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!
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