The Fun and the Fury: Mad Maximilian 1934

I've been so busy at work these past couple of weeks that I have had no time to prepare a proper recap of our most recent Second Saturday Scrum Club gathering at which we took Maximilian 1934 out for a test spin. I'm sure that there are trademark issues preventing the game's designers, Mana Press, from calling it Mad Maximilian 1934, but that will be how I will always refer to it because fuck the corporate overlords at Warner Bros. Entertainment.

Unfortunately, I am still completely overwhelmed with work deadlines, so this post will be short on verbiage and long on photos from our game. Check out fellow Scrum Clubber Walt O'Hara's blog post for a fuller game night summary, with the extra insights he brings as the person who organized it for our club to play. All of the cars, terrain, and miniatures in these photos are his handiwork, and they were a delight to play with on what was a fun break from our usual skirmish-level battles.

In attendance was Steve Braun, Jared Smith, John Sears, Rick McKee, Walt, and myself. Besides being an all around good time, the evening also served as a dry run for Walt, who is GMing this game at the upcoming Fall In convention in November.

Most of the pictures taken below are by our club's incomparable combat photographer and my wife, Ellen, without whom my Scrum in Miniature blog wouldn't be half as interesting. A small handful of the below photos were shot by my feeble hand with a cell phone. (Click any of them to enlarge.)

Walt putting together some of his terrain for the night's race.
(left-to-right: Ellen, Walt, Rich, John)

One of my two junkers with a "hillbilly rocket launcher" strapped to the side, and a harpoon gun on the back.

My other vehicle: a fast little jalopy, but less well armed or armored.

Just before we start Death Race 1934.

A decent shot of the entire table.
(clockwise from top: Walt, Rich, John, Jared, and Steve)

And...we're off!

Perhaps the most ingenious part of the game's mechanics is the nifty radial dial that acts as a measuring stick (6"), tracks the penalties for attempting turns at different speeds and angles, and also measures arcs of fire for different mounted weapons. It's an elegant multi-tool.

Walt's blog has a bit more on the backstory he concocted for our game world, but one element was that after the recent apocalypse, religious wars have broken out across Europe. So in addition to spinning out of control and dying in a fiery car crash, or being shot to bits by an opponent's vehicle, we also had to contend with various religious factions on foot roaming the wastes intent on dealing death to anyone of a different faith.

Some of my Spanish Neo-Inquisition fanatics on a rocky plateau taking pot shots at passing racers. The guy laying on the ground with the red wound marker had attempted to jump from his perch onto a passing armored car but missed. Walk it off, buddy, and try again next time!

Jared came to the game late so instead of getting to race cars around the track he played a variety of pedestrian "spoilers," like this dynamite lobbing yahoo waiting in the wings to spring out on us in an upcoming round.

A sniper played by Jared...perfectly placed to give us shit at the far end of the course we were running.

Collisions were a lot of fun in this game. One of Rich's giant racing cars is ramming my little red jalopy in the back, causing me to speed up from the impact and him to slow down, which had all kinds of repercussions as tightly packed as we often were on the course. 

These crazy Hasidic Jews scrambled off their outcropping to try to pull the crew off of this stalled out motorcycle.

One of Steve's endearing traits is how much he likes our cats...Gigi is trying to decide just how endearing she thinks this is.

I'm looking to Walt for a ruling on some maneuver I'm hoping to pull off.

Walt is not sure what he thinks of felines-as-wild-card in his game.

Steve will eventually win Gigi over...it's inevitable.

"Hey, guys...can I sit here and watch? I promise not to touch anything. Honest!"

"Repent for your sins or be gone, you foul abomination!" 

Another one of Jared's sneaks.

Crossing this stream without stalling out was a challenge.

Each vehicle had a laminated card for tracking things like damage to armor, engine, steering, etc. as well as general stats on how well the car handled and the general skill levels of the driver and gunners.

It was clear near the end of the game I wasn't going to win the race, but I wasn't going to deny myself the pleasure of running over this pistol-toting rabbi trying to shoot me dead.

When one car stalls out in this damn stream, it creates quite the log jam. Better start firing those guns, boys, and try to clear a path!

Another one of Jared's surprises. This little fella had a dynamite harness strapped to his back, tasked with running out in front of traffic. Nice knowing you, Fido...

Parting Shots and Final Thoughts

I had a really great time, and looking through these photos made me want to play Mad Maximilian 1934 all over again. Before we met for the game, I had actually bought the rule book, a couple of the turn dials, and a cool looking jalopy. I didn't get my car put together in time for the game (Walt had about 15 at the ready for us to choose from), but I'd really like to finish assembling and painting it so that I can get it into play.

We found the rule book could have been a bit better organized, and it wasn't until halfway through our game that we had figured out and remembered the basics well enough for everything to start humming. A quick-reference sheet in the book would have been immensely helpful, and frankly, I'm amazed by any game of this sort that doesn't come with one. Walt reached out to the game's designers after our session and they had actually put one together subsequent to publication. They shared it with him, which will be immensely helpful the next time we play, and it'll save Walt and I the trouble of having to cobble one together for his Fall In game in November.

I'd be curious to know what the other Scrum Clubbers thought of the game. It went a bit late, so we didn't have much chance to linger around to discuss afterword. Maybe my club mates will share their impressions in the comments below.

Regardless, Walt put on a fun game, and he's going to run it with 10 player slots at Fall In, so I encourage you to get in on this action!

Post Script

I would be remiss if I failed to mention that the game is slightly harder to procure in the United States than it should be. It took some digging on the Internet, but I eventually found that it can be ordered from Eureka Miniatures USA. Their site is not confidence inspiring, but my order arrived quickly enough. The book-and-dial bundle is a bit pricey, but I'm still glad I picked it up. You can also order some of the model cars from Eureka Miniatures USA, too.