Galleys and Galleons Solo - Blockade Runner

 It's been awhile since the ships have sailed, so time for a game of Galleys and Galleons.  I used the solo AI rules from here for the enemy  Thanks, Nick!

The Scenario:  Capitan Arthur of Le Badger is trying to run a most important cargo through the British blockade.  Unfortunately, an entire squadron sits square in his path through the shallows. .  

The board.  I start at lower left, have to run the gauntlet to upper right.  The wind is certainly in my favor!  All enemy ships start "in irons" and will have to maneuver to intercept.  My extra-speedy ship will prove useful.

Le Badger, captained by the amazing Captain Arthur.  A race-built galleon with extra surprises.

My foes, strung out in a wide line.  2 Frigates on the outside, with a clever Brigantine in the center.  It turns out their line was cast too wide....

The Brigantine, the only enemy ship that would see action (and destruction, heh heh)

My custom wind gauge

Capitan Arthur starts with the wind in his favor and starts to race across the board.  The British ships start to react.

The Brigantine, with its higher quality, manages to turn 2 points and starts sailing towards the Badger.  The 2 frigates, being slower to react, can only start their turn, and remain "in irons".  

2:  My original plan was to maintain the weather gauge as long as possible.  But seeing how slow the frigates are, I turn to make a run past the brigantine.  A few broadsides at close quarters against the more agile but weaker foe versus trying to dodge the heavies.

It's long range, but I have trained gunners.  Still only tie, though.  

The brigantine, unable to generate enough actions, gets a shot off then has to continue without turning.  But he has highly trained gun crews, also!  Even with his trained gun crews, he misses.

And the Frigate forces a turnover!

3:

And I force a turnover!  With my one action I turn to avoid the island and press on.

The brigantine is able to come about through the eye of the wind, but doesn't get a shot, as all his hands were making sail.

The frigates finally get the wind to bear on their sails and begin a slow pursuit.  I'm feeling lucky.

Still outside of chaser range

4:

I race onwards.  

The brigantine fires a long range broadside that we sneer at.  One Frigate keeps turning, the other forces a turnover.

5:

I just don't make it to the edge of the board.  Next turn I will have a clean win.  

The Brigantine activates and finally gets the wind on her quarter.  She races ahead, daring the shallows in an attempt to catch up.  Since she crossed the shallows at high speed, she rolled 3 times for damage. 

 

Absolute carnage! She runs aground hard on a submerged reef and rips her hull to shreds!

Called the game here, as the frigates went to help their stricken comrade.  

Things I forgot:  

-never checked for wind change when rolling doubles.

-Ships that don't activate still do compulsory movement.  Since the frigates spent most of their time in irons, this didn't make any difference.

AI:  Would have rolled 3 dice if I was a live player.  

Blockade ships were deployed poorly.  Should have been closer to support the center.

And Capitan Arthur got some really good activation rolls.

Paleo Pulp Space Diet Two

 Another attempt at Paleo Pulp

Lt Badger has a simple mission.  Go out and bag one of the giant arachnids for the scientists.  They even gave him some special tranq rounds that "should" work.  He sets out in a crawler with a small crew.

Lt Badger  SMG

Cpl Robbs, SMG

PVT Burr, SMG

CPL Aguayo, Rifle (rifle can switch mags between tranqs and regular rounds as a free action).

As they approached the nearest arachnid, they discovered their track kept scaring all the beasts (use reaction table if within 2x Long).  So they parked it.  Leaving Robbs to guard the vehicle, the rest of the team move out to give Aguayo a shot. 

Turn 1:  They all easily move fast, covering a lot of ground before slowing down as they approach the beast.  

Turn 2:  Aguayo can see the beast.  It's at the limit of his range, but an aimed shot might work.  He's nervous, and barely makes his activation.  

But he makes up for it with his shot!  The tranq sinks deep into the spider's furry side.  It reacts and moves away.

The LT decides to move closer for another shot.  But slowly, now...

Turn 3:

Aguayo has to catch up.  The others sneak forward.  

turn 4:  

Another aimed shot from Aguayo.  It misses!  But the noise startles a group of flying predators.  They smell the spider and move to investigate.  

The LT decides to flank around the spider, but stumbles and falls.  The killer bees move in.  Sensing something is wrong with the spider, they savagely attack it!  Ridiculous dice rolls!  The spider is stung to death right in front of the team.  Well, shit.  

With his 1 action, the LT suggests they try for a giant ant instead. 

Aguayo sneaks up and takes a shot. 

And misses.

And they run away as fast as they can.  

The LT calls it a bust and orders a return to base.  Next time, he'll bring somebody who can shoot better.

Paleo Pulp Space Diet

A quick solo game I played using Paleo Diet and the supplement "Pulp" from Wiley Games.  Conclusions at the end.

 Private Robbs claimed he knew how to drive the APC, but the sideslope got him.  With the track disabled, the team has to move to a nearby comm station to call for help.  No problem, just a quick jaunt across the hostile desert.

The team:

(From right to left)  Lieutenant Hussy with his battle droid (hound minus the "base instinct" trait)  SMG.

Droid carries the team supplies and has its own SMG.  Slaved to follow the LT, but prone to malfunctions on the surface.

Privates Robbs and Burr with SMGs.

Cpl Hodge with a flamer.

The local fauna:  

2 packs of "raptors" (giant ants).

1 pack of flying raptors (giant hornets) +1 to their attack roll, and they ignore terrain.

1 King Carnivore (Really giant spider).

The objective, just a short jaunt away:

Turn one:

Lt Hussy decides to move out at a cautious pace, wanting to see what the bugs will do.  He rolls his 2 "safe" dice.

-Double 1!

He stumbles and nervously triggers a single round into the sand in front of him, narrowly missing his foot.  The closest creatures react to the sudden noise.  The giant spider wanders away.  The closest pack of ants appear startled and move away a bit further.  

Battle droid activates next.  The weird electro-magnetic fields interfere with his programming, and he wanders over to his boss.  A swift kick puts him back in order, and he is sent ahead.

Everybody else makes their rolls and moves forward.  Where's the L-T?

Turn 2:

LT decides he has to catch up, so rolls all 3 dice.  It's a risk, but he can't fall too far behind.

I can already see he's going to be an all-or-nothing guy.  He runs ahead of the team, then cautiously advances into the wash.

Battle droid malfunctions again, then recovers once close to his boss.  He gets sent around the flank of the giant spider.  

Everybody else moves up in line.

Turn 3:  

Hodge goes first.  Turns out that giant flying hornets scare him.  He creeps up and lets loose at the closest one with his flamer!  The hornet is dead, but everything within 1 long reacts.  The other hornets back away.  The nearest crowd of ants back away.  The giant spider backs away.  That seemed to be a pretty effective shot.

But now everybody has to move around the fire.  The LT motions the team to the right, closer to the ants.  

All goes smooth until the droid activates.  3 fails!  The crew forgot to reprogram the droid from shipboard mode, and it goes into full fire suppression mode.  It sets off a screaming klaxon (howls) that triggers the nearby giant spider.  It moves forward and attacks the droid.  The supplies!  The droid is wounded.

Fire:  This being desert, the fire goes out.  

Turn 4:

Well, supplies are important, but calling for help comes first.  The crew continues towards the towers. Everybody makes it to the base of the hill.  

Turn 5:

Hodge fails 1 die.  The hornets move forward, but seem more interested in munching on their fallen companion.  

Burr fails 1 die.  More munching.

Robbs and the LT make it up the cliff without incident.  But the droid short-circuits again and triggers its alarm!  

This time the hornets have had enough, and dash forward to kill the screaming-thing.  They destroy the droid, parts flying across the desert.

Turn 6:  

Our water!  

LT activates and sends the signal.

Hodge flames the hornets again.  One goes down, one backs away.  

Burr tries to shoot the hornet, gets 1 fail.  The hornet backs away, leaving nothing to shoot at.  

Will they survive without their supplies until the relief comes?  Tune in next time.   

My thoughts:

Paleo Diet is designed where you run a group of hunters trying to track down prey.  I was trying to use it for a different scenario.  Even though I picked the toughest "prey" I could, they were not aggressive enough.  (Paleo Diet does have a mode where you play the predators instead, but I wanted to run the squad.)  To make this tougher, I could give each group random movement at the end of each turn, and increase their reactions on their tables, making them more prone to violence.  And also increase their reaction range.  One group of "raptors" never moved because nothing triggered them.  

I did like the random "errors" of the droid.  And I could make the terrain more difficult to cross, making them slow down while in the wash.  Or make them go back for more supplies...

This same group with a simple "seek and destroy" mission against this amount of prey on the board would be a completely different game.  Something attacked the towers!  Kill them all!

Paleo Diet and a host of other great games can be found Here