended a small pack of Peeps!

On the other side of the road, the Tanhats thought the heard similar songs of the Peeps, but unfortunately surprised a lone Fire Peep.  One gnome was not long for the world.

Not a Fruit Punch Peep, but rather a Hot Tamales Cinnamon one.

The Tanhats regrouped and quickly worked their way behind a row of gnome homes, but this Avatar of Chocco could sense them.  With the squad so densely packed, their was no escape from the evil of milk chocolate.

The Redhats quickly tried to surround the monster to destroy, it but the creature was simply a force of nature.  It almost toyed with the Redhats, whittling their numbers down, even feasting on the friendly Peeps!  Sugary goodness harmed no one today, all the harm was dealt in the name of Chocco. 

I knew there was a problem when both girls set up on the same end of the table.    I've run Valley of the Ape before, as part of our Pulp campaign, but there were three parties combatting the beast (and each other).  The Bunny God moved randomly with two options (a) move directly at the closest party, or (b) move to the party closest to the the statue in the center of the board.  

My birthday is this Wednesday, and although I'd love some time to try out Planet 28, we do have enough Peep "reinforcements" to re-stage this battle properly.  I may need to pick up toothpicks to properly arm the Peeps to defend themselves, or perhaps a plush Peep is in order.  

The one thing I couldn't find this year was a giant hollow bunny that wasn't outrageously priced from some "boutique chocolatier," hence the smaller, sturdier, and apparently, far deadlier version.  Luckily I grabbed various Peeps when I had the chance, but the shelves were mostly bare by the time I found time to do a final pass-over Friday.